Humanity in Extremis:  Modern Dystopias

February 8-9, 2019

Imaginary and real dystopian worlds occupy an important place in contemporary culture.  Popular television series such as the adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or the Netflix series, The Rain, invite the viewer to imagine humanity in extremis, subject to intense environmental, social or psychological pressures.  Novelists like Cormac McCarthy (The Road) and Omar el Akaad (American War) present post-apocalyptic worlds in which the struggle to survive exposes humanity’s frailties as well as its potentialities.  Others, like Naomi Alderman (The Power) imagine worlds in which normative relationships defined by gender, class, or race are turned upside down.  Such works are revealing both of contemporary anxieties and our enduring fascination with what it means to be human.  This multi-disciplinary conference includes papers by Faculty and Graduate Students considering Modern Dystopias in a variety of historical settings, in literature, as well as in art, architecture and film.  The conference will also feature the 2019 Barbara Powell Memorial Lecture, delivered by award-winning author, Cherie Dimaline and a free public showing of the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Conference Program

February 8:  Administration-Humanities Building (AH) 348

2:30 – 2:40 p.m.:  Welcome from conference sponsors

2:40 – 3:40 p.m. Cities and Dystopia:  Historical Perspectives:

“Rediscovering an Island Paradise:  Documenting the Post-Reversion Ryūkyū Islands in Early 1970s Japan”

 Philip Charrier, Department of History, University of Regina

“The Revolt of Reality:  How Urban Plans for Berlin Alexanderplatz Produced a Dystopian Space”

 Thomas Bredohl, Department of History, University of Regina

4:00 p.m.:  Research and Innovation Centre (RIC) 119

Keynote Address:  The Barbara Powell Memorial Lecture:  “Indigenous Futurisms: Apocalyptic Survival with Precedent” by Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves (2017)

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.:  Research and Innovation Centre Atrium:  Reception

February 9:  Research and Innovation Centre (RIC) 119

10:30 – 11:50 a.m. Imagined Futures in Architecture, Literature and Art

“Workers’ Paradise:  Redesigning Moscow in the 1920s and 1930s”

Ian Germani, Department of History, University of Regina

“Post-Communist Dystopias:  Reliving Fears of Total Mind Control”

Christina Stojanova, Department of Film Studies, University of Regina

“Utopia:  Future Tense”

Sylvia Ziemann, Department of Visual Arts, University of Regina

12:00 – 12:30 p.m.  Lunch

12:30 – 1:50 p.m. Gender, Race and Dystopia:  Mad Max and The Handmaid’s Tale

“A Foundation of Serial Murder and Appreciation of the Male Voice:  Historical and Feminist Considerations in The Handmaid’s Tale”

Jasmine Redford, MA Student in English, University of Saskatchewan

“The Effect of Racial Diversity in the First Season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale”

Lizette Gerber, MA Student in English, University of Saskatchewan

“Hell hath no fury:  Feminism, Dystopia, and Mad Masculinity in Fury Road”

Susan Johnston, Department of English, University of Regina

1:50 – 2:00 p.m. Coffee break

2:00- 3:20 p.m. Dystopia in Film and Television

“To Dystopia and Back Again:  Repetition and Ritual in Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel”

  Connor J. Thompson, MA Student in Religious Studies, University of Regina

“Presentations of the Feminine in Dystopian Film:  an Exegesis of Tank Girl”

Esther Guillen, MA Student in Religious Studies, University of Regina

“’There are no sides, just people who help you and people who don’t.’:  Individual realities, conspiracy theories, and Weltanschauung in Channel 4’s Utopia”

Kimberley Humphries, MA Student in Religious Studies, University of Regina

3:20 – 3:30 p.m. Coffee

3:30 – 5:30 p.m. Film:  The Road, introduced by Marcel DeCoste, Department of English, University of Regina

5:30 – 6:00 p.m.:  Concluding remarks and discussion

Conference Registration:  $40 for General registration, $20 for Students and members of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.  Click here to register online, or go to: https://secure.touchnet.net/C22138_ustores/web/classic/store_main.jsp?STOREID=103&SINGLESTORE=true

The registration deadline in 31 January, 2019.

The conference is sponsored by the Humanities Research Institute, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, the Faculty of Arts and the Academic Conference Fund at the University of Regina, as well as by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.