Don’t Panic! The Apocalypse in Theory and Culture

Skepsi’s Fifth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

Sponsored by SECL and the Faculty of Humanities at The University of Kent

25–26 May 2012

University of Kent at Canterbury (Keynes Lecture Theatre 2)

Friday 25 May

 9.30 – 10.00 Welcome Coffee and Registration

 10.00 – 11.00 Panel 1: Apocalypse in Films (1) [Chair: Guillaume Collett]

Iulia Micu, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), ‘The Personal End and the End of Humanity. Lars von Trier’s Recipe (Antichrist and Melancholia)’

Eve Bennett, De Montfort University, ‘Deus ex Machina: Apocalyptic AI in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’

 11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break

 11.30 – 13.00 Panel 2: Environmental Apocalypticism [Chair: Marco Piasentier]

Adrian Rainbow, University of Zürich, ‘Ecoliteracy, Ecopedagogy, and Environmental Apocalypticism’

Shaylih Muehlmann, University of British Columbia, ‘The Countdown: Enumerating Environmental and Social Crisis in the Mexican Colorado Delta’

Philip Hammond, London South Bank University, and Hugh Ortega Breton, University of Surrey, ‘Loss, Alienation and the Desire for Annihilation: Phantasies in the Politics of the Eco-Apocalypse’

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

 14.00 – 15.30 Panel 3: Literary Representations of the Apocalypse [Chair: Fabien Arribert-Narce]

Cécile Maudet, University of Rennes 2, ‘Engaging in and Envisaging the End in Colum McCann’s Fishing the Sloe Black River (1994) and Everything in this Country Must… (2000)’

Camilla Ulleland Hoel, University of Edinburgh and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, ‘Apocalypse as Defining Moment of Ethical Action in Nick Harkaway’s Novels’

Andrei Simut, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania), ‘After the End: a Post-human Dys/(U)-topia?’

15.30 – 15.50 Coffee Break

 15.50 – 17.20 Panel 4: Imagery of the Apocalypse [Chair: Alvise Sforza-Tarabochia]

Khalid Mahmood, International Islamic University, Islamabad (Pakistan), and University of Birmingham, ‘The Apocalyptic Images in the World English Print Media in the Coverage of Global Economic Crisis: Situating “Economic Revelation” in Corpus Linguistics’

Martin Lang, University for the Creative Arts and University of Kent, ‘Apocalypse as Metaphor for Revolution’

Roger Christofides, Huddersfield University, ‘The Dragon and His Wrath: Images of the Apocalypse in King Lear and Popular Culture’

 17.30 – 18.30 Wine Reception

Saturday 26 May

9.30 – 11.00 Panel 5: Apocalypse in Films (2) [Chair: Jo Pettitt]

Nerijus Milerius, Vilnius University, ‘Apocalypse Film as Counterfactual Phenomenon’

Kylo-Patrick Hart, Texas Christian University, ‘And the Whole World Goes Kaboom: Apocalypticism in the Films of Gregg Araki’

Arnaud Widendaële, University Charles-de-Gaulle (Lille 3), ‘Why Recording the Apocalypse? The Functions of Video Pictures in Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy’

 11.00 – 11.20 Coffee Break

 11.20 – 12.50 Panel 6: Ontologies of the Undead, Politics of the Living [Chair: Krista Bonello]

Yari Lanci, Goldsmiths University of London, ‘The Non-end of the Zombie: Towards a Political Eschatology’

Robert Dean, University of Glamorgan, ‘Re-writing the Social Contract: Ethical Catechism and The Walking Dead’

Marco Piasentier and Alvise Sforza-Tarabochia, University of Kent, ‘The Unborn and the Undead: Exclusive Inclusion in The Walking Dead Idea of Community’

 12.50 – 14.00 Lunch

 14.00 – 15.00 Panel 7: A Sociological Reading of Apocalypse [Chair: Nina Rolland]

Anita Dremel, University of Zagreb, ‘The Projection of an Ending and Systems Theory – a Sociological Reading of Apocalypse as a Genre’

Boštjan Nedoh, University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), ‘Panic as a Social Link’

15.00 – 15.15 Coffee Break

15.15 – 16.15 Panel 8: Apocalypse, Power and Religion [Chair: Maureen Speller]

Paul Reid-Bowen, Bath Spa University, ‘Contesting Capitalist Sorcery: “Peak Everything” as Apocalyptic Prophecy’

Blagovesta Nikolova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, ‘Apocalyptic Anxieties and Forecasting Discourse: the Role of Power’

16.15 – 16.45 Coffee Break

16.45 – 17.45 Keynote Speech: Professor Ivan Callus, University of Malta, ‘Neandertal’ [Chair: Krista Bonello]

17.45 – 18.30 Wine Reception