About 2004 Symposium
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NEXUS began in 2004 as a symposium. NEXUS 2004: Reconstructing Theory and Value brought together faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from the University of Tennessee and the region to hear and discuss the papers of invited panelists. In total, there were six panels and two plenary addresses spread over two days; the symposium's twenty-one speakers came from a variety of fields to consider the urgent question of critical theory following its supposed demise. The symposium panelists represented universities in the south, mid-west and northeast of the United States and included both emerging scholars and those well-established in their field; we also encouraged the voices of non-academics to be heard alongside traditional scholarship.
NEXUS 2004 considered the urgent rethinking of theory following postmodernism, and we were especially interested in how the arts, literature, philosophy, gender, and media and religious studies were being reformulated after September 11. NEXUS was widely publicized and reviewed in the local press, and it attracted a number of attendees from the Knoxville community. The symposium took place on April 1-2 and concluded with a performance at the Knoxville Museum of Art by Avant-Garde composer and founder of the Structuralist film movement, Tony Conrad.
NEXUS 2004 received financial support from:
The Hodges Better English Fund
The Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
The Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
The Visual Arts Committee
The Creative Writing Program