• Jan 23
    “Suzdal’ God-daubers,” “Novgorodian quattrocento,” and the Russian Avant-Garde

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Irina Shevelenko Slavic Languages and Literatures, UW–Madison Resident Fellow (2011-2012)   At this seminar, I will present one of the case studies from my book-length project Modernism as Archaism: Nationalism and the Quest for a Modernist Aesthetic in Russia. I will explore what is arguably the most prominent example of the modernist “invention …

  • Dec 12
    The Politics of News: Information and Communication in Reformation Diplomacy

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Denice Fett Solmsen Fellow (2011-2012) History, University of North Florida   This paper explores the questions and complications of accessing and disseminating information in early modern international negotiations. All states engaged in diplomatic discourse sought to gain access to, control the dissemination of, and utilize information and intelligence in order to succeed in …

  • Dec 5
    Shakespeare’s Second Future

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: J.K. Barret Solmsen Fellow (2011-2012) English, University of Texas at Austin   In William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Jupiter himself hands down a prophetic text to quell concerns about the future. Though this cameo doesn’t actually provide much resolution, it does highlight a central concern in a play notorious for its dizzying profusion of plots. …

  • Nov 28
    We Are the Improved Race: Guatemala, Mestizaje, and the Age of Fascism, 1930-1948

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Julie Gibbings Dana-Allen Dissertation Fellow (2011-2012) History, UW–Madison   How do we understand the postcolonial in Latin America? Many scholars have eschewed the use of postcolonial criticism in Latin America on the basis that there is a lack of fit between theoretical perspectives derived from Asia and African experiences of colonialism and interpretations …

  • Nov 21
    Resurrection and Devotional Identities in Sixteenth-Century Europe

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Erin Lambert A.W. Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Fellow (2011-2012) History, UW–Madison   The resurrection of the dead, wrote a sixteenth-century German preacher, was the most debated article of the Creed. While Lutherans, for example, described the reassembly of the body, Anabaptists argued that one’s resurrection took place as one became a baptized member of the …

  • Nov 14
    Hapsburg-Ottoman Diplomatic Machinery: Automata and the Türkenvererhrung

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Jessica Keating Solmsen Fellow (2011-2012) Art History, UW–Madison   This paper concerns the history of the long-distance circulation of objects in the early modern world. When recounting the history of intercontinental movement of objects scholars of the early modern world have tended view it through the lens of a growing global commercial market …

  • Nov 9
    Venerating the Sage: The Rise and Fall of a Shrine to Confucius

    Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, Room L140

    2011 Focus on the Humanities Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Julia Murray Professor of Art History and Senior Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities (2009-2011), UW–Madison   Recognized throughout the world as a symbol of Chinese civilization, Confucius (551-479 BCE) is venerated as ancient philosopher, statesman, and teacher. Less familiar is his role in a religious …

  • Nov 7
    Re-articulating Political Community: Testimonial Narratives and the Formation of an Audience

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Marian Halls Dana-Allen Dissertation Fellow (2011-2012) Comparative Literature, UW–Madison   How and why do testimonial narratives emerge as a privileged mode of remembering times of political violence or catastrophe? As one point of departure, Dori Laub’s assertion in Felman and Laub’s Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History (1992), that “the …

  • Oct 31
    How to do things with bits and bytes

    University Club, Room 212

    Monday Seminar: Mathangi Krishnamurthy A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-2012) Anthropology, UW–Madison   My project looks at the meaning of information in an age of Information Technology (IT), in order to understand and explore the kind of desires that animate workers’ participation in the Indian call center industry. I look at the Indian version of the …

  • Oct 28
    Holocaust Testimony and Its Reception: Cultural Transformations and Pedagogical Issues

    University Club, Banquet Hall (lower level)

    2011 Burdick-Vary Symposium:   Convener: Rachel Feldhay Brenner Hebrew Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison   The Holocaust experience reaches us through testimony, and consciousness of the event has invaded the post-Holocaust cultural and educational Weltanschauung. This symposium explores the post-Holocaust reception of Holocaust testimony with special emphasis on the issue of empathy. Are responses to the …