REMINDER! M.A. Thesis Writing Workshop this Friday, 2/26

M.A. Thesis Writing Workshop
Led by Professors Rebecca Colesworthy and Robin Nagle

Friday, February 26, 5-7 PM
Draper Map Room

This workshop is primarily intended for students who are in the early phases of thesis preparation, but also for those at later stages of the process. Students will receive guidance on how to refine their topics and narrow the scope of their theses, and on some of the basic mechanics of writing up their work.

Please RSVP--call 212.998.8070 or email draper.program@nyu.edu to let us know if you'll be attending.

GSAS Master's Seminars

GSAS Master's Seminars- Master the Road Ahead

The GSAS Master’s College is hosting several events this spring to help you hone your skills for success in graduate school. This series features topics of particular interest to graduate students aiming for excellence in scholarship and beyond. Taught by experts in the field, topics include practicing good research, grant writing and review; and planning for the next chapter- life after graduation. To register for one or more of these workshops send an email to gsas.masterscollege.rsvp@nyu.edu. Light refreshments will be served. All GSAS Master’s Seminars will be held at 19 University Place on the first floor.

Register today for:

· What to do after graduation; applying for Jobs or PhD programs – in Partnership with the Wasserman Center for Career Services, the Department of Humanities and Social Thought and Graduate Enrollment Services

Tuesday, March 2^nd 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Which way will you go at this crossroads? Whether you are looking for a job or want to pursue a PhD, this seminar will help you get prepared for the next chapter. If you have just begun your master’s study, the time is now to get this planning underway. If you are closer to the end of your degree, there is no time to waste in making a plan for success. We are grateful to have the expertise of Professor Robert Dimit, Associate Director of the Draper Program, David Giovanella, the Assistant Dean of Graduate Enrollment Services and Paula Lee, Wasserman Center Counselor as members of this panel. Learn from the experts about how to prepare an application that will get noticed or how to create the resume that leads to the job.

· Practicing Good Research: Getting the most out of using the NYU Libraries' resources and services – in partnership with the NYU Bobst Library

Tuesday, March 9^th 5:30 – 7:00 pm

There’s one way to maximize your chances at straight A’s, make sure your research is solid. Scott Collard of NYU’s Bobst Library brings the science of research to your fingertips in this seminar. Learn what tools are available to you as a GSAS student. Find easy ways to make the most of your library resources. Master the best practices in research techniques and presentation.

· Get Funded- Grants and Scholarships for Study and Research

TBA

Lunch Talk by Draper's Gender Politics Prof, Amber Musser - 3/1

The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

at New York University

presents

THE OBJECT OF DESIRE

March 1, Monday

12:30 to 1:45 PM

Amber Musser

Gender Politics, Draper Program, NYU

Imagine that you were in love with the Golden Gate Bridge? What would this mean to you? What kind of relationship would develop? This talk is an exploration of objectum sexuals-people who form meaningful and erotic relationships with objects. By examining this phenomenon, we can gain insight into how concepts of love, intimacy, agency, and, ultimately, subjectivity are shifting in the twenty-first century.

41-51 East 11th Street, Room 709

between University Place and Broadway

(wheelchair access at 85-87 University Place, between 11th and 12th Streets)

Amber Musser is an assistant professor/Faculty Fellow in Gender Politics in NYU's John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program. Dr. Musser received an A.B. in Biology and History of Science from Harvard (2002), a M.St. in Women's Studies from Oxford (2003), and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard (2009).

Dr. Musser's work focuses on psychoanalysis, queer affect, and theories of subjectivity. Her dissertation, "On the Subject of Masochism," is a history of the various readings and re-readings that produced masochism's discursive shift from psychiatry to critical and queer theory. Portions of her dissertation have been published: "Masochism, a Queer Subjectivity" in Rhizomes and "Reading, Writing ,and the Whip" forthcoming in Literature and Medicine. All of Dr. Musser's work is a dialogue between history and philosophy of science, critical theory, queer and feminist theory, and critical history. In addition to bringing science and gender and sexuality studies together in conversation, she believes that treating these areas together reveals a new space in which to situate and destabilize our prevailing notions of subjectivity and agency. This perspective allows her to focus on understanding race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and class as critical dimensions of personal experience, which also extends to the realm of science. In keeping with this theme, she has published an article, "From Our Body to Yourselves," which discusses the shift in concepts of Woman and community within the Women's Health Movement in the 1970s. She has also been working on an article, "The Obscure Object of Desire," that interrogates negotiations of intimacy and sexuality in relationships with inanimate objects. In addition to turning her dissertation into a book, Dr. Musser is currently researching queer attachments to objects and embodiments of multiple subjectivities. While at Harvard, Dr. Musser received the Derek Bok Award for Teaching Excellence.

Part of the Brown Bag Lunch Series - bring your own lunch and we'll provide beverages and dessert.

This event is free and open to the public. If you need sign language interpretation services or other accommodations, please let us know as soon as possible.

For more information, please call 212-992-9540 or email csgs@nyu.edu.

http://www.csgsnyu.org

Call for Papers: English Graduate Student Conference at Albany

Call For Papers: “Turning on Rights: Politics, Performance and the Text”
April 16-17, 2010 University at Albany, SUNY

Keynote Speaker: Joseph Slaughter, Associate Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University

“We must more than ever stand on the side of human rights. *We need human
rights. *We are in need of them and they are in need, for there is always a
lack, a shortfall, a falling short, an insufficiency; human rights are never
sufficient” (Jacques Derrida, *Philosophy in a Time of Terror*).

If human rights are insufficient yet necessary, we must then ask what to do
with “rights.” This conference will explore historical and theoretical
definitions, constructions, and performative notions of rights. How do texts
challenge predominant conceptual narratives of rights? In what ways does
literature explore notions of rights outside of the juridical realm? Can we
have a discourse on rights that exceeds the anthropomorphic field?

In wide ranging disciplines, rights of the subject and to the objective
world are both historically grounded and contemporarily debated. If
discourses of all varieties are also textual sites, then the places where
rights are manifested (technology, culture, art and literature, science,
law, and ontology) must be read and ultimately performed.

As the focus of our 8th annual Graduate Student Conference, the English
Graduate Student Organization at the University at Albany seeks both
critical and creative projects that further this discussion. Our keynote
speaker will be Joseph Slaughter, Associate Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of *Human Rights,
Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law*. The Friday
evening event will commence with a creative performance featuring Rachel
Zolf, author of The Neighbour Procedure (2010) and winner of the 2008
Trillium Book Award for Poetry for Human Resources (2007). We encourage
submissions from graduate students working in any field, historical period,
or scholarly discipline. We also solicit creative submissions for the
Friday evening performance. Critical abstracts should be limited to 250-300
words; creative abstracts should include a 300 word or less description and
a 3 page sample. Submit abstracts to: egsoalbany@yahoo.com by March 12,
2010. Please label the subject of the email “Turning On Rights.” Possible
areas of inquiry may include, but are not limited to:

· Animal and Other Alterities

· Violence, Trauma, and Testimony

· Sovereignty, Exemplarity, and Exception

· Environmental, Agricultural, and Terrestrial Rights

· Witnessing vs. Performing Rights

· Authorship, Readership, Agency

· Global vs. National Rights

· Unwritten, Inalienable Rights

· Definitions of Freedom

· Sexual and Reproductive Rights

· Corporate and Commercial Rights

· Information, Technology, and Copyright

· Rights and the Demarcations of the Body

· Rights in the Realm of the Post-Human and Virtual

Archives and Public History: Brown Bag Lunch on Art and Archives (3/5)

NYU Archives and Public History Program brown bag lunch series
Art and archives
Friday March 5, 12:00-2:00pm
King Juan Carlos Center, room 607

The Archives and Public History brown bag lunch series continues on Friday, March 5 for a discussion on art and archives. Marvin Taylor, director of the Fales Library and Special Collections, and Lucy Oakley, head of Education and Programs of the Grey Art Gallery will examine issues surrounding the curation and installation of Downtown Pix: Mining the Fales Archive 1961-1991, now on display at the Grey Art Gallery. Additionally, Christine Licata, assistant curator of Taller Boriqua ("workshop Puerto Rican") will discuss the challenges of archiving artwork associated with this 40-year-old East Harlem arts non-profit.

Please bring a brown bag lunch. Complimentary drinks and desserts will be provided.

Please RSVP to Kate Dundon kcd206@nyu.edu by Tuesday, March 2.