Welcome to IAPL 2002 -- the 26th Annual Conference
As the International Association for Philosophy and Literature moves into its second quarter century, on behalf of the IAPL Executive Committee, I am delighted to welcome you to IAPL 2002!
“INTERMEDIALITIES” – the theme for this year's conference – carries many senses: the media, mediations, but most significantly it calls for an investigation of the between -- between art and politics, between the real and the virtual, between the present and the future, between theory and experience, between technology and culture, between Being and beings, between the modern and the postmodern, between law and justice, between truth and style, between representations and the represented.
This is the twenty-sixth annual conference. Last year's twenty-fifth anniversary conference at Spelman College brought many new beginnings -- among them the first time that a major interdisciplinary international association has met at one of America's premiere black women's colleges. This year's conference carries its own new beginnings: for the first time IAPL is holding its major annual conference in Europe. Although supplementary conferences have been held in England in the 1980s and in Naples for the turn of the century, this international meeting at Rotterdam inaugurates what we hope will be repeated in the future, namely, the availability of European locations as exciting sites for IAPL conferences.
It has been a special treat to work with Henk Oosterling, whom I first met at a Lyotard conference in Utrecht a number of years ago. Henk has now become a regular member of IAPL and an annual participant in IAPL conferences. As a member of the Executive Committee and as Conference Coordinator this year I have enjoyed his dynamic and energetic as well as perceptive and intensely critical spirit. He has brought many new ideas to the functioning of this year's conference and has provided an avenue for a variety of exciting possibilities for IAPL's second quarter century.
Henk Oosterling and his team have prepared the infrastructure for us so as to leave me with the necessary time to put together the details of the Program. Piet Molendijk has been extremely helpful in accompanying me for discussions with the Rotterdam hotels, in attending to on-site conference details, and in organizing all Student Housing arrangements. Liesbeth Noordergraaf-Eelens is also assisting us with numerous local arrangements. Paul Stoute, IAPL 2002 Design Coordinator, has generously offered his extraordinary skills in producing the design for the Call for Papers, the Conference Book, Nametags, T-shirts, Totes, and Pencils, Readers of this book will notice a number of additions and new features that Paul has assisted us in producing for IAPL 2002.
The IAPL Executive Committee deserves a special note of appreciation for all their care in reading and evaluating abstracts and proposals in the Fall and in providing their continued devotion to the vitality of IAPL and its conferences.
Claire Goberman, as IAPL Membership Coordinator, has been fantastic in extensive and tireless work receiving all of the membership materials, carefully organizing them, and keeping effectively IAPL records. Aleksandar Pjevalica, as the Stony Brook IAPL Graduate Assistant this year, has worked with me to prepare materials for the Executive Committee's review, to shape the program, and to help with on-site organization. I am grateful for the attentive and precise skills of Youngjeen Choe who once again serves as Audio-Visual Coordinator, the organizational abilities of Peter Gratton who again coordinates the Registration Desk, and the many years of contribution by Apostolos Vasilakis who this year will be on-site coordinator of the Publisher's Book Exhibit. Particular notice of appreciation goes to all the other IAPL Staff members who will be working with us this year. I would also like to thank Doug Norton, proprietor of the East End Shirt Co. for working with me now for the third year to produce those little extras (such as t-shirts, totes, and pencils) that many of you have come to appreciate when you arrive at the IAPL Registration Desk.
We are also grateful to the Rotterdam Hilton Hotel, and in particular Marjon Zwaan for her continuous support and help with arrangement details at the hotel, and to the NH Atlanta [formerly Rotterdam Golden Tulip Hotel] and, in particular, Arjan Zebel, for helping us make alternate arrangements once all rooms at the Rotterdam Hilton were filled by March 15th.
Many IAPL members have read the work of Luce Irigaray for years and are certainly looking forward to the opportunity to hear her. Others have been enamored of the major filmic achievements of Peter Greenaway and are awaiting the chance to hear him recount his extraordinary visual accomplishments. The Saturday morning Close Encounters on the work of Peter Greenaway, Jean-Luc Nancy, Dominique Janicaud, and Heinz Kimmerle are a very special opportunity for a wide variety of conference participants to meet with and discuss the work of some of the most stellar figures in the field. And the end-debate that Henk Oosterling has organized with Slavoj Zizek, Jean-Luc Nancy, Rosi Braidotti, and Heinz Kimmerle should be a delightful occasion for us all. The famed Dutch Theatre group Hollandia will present their play VOICES around the diaries of Pasolini. And since this year's conference will be one day longer, we have left Thursday morning open for participants to avail themselves of the opportunity to visit the city of Rotterdam and its treasures.
I am pleased to welcome you, the IAPL 2002 participants, to the extraordinary program that we have prepared for this twenty-sixth annual conference . I hope you will enjoy it in all its inter-medial delights.
Hugh J. Silverman, IAPL Executive Director