On Thursday, April 13th at 5pm in the Great Room of 19 University Place, the NYU Department of Comparative Literature and the Community Building Seed Grant will host Ishmael, Jack-the-Bear, and Beloved at the Threshold of the Door of 'No' Return, a talk by Michael Sawyer of the University of Pittsburgh.

This talk will render inoperative the barriers between Moby-Dick, Invisible Man, and Beloved to argue that each of these works is gesturing at a portal to what the Toni Morrison of The Source of Self Regard calls, “the third, if you will pardon the expression, world.”

The talk will be followed by a seminar on Friday, April 14th at 10:30am in Room 222 of 19 University Place. Attendees will discuss a selection from Dr. Sawyer's upcoming book project, as well as the short YouTube video that is the preoccupation of the opening moments of the book. To receive the seminar materials, please RSVP using the link below.

These in-person events are open to the public - advanced registration and proof of compliance with NYU's vaccination policy is required for non-NYU visitors. Instructions for accessing campus will be sent to you upon registration.

Click here to RSVP for the lecture and/or seminar!

About the speaker:

Michael Sawyer is Associate Professor of African American Literature & Culture in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh and faculty affiliate in Africana Studies. He is currently a Fellow in the Humanities Institute at Penn State University as well as Artist in Residence at ONX Studios in New York City and Athens, Greece. He has published two monographs, An Africana Philosophy of Temporality: Homo Liminalis (2018), and Black Minded: The Political Philosophy of Malcolm X (2020). He is currently completing a new project entitled The Door of 'No' Return: Being As Black and the ideas explored during this talk are elements of that book.