April 16-19, 2008
Embassy Suites
Omaha Downtown/Old Market, Omaha, Nebraska
The haunted land of the Great Plains has long suggested stories of conflict and loss, of wrenching change and difficult healing. Indeed, the Plains themselves have carried the projections of a nation eager to dramatize fantasies of violence and prurient desires in its newspapers, fiction, television, and cinema. From the Indian Wars to the BTK killings, the Great Plains have provided a narrative stage for violent action. The nature of the Plains incites such stories as well, as if climate and geography — brutal drought, tornados, killing blizzards, unyielding soils — conspire against the humans who live there. Yet the Dime Novel appeal of gunslingers and true crime, the sensationalism of cultural conflict, and the headlines of environmental catastrophe elide the counter stories of justice sought, communities built, and healing found.
The symposium will examine the representation of violence on the Plains from multiple perspectives, encouraging interdisciplinary analyses from the arts and humanities, social science, and natural science. Violence that runs the gamut from the psychopathic to the socially sanctioned, from the environmental to the communal will be probed and discussed. Participants are encouraged to share their own unique perspectives.
Advance registration is now closed. On-site registration will be available at the hotel. |
CO-SPONSORED by the Department of English, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sponsors and Partners:
The Nebraska Humanities Council; Legal Aid of Nebraska; the University of Nebraska at Omaha: College of Arts & Sciences, College of Public Administration and Community Service, College of Fine Arts and Media Studies, Dr. C.C. and Mabel C. Criss Library, School of Communication Paul Critchlow Excellend Fund, Biology, Black Studies, History, Geography and Geology, Native American Studies, Newspapers in Curricula at UNO (NiC), Sociology and Anthropology, and Writers Workshop; Department of English, University of Nebraska at Kearney; The Cather Project and the Department of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Nebraska Press; College of St. Mary; Omaha Public Library; Downtown Omaha Literature Festival, the Omaha World Herald, and The New York Times.
