Monday, September 20, 2004
Bill Bywater, Professor of Philosophy
“Goethe: A Science Which Does Not Eat the Other”
The methodology that Goethe called "delicate empiricism" can be used as a standpoint from which to throw into relief certain aspects of Western science that have become central to Western culture as a whole, e.g., reductionism, mechanism, objectivity and a particular view of human nature. "Intuitive perception," a human capacity central to Goethe's method, can be an epistemological resource, which will enable us to escape entrapment by the powerful social tendencies that Western culture had adopted from its science.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Jonathan Graber, Assistant Professor of Music,
and Alec Chien, Professor of Music
“Violinist Ole Bull: The Pennsylvania Connection”
Ole Bull (1810-80) was one of the foremost violinists of the modern era. He was particularly celebrated for his charisma and his improvisational abilities. Today he is perhaps best remembered as a mentor to that most Norwegian and most heralded of composers from Norway, Edvard Grieg.
Following a hugely successful tour of this country, Bull set in motion a plan to form a utopian colony in North Central Pennsylvania. He established a settlement, “Oleana/New Norway,” in 1852. The dream of these hardy Scandinavians to maintain the settlement went unrealized due to poor planning, a harsh natural climate, and the opportunism of land dealers. Following the demise of the colony, Bull continued to tour widely, and he maintained homes both in the U.S. and in Norway. At Bull’s funeral, Grieg both played and spoke about his famous countryman.
Professors Graber and Chien will explore two sides of this remarkable man: first, his talent as a composer and an improviser; and second, his talent as an interpreter of noted composers' concert music, in particular Grieg.
Ford Chapel, 7 p.m.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Daniel Shea, Associate Professor of Political Science
"Big Money, Swift Boats, and 527s: Lessons Learned from the 2004 Election"
Professor Shea will attempt to make sense of the 2004 election--with a particular focus on campaign finance, strategy, media coverage, party nuances, voter behavior, and candidate strengths/weaknesses.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Monday, December 6, 2004
Ishita Sinha Roy, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts
“Worlds Apart: Nation-Branding on the National Geographic Channel”
Nation-branding on the National Geographic Channel symbolically reinforces the idea of a natural hierarchy of nations within globalization. Professor Sinha Roy examines how the reality series “Worlds Apart” operates as a diplomatic front for cultural imperialism. The tourist ethnographies of American families visually fetishize third world lack as proof of the superiority of the American “race.” The show suggests America move away from insular nationalism even as it advocates the primacy of home/homeland. The technologies of this first world gaze produce what Professor Sinha Roy terms “specular geographies,” or the neocolonial visual mapping of nations into McWorld vs. Jihad.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Judson Herrman, Assistant Professor of Classics and History
“Piecing Together an Ancient Papyrus of an Athenian Funeral Oration”
Professor Herrman will discuss his work editing a manuscript from the 2nd century AD. The manuscript contains the only surviving copy of a speech delivered by the orator Hyperides to the people of Athens in 322 BC, at the very end of the classical era. The speech was famous in antiquity, but lost until the rediscovery of this manuscript in 1848. This finding has drastically changed our understanding of the formal genre of state funeral orations in Athens. Professor Herrman will consider the importance of the speech, and will focus on the archaeological work involved in reading an ancient manuscript.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Eric Pallant, Professor of Environmental Science
”The Real Threat to the Middle East: Israel’s Environmental Catastrophe”
Israel is trading military security for environmental insecurity. In the four years since the start of the Al Aqsa intifada in 2000—when suicide bombers attacked throughout Israel and Israel’s Defense Forces responded with helicopter gunships, bulldozers, infantry, snipers, and a 400-mile separation wall—more than one thousand Israelis have died. More than triple that number were killed by air pollution in just two of Israel’s cities: Tel Aviv and Ashdod. While Israelis and the globe’s television cameras have focused on the armed threat from beyond Israel’s borders, the quantity of water inside Israel has dropped below the critical red line, the point of irreversible ecological damage to the Sea of Galilee. Every major river and a growing quantity of groundwater in Israel are polluted. Eighty-four percent of drinking water reservoirs in the Tel Aviv region (home to more than two million people) are unfit for human consumption. The Dead Sea is dying. Open space in central Israel has diminished to the point that Israel is more densely inhabited than every country in Europe.
Professor Eric Pallant will read from his work-in-progress, The Red Line. The Red Line explains how Israel has arrived at this moment in history when its preoccupation with surviving as a nation, a country that has been at war for more than fifty years, is creating an environmental hazard so great that if future generations survive in the Middle East, they will do so upon a terribly degraded landscape.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Mark LaPointe, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts
“Spreading the Word: Television and Social Identity
After church each Sunday, a small group of lesbians in Jackson, Mississippi gather to break bread and share in the glow of the small screen's latest lesbian (mis)adventure, Showtime's "The L-Word." Professor LaPointe will present an ethnographic look at these women and the negotiations they make individually and as a group to embrace the latest of TV's queered fare that some have called "marginally gay." Identity, sexuality, relationships and community emerge as central themes for the group, who both celebrate and deride their favorite show and the role of television in their lives.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Elaine Parsons, Visiting Assistant Professor of History“The Costuming and Performance of the Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan”
Far from sticking to white bedsheets, reconstruction-era Klansmen appropriated a colorful and grotesque array of costumes from contemporary popular cultural institutions like Mardi Gras, masquerades, minstrel shows, and the circus. Indeed, early witnesses to Klansmen frequently mistook them for traveling entertainers. Sometimes, even during their most vicious attacks, they appropriated other aspects of contemporary performance as well, playing musical instruments, juggling, breathing fire, imitating various foreign accents, or performing brief comic sketches. Popular culture, in turn, almost simultaneously absorbed the figure of the Klansman, including Klan floats in carnival parades, featuring Kukluxian sword swallowers in circuses, and publishing Klan-themed minstrel songs and sketches. The Klan’s success at appropriating popular culture tropes, and at using popular cultural institutions as a vector to spread their movement, was crucial to its rapid proliferation and broad-based support.
Campus Center, Room 303, 7 p.m.
The Humanities Lecture Series is coordinated by Mark Cosdon, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Theatre. If you’d like to participate during the 2005/2006 academic year, please submit a proposal.
Each lecture in the Humanities Lecture Series is free and open to the public.
