Past Events

Joseph Blankholm is an assistant professor of religious studies at UC Santa Cruz. A scholar of atheism and secularism, he earned his PhD at Columbia University.

George W. Bush's War on Terror has led to seventeen years of armed conflict, making it the longest war in US history. Professor Mark Danner examines this state of perpetual struggle and its widespread acceptance in the name of American security.

Cultural critic Greil Marcus and publisher Steve Wasserman discuss their nearly half-century of collaboration.

Professor of History Peter Sahlins explores the “animal moment” in and around 1668, in which French authors, anatomists, painters, sculptors, and especially the young Louis XIV turned their attention to nonhuman beings.

In his study of High Renaissance art, Professor of English James Turner demonstrates the surprisingly close connection between explicitly pornographic art and the canonical works of masters such as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

Death Be Not Proud: The Art of Holy Attention traces the role of attentiveness in philosophy, prayer, and devotional poetry, exploring a tradition of striving for a mental state devoid of distraction.

Illuminating the story of how cultural exchange programs brought many of the most important Latin American artists and writers to the United States, Richard Cándida Smith explores Pan-American cultural exchange in the twentieth century.

A 70-minute screening of Isaac Julien's film Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask followed by Q&A with Isaac Julien and Judith Butler.

Bill Brown is Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor of English and the visual arts at the University of Chicago.

Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar 21st century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong — it's not just based on bad science, it's bad for kids and parents, too.