A Natural History of Reading (Full)
Sep 8, 2010
Leroy Searle, the first Joff Hanauer Professor of Western Civilization in the University Honors Program, completed his two-year term by organizing and publishing the proceedings of a conference dedicated to the theme of the Honors course he offered in the Spring quarter of 2010: The Natural History of Reading. The conference was held on June 3-5 and the twenty-six papers, given primarily by UW Honors students, as well as some delivered by UW professors and students and professors from other universities, were subsequently published by Gorham Publishing under the title The Natural History of Reading.
The papers, in order of appearance, include:
- The Natural History of Reading: Introductory Discussion Paper (Leroy Searle, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UW)
- Visual Origins in Holton (Ellen Van Wyk, Sophomore majoring in Plant Biology and Art)
- Reading Beyond the Metaphors and References (Seung Won [Sammy] Chung, Junior majoring in Biology and Neurobiology)
- Peirce & the Structural Content of Definitions (Nicholas Janetos, Senior majoring in Mathematics and Economics)
- Listening to Ezekiel: A Critical Religious Examination (Paul Harris, Senior majoring in Biochemistry)
- Abraham and Isaac: An Analysis of Faith Loyalty, and a Brave Attempt at Neutral Biblical Commentary (Samantha Leck, Sophomore majoring in Microbiology)
- Job on Man's Relationship with God (Jennifer Nielsen, Sophomore majoring in Chemistry and Biochemistry, with minor in Applied Mathematics)
- What Classifies 'Christians' as Christian? An Analysis of Two Characters in Faulkner’s Light in August (Gina Chen, Freshman majoring in Biochemistry, with minor in Bioethics)
- Reading Mathematics: A New Approach to String Theory (Karl Eckhardt, Sophomore majoring in International Studies and Finance)
- Themata and Heuristics (Teague Henry, Sophomore majoring in Psychology)
- Themata in Mathematics (Will Johnson, Junior majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science)
- Novel Experience (Stephen Folkins, Senior majoring in English and Creative Writing)
- Reading Plato’s Euthyphro: The Problem of Grounding Virtue (Di Zhang, Senior majoring in Philosophy)
- Reading the Qu'ran: An Experience to Enlightenment (Semonti Hossain, Senior majoring in Neurobiology)
- The Greatest Stories ever Told: Multiple Accounts of the Life of Jesus (Leah Caglio, Sophomore majoring in English and Comparative Literature)
- Dreadful Divisions: Reading Blake Book of Urizen (Matthew Mullen, Senior majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics)
- Proleptic Metaphors in Light in August (Conor Sutherland, Freshman majoring in Comparative History of Ideas)
- Common Spaces of Intelligibility in Peirce and Contemporary Art Practice (Claire Fox, Senior majoring in Comparative Literature and Comparative History of Ideas)
- Can We Talk? Community Canon, & Critique (Brandon Weaver, Senior in English and Comparative History of Ideas)
- The Problem of Reading, the Practice of Writing (Mark C. Long, Professor of English and American Studies at Keene State College)
- "The Narrow Edge of the Wedge" and "The Art of Preparation" (Dana J. Ringuette, Professor and Chair of English at Eastern Illinois University)
- On Reading the Photograph: 06/05/10 (Paul Berger, Professor of Photography, UW)
- On Reading in the History of Science (Bruce Hevly, Associate Professor of History, UW)
- The Book of God, the Book of Nature, and the Book of Man: Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and Psalm 23 (Zachary Gartenberg, Senior in the Honors Program at The Johns Hopkins University)
- Mind in its Purest Play: Imagination, Reading, and Politics (James Searle, Graduate student in English at SUNY Albany)
- Reading Methodically: The Function of Coleridge’s Secondary Imagination (Thomas Dechand, Graduate student at The John Hopkins University)
Read complete recordings of the proceedings (including discussions and debates) »