The 2017 Critical Institutions Symposium hosted by Michigan State University’s Department of English will include lecture and roundtable discussions addressing issues involving the relationship of the Global South to the global or world cinema, as well as virtual architecture, film design, and world cinema. This year’s topic is “Globalization: World Cinemas and the Global South; Globalization and Modernization.”

The annual symposium, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, will feature lectures from two distinguished guest speakers who are specialists in Maghrebian Cinema, New Wave Cinema, World Cinemas, and Virtual Architecture:

• Suzanne Gauch, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Temple University
• James Tweedie, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington

As an expert in Maghreb, or North African, film, Gauch’s lecture, titled “Dark Days Ahead: Global Cinema and Recent Moroccan Film Noir,” will discuss various Moroccan films and questions of whether authentic Moroccan Noir films exist in distinction to French and American Noir. The lecture is scheduled for 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. and will be followed by a panel of respondents on Gauch’s work.

“My hope is that everyone gets into the topics and that they ask questions and feel they’re part of building the intellectual platforms that come out of the symposium.”

Kenneth Harrow

Tweedie’s lecture, titled “Virtual Architecture for Speculative Spaces on the Margins of the Global System,” will discuss the creation of virtual environments as film settings and to what extent these environments are generated by the western imagery. The lecture is from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and will be followed by a panel of respondents on Tweedie’s work.

The symposium also will include panel discussions on “Indian, Asian, and Arab Cinema;” “Film, Literature, and the Global South;” and “Globalization and Modernization, Media, Space.”

“My hope is that everyone gets into the topics and that they ask questions and feel they’re part of building the intellectual platforms that come out of the symposium,” said Kenneth Harrow, Professor of English and Chair of the Speaker’s Committee that planned the symposium. “Who knows what direction the event will take, but I’m confident that we’re putting out really exciting, intellectual material, and I know that it will generate great conversations.”

The event will be preceded by a screening of the Moroccan Noir film, Death for Sale, on Friday, Feb. 24, at 7:30 pm. in B122 Wells Hall. The film, which was directed by Faouzi Bensaïdi, will be discussed the next day as part of Gauch’s talk.

The Critical Institutions Symposium is free to all who would like to attend. Registration is not required.

Written by Alexandria Drzazgowski, Professional Writing Major