Spring 2007
The calendar is updated frequently. Please check back regularly for additional information.
Humanities Epistemology Series:
“What Are the Humanities Good For?”
Six distinguished faculty from the Division of the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences at ASU discuss their views on what humanities knowledge consists of and what it can contribute to understanding the human condition and to addressing compelling social issues.
Dates: Tuesday, January 23, noon; Monday, February 12, noon ; Wednesday, March 7, noon
See program details below. Sessions will be held in SS 109. A light lunch will be served. Seating is limited. Please RSVP as soon as possible to reserve your place: carol.withers@asu.edu or 965-3000.
Place of Refuge: Humanities Perspectives on the Refugee Experience in Arizona
This series of three public events is co-sponsored by the ASU IHR Fellows Refuge and Rejection project, the Arizona Humanities Council, and the ASU Campus Environment Team.
Dates: February 15, March 21, April 16; 6:30-8:30 - See details and locations below. Link to web page.
January
Wednesday, January 10
Luncheon meeting with staff/academic associates from humanities departments
Wednesday, January 10
Deadline: IHR Visiting Fellows Applications
Tuesday, January 23; noon; RSVP required.
"What Are the Humanities Good For?"
“Fits and Misfits: Disciplinary Locations in the Humanities”
Linell Cady, (Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Religious Studies)
Margaret Walker, (Lincoln Professor of Ethics, Philosophy)
Professors Cady and Walker will consider methods and disciplinary boundaries in the humanities as well as fitting or misfitting as humanists in the university as a whole.
Friday, January 26;
Lionel Jensen, University of Notre Dame will present two lectures:
"The Peril and Promise of Exceptionalism: Thoughts on China, the United States and Our Planetary Commonweal"
9:40-11:00; SS 109; organized by the IHR Research Cluster: Exploring Common Ground Between China and the U.S. for the 21st Century and co-sponsored by the Center for Asian Research
"The Nature of Writing and the Cult of the Text: Language, Loss, and Redemption in Imperial China"
4:00-6:00, Coor 5536; organized as part of the CAR spring research symposium with support from the IHR.
February
Monday, February 12; noon; RSVP required.
"What Are the Humanities Good For?"
“Knowledge and Belief in Religion and Science”
Norbert Samuelson (Religious Studies)
Professor Samuelson will introduce and discuss the meaning and historical context of four brief and well-known philosophical texts in order to explore through them how the disciplines of philosophy, science, and religion change and interact in the perpetual human pursuit of knowledge of absolutely everything. The texts are ancient (Plato's Timaeus), medieval (Abraham Ibn Daud's Exalted Faith), and modern (Descartes' Meditations and Newton's Principia). (Excerpts will be sent to all registered participants.) The discussion itself should illustrate at least one way to answer the question, "What are the Humanities good for?"
"Philosophy and Normative Judgments”
Brad Armendt (Philosophy)
Principles and judgments concerning what ought to be so permeate human activity and experience. Moral judgments are perhaps the most obvious example, but there are normative elements to belief and inference, to conventions, to language and meaning, to activity with aesthetic significance. Philosophy and the humanities help us locate, understand, and evaluate norms and normative judgments.
Monday, February 12
Deadline: ASU Fellows Applications
Tuesday, February 13; 9:30 AM: Center for Asian Research, Coor, 6th floor
Monthly session of the research cluster "Exploring Common Ground Between China and the U.S. for the 21st Century."
Thursday, February 15; 6:30-8:30 PM;ASU Tempe Campus, Coor 174
Place of Refuge: Humanities Perspectives on the Refugee Experience in Arizona event series
The Refuge of Art
Summary: Visual and performing artists discuss how their experiences as refugees or working with refugees has shaped and directed their art.
Panelists:
Adil Rahee, ceramics artist, will discuss his artwork and path to citizenship as
well as his experience as a refugee from Iraq.
Pegge Vissicaro, ASU Professor of Dance, will present the importance of dance
in overcoming trauma, reconstructing identity, and re-creating a sense of community.
Naomi Jackson, ASU Professor of Dance, will examine the intersection of
dance and her work with refugees as a powerful form of expression that transcends language.
Wednesday, February 21
IHR Research Cluster: The African Diaspora
"The African Diaspora: A Global Process"
Wednesday, February 21, 7:00 PM; Coor L1-74
Michael Gomez, New YorkUniversity
Co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the African and African-American Studies Program, and the Department of History
Thursday, February 22; MU Pima Room (218); 10:00 AM
"African-American Literature and the Development of Human Rights"
Lecture by Timothy McCarthy, Harvard University
Respondent: Angelita Reyes, ASU African and African American Studies Program
Sponsored by the African and African-American Studies Program, the Department of English, and the Institute for Humanities Research
Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24
Conference organized by the IHR Seed Grant project, Religious Encounters at the Intersection of Colonialism and Modernity
"Religious Encounters at the Intersection of Colonialism and Modernity, 1500 to Present"
March
Monday, March 5
Deadline: IHR Visiting Fellows Applications
Wednesday, March 7; noon; RSVP required.
"What Are the Humanities Good For?"
“Literature and Life: Searching for Knowledge and Truth, Realizing Human Potential”
Neal Lester (English)
Professor Lester will consider the extent to which narrative and storytelling construct and document knowledge and truth. Such constructions form the basis for our self-fashioning in the world and for our interactions with others in the world. Trained as a literary scholar, I will offer questions that lead others who are literary scholars toward making meaning in the world and of the world.
“What is Past is Prologue: Perspective, Efficacy and Historical Inquiry”
Matthew Whitaker (History)
Professor Whitaker will examine various ways in which historical inquiry can inspire us all to learn from the past to help build a better future. We are all impacted by how we view and understand our past, and the ways in which we view our history has serious ramifications in terms of human relations, public policy, and our quality of life. As a professional historian, Whitaker will consider how historical arguments are formed, and the potential these arguments hold for intellectual and interpersonal regression, stagnation and growth.
Wednesday, March 21; 3:30-5:00; SS 109
IHR Cultures of Urban Space Research Cluster presents:
A lecture by Vanessa R. Schwartz, Professor of History, University of Southern California
Wednesday, March 21; 6:30-8:30 PM; Tempe Historical Museum; 809 East Southern Avenue, Tempe
Place of Refuge: Humanities Perspectives on the Refugee Experience in Arizona event series
Images & Recollections: Narratives of Internment
Summary: Panelists, drawing on literary accounts, oral histories, and photographs, will discuss displaced populations in Europe and America during the Depression and World War II.
Panelists:
Betsy Fahlman, ASU Professor of Art History, will examine and discuss
photographic images of Japanese Americans living in internment camps in Arizona during World War II.
Anna Holian, ASU Professor of History, will speak on the displacement
of populations in Europe after World War II, especially concentration camp survivors and refugees from Eastern Europe.
Karen Leong, ASU Director of Asian Pacific American Studies, will
present the JAAZ project’s collaboration with ASU Design students who visually reinterpreted the oral histories of interned Japanese Americans.
Tuesday, March 27; noon-1:30; SS 109
Monthly session of the research cluster "Exploring Common Ground Between China and the U.S. for the 21st Century." Richard Baum, 2007 Robert C. Staley Distinguished Visiting Professor in East Asian Studies and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, with meet with the IHR research cluster “Exploring Common Ground Between China and the U.S. for the 21st Century” (http://www.asu.edu/clas/ihr/faculty/research/) to discuss “Exploring Common Ground between the US and China: A Political Scientist’s Perspective”.
Note: Dr. Baum will also give a lecture, sponsored by the Center for Asian Research (http://www.asu.edu/asian/) on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. in the South Room of the University Club. Please contact CAR for additional details.
Thursday, March 29; Coor 170; 7:30 PM
IHR Annual Lecture
Marjorie Garber
Seating is limited. Please RSVP to reserve your place: ihr@asu.edu, carol.withers@asu.edu, or 965-3000.
Saturday, March 31; Phoenix Art Museum
ASU Fellows Symposium: Trading Values: Money, Morality, and Culture in Early Modern Europe
April
Friday, April 6; 3:15-4:30; SS 109
"The effect of dialect awareness on adolescents' language knowledge and attitudes"
Jeffrey Reaser, North Carolina University
Organized by the IHR Speaking Arizona Research Cluster
Tuesday, April 10; noon; Piper Center
Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration
Meet the Author: Award-winning LA Times Journalist Sam Quinones
Hosted by the IHR Migration Narratives Research Cluster
Please RSVP to delagara@asu.edu or 965-3360.
Monday, April 16; 6:30-8:30 PM; Burton Barr Central Library, 1221 North Central Avenue, Phoenix 85004
Place of Refuge: Humanities Perspectives on the Refugee Experience in Arizona event series
Summary: Authors will read selections from their books about war, violence and displacement. Scholar will discuss refugee issues from a contemporary and local perspective.
Panelists:
T. M. McNally, ASU English Professor, will read from The Goat Bridge
and discuss writing this novel set in the Balkans during the outbreak of civil wars.
Donna Gehrke-White, Miami Herald reporter, will read from and discuss Face
Behind the Veil: Extraordinary Lives of Muslim Women in America.
Stephen Batalden, ASU Director of Russian and Eastern European Studies, Professor of History, and Interim Chair of the History Department, will
explore fundamental issues of continuity and change reflected in the lives of arriving Arizona refugees.
Thursday, April 19; 1:30-3:30; MU LaPaz
Research Workshop: ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) Fellowships and Grants workshop.
Saul Fisher, Director of Fellowship Programs for ACLS, will provide an overview of ACLS funding opportunities and discuss ways to develop successful proposals to support research.
To help us plan for this event, please send an e-mail to ihr@asu.edu (or carol.withers@asu.edu) if you plan to attend. Thank you.
A limited number of individual consultations will be scheduled by appointment only for faculty who are developing proposals for submission for an ACLS grant or fellowship. Contact Carol Withers (carol.withers@asu.edu or 965-3000) for an appointment.
Tuesday, April 24; 11:00 AM; Center for Asian Research, Coor 6th Floor
Monthly meeting of "Common Ground Between US and China" Research Cluster.
On-going IHR Events:
ASU Fellows – weekly Friday seminars; please contact IHR or ASU Fellows for topics
Research Clusters – see Research Groups for topics and additional information.
Archives of Previous Semesters