Forum on the Humanities and the Public World
The Townsend Center’s Forum on the Humanities and the Public World presents eminent artists, political leaders, writers and scholars, each representing a unique discipline, viewpoint, and medium. The series brings the humanities
into dialogue with the critical issues at play in the public sphere. The Townsend Center at UC Berkeley has a long and distinguished tradition of humanistic scholarship, open dialogue, and pioneering
innovation in the humanities. It is in this spirit that the Forum on the Humanities and the Public World presents leading figures from the academic and public worlds in settings designed for scholars
and for the public at large.
Spring 2008 Series
Hilton Als, theater critic and staff
writer for The New Yorker
“Inventing Human Rights”
Postponed due to illness. Check back for new date and time.
Ever since he reviewed Baldwin's Collected Works for The New Yorker, Hilton Als has been fascinated by the spectacle of the writer as spokesman. Als will read from two approaches he has taken to Baldwin's life and oeuvre: one critical, the other fictional. In creating a fictional portrait of the writer, Als focuses on the bohemian world where Baldwin made his name in the 1950's. Als' response to Baldwin's life and work is an overall portrait of the celebrated essayist' s importance and failure as a spokesman for "the race."
Click here for more information about Hilton Als.
Bruce Ackerman, Law and Political Science, Yale University
“The Death of Citizenship?”
Tuesday, March 13,
2008
7pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall
The practice of American citizenship is disintegrating before our eyes. The citizen army was killed by Vietnam. The citizen jury has not yet completely disintegrated, but has become a momentary nuisance. The public school remains the only significant institution that still invites involvement by ordinary people, and it too is under attack. And while the internet is providing twenty-first century tools to fill the gap, it is naïve to suppose that this techno-fix will suffice. Are we fated to sit by passively as we witness the lingering death of Tocqueville's America?
Click here for more information about Bruce Ackerman.
Leon Fleisher, pianist and conductor
In conversation
Thursday,
April 3, 2008
7pm | UC Berkeley Art Museum, Museum Theater
(2621 Durant Ave, access via sculpture garden)
The Townsend Center is pleased to present renowned pianist, conductor and teacher Leon Fleisher in conversation with Professor Anthony J. Cascardi, offering a unique opportunity for audiences to hear Fleisher's candid thoughts on music, ability, and pedagogy.
Click here for more information about Leon Fleisher.
Homi Bhabha, Professor of English, Harvard University
“On Global Memory: Thoughts on the Barbaric Transmission of Culture”
Friday, April 18, 2008
5pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall
Many of the issues concerning identity in global discourse are issues related to memory. In this talk, Homi Bhabha will explore the complex and difficult constellations of history and memory as they are transmitted through various cultural practices, asking how may an aesthetics of barbaric transmissions be defined?