2018 Conference: Uniting the Academy and the Community Conference Program and Registration

2018 Octavia E. Butler Conference: Uniting the Academy and the Community

Special Guests:

Tananarive Due Novelist, Journalist, Afrofuturist, NAACP Image Award, American Book Award

Toshi Reagon Singer, Songwriter, Musician,

Toshi Reagon photographed at her home in Brooklyn, NY on January 13, 2011.
Photo Credit: Erica Beckman

The Conseula Francis Ph.D. Memorial Opening Session/Dinner

Friday, February 23rd at 7pm (This event is sold out. No tickets sold at door.)

Special Guest Speaker Tananarive Due (BDT Suites Private Dining Room)

ON-SITE REGISTRATION OPENS At 9:00am

Please scroll to bottom of page for Registration pricing and details.

Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center

Lower Level 28

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Saturday, February 24

Session 1 A 9:30am-10:45am

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 31)

Butler and Philosophy

Matt Mullins–Chair

“Postcritical Butler” Matt Mullins– Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Thinking Beyond the Box: Octavia Butler and Hindu Philosophy” Aparajita Nanda–University of California, Berkeley

“Octavia E. Butler’s Failed Utopias” Joshua Burnett–Arkansas State University, Queretaro, Mexico.

Session 1 B 9:30am-10:45am

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 32)

What Do You Think You Can Show Me?” Shifting Science Fiction to Denote the Black Feminist Experience in Octavia Butler’s Literature

Ryan Scott Heath–Chair

Jay Shelat–University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Shari Arnold–Georgia State University

Ebony Gibson–Georgia State University

Brittany Stewart–Georgia State University

Andy Reid–Morgan State University

Session 2 A 11:00am-12:15pm

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 32)

Rethinking Butler

Bevin Roue–Chair

“Teaching Butler’s Parable of the Talents in the Age of Trump” Jonathan Lewis–Troy University

“Remapping Octavia Butler” Shelby Crosby–University of Memphis

“Inevitable Hell?: Utopia and Race Octavia E. Butler’s “The Book of Martha” and George S. Schuyler’s Black No More” Tarshia Stanley–Spelman College

Session 2 B 11:00am-12:15pm

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 31)

Butler and the Body

Jay Shelat–Chair

“Anatomy and Archive: Remembering with Memory in Butler’s Fledgling” Gabriella Friedman–Cornell University

“Mother Knows Best” Jonathan Gregory Tyler–Columbia State Community College

LUNCH – 12:30pm-1:50pm

(Conference Presenters Only)

Manley Center Atrium

Session 3 A 2:00pm-3:15pm

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 31)

Empathy in Butler

Aparajita Nanda–Chair

“Re-Reading Race and Disability in Octavia Butler’s Imago” Karina Vado–University of Florida

“Hyperempathy for a Hyperspace: (Dis)ability and Interdependent Consciousness in Octavia Butler’s Parable Series” Doug Stark –University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

“All We Need: The Driving Force of Human Interaction in Butler’s Work” Davina G. Ward–SUNY, Genesco

Session 3 B 2:00pm-3:15pm

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 31)

Butler, History, Disability

Jonathan P. Lewis–Chair

“The Nation that was Built on a Black Woman’s Back: Religion and Survival in Octavia Butler’s Parable Series” Briana Whiteside–University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

“Abelism in the Xenogenesis Series” Laney Jolley–Columbia State Community College

“Unassuming Heroines: Exploring Violent Journeys in Wild Seed and A Mercy” Ashley Tisdale–Florida A&M University

Session 4 3:30-5pm

(Camille Cosby ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 32)

Roundtable: Approaches to Teaching Octavia E. Butler in the Academy

Tarshia Stanley–Chair

Edmond Y. Chang–Ohio University

Bevin Roue–Auburn University

Claire Curtis–College of Charleston

Aparajita Nanda–University of California, Berkeley

Shreyashi Mukherjee–Assam University, Diphu, India

Beth McCoy–SUNY, Genesco

Special Performance

Saturday, February 24th, 7pm

Camille Oliva Hanks Cosby Ed.D. Academic Center Auditorium

Spelman College Geffen Artist-in-Residence Concert

Toshi Reagon

Spelman College, Division of the Arts Geffen Artist-in Residence Program

The concert segment of the conference is free and open to the public. Please click on the link to RSVP

Toshi Reagon Celebrates Octavia E. Butler

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25

REGISTRATION OPENS AT 9:00am

Camille Cosby Academic Center

3rd Floor, Room 328

OEB Society Business Meeting 9:30am-10:30am

(COSBY ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 329)

Session 1A 10:30am-11:45am

(COSBY ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 31)

New Considerations of Octavia E. Butler: Body, Spirit and Text

Claire Curtis–Chair

Sheila Smith McKoy–Kennesaw State University

Griselda Thomas–Kennesaw State University

Tamera Powell–Kennesaw State University

Session 1 B 10:30am-11:45am

(COSBY ACADEMIC CENTER LOWER LEVEL 32)

Butler Past and Future

Lynette Parker–Chair

“Time Travel Narratives, Activist Histories, and Sustainable Community Partnerships” Kathleen T. Leuschen–Emory University

“Engaging Octavia Butler and Afrofuturism: Tools for Teachers in the Era of Black Lives Matter” Lynette Parker–Research Institute for School Leadership

“If you don’t take this chance, I don’t think you’ll be able to leave me.”: Teaching Fledgling and College Bonds” Beth McCoy–SUNY Genesco

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