Special Events Archive (2017-2018)
EARLY MODERN DRAMA, EARLY MODERN POETICS Heading link
April 20, 2018 from 1:00 – 6:30 PM
Early Modern Drama, Early Modern Poetics:
A Symposium in Honor of Mary Beth Rose.
1:00 Opening Remarks: Lisa A. Freeman
1:30-3:00: Panel I: Lisa A. Freeman, Moderator
Jean Howard, Columbia University “Rewriting Shakespeare: Bond’s Bingo”
Leah Marcus, Vanderbilt University, “In Defense of Antitheatricality”
3:00-3:30: Short Break
3:30-5:00: Panel II: Mark Canuel, Moderator
Wendy Wall, Northwestern University, “Salvation and the ‘New Science’: Hester Pulter’s Poetics”
Brian Sheerin, St. Edward’s University, “Tudor Mathematics and the Poetic Imagination: Legitimizing Fictions”
5:00-6:30: Closing Remarks and Reception with Champagne Toasts
JEWISH MUSLIM INITIATIVE PROGRAM Heading link
March 7, 2018
Jewish Muslim Initiative Program
4pm-6pm
Sacred Cultures of Care: Judaism, Islam, and the Politics of Poverty and Justice will gather scholars who examine the role of Judaism and Islam—and their interactions with other traditions and social phenomena—in defining and forging the “social good” through various practical and ethical visions and movements. How have the Jewish and Islamic religious traditions animated social projects to address poverty and justice? How have their traditional notions and practices of alms transformed over time? How do charitable practices and social movements blur and construct boundaries between religious groups? Who are the recipients of care, and who are the excluded? Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists will interface with community organizers to discuss the urgency of these questions.
We will kick off our event with a roundtable with practitioners from some of America’s leading Jewish and Muslim charitable, aid, and social justice organizations. They will discuss the ethical and political issues they navigate in their work. As one of the nation’s most diverse campuses with a student body active in issues of social justice, the University of Illinois at Chicago is an ideal host for these pressing discussions.
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March 8, 2018
Jewish Muslim Initiative Program
9 AM – 5 PM
Sacred Cultures of Care: Judaism, Islam, and the Politics of Poverty and Justice
This conference will gather scholars who examine the role of Judaism and/or Islam as they define and endeavor to forge the “social good” through various practical and ethical visions and movements. How have the Jewish and Islamic religious traditions animated social projects to address poverty and justice? How have their traditional notions and practices of alms transformed over time? How do charitable practices and social movements blur and construct boundaries between religious groups? Who are the recipients of care, and who are the excluded? Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists will interface with community organizers to discuss the urgency of these questions.
ROUNDTABLE SPEAKERS
March 7 Roundtable, 4:00-6:00pm, Jane Addams Hull House
Practitioners for March 7 Roundtable
(Additional Roundtable Practitioners to be announced.)
Saima Azfar • Director of the Midwest Region, Islamic Circle of North America Relief
Rabbi Michael Balinsky • Executive Vice President, Chicago Board of Rabbis
Alia J. Bilal • Account Manager, Zakat Foundation of America
Amina Demir • Account Manager, Zakat Foundation of America
Dr. Marc Swatez • Executive Director, The ARK
Brad Sugar • Executive Director of the Midwest Region, American Jewish World Service
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
March 8 Conference, 9:00-5:00pm, UIC Institute for the Humanities
8:00-8:45 | Breakfast
8:45-9:00 | Welcome to the conference by Sam Fleischacker and Nermeen Mouftah
9:00-9:50 |Yaron Ayalon, Ball State University “Ottoman Jewish and Muslim Charity: Lessons for Cross-Confessional Interactions”
10:00-10:50 | Alyssa M. Gray , Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion “Giving the Needy Just What They Need: A Biblical Idea and Its Transformation in Judaic Religious Thought”
11:00-11:10 | Coffee Break
11:10-12:00 | Nada Moumtaz, University of Toronto “Care of the family as Islamic charity? The case of a public waqf in 19th c. Beirut”
12:10-1:00 | Danielle Widmann Abraham, Ursinus College “Justice, Beauty, Devotion, and Freedom: The Matrix of Care in Islamic Tradition”
1:00-1:45 | LUNCH
2:00-2:50 | Moshe Kornfeld, Washington University in St.Louis “From Vulnerability to Privilege: The Shifting Landscape of Jewish Responsibility”
3:00-3:50 | Maryam Kashani, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “The Middle Ummah and Its Discontents: Muslim Discourses of Hierarchy, DIfference, and Social Justice”
4:00-4:50 | Nermeen Mouftah, University of Illinois at Chicago ‘Faith Development beyond Religion: The NGO as Site of Islamic Reform”
5:00-5:45 | Reception
Date(s): Thursday, 3/8 9:00 AM to Thursday, 3/8 5:00 PM
Address: 701 South Morgan
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Website: https://huminst.red.uic.edu/
Phone: (312) 996-6352
Jewish Muslim Initiative Program Heading link
March 7, 2018
Jewish Muslim Initiative Program
4pm-6pm
Sacred Cultures of Care: Judaism, Islam, and the Politics of Poverty and Justice will gather scholars who examine the role of Judaism and Islam—and their interactions with other traditions and social phenomena—in defining and forging the “social good” through various practical and ethical visions and movements. How have the Jewish and Islamic religious traditions animated social projects to address poverty and justice? How have their traditional notions and practices of alms transformed over time? How do charitable practices and social movements blur and construct boundaries between religious groups? Who are the recipients of care, and who are the excluded? Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists will interface with community organizers to discuss the urgency of these questions.
We will kick off our event with a roundtable with practitioners from some of America’s leading Jewish and Muslim charitable, aid, and social justice organizations. They will discuss the ethical and political issues they navigate in their work. As one of the nation’s most diverse campuses with a student body active in issues of social justice, the University of Illinois at Chicago is an ideal host for these pressing discussions.
—
March 8, 2018
Jewish Muslim Initiative Program
9 AM – 5 PM
Sacred Cultures of Care: Judaism, Islam, and the Politics of Poverty and Justice
This conference will gather scholars who examine the role of Judaism and/or Islam as they define and endeavor to forge the “social good” through various practical and ethical visions and movements. How have the Jewish and Islamic religious traditions animated social projects to address poverty and justice? How have their traditional notions and practices of alms transformed over time? How do charitable practices and social movements blur and construct boundaries between religious groups? Who are the recipients of care, and who are the excluded? Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists will interface with community organizers to discuss the urgency of these questions.
ROUNDTABLE SPEAKERS
March 7 Roundtable, 4:00-6:00pm, Jane Addams Hull House
Practitioners for March 7 Roundtable
(Additional Roundtable Practitioners to be announced.)
Saima Azfar • Director of the Midwest Region, Islamic Circle of North America Relief
Rabbi Michael Balinsky • Executive Vice President, Chicago Board of Rabbis
Alia J. Bilal • Account Manager, Zakat Foundation of America
Amina Demir • Account Manager, Zakat Foundation of America
Dr. Marc Swatez • Executive Director, The ARK
Brad Sugar • Executive Director of the Midwest Region, American Jewish World Service
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
March 8 Conference, 9:00-5:00pm, UIC Institute for the Humanities
8:00-8:45 | Breakfast
8:45-9:00 | Welcome to the conference by Sam Fleischacker and Nermeen Mouftah
9:00-9:50 |Yaron Ayalon, Ball State University “Ottoman Jewish and Muslim Charity: Lessons for Cross-Confessional Interactions”
10:00-10:50 | Alyssa M. Gray , Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion “Giving the Needy Just What They Need: A Biblical Idea and Its Transformation in Judaic Religious Thought”
11:00-11:10 | Coffee Break
11:10-12:00 | Nada Moumtaz, University of Toronto “Care of the family as Islamic charity? The case of a public waqf in 19th c. Beirut”
12:10-1:00 | Danielle Widmann Abraham, Ursinus College “Justice, Beauty, Devotion, and Freedom: The Matrix of Care in Islamic Tradition”
1:00-1:45 | LUNCH
2:00-2:50 | Moshe Kornfeld, Washington University in St.Louis “From Vulnerability to Privilege: The Shifting Landscape of Jewish Responsibility”
3:00-3:50 | Maryam Kashani, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “The Middle Ummah and Its Discontents: Muslim Discourses of Hierarchy, DIfference, and Social Justice”
4:00-4:50 | Nermeen Mouftah, University of Illinois at Chicago ‘Faith Development beyond Religion: The NGO as Site of Islamic Reform”
5:00-5:45 | Reception
Date(s): Wednesday, 3/7 4:00 PM to Wednesday, 3/7 6:00 PM
Address: 800 S. Halsted St.
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Phone: (312) 996-6352
Crisis in Venezuela: Historical Perspectives and Potential Solutions Heading link
March 1, 2018
3 – 5:00 PM
Student Center East
Room 302
Crisis in Venezuela: Historical Perspectives and Potential Solutions
An event organized by NU’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center & UIC’s Institute for the Humanities
TO LISTEN TO WBEZ 91.5 Chicago: Worldview interview March 1, 2018 PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK [RADIO INTERVIEW]
The death of President Hugo Chávez in 2013 and the fall of international oil prices produced a major political and socioeconomic crisis in Venezuela. The ensuing conflict between the government of President Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s successor, independent Chavista sectors, opposition movements, and U.S.-backed conservative elites over issues concerning democratic rule and national sovereignty is still unfolding. The deepening of the Venezuelan conflict has potentially dire implications for the entire hemisphere. This event on current affairs in Venezuela—sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute for the Humanities, and Northwestern University’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center—brings together a panel of prominent scholars of the South American nation to discuss the historical causes of the crisis, the current situation, and the potential outcomes. The one-day conference will address the crucial question: Is a political solution to the Venezuelan crisis possible?
The event is open to the public and the media, and will run as a conversatorio: panelists present and the moderator takes the lead in establishing a dialogue with them and the public
Guest speakers:
Alejandro Velasco, Associate Professor of History, Gallatin School, New York University. He works on urban history and popular participation and mobilization in Venezuela. He is the Executive Editor of NACLA: Report of the Americas, a reputed publication on Latin America that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. His book Barrio Rising. Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (University of California Press, 2015) won the LASA’s Fernando Coronil Book Award. He will offer a historical analysis of Chavismo, the Bolivarian movement, and the crisis, which is what he has been doing for the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking press in the last years.
Verónica Zubillaga, Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Technologies, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas. She is a renowned sociologist and anthropologist who specializes on gender, urban violence, and drug trafficking in Venezuela. She has been a visitor professor at Brown University and at David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University. In recent years, she has combined academia with public impact, making her an important presence in mass and social media in her country. Her books in Spanish have contribute to define the field of social violence in Latin America. Her contribution to the event is her lucid analysis on the inner dynamics of escalation of the conflict.
David Smilde, Professor, Department of Sociology, Tulane University. He is a sociologists and international relations scholar with decade-long work on social mobilization, human rights, and culture in Venezuela. He is a Senior Fellow at WOLA, Washington Office for Latin America, a leading research and advocacy organization on human rights. He is also the co-editor of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Democracy (Duke University Press, 2011), and has been publishing on Venezuela for the major newspapers in the United States since the crisis began. His contribution to the event is an analysis of the crisis in a hemispheric perspective that considers the United States and neighboring countries, as well as their role in a political and regional solution.
Organizers:
Lina Britto, History Department, Northwestern University
Joaquín Chávez, History Department, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sponsors:
Northwestern University: History Department, Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Buffett Institute for Global Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago: Institute for the Humanities, Imagining Peace in the 21st Century Working Group, Departments of History, Latin American & Latino Studies, Urban Planning and Policy
University of Chicago, Center for Latin American Studies
TO LISTEN TO WBEZ 91.5 Chicago: Worldview interview March 1, 2018 PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK [RADIO INTERVIEW]
Date(s): Thursday, 3/1 3:00 PM to Thursday, 3/1 5:00 PM
GERARD COHEN-VRIGNAUD LECTURE "THE RIGHTS OF MONSTERS: ALLEGORY AND MODERN POLITICS" Heading link
Thursday, Feb 28, 2018
12:30-2:00
Lecture by Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud (University of Tennessee English)
“The Rights of Monsters: Allegory and Modern Politics”
MARSHA CASSIDY LECTURE “THE MONSTER, THE BRIDE, AND THE MOVIES: THE CULTURAL ICONOGRAPHY OF FRANKENSTEIN" Heading link
Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018
4pm-6pm
Lecture by Marsha Cassidy (UIC English)
“The Monster, the Bride, and the Movies: The Cultural Iconography of Frankenstein”
(This event is part of the Frankenstein at 200 Series, click here to learn more)
Date(s): Wednesday, 2/28 4:00 PM to Wednesday, 2/28 6:00 PM
Address: 701 S. Morgan Street
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Website: https://huminst.red.uic.edu
Phone: 312-996-6352
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN FILM SCREENING Heading link
Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018
12 noon-2pm
Screening of The Bride of Frankenstein and informal discussion led by UIC Students Gustavo Ott and Thomas Baker.
This event is part of the Frankenstein at 200 Series, click here to learn more)
Date(s): Wednesday, 2/28 12:00 PM to Wednesday, 2/28 2:00 PM
INTERDISCIPLINARY FRANKENSTEIN Heading link
Tuesday, Feb 27, 2018
12:30pm-1:45pm
Interdisciplinary Frankenstein
Panel with
Sara Guyer (UW Madison English)
“Reading the Present”
Nasser Mufti (UIC English)
” ‘There Can Be No Community Between You and Me’ ”
Tim Murphy (Philosophy in Biomedical Science, UIC School of Medicine)
“Intervening in the Lives to Come”
(This event is part of the Frankenstein at 200 Series, click here to learn more)
Date(s): Tuesday, 2/27 12:30 PM to Tuesday, 2/27 1:45 PM
FRANKENSTEIN @200 Heading link
Three days of celebrating the bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or: The Modern Prometheus
Tuesday, Feb 27, 2018
12:30pm-1:45pm
Interdisciplinary Frankenstein
Panel with
Sara Guyer (UW Madison English)
“Reading the Present”
Nasser Mufti (UIC English)
“‘There Can Be No Community Between You and Me’”
Tim Murphy (Philosophy in Biomedical Science, UIC School of Medicine)
“Intervening in the Lives to Come”
Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018
12 noon-2pm
Screening of The Bride of Frankenstein and informal discussion
Wednesday, Feb 28, 2018
4pm-6pm
Lecture by Marsha Cassidy (UIC English)
“The Monster, the Bride, and the Movies: The Cultural Iconography of Frankenstein”
Thursday, Mar 1, 2018
12:30-2:00
Lecture by Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud (University of Tennessee English)
“The Rights of Monsters: Allegory and Modern Politics”
Date(s): Tuesday, 2/27 12:30 PM to Thursday, 3/1 2:00 PM
Address: 701 S Morgan Street
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Website: huminst.red.uic.edu
Phone: (312) 996-6352
FLASH CONFERENCE: HARASSMENT CULTURE: #METOO, #TIMESUP, AND THE CURRENT CONVERSATION Heading link
February 14, 2018 from 3 – 4:30
Flash Conference: Harassment Culture: #metoo, #timesup, and the Current Conversation
Ronak Kapadia, UIC Gender and Women’s Studies, Global Asian Studies Program
Deana G. Lewis, UIC Gender and Women’s Studies
Adrienne Massanari, UIC Communications
This is the second in a series of “Flash Conferences,” quickly organized discussions of current events from a humanities perspective (including theory, history and cultural context).
“WHAT LURKS IN THE GREAT LAKES? PIPELINES, INVASIVE SPECIES AND OTHER UNDERWATER PERILS” Heading link
Dan Egan on: “What Lurks in the Great Lakes? Pipelines, Invasive Species and Other Underwater Perils”
Dan Egan, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has won the Oakes Award, the National Headliner Award, and the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. A graduate of the Columbia Journalism School, he lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sponsored by the UIC Freshwater Lab
Date(s): Wednesday, 11/15 4:00 PM to Wednesday, 11/15 6:00 PM
Address: 701 S. Morgan St.
Location: Chicago, IL, United States
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Phone: 312-996-6352
GWENDOLYN BROOKS’S POEMS: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION Heading link
“Gwendolyn Brooks’s Poems: A Centenary Celebration”
Readings of poetry and discussions of Brooks’s legacy.
November 8, 2017
3 – 5:30 PM
Presenters Include:
CM Burroughs, Reginald Gibbons, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Angela Jackson, Ed Roberson
CM Burroughs is Assistant Professor of Poetry at Columbia College Chicago. She is the author of The Vital System (2012). A Pushcart Prize nominee and a finalist for the 2009 Gift of Freedom Award, she has published poetry in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Callaloo, jubilat, Ploughshares, VOLT, Bat City Review, The Golden Shovel Anthology, Revising the Psalm Anthology, and Best American Experimental Writing Anthology. She has been awarded fellowships and grants from organizations including Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Cave Canem Foundation.
Reginald Gibbons is Frances Hooper Professor of Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University. He has published ten books of poems, including Sparrow: New and Selected Poems (1997), winner of the Balcones Poetry Prize, and Creatures of a Day (2008)–finalist for the National Book Award–and most recently Last Lake (2016). He is a contributor to the new The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and helped found the BrooksDay annual celebrations of Brooks and her poetry. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Quraysh Ali Lansana is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and the Red Earth MFA Creative Writing Program at Oklahoma City University. His publications include A Gift from Greensboro (2016); mystic turf (2012), and several anthologies. Two volumes engage Gwendolyn Brooks: Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, with Sandra Jackson-Opoku (2017); and The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent, with Georgia A. Popoff (2017). His awards include the 2000 Poet of the Year Award, presented by Chicago’s Black Book Fair; and the 1999 Henry Blakely Award, presented by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Angela Jackson is a Chicago-based poet, novelist and playwright. Her most recent volume, It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time (2015), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Pen Open Book Award, and a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Award. Her publications include Where I Must Go(2009), American Book Award winner 2013. In 2017, A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life and Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks appeared through Beacon Press. She was awarded the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America (2011).
Ed Roberson lives in Chicago, where he taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, including To See the Earth Before the End of the World (2010), runner-up for the Los Angeles Times Poetry Award; Atmosphere Conditions (1999), which was chosen by Nathaniel Mackey for the National Poetry Series and was a finalist for the Academy of American Poets’ Lenore Marshall Award. Roberson’s honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2016, the Lila Wallace Writers’ Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Award, and the 2016 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry.
Sponsored with the UIC English Department and the Poetry Foundation
Date(s): Wednesday, 11/8 3:00 PM to Wednesday, 11/8 5:30 PM
Contact: Linda Vavra
Email: lvavra@uic.edu
Website: http://www.huminst.red.uic.edu
Phone: (312) 996-6352
FRANK ETTAWAGESHIK, "INDIGENOUS WATER SOVEREIGNTY" Heading link
“Indigenous Water Sovereignty”
Frank Ettawageshik, Chair of the Governing Board of the United League of Indigenous Nations, Anishinaabe Water Activist, Former Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians
Sponsored by the UIC Freshwater Lab
FLASH CONFERENCE: THE MONUMENT DEBATE Heading link
Flash Conference: The Monument Debate
October 24, 2017
12:00 – 1:30 PM
Natasha Barnes, English
Lisa Yun Lee, Art History
Margarita Saona, Hispanic Studies
Please join us for a lively discussion of the defense of, and the protest against, Confederate Monuments.
This is the first in a series of “Flash Conferences,” quickly organized discussions of current events from a humanities perspective (including theory, history and cultural context).