UConn Humanities Institute
Homer Babbidge Library, 4th Floor
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 1234
Storrs, CT, 06269
Maps & Directions
Phone +1 (860) 486-9057
Email: uchi@uconn.edu
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Austin Building
Analysis of long-term migration data is crucial for understanding the changing nature of the drivers of migration, regional disparities, demographic changes, and climate variability. Specifically, in the context of the U.S., the study of long-term migration is distinct because the European settlement was significantly influenced by land resources and economic prospects, highlighting the unique role of geographic and demographic expansion in shaping the nation’s complex history, mindful of the profound effects on Indigenous populations. The increasing availability of digitized historical sources on genealogy websites have enabled numerous individuals to assemble and share their family trees. Only a handful of research teams have leveraged extensive datasets of user-contributed family trees, and cleaned, connected and deduplicated them to generate population-scale family trees to investigate social processes, particularly migration. In this presentation, Dr. Koylu will shed light on his team’s efforts to construct the largest connected family tree to date, connecting 40 million relatives spanning across several centuries and continents. He will delve into the innovative techniques that harness the power of geographic information science to analyze and visualize big family tree data. These efforts enable the assessment of how representative the tree data is of the overall population in the U.S., the exploration of migration patterns and kinship networks across geographic space and time and provide valuable insights and historical context crucial for understanding the ongoing socio-economic and demographic transformations.
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
05:30 PM
Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art (Avery Point)
Abiding River: Connecticut River Views & Stories
Repeat Photography: Pond of Contemplation
March 28-April 28, 2024
Opening Reception: March 28, 5:30-7:30 pm
In Abiding River: Connecticut River Views & Stories Janet L. Pritchard photographically traces our changing relationship with a wild and harnessed river’s rise, decline, and tenuous revival. Using a photographic method guided by archival research, Pritchard’s project addresses two framing questions: How does the Connecticut River influence life in its watershed, and how do people impact the river? Tracing the river’s flow from its source near the Canadian border 410 miles south to the Long Island Sound, these photographs reveal a landscape of many uses.
Writers have described the Connecticut River (CR) as the life artery of New England, or its cultural cradle, a region distinct in topography, history, culture, and ecological challenges—climate modeling predicts dramatic temperature increases and unprecedented flooding. Before European colonization, Native peoples thrived here, relying on the river for sustenance, transportation, and trade. It later became a settlement route for Europeans from the coast to the interior and a place of technological innovation so significant it is called the Silicon Valley of the 19th century. The CR Valley was a flourishing center of water-powered manufacturing and home to the now disappearing geographically indicated crop Connecticut Shade Tobacco. However, when an economy built on waterpower collapsed, mills moved south, and industry followed, leaving the river to rot. Katherine Hepburn described the river as “the world’s most beautifully landscaped cesspool” in a 1965 documentary. The Clean Water Act of 1972 helped effect change, and pollutants decreased. The river’s history is deeply intertwined with the local cultures, and understanding these connections is crucial to appreciating its more considerable significance and the challenges it faces.
In Abiding River: Connecticut River Views & Stories, Pritchard’s photographs reflect her scholarly research and the beauty of the Connecticut River, a system influenced by nature, culture, and history with a future yet to be written.
The exhibition will include specimens of aquatic and marsh plants of the Connecticut River and its watershed, on loan from the George Safford Torrey Herbarium, in the Biodiversity Research Collections of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn.
In Repeat Photography: Pond of Contemplation, Pritchard’s subtly varied images of a singular landscape taken over the course of a year, present a meditative reflection on nature, permanence, and change.
Friday, March 29th, 2024
All Day
Homer Babbidge Library
Discover some of the amazing research UConn undergraduates are conducting in the Humanities at the annual student-led Humanities Undergraduate Research Symposium (HURS).
Panels will begin around 9am and continue until 5:30pm. Breakfast and lunch will be served, and the event will be followed by a reception with hors d’oeuvres and desserts. See the HURS website for details and an up to date schedule.
Contact Information:
MoreMonday, April 1st, 2024
04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
The Dodd Center for Human Rights
About the Film
A Double Life unravels the mystery of Stephen Bingham’s past as a civil rights activist/lawyer and political fugitive, including his alleged involvement in a 1971 prison rebellion that left six people dead. In the aftermath of this incident, he spent 13 years living underground in Europe under an assumed identity, finally returning in 1984 to stand trial. The film presents a multi-layered portrait of a turbulent era and the role of one individual seeking justice for others and later for himself.
Trailer
Speakers
Catherine Masud is an award-winning filmmaker and an Assistant Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Digital Media and Design and the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.
Stephen Bingham, the protagonist of A Double Life, has dedicated his legal career to providing support and advocacy on behalf of the marginalized and disenfranchised.
Luca Falciola is a lecturer in history at Columbia University and the author of Up Against the Law: Radical Lawyers and Social Movements 1960s-1970s.
Sponsors
This event is supported by the Human Rights Film & Digital Media Initiative, a collaborative venture between the Department of Digital Media & Design and the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs at the Gladstein Family Human Rights, as well as the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and the Humanities Institute.
Contact Information:
Alex Branzell, Events & Communications Coordinator, Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut
MoreTuesday, April 2nd, 2024
12:30 PM
Homer Babbidge Library
The Ping Pong Player and the Professor: A Conversation with the Author
Gene and Georgia Mittelman Lecture
Light kosher lunch served
CO-SPONSORED BY
University of Connecticut Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, Department of Anthropology and Humanities Institute
About the Book
Most Americans view ping pong as either a basement recreation or the focus of a fraternity party drinking game. Yet table tennis is an Olympic sport and one of the most popular athletic activities in the world. The Ping Pong Player and the Professor is a quirky memoir about the adventures of a Jewish anthropologist and his son, an elite player, in the colorful subculture of this extraordinary sport. The tale of their exploits in this hidden world is peppered with anthropological wisdom—the professor can’t help himself—on a range of topics, including ethnicity, religion, sport, family, and how humans create and discover meaning in life. At its core, The Ping Pong Player and the Professor is a heartwarming love story about the relationship between a father and son, two introverts who share a common bond over a nine-foot by five-foot table.
Author’s Bio
Richard Sosis is the James Barnett Professor of Humanistic Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. He is the co-author of Religion Evolving: Cultural, Cognitive, and Ecological Dynamics and Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Violence, and co-founder and coeditor of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior, which publishes research on the bio-cultural study of religion.
Contact Information:
Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Life judaicstudies@uconn.edu
860-486-2271