Spring 2009
Events in the Humanities
March
Pulp Fiction and Fact
This exhibition will feature the work of students in Paper Arts, a course on hand papermaking taught by Jeff Rathermel, artistic director for Minnesota Center for Book Arts. During the term, students explored both Eastern and Western papermaking techniques to create sheet paper, hand-bound books, and sculptural paper objects. Work displayed demonstrates the various source fibers used in the process, the variety of nontraditional forms paper can take, and the general flexibility of the medium.
Joan Baez at Spring Hill College: A Study of Intersecting Histories
Steve Kelly, Dye Family Professor of Music.
On May 7, 1963 Joan Baez gave a concert at Spring Hill College in Mobile Alabama. On the surface this would seem to be a wholly unremarkable event. After all, in 1963 Joan Baez, who had emerged as the “Queen” of the folk revival, performed on many college campuses. This little-known performance in Alabama, on the day after Baez had been present at the historic civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, takes on extraordinary significance when viewed from the intersection of multiple histories: social, musical, institutional, and personal. Using eyewitness accounts, photographs, and a precious unreleased live recording which includes Baez’s comments on the racial climate, the speaker reveals this larger meaning. Sponsored by Music, American Studies, and the Library
April
Beauty and Love: A Video Screening
Walter Andrews, a distinguished Ottoman scholar from the University of Washington.
Video screening of a modern dance interpretation of Beauty and Love, a Sufi mystical poem in the Mevlevi (Rumi) tradition. Following the half-hour video, Professor Andrews will lead a discussion with the audience. Mediterranean reception immediately following the discussion. Sponsored by the Humanities Center, the Ira Wender Visitor for Cultural Understanding, and the Library.
On the Divide: How a Musician and Classicist Came to Write About Willa Cather
David Porter, former Carleton Professor of Classical Languages and Acting President, is the President Emeritus of Skidmore College and Harry C. Payne Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts at Williams College. Sponsored by the Department of English and the Library.
The Writer as a Loving Fighter: The Contribution of Hebrew Literature by the Jews of Iraq to Israeli National Identity
Lev Hakak, Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, University of California, Los Angeles. Narrated with love for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, early realistic literature by Israeli Hebrew authors from Iraq sought to correct a less than respectful image of their community in Israel and how it was being treated. In their first novels and short stories in Hebrew, these writers fought to establish a positive image of Jews from Iraq. Sponsored by Dean of the College Office.
Foro Latinoamericano 2009
“Navigating the Chichimec Sea: Cultural Connections between Indigenous Peoples of Mesoamerica and the Southwest”
“On the Road of Flowers: The Symbolism and Aesthetics of Abundance and Paradise in Mesoamerica and the Great Southwest” – Karl Taube
“Entre norte y sur: El Noroeste indígena mexicano como corredor cultural y sistema de transformaciones” – Carlo Bonfiglioli
“Cultural Transformations and the Evolution of Ethnic Identities in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Northern Mexico” – Susan Deeds
“Rarámuri Connections: Bridging Mesoamerican and Southwestern Cosmologies” – Jerome Levi
Karl Taube, Professor Anthropology at University of California, Riverside.
Carlo Bonfiglioli, Professor Anthropology, UNAM.
Susan M. Deeds, Professor of History, Northern Arizona University
Jerome Levi, Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton College
May
Dialogos 1 - Faculty Research Exchange: “Migration, Immigration, Hybridity”
Co-Sponsored with the LTC
Join us for presentations by faculty colleagues, lunch, and discussion:Jay Levi, Professor of Anthropology: "Indigenous Peoples of the U.S./Mexico Borderlands"
Dana Strand, Andrew Mellon Professor of French and the Liberal Arts: "Transnational Cinema: The Case of the Cyber-Nomad"
European identity: reality, fiction… or both?
José Ovejero, Spanish author.
European identity has been a much discussed topic in recent years, and more so after the failed attempt to approve a European constitution. But do Europeans need a supranational identity? If so, what should it look like? And if we find traces of this identity in literature, can we speak of European literature in the same way as we speak of Spanish, Italian or German literature? Mr. Ovejero will address these subjects from the point of view of a Spanish writer who has lived in three European countries and worked for the institutions of the European Union as an interpreter. In May he will teach a course on creative writing in Spanish as Carleton's Headley Distinguished Visitor-In-Residence. Sponsored by the Spanish Department.
Teatro del Pueblo, "Help Wanted,"
We are thrilled to welcome Teatro del Pueblo, a Latino company based in Saint Paul. "Celebrating diversity through theater," the company will be featured in the Humanities Center's "Migration, Immigration, Hybridity" series.
The short play "Help Wanted" depicts a landmark case in which the human rights of undocumented workers were trampled on and eventually redeemed. In English with some Spanish. Discussion following with members of the cast.
Dialogos 2: Faculty Research Exchange: “Migration, Immigration, Hybridity”
Anna Moltchanova, Associate Professor of Philosophy: “The General Will and Immigration”
Carolyn Wong, Assistant Professor of Political Science: “Becoming Citizens: Political Engagement and Inclusion of the Hmong in America”
William North, Associate Professor of History and European Studies, Moderator
Arnab Chakladar, Assistant Professor of English.
For the title of the talk and other information, please see the English Department website. http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/english/
You Ache in Me: The Silences and Language of Moral Memory in Isabel Coixet’s The Secret Life of Words
Annabel Martin, Associate Professor of Spanish at Dartmouth College, Comparative Literature, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Sponsored by the Spanish Department.
Crusade and Aftermath, Living with a Holy War, 1095-1125
Jay Rubenstein, Carleton class of 1989, MacArthur Fellow, and Professor of History, University of Tennessee.
July 15, 1099 marks the climactic battle in what later historians would call the First Crusade but what at the time was simply known as a pilgrimage or, occasionally, a "holy war." In this lecture Professor Rubenstein will explain how the fundamental narrative of the crusade cannot be understood outside of the context of apocalyptic thought. In doing so he will show not only why so many informed and educated observers believed that the end of the world had begun in 1099, but why they were able to hold onto these beliefs in some cases for a quarter of a century after the fact. The themes of religious warfare and the prophetic frenzies that drive it, are ones that have unfortunate resonance with our own recent history. There may therefore be lessons for a modern audience to draw from how men and women in the twelfth century learned how to live with a holy war that, once launched, seemed likely never to end. Sponsored by the Class of 1957 Revolving Lectureship Fund and the History Department.
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