Carleton’s three-year-old virtual Humanities Center is about to get physical. Since the start of the 2011-2012 school year, the innovative center that was designed to foster the college’s intellectual and cultural life now has a tangible office in the Weitz Center for Creativity. 

Susana di Palma, internationally acclaimed flamenco dancer and choreographer, will perform at Carleton College on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. Earlier that day, di Palma will also lead a flamenco workshop in the College’s Cowling Dance Studio at 5 p.m. Unparalleled as a dancer and choreographer, her performances have been described as “ferocious, enigmatic, and poignant” (The Seattle Times). Di Palma has captured the attention of audiences and critics around the world, combining traditional Spanish flamenco with innovative choreography and theatrics to create performances “with a sense of humor and a clear idea of theater” (The Villager, New York). In addition to being an accomplished flamenco soloist, di Palma’s theatrical contributions to the dance form have earned her recognition for producing socially relevant works that reflect upon contemporary issues. The performance and the workshop are both free and open to the public. 

In the wake of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in history, Haitians are still suffering social, economic, and structural damage from the magnitude 7.0 M earthquake that occurred on January 12, 2010. Rea Dol, Founder and Director of the SOPUDEP School near Port-au-Prince, will speak about the current efforts to restore Haitian life to normalcy at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 5, in Boliou Hall Auditorium on the Carleton College campus. Haiti-born Hamline University professor Max Adrien will also speak about Haitian culture today, and the disaster’s devastating effects. Additionally, student leaders of Carleton’s Haiti Relief effort will propose ways that people can contribute and aid the nation’s ongoing struggle. This event is free and open to the public.

Pierre Bayard, acclaimed author and psychoanalyst, will present “Whodunnit? Shakespearean Murders and Detective Criticism” on Monday, Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m., in the Boliou Hall Auditorium at Carleton College. Bayard’s lecture will be a provocative inquiry into some of the problematic murders in Shakespeare’s works, addressing them in a way that is accessible to anyone who has read (or seen) “Hamlet,” “MacBeth” or “Othello.” Bayard offers a unique view, using a blend of psychoanalytic and literary theory. Bayard’s appearance, followed by a booksigning and reception with light refreshments, is free and open to the public.

Homi Bhabha, the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, Director of Harvard’s Humanities Center, and Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at University College, London, will deliver a public lecture entitled “Humanities and the Anxiety of Violence” on Thursday, April 22, at 8 p.m. in Boliou Hall, room 104 on the Carleton campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Award-winning Malian musician Bassekou Kouyate and his band, Ngoni Ba, will perform in Carleton College's Severance Great Hall on Tuesday, April 13 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. This not-to-be-missed performance is free and open to the public.

Carleton has received a grant of  $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in support of an endowed Postdoctoral Fellows Program in the Humanities. The NEH Challenge Grant, which will be matched on a four-to-one basis by the College, will create a permanent endowment of $1.75 million that will ensure the ongoing implementation of the Fellows Program. In total, 20 challenge grants were awarded, but only two were won by undergraduate, four-year liberal arts colleges: Carleton and Eckerd College (Fla.). Nine of the twenty grants went to higher education institutions, or programs affiliated with higher education institutions.

Acclaimed writer and wide-ranging cultural critic Lawrence Weschler will appear Wednesday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Boliou Hall Auditorium on the Carleton College campus. Entitled “Two Giants of Contemporary Art with Conflicting Ideas about How to Best Illuminate Human Perception,” Weschler’s presentation will focus on Robert Irwin and David Hockney—two artists with long histories of experimentation in human perception. Following Weschler’s lecture, he will sign copies of his books, which will be available for purchase at the event. Weschler’s appearance is free and open to the public.

Carleton will screen a modern dance interpretation of Beauty and Love, a Sufi mystical poem on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. in Carleton's Gould Library Athenaeum. The video screening will be followed by a discussion led by Carleton graduate and University of Washington professor and Ottoman scholar Walter Andrews '61. A Mediterranean reception will immediately follow the discussion. This event is free and open to the public.

Jean O’Brien-Kehoe, associate professor of history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, will present the 2009 Carleton College Herbert P. Lefler Lecture, sponsored by the Department of History. Entitled “There Once Was an Indian Village Here: New England Local Histories as Replacement Narratives,” the presentation will take place Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 5 p.m. in Leighton Hall, room 305, and is free and open to the public.

Laura Behling, professor of American Literature and culture at Gustavus Adolphus College, will speak on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 4:30 pm in the Gould Library Athenaeum. Her presentation, entitled “Come On! Participatory Patriotism in American World War I Posters,” highlights the changing attitudes of the American public during a war whose horror prompted a radical reexamination of political, social, and economic values. This event is free and open to the public.

The Carleton College Art Gallery will soon open its doors to a fun and fascinating look at one of America’s most favorite forms of visual storytelling, the melodrama. Opening Friday, January 9, “Modernizing Melodrama” explores the history and significance of this popular genre and its ability to introduce representative ideas and powerful stories through film clips, stage and circus posters and lobby cards, mass media, documentary and artistic photographs, and experimental works by contemporary artists. The evening kicks-off with a lecture entitled “Our Melodramatic Fix” presented by renowned film scholar Linda Williams, University of California-Berkeley, at 7:30 p.m. in Boliou Hall, room 104. Following the lecture, a reception will be held in the Art Gallery from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Both opening events are free and open to the public.