Fall 2011 Events and Lectures

September 8: "The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s"

With the rise of the Chinese Cultural Revolution inspired by communist leader Mao Zedong, China became a place of interest for international thinkers. The French took special notice of these winds from the East. Dr. Richard Wolin, Distinguished Professor of History at CUNY Graduate Center, shows how French students and intellectuals, inspired by their perceptions of the Cultural Revolution and motivated by idealistic hopes, began grassroots social movements aimed at renewing French culture. But he also explains how the Mao cult in Paris had little to do with a real understanding of Chinese politics. Instead, it served as a vehicle for the transformation of French thought, society, and politics. Reception at 6:00 p.m. and lecture at 6:30 p.m. at the University Center Theater.

September 27, October 4, October 5, October 6, October 11: Tournees French Film Festival

The Tournées Festival showcases new French films. It is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture as well as Public Service Funds at The University of Memphis. All movies will be shown in the University Center Movie Theater at 7:00 p.m. with free admission.

Tuesday September 27, 2011: Des Dieux et des Hommes
Tuesday October 4, 2011: Un Prophète
Wednesday October 5, 2011: Deux de la Vague
Thursday October 6, 2011: Potiche
Tuesday October 11, 2011: L'Illusioniste
Wednesday, October 12, 2011: ENCORE PRESENTATION OF Des Dieux et des Hommes
October 27-28: "The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock n' Roll"

October 27: The Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities hosts this joint event with the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College. It will focus on the "Chitlin' Circuit," a series of venues that in the midst of racial segregation accommodated some of America's greatest African-American soul and blues performers from the 1930s through the 1960s. Journalist Preston Lauterbach will deliver the keynote lecture based on his new book, The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll. Reception at 6:00 p.m. and lecture at 6:30 p.m. at the University Center Theater.

November 1: David Dorfman Dance

Renowned University of Connecticut Dance Professor David Dorfman brings "Prophets of Funk" to campus, to be preceded by an informance by Professor Dorfman. Informance at 6:00 p.m. in the Rose Theatre Entertainment Lobby with a reception to follow. Performance at 7:30 p.m. Informance is free and open to the public. For tickets to the performance, please call (901) 678-4164.

November 4: Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia"

The Independent has called the 1993 play Arcadia, "the greatest play of our age." Crafted by the celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard, the play about "landscape architecture, mathematics, and Lord Byron" comes to campus with an informance by Alistair Windsor, Professor of Mathematical Sciences, and Jeffrey Scraba, Professor of English. Informance at 6:00 p.m. in the College of Communications and Fine Arts Lobby with a reception to follow. Informance is free and open to the public. For tickets to the performance, please call the box office at (901) 678-2576.

November 10-11: "The King James Bible and the Question of Eloquence"

November 10: Robert Alter, Professor of Hebrew Language and Comparative Literature at the University of California-Berkeley, will deliver the Department of English's Naseeb Shaheen Memorial Lecture on "The King James Bible and the Question of Eloquence," a talk based on his book Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible. This keynote lecture inaugurates a series of events at The University of Memphis and Rhodes College celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, including panel and roundtable discussions, a library exhibit, and a musical performance at Rhodes College. Reception at 6:00 p.m. and lecture at 6:30 p.m. at the University Center Theater.

November 11: Presentations and roundtable discussions on the significance of the 1611 publication of the King James Bible by Brian Cummings, Hannibal Hamlin, Ena Heller, Naomi Tadmor, and Vincent Wimbush, with a response by Robert Alter. At Rhodes College Blount Auditorium, 1:00-5:00 p.m. http://rhodes.edu/1611

2009/10 SERIES:
RE-THINKING EDUCATION,
RE-FIGURING BEING HUMAN

Spring 2010 Events and Lectures

Why Anticolonialism Wasn't a Human Rights Movement

January 22 | 3:00 pm Lecture | 4:30 Reception | Rose Theater Entertainment Lobby

A Lecture by Samuel Moyn, Columbia University

Recently, American historians have invented a new field called the history of human rights. Their attitude towards decolonization is that it advanced human rights and is therefore part of the story of the concept's morally uplifting implications and slow advance through the present. This talk, in contrast and by way of response, starts from the fact that few anticolonialist activists after World War II invoked the new human rights idea, though decolonization was exploding in the very moment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Professor Moyn will discuss the incongruities and disjunctures at work here before moving on to address the effect of the rise of new states on the United Nations human rights program. This talk is drawn from his larger book, appearing in September as The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Harvard 2010).

Blacks, Jews, Civil Rights: Conflict and Communion

February 11 | 6:00 pm Reception | 7:00 pm Lecture | Location TBA

A Lecture by Eric Sundquist, Foundation Professor of Literature, UCLA

At least through the civil rights era, blacks and Jews often joined together in combating the discrimination that kept both groups on the margins of the democratic nation. Their ambiguous brotherhood as activists, polemicists, and writers defined the promise of equality, even as their differing goals and opportunities led to conflict and estrangement over the very meaning of equality.

Dayton to Dover: Darwinism on Trial, Then and Now

March 16 | 6:00 pm Reception | 7:00 pm Lecture | U C Theatre

A Lecture by Edward Larson, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

Americans have been battling over the issue of teaching evolution in public schools since the 1920s. The passage of Tennessee’s 1925 Anti-Evolution Law, followed by the so-called Tennessee Monkey Trial, set the stage for the ongoing controversy. It continues today in battles over the pace of Creation Science and Intelligent Design in the curriculum. This lecture traces the history of this debate from the Tennessee statehouse in the Twenties to the courthouses and schoolrooms of today.

Fall 2009 Events and Lectures

Keeping the Child In Mind: A conference about Philosophy for Children

September 11 | 4:00 pm | Mitchell Hall Auditorium

Conference Keynote: Gareth Matthews, Just Think About That! Growing Up Philosophically

Reception | 6-9 pm | 1016 Audobon Drive

Featuring: Jana More Lone (Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children and University of Washington), Claire Katz (Texas A&M), David Kennedy (Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children and Montclair State University), Steven Becton (Facing History and Ourselves), Michael Burroughs (U of Memphis), Thomas Wartenberg (Mount Holyoke Collge), Dan Pozmanter (Education to Empower), Rafael Rondon (Sacred Heart Catholic School), Matthew Lexow (University of Memphis) For a complete program, check here.

October 7 and 26: Being Jewish in France: A Two Part Series

October 7 | 6:00 pm | Jewish Community Center 6560 Poplar Avenue

Screening: Comme un juif en France

Lecture by Professor Lisa Moses Leff: “Rescue or Theft? The Postwar Transfer of French-Jewish Archives to the US and the Creation of French Jewish History”

October 26 | 7:00 pm | Rhodes College Buckman Hall

Lifting the Veil on Iran: On Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
Featuring Lily Afshar and Danny Postel

North American Sartre Society conference

November 19 | 7:30 pm | Brooks Museum

Staging: Sartre's No Exit

November 20 | 9-8:15 pm | Panhellenic Building

• Conference Panels 9-5:25
• Reception 5:30-6:30
• Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason at 50 (featuring Robert Bernasconi, Thomas Flynn, Ronald Aronson 6:45-8:15)

• Conference Panels

November 21 | 5:15-7:30 pm | National Civil Rights Museum

• Annie Cohen-Solal, "Sartre's Representation of the United States Considered in Light of the Obama Era"
• Robert JC Young, "Sartre and Postcolonialism"

NEIGHBORS...STRANGERS...ALIENS:
2008-2009 Lecture Series

TROUBLE SPOTS:
2007-2008 Lecture Series