Truth in Crisis

In conjunction with the Wolf Humanities Center’s 2025–2026 Forum on Truth, this interdisciplinary symposium engages experts in an exploration of truth(s) contested or revealed in crises across panels on (1) Institutions of Learning, (2) Land and its Technologies, and (3) Borders. In the framing, we take our cue from Sara Ahmed (2010), who understands crisis, perceived and described, as constructed; a crisis necessitates the identification and defense of shared norms and values, a world and its inhabitants, against that which threatens. The articulation of crisis thus reveals and contests truth(s) that are, by presentation, matters of survival. Held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, this one-day symposium will begin with a highly anticipated keynote featuring Dr. Althea Wasow from University of California, Santa Barbara. The day's discussions will bring together scholars from various disciplines to expand upon questions of crisis, its meanings and manifestations in the modern and contemporary world, and the role of truth in surviving.

For more info, visit https://wolfhumanities.upenn.edu/events/truth-crisis

Symposium Agenda
8:30 am–9:20 am
Breakfast

9:20 am–9:30 am
Welcome Remarks

• , Director, Wolf Humanities Center; Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations
• , Topic Director, Forum on Truth, Wolf Humanities Center; Associate Professor of Russian and East European Studies

9:30 am–10:45 am
Keynote
Moderated by Jennifer Sierra, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center

• , Assistant Professor, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

11:00 am–12:30 pm
Institutions of Learning
Moderator: Chris Halsted, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center

• , Assistant Professor, Department of English and Cinema and Media Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• , Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
• , Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania

1:45 pm–3:15 pm
Land and its Technologies
Moderator: Delbar Khakzad, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center

• , Daniel Braun Silvers and Robert Peter Silvers Family Presidential Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
• , Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, Dickinson College
• , Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

3:30 pm–5:00 pm
Borders
Moderator: Spencer Small, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center

• , Assistant Professor, Department of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, Georgetown University
• , Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
• , Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University

5:00 pm–5:15 pm
Closing Remarks

• , Research Associate, Wolf Humanities Center; Ph.D. Candidate, Department of East Asian Civilizations and Languages, University of Pennsylvania

5:15 pm
Reception

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Host or Publisher Wolf Humanities Center