Thursday, May 16, Pre-Conference Workshops
10:00am-12:00pm: Affinity Group Workshop
12:00-1:30pm: Lunch on your own
1:30-3:00pm: GrooveSafe Bystander Training
3:15-4:45pm: Comic Improvisation Theater Workshop
5:00-6:30pm: PHEMA: An Introduction to the Phriendly Helping Emergency Mutual Aid Network
Friday, May 17
9:00-11:00am: Welcome to 2024 Phish Studies Conference
- Registration
- “Strut out of Stride”: A Guided Listening Session Through Three Eras of “Birds of a Feather” Jams– Jake Cohen, Julie Viscardi-Smalley, Rob Collier, RJ Wuagneux
11:00-11:15am: Opening Remarks
Stephanie Jenkins, Associate Professor, OSU School of History Philosophy and Religion
Larry Rodgers, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Alison Kleiman, Director, Mockingbird Foundation
11:15am-12:00pm: Keynote Speech
Benjy Eisen, “Gamehendge State of the Union Address”
12:00pm-1:30pm: Lunch on your own
1:30pm-3:00pm: Concurring Panels (90 MIN)
Session 1a: “This Isn’t Who It Would Be If It Wasn’t Who It Is” – Identities and Phish
- Adelina Cooper, “‘She Whispered Words and I Awoke’: Navigating Trans Fan Identities in the Phish Community”
- Chaone Mallory, “Gender(ed) Expression(s) and Gendered Experiences in the Jam Band Scene through Online Discourse Communities: Phish Chicks and Deadhead Women+United”
- Christina Allaback, “‘Have You Seen His Striped Stockings?’ Identity Construction and Performance Through Material Culture”
Session 1b: “Shiny Music That Descends from Overhead” – Musicology 1
- Julie Viscardi-Smalley, “‘Like a Ship That’s Run Aground’: Pedal Point and Drone in the Music of Phish”
- Blake Emidy, “What Does it Mean to be ‘Completely Free?’ Environmental Constraints as Musical Inspiration During a Phish Show”
- Rob Collier, “Imitating or Counterpointing: Listening to Phish through Mike Gordon’s Bass Lines”
3:15pm-4:45pm: Affinity Group Plenary Panel: The State of Equity in the Phish Scene
Sponsored by Phans for Racial Equity & OSU Office of Academic Affairs
Phans for Racial Equity; GrooveSafe; Mike Side Dyke Side and BrianRobert; Access Me; The Phellowship
5:00-5:30pm: John Michael DiResta, Nothing I See Can Be Taken From Me: A Staged Reading of a New Short Play
5:30pm-7:00pm: Museum and Art Exhibits Opening Reception
Museum Exhibit: “Our Intent Is All For Your Delight”
Sponsored by the Mockingbird Foundation and The Phishsonian Institute
Alex Grosby, Curator, The Phishsonian Institute
Art Exhibit: “On the Wind and Underwater”
Sponsored by Tacovore, OSU College of Liberal Arts, and the OSU School of History, Philosophy, and Religion
Kristin & Charles Harper, The Color of Our Dreams
Shelli McCaffrey, “What’s the Use?”
Brooke Nuckles, Together We Ascend: Prints and Interactive Sculpture
Michael Sell, Only Light and Dust: Portraits of Phish Fans 2016-2021
Lizzy Layne, Doing Things Smart People Don’t Do: A 15 Year Retrospective of Lot Lizardry
8:00pm-12:00am: Poetry Reading & Concert
Bombs Away Cafe
B. Elizabeth Beck, “Come Waste Your Time With Me,”
poetry reading from Dancing on the Page (Rabbit House Press)
The Walkaways Concert
Saturday, May 18
9:00am-10:30am: Concurring Panels (90 MIN)
Session 2a: “Too Busy to See Two Versions of Me” – Online/Offline World of Phish
Sponsored by OSU-Cascades Social Science Program
- Jason Jarvis, “Phan Tech: The Digital Media History of Phish”
- Devan Rosen, “‘Together We Ascend’: The Phish Community as the Pioneer Online-Offline Community”
- Denise Goldman, “‘Softly Sing Sweet Songs’: Phish Pedagogy and the Value of Exploring Multimodal Genres in Phish Fan Groups
Session 2b: “I’m Leaving You a Message” – Literary Analysis 1
Sponsored by OSU School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts
- John Michael DiResta, “‘It Will All Feel New’: Structural Evolutions in the Dramatic Arcs of Phish”
- Hunter Phillips, “Reading the Helping Friendly Book: Phish Performance as Literature”
- Kristine Warrenburg Rome, “Phish’s Everlasting Spoof: Suspense, Stage Antics, Gags, Humor & Wit”
10:45am-12:45pm: Concurring Panels (120 MIN)
Session 3a: “Now It’s Starting to Feel Good!” – Music, Health, and Creativity
- David Rosen, “The Role of Autobiographically-Salient Music in Psychedelic Experiences”
- Radha Lewis, “The Healing Power of Music in Community: Music Therapy Among Female Phish Fans with Cancer”
- Chris Prince, “‘Get Out of the Way’ Phree Writing to Improve Expression in Developing Writers”
- Leah Taylor, “Live Music as a Therapeutic Mind-Body-Spirit Practice”
Session 3b: “Everything’s Overlapping” – Cultural Studies
- Brendan Driscoll, “Crossing Freely Over: The ‘Swiphtie’ T-Shirt and Fan Identity in 2023”
- Robert Gardner & Dmitri Sofranko, “‘Will He Plunge in and Join Me Here?’ Sit-ins as Jam Capital”
- Jason Del Gandio, “Gamehendge Analysis: Revolutionary Vibe-Flow”
- Sho McClarence, “A Study in Thirdspace: My Introduction to Phish through a Study of Spaces”
12:45pm-2:00pm: Lunch on your own
2:00pm-2:15pm: Welcome to Exhibition Fair and Poster Session
Pete Mason, “A Creative Collective Community: 30+ years of Phish Fan Art”
2:15pm-4:15pm: Exhibition Fair & Poster Session
Sponsored by PhanArt
Poster Session
- B. Elizabeth Beck, “Call and Response: Ekphrasis and Phish”; Painted Daydreams: Collection of Ekphrastic Poems (Accents Publishing)
- Hugh Burrell, “Phishing with Zarathustra: Helpful, Friendly Tips For a Disenchanted World”
- Kristin Gray, “Gamehendge: What Phish Music Can Teach Employers about Handbooks”
- David Schwittek, “Playing with Words: Dead Poets Rise and the Gamification of Improvisational Strategies in Music and Lyrics”
- Hal Stern, “Extended Phish Jams as A Corporate Product Model”
4:30pm-6:30pm: Concurring Panels (120 MIN)
Session 4a: “Policeman Came to My House” – Phish and the Law
Sponsored by Farleigh Wada Witt
- Tony Kullen, “Who Gets Paid (or Gets to Say) When the Ocelot Can “Come Out to Play”: How Copyright, Fair Use, Anti-Trust Law, 2 Live Crew, and Michael Jackson’s Estate Each Have an Interest in one Phish Song”
- Daniel Dylan, “Rail Riders, Tarpers, and Chompers: A Legal Analysis of Claiming Space at Phish Shows”
- Christian Ehret, “The ‘Phixation’ Requirement: How the Music of Phish Alters the Value Proposition for Sound Recordings Under the Copyright Act”
- Matthew Maisel, “Wilson, I Lay This Warrant on You: A Prosecution Memorandum on Wilson’s Crimes in Gamehendge”
Session 4b: “Expanding Exponentially Like Some Recursive Virus” – Public and Personal Health
Sponsored by FTC Creative
- Andrew Garrett, “Plague, Pandemics, and Phish: the Public Health Curveballs Continue!”
- Amanda Cadran, “Creativity Unbound: A Study of the Perceived Effects of COVID’s First and Second Waves on Jamband Artists’ Productivity”
- Ryan Rashotte, “‘The Light is Growing Brighter Now’: Between Me and My Mind and the Promise of the Post-Recovery Narrative”
- Jim Vernon, “‘Ancient Secrets of Eternal Joy’: Phish, Reich, and the Transformative Power of Tension and Release”
6:30pm-7:30pm: The Phellowship meeting
8:00pm-12:00am: Left on Wilson Concert
Bombs Away Cafe
Sunday, May 19
9:00am-10:30am: Concurring Panels (90 MIN)
Session 5a: Academic Publishing Panel
Jnan Blau, Natalie Dollar, Stephanie Jenkins, Oren Kroll-Zeldin, Dana Reason, & Ariella Werden-Greenfield
Session 5b: First Tube Workshop
Sponsored by the Mockingbird Foundation
Rena Grosser & Ariela Robinson, “’First Tube’ as an Artistic Learning Tool for All Ages: An Interactive Workshop by educators on using Phish’s ‘First Tube’ as a precursor to making art, storytelling, and writing”
10:45am-12:15pm: Concurring Panels (90 MIN)
Session 6a: “Bought for the Price of a Flagon of Rice” – Business of Phish
Sponsored by Section 119
- Garrett Mitchell, “Twenty (Some) Years Later: A Historical, Cultural, and Nostalgic Look Back at Phish-Tickets-By-Mail with Thoughts Towards a Collaborative PTBM 2.0 project – LivePTBM”
- Matthew Lynch, “Collective Conscious Capitalism: Phish, The Waterwheel Foundation, and the Ethical Expiation of Hedonistic Expenditure”
- Ari Fink, “A Satellite, High Above The Atmosphere”: How we design Phish Radio on SiriusXM”
Session 6b: “Left in the Now With a Wondrous Glow” – Philosophy and Spirituality
- Noah Lehrman, “‘And the Helping Friendly Book Will Plant the Seed’: Crews, Jews, & Exegesis”
- Jay Boda, “The Stoicism of Phish: A Path to the Good Life”
- Ben Tertin, “By the Grace of Phish: How Phish Transcends Entertainment to Become a Healing Gift”
12:15pm-1:30pm: Lunch on your own
1:30pm-3:00pm: Concurring Panels (90 MIN)
Session 7a: “Read the Words That I Engrave” – Literary Analyses 2
- Leo Costello, “Phish and the Romantic Anti-Capitalist Weltanschauung”
- Anna Farzinder & Jason Jarvis, “Divided Sky: The Environmental Rhetoric of Phish”
- Ellis Godard, “Mondegreens, Meanings, and Means: Quantitative and Qualitative Patterns in Phish Lyrics”
Session 7b: “Meaningless Excitement and Smooth Atonal Sound” – Musicology 2
- R.J. Wuagneux, “‘Sharing in the Groove’: Phish, Affect, and Affordances of the Live Music Environment”
- Kev Hollo, “Jah Volunteers: How Reggae and Jamaican Music Informs and Influences the Music of Phish”
- Jake Cohen, “Cover Songs, Genre, and Cow Funk, or, Why Does Phish Play ‘Cities’ So Slowly?”
3:15pm-4:45pm: Plenary Panel (90 MIN)
“You Don’t Have to Count Them, Just Enjoy Them One by One” – Quantifying Phish
- Paul Jakus, “Bombers and Fluffers: Anomalous Rating Behavior and Show Rankings”
- Jason Zietz, “Who Does Phish Play For? Themselves? The Fans? A Little from Column A, A Little from Column B?”
- Matt Sottile, TBA
5:00pm-6:00pm: Mockingbird Foundation Plenary Panel (60 MIN)
6:00pm: Closing Remarks
8:00pm-12:00am: Special Purpose Concert
Bombs Away Cafe