The Society for the Humanities' visiting and resident fellows for 2011-12 and leading figures in sound studies will present their work at a conference, "Sounding Cultures: From Performance to Politics," Oct. 14-15 at A.D. White House.

The conference, organized by Society Director Timothy Murray, will feature two plenary sessions, performances and artist presentations. Senior invited fellow Emily Thompson, professor of history at Princeton University, delivers the first plenary, "Sound and Fury: Projecting Change in the American Film Industry, 1926-1933," Oct. 14, 4:30 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, followed by a public reception at the A.D. White House.

The second plenary, Oct. 15, 2 p.m. in the A.D. White House, is an artist presentation, "African Metropole/Sonic City," by sound artists Keith and Mendi Obadike, who are active in the Afro-Futurism movement. It will be preceded by an interactive lunch presentation featuring art projects by ACLS New Faculty Fellow in Music Eliot Bates and Cornell visiting assistant professor of art Renate Ferro. A DJ performance by Art Jones and Erin Ferro-Murray will conclude the conference, which is free and open to the public.

Conference sessions include "Listening in Motion," chaired by Barry Maxwell, Cornell senior lecturer in comparative literature and American studies, Oct. 14 at 1:30 p.m.; and "Audition from the Middle East" at 3 p.m., chaired by Shawkat Toorawa, Cornell associate professor of Near Eastern studies. Sessions Oct. 15 include "African-American Performance," chaired by Society fellow Damien Keane of the University of Buffalo, at 9 a.m.; "Sonic Practice," chaired by Nick Salvato, Cornell assistant professor of theater, film and dance, at 11 a.m.; and "Soundscapes," chaired by Cornell assistant professor of English Jeremy Braddock at 3:30 p.m.

Conference guests include Jim Drobnick, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto; Art Jones, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Caitlin Marshall, University of California-Berkeley; Sarah Drury, Temple University; and Helen Thorington of New Radio and Performing Arts Inc., Boston.

Thompson will spend the coming week in residence at Cornell. The Society will host two more Senior Invited Fellows this academic year: Norie Neumark, director of the Centre for Creative Arts, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia, in April; and Brandon LaBelle of the National Academy of Arts, Bergen, Norway, in February.

The Society also hosts 14 international and Cornell scholars as fellows to spend the year in research on the common theme "Sound: Culture, Theory, Practice, Politics." Society fellows for 2011-12 include Cornell faculty members Duane Corpis, history; Ziad Fahmy, Near Eastern studies; Andrea Hammer, landscape architecture; Roger Moseley, music; Trevor Pinch, science and technology studies; and Mellon graduate fellows Sarah Ensor, English, and Nicholas Knouf, information science.

Besides Keane, the visiting Society fellows for 2011-12 are Marcus Boon, York University; Nina Sun Eidsheim, University of California-Los Angeles; Jeanette S. Jouili, University of Amsterdam; Eric Lott, University of Virginia; Jonathan Skinner, Bates College; and Jennifer Stoever-Ackerman, Binghamton University.

Thompson's Oct. 14 plenary and other conference events will stream live online at: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/sounding.html.