To view video recordings of conference presentations, please follow links to individual panels in the program below or visit the conference media playlist.

Phish Studies Program

Friday, May 17

9:00am-12:00pm Registration
10:00am-11:30am “Can We Live While We’re Young?!” A Guided Listening Session through Chalk Dust Torture
Jacob A. Cohen, Steven Reale, and Julie Viscardi-Smalley
12:00pm-12:30pm Welcome & Opening Remarks
Stephanie Jenkins
Nicole von Germeten
12:30pm-1:15pm Keynote Address
Jnan Blau, “We Are Aphicionados, We Are Vernacular Theorists!: A Critical Reconsideration and Anti-Hegemonic Recasting of Phish, Phandom and Fan Praxis”
1:30pm-3:00pm Panel Session
Shiny Music that Descends from Overhead: The Significance of Improvisation
Moderator: Dana Reason
Steven Reale, “Breathing Deep in a Steam Dream: Structural Fog and the Persistence of Groove in a Split Open and Melt Jam”
Daniel Knorr, “Motive Constructs in the Music of Phish: Redefining What it Means to ‘Jam’”
David Rosen, “The Neuroscience of the Jam: A Research Paradigm to Study Brain Interactivity Underlying Improvisation in Phish”
Julie Viscardi-Smalley, “Up the Mountain: The Compositional Use of the Arpeggiated Augmented Triad in Anastasio’s ‘Colonel Forbin’s Ascent’ as Performed by Phish”
3:15pm-4:45pm Panel Session
Perception is Spoonfed: Phish, Art, and Experience
Moderator: Sharyn Clough
Michael Sell, “Photo Gods and Rock ‘n’ Roll Monsters: Portraits of Phish Fans”
Kristine Warrenburg Rome, “Unpredictable Phamiliarity: Atopy Performance Art and the Fourth Persona”
Joseph Dresch, “Kasvot from the Couch: Medium, Perception, and Experience: 10.31.18”
Jason Maas, “Phish: The Good Breast: An Examination of the Phish phenomenon and the Extensive Dedication of their Fans with an Object Relations and Attachment Theory Approach”
5:00pm-6:30pm Panel Session
We’re All in this Together: Race and Racism in the Phish Community
Moderator: Jane Waite
Kate Aly-Brady, Daniel J. Budiansky, Adam Lioz, and Rupa Mitra,“White Phragility: Race-Talk and Backlash in the Phish Scene”
Joong Won Kim, Nathaniel G. Chapman, & David L. Brunsma, “‘Is This Your First Show?’: White Racism and Subcultural Capital in the Phish Community”
Paul Livingston and Laura J. Livingston, “This is Your Song Too: Race and Exclusivity in the Phish Community”
Jim Vernon, “’Control for Smilers Can’t be Bought’: Phish’s White Rebellion Against White Rebellion”
6:30pm Below the Moss Forgotten: Phish in the Pacific Northwest
Opening Reception (catered)
Curator: Alexander Grosby
Exhibitor: Pete Mason
10:00pm Left on Wilson Concert
DeMaggio’s New York Pizza
151 NW Monroe Ave #102
Corvallis, OR 97330

Saturday, May 18

9:00am-10:30am Panel Session
Setlists, Ratings, and Archives: Do You Have to Count Them?
Moderator: Ellis Godard
Paul Jakus, “Come Waste Your Time: Do Phish.net Show Ratings Correlate with Setlist Elements?”
Matthew Sottile, “A Graph-Theoretic Approach to Setlist Structure Analysis”
Hannah Mieczkowski, “The Language of 3.0: Analyzing Show Reviews on Phish.net”
Wyatt Young, “Reconvene, Reconnect: How Phish Fans Collect Identity and Build Archives”
10:45am-12:15pm Poster Session and Exhibition Fair
View Poster Presentations
Exhibition Fair Participants
12:15pm-1:15pm Lunch (catered)
1:15pm-2:15pm Panel Session
Alumni Blues: Student Scholars
Moderator: Andrew Jones
Michael Coiro, “The ‘Fukuoka Twist’: Traversing Ambience and Intimacy through Setting”
Lynnea Fredrickson, “’You Enjoy Myself’”: A Look at Interpersonal Relationships and Cultural Personhood in the Phish Community”
Nick Kaatz, “Phish’s Rate of Growth”
Michael Moran-Kay, “What is IT?”
2:30pm-4:00pm Panel Session
Companions on this Ride: Phish Fan Community and Culture
Moderator: Marta Kunecka
Christina Allaback, “Phish Fans as Post-Subcultures: Losing The Meaning of Style”
Denise Goldman, “Phamily Ethos: An Exploratory Analysis of Communication and Community Building on Social Media Site ‘Phish Chicks’”
Natalie Dollar, Nicholaus Dahl, Alexa Tawzer, and Nathan Goldberg, “Communication Improvisation as Dialogue: A Framework for Understanding Phans and Deadheads”
Robert Gardner, “Birds of a Feather: Concerted Concerting in the Phish Show Experience”
4:15pm-5:45pm Panel Session
We Come from the Land of Gamehendge: Community, Identity, & Utopia
Moderator: Allen Thompson
Robert Wuagneux, “‘We’re All in this Together’: Liveness, Community, and Identity in Phish’s Virtual Domain”
Elizabeth Yeager, “‘I Strive to Convey What You Strive to Condone’: Phish Scene Identity and Understanding America.”
Garrett Troy, “Utopian Imaginings in the Music of Phish”
Benjy Eisen, “The Words I Sailed Upon: Form and Function in Phish’s Lyrical Heritage”
6:00pm-7:00pm Fly Famous Mockingbirds: Phish.net Community Panel
Moderator: Natalie Dollar
“We’re All in This Together” Q&A Session
Ellis Godard
Brian Feller
Charlie Dirksen
Scott Marks
David “ZZYZX” Steinberg
7:00pm-9:00pm We’ve Got It Simple sneak peek (catered)
Q&A with Michael Ryan Lawrence (Director)
Moderator: Benjy Eisen

Sunday, May 19

9:00am-10:15am Panel Session
Healing the Symptoms: Recovery and Access
ASL interpretation will be provided for this session. To request accommodation for disability, please review the conference accessibility information page.
Moderator: Chandra Char
John Boatner, “Addressing Addiction within the Phish Community Through the Phellowship”
Joel Gershon, “‘Inside This Silent Scene, All Are Free’: An Assessment of Accessibility Issues Facing Deaf/Hard of Hearing (HoH) Fans at Phish Concerts”
Margaret Cooper, “Whatever It Takes: A Physical Therapy Approach to Phish”
10:30am-12:00pm Panel Session
Buckets Full of Thoughts: Philosophical Approaches to Phish
Moderator: Geoff Barstow
Alex Gillham, “Toward a Virtue Ethics of Phish”
Stephanie Jenkins, “Read The Book: Performing Public Philosophy”
Ben Bunting, “‘How Can I Answer Questions I’ve Known’: Representations of Nature in Phish’s Lyrics”
Jason Del Gandio, “Pulsating with Love and Light’: A Case Study on Phish and the Vibe”
12:00pm-1:30pm Lunch (on your own)
1:45pm-3:00pm Panel Session
Just Relax, You’re Doing Fine: The Health Risks and Benefits of Phish
Moderator: Elizabeth Schuyler
Andrew Garrett, “Curveball 2018: Reviewing the Potential Public Health Risks of Large-Scale Music Festivals”
Isaac Slone, “Phish as a Therapeutic Force”
Christina Chiarelli-Helminiak, “Phish(ing) as a Form of Self-Care”
3:15pm-4:45pm Panel Session
People of the (Helping Friendly) Book: Jews, Judaism, and Phish
Moderator: Flora Leibowitz
Oren Kroll-Zeldin, “‘We’re All Here Together in this Spirit Family’: Phish and the Cultivation of Jewish Cultural Identity in the Twenty-First Century”
Rabbi Josh S. Ladon, “Does God Ever Listen to What I Say?: The Role of Phish in Jewish Clergy Spiritual Development”
Jacob A. Cohen, “‘I Tell Myself I’m Part of a Tribe’: Performing Jewish Identity and Community through Phish’s ‘Avenu Malkenu’”
Rabbi Jessy Dressin, “‘Where the People Come to Pray’: Sacred Pilgrimage, Holy Ritual and Communal Rejoicing from Jerusalem to YEMSG”
5:00pm-7:00pm Community Panel Session & Book Signing
“Writing about Music is Dancing to Architecture: Q&A with Benjy Eisen”
Moderator: Stephanie Jenkins
7:00pm Closing