Thalia Field, professor of Literary Arts and faculty director of the Brown Arts Initiative, will give presentations on 21 May (2 pm EDT) and on 27 May at (7 pm EDT) from her just-published book, Personhood.  Whether investigating refugee parrots, indentured elephants, the pathetic fallacy, or the revolving absurdity of the human role in the “invasive species crisis,” Personhood reveals how the unmistakable problem between humans and our nonhuman relatives is too often the derangement of our narratives and the resulting lack of situational awareness. Building on her previous collection, Bird Lovers, Backyard, Thalia Field’s essayistic investigations invite us on a humorous, heartbroken journey into how people attempt to control the fragile complexities of a shared planet. The lived experiences of animals, and other historical actors, provide unique literary-ecological responses to the exigencies of injustice and to our delusions of special status.

Her presentation on 27 May will include a conversation with fiction writer and Literary Arts faculty member, Karan Mahajan.