Past Events
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Oct 15Biographing Social Change: Dick Gregory in Recent American History
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Edward Schmitt UW System Fellow (2018-2019) History, UW-Parkside Dick Gregory was a pivotal figure in modern American popular culture and a catalyst in the movements for social justice emerging out of the 1960s. This presentation will offer a brief overview of Gregory’s life and historical significance, along with a discussion of the …
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Oct 12On Human Nature: Machiavelli’s “Mandrake” at 500
Memorial Library, Room 126
Symposium: Multiple Speakers (see below) Niccolò Machiavelli’s political treatise The Prince (1513) casts its shadow far and wide across the humanities and social sciences. Often eclipsed by the scandalous, utilitarian ethics of the treatise – as well as by Shakespeare’s later elaboration of its themes – Machiavelli’s bawdy comedy, Mandragola (“Mandrake”, 1518) displays powerfully …
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Oct 10The Insular-Real: Islands, Archipelagoes, and Questions of Scale
Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, Room L140
2018 Nellie Y. McKay Lecture in the Humanities: Michelle Stephens Professor of English and Latino and Caribbean Studies and Dean of the Humanities, Rutgers University The question of scale has always been central to island studies. Whether through an engagement with relational and archipelagic forces, the employment of fractals, or the prominent positioning of …
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Oct 8The African HipHop Movement: Youth Culture and Democracy in Senegal
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Damon Chandru Sajnani Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity Fellow (2018-2019) African Cultural Studies, UW–Madison This seminar will introduce my book project demonstrating how Senegalese artist-activists are mobilizing HipHop to impact formal politics on an unprecedented scale. My core argument is that Senegalese rappers organically deploy an anticolonial notion of democracy that challenges orthodox …
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Oct 1A History of Black Women in Higher Education from 1954-2014
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Rachelle Winkle-Wagner Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity Fellow (2018-2019) Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, UW–Madison This seminar will preview a portion of my book manuscript which is a historiographical project about how Black women have survived and thrived in and beyond higher education amidst formidable challenges. In the book, entitled, The Chosen We: …
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Sep 24Getting by on Music: Re-scaling to New Circumstances in Recife’s Music Scene
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Falina Enriquez Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity (REI) Fellow (2018-2019) Anthropology; Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies (LACIS), UW–Madison In the 2000s and early 2010s, musicians in Recife, the capital of the northeastern state of Pernambuco, were benefiting from federal and state multicultural policies, which enabled many of them to envision and execute …
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Sep 17The Long, Glorious, and Unfortunate Life of Pompey the Great
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Jeffrey Beneker Resident Fellow (2018-2019) Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, UW–Madison Young Pompey was “great” in the way that mattered most to the Romans: on the battlefield. He earned his title at a relatively young age and became greater as he grew older, achieving military victories against a variety of opponents …
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Sep 10Abusing Science: The Case of Free Will
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Lawrence Shapiro Senior Fellow (2017-2021) Philosophy, UW–Madison The tension between science and religion has increased in recent years with the rise of the so-called “New Atheists” and, as well, with the enthusiasm some scientists have displayed for pronouncing on concerns that have long resided within the domain of religion, e.g. the origin …
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May 7Irrelevance
University Club, Banquet Hall (lower level)
2018 Closing Panel: What is irrelevance? What sort of research is irrelevant, in the humanities? Is all scholarship relevant in the humanities? Have you done research or teaching that you consider to be irrelevant? Have others? Panelists: Steven Hutchinson, Senior Fellow (Spanish and Portuguese, UW–Madison) Kelsey Ihinger, Dana-Allen Dissertation Fellow (Spanish and Portuguese, UW–Madison) Su …
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Apr 30A Spiritual Revolution: The Impact of the Reformation and Enlightenment in Early Modern Orthodox Russia
University Club, Room 212
Monday Seminar: Andrey V. Ivanov History, UW-Platteville UW System Fellow (2017-2018) This book project evaluates the influence of Reformation and Enlightenment ideas on Eastern Orthodox Church during the age of great reforms under the reigns of Peter I (1672-1725), Catherine II (1729-1796) and Alexander I (1777-1825). During this period of time, Russia’s energetic …