2027 COM Academic & Creative Symposium

There are lines we draw, cross, wear, pursue, exact, make, and remake. There are lines we erase. We do these things whether they impact others or not. We might wish to do and be good—to walk the line, to hold it— but there tends to be a limit to our morality. We are in the end fallible, aren’t we? We are, in the end, merely human. Aren’t we? Consciousness is not solely in the realm of humanity, so who might the “we” be? What if we are no longer living a life where only the human reigns supreme? What happens if what we call life and to live is now no longer limited to us organisms who reproduce, mate, die, and kill?

There are lines we tell ourselves, lies, to hold on to life with our bare hands because we cannot bear it otherwise. These lies keep us tucked in neatly. Keep us tidy and in rows upon rows of straight backs, rigid or clasped hands, harmony in lock step with each other as we march on and on and on. Nothing changes here. One plus one is still only two. No more than two. Ever. Complacency as our safe space. We hold still. We breathe in; we breathe out. We exercise the right to stasis. To hold our breath a little longer.

No breathing underwater here. No gills here. We shift with the waves. They shift the lines. They undulate, these lines undulate, but they do not break. They are no longer lines but rather curves pressuring the air around them.

What about when one plus one does not equal two?

But oh, there are also lines that radiate; lines that save us. Mathematical, medical, magical lines that stretch from the observable and physical to the metaphysical and theoretical. We use these to manifest the once only imagined. To answer the unanswerable. To conjure myths stretching back through our shared historical humanity.

This year’s theme, “Analyzing Lines, Lives, and Lies” asks us to consider the line and its relationship with us. To consider what we do with the various lines that tether themselves loosely or too tightly to our lives.

Consequently, we want to ask you to consider what it might mean to “lie” and what makes a life a life worth preserving.

Here are a few questions that can help extend your thinking but feel free to develop your own:

What can the hard sciences, human and behavioral sciences, the humanities, the fine arts, and workforce tell us about how or why we use lines, what defines or gives value to lies, and what defines or gives value to life and lives?

This year’s theme is broad and lends itself to cross-disciplinary examination, which is the driving force of our academic symposium.