Session I
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Music
Philip Gossett bio
Operacat and Un ballo in maschera
Fulton Hall
Many significant manuscripts are offered for sale by dealers or at auctions, and disappear into private collections. Efforts are currently under way to collect information about manuscripts by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini that have been offered for sale (often with pictures) and to show how much can be learned about the composers' music, even in cases where the sources themselves remain unavailable. Examples will be presented from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. Philip Gossett, Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music, is a music historian with special interests in 19th-century Italian opera, sketch studies, aesthetics, textual criticism, and performance practice.
Cinema & Media Studies
Judy Hoffman bio
Chicago Film History
Film Studies Center, Cobb Hall, room 307
If there is a Chicago style of filmmaking, one must look at the landscape of the city - the design, the politics, the cultures and labor of its people, and how they live their lives. The protagonists and villains of filmed Chicago are the politicians and community organizers; our locations are the neighborhoods, bars, and factories; and the set designers are Mies van der Rohe and the Chicago Housing Authority. This presentation will discuss and screen clips from films made by Chicagoans in Chicago, and consider whether there is a Chicago style of filmmaking.
Linguistics
Anastasia Giannakidou bio
Myths and Realities About Bilingualism
Stuart Hall, room 101
Does early bilingualism cause confusion and delays in language acquisition? Professor Giannakidou will examine some common ideas about bilingualism and offer recent evidence to debunk familiar concepts. An associate professor in the department of Linguistics and the Humanities Collegiate Division, Professor Giannakidou works on formal semantics and pragmatics, syntax, and their interfaces, and recently, psycholinguistics.She emphasizes the crosslinguistic dimension in her research and has worked on Greek, Germanic, Romance languages, and Mandarin Chinese.
English Language & Literature
Christina von Nolcken bio
The Vikings and a Turbulent Ango-Scandinavian World
Harper Hall, room 140 REGISTRATION CLOSED
On 14 August 2007, Denmark apologized for her part in the ninth-century Viking invasions of Ireland. England may also think herself due for such an apology. This talk will track the Vikings' impact in medieval England, an impact whose effects are still evident today. We will meet, among others, Ragnar Hairy Breeches, who ended his days in a snake pit; his son, Ivar the Boneless, reputedly nine feet tall; Eric Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of York; Olaf Tryggvason, who rammed Christianity down unwilling Scandinavian throats; Svein Forkbeard, who absorbed England into a Denmark-centered empire; and the last of the great Vikings, Harald Hardrada.
Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Theo van den Hout bio
Starting to Write: the Case of Hittite Anatolia
Stuart Hall, room 104
Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Hittites got their cuneiform writing system from northern Syria around 1650 B.C. New developments in the field of Hittitology, however, open up the possibility of other scenarios. Theo van den Hout, Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages is co-editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary and managing editor of the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. Join him for a presentation and discussion on these new developments in deciphering Anatolian history.
Slavic Languages & Literatures
Malynne Sternstein bio
The Czechs of Chicago
Stuart Hall, room 105
From the mid-19th century onward, Czechs have been instrumental in framing the cultural, intellectual, and social contours of this city. They have held public office, given the city a special artistic character, been bearers of the city's most grievous tragedies, the backbone and the broad shoulders of its modernization and the instigators of its social change. The Czechs have a rich and varied history in Chicago and continue to have a strong and positive share in shaping its future. Malynne Sternstein, Professor, Slavic Languages and Literature and the College, will offer a talk followed by discussion.
Visual Arts
Matthew Jesse Jackson bio
Old Media, Contemporary Art
Franke Institute, Regenstein Library, room S-118
These days, we often hear about "new media" in contemporary art – meaning video, internet, performance, and installation art. Matthew Jesse Jackson, Assistant Professor, Art History and Visual Arts, will discuss the continuing significance of "old media" -- drawing, painting, and sculpture -- in recent art-making. Among other questions, he will ask: Should the criteria for evaluating "old media" change? Should we expect older media to address the same subject matter as new media? And which hybrid forms of old and new are currently appearing on the mediascape's horizon?
Exhibition
"Highlights of the Oriental Institute Collection" guided tour
Oriental Institute
Limited to 30 people. Join Oriental Institute docents for a guided tour featuring our world renowned collection of art and artifacts from the ancient Near East. Highlights include a colossal statue of King Tutankhamun, a recreated courtyard from ancient Assyrian palace, and fragments of treasures from the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis that was destroyed by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago.