CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series archive : fall 1998 Inuit Morality Play: The Emotional Education of a Three-Year-Old December 9, 1998 Wednesday 4:00 p.m. Third Floor, 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Jean L. Briggs Professor of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland Inuit adults often challenge small children with questions that are both playful and intensely serious, both loving and dangerous. Are you a baby? Who loves you? Whom do you love? Are you good? The questions present difficult choices, and when adults dramatize the consequences of an answer, a child may find herself in unexpectedly deep water. Close analysis of even one interaction can teach us much about how children become cultural creatures and cultures become psychologically powerful. Sponsored by: Department of Speech Communication in conjunction with: Department of Anthropology, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Bureau of Educational Research, Institute of Communications Research, Religious Studies Program, Women’s Studies Program. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Office of Affirmative Action, The Council of Deans, The Center for Advanced Study, George A. Miller Endowment, George A. Miller Committee, Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. Civic Engagement in American Democracy: Then and Now November 16, 1998 Monday 7:30 p.m. Auditorium, Room 2100, Music Building 1114 West Nevada Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Theda Skocpol Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University America has long been known as an unusually civically engaged democracy, not only the world's first mass electoral democracy, but also a country whose citizens form and participate in all kinds of voluntary associations. Today, many observers feel that American civic engagement is in decline. What is happening and why? The best way to answer these questions is to look backwards in history. By understanding how America became a highly civically engaged democracy in the first place, we can cast new light on changes since the 1970s. Theda Skocpol uses history to comment on the present, drawing on a major new research project tracing the emergence and develop.m.ent of voluntary membership associations from 1790 to the present. Theda Skocpol will also be a guest on WILL-AM radio's call-in program, Focus-580, on Tuesday, November 16 at 10 a.m. Sponsored by: Department of Political Science in conjunction with: Department of Anthropology, Department of History, Department of Sociology Institute of Communications, Research Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Women’s Studies Program. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Office of Affirmative Action, The Council of Deans, The Center for Advanced Study, George A. Miller Endowment, George A. Miller Committee, Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. East is East and West is West...Ever the Twain Shall Meet: The Challenge of Intra-Cultural Perception November 10, 1998 Tuesday 7:30 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Edwin Thumboo Director, Centre for the Arts, National University of Singapore and George A. Miller Endowment Visiting Professor, UIUC After looking at the relative veracity of Asia (i.e. the East) and the West as terms, Edwin Thumboo will consider the changing interests which mark the relationship between Asia and America. He considers these in terms of the different originating philosophies and experiences, chiefly in the area of politics - e.g. freedom, democracy - and, where relevant, following the questions and issues raised into concepts, definitions, discourse, values and culture. Sponsored by: C. Walter and Gerda H. Mortenson Center for International Library Programs and George A. Miller Endowment in conjunction with: Department of Linguistics; International Programs and Studies; Program in Comparative Literature. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. Increasing the Odds: Improving Outcomes in Premature Brain-Injured Infants October 12, 1998 Monday 4:00 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Rosemary White-Traut Department of Material and Child health, University of Illinois at Chicago Although the survival rates of premature infants have increased, these children still remain at risk for school failure and develop.m.ental delays, particularly movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. Rosemary White-Traut combines stress-reduction programs with multi-sensory stimulation to improve develop.m.ental outcomes for these high-risk infants. Sponsored by: College of Nursing in conjunction with: College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign; Department of Anthropology; Department of Psychology; Department of Sociology; Afro-American Studies and Research Program; Beckman Institute; Cooperative Extension Service; Women’s Studies Program; Carle Foundation Hospital; Champaign-Urbana Public Health District; Provena Covenant Medical Center; Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund A Poetry Reading October 8, 1998 Thursday 7:30 p.m. Auditorium, Room 2100, Music Building 1114 West Nevada Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sharon Olds Poet Laureate of New York State: Graduate Program in Creative Writing, New York University One of the most popular and influential poets writing today, Sharon Olds commands large and diverse audiences. Focusing always on the personal, the interior, Olds' poetry ranges from the pleasures of the body to the anguish of individuals caught up in the cataclysms of 20th century history. Among her many honors, Olds has received the Lamont Poetry Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award. She was recently named New York State Poet. Sex Without Love How do they do it, the ones who make love without love? Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice, fingers hooked inside each other’s bodies, faces red as steak, wine, wet as the children at birth whose mothers are going to give them away. How do they come to the come to the come to the God come to the still waters, and not love the one who came there with them, light rising slowly as steam off their joined skin? These are the true religious, the purists, the pros, the ones who will not accept a false Messiah, love the priest instead of the God. They do not mistake the lover for their own pleasure, they are like great runners: they know they are alone with the road surface, the cold, the wind, the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio- vascular health---just factors, like the partner in the bed, and not the truth, which is the single body alone in the universe against its own best time. (The Dead and the Living, Knopf, 1984) Sponsored by: The Women’s Studies Program in conjunction with: Graduate College of Library and Information Sciences; Department of English; Department of History; Department of Human and Community Develop.m.ent; Department of Speech Communication; Creative Writing Program; Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Institute of Communications Research; Office of Women’s Programs; Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory; Unit One/Allen Hall Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. Exposing The Rape of Nanking October 5, 1998 Monday 7:30 p.m. Foellinger Auditorium South End of the Quadrangle University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Iris Chang Author, The Rape of Nanking and The Thread of the Silkworm "I first learned about the Rape of Nanking when I was a little girl. The stories came from my parents, who had survived years of war and revolution before finding a serene home as professors in a Midwestern American college town." A graduate of University High School and the Department of Journalism at UIUC, Iris Chang vividly brings to life events from December 1937, when the conquering Japanese army systematically raped, tortured, and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians in what would become known as "The Rape of Nanking." Iris Chang will also address a symposium, "War Crimes of the East: Culpability and Redress," to be held October 10, 1998. For more information about this symposium, organized by the Nanking Committee, please contact markchu@uiuc.edu Sponsored by: Asian Pacific American Coalition in conjunction with: University Library; College of Communications; College of Education; Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; Department of history; Department of Journalism; Department of Political Science; Department of Sociology; Campus Honors Program; Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies; Drobny Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Jewish Culture and Society; Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Unit One/Allen Hall; University High School. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. For a Politics of Love and Rescue October 1, 1998 Thursday 4:00 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Virginia Rosa Dominguez Department of Antropology and Co-Director, International Forum for U.S. Studies, University of Iowa 1998 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico. It also marks the 50th anniversary of Julian Steward's (1948) landmark project The People of Puerto Rico, a University of Illinois Press publication. The profound social, political, and economic transformations taking place on the island throughout the 20th century affected the production and dissemination of knowledge by Puerto Rican scholars and women, in particular. Dominguez will explore the usefulness of feelings in scholarship, especially the usefulness of noting, acknowledging, and being up front about the feelings--of passion, anger, pride, love, even sadness--that drive one's scholarship. Sponsored by: Department of Anthropology in conjunction with: College of Education; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; School of Social Work; Department of Educational Policy Studies Department of History; Department of Political Science; Department of Sociology; Afro-American Studies and Research Program; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Drobney Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Jewish Culture and Society; Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities International Studies Program; Latina and Latino Studies Program; University of Illinois Press; Women's Studies Program; La Casa Cultural Latina. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office fo the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund. Does the Everyday World Really Obey Quantum Mechanics? September 24, 1998 Thursday 7:30 p.m. Colwell Playhouse Krannert Center for Performing Arts 500 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Anthony James Leggett Center for Advanced Study Professor of Physics According to the theory of quantum mechanics, used by physicists to describe nature at the atomic level, an electron or atom faced with two alternative routes or possibilities can in some sense realize both simultaneously. But everyday objects consist of electrons and atoms: Can they also "have their cake and eat it too"? Can a cat be simultaneously dead and alive? Professor Leggett reviews this problem and recent progress toward its experimental resolution. The Boat of My Life: Ilya Kabakov Speaks about His Work Thursday 4:00 p.m. Room 112, Gregory Hall 810 South Wright Street, Urbana The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ilya Kabakov Internationally Acclaimed Installation Artist; George A. Miller Endowment Scholar Ilya Kabakov, internationally celebrated artist of the nineties, will speak about his work and life, focusing on "The Boat of My Life." Kabakov's paintings, stories and installations are fantastic tales filled with irony and a profound sense of the absurd, in the tradition of Gogol's "Overcoat." It is as though the very extravagance of these fictions serves as a form of resistance to the gray surface of events. Kabakov's installation work "The Boat of My Life" addresses his flight from the Nazis to Samark and at the age of seven with his parents, his international exile, the persecution of a "Jewish national" within postwar Russian, and his emigration to New York in the spring of 1998 at the beginning of the Cold War thaw. "The Boat of My Life" will be on exhibit for the first time in the United States at the Krannert Art Museum, from September 18 through November 1. Sponsored by: Art History Program in conjunction with: College of Fine and Applied Arts; School of Art and Design; Department of Economics; Afro-American Studies and Research Program; Center for African Studies; Drobney Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Jewish Culture and Society; International Programs and Studies; Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Committee; Lorado Taft Lecture Committee; Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion; Musicology Division, School of Music; Russian and East European Center; Painting Program, School of Art and Design; Ford Foundation. Series support provided by: Office of the Chancellor; Office fo the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Office of Affirmative Action; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund.