Description

OLLI at WVU and the WVU Committee of Retired Faculty will host Swimming in the Fabric: Time, Space, Narrative, Memory, and the Gravity of Experience, a virtual lecture by Dr. David Stewart, on Wednesday, May 7, at 2:30 p.m. This talk explores how time, space, narrative, and memory are not fundamental absolutes but emergent properties of the material universe. Drawing from metaphysical traditions, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and narrative theory, I propose a model of human experience as being like a fish swimming in the fabric of spacetime – immersed in, shaped by, and perceiving everything through this dynamic medium. Dr. David C. G. Stewart is an Associate Professor of English at West Virginia University, where he has taught since 1991. He earned a BA in British Literature from London Metropolitan University (1984), an MA in English Romanticism from the University of York (1985), and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford (1990), where he completed his dissertation on William Blake and Jacob Boehme. Prior to joining WVU, he served as a tutor in English literature at Oxford University. In addition to his long-standing faculty role, Dr. Stewart has held multiple senior administrative appointments at WVU, including Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Director of Residential Education (2000–2003), Dean of Students (2003–2009), Associate Vice President for Student Affairs (2006–2009), Associate Vice President for Global Strategies and International Affairs (2010–2018), and most recently, Associate Provost for International Relations (2020–2023). From 2018 to 2020, he served as President of the Royal University for Women in Riffa, Bahrain. His academic work bridges British Romantic literature and higher education, and he has published on William Blake, historicism, and the first-year student experience. He was a fellow in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar at Harvard University in 1993. He is a member of the Institute for International Education (IIE), the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), and NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Swimming in the Fabric: Time, Space, Narrative, Memory, and the Gravity of Experience Dr. David Stewart Wednesday, May 7, at 2:30 p.m. Zoom