Session II
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Visual Arts
David Schutter bio
After Paintings: Recollected Works From The Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
Film Studies Center, Cobb Hall, room 307
In his most recent exhibitions, David Schutter was engaged with the 17th Century Dutch collection of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. He spent a year painting a portion of this collection from memory only, then hung his new works together with the original sources in an installation at the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museum, Berlin. These works were then shown without the originals at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He will discuss these works he calls ‘afterpaintings’ and the investigative process involved in re-making through memory.
Humanities
David Thompson bio
Poetry, Law, & the End of Nature
History / Ceeres / Slavic Languages & Literatures
Stuart Hall, room 102
For centuries, poetry has served as a means by which humankind thinks through its relationship to nature. In striving to describe nature in all its complexity and the myriad ways that it shapes human experience, poets have often blurred the boundary between the nature they describe in their poems and nature as it actually exists. In the realm of law, by contrast, nature has a very different status. In a number of important cases, the Supreme Court has used allegations of damage to nature as an opportunity to formulate doctrines about who has standing to enforce the law and who does not. By looking at the different ways in which poetry and law treat nature, Mr. Thompsons presentation will demonstrate how a commitment to sustainability impacts the way we conceive of our place in the world.
Richard Hellie bio
Backwardness in Russian Civilization 1470-2007
Stuart Hall, room 104
Backwardness has been a major feature of Russia for over half a millennium. Russians have been discussing it for centuries and it is a major topic of discussion right now. Professor Hellie’s work attempts to elucidate this backwardness, its consequences, and especially its causes. Richard Hellie is the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of Russian History in the Department of History and the College, the Chairman of the Russian Civilization Program, and the Director of the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.
Humanities
Civic Knowledge Project Panel
Civic Knowledge / Civic Engagement
Stuart Hall, 105
The aim of Civic Knowledge Project is to strengthen community connections and help overcome the social, economic, and racial divisions among the various knowledge communities on the South Side of Chicago. Please join us for a lively discussion featuring CKP coordinators Joanie Friedman and Erika Dudley in dialogue with CKP director Bart Schultz and various representatives from our partnering community organizations.
English / Franke Institute
James Chandler bio
Sentimental Monstrosity
Franke Institute for the Humanities
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein revisits the writings of Rousseau to create a new kind of character--and a new kind of problem-- for subsequent literature and for cinema. James Chandler, Director of the Franke Institute for Humanities, Barbara E. & Richard J. Franke Professor of English and the Committees on Cinema and Media Studies and the History of Culture will present a talk, followed by open discussion.
Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Rebecca Hasselbach bio
Early Semitic Writing Systems
Harper, room 130
This talk will discuss the development of early writing systems used to write semitic languages, such as Akkadian, Phoenician, Ugaritic, Hebrew and others.
Philosophy
William C. Wimsatt bio
Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings
Harper, room 140
In the search to understand how entities, events, and processes articulate at different levels, scientists often seek to atomize phenomena. Professor Wimsatt explores the issue of biological complexity and offers new perspectives to deal with emerging natural and social complexities versus eliminative reductionism. Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science, his work centers on the philosophy of the inexact sciences—biology, psychology, and the social sciences—the history of biology, and the study of complex systems. He will offer a presentation followed by an open discussion.
History / East Asian Languages & Civilizations
James Ketelaar bio
Guided tour of Objects of Inquiry: The Buckley Collection of Japanese Art
Smart Museum of Art, Bernstein Gallery
Objects of Inquiry sets the stage for an examination of the role of ethnicity and religion in late nineteenth-century popular culture. James Ketalaar, Professor in History and East Asian Languages, and co curator of the exhibition will give a guided a tour of the collection, which was assembled between 1886 and 1892 by Edmund Buckley as the basis for his doctoral work at the University of Chicago and exhibited on campus in one of the first systematic displays of Japanese religious objects in the West. The collection includes rare paintings, sculpture, woodblock prints, temple maps, sutras and religious. [space is limited]
Performance
Modern Minstrelsy Ensemble, Pullman Morris and Sword
Noyes Fludde
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
The English Medieval Mystery Play of Noah's Flood, told through English Folk, liturgical, sacred and secular music from the 15th and 16ht centuries performed by Modern Minstrelsy Ensemble and soloists. Reading from the works of Chaucer, the Venerable Bede, and Medieval Chroniclers will be presented as well as dancing my Pullman Morris and Sword.
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.