THE WOLF HUMANITIES CENTER — ESTABLISHED IN 2017 BY A GIFT FROM NOELLE AND DICK WOLF — CONTINUES THE TRADITIONS OF THE PENN HUMANITIES FORUM: RENEWING INSIGHTS INTO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND SHARING THEM WITH A WIDE COMMUNITY OF STUDENTS, SCHOLARS, AND PHILADELPHIA NEIGHBORS. OUR GOAL IS TO DEMONSTRATE HOW VITAL THE HUMANITIES ARE TO THE LIFE OF THE MIND AND THE HEALTH OF SOCIETY, AND HOW FUNDAMENTALLY CONNECTED THEY ARE WITH AREAS OF INQUIRY IN MEDICINE, LAW, BUSINESS, THE ARTS, AND THE SCIENCES. OUR ANNUAL THEME-BASED PUBLIC EVENTS AND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS, TOGETHER WITH OTHER EFFORTS SUCH AS OUR HUMANITIES AT LARGE COLLABORATIONS, INVITE PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND PLACES TO JOIN US IN DISCOVERING OUR COMMON STAKE IN THE “THINKING ARTS.”
STAY CONNECTED
wolfhumanities.upenn.edu
March 26–27, 2021 Wolf Humanities Center School of Arts & Sciences University of Pennsylvania
A PROGRAM OF THE WOLF HUMANITIES CENTER'S 2020–2021 FORUM ON CHOICE
UNDERGRADUATE HUMANITIES FORUM RESEARCH FELLOWS, 2020-2021
Ivanna Berríos Tathagat Bhatia Sally Chen Lucia Gonzalez
Justin Greenman Connor Hardy Henry Hung Arnav Lal
Pearl Liu Kristina Mullen Erin O'Malley Avneet Randhawa
UNDERGRADUATE HUMANITIES FORUM DIRECTOR
David Spafford Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylania
WELCOME Welcome, colleagues and friends, to “Choice Making,” the 21st research conference of the Wolf Humanities Center's Undergraduate Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania. We would like to begin with a land acknowledgement of the stolen indigenous territory on which our institution stands. The Lenape peoples were violently displaced from their homelands of Pennsylvania and New Jersey so that this country and this university could exist. There are many Lenape tribes including the Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape, and more. Although this acknowledgement can hardly replace meaningful solidarity, we hope it might be a starting point for remembering we research, write, and give presentations on occupied territories. This year, our cohort’s intellectual interests coalesce around the Wolf Humanities Center’s theme of “Choice.” Collectively, we meditated on the multiplicity of meaning to be read from choice, while individually we analyzed choice in research projects spanning various geographies, methodologies, and disciplines. Indeed, this past year of grief during the pandemic often robbed us of choice and compelled us to make difficult ones. However, with the choices left to us we attempted to make our meetings as intellectually stimulating and collegially supportive as possible. We also took advantage of the medium, playing virtual games to explore chooseyour-own adventure narratives. We kicked off the academic year by discussing our summer reading book, “Multiple Choice” by Alejandro Zambra and hosting a visit with Wolf Humanities Center's topic director Professor Sophia Rosenfeld. Our seminar highlights include: debating voting as a political choice the week of the 2020 election, learning about school-choice with Professor Jolyon Thomas, and choice in climate storytelling with Tsemone Ogbemi and Danny Cooper from the Penn Program for Environmental Humanities. In the spring semester, we read “A Kind of Freedom,” by Margaret Wilkerson-Sexton, and had the privilege of hearing her speak as part of the Wolf Center's public programming. Finally, we are wrapping up the year by turning to each other, seeing how our own projects on choice speak to one another and what kind of an image of choice they produce together. In the panel “Narratives of Choice,” fellows focus on governmental and nongovernmental organizations aiming to shape public policy. In particular they explore the interplay between narratives that shape real and perceived social problems and the more explicit choices put forth by these organizations. “Choice through Mediums” foregrounds the ways in which the medium of choice not only gives shape to discourses on diasporic identities and anticolonial struggles, but becomes a fundamental object of these discourse in its own right. The presentations in “The Morality and the Politics of Choice” tackle the moral and political quandaries in choice making through philosophical examinations of social movements, biological justice and U.S history. In “Illusion of Choice,” fellows consider how the very range of choices in official and institutional discourse effectively limits the choice making of minoritarian or disadvantaged populations.
We’d like to thank Wolf Humanities Associate Director Sara Varney, Program Manager Sarah Milinski, and Program Coordinator Dru Baker for their invaluable guidance and support while planning this conference. We also thank the Wolf Humanities Center Topic Director, Professor Sophia Rosenfeld for synthesizing a generative theme for fellows to identify common threads between our research. We thank Wolf Humanities Center director Karen Redrobe. Each of the fellows is indebted to our personal advisors for their investment in our projects. Finally, we are deeply grateful to Professor David Spafford, who guided us throughout the year as the faculty director of the Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum. Ivanna Berríos Sally Chen Connor Hardy 2020–2021 Executive Board Undergraduate Humanities Forum
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The fellows also thank the following individuals for their generous contributions, guidance, and support. Julia Alekseyeva Gwendolyn Beetham Etienne Benson Warren Breckman Timothy Corrigan Meghan Crnic Samuel Freeman Ann Greene Sarah Gronningsater Scott Hanson
Marilyn Howarth David Kazanjian Fariha Khan Peter Lesnik Kristina Lyons Meta Mazaj Julia McWilliams Americo Mendoza-Mori Lisa Mitchell Josephine Park
Kevin M.F. Platt Jennifer Ponce de Leon Farrah Rahaman Alexis Rider Kok-Chor Tan Margaret Tebbe Jolyon Thomas Sue Weber Olivia Wedig Tali Ziv
UNDERGRADUATE HUMANITIES FORUM RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Friday, March 26, 2021
10:00–11:30 AM
NARRATIVES OF CHOICE
OPENING REMARKS: Ivanna Berríos, Chair and Research Fellow, Undergraduate
Humanities Forum MODERATOR: Alexis Rider, Ph.D. Candidate, History & Sociology of Science
Tathagat Bhatia | Science, Technology, and Society Modeling Postcolonial Development: Cold War Economics and the Politics of Neutral Expertise Pearl Liu | Science, Technology, and Society Visions of the Future of Philadelphia in Public Discussions About the South Philadelphia Refinery Site Kristina Mullen | Economics; Health and Societies Type 1 Diabetes Health Advocacy: Poster Children and Performativity in Pediatric Research Funding
1:00–2:30 PM
CHOICE THROUGH MEDIUMS
WELCOME: David Spafford, Director, Undergraduate Humanities Forum; Associate
Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations MODERATOR: Julia Alekseyeva, Assistant Professor, English and Cinema & Media Studies Ivanna Berríos | Comparative Literature Un Mundo Al Revés: Anticolonial Irony and Counterhegemonic Historiography in La Ultima Reina
Avneet Randhawa | English Intermediality in Atom Egoyan’s Cinema: A Meditation on Vision Erin O'Malley | Comparative Literature; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies The Asian/Alien in American Legal Policy and Science Fiction
To join conference webinars, please register for each panel separately. wolfhumanities.upenn.edu/events/choice-making
Saturday, March 27, 2021
10:00–11:30 AM
THE MORALITY AND POLITICS OF CHOICE WELCOME: David Spafford MODERATOR: Lisa Mitchell, Associate Professor, South Asia Studies
Arnav Lal | Biophysics; Philosophy Biological Justice: Analyzing Choice Versus Responsibility of Human Embryo Utilization Henry Hung | Philosophy; Political Science Ethical Choices in Social Movements Justin Greenman | History; Political Science Loyalty and Disloyalty in Urban America: A Comparative Study of New York City and Philadelphia Politics During the Civil War
1:00–2:30 PM
ILLUSION OF CHOICE WELCOME: David Spafford MODERATOR: Tali Ziv, PhD Candidate, Anthropology
Connor Hardy | Health and Societies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Navigating University Reporting and Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence: Returning Agency to Students Sally Chen | Political Science Is it All a Mirage? Religious Freedom and False Choice in America Lucia Gonzalez | Political Science; Urban Studies The Role of Extracurricular Activities in FGLI Students' Selective College Admissions Experiences
ABSTRACTS Ivanna Berríos Comparative Literature; CAS 2021 Chair, Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum Un Mundo Al Revés: Anticolonial Irony and Counterhegemonic Historiography in La Ultima Reina There is a deep disjuncture between reconciliation and justice in post-civil war Peru, a disjuncture driving my reading of contemporary Andean art as an alternative account to the state’s memorialization of the Peruvian civil war (19802000). My research explores how anti-extractivist Andean art calls forth a vision of justice accountable to the Indigenous communities brutalized during the war by challenging the postwar recuperation of Peru as a nonviolent democracy and resignifying developmentalist discourse as an expression of coloniality. Specifically, I am interested in how the anti-mining artwork of Elizabeth Lino Corenjo in her project La Ultima Reina engages colonial history and parody to render visible the recursive temporality of structural violence and mock the state’s narratives of progress. I compare La Ultima Reina's aesthetic devices to the rhetorical tropes of Peru's official Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an ideology critique of state-led memorialization projects. How does the state, through its depiction of the past as such, foreclose the relevance of radical politics in the future? in favor of pacification? How does such foreclosure disallow liberatory political choices that would empower indigenous communities against transnational corporate interests, and how can aesthetics make a temporal intervention by resisting the periodization of violence as cyclical, rather than structural and ongoing? What potential does speculative art have to visualize a spectrum of invisibilized choices? Tathagat Bhatia Science, Technology, and Society; CAS 2021 Modeling Postcolonial Development: Cold War Economics and the Politics of Neutral Expertise In December 1961, several high-profile Indian politicians accused a group of economists at MIT’s Center for International Studies of colluding with the CIA to thwart Indian development. The critics alleged that the computer models developed by the economists were flawed in their negative assessment of India’s plans for rapid industrialization because they were rooted in political motives, rather than pure economics. While the allegations turned out to be untrue, they damaged the Center’s reputation so seriously that it had no choice but to cease its Indian operations. As many historians have remarked, such was the politicized nature of expertise during the Cold War: the perception that politics had creeped into the economic modeling was enough to sour relations, even if no such interpolation had occurred. However, these narratives create a dichotomy between economics and politics that may not really have existed. In this talk, I tease out the relationship between Cold War economics and politics by tracking the development of the linear programming models that lie at the center of this controversy. The economists hoped that their quantitative models would somehow
bypass ideology, and bolster their credence in a non-aligned India wary of foreign expertise. Yet, I argue, ideology was baked into the Center’s modeling effort from the outset, ultimately contributing to its downfall. Interrogating the social production of these models allows us to decipher how the mathematized science of economic modeling, Cold War loyalties, and India’s postcolonial development dreams worked with and against each other in a transnational context. Sally Chen Political Science; CAS 2021 Executive Board, Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum Is it All a Mirage? Religious Freedom and False Choice in America Religious Freedom is one of the founding ideals of the United States. The right to practice any or no religion is enshrined in the First Amendment and was one of the chief reasons for the settlement of early colonies. However, is free choice of religion actually empirically possible? Or do legal precedents set by the U.S. judicial system, such as in Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, circumscribe the religious decisions individuals may make or even access, creating a presentation of false choice? In an attempt to address these questions and delineate the legal and conceptual limits of “religious freedom,” this project will examine religion-related Supreme Court cases that have shaped the landscape of political and religious choice in America. Lucia Gonzalez Political Science; Urban Studies; CAS 2023 The Role of Extracurricular Activities in FGLI Students' Selective College Admissions Experiences Scholars have explored how “meritocracy” rhetoric eerily permeates into the contemporary educational landscape and is heavily reinforced through neoliberal education policies. As a result, pre-existing inequality is exacerbated. This study will explore the role of high school extracurricular activities in first-generation, lowincome (FGLI) students' applications. The following questions will be explored in the research: 1) what do FGLI students do to stand out in a competitive admissions process and 2) what is the impact of high school extracurricular activities on FGLI students’ admissions experiences? A semi-constructed interview process will be used to explore FGLI students’ experiences. While Penn will be used as a case study, the challenges associated with competing with limited resources are applicable to any elite college application process. Justin Greenman History; Political Science; CAS 2021 Loyalty and Disloyalty in Urban America: A Comparative Study of New York City and Philadelphia Politics During the Civil War This project will be a comparative study of New York City and Philadelphia politics during the Civil War. Throughout historiography and common knowledge of both cities during the Civil War, the two cities have acquired contrasting perceptions.
New York City, in large part thanks to its well-documented draft riots, is perceived as a disloyal, racist city, while Philadelphia, in large part thanks to its colonial legacy and lack of similar riots and anti-Lincoln actions, is perceived as a loyal and prowar city. I will seek to establish how political actors, including politicians, organized religion, and the media, chose to portray their policies and positions during the Civil War and how these then connected to how they and others defined “loyalty” and “disloyalty” during that conflict. Connor Hardy Health and Societies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies; CAS 2021 Executive Board, Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum Navigating University Reporting and Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence: Returning Agency to Students Sexual violence is a pervasive issue at U.S. institutions of higher education. Universities often have complex systems and channels through which students can report violence or seek. The 2019 survey by the American Association of Universities found that 73% of students at Penn who experienced sexual violence did not contact a program or resource to seek support. I would like to explore the ways in which students seek support within University systems, and explore where they have choice or agency to direct their justice-seeking processes. I aim to determine what kind of institutional response are available to students, to what degree students can ask for and receive the support they want, and how students believe the current system could become more accessible. Henry Hung Moral and Political Philosophy; Political Science; CAS 2021 Ethical Choices in Social Movements For the past 40 years, theorists on political disobedience have mostly followed the footstep of John Rawls in considering disobedience as a right of the oppressed, and considering civil (public, non-violent, punishment- accepting) disobedience as the only justifiable form of disobedience in legitimate states. In recent years, however, a number of political theorists and philosophers have risen up against this tradition, suggesting that disobedience is sometimes an obligation rather than a mere right/choice, and that uncivil disobedience may sometimes be justified in legitimate states. This project aims at contributing to the burgeoning literature on this topic by 1) considering a possible Rawlsian response to the above critiques, and 2) assessing opposing theories from the perspective of actual practitioners of disobedient acts. Arnav Lal Biophysics; Philosophy; CAS 2023 Biological Justice: Analyzing Choice Versus Responsibility of Human Embryo Utilization For infertility clinics around the world, donor sperm and eggs have become a lifeline for patients who struggle to conceive a child. Yet, this is not an adequate
solution for all couples. For patients who are fortunate enough to produce multiple viable embryos and subsequently conceive, the remaining embryos may procedurally be discarded. With increasing prevalence of infertility, this study aims to determine critical moral and ethical questions regarding distribution of unneeded embryos. Theories of justice circumvent issues of private property by allowing for unrestricted individual choice. However, it may be possible that reality may not be so simple, and the public/private, choice dichotomy is likely a gradient. This study determines key biological aspects that control the level of choice, responsibility, and moral obligation involved in biological materials, and specifically what this implies for an idea such as potentially embryo distribution. Pearl Liu Science, Technology, and Society; CAS 2021 Visions of the Future of Philadelphia in Public Discussions About the South Philadelphia Refinery Site This project explores how visions of the future of Philadelphia have been imagined in public conversations about energy production, focusing on recent discussions about the former South Philadelphia refinery site. I explore how different pasts, presents, and futures of Philadelphia were enacted at the site of the refinery complex. I examine how opposing positions about the future of the refinery site were attached to conflicting narratives of the past and present of the refineries' role in South Philadelphia, as well as how community members, scientists, and academics worked to highlight stories about the longtime harmful impact of the refineries on surrounding neighborhoods to advocate for a fossil-free future. The ways that the past was interpreted shaped how the future of energy production in Philadelphia was envisioned, which in turn shaped what conditions people understood as defining the decisions to be made in the present. Kristina Mullen Economics; Health and Societies; CAS 2021 Type 1 Diabetes Health Advocacy: Poster Children and Performativity in Pediatric Research Funding Founded in 1970, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF), emerged from parent dissatisfaction with the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) perceived lack of research-orientation. Parents’ choice to dissociate from the ADA reflected the urge to differentiate between Type 1 and Type 2 populations. Today, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) spearheads research and advocacy efforts for Type 1 Diabetics through aggressive funding campaigns, implicitly hinged on the idea that Type 1 Diabetics, especially pediatric patients, are more deserving of financial support as opposed to Type 2 Diabetics whose diagnosis reflects “lifestyle choices.” This project will explore key advocacy moments since JDRF’s inception to investigate how performative demonstration, like the biennial Children’s Congress, creates poster children who incarnate the notion of innocent suffering, reinforcing Type 2 Diabetes’ stigma.
Erin O'Malley Comparative Literature; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies; CAS 2021 The Asian/Alien in American Legal Policy and Science Fiction This project aims to draw attention to the relationship between Asian identity and American immigration policy by putting the legal term “alien” in conversation with depictions of Asian immigrants as aliens in science fiction. Drawing from historical, literary, and archival research, this project will identify the ways in which Chinese and Japanese immigrants were constructed as aliens in both the eyes of the law in science fiction. By returning to the origins of American immigration exclusion of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, I will trace how the legal and science fiction alien came to be othered and racialized. Avneet Randhawa English; CAS 2021 Intermediality in Atom Egoyan’s Cinema: A Meditation on Vision The works of critically-acclaimed Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan center the lives of characters who are not only estranged from one another but their personal memories and cultural histories. From Next of Kin (1984) to Adoration (2008), his movies offer invigorating observations on diaspora, alienation, and human intimacy. Often, Egoyan creates a cognitive and physical distance between the inhabitants of his world through visual mediums, which range from film photography to social media. In Speaking Parts (1989), a female hotel custodian obsessively rents VHS tapes of a male co-worker and actor, who prepares for a role in a forthcoming television movie based on the true story of the screenwriter’s deceased brother andherself. Through such narratives, he shows the spectator the different fields of vision engendered by varying technologies and how they offer distinct ways of remembering and interacting with one another. The intermediality of his films delve into the transgression of the boundaries of one media form to another and how this visual crossing may seep into our ways of seeing the world. At the core of his oeuvre, Egoyan dwells on the spectacle, which French philosopher Guy Debord articulates as the phenomenon in which social relations become mediated by images themselves. The director’s astute meditations on vision show the spectator the choices she herself has in a spectacular society, as he overwhelmingly troubles and challenges his characters to move past their initial, fragmented relationships. Through my project, I aim to show how Egoyan imagines bonds that transcend the postmodern obstacles exacerbated by optical mediums.
Wolf Humanities Center School of Arts & Sciences • University of Pennsylvania 255 S. 36th Street, 6th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 215.573.8280 • wolfhumanities@sas.upenn.edu • wolfhumanities.upenn.edu