Grad Student Conference: HBO's America

Tomorrow, Tuesday April 10th, the students of English 7061, "HBO's America: Television, History, Culture"* will be having a course colloquium in which they present twenty-minute papers on what will be the topics of their final research papers. Anyone who enjoys HBO, theory, or television generally should come out to some or all of the presentations and take part in the discussion!

The conference will take place in room 3018 of the Arts and Administration Building. The schedule is as follows:


10:00-10:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks


10:10-11:40 Session One: The Western Revisited

Shane Beehan
As The Dust Settles: Deadwood, 9/11 and the Rise of the Anti-Western.

Leia Feltham
Cooking Success on the Frontier: The Landscapes of Breaking Bad.

Robert Williams
“Ad Fuckin' Hoc” Economies: Currency, Commodity, and Capital in Deadwood's Fictional and Cultural Frontier Marketplaces.”


11:40-12:40 Session Two: Parallel Realisms

Heather Martin
“You Can Be Dead, But You’re Never Really Dead”: The Alternative Afterlife of Six Feet Under.

Amber Parker
“That Fucker Ain’t Never Spent No Time in Oz”: Augustus Hill’s Narrative Style and Audience Complicity.


12:40-1:45 LUNCH


1:45-2:50 Round Table Discussion

Dr. Christopher Lockett on Game of Thrones
Dr. Andrew Loman on Tremé


3:00-4:00 Session Four: Imaginative Inscriptions

Rebeccah Hearn
“It’s like just the fuckin’ regularness of life is just too fuckin’ hard for me or something”: Portrayals of Depression and Mental Illness in The Sopranos.”

Matthew Lidstone
Ink Stained Wretches: Body Art and the Violent Creation of Meaning in Oz and Sons of Anarchy.


*Yes, some of the shows being discussed aren't actually HBO series.