Lecture

Lecture: “Provincializing Democracy: Space, Ecololgy and Rights on India’s Southwestern Coast” — 9/20, 4:30 p.m.

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Please join us for a talk on “Provincializing Democracy: Space, Ecology and Rights on India’s Southwestern Coast,” by Ajantha Subramanian (cosponsored by the Certificate in South Asian Studies and College of the Environment).

Tuesday, September 20th, at 4:30 pm, Woodhead Lounge.

Ajantha Subramanian, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, conducted ethnography with the Mukkuvar fisher community in Tamil Nadu, India. This talk brings together the literatures on political ecology, the anthropology of rights and development, and subaltern studies, to highlight the struggles of artisanal fishers with trawler owners, the Catholic Church, and state institutions. Subramanian focuses on how artisanal fishers mobilize both local and global languages of patronage and environmentalism to claim rights and citizenship.

Lecture about modern terrorism — today, 4:30 p.m.

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I want to bring your attention to a forthcoming public lecture co-sponsored by the History, Government, and Russian Departments; Jewish and Israel Studies; and the Office of Academic Affairs.  TODAY, September 19, 2011. 4:30 p.m. Allbritton, Room 103.

“Death Orders delineates psychohistorical patterns of worldwide terrorism during the past century.  It shows why terrorists? objectives degenerated from punishment of political elites to indiscriminate violence against civilians. Death Orders ventures beyond politics and psychology; it is the first work to present modern terrorism as a form of ‘dark spirituality.'”Assistant Professor of History, Department of History and College of Social Studies

The lecture will be by Professor Anna Geifman (Boston University) on her new book, DEATH ORDERS: THE VANGUARD OF MODERN TERRORISM IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA. 

I hope that you are able to make it, it promises to be an interesting and provocative talk. 

Sincerely, Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock,

Jane Eisner: “Spirited Debate: God Talk on the Campaign Trail and Beyond” — 9/16

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Friends of the Library Constitution Day Lecture:

Spirited Debate: God talk on the campaign trail – and beyond

By Jane Eisner ‘77 P’06’12

Friday, September 16 – 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Science Library Reading Room (Exley Science Center 146)

Jane Eisner has been editor of the Forward since June 2008 and prior to that held executive editorial and news positions at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 25 years, including City Hall bureau chief, London correspondent, and features editor.  She has also served as vice president for national programs and initiatives at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.  A 1977 cum laude graduate of Wesleyan, Ms. Eisner was the first woman to edit the college newspaper, The Argus, served as an alumni-elected trustee from 1983-86, and received the McConaughy Award in 2007 for contributions to journalism and public life.  She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Wesleyan Library.

Pizza will be served.  Please RSVP to libfriends@wesleyan.edu.

CT in the Civil War — Lecture this evening 7 p.m.

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This evening, Wednesday, April 20 at 7pm, the Friends of the Wesleyan Library are sponsoring a talk by Dr. Matthew Warshauer, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University and co-chair of the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission.  Dr. Warshauer will discuss his new book, Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice and Survival.  Although no battles took place in Connecticut, the state was extensively involved  in the conflict. Connecticut sent more than 30 regiments to the front, had an extensive industrial capacity and was active on the home front.  Connecticut has more than 130 Civil War monuments. 

The lecture will take place in the Develin Room on the second floor of Olin, just off the main stairwell. 

>From 6:30-7:00 and again after the lecture, Suzy Taraba, Head of Special Collections & Archives and University Archivist, will host an open house viewing of the Samuel Proal Hatfield Civil War Photograph Album and other selected items related to the Civil War in the Davison Rare Book Room, Special Collections & Archives (1st floor Olin).

For more information visit:  http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/friends/events.html

 

Join us for an exciting and timely conversation as we begin commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. 

CAAS Lecture: Robin Kelley–“Faking It for Freedom” 4/14 8 p.m.

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I am pleased to announce that the Center for African-American Studies 17th Annual Distinguished Lecture will be delivered by Robin D .G. Kelley, Professor of History, American Studies and Ethnicity at the University  of Southern California.  

Thursday, April 14    8 p.m.    Fayerweather Beckham Hall

 Faking it for Freedom:  Grace Haskells Amazing Journey through the Minefields of Race, Sex, Empire and war–A 20th Century Love Story

Robin D. G. Kelley is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is the author of the prize-winning books Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (The Free Press, 2009); Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (University of North Carolina Press, 1990); Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (The Free Press, 1994); Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press, 1997), which was selected one of the top ten books of 1998 by the Village Voice; Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century, written collaboratively with Dana Frank and Howard Zinn (Beacon 2001); and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press, 2002). He also edited (with Earl Lewis), To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (Oxford University Press, 2000), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a History Book Club Selection.  Kelley’s essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

His residency is co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, Diversity and Institutional Partnerships, History, Ethics and Society Project, Center for Faculty Development,  College of the Environment, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Sociology and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

All are welcome to this event. Kelley is an engaging and dynamic speaker!!!!!  For additional information please contact Gina Athena Ulysse (x3268 or gulysse@wesleyan.edu) or Joan Chiari (x3569 or jchiari@wesleyan.edu)

WESFEST! April 14-16

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Wesleyan’s annual three day event for all admitted students takes place Thursday, April 14 through Saturday, April 16, 2011, and we hope you will take advantage of all the dynamic speakers and interesting forums we’ve put together.

Please make special note of our featured alumni speakers: Matt Senreich ’96, creator of Robot Chicken (Friday at 2pm in Beckham Hall) and Ted Kennedy Jr. ’83, lawyer and civil rights activist (Saturday at 10:30am in Beckham Hall). 

For a complete list of events, go to: http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/admit/wesfest/index.html

Wesleyan students housing friends or family overnight on campus (not through the Office of Admission hosting) should remember to register guests in their Electronic Portfolio (Guest Registration). The student guest needs to file a signed copy of the Medical Form (http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/visiting_campus/overnight.pdf) with Public Safety upon arrival (parental signature required for those under 18 years old). 

Please join us in welcoming our admitted students and their families!

Stephanie Pruitt,Office of Admission Program and Events Coordinator, and  Alexander Levey ‘09, Assistant Dean of Admission

Michelle Kae ’12, Isaiah Sypher ’13, Elsa Hardy ’14, and Mari Jarris ‘14–WesFest Interns 2011

Shasha Seminar: Prof. Nell Irvin Painter–“What the History of White People Can Tell Us about Race in America” Sat., 4/9–8 p.m.

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The 9th Annual Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns

Keynote Address by Nell Irvin Painter

“What the History of White People Can Tell Us about Race in America”

Saturday, April 9, 2011    8:00 p.m.

Memorial Chapel

 Americans are likely to think first and only of black people when the topic of race arises.  But in the past Americans considered as white were assigned to a hierarchical spectrum of different white races.  This fascinating history suggests some ideas about the functions of racial categorization in science and in everyday life.   

Nell Irvin Painter is Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University. The former president of the Organization of American Historians  and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is the author of seven books, including Standing at Armageddon (1987), Sojourner Truth (1996), and The History of White People (2010). In addition to her scholarly life, Nell Painter currently is pursuing an MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Lecture: Prof. Daniel Kim–“Black Korea, 1950-53: African Americans & the Conflict in Korea” Wed., 6 p.m.

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English Department Lecture Series
Daniel Kim
Associate Professor of English, Brown University

“Black Korea, 1950-53: African Americans and the Conflict in Korea”

Wednesday, April 6, 6pm
Downey House, 113

The talk is taken from Professor Kim’s current book project, The Korean War in Color.  In it, Kim examines U.S. cultural representations of the Korean War in an interracial and transnational framework, focusing on depictions of Asians, Asian Americans and African Americans.  Working against the historical erasure of this event, the book returns us to novels, films, and journalistic accounts from the 1950s to bring into focus the watershed role that the war played in the framing of dominant liberal narratives of race and empire.  

Daniel Kim is the author of Writing Manhood in Black and Yellow: Ralph Ellison, Frank Chin, and the Literary Politics of Identity (Stanford University Press, 2005). Generated at the intersections of feminist, gender, gay/lesbian and ethnic studies, this book examines literary representations of racialized masculinity, and it is the first study to do so in a comparative – African American and Asian American – context. He has published essays in American Literary History, Criticism, Journal of Asian American Studies, and Novel: A Forum on Fiction.

Students and faculty from across the university are warmly welcome for what we hope will be a convivial and exciting event.

For more information, please contact Amy Tang (x3595 or atang@wesleyan.edu).

PTIR Talk: Prof. F. Christine Fair on Lashkar-e-Taiba & Pakistan — 4/7

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Dr. F. Christine Fair, Georgetown University

“Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan”

Thurs., April 7, 2011   4:30-6:00 p.m.    PAC 001

Reception to Follow

Dr. Fair is an assistant professor in the Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS), within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, she has served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate in USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She is also a senior fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. Dr. Fair holds a B.S. in Biological Chemistry, an M.A. in Public Policy, an M.A in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, all from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia. She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books including Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space (Oxford University Press, 2008), The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (USIP, 2006); among others, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

This event is sponsored by the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and the Program on Terrorism and Insurgency Research. For more information, please contact Erica Chenoweth at echenoweth@wesleyan.edu. Click here for information on future PTIR Speaker Series events.

FGSS Diane Weiss Memorial Lecture: The Queer Art of Failure — 4/7

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The 24th Annual Diane Weiss ’80 Memorial Lecture: 

“The Queer Art of Failure ”

J. Jack Halberstam, Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Gender Studies, USC

Thursday, April 7, 2011  —  8:00 p.m.  —  PAC 001

ALL ARE WELCOME! 

J. Jack Halberstam is Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. Halberstam works in the areas of popular, visual and queer culture with an emphasis on subcultures.  Her work on female masculinity refutes the notion that butch lesbians are just imitations of “real men” and instead locates gender variance within a lively and dramatic staging of hybrid and minority genders. Her ground-breaking 1998 book, Female Masculinity, tracks the impact of female masculinity upon hegemonic genders. Halberstam’s last book, In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (2005), described and theorized queer reconfigurations of time and space in relation to subcultural scenes and the emergence of transgender visibility. The book explores queer uses of time and space that have developed in opposition to the institutions of family, heterosexuality, and reproduction. She also blogs at bullybloggers.com and has just finished a book, the title of which is also the title of her Weiss lecture. The Queer Art of Failure will be published by Duke University Press.