Past Events

Hazards of Time Travel

Joyce Carol Oates
Berkeley Book Chats
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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is the dystopian story of a young woman living in a bleak future dictatorship, who is punished for her transgressions by being sent back in time.

Writing Freedom — and Its Constraints

Maggie Nelson in Conversation with Nadia Ellis
Thursday, Feb 28, 2019 5:00 pm
| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Maggie Nelson, the 2018-19 Una's Lecturer, is joined in conversation by UC Berkeley professor of English Nadia Ellis.

Maggie Nelson, Writer

Songs of Care and Constraint
Una's Lecture
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2019 5:00 pm
| Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall
Maggie Nelson, a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, is the author of numerous works of nonfiction and poetry, including The Argonauts, an autobiographical account that received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Michael Lewis

In Conversation on the Art of Writing
Art of Writing
Tuesday, Feb 26, 2019 5:00 pm
| Morrison Reading Room, 101 Doe Library

Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short, Moneyball, and other bestselling books, discusses his career and practice as a writer.

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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Diego Pirillo offers a new history of early modern diplomacy, centered on Italian religious refugees who left Italy in order to forge ties with English and northern European Protestants in the hope of inspiring an Italian Reformation.

The Politics of Truth: A Way Forward

Arlie Hochschild and Thomas Laqueur in Conversation
Public University, Public Values
Thursday, Feb 7, 2019 5:00 pm
| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Arlie Hochschild and Thomas Laqueur discuss the contributions that academic scholars can make to the public understanding of truth and its relation to politics.

The Chinese Pleasure Book

Michael Nylan
Berkeley Book Chats
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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Michael Nylan explores the concept of “pleasure”—including both short-term delight and longer-term satisfaction—as understood by major thinkers of ancient China.

How Art Can Be Thought: A Handbook for Change

Allan deSouza
Berkeley Book Chats
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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

What terms do we use to describe and evaluate art? How do we judge if art is good, and if it is for the social good? DeSouza investigates the terminology through which art is discussed, valued, and taught.

Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion

Daniel Boyarin
Berkeley Book Chats
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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Boyarin argues that the very concept of a religion of “Judaism” is an invention of the Christian church that was adopted by Jews only with the coming of modernity and the spread of Christian languages.

The Orphan Band of Springdale

Anne Nesbet
Berkeley Book Chats
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| Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Nesbet’s historical novel for younger readers takes place during World War II in Springdale, Maine. It tells the story of 11-year-old Gusta, who is sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother after her labor-organizer father is forced to flee the country.