Rita Felski Lecture, "On Resonance and the Love of Literature"

Date and Time: January 31 at 2 pm

Location: Kendall Room, South Caroliniana Library

Rita Felski is John Stewart Bryan Professor at The University of Virginia. Felski's research centers aesthetics, interpretation, and method/methodology, particularly in context of literary criticism, cultural studies, and comparative literature. Felski recently published Hooked: Art and Attachment (The University of Chicago Press, 2020).

 Felski’s talk explores the idea of resonance. How does resonance provide a fresh slant on the “love of literature,” while also clarifying how critical theory can animate, and captivate? This talk draws out affinities between the ideas of German social theorist Hartmut Rosa and two academic novels (Stoner by John Williams and Theory by Dionne Brand) that capture moments when words reverberate and come alive, that portray the transformative aspects of intellectual life as well as the alienating aspects of academic institutions. 

Book Discussion with Rita Felski

Date and Time: January 30 at 12:30 - 2 pm

Location: All Good Books

Rita Felski will lead a follow-up discussion surrounding the topics of the seminar and her work at All Good Books. The public, faculty, and students are invited to ask questions and participate in discussion.

If you would like to join, please RSVP to Holly Crocker by Friday, January 24th. Lunch will be provided, and Professor Felski will discuss different aspects of her resounding work. She has shared a chapter from her upcoming book on the new Frankfurt School (chapter provided upon RSVP).

Faculty Spotlight: Tanya Wideman-Davis & Thaddeus Davis

Date and Time: February 6 at 3:45 pm

Location: Petigru 217

Join us in celebrating award-winning research at the University of South Carolina. Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis are associate professors in the Department of Theatre and Dance. They are joined by collaborators Michael Malique McManus and Petra Everson.

Their company Wideman Davis Dance specializes in dance performances that tell the layered stories of Black spaces and history. Wideman-Davis and Davis were awarded a grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2022 to expand Migratuse Ataraxia, a dance-based initiative that engages live audiences in intimate antebellum stories.

Reem Hilu Lecture, "The Intimate Life of Computers: Digitizing Domesticity in the 1980s"

Date and Time: February 21 at 3 pm

Location: Close-Hipp  401

Reem Hilu is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Hilu's research involves digital media and the relationship between gender, domesticity, and technological change. Hilu will discuss her latest book The Intimate Life of Computers: Digitizing Domesticity in the 1980s (University of Minnesota Press, 2024).

Faculty Spotlight: Saskia Coenen Snyder

Date and Time: March 5 at 3:45 pm

Location: Petigru 217

Join us in celebrating distinguished faculty at the University of South Carolina. Saskia Coenen Snyder is Professor of Modern Jewish History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program. Coenen Snyder specializes in Jewish history, culture, and religion with particular interest in the intersection between material culture, economics, politics, and modern Jewish history. Coenen Snyder's most recent book is A Brilliant Commodity: Diamonds and Jews In A Modern Setting (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Derrick Spires Lecture, "Serial Blackness: Periodical Literature and Early African American Literary Histories in the Long Nineteenth Century"

(Mellon Seminar)

Date and Time: March 27-28 at TBA

Location: TBA

Derrick Spires is Associate Professor of Literatures in English and affiliate faculty in American Studies, Visual Studies, and Media Studies at Cornell University. He specializes in early African American and American print culture, citizenship studies, and African American intellectual history.

Book Discussion with Derrick Spires

Date and Time: TBA

Location: All Good Books

Derrick Spires will lead a follow-up discussion surrounding the topics of the seminar and his work at All Good Books. The public, faculty, and students are invited to ask questions and participate in discussion.

James, by Percival Everett

(Co-sponsored by the Department of English)

Date and Time: April 4 at 6 - 7 pm

Location: TBA

The 2025 edition of The Open Book will conclude with a special appearance by Percival Everett, USC Distinguished professor in the Department of English. Everett will speak about James. An action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel was an instant New York Times bestseller, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was named a best book of the year in myriad publications. As the Chicago Tribune declared, James is “A masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own.”

Percival Everett grew up in Columbia, SC and is a graduate of A.C. Flora High School. He has published two dozen novels in addition to poetry and other writings. Among his many honors are an NEA fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship, and in 2021 he received the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.

Faculty Book Launch: Seulghee Lee, Leah McClimans, and Jabari Evans

Date and Time: April 11 at 6 pm

Location: All Good Books

Join us in celebrating recent publications by University of South Carolina faculty, Seulghee Lee, Leah McClimans, and Jabari Evans.

Seulghee Lee is the author of Other Lovings: An AfroAsian Theory of Life (The Ohio State University Press, 2025). Leah McClimans is the author of Patient-Centered Measurement: Ethics, Epistemology, and Dialogue in Contemporary Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2024). Jabari  Evans is the author of Drill Rap, Sex Work, and the Digital Underground: (Clout)Chasing on Chicago’s Southside (Rowman and Littlefield, 2024).