Mod/Con
The Mod/Con Working Group is coordinated and funded by the Department of English.
Mod/Con, Penn English's Modernist and Contemporary Literatures Reading Group, is a working group devoted to the discussion of cultural and literary problematics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our critical and historical interests range from the late nineteenth century through to the present day, across early and high moderism, postmodernism, and beyond. Each semester, we work to develop ways of thinking about these period markers—how they differ, what they share—through invited lectures and works-in-progress by graduate students and faculty in and outside of the Penn English community. In tandem with these works-in-progress, Mod/Con frequently hosts reading events of scholarly monographs as well as works of short fiction and poetry. We hope you can join us for an event!
For more information or to be placed on the Mods listserv, please contact Christos Kalli (kallic@sas.upenn.edu) and Rylee Smith (rylees@sas.upenn.edu).
Upcoming Events
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Francisco Robles (Notre Dame) "This Bridge Called My Back and the Shape of Dialectics to Come"
October 20, 2025 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm -
Poetry After Barbarism
November 3, 2025 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
Kristin Grogan (Rutgers)
January 30, 2026 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Past Events
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Kelly Rich (Penn), WIP
April 15, 2014 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm -
Jonathan Dollimore (University of Sussex)
April 9, 2014 - 3:15pm to 4:15pm -
The Cambridge Companion to Nelson Mandela, ed. Rita Barnard (2014)
A joint discussion session with LatitudesApril 1, 2014 - 5:30pm to 7:30pm -
Dean Irvine (Dalhousie University)
Modernist CommonsMarch 28, 2014 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm -
"Contact" (on William Carlos Williams)
Natalia Cecire (Yale University)March 18, 2014 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm -
"Lowell, Ginsberg, and the Face of the Midcentury Poet"
Kamran Javadizadeh (Villanova University)February 25, 2014 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm -
"Experiments in Ownership," with a focus on Proust -- CANCELLED: NEW DATE TBA
Ravit Reichman (Brown University)February 13, 2014 - 5:00pm to 6:00pm -
Mock Job Talk: "Mid-Century Illustration and the Modernist Surface"
Emily Hyde (University of Pennsylvania)January 24, 2014 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm -
Rita Felski (University of Virginia)
November 21, 2013 - 6:30pm to 7:30pm -
WIP: "Leopold Bloom's Two Drawers in 7 Eccles Street"
Philip Tsang, Graduate Student, University of PennsylvaniaOctober 22, 2013 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm