Archives of the Impossible: Transnationalism, Transdisciplinarity, Transcendence

We are going to host a second international conference around our Archives of the Impossible at Rice University, this time explicitly on how to mainstream these questions and materials in the larger academy and our public cultures. The event is entitled "Archives of the Impossible: Transnationalism, Transdisciplinarity, Transcendence.”

The event is scheduled for May 11-13 at Rice University in Houston, in the same beautiful venue in which we held the first one, Hudspeth Auditorium in the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. This is a two-and-a-half day event, from Thursday afternoon, May 11, to Saturday evening, May 13. It will feature three opening webinars, like last year, in April and May, and, at the conference itself, six plenary speakers from a broad array of areas, two thematic panels (one on a major archival gift from the John E. Mack Institute, and one on the impossible and film), and 14 “flash talks” of 25 minutes each. There are well over 30 experiencers, activists and thinkers speaking here.

May 11

4 p.m.

WELCOME: JEFFREY J. KRIPAL

"A Higher Higher Education"

4:30 p.m.

PLENARY SESSION: GREG EGHIGIAN

“UFOs and Alien Contact in the Shadow of Deception”

5:30 p.m.

PLENARY SESSION: STEPHEN C. FINLEY ’06, ’09

“In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam”

6:30 – 8 p.m.

CONNECTING WITH ONE ANOTHER: FOOD AND DRINK

Dean’s Commons, Anderson-Clarke Center, Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies