Humanitas: Recent Episodes
Cambridge University
Emily Bell, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2015-16, will give an open lecture as part of a series of events she will be doing while in Cambridge on the theme of Facebook Eating the World.
A mobile media revolution is changing the basis of the global free press and dictating the future of self expression. Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple are among the few companies redrawing the boundaries of how we communicate and taking over the role of the global publishers. The future of journalism, the news, free speech and even democratic exchange is changed forever. What does this mean for the news media and for democracy? Is this an exciting new opportunity to remake the news or a long term threat to the public sphere? This lecture examines the rapid changes in the news ecosystem and its implications for the practice and policies of the media industry.
Emily Bell, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2015-16, will be in conversation with Professor Mary Beard (University of Cambridge). They will discuss issues on the theme of Facebook Eating the World.
How can Peace be Made? Session Two
23 October 2015
Martti Ahtisaari, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2015-16, will give two public lectures, participate in a Conversation with other invited speakers, and attend a concluding symposium based on the theme of How can Peace be Made? This is the final event of the series. Confirmed discussants include Professor Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford), Lord Hannay of Chiswick and Professor Jennifer Welsh (European University Institute). The symposium will be chaired by Professor Christopher Hill (University of Cambridge). Further information, including a programme, will follow shortly.
How can Peace be Made? Session One
23 October 2015
Martti Ahtisaari, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2015-16, will give two public lectures, participate in a Conversation with other invited speakers, and attend a concluding symposium based on the theme of How can Peace be Made? This is the final event of the series. Confirmed discussants include Professor Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford), Lord Hannay of Chiswick and Professor Jennifer Welsh (European University Institute). The symposium will be chaired by Professor Christopher Hill (University of Cambridge). Further information, including a programme, will follow shortly.
In Conversation with Humanitas Visiting Professor Martti Ahtisaari
22 October 2015
Martti Ahtisaari, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2015-16, will give two public lectures, participate in a Conversation with other invited speakers, and attend a concluding symposium during his stay in Cambridge. This is the third event in the series. President Ahtisaari will be in conversation with Professor Marc Weller and Professor John Dunn who are both with the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. The event will be chaired by Professor Brendan Simms, also with POLIS.
In Order to Succeed in Peace Mediation you have to be an Honest Broker
21 October 2015
Martti Ahtisaari, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2015-16, will give two public lectures, participate in a Conversation with other invited speakers, and attend a concluding symposium, based on the theme of How Can Peace be Made?. This is the second of his two public lectures. In the lecture the underlying question is what the preconditions are for a successful conflict resolution process. How do you mediate and solve conflicts in a manner that creates solid and sustainable foundation for a society to continue, or begin, its life in peace? For a mediator it is important to understand how to deal with dignity of the parties and to ensure that the society has the grounds to move in the direction of true reconciliation and peace. In this work creating trust is everything. Peace is not implemented only by institutions, but by people.
Preventing Conflicts and Building Fair Societies: What can we learn from the Nordic countries?
19 October 2015
Martti Ahtisaari, the Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2015-16, will give two public lectures, participate in a Conversation with other invited speakers, and attend a concluding symposium based on the theme of How can Peace be Made? This is the first of his two public lectures. Drawing on his wide experience of conflict resolution and development cooperation as well as reflecting on his personal experience in growing up in an egalitarian Nordic society, President Ahtisaari will discuss the basic tenets for stable and fair societies. He will examine the importance of egalitarian policies for improving the life of all citizens.
CRASSH Humanitas Vistitng Professor in Chinese Studiies, Xu Bing, will give two lectures and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed speakers Professor Joshua Jiang (Birmingham City University) Dr Ros Holmes (University of Oxford) Dr Shane McCausland (SOAS) Dr Xiaofan Amy Li (University of Oxford) Professor Vimalin Rujivacharakul (University of Delaware)
There are three videos in this series, Session 1, Session 2 and Session 3
CRASSH Humanitas Vistitng Professor in Chinese Studiies, Xu Bing, will give two lectures and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed speakers Professor Joshua Jiang (Birmingham City University) Dr Ros Holmes (University of Oxford) Dr Shane McCausland (SOAS) Dr Xiaofan Amy Li (University of Oxford) Professor Vimalin Rujivacharakul (University of Delaware)
There are three videos in this series, Session 1, Session 2 and Session 3
CRASSH Humanitas Vistitng Professor in Chinese Studiies, Xu Bing, will give two lectures and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed speakers Professor Joshua Jiang (Birmingham City University) Dr Ros Holmes (University of Oxford) Dr Shane McCausland (SOAS) Dr Xiaofan Amy Li (University of Oxford) Professor Vimalin Rujivacharakul (University of Delaware)
There are three videos in this series, Session 1, Session 2 and Session 3
he CRASSH Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies, Xu Bing (Former President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing), will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium. He will also attend a talk and reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum to celebrate his visit to Cambridge.
Abstracct
The lecture will address the motivation of artistic creation through case studies where the artist gets his source of inspiration. -The relationship between the energy of reality and the energy of creativity -From where does the artist get his inspiration? -The tendency to create in a certain style is an artist's destiny -The organic development of artistic creation -Why I say don't take art too seriously and where does its new energy come from?
The CRASSH Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies, Xu Bing (Former President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing), will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium. He will also attend a talk and reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum to celebrate his visit to Cambridge.
Abstract
Based on his practice in the past decades, Xu Bing will analyze how the cultural gene has been passed on and has thus influenced art making. -The definition of tradition is something transmitted through cultural DNA -What is the strength and weakness of Chinese tradition? How the two can be mutually convertable -Why we hardly take advantage of our own tradition -How the traditional and the contemporary relate with each other -The cause of certain phenomenon in contemporary China Other events in this series
CRASSH Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies, Xu Bing, at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
At this special evening at the Fitzwilliam Museum to celebrate his visit to Cambridge you will have the opportunity to meet Xu Bing and to see a small installation of his four birdcages in the Chinese Gallery. Xu Bing will discuss his work with Shelagh Vainker who curated his exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in 2013.
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former.
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former.
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former.
Richard Haass (American Diplomat), 2015 Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy, will give a series of three public lectures entitled 'World Order: Its Past, Present, & Prospects' and take part a concluding symposium on Friday 27 April 2015.
Abstract
World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be prescriptive as well as predictive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder is, over time, to favor the former.
Natasha Walter, Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2014-15, will give two public lectures with CRASSH and participate in the Cambridge Women of the World event on Sunday 8 March 2015. Together with other invited speakers such as Lucy-Anne Holmes and Rehab Jameel she will discuss current trends in social media and activism. Over the last few years there has been a genuine rise in feminist activism and debate, from No More Page 3 to the campaigns against FGM and the detention of refugee women. Join our speakers from some of the key areas of protest to find out how to get the word out and create change in today's world, from online campaigning to street protests. Professor Andrew Webber from the University of Cambridge will chair the discussion.
Natasha Walter, Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2014-15, will give two public lectures and participate in the Cambridge Women of the World event on Sunday 8 March 2015. The overall theme of all these events is From Sexism to Solidarity.
Abstract Where is this new wave of feminism headed? The outspokenness and energy of individuals and organisations is wonderful to see. How can this energy be harnessed for real change and how far-reaching will these changes be? If we carry feminism through to its real conclusion, all women deserve to be heard and to live in safety; including the currently unheard, the poor, the vulnerable and the stateless. Followed through with honesty and vision, this understanding that feminism must speak up for all women, must cross borders and classes, may pull us into truly radical change.
Natasha Walter, Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2014-15, will give two public lectures and participate in the Cambridge Women of the World event on Sunday 8 March 2015. The overall theme of all these events is From Sexism to Solidarity.
Abstract In her first lecture, Natasha Walter will map current patterns of sexism in our society and the ways that apparently trivial sexism may be linked to inequality and abuse. But she will also look at how, in the five years since the publication of her book Living Dolls: the Return of Sexism, a new wave of feminism has arisen which relies on solidarity and action, and which is challenging the grip of sexism on our society.
As part of the Inaugural Humanitas Visiting Series in Vocal Music, Sir John Tomlinson took part in three events: the first was a recital entitled "Michelangelo in Song", the second a conversation on the construction of the role of Wotan with Patrick Carnery. This video shows Sir John Tomlinson in conversation with composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle about the construction of the role of the Minotaur. The session was chaired by Professor Jonathan Cross (University of Oxford).
During the event, 2 shorts videos from the production of "The Minotaur" at the Royal Opera House were shown. Here are the links:
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The rape scene: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_Fo7tp7kg
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The death of the Minotaur: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf7mZICyEwA
This free-ranging conversation between one of the world’s greatest pianists Murray Perahia and the renowned Chopin scholar John Rink will explore some of the reasons why Chopin’s music continues to have such a hold over musicians and listeners alike. They will begin by discussing a musical depiction of the composer by one of his contemporaries, after which they will turn to some of the principal genres in which Chopin worked, including the Etudes and Nocturnes. Issues of technique and interpretation will be broached along the way. The conversation will also focus on Chopin’s own playing as well as the approaches of legendary pianists over the ages. It will end with an investigation of two large- scale pieces which pose particular conceptual as well as technical challenges. Passages from the repertoire will be illustrated at the piano by Mr Perahia throughout the conversation, laced with spirited commentary and debate.
John Rink is Professor of Musical Performance Studies in the Cambridge Faculty of Music. He has published extensively on Chopin’s music and its performance history.
Open rehearsal. Beethoven String Quartet op.130, with Grosse Fuge. The Doric String Quartet will rehearse and discuss with Murray Perahia one of the works in their concert on 20 January.
Doric String Quartet perform Beethoven's Quartet in B Flat op. 130 with Grosse Fuge at the West Road Convert Hall, 19 January 2015.
Open rehearsal. Beethoven String Quartet op.130, with Grosse Fuge.
To open the 2015 Humanitas Series in Chamber Music, Murray Perahia’s illustrated lecture will explore the music of composers ranging from Bach to Brahms. Referring to contrapuntal, harmonic, melodic and formal features in select masterpieces, Mr Perahia will describe how music can achieve profound meaning and emotion through sounds alone. Much of his commentary will focus in addition on the reflections of these composers on their own music and on the works of others. All of this will be brought to life in passages played at the keyboard, each confirming the indissoluble union of thought and feeling in artistic performance of the highest standard.
David Derwei Wang (Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
Hans van de Ven (Professor of Modern Chinese History, Cambridge University) The Chinese Maritime Customs’ Invention of a Chinese National Language
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
Susan Daruvala (Senior Lecturer in Chinese Literature, Cambridge University) Zhang Ailing and Stella Benson: Imagery and Understanding
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
Julia Lovell (Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History, Birkbeck College) Violent Times, Violent Language: Contemporary Chinese Fiction and the Mimetic Fallacy
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
Michel Hockx (Professor of Chinese, SOAS, and Director of SOAS China Institute) Linguistic, Formal, and Moral Experiments in Contemporary Chinese-Language Poetry on the Internet
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
Qian Jun (Chair of Chinese Studies, Newcastle University): Literariness (Wen) and Character (Zhi) of Modern Chinese Prose
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in this concluding symposium.
Confirmed Speakers: Professor Qian Jun (University of Newcastle) Professor Michel Hockx (SOAS) Professor Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) Dr Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London) Dr Susan Daruvala (University of Cambridge)
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in a concluding symposium on Wednesday 21 May 2014.
Abstract
Sinophone Studies—the study of Sinitic-language cultures born of postcolonial and postsocialist influences—has represented a forceful intervention with Chinese Studies since the turn of the millennium. This talk seeks to examine the recent developments of Sinphone Studies and reflect on their theoretical premises and geopolitical implications.
The talk is divided into three parts. The first part takes issue with the definition of “Sinophone” as a homogeneous discourse and highlights the potential of heteroglossia in any Sinophone articulation. The second part proposes "post-loyalism” as a dialogical critique of the extant paradigm which is rooted primarily in post-colonialism and a renewed Cold-War spatial imaginary. The third part introduces the poetics of “disposition,” as inspired by the traditional Chinese poetics of shi, and suggests that beyond the geopolitics of “root,” scholars should look into the momentum arising from the aesthetic and humanistic engagement with Sinophone Studies.
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in a concluding symposium on Wednesday 21 May 2014.
Abstract
This talk proposes that we rethink the critical paradigm of modern Chinese literature in terms of “literary thought” or wenlun. As opposed to “literary theory” or lilun, which derives its conceptual and rhetorical thrust primarily from Western discourse, Chinese literary thought refers to a group of diverse texts, which in turn belong to distinct genres, occasions, and purposes. It tries to “explain the role literature plays in a civilization and to describe literature and literary works in terms that have resonance in other areas of intellectual and social life.”
The talk introduces the lyrical in epic time as an exemplary case of modern Chinese literary thought. It critiques the conventional wisdom that associates lyrical representation with romantic escapade and sentimental solipsism, calling attention instead to modern writers’ and critics’ reappraisal as well as invention of the “lyrical tradition” of China. In particular, it features the engagements undertaken by intellectuals such as Shen Congwen (1902-1988), Chen Shixiang (1912 -1971) and Jaroslav Průšek (1906-1980) in the mid-twentieth century, a time often regarded as the “epic.” As such, the lyrical in epic time constitutes a significant part of modern lyrical discourse which includes articulations from Heidegger to Benjamin, Adorno, Brooks and de Man.
David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in a concluding symposium on Wednesday 21 May 2014.
Abtract
This talk examines modern Chinese literature not as a corpus of texts but as a constellation of tastes, discourses, occasions, and productions contested by historical dynamics. The talk starts with the year 1908, when Lu Xun introduced “Mara Poet” as a modern agent to “pluck” one’s heart and thereby transform China. This Mara Poet underwent multiple incarnations in the subsequent decades, from a romantic iconoclast to a modernist rebel and a revolutionary fighter, finally becoming a Maoist Cadre. Meanwhile, since the 1920s, modern Chinese literary culture has been occupied by another figure, Alfred Nobel, as the country was striving to catch up with world literature. When Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan were awarded the Nobel Prizes in the new millennium, however, that produced more questions than answers as to the meaning and function of Chinese literature.
From Mara to Nobel by way of Mao, modern Chinese literary culture has been conceived, produced, circulated, and consumed in a multitude of ways. The talk will focus on the following topics: the changing fields of production, the fashioning of literary subjectivity, and the negotiation of literary values, during the pre-May Fourth era, the eve of 1949, and the postsocialist era.
Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh) will give a series of lectures and participate in this concluding symposium, Feminism, Religion, and Women's Rights.
Confirmed speakers: Haifa Zangana (Author) Elif Shafak (Author) Razia Iqbal (BBC) Ash Amin (University of Cambridge)
Other events in this series.
Lecture 1: Monday 10 March Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women’s Rights in Law and Society
Lecture 2: Tuesday 11 March Mary in Christian-Muslim Relations
Lecture 3: Wednesday 12 March From the Feminine to Feminism: Women in Islamic Thought and Literature
Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh) will give a series of lectures and participate in this concluding symposium, Feminism, Religion, and Women's Rights.
Confirmed speakers: Haifa Zangana (Author) Elif Shafak (Author) Razia Iqbal (BBC) Ash Amin (University of Cambridge)
Other events in this series.
Lecture 1: Monday 10 March Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women’s Rights in Law and Society
Lecture 2: Tuesday 11 March Mary in Christian-Muslim Relations
Lecture 3: Wednesday 12 March From the Feminine to Feminism: Women in Islamic Thought and Literature
Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh) will give give a series of lectures and participate in a concluding symposium. This first lecture is Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women's Rights in Law and Society.
Abstract Much of the practice of Islamic personal law is still located in classical jurisprudence where marriage and divorce laws are essentially viewed as performative utterances. Intention, wording and finality are fundamental to the validity of the marriage contract and the end of a contract. Texting, that most modern of communication is expression through technology but not oral utterance. Yet, recent cases in some Islamic countries shows that judges are allowing Muslim men to divorce via text. Contrary to popular perception and practice, divorce is not a simple process in jurisprudence but with the aid of texting, any possibility of ethical considerations towards the wife is being ignored.
Abstract The Theological and Christological conversations between Chrisianity and Islam have historically centered on Jesus as either prophet or messiah. But Mary or Mariam, mother of Jesus is also mentioned more times in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament. Some consider her role to be a bridge between the two faiths, an icon of purity and piety. But there is no cult of Mary in Islam and as some have pointed out, her virginal status does not represent the ideal of the feminine in Islamic cultures. Yet Mary as both a woman and devotee, enjoys a distinct position in Islamic thought even if ultimately it is Jesus who became the star of the story.
Other events in this series
Lecture 1: Monday 10 March Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women’s Rights in Law and Society
Lecture 3: Wednesday 12 March From the Feminine to Feminism: Women in Islamic Thought and Literature
Symposium: Thursday 13 March Feminism, Religion, and Women's Rights
Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh) will give give a series of lectures and participate in a concluding symposium. This first lecture is Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women's Rights in Law and Society.
Abstract Much of the practice of Islamic personal law is still located in classical jurisprudence where marriage and divorce laws are essentially viewed as performative utterances. Intention, wording and finality are fundamental to the validity of the marriage contract and the end of a contract. Texting, that most modern of communication is expression through technology but not oral utterance. Yet, recent cases in some Islamic countries shows that judges are allowing Muslim men to divorce via text. Contrary to popular perception and practice, divorce is not a simple process in jurisprudence but with the aid of texting, any possibility of ethical considerations towards the wife is being ignored.
Other events in this series:
Lecture 2: Tuesday 11 March 2014 Mary in Christian-Muslim Relations
Lecture 3: Wednesday 12 March 2014 From the Feminine to Feminism: Women in Islamic Thought and Literature
Symposium: Thursday 13 March 2014 Feminism, Religion, and Women's Rights
Symposium Session
Chair : Professor Chris Clark (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Margaret MacMillan (University of Oxford)
Respondents
Professor Holger Afflerbach (University of Leeds)
Professor Lieven (University of Cambridge)
Dr Annika Mombauer (The Open University)
Professor David Stevenson (LSE)
Professor Thomas Otte (University of East Anglia)
Margaret MacMillan (St Anthony's College, Oxford) will give a series of lectures about war and society and militarism in Europe before 1914; thinking about war; planning for war; and then the nature of World War One itself.
Abstract
This lecture looks at the changing relationship between war and European society after the French Revolution as well as the changing nature of war itself. Topics to be covered include the military and changes in its organization, technology, and training as well as the trend towards total war.
Margaret MacMillan (St Anthony's College, Oxford) will give a series of lectures about war and society and militarism in Europe before 1914; thinking about war; planning for war; and then the nature of World War One itself.
Abstract
This will look at the ways in which military planners and others tried to deal with the great changes that European society was undergoing before 1914. It will examine the nature and values of the European officer corps and consider the impact on them of broader forces such as the rise of nationalism and militarism. It will also offer reasons for the pronounced bias towards the offensive.
Humanitas Visiting Professors in War Studies
Margaret MacMillan (St Anthony's College, Oxford) will give a series of lectures about war and society and militarism in Europe before 1914; thinking about war; planning for war; and then the nature of World War One itself.
Abstract
This lecture looks at the changing relationship between war and European society after the French Revolution as well as the changing nature of war itself. Topics to be covered include the military and changes in its organization, technology, and training as well as the trend towards total war.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in this concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World. The event is free to attend but registration is required. You can book your place online by clicking on the registration link on the right hand side of this page. A programme will be available shortly.
Confirmed speakers: Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, University of London) Aeron Davis (Goldsmiths, University of London) Angela Phillips (Goldsmiths, University of London) Charlie Beckett (LSE)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in this concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World. The event is free to attend but registration is required. You can book your place online by clicking on the registration link on the right hand side of this page. A programme will be available shortly.
Confirmed speakers: Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, University of London) Aeron Davis (Goldsmiths, University of London) Angela Phillips (Goldsmiths, University of London) Charlie Beckett (LSE)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World, on Wednesday 20 November.
This second lecture is Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in the face of the future? Here Mr Campbell will address the challenges facing journalists, and the potential for positive changes in how journalism is conducted and regulated. He will attack what he calls the Big Lies told by the press to fight the planned Royal Charter, urge politicians to hold firm, and insist the public want and will benefit from regulatory and cultural change in the UK media. - and so will journalism.
The event is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Lecture 1: Why journalism, and why it matters in a world of flux Symposium: Media and Politics in a Changing World About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professorships are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today’s society, including the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in the face of the future? (Audio Version, Video Also Available)
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World, on Wednesday 20 November.
This second lecture is Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in the face of the future? Here Mr Campbell will address the challenges facing journalists, and the potential for positive changes in how journalism is conducted and regulated. He will attack what he calls the Big Lies told by the press to fight the planned Royal Charter, urge politicians to hold firm, and insist the public want and will benefit from regulatory and cultural change in the UK media. - and so will journalism.
The event is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Lecture 1: Why journalism, and why it matters in a world of flux Symposium: Media and Politics in a Changing World About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professorships are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today’s society, including the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
Why journalism, and why it matters in a world in flux (Audio Only Version - Video Version Available)
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World, on Wednesday 20 November.
This first lecture is Why journalism, and why it matters in a world in flux. Mr Campbell will discuss the importance, power and attraction of journalism, its rapidly changing environment and practice, and its centrality to a liberal democracy.
The event is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Lecture 2: Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in face of the future? Symposium: Media and Politics in a Changing World About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professorships are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today’s society, including the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013-14: Alastair Campbell
Why journalism, and why it matters in a world in flux (Audio Only Version - Video Version Available)
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
Alastair Campbell will give two public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium, Media and Politics in a Changing World, on Wednesday 20 November.
This first lecture is Why journalism, and why it matters in a world in flux. Mr Campbell will discuss the importance, power and attraction of journalism, its rapidly changing environment and practice, and its centrality to a liberal democracy.
The event is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Lecture 2: Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in face of the future? Symposium: Media and Politics in a Changing World About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professorships are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today’s society, including the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Sustainability Studies 2013-14 : Gretchen Daily
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Tellus Mater Foundation. Over its 5 year duration, the Visiting Professorship will touch on a diverse range of topics relating to sustainability studies, ranging from the environment and behaviour, to policy and economics.
The concluding symposium with CRASSH Humanitas Professor in Sustainability Studies 2013-14, Gretchen Daily.
Confirmed Speakers include: Partha Dasgupta (Faculty of Economics) Toby Gardner (Department of Zoology) Bhaskar Vira (Geography Department)
The symposium is free to attend but registration is necessary. Online registration is available from the link on the top right hand side.
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies is organised in collaboration with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative(CCI), a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally-focussed biodiversity conservation organisations clustered in and around Cambridge, UK. CCI seeks to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and the natural capital it represents and, through this, secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. The CCI partners together combine and integrate research, education, policy and practice to create innovative solutions for society and to foster conservation learning and leadership.
About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg)
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will participate in this concluding symposium after his series of three public lectures on Poussin in England.
Confirmed speakers include: Professor Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg) Professor Elena Fumagalli (Université de Modène et Reggio Emilia) Professor Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) Mickaël Szanto (Centre André Chastel, Galerie Colbert) Nicolas Milovanovic (Musée du Louvre)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will participate in this concluding symposium after his series of three public lectures on Poussin in England.
Confirmed speakers include: Professor Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg) Professor Elena Fumagalli (Université de Modène et Reggio Emilia) Professor Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) Mickaël Szanto (Centre André Chastel, Galerie Colbert) Nicolas Milovanovic (Musée du Louvre)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
Elena Fumagalli (Université de Modène et Reggio Emilia)
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will participate in this concluding symposium after his series of three public lectures on Poussin in England.
Confirmed speakers include: Professor Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg) Professor Elena Fumagalli (Université de Modène et Reggio Emilia) Professor Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) Mickaël Szanto (Centre André Chastel, Galerie Colbert) Nicolas Milovanovic (Musée du Louvre)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
Mickaël Szanto (Centre André Chastel, Galerie Colbert) and Nicolas Milovanovic (Musée du Louvre)
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will participate in this concluding symposium after his series of three public lectures on Poussin in England.
Confirmed speakers include: Professor Henry Keazor (Universität Heidelberg) Professor Elena Fumagalli (Université de Modène et Reggio Emilia) Professor Marianne Cojannot-Le Blanc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) Mickaël Szanto (Centre André Chastel, Galerie Colbert) Nicolas Milovanovic (Musée du Louvre)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Sustainability Studies 2013-14
Professor Gretchen Daily: Nature’s Competing Values
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Tellus Mater Foundation. Over its 5 year duration, the Visiting Professorship will touch on a diverse range of topics relating to sustainability studies, ranging from the environment and behaviour, to policy and economics.
Gretchen Daily, Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford Woods, will give a series of three public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium on Tuesday 5 November
The second lecture is Nature's Competing Values. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Thursday 31 October - Lecture 1: Mainstreaming Natural Capital into Decision-Making: Frontiers in Research and Policy
Monday 4 November - Lecture 3: Feeding the World and Security Biodiversity
Tuesday 5 November - Symposium (online registration required)
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies is organised in collaboration with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative(CCI), a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally-focussed biodiversity conservation organisations clustered in and around Cambridge, UK. CCI seeks to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and the natural capital it represents and, through this, secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. The CCI partners together combine and integrate research, education, policy and practice to create innovative solutions for society and to foster conservation learning and leadership.
About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Sustainability Studies 2013-14
Professor Gretchen Daily: Feeding the World and Security Biodiversity
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Tellus Mater Foundation. Over its 5 year duration, the Visiting Professorship will touch on a diverse range of topics relating to sustainability studies, ranging from the environment and behaviour, to policy and economics.
Gretchen Daily, Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford Woods, will give a series of three public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium on Tuesday 5 November
The third lecture is Feeding the World and Security Biodiversity. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Thursday 31 October - Lecture 1: Mainstreaming Natural Capital into Decision-Making: Frontiers in Research and Policy
Friday November - Lecture 2: Nature's Competing Values
Tuesday 5 November - Symposium (online registration required)
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies is organised in collaboration with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative(CCI), a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally-focussed biodiversity conservation organisations clustered in and around Cambridge, UK. CCI seeks to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and the natural capital it represents and, through this, secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. The CCI partners together combine and integrate research, education, policy and practice to create innovative solutions for society and to foster conservation learning and leadership.
About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Sustainability Studies 2013-14
The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Tellus Mater Foundation. Over its 5 year duration, the Visiting Professorship will touch on a diverse range of topics relating to sustainability studies, ranging from the environment and behaviour, to policy and economics.
Gretchen Daily, Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford Woods, will give a series of three public lectures and participate in a concluding symposium on Tuesday 5 November
The first lecture is Mainstreaming Natural Capital into Decision-Making: Frontiers in Research and Policy. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Friday 1 November - Lecture 2: Nature’s Competing Values Monday 4 November - Lecture 3: Feeding the World and Security Biodiversity Tuesday 5 November - Symposium (online registration required) The Humanitas Chair in Sustainability Studies is organised in collaboration with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally-focussed biodiversity conservation organisations clustered in and around Cambridge, UK. CCI seeks to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and the natural capital it represents and, through this, secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. The CCI partners together combine and integrate research, education, policy and practice to create innovative solutions for society and to foster conservation learning and leadership.
About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will give a series of three public lectures on Poussin in England and participate in a concluding symposium on Thursday 31 October.
The third lecture is Poussin and England. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Thursday 24 October - Lecture 1: Eliezer and Rebecca Monday 28 October - Lecture 2: Les Sacrements Thursday 31 October - Symposium: Poussin in England About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will give a series of three public lectures on Poussin in England and participate in a concluding symposium on Thursday 31 October.
The second lecture is Les Sacrements. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Thursday 24 October - Lecture 1: Eliezer and Rebecca Wednesday 30 October - Lecture 3: Poussin and England Thursday 31 October - Symposium: Poussin in England About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2013-14
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Pierre Rosenberg, former Director of the Louvre, will give a series of three public lectures on Poussin in England and participate in a concluding symposium on Thursday 31 October.
The first lecture is Eliezer and Rebecca. The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required.
Other events in this series:
Monday 28 October - Lecture 2: Les Sacrements Wednesday 30 October - Lecture 3: Poussin and England Thursday 31 October - Symposium: Poussin in England About the Professorships:
Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang
Professor Chen Yung-fa
Chen Yung-fa (Modern History Institute of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) will give a series of three public lectures on The Meaning of the Chinese Communist Revolution and participate in a concluding symposium.
Confirmed symposium speakers:
Professor Rana Mitter (University of Oxford) on China's Unanchored Revolutions: 1911 and After Dr Uradyn Bulag (University of Cambridge) on The Communist Revolution and its Aftermath at China's Margins Professor Mark Selden (Cornell University) on From Nongmin to Nongmingong: the State, Capital, and the Changing Face of China's Rural Underclass Professor Perry Anderson (University of California, Los Angeles) on Imaginings of a Restoration
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang
Professor Chen Yung-fa
Chen Yung-fa (Modern History Institute of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) will give a series of three public lectures on The Meaning of the Chinese Communist Revolution and participate in a concluding symposium.
Confirmed symposium speakers:
Professor Rana Mitter (University of Oxford) on China's Unanchored Revolutions: 1911 and After Dr Uradyn Bulag (University of Cambridge) on The Communist Revolution and its Aftermath at China's Margins Professor Mark Selden (Cornell University) on From Nongmin to Nongmingong: the State, Capital, and the Changing Face of China's Rural Underclass Professor Perry Anderson (University of California, Los Angeles) on Imaginings of a Restoration
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang
Professor Chen Yung-fa
Chen Yung-fa (Modern History Institute of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) will give a series of three public lectures on The Meaning of the Chinese Communist Revolution and participate in a concluding symposium. Information about the symposium will be posted at a later date.
This final lecture is Chiang Kaishek and the Japanese Ichigo Offensive of 1944.
Abstract
While the Western powers launched the largest military campaign in European theater in 1944, the Japanese army surprised the Chinese Nationalist army by the Ichigo offensive, which was the largest campaign ever undertaken by the Japanese army in their entire history. Military historians have focused their attention primarily on the American general Joseph Stilwell’s campaign in North Burma at this time, and relatively few studies exist of the larger and far more important battles in the China Theater. The resounding defeat that the Nationalist army suffered not only meant the loss of important human and grain resources and intensified the severe struggle of the Nationalist government with the provincial governments in the unoccupied areas of China, but also alienated a sizable number of the Chinese intellectuals from the Nationalist government in its competition with the Communist Party. This essay reconstructs the history of the three battles, respectively in the provinces of Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi, on the basis of two diaries, one belonging to Chiang Kaishek and the other to his Military Chief of Staff, Xu Yongchang. While showing the complex nature of the causes of the Nationalist debacle, this essay emphasizes Chiang Kaishek’s inability to become an effective reformer and his increasing tendency to seek comfort and courage from the Christian Bible and traditional moral gestures.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2013: Gareth Evans
Dr. James Pattison (University of Manchester)
Professor Nicholas Wheeler (University of Birmingham)
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA (Chancellor of the Australian National University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2013: Gareth Evans
Sir Robert Francis Cooper (Counsellor in the European External Action Service)
Professor James Crawford (University of Cambridge)
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA (Chancellor of the Australian National University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang
Professor Chen Yung-fa
Chen Yung-fa (Modern History Institute of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) will give a series of three public lectures on The Meaning of the Chinese Communist Revolution and participate in a concluding symposium. Information about the symposium will be posted at a later date.
This second lecture is Chiang Kaishek's Experience with Britain and his Private Thoughts, 1917-1949.
Abstract
Despite the efforts to woo the Chinese Communist Party, Britain was unable to protect and to preserve its economic interests in Communist-occupied China. Using all the means available to it, the Communist regime squeezed and confiscated British properties and cleaned out the last vestiges of British imperialism in China. Only after China reopened its door to the capitalist world, while insisting on the restoration of control over the Kowloon area that consisted of more than 90% of the British colony of Hong Kong, did the British government agree to return Hong Kong island, thus fulfilling the dream of a generation of Chinese intellectuals who hoped to wipe clean the remains of British imperialism. As the foreign policy of Chiang Kaishek’s government is well known to historians, this essay only seeks to examine his experiences with the British during his mainland China years. Chiang’s diaries, which are now available, show how he reacted to the Shameen tragedy in which many of his cadets were killed by British machineguns, how he reacted to the British defense of Burma and India, and how he reacted to Churchill’s determination to hold the Empire intact and to perpetuate British privileges in Hong Kong and Tibet.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tan.
Professor Chen Yung-fa
Chen Yung-fa (Modern History Institute of the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan) will give a series of three public lectures on The Meaning of the Chinese Communist Revolution and participate in a concluding symposium.
The first lecture is Maoist Rectification during Wartime.
Abstract
During the civil war (1946-1949), Chiang Kaishek read the 22 rectification documents, including those written by Mao Zedong, that served as keynote speeches for the Communist campaigns aiming to reform Party cadres and make them conform to the ideal model of a Communist Party member. Chiang found the documents so beneficial and exciting that he even intended to urge his cadres to study them. This essay shows the discrepancies between the 22 documents and the actual political campaigns the Communist Party undertook partly on the basis of those documents in Yanan in the 1940s. The Communist campaigns that centered on the 22 documents are reexamined from three angles: the intraparty struggle among top leaders from 1940 to 1945; the intensifying cadre screening campaign among all cadres from 1941 to 1943; and the anti-traitor campaigns that aimed at uncovering those who were not supportive or not sufficiently supportive of the Party from 1943 to 1945. Through the reconstitution of the Communist practice of the rectification campaigns, I argue that even if he intended to duplicate Mao’s rectification efforts, Chiang could not make any headway, because of the differences between himself and Mao, and the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2013: Gareth Evans
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA (Chancellor of the Australian National University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium.
Abstract
Are there any grounds for believing that, when it comes to violent conflict between and within states, the world – contrary to daily media reporting, and nearly all our instincts – is in fact becoming safer and saner? If that really is the trend, what are its foundations, and what can be done to reinforce it? Gareth Evans will draw in this lecture on his long experience in conflict prevention and resolution, in particular as Australian Foreign Minister (1988-96) and President of the International Crisis Group (2000-09).
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2013: Gareth Evans
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA (Chancellor of the Australian National University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium.
Abstract
Is it possible to end once and for all genocide and other major crimes against humanity occurring behind sovereign state walls: to ensure that there will never again be another Cambodia, Rwanda, Srebrenica or Darfur? Has the new principle of “the responsibility to protect’ (or “R2P”) unanimously embraced by the UN in 2005, and applied with dramatic effect in Libya in 2011, now run its course with the Security Council paralysis over Syria? Gareth Evans will draw in this lecture on his role as a key initiator and global advocate of R2P as, inter alia, co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2013: Gareth Evans
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC FASSA (Chancellor of the Australian National University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium.
Abstract
Are there any grounds for believing that, when it comes to violent conflict between and within states, the world – contrary to daily media reporting, and nearly all our instincts – is in fact becoming safer and saner? If that really is the trend, what are its foundations, and what can be done to reinforce it? Gareth Evans will draw in this lecture on his long experience in conflict prevention and resolution, in particular as Australian Foreign Minister (1988-96) and President of the International Crisis Group (2000-09).
Robert Levin's first lecture 'Improvising Mozart' as Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chamber Music at the University of Cambridge closed with a live improvised fantasy on three themes suggested by the audience
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2013
The Humanitas Chair in Women's Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Carol Saper.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the first US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Gender Equality: A Moral and Foreign Policy Imperative.
Abstract
This lecture will focus on the benefits of women’s political participation as well as the hurdles women confront in running for public office and effective ways to grow the numbers women in elective positions. The discussion will have a major focus on Security Council Res 1325 and the role of women in peace negotiations, the protection of women from violence and post conflict reconstruction. The lecture will include “lessons learned” from Northern Ireland to Liberia as well as the Arab Spring revolutions. It will answer questions like, “what difference do women make in elective office; why does women’s political empowerment lag most everywhere; are quotas the remedy?”
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2013
The Humanitas Chair in Women's Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Carol Saper.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the first US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Gender Equality: A Moral and Foreign Policy Imperative.
Abstract
The lecture will focus on women’s economic participation from an evidence-based argument. Today a range of studies and data underscore why gender equality and women’s economic participation are key both to women’s progress and a country’s progress. The discussion will focus on the importance of the so-called “missing middle” – the need to support women-run small and medium size enterprises as accelerators of growth, women’s income as a double dividend and women as consumers. The discussion will address challenges that women confront and ways in which the private sector and government are responding for social good. Finally, the lecture will also spotlight the role of women in the labor force and related inequities in the global economy. The gender gap in women’s economic participation is not just shortchanging women around the world, but also shortchanging global economic growth.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2013 The Humanitas Chair in Women's Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Carol Saper.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the first US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Gender Equality: A Moral and Foreign Policy Imperative.
Abstract
The first lecture will begin with a look back at the 1995 UN 4th World Conference on Women that took place Beijing with a substantive discussion of “women’s rights are human rights” and implications for international law as well as a personal reflection on the significance of Beijing in sparking a global movement for women’s progress. The lecture will cover key areas of the Beijing platform for action, including women’s access to health and education, the right to full economic and political participation as well as the right to be free from violence. It will also focus on the status of the girl child and challenges to her advancement.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The concluding symposium following Eric Schmidt's series of three public lectures. Confirmed speakers include:
Professor William Dutton (University of Oxford) Professor James Mayall (University of Cambridge) Dr Tom Simpson (University of Cambridge) Professor Jon Crowcroft (University of Cambridge)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
The concluding symposium following Eric Schmidt's series of three public lectures. Confirmed speakers include:
Professor William Dutton (University of Oxford) Professor James Mayall (University of Cambridge) Dr Tom Simpson (University of Cambridge) Professor Jon Crowcroft (University of Cambridge)
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
Our history is littered with examples of mass murder and genocide and the worst atrocities man can do unto fellow man. In the future, massacres on a genocidal scale will be harder to conduct.
But discrimination will likely worsen and become more personal. Increased connectivity within societies will provide practitioners of discrimination, whether official or led by citizens, with entirely new ways to marginalize minorities and other disliked groups, whose own use of technology will make them easier to target.
In this case, connection will be working against peace. Governments that are used to repressing minorities in the physical world have a whole new set of options in the virtual world, and those that figure out how to combine their policies in both worlds will be that much more effective at repression.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
Our history is littered with examples of mass murder and genocide and the worst atrocities man can do unto fellow man. In the future, massacres on a genocidal scale will be harder to conduct.
But discrimination will likely worsen and become more personal. Increased connectivity within societies will provide practitioners of discrimination, whether official or led by citizens, with entirely new ways to marginalize minorities and other disliked groups, whose own use of technology will make them easier to target.
In this case, connection will be working against peace. Governments that are used to repressing minorities in the physical world have a whole new set of options in the virtual world, and those that figure out how to combine their policies in both worlds will be that much more effective at repression.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
Today, our online identities affect but rarely overshadow our physical selves. But In the future, this could change: our identities in everyday life will come to be defined more and more by our virtual activities and associations.
With that comes some danger: the potential for someone else to access, share or manipulate parts of our online identities will increase, particularly due to our reliance on cloud-based data storage.
The shift from having one's identity shaped off-line and projected online to an identity that is fashioned online and experienced off-line will have implications for citizens, states, and companies as they navigate the new digital world.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
Today, our online identities affect but rarely overshadow our physical selves. But In the future, this could change: our identities in everyday life will come to be defined more and more by our virtual activities and associations.
With that comes some danger: the potential for someone else to access, share or manipulate parts of our online identities will increase, particularly due to our reliance on cloud-based data storage.
The shift from having one's identity shaped off-line and projected online to an identity that is fashioned online and experienced off-line will have implications for citizens, states, and companies as they navigate the new digital world.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
(Audio Only of the event is also available on the SMS)
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
At every level of society, connectivity will continue to become more affordable and practical in substantial ways. People will have access to ubiquitous wireless Internet networks that are many times cheaper than they are now. We’ll be more efficient, more productive and more creative.
In a world where everyone is connected, how will people be affected by a world that is both physical and virtual at every level? For citizens, coming online means coming into possession of multiple identities in the physical and virtual worlds. In many ways, their virtual identities will come to supersede all others, as the trails they leave remain engraved online in perpetuity. And because what we post, email, text, and share online shapes the virtual identities of others, new forms of collective responsibility will have to come into effect.
As we look into the future—its promises and its challenges—we are facing a brave new world, the most fast-paced and exciting period in human history. We’ll experience more change at a quicker rate than any previous generation, and this change, driven in part by the devices in our own hands, will be more personal and participatory than we can even imagine. In the future, computers and humans will increasingly split duties according to what each does well.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
(Audio Only - Video of the event is also available on the SMS)
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
At every level of society, connectivity will continue to become more affordable and practical in substantial ways. People will have access to ubiquitous wireless Internet networks that are many times cheaper than they are now. We’ll be more efficient, more productive and more creative.
In a world where everyone is connected, how will people be affected by a world that is both physical and virtual at every level? For citizens, coming online means coming into possession of multiple identities in the physical and virtual worlds. In many ways, their virtual identities will come to supersede all others, as the trails they leave remain engraved online in perpetuity. And because what we post, email, text, and share online shapes the virtual identities of others, new forms of collective responsibility will have to come into effect.
As we look into the future—its promises and its challenges—we are facing a brave new world, the most fast-paced and exciting period in human history. We’ll experience more change at a quicker rate than any previous generation, and this change, driven in part by the devices in our own hands, will be more personal and participatory than we can even imagine. In the future, computers and humans will increasingly split duties according to what each does well.
Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn (University of York)
The Transhistory of Art?
After a period in which the academic study of the history of art has concentrated overwhelmingly on contemporary contexts, there are signs of new thought on the longer histories of artworks, including a novel attention to the changes they undergo as material objects. These concerns -- in part revivals of interests held by the great art historians of previous generations, in part new ways of thinking -- are in my view welcome, but they raise questions both urgent and highly likely to be contentious about how art history is to be practised as an academic discipline. In this talk I will outline the issues that seem to me most challenging, and illustrate them with an example from my own work on the modern reception of ancient sculpture.
Professor Iain Fenlon (University of Cambridge)
Mobile Madonna: The History of a Venetian Icon
The Madonna Nicopeia is one of a large number of religious images and sculptures brought to Venice from the Middle East during the Middle Ages, much of it booty captured during the Fourth Crusade. It was believed that this icon, which consists of a central image of the Virgin framed by sixteen small enamels, had brought good fortune to those who had carried it in battle in Asia Minor, and the Venetians venerated it in the hope that it would bring similar blessings upon the Republic. Throughout the centuries, it was the Nicopeia that was publicly carried in procession to ask for deliverance from the plague, and it was her image that graced the title-pages of editions of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary recited ‘in time of war’. This paper charts the undulating process of renewal and re-invention that accompanied the evolution of the cult surrounding the icon, and its consequences for musical composition.
Professor Bronwen Wilson (Sainsbury Centre for Art, University of East Anglia)
Art (History) Matters
Responding to the premise that our historical distance from artworks renders our engagement with them variable and contingent, this talk considers dynamic relations between making and viewing in paintings by Giovanni Battista Moroni, Annibale Carracci, and Caravaggio. The works considered here solicit viewers’ involvement with them through the crafted materiality of their surfaces, and through the blurring of boundaries between genres. Activating responses by individuals to them, and fostering communication and debate about matters of concern, these works attest to how the past impinges upon the present.
Dr Astrid Swenson (Brunel University)
Context in International Context
The paper will look at how ideas about the 'right' context for art and architecture evolved in relation to international relations since the French Revolution. The Revolutionary Wars and their unprecedented destruction and art looting had a formative effect on debates about context (not least in forcing the internationally community to find a common solution towards either accepting the change of context or creating the mechanisms for restitution), but the debates continued long after the Congress of Vienna affecting the definition of art and heritage till the present.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Professor Philippe de Montebello
(Philippe de Montebello (Director Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fiske Kimball Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) will give a series of three public lectures on The Multiple Lives of the Work of Art and participate in a concluding symposium.
In his third and final lecture, Change as Constant, Philippe do Montebello will talk about how intrinsic and extrinsic factors account for the transformations in works of art over time as well as the receiver's responses.
The lectures are free to attend and no registration is required. Information about the concluding symposium on Thursday 22 November will be posted shortly.
Abstract
The lectures, constructed around a number of case studies, look at works of art from a curatorial point of view; that is, one focusing primarily on their properties as objects. They will examine how the changing contexts of works of art and their transformations over time and space affect the viewer’s response(s) to them.
A premise of these lectures is that no work appears to us today as it was originally conceived. It may undergo many transformations in the course of its life, from deliberate alterations to natural degradation, and at the same time, any response at historical distance is necessarily variable and contingent.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Professor Philippe de Montebello
Philippe de Montebello (Director Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fiske Kimball Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) will give a series of three public lectures on The Multiple Lives of the Work of Art and participate in a concluding symposium.
The first lecture, The Many Faces of Context, focuses on how choices of media and changes in contexts imply concomitant shifts in meaning and viewer response.
The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required. Information about the concluding symposium and online registration can be found here.
Abstract
The lectures, constructed around a number of case studies, look at works of art from a curatorial point of view; that is, one focusing primarily on their properties as objects. They will examine how the changing contexts of works of art and their transformations over time and space affect the viewer’s response(s) to them.
A premise of these lectures is that no work appears to us today as it was originally conceived. It may undergo many transformations in the course of its life, from deliberate alterations to natural degradation, and at the same time, any response at historical distance is necessarily variable and contingent.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in the History of Art 2012-13
The Humanitas Chair in the History of Art has been made possible by the generous support of J E Safra.
Professor Philippe de Montebello
Philippe de Montebello (Director Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fiske Kimball Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) will give a series of three public lectures on The Multiple Lives of the Work of Art and participate in a concluding symposium.
The first lecture, The Many Faces of Context, focuses on how choices of media and changes in contexts imply concomitant shifts in meaning and viewer response.
The lecture is free to attend and no registration is required. Information about the concluding symposium and online registration can be found here.
Abstract
The lectures, constructed around a number of case studies, look at works of art from a curatorial point of view; that is, one focusing primarily on their properties as objects. They will examine how the changing contexts of works of art and their transformations over time and space affect the viewer’s response(s) to them.
A premise of these lectures is that no work appears to us today as it was originally conceived. It may undergo many transformations in the course of its life, from deliberate alterations to natural degradation, and at the same time, any response at historical distance is necessarily variable and contingent.
Alfreda Murck (Independent Scholar, Beijing)
For over two thousand years falling leaves have appeared in Chinese literature with consistently somber effect. The minimal meaning was diminished life force and the threat of death. A more charged meaning was that worthy men had been displaced by incompetents. In the eighth century, scholars were explicit: “It is a metaphor for petty men managing affairs and therefore Worthy Men being cast away.” I will analyze the ways by which artists used falling leaves in their art, including by alluding to lines in a text accompanying an autumnal scene, by autumn leaves drifting down, and by depicting the Lady of the Xiang with or without her sister, the consort of Shun.
Tim Barrett (Professor of East Asian History and Research Professor, SOAS)
In Europe, writing is a borrowed invention, with no particular legendary associations and a probable initial practical association with accountancy. In China matters were very different, giving writing a quite different status. This may have implications for the introduction of printing in China, especially when one considers that coincidentally a famous Buddhits metaphor from India also became involved in the most common image of Chinese writing as well.
Adam Chau (University Lecturer in the Anthropology of China, Cambridge)
The cultural significance of texts and writing in China has long been recognised. Traditionally, scholars in the fields of history, literature, religious studies, and philosophy study the contents of texts, while art historians study the artistic forms of writing (e.g. calligraphy). What has not received adequate attention is how certain texts exert their power in the social world not necessarily or simply through their rhetorical/discursive power or artistic beauty but more importantly through their sheer presence (e.g. seals, inscriptions on stone or cliff surface, tattooed characters, talismans, slogan banners, Maoist big character posters). The text disappears behind the textograph, which assumes a fetishistic power. In fact, some of these texts have acquired their power through condensing or morphing otherwise intelligible textual content into illegible figure (or motif). These texts act upon their audience and produce effects (e.g. recognition, submission, awe). More than, and sometimes rather than, reading these texts, the audience feel the force of their presence. I have called these acts of writing and inscribing text acts. This presentation will use talismans and other related genres of text acts to illustrate the ways in which writing catapults power and spellbinds its ‘readers’.
Joseph McDermott (University Lecturer, Cambridge)
Villages in the late imperial China varied greatly in the number and names of institutions active in them, but we can still pinpoint at least four types of institution common to them; kinship, village worship associations, formal religious institutions (like Buddhist temples and Daoist shrines), and popular cults. I would like to discuss one long-term trajectory in the interplay of these institutions, whereby kinship institutions won out over those that placed greater emphasis on community and territory rather than blood ties.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang.
Professor Wu Hung
Wu Hung (Harrie A Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago) will give a series of three public lectures on Reading Absence in Chinese Art and Material Culture and participate in a concluding symposium on Writing, Art and Chinese Culture.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang.
Professor Wu Hung
Wu Hung (Harrie A Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago) will give a series of three public lectures on Reading Absence in Chinese Art and Material Culture and participate in a concluding symposium on Writing, Art and Chinese Culture.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Chinese Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Chinese Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang.
Professor Wu Hung
Wu Hung (Harrie A Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago) will give a series of three public lectures on Reading Absence in Chinese Art and Material Culture and participate in a concluding symposium on Writing, Art and Chinese Culture.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Helen Clark
Helen Clark (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group; former Prime Minister of New Zealand) will give a series of public lectures and a concluding symposium on 'Development in the 21st Century'. Speakers
David Camroux (CERI-Sciences Po-CNRS): the China challenge for Southeast Asia Mark Lowcock (Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development, London) John Swenson-Wright (Cambridge, Modern Japanese Politics and International Relations): development from a Japanese or Korean perspective Robert Wade (LSE): China-centric globalization
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Helen Clark
Helen Clark (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group; former Prime Minister of New Zealand) will give a series of public lectures and a concluding symposium on 'Development in the 21st Century'. Speakers
David Camroux (CERI-Sciences Po-CNRS): the China challenge for Southeast Asia Mark Lowcock (Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development, London) John Swenson-Wright (Cambridge, Modern Japanese Politics and International Relations): development from a Japanese or Korean perspective Robert Wade (LSE): China-centric globalization
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Helen Clark
Helen Clark (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group; former Prime Minister of New Zealand) will give a series of public lectures and a concluding symposium on 'Development in the 21st Century'.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Statecraft and Diplomacy 2012
The Humanitas Chair in Statecraft and Diplomacy has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Angelika Diekmann.
Helen Clark
Helen Clark (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group; former Prime Minister of New Zealand) will give a series of public lectures and a concluding symposium on 'Development in the 21st Century'.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in War Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir Ronald Grierson.
Professor Jay Winter
Professor Jay Winter (Charles J Stille Professor of History, Yale University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Imagining War in the 20th Century and After.
The lectures explore mediating languages and symbolic forms which writers, artists, and filmmakers have used to represent war since 1900. This attention to language in cultural history is at the core of this interpretation. What we know of war is always mediated knowledge and feeling. The event itself, what Walt Whitman called the red thing, the actual killing, is beyond us. We need lenses to filter out some of its blinding, terrifying light in order to see it at all. The lectures want to draw attention to these lenses as the elements which make understanding war possible at the same time as they limit what we see.
The third and final lecture addresses a central problem in the framing of war in film. That problem is to determine how filmmakers have chosen between the spectacular and the indirect approach to making war films. Both have been mainstays of the industry since its foundation, just in the nick of time for the arrival of industrialized, assembly-line violence in 1914. The claim is that the genre of war films has a history, a shift in approach over time, which always runs up against the immovable limit condition of the art: which is, that every attempt to film war fails.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in War Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir Ronald Grierson.
Professor Jay Winter
Professor Jay Winter (Charles J Stille Professor of History, Yale University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Imagining War in the 20th Century and After.
The lectures explore mediating languages and symbolic forms which writers, artists, and filmmakers have used to represent war since 1900. This attention to language in cultural history is at the core of this interpretation. What we know of war is always mediated knowledge and feeling. The event itself, what Walt Whitman called the red thing, the actual killing, is beyond us. We need lenses to filter out some of its blinding, terrifying light in order to see it at all. The lectures want to draw attention to these lenses as the elements which make understanding war possible at the same time as they limit what we see.
The second lecture addresses painting and sculpture in an effort to show that figuring war has the capacity to reduce and at times to leap over some of these language barriers. Putting a face on war has a history, and it has been one primarily of progressive effacement since 1900.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in War Studies 2012
The Humanitas Chair in War Studies has been made possible by the generous support of Sir Ronald Grierson.
Professor Jay Winter
Professor Jay Winter (Charles J Stille Professor of History, Yale University) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Imagining War in the 20th Century and After.
The lectures explore mediating languages and symbolic forms which writers, artists, and filmmakers have used to represent war since 1900. This attention to language in cultural history is at the core of this interpretation. What we know of war is always mediated knowledge and feeling. The event itself, what Walt Whitman called the red thing, the actual killing, is beyond us. We need lenses to filter out some of its blinding, terrifying light in order to see it at all. The lectures want to draw attention to these lenses as the elements which make understanding war possible at the same time as they limit what we see.
One such element is linguistic in a straightforward sense. The first lecture will make the claim that in whatever language we utter, we speak differently of war. English and French will be taken as points of reference, but those learned in other languages can test this hypothesis easily enough. The claim is that we have as many languages of war as we have languages through which we speak to each other. They are neither interchangeable nor are they transparently equivalent. Each brings its history, its music, its memory of the past with it. We have many languages of war, and once we realize that, we can register the uncomfortable fact that the mountain of literature we have about war is the real tower of Babel of our time.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on The Illusion of Inclusion: Women and the Law.
Globalisation has expanded markets across borders and just as legitimate businesses have expanded their reach so have black markets. This lecture will look at the forms of crime like human trafficking which have spread like wildfire through the same technological advances which have enhanced markets. The lecture will contend that national legal systems are currently proving incapable of dealing adequately with globalised crimes, particularly those which involve the sexual abuse of women and children, but the profitability of such exploitation means international legal responses are resisted.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on The Illusion of Inclusion: Women and the Law.
The development of human rights regimes around the world is based on a belief that there are such things as universal values. This idea is challenged most potently in the areas of gender and sexuality, where patriarchal power relations often combine with religion to oppose women's equality. This lecture will engage with the claims of cultural relativism and steer a course through the struggle for human rights in societies which are multi-ethnic and multi-religious.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2012: Baroness Helena Kennedy. A review of women and the law from victims, defendants and law's users to practioners and judges.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2011: Manuel Castells
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation Lecture 3: Social Movements in the Internet Age (2)
The analysis of the spontaneous, autonomous networked social movements is extended to other contexts, particularly to the Indignant Movements in Spain and to the Occupy Wall Street in the US, both in 2011.
A summary of findings is as follows: Social change involves an action, individual and/or collective that, at its root, is motivated emotionally as all human behavior, as Damasio says. The theory of affective intelligence in political communication argues that the trigger is anger, the repressor is fear. Anger increases with the perception of an unjust action and with the identification of the agent responsible for the action. Fear triggers anxiety, which is associated with avoidance of danger. Fear is overcome by sharing and identifying with others in a process of communicative action. Then anger takes over: it leads to risk taking behavior. When the process of communicative action leads to collective action and change is enacted, the most potent positive emotion prevails: enthusiasm, powering the purposive collective behavior. Enthusiastic networked individuals, having overcome fear, are transformed in a conscious collective actor.
Thus social change comes from communicative action that involves connection between networks of neural networks from human brains stimulated by signals from a communication environment through communication networks. The technology and morphology of these communication networks shapes the process of mobilization, thus of social change, both as a process and as an outcome.
Internet based social networks and wireless networks have the following chracteristics:
- They are instant, support the spark of indignation
- They are multimodal, images impact
- They are horizontal and selective, so they induce trust and solidarity among peers.
- Because they disintermediate formal leadership affected by legitimacy crisis they stimulate cooperation and reciprocity
- They are viral, they diffuse fast. They are expansive.
- They cannot be controlled because they have no center and they reconfigure the networks endlessly. Technologically and organizationally are difficult to suppress.
- When and if they reach legitimacy in society at large, which is the case of all movements presented here, police repression, particularly when they are seriously injured demonstrators (eg Scott Olsen), strengthens the movement, barring massive bloody repression, difficult to enact in a liberal democracy.
- They are local and global at the same time
- They are self-reflective
- They can connect with places and spatial networks, keeping the dynamics of interaction flows/places
- They form a public space, both in the urban space and cyberspace to engage in continuing deliberation.
- Yet, they cannot formalize any organization or leadership because they limit the consensus depends on ad hoc deliberation and protest, not on program and specific goals. Accordingly, they cannot focus on one task or project, as they cannot be channeled in political action that is instrumental, they cannot be coopted by political parties (that are distrusted) although political parties may profit from the change of mind provoked by the movement in the public opinion.
- Thus, they are social movements, changing the values of society, and they can also be public opinion movements (in elections), and in that sense they are also political insurgency movements, arguing for democracy and representation but they are not programmatic and instrumental. They aim at transforming the state but not at seizing the state. They express feelings and stir debate but do not create parties or support governments – although they are becoming a target of choice for political marketing.
- However, they are very political in a fundamental sense. This is when they propose and practice direct, deliberative democracy based on networked democracy. The utopia of networked democracy based on local communities and virtual communities in interaction. But utopias are a material force.
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2011: Manuel Castells
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Lecture 2: Social Movements in the Internet Age (1)
Social movements and political insurgency in our time are largely based on the capacity to construct communicative autonomy by the use of mass self-communication, namely the Internet and wireless communication. To be sure, the sources of social mobilization are in the situation of oppression, exploitation, humiliation, and powerlessness that people suffer around the world. However, the capacity to overcome repression and incommunication depends on the ability to seize the opportunity of the spark of indignation against an intolerable act from the powers that be to connect with other minds over the networks, and from there to come together in the urban space forming a rebellious community of practice. The process of formation of these networked social movements is analyzed and illustrated by a brief, yet documented empirical analysis of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011.
Lecture 1: Communication, Power and the State in the Network Society
Power in the network society is exercised through networks. There are four different forms of power under these social and technological conditions:
- Networking Power: the power of the actors and organizations included in the networks that constitute the core of the global network society over human collectives and individuals who are not included in these global networks.
- Network Power: the power resulting from the standards required to coordinate social interaction in the networks. In this case, power is exercised not by exclusion from the networks but by the imposition of the rules of inclusion.
- Networked Power: the power of social actors over other social actors in the network. The forms and processes of networked power are specific to each network.
- Network-making Power: the power to program specific networks according to the interests and values of the programmers, and the power to switch different networks following the strategic alliances between the dominant actors of various networks
Counterpower is exercised in the network society by fighting to change the programs of specific networks and by the effort to disrupt the switches that reflect dominant interests and replace them with alternative switches between networks. Actors are humans, but humans are organized in networks. Human networks act on networks via the programming and switching of organizational networks. In the network society, power and counterpower aim fundamentally at influencing the neural networks in the human mind by using mass communication networks and mass self-communication networks.
Nancy Fraser: A Polanyian Feminism? Re-reading The Great Transformation in the 21st Century
Humanitas Visiting Professorship Symposium on Women's Rights
Professor David Owen (Professor of Social and Political Philosophy, University of Southampton) Subjects of Justice, Subjects of Inclusion
Humanitas Visiting Professorship Symposium on Women's Rights
Professor Lois McNay (Professor of Theory of Politics and Fellow of Somerville College, University of Oxford) Political Ontologies and Radical Democracy
Humanitas Visiting Professorship Symposium on Women's Rights
Professor Kate Nash (Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths University of London) Critical Methodology
Humanitas Visiting Professorship Symposium on Women's Rights
Professor Robin Blackburn (Professor of Sociology, University of Essex): Where Do Good Ideas Come From?
Napoleonic imagery suggests that decisive battlefield success leads to victory in war, but Napoleon lost his war. The relationship between what happens within a war and its eventual outcome is not one to which military historians have devoted much attention; their scholarship has focused on the making of war not on the making of peace. Diplomatic historians have not been of much help, tending only to pick up the story once hostilities are over, so ignoring the contacts between the two parties within a war or the modification of their objectives by one or both sides in order to make an agreement possible. The problems are not just collective, but also personal, beginning with the decision of an individual soldier to surrender. In the ancient world surrender would probably lead to slavery or summary execution. Although the granting of rights to prisoners of war increased the incentive to surrender, there is little evidence that it has caused wars to end sooner.
In the ancient and medieval worlds men fought for booty and in doing so aligned their personal motivation with that of the monarch or the state they served – given that the latter’s aim was conquest. After 1789 the motivations of citizen soldiers were seen as political and patriotic, and, however much the strains of combat called personal patriotism into question, the latter legitimated the military profession. Since 1945 patriotism has gone out of fashion. American studies of combat motivation have stressed factors internal to the military, such as small group loyalties: the arguments have become circular and inwardly focused – professional soldiers fight well because they are professional soldiers. This logic creates a division between the motivation to fight and the political legitimacy of fighting which is potentially unsustainable over the long term, at least in western democracies.
Strategy has attracted much recent attention in UK public policy debates, principally because of its absence from the direction of current conflicts. Before 1945 strategic thought used history as its core discipline but since then history has either dropped out of the equation or been misapplied. There was admittedly an apparent contradiction in strategic theory’s attention to the past; the principal policy function of strategy is predictive and its application in real time pragmatic. Here the challenges are to reconcile not just the perspectives of strategic theory and strategy in practice, but also the differences between civilians and the military. Finding satisfactory institutional frameworks for strategy-making is as important as thinking strategically.
Lecture 3: Between Marketization and Social Protection: Ambivalences of Feminism in the Context of Capitalist Crisis