Spring 2019 Humanities Forum
Spring 2019
Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City
Friday, January 25, 3 p.m., ’64 Hall
Nikole Hannah-Jones
An investigative journalist and New York Times staff writer, Ms. Jones is one of the foremost reporters writing about school re-segregation and associated issues. Recipient of a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship, she has won numerous honors including the Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award. She was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists in 2015.
To view Ms. Jones’ talk, please click here.
Voices of the Liturgy: Models from Ancient Syriac Christianity
Friday, February 1, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Susan Ashbrook Harvey
Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and the Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of History and Religion, Brown University.
A Brown faculty member since 1987, Dr. Harvey is an expert on late antique and Byzantine Christianity, Syriac studies in particular. She is the author of two books and numerous articles, covering topics such as asceticism, hagiography, women and gender, and piety in late antique Christianity.
To view Dr. Harvey’s talk, please click here.
On the Importance of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in a Liberal Education
Friday, February 8, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Daniel Mahoney
Professor of Political Science, Assumption College
An expert on French political philosophy, Dr. Mahoney is the author of several books including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology. The 1999 recipient of the prestigious Prix Raymond Aron, he is associate editor of Perspectives on Political Science and book review editor of Society.
To view Dr. Mahoney’s talk, please click here.
Literature and Torture
Friday, February 15, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Gary Saul Morson
Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Professor Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University
Dr. Morson has scholarly expertise in several fields, including literary theory, the history of ideas, a variety of literary genres, and writers including Chekhov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. A member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has won “best book of the year” awards from the American Comparative Literature Association and the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.
To view Dr. Morson’s talk, please click here.
Songs Without Words
Friday, February 22, 7 p.m. Ryan Concert Hall
Les Délices
Debra Nagy, artistic director and oboist
Les Délices “fosters, educates, and expands audiences for live chamber music on period instruments through dedication to underperformed repertoires.” Based in Cleveland, the ensemble performs around the U.S. and internationally. Songs Without Words is a Baroque-Jazz crossover featuring Baroque composers Lambert, Lully, and Marais alongside songs by Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Stephen Sondheim.
To view this performance, please click here.
L’Enfant (The Child)
Friday, March 1, 3 p.m. Guzman 250
A 2005 film directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Hosted by Matthew Cuddeback, Providence College Department of Philosophy
Starring Jérémie Renier and Déborah François, L’Enfant won the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2005. The film tells the powerful and deeply moving story of a poor young couple with a newborn son living in a small Belgian town.
The Gulag Archipelago: What We Know Now, and Why it Matters
Friday, March 22, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Anne Applebaum, journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Visiting Professor of Practice, London School of Economics
An acclaimed journalist, author, and scholar, Ms. Applebaum has reported for The Economist, The Spectator, and The Washington Post. Her book on the Soviet concentration camp system, Gulag: A History, won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. She currently oversees Arena, a project on propaganda and disinformation, at the London School of Economics.
To view Ms. Applebaum’s talk, please click here.
Virtue’s Pour: Taverns In and Around the Shakespearean Theater
Friday, March 29, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Brother Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04, Dominican House of Studies
Brother Jordan is a New Bedford native and 2004 graduate of Providence College, where he majored in English and minored in political science. He went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in English Literature, specializing in Shakespearean Drama, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Brother Jordan entered the Order of Preachers in 2013.
To view Brother Zajac’s talk, please click here.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha and Religion in Native North America
Friday, April 5, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Chris Vecsey
Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies Dept. of Religion, Colgate University
A prolific scholar who has authored some 15 books and numerous other publications, Dr. Vecsey specializes in American Indian religions, American religious history, American Indian studies, and contemporary religious issues. A Colgate professor for 35 years, Dr. Vecsey was the 2018 co-winner of that university’s Jerome Balmuth Award for Teaching and Student Engagement.
To view Dr. Vecsey’s talk, please click here.
Sustainability Requires Good Governance
Friday, April 12, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Kurt Lieberman
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Research Officer, and Chief Investment Officer, Magni Glogal
An business visionary who has started five companies, Mr. Lieberman has more than 30 years of leadership experience focusing on entrepreneurship, management, and strategy. A former senior executive with Thomson Reuters, Reynolds & Reynolds, and Ecolab, he has presented on governance at the United Nations and other international organizations.
To view Mr. Lieberman’s talk, please click here.
The Old Drift
Friday, April 26, 3 p.m. Ruane 105
Namwali Serpell
Associate Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley
A native of Zambia who was educated at Harvard and Yale, Dr. Serpell won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Fiction in English for her book The Sack. Four years earlier, she was awarded the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, given to beginning women writers. An associate professor at Berkeley, Dr. Serpell researches contemporary fiction and film, studying the relationship between aesthetic reception, affect, and ethics.
