Duke English began the Spring 2021 semester by welcoming 30+ attendees to the first session of the Faculty Works-in-Progress Series on Friday, January 22nd. Professor Joseph Winters presented his forthcoming article "Recovering the Irrecoverable: Blackness, Melancholy, and the Duplicities that Bind," which will be a part of the "Slave Religion: Histories and Horizons" special issue of the journal Religions.
Winters opened the session with an overiew of his previous works and what inspired him to write this article. He noted that much of his research involves rethinking the afterlife of slavery and religion and slavery’s impact on religious studies. Winters then shared his thoughts on Stephen Best's 2018 book, None Like Us: Blackness, Belonging, Aesthetic Life, Spike Lee's film School Daze, and other works he references in his article.
English Ph.D. candidate Jane Harwell was among the Duke students who attended the event. "Professor Winters' wonderful talk, which gave me so much to think about,” she said, "complimented his circulated paper: both were vigorous, compelling, and thoughtful. Among the many takeaways, Winters' call for a sense of sociality around a fracture is just such a breathtaking concept that communities build despite and because of fractures. I've found myself returning to Winters' term ‘melancholy historicism’ and the poetical. I look forward to reading his book."
"I was struck by the diversity of intellectual traditions represented at Prof Winters' talk today’" added Margot Armbruster, an English major from the class of 2022.
“His paper and faculty responses drew on Marxist criticism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and sound work, to name just a few, which speaks to the inspiring breadth of the Black Studies Project. I'm enrolled in Professor Winters' grad seminar and am now looking even more forward to our semester together."
After a lively Q&A session, Winters said he was intrigued by the questions and that they had provided him with ideas to incorporate into his future research.
Faculty Works-in-Progress sessions will take place throughout the spring semester. Each installment of this series features an English faculty member sharing recent or ongoing work. The series is open to all.
Sarah Beckwith
February 26, 2021
1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
Ranji Khanna
April 16, 2021
1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
English Department
