Events Archive

Lucy Lippard is one of America's most influential art writers. Her recent books—Lure of the Local; Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, and On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art and Place—represent the expansion of her work into cultural studies, community, perceptions of nature, landscape and…

New technologies, economic structures, and cultural forms are enacting dramatic transformations in social relations around the globe. While these transformations affect every place in the world, they do not make every place the same. The particulars of place and history give global institutions and…

Professor Lister will reflect on our relationship with the Great Lakes Basin —the land-lake interface specifically —over the last century, and the last 25 years in particular. Through the lens of her own experience living and working on the northern edges of these lakes, she draws insights into the…

Alan Liu presents a wide-ranging exploration of how cultures historically and in the present first "encounter" new media, and tell themselves about such encounter moments. Alan Liu is the author of The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information (2004) and the weaver of Voice of the…

We, as a species, have now populated the world and control its resources.  In the past our success has been in how we manage existing resources through agriculture, irrigation, mining and government.  Today our solutions lie in the creation of new resources, the opening of new livable environments…

New studies show the power of imagination and suggestion to make people believe that they have had experiences that they didn't have. People have been led to remember non-existent events from the recent past as well as non-existent events from their childhood. They can be led to falsely believe…

Across the globe conflicts have arisen over the cultural heritage–both tangible and intangible–underwriting claims to historical and current ethnic presence on the landscape. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe the world is awash in an alphabet soup of often violently contested heritage sites and…

Many countries in Latin America are holding presidential elections this year. On the aftermath of the recent election in Mexico, Professor Adler Lomnitz offers a rich interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary political culture in Mexico, focusing on the structure, beliefs and practices of…

In the late 1960s, Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest substituted a Chicano self-conception for a White one. Viewing that dramatic shift through the window of two criminal trials arising in the heavily Mexican American area of East Los Angeles, Ian Haney Lopez argues that police and…

"People's need for energy is not fate but choice. Rather than seeking to prophesy about energy, as an oracle might do, one should explore how widely and wisely we may choose our energy future." Onassis Prize for Man and Environment Acceptance speech, 1989   In conjunction with: Agricultural…

The Lunsi of Dagbon comprise a guild of specialists whose obligation is to preserve historical and genealogical information reckoned according to the succession of chiefs and royal families. The Lunsi recount their history by signing and drumming proverbs which allude to the Dagbamba royalty and…

A lecture/demonstration presented by Peggy Lyman, former principal dancer, Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham recontructionist and master teacher. The program will include a rehearsal showing of Martha Graham's 1935 masterwork, Panorama, performed by the Illinois Dance Theatre. The program is…

In the early part of the 20th century, the "great melting pot" was a comfortable and inviting image of white America's future. In the second half of the century, racial and ethnic minorities have sought to maintain their cultural identities. What is the current role and consequence of cultural…

Dr. Luis Macas has long been at the forefront of the struggle for political rights for indigenous peoples in Ecuador as a founder and then president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). He is now reaching beyond borders to make intercontinental alliances in the…

A leading historian of ancient Roman architecture discusses the Pantheon and Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. These two extraordinary works are the culminating creations of a revolution in the design and technology of Roman imperial architecture. The Pantheon and the Tivoli Villa represent both the…

Mozambique occupies a frontline position in the southern African struggle against apartheid. Graça Machel has played a prominent role in this struggle. After receiving an advanced degree in Lisbon in the early 1970s, she became a leading member of FRELIMO, the movement struggling for Mozambican…

Philosophy Annual Public Lecture Cosponsored by: Department of English, Department of Philosophy, Humanities Council/LAS, Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Program for the Study of Cultural Values and Ethics, Program for the Study of Religion, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory,…

Using the history of Pan Africanism as his prism, Dr. Megubane will link developments within the African American community and within both the African community in South Africa and in Africa in general. Specifically he examines the closed identification with each other's political aspirations that…

The expansion of gender studies in Africa reflects the growing realization that the struggle for gender justice is central to the social and political transformation of the continent. Yet, the institutionalization of strong programs in gender studies in African universities is currently hampered by…

By focusing on political violence and political identity in an era in which violence has often been considered a progressive force—a midwife of progress—how then do we understand the violence that does not fit this paradigm, the Rwandan Genocide, an event that brings to mind the Holocaust in…

Acclaimed scholar Michael Mann will examine the evidence of climate change, the reasons we should care, and the absurd efforts by special interest groups and politicians to confuse the public and deny a problem even exists. Despite the monumental challenges we face, Mann’s talk will give reasons to…

In conjunction with: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; International Programs and Studies; Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Committee for European Studies; Program for Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS); The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller…

Little Golden Books were a radical innovation in children's publishing when they first appeared in 1942. Their economically published and priced package faced strong resistance from librarians and reviewers for their overtly commercial appeal. At the same time, their wide availability and 25-cent…

What is life? From bacteria to biosphere, the evolution of life took a convoluted course. Science illuminates this path. We live. We—people, birds, flowering plants, even algae glowing in the ocean at night—differ from rocks, steel, inanimate matter. We are alive. But what does it mean to live, to…

In conjunction with this MillerComm event, the Unit for Cinema Studies will show a number of films by Ingmar Bergman.  Cosponsored by: College of Fine and Applied Arts, School of Music, Department of English, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Department of…