Eugenio Donato Seminar
Named in honor of Eugenio Donato and sponsored by the Eugenio Donato Chair in Comparative Literature, Professor Rodolphe Gasché, the Donato Seminar annually invites nationally and international renowned literary scholars and philosophers to the Department of Comparative Literature for a three-day seminar devoted to new research. The Seminar affords invitees the opportunity to develop and present the core elements of books in progress to an audience of faculty and graduate students.
Eugenio Donato (1937-1983) taught at the University at Buffalo from 1968 to 1976, where he also directed the Program in Comparative Literature. Under his guidance, the Program moved out of the Department of English to become an independent Ph.D. Program in 1976. His hires of Professors Rodolphe Gasché, Carol Jacobs, and Henry Sussman were instrumental in shaping the future of Comparative Literature as one of the leading Departments for the theoretical and philosophical study of literature and culture in the United States.
The Donato seminar honors this legacy. Participants include the following:
2024 keynote speaker, Chirstopher Fynsk
2023 Jayne Svenungsson (Lund University, Sweden)
2019 Kristi Sweet (Texas A&M University)
2018 Aicha Liviana Messina (U. Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile)
2017 Marcia Sa Cavalcante Schuback (Södertörn University, Sweden)
2015 Angelica Nuzzo (Graduate Center & Brooklyn College)
2014 Susanna Lindberg (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
2013 Jennifer Mensch (Western Sydney University, Australia)
2012 Maria del Rosario Acosta (DePaul University, Chicago)
2011 James Risser (Seattle University)
2010 Juan Manuel Garrido (Universidad Alberto Hurtados, Santiago, Chile)
2008 Charles Freeland (Thammasat University, Bangkog, Thailand)
2006 Peg Birmingham (De Paul University, Chicago)
2005 Leonard Lawlor (Penn State University)