Amaranth Borsuk and Shannon Cram speak at “Earthly Impressions” symposium

IAS faculty members Amaranth Borsuk and Shannon Cram spoke last week at a symposium organized by faculty in UW’s Textual Studies Program and co-sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Earthly Impressions considered points of contact between the history of the book and the environmental humanities. Borsuk spoke about “Destruction and Durability in Artists’ Books,” with particular attention to the holdings of the University of Washington’s Special Collections. Cram discussed “Nuclear Life and the Politics of Impossibility,” highlighting her work at Washington State’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the impossibility of remediation, and its effects, both public and personal. The 2-day symposium brought together a fascinating group of scholars and included a participatory ritual with smudge studio at the Henry Art Gallery, “Tea at the Tilt of the Earth.”