The last several years have seen a flourishing of work on historical epistemology, as scholars ask how we know what we think we know about the cultural artifacts we analyze. This work has entailed rethinking foundational methodologies like genealogy, philology, phenomenology, and humanism, as well as influential critical paradigms developed in the 1980s and 90s such as feminist and queer studies. At the same time, we have seen a flourishing of new critical methodologies, including disability studies, trans studies, environmental studies, global studies, digital humanities, and critical race studies. 

Inspired by the scholarship and mentorship of Valerie Traub, this conference brings these critical trends into conversation to think about how the questioning, revising, and renewing of older critical methodologies relates to the emergence of new critical methodologies and their effect on our modes of inquiry. How, we ask, is our knowledge of the past shaped by the methods of our inquiries and the networks in which we practice them? How do we build on earlier critical efforts even as we critique them? Who has been included and excluded in our knowledge relations with various periods, specific topics, disciplines and institutions? 

This conference will bring together over two dozen leading scholars and teachers alongside professionals in related fields to reflect on the past and future of our intellectual practices, including how we can and do impact contemporary culture outside of academia. The conference will feature new work from scholars in performance studies, critical race studies, empire studies, new philology, trans studies, and disability studies, among others. It will explore the opportunities for synergies both topical and professional. By bringing a diverse range of practitioners together, Knowledge Relations explores how we might make the past and the future, together.