A collaborative Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies Graduate Conference on exit signs and signs of exit. What propels this year’s conference, ultimately, is a desire to critically articulate the triangulation of hope, nihilism, and utopia in their kaleidoscopic encounters. We take these three signs of exit as our shared point of departure into unknown terrains to which the critical imagination of signs of exit can point.
All are welcome to attend this interdisciplinary conference from March 14-16th at the University of Toronto!
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities and Director of the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought at York University
Artist Talk and Workshop
Paul Shkordoff, Writer and Director
Roundtable Members
Dr. Brian Price, Professor in the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, and Professor and Chair in the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga
Dr. Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities and Director of the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought at York University
Dr. Rebecca Comay, Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Comparative Literature, Core Member in the Literature and Critical Theory Program, and Associate Member in the Germanic Languages and Literatures Department and the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University for Toronto
Dr. James Cahill, Associate Professor in the Cinema Studies Institute and the Department of French at the University of Toronto
Dr. John Paul Ricco, Professor in the Department of Art History, the Centre for Comparative Literature, the Department for the Study of Religion, the Cinema Studies Institute, the Centre for the Study of the United States, and the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto; and Professor in the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga
CONFERENCE LOCATIONS
Centre for Culture and Technology, 39A Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C3
Innis College, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON , M5S 1J5
Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 1K6
University College Union, 79 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2E5
WE THANK OUR SPONSORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA AND THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCARBOROUGH
University of Toronto
The Centre for Comparative Literature, the Centre for Comparative Literature Course Union, the Centre for Culture and Technology, Centre for Drama Theatre and Performance Studies, the Centre for the Study of the United States, the Cinema Studies Institute, the Department of Art History, the Department of Classics, the Department of East Asian Studies, the Department of English, the Department of French, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Department of History, the Department of Italian Studies, the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Faculty of Information, the Jackman Humanities Institute, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, the Women and Gender Studies Institute
University of Toronto Mississauga
The Department of Visual Studies; the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology
University of Toronto Scarborough
Department of English
CONFERENCE TEAM AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Coordinators of Exit Signs: Kanika Lawton, Dillan Newman (csgraduatestudentunion@gmail.com)
Coordinators of Signs of Exit: Tanya Humeniuk, Suntisuk Prabunya, Sophie Ivanka Shields (utoronto.complitconference2025@gmail.com)
Conference Team: Karen Ren, Avneet Sharma, Jixin Jia, Amy Anderson, Yanqiu Lin, Hayden Bytheway, and Maggie Roberts, Sara Abdul (Graphic Design), Josephine Houle (Website)
Panel Chairs: Hayden Bytheway, Dalia Hatalova, Nikole McGregor, Rán Deng, Sophie Shields, Suntisuk Prabunya
Adjudicators: Avneet Sharma, Jixin Jia, Hayden Bytheway, Yanqui Lin, Zichuan Gan, Haiying Li, William Hunt, Julian Stuart
Signs of Exit/ Exit Signs Conference (March 14-16, 2025, University of Toronto)
We wish to acknowledge this land on which this conference operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
Signs of Exit/ Exit Signs Conference (March 14-16, 2025, University of Toronto) 