'Birds of a Feather' is Feb. 26 colloquium at UNL

Three scholars will explore questions of literary and eco-criticism in an upcoming colloquium, "Birds of a Feather (Or, A Fowl Undertaking?)" at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The event will be at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 26 in Bailey Library, 228 Andrews Hall, 14th and T streets [map]. A question-and-answer session will follow the event.

As literary scholar Jeffrey Karnicky argues in a recent essay on "Avian Consciousness," our species' understanding of the bird may "lead toward a radically altered relationship to nature and the universe." The event's speakers are:

* Jeffrey Karnicky, assistant professor of English at Drake University. Karnicky will present from his work-in-progress, "Scarlet Experiment: Human-Bird Interactions in America," which examines a wide swath from Audubon, Thoreau and Dickinson to Roger Tory Peterson and Ken Kaufmann. His talk will explore the limits of a system of ethical thought that seeks to engage birds as cognitive beings. Karnicky's previous articles include "Avian Consciousness in Don DeLillo's The Body Artist," "What Is the Red Knot Worth?: Valuing Human/Avian Interaction" and "Birding with Nietzsche."

* Thomas Gannon, associate professor of English and ethnic studies at UNL. Gannon will read from his recently published book, "Skylark Meets Meadowlark: Reimagining the Bird in British Romantic and Contemporary Native American Literature," in which he perceives a recent egalitarian, even familial, re-connection with other species that transcends the human poetic projections of centuries, as evidenced in the work of recent Native American poets. In this study, Gannon offers what he calls zoocriticism and ornithicriticism as critical lenses and tools for the analysis of and encounter with other-than-human species on their own terms.

* Andrea Comiskey Lawse, third-year doctoral candidate in English at UNL. Lawse brings an interest in dietary theory and criticisms of taste to the table, exploring, for instance, whether the discourse of a Western "Culture of Taste" has helped establish an informal ornithological taxonomy of songbird versus fowl, of noble bird of prey versus despised carrion-eater. She will further ponder what it means that birds are at once our favorite symbol of spiritual elevation and one of our favorite means of satisfying a very material human appetite.