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
“Two Views: James Baldwin”

Postponed due to illness, please check back for new time and date

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.

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Bruce Ackerman, Law and Political Science, Yale University
“The Death of Citizenship?”

Thursday, March 13, 2008
5pm  |  Geballe Room, Townsend Center, 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?

The major works of political philosophy of the past generation have neglected this question. They have tended toward a Utopian exploration of liberal political ideals. Over the past decade, Bruce Ackerman has been working with colleagues on a series of practical proposals that aim to reconstruct the political and economic foundations of citizenship in ways that make sense in a liberal market society.  The question is whether these proposals, or similar ones, provide a path toward the reinvigoration of the practice of American citizenship in the twenty-first century.

Click here for more information about Bruce Ackerman.

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Leon Fleisher, pianist and conductor
In Conversation

Thursday, April 3, 2008
7pm  |  Museum Theater, Berkeley Art Museum,
2621 Durant Avenue, 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.

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Homi K. Bhabha, English, Harvard University
“On Global Memory: Thoughts on the Barbaric Transmission of Culture”

Friday, April 18, 2008
2pm  | 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?

Click here for more information about Homi K. Bhabha.