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Tuesday, April 19 – Writing from a Mediterranean in Crisis: Jazra Khaleed & Amara Lakhous

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Tuesday, April 19

UConn Co-op, Storrs Center, 4 pm

Syria Syria

Jazra Khaleed was born in Grozny, Chechnya. Today he lives in Athens, writes and publishes exclusively in Greek, and is known as a poet, editor, and translator. Khaleed’s poetry has been widely translated in Europe, the US, and Japan. As a founding co-editor of TEFLON magazine, and particularly through his own translations published there, he has introduced the works of Amiri Baraka, Keston Sutherland, Lionel Fogarty, and many other political and experimental poets to a Greek readership. Amara Lakhous fled his native Algeria in 1995 during the civil war, and has lived in Italy first as a political refugee, then as an immigrant and, as of 2008, a citizen. He is the author of five novels, three of which he wrote in both Arabic and Italian. His best known works are the much acclaimed Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (2008), Divorce Islamic Style (2012), and A Dispute over a Very Italian Piglet (2014).

Syria

Co-sponsored by the English Department, the Literatures, Cultures & Languages Department, the UConn’s Creative Writing Program, and the UConn Co-Op

We are pleased to announce that The John Templeton Foundation has awarded $5.75 million to the UConn Humanities Institute for research on balancing humility and conviction in public life.

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The John Templeton Foundation has awarded $5.75 million to the UConn Humanities Institute for research on balancing humility and conviction in public life.

The grant is the largest for the humanities ever awarded to UConn, and is one of the largest humanities-based research grants ever awarded in the United States.

Michael P. Lynch, the project’s principal investigator, says examining the role that traits such as humility and open-mindedness can play in meaningful public discourse could promote healthier and more constructive discussion about various divisive issues in religion, science, and politics.

“As this presidential campaign is constantly reminding us, real political dialogue — and any sense of intellectual humility — seems to have gone missing in American politics. But we can’t just blame that on politicians or those on the other side of the aisle; we need to look at what it is about culture, psychology, and the human condition that has led us to this point,” says Lynch, a professor of philosophy and director of the Humanities Institute. “We want to know the underlying causes of our dramatic breakdown in open dialogue and how to fix it.”

Lynch says the grant will provide an unprecedented integration of research from the humanities and sciences, as well as extending and applying research developed by previous projects on intellectual humility and related concepts funded by Templeton.

We want to know the underlying causes of our dramatic breakdown in open dialogue and how to fix it.

“There has been significant work done in recent years on the role that bias and dogma play in how we evaluate each other. And there are lots of people working to bring meaningful dialogue to communities,” he adds. “But rarely do these two groups meet. This project brings together our most creative and visionary thinkers with democracy practitioners to look at the real problems people face when talking to those with different religious and political worldviews other than their own.”

The grant will allow the Humanities Institute, which is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to sponsor three high-profile public forums; summer institutes for high school teachers on how to incorporate intellectual humility into their classes; an online course on project themes; and a series of awareness-raising media initiatives. The co-principal investigator for the project is Brendan Kane, an associate professor of history and associate director of the Humanities Institute.

The project’s research activities include a visiting fellowship program hosting leaders from the academic, media, and non-profit sectors; an international research funding competition targeting interdisciplinary teams of researchers pursuing project themes; four research workshops hosted at UConn; and a collaboration with UConn’s Mellon Foundation-funded “Scholarly Communications Design Studio” for the presentation of project research in new interactive modalities.

The Humanities Institute has a history of sponsoring both public engagement and interdisciplinary research, and will bring together specialized resources for research in the social sciences and humanities for the purpose of elevating the tone and outcomes of public discourse in American society.

Reading Race, Writing Race and Living Race April 1-2, 2016

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UConn School of Law will host the 19th annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities on April 1 and 2, 2016. The theme of this year’s conference is Reading Race, Writing Race and Living Race.

The ASLCH is an organization of scholars engaged in interdisciplinary, humanistically oriented legal scholarship. It brings together a wide range of people working in the fields of legal history, legal theory and jurisprudence, law and cultural studies, law and anthropology, law and literature, law and the performing arts, and legal hermeneutics. About 200 association members are expected to attend the conference.

Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Marion Kierscht Professor of Law at the University of Iowa, will deliver the keynote speech on April 1.  Her topic will be From Emmett to Trayvon, Race, Space and the Policing of White Boundaries. Her research focuses on issues of race, class, rhetoric, stigma and identity, particularly in the context of antidiscrimination and family law. She is the author of According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v Rhinelander and Law of the Multiracial Family (Yale 2013).

The conference will seek to develop conversations regarding the roles of representation, affect and imagination in the ongoing relationship of law to concepts of race, justice, sovereignty, captivity, and history. A wide variety of sessions, held on sites around campus, will cover a range of topics, including colonialism, racial conflict, law and religion, literature, screen and music.

UConn Law Professor Susan Schmeiser, whose scholarship focuses on law and mental health, LGBT and gender issues, and family law, helped organize the event. “In law school, we teach students how to analyze and apply legal rules, but we often don’t have the opportunity to consider the law’s narrative, rhetorical and cultural dimensions,”  she said. “The conference will enable participants to view law and legal discourse through a broader lens than the one that legal education conventionally adopts.”

More information about the conference is available on the website of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities.

In the NYT “Googling Is Believing: Trumping the Informed Citizen” by UCHI Director Michael P. Lynch.

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Googling Is Believing: Trumping the Informed Citizen

By
Michael P. Lynch

About a week before he used the national political stage to ask viewers to think about Donald Trump’s “finger” size, Marco Rubio told the audience during another recent Republican presidential debate to Google “Donald Trump and Polish workers.” They did.

The worry is no longer about who controls content. It is about who controls the flow of that content.

Rubio wanted voters to see news stories about Trump illegally hiring undocumented Polish workers more than 35 years ago to demolish a building to make way for Trump Tower. Searches for those terms, and the fraudulent “Trump University,” shot way up. It was like a public version of the now ubiquitous phenomenon of everyone whipping out smartphones to verify a disputed fact at a party or meeting. Not that it did much good in this case; as numerous commentators have noted, Trump and many of his supporters don’t seem particularly worried about minor annoyances like “facts.” (For the record, PolitiFact, which checks the veracity of politicians’ statements, judged Rubio’s charge to be “half true.”)

Read more

 

http://nyti.ms/1QMuQ75

Free lecture series will examine how technology influences morality.

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portrait
Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt University)

“The same technology that enables people on opposite sides of the world to engage in real time face-to-face communication also enables new possibilities for the collection of personal data, new ways for privacy to be breached, and new avenues for geographically dispersed conspirators to organize and take action, said Robert Talisse, the W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

These are some of the new, emerging or overlooked moral issues speakers will discuss this spring during the annual Berry Lectures in Public Philosophy.

The three Berry Lectures will be held in 114 Furman Hall and are free and open to the public.

Technology has shrunk the world, but has it made it better?

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Michael Lynch (University of Connecticut)

Michael Lynch, professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, will speak 7 p.m. Friday, March 18, on “Knowledge in the Age of Big Data.”

Leif Wenar, chair of philosophy and law at King’s College in London, will speak 7 p.m. Friday, March 25, on “Blood Oil.”

Cheryl Misak, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, and James Jackson, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will lead “Delirium in the ICU: A Discussion,” 7 p.m. Thursday, April 7.

The Berry Lecture Series in Public Philosophy began in 1988, funded by John and Shirley Lachs, Alan Berry and Kendall Berry. In addition to the annual lecture, the Berry Fund finances travel for graduate philosophy students and awards annual prizes for outstanding service, prospectuses and publications.

by |

Media Inquiries:
Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu

Remediating Flusser, a visualized introduction to the forthcoming multimodal e-book “ReMEDIAting Flusser, From the Print-Text to the Image-Flood.

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The above serves as a visualized introduction to the forthcoming multimodal e-book “ReMEDIAting Flusser: From the Print-Text to the Image-Flood. A Digital Humanities Project.” Created with support from the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut.

Anke Finger is an Associate Professor of German at UConn and a core Faculty member of the The Public Discourse Project: Balancing Humility and Conviction in Public Life. http://publicdiscourseproject.uconn.edu/

ACLS Annual Meeting, May 5-7, in Arlington, VA

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 The 2016 ACLS Annual Meeting will be held May 5-7, in Arlington, VA.  

The meeting will begin on Thursday, May 5 at 5:45 pm with welcome remarks from ACLS President Pauline Yu, followed by a session entitled “Extending the Reach of the Humanities PhD.” A reception and buffet dinner will follow at 7:00 pm.

Pauline Yu will start off the events on Friday, May 6 at 9:00 am with her report to the Council. There will be micro reports from ACLS member societies, the Meeting of the Council, and presentations by ACLS Fellows. William “Bro” Adams, chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities, will be the luncheon speaker.

The plenary speaker for the first afternoon program session will be Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. The remainder of the afternoon will consist of a set of breakout sessions on the following topics: (1) constructive approaches for adjunct faculty, (2) PhD career diversification, (3) creative approaches to annual meetings, (4) inequality and disparity in the humanities, (5) advocating for the humanities: a new toolkit for scholarly societies, and (6) democratic engagement in teaching and learning.

At 6:00 pm, the 2016 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture will be delivered by Cynthia Enloe, research professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University. There will be an opportunity to meet Professor Enloe at the reception in her honor following the lecture.

Hotel Information: Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, 2800 South Potomac Avenue, Arlington, VA, 22202; Tel: (703) 413-1300

SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 5
Extending the Reach of the Humanities PhD – 5:45-7:00 pm, Salon 5-7
Reception – 7:00-7:30 pm, Studio B
Buffet Supper – 7:30-9:30 pm, Salon 1-3

Friday, May 6
Executive Committee of the Delegates and New Delegates Breakfast Meeting (members of this group only) – 7:30-8:30 am, Studio A
Continental Breakfast – 7:45-9:00 am, Salon 1-3
Report of the President – Pauline Yu
9:00-9:30 am, Salon 4
Micro Reports from Member Learned Societies – 9:30-9:45 am
Meeting of the Council – 10:00-10:30 am
Emerging Themes and Methods of Humanities Research: Discussion with ACLS Fellows – 10:30 am-12:00 noon
Pre-Lunch Reception – 12:00 noon-12:30 pm, Salon Foyer
Luncheon Speaker – William “Bro” Adams, chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities
12:30-2:00 pm, Salon 1-3
Plenary Session – Darren Walker, president, Ford Foundation
2:00-3:00 pm, Salon 4
Breakout Sessions – 3:00-4:00 pm
1) Constructive Approaches for Adjunct Faculty – Salon 1
2) PhD Career Diversification – Salon 2
3) Creative Approaches to Annual Meetings – Salon 3
4) Inequality and Disparity in the Humanities – Studio A
5) Advocating for the Humanities: A new toolkit for scholarly societies – Studio B
6) Democratic Engagement in Teaching and Learning – Studio C
ACLS Board of Directors Annual Meeting Review (members of this group only) – 4:00-4:30 pm, Boardroom
The Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture – 6:00-7:00 pm, Salon 4
Cynthia Enloe, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment, Clark University
Reception and Buffet Supper – 7:00-9:30 pm, Salon 1-3

Saturday, May 7
Breakfast – 7:30-9:30 am, Salon 1-3
Conference of Administrative Officers (CAO) Spring Meeting (members of this group only) – 8:30-11:30 am, Studio F
Optional CAO Session TBD (members of this group only) – 11:30 am-12:15 pm, Studio F

 

February 19, 2016 Panel Discussion: What Difference do Different Identities Make?

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WHAT DIFFERENCE DO DIFFERENT IDENTITIES MAKE TO CONCEPTUALIZING ONE’S RESEARCH, WRITING, TEACHING, AND MENTORING? 

February 19, 2016, from 12-130 PM in Oak 438

A panel discussion featuring

Cathy Schlund-Vials (English & Asian/Asian American Studies)

Fred Lee (Political Science & Asian/Asian American Studies)

Prakash Kashwan (Political Science)

Moderated by Marysol Asencio (Human Development & Family Studies and El Instituto).

 

All are welcome — no need to RSVP. Questions? Email jane.gordon@uconn.edu.

Friday, February 12, 2016 Jane Mansbridge Adams Professor Harvard Kennedy School of Government

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Public Talk

Legitimate Coercion: The Key to the Universe

Jane Mansbridge

Adams Professor Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Friday, February 12,  2:15PM-3:45PM,  Oak Hall, Room 408

Free and Open to the Public

About the Talk: In a world of growing interdependence, we need more and more legitimate coercion to solve the ‘free-rider problems’ created by our growing need for ‘free-access goods.’ In large, anonymous societies, we cannot get anything approximating the number of free-access goods that we need without coercion. The more interdependent we become, the more coercion we need, and the best coercion is legitimate coercion. This lecture takes up the conditions that produce legitimate coercion.

About the Speaker: Jane Mansbridge is the Adams Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former president of the American Political Science Association. Her work focuses on studies of representation, democratic deliberation, everyday activism, and the public understanding of collective action problems. She is the author of Beyond Adversary Democracy and the prize-winning Why We Lost the ERA, as well as editor of Beyond Self-Interest and four co-edited volumes: Feminism with Susan Moller Okin, Oppositional Consciousness with Aldon Morris, Deliberative Systems with John Parkinson, and Political Negotiation with Cathie Jo Martin.

This event is hosted by the Department of Political Science and the UCONN Humanities Institute’s Public Discourse Project.

Contact: Prof. Vin Moscardelli (vin.moscardelli@uconn.edu) or Prof. Michael Morrell (michael.morrell@uconn.edu).