2015 Clifford Symposium graphic

Our bodies play a large role in defining our public and private identities. The ways we use them—and the way others react to them—give clear indications of our beliefs, access, and culture values.  Which is why at this historical moment it’s problematic that the body has been deemed, both figuratively and literally, bad.

Our symposium will center on the good body.  We’ll use the topic to explore central questions in the liberal arts.  What counts as a good body?  Who has one?  Who doesn’t?  And why? These questions—and their varying answers—impact everyone in our Middlebury community and beyond. As technological and medical innovations have shaped our concepts of worthiness, beauty, health, and bodily function, we have to examine how broader contexts matter—how cultural forces, systems of power, privilege, time, and place contribute to how we define “good,” how we define “body,” and, ultimately, how we define the “good body.” 

2015 Clifford Symposium Schedule of Events

Thursday, September 24

Lunch: Inclusive Pedagogy Workshop  

Facilitated by Catharine Wright, Miguel Fernandez and Maya Doig-Acuna, ‘16

Thursday, September 24

Keynote Lecture by Barak adé Soleil  

“The ‘good’ Body: An Unfinished Legacy”

Thursday, September 24

Screening: Phoenix Dance  

Followed by Facilitated Discussion

Friday, September 25

Lecture by Eli Clare  

“Defective, Deficient, and Burdensome: Thinking About Bad Bodies”

Friday, September 25

Lecture by Lisa Hall  

“Bodies of Knowledge: From Junipero Serra to Kumu Hina”

Friday, September 25

Lecture/Lunch by James A. VanDyke  

“Off the Wall”

Friday, September 25

Movement Workshop and Discussion with Toby McNutt  

Friday, September 25

Performance, Screening, and Lecture by Esther Baker-Tarpaga  

“#BodyAsPlaceForAction: To Examine White Supremacy, aka Writing on the Body Revisited”

Friday, September 25

Movement Workshop and Discussion with Barak adé Soleil  

Friday, September 25

Snack Chat  

Participants and Facilitators Chat Over a Light Dinner

Friday, September 25

Screening of "Fixed"  

Post-Screening Discussion with Leslie Freeman and Scotty Hardwig

Saturday, September 26

Student Presentations  

Stevie Durocher, 15.5, Debanjan Roychoudhury, 16, Aoife Duna, 16.5

Saturday, September 26

Faculty Speakers, Part One  

Ellery Foutch: “Life Is Movement: Eugen Sandow, Living Sculpture, and Petrification”

Scotty Hardwig: “Custom Skins: Cyberdancers, Avatars, and Posthuman Anatomies”

Saturday, September 26

Faculty Speakers, Part Two  

Pam Barenbaum: “The Body under Hostile Takeover”

Anson Koch-Rein: “Have You Seen Him As Her?: Gender, Clothes, and the Body in ABC’s Guided Tour of Caitlyn Jenner’s Closet”

Saturday, September 26

Workshop with Andrea Olsen  

“Body Stories: Embodied Writing Workshop”

Saturday, September 26

Keynote Performance  

Barak adé Soleil, with a Post-Performance Discussion Moderated by Christal Brown

Saturday, September 26

Closing Reception  

Sponsored by: Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, Movement Matters, Queers & Allies, Community Engagement, Anderson Freeman Resource Center, Director of the Arts and Living Dance