George A. Miller
When George A. Miller died in 1951 he left an estate of almost a million dollars to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "to be used . . . for educational purposes . . . other than current general operating expenses." More Information
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Support for this series as a whole is provided by:
Office of the Chancellor, Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, The Center for Advanced Study, George A. Miller Programs Committee and Peggy Harris Memorial Fund, The Council of Deans, The David Gottlieb Memorial Foundation, and The Graduate College.
Information Technology and the Dream of Democratic Renewal
January 23, 2008
Wednesday, 4:00pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
600 South Gregory Street, Urbana
Langdon Winner
George A. Miller Endowment Professor, University of Illinois and Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
A colorful theme in American thought is the belief that new technologies will revitalize democratic society, enabling citizens to become more effectively self-governing. Hopes of this kind have reappeared in every generation since the early nineteenth century, a standard motif in the nation’s political rhetoric. With the arrival of digital technology and the Internet, this enduring vision has been powerfully rekindled. Will the dream of democratic renewal be realized this time around, or derailed by mechanisms of inequality and centralized control?.
In conjunction with:
CAS Initiative on Science and Technology in the Pacific Century, Center for Global Studies, Department of History, Department of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Engineering and Technology Studies at Illinois, Gender and Women's Studies Program, Illinois Informatics Initiative, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Spurlock Museum, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Mr. Death's Ephemeral Pageant: The Work of Audrey Niffenegger
February 6, 2008
Wednesday, 4:00pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
600 South Gregory Street, Urbana
Audrey Niffenegger
Author, The Time Traveler's Wife and MFA Program in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College, Chicago
Audrey Niffenegger gained international recognition in 2003 for her first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife. In addition to being an imaginative writer, she is a visual artist who has published several narrative visual novels created in her chosen medium the traditional aquatint. Her unique and memorable abilities as a verbal and visual storyteller astound her audiences. In light of her dual talents, it is not surprising that she is currently writing a novel about identical twins.
In conjunction with:
Friends of the University of Illinois Library, Gender and Women's Studies Program, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Lorado Taft Lectureship on Art, Ninth Letter, Program in Creative Writing (Department of English), Robert J. and Katherin Carr Visiting Author Series, Spurlock Museum, The Soybean Press
Global Africa: Whence Its Past? Whither Its Future?
February 13, 2008
Wednesday, 4:00 pm
Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center
919 West Illinois Street, Urbana
Michael A. Gomez
Department of History and Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
One should not speak of the African diaspora as a singular, unified experience. There are myriad components and contexts to the dispersal of Africans since the fifteenth century. This lecture will assess debates over convergences and divergences, such as debates over identity (including creolization, African-centeredness, New World, among others), routes vs. roots, and the contribution of cultural studies. Gomez will explore the intersections of academic scholarship and politics through the lens of recorded history as he assesses the viability of multiple pan-Africanisms.
In conjunction with:
Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, Center for Global Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, College of Law, Department of Anthropology, Department of English, Department of Geography, Department of History, Department of Sociology, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Global Crossroads Living-Learning Community, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, International Programs and Studies, Program for the Study of Religion, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory.
Biofuels and the World Food Situation
February 14, 2008
Thursday, 4:00pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
600 South Gregory Street, Urbana
Joachim von Braun
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC
Using more of the world's crops as energy sources could threaten food supplies to those people who are most in need, especially at prices that are competitive on the world market. Joachim von Braun assesses opportunities and risks in the development of bioenergy to discuss the changing role of the United States in assisting famine intervention worldwide.
In conjunction with:
Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research, Center for African Studies, Center for Global Studies, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, Department of Business Administration,
Department of Sociology, Energy Biosciences Institute, European Union Center, Gardner Chair for Agricultural Policy, Institute for Genomic Biology, Spurlock Museum, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program
Totebags, Teeshirts, and Tableware: The Domestication of Hokusai's Great Wave
March 4, 2008
Tuesday, 5:30pm
Room 62, Krannert Art Museum
500 East Peabody Drive, Champaign
Christine Guth
Tutor in Asian Design History, Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Christine Guth considers some of the ways in which Hokusai's celebrated 1831 woodcut Under the Wave off Kanagawa, popularly known as The Great Wave, has participated in American popular culture during the past twenty-five years. She focuses particularly on the role of the museum store in mediating its reception, interpretation, and dissemination through the sale of consumer goods featuring adaptations of the design.
Return to Krannert Art Museum on March 5 at 5:30 pm for Collecting East Asian Art
Gallery Conversation and Book Discussion of Longfellow’s Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan with Christine Guth, Lee Wonsik (Professor Emeritus, Kinki University, Osaka, Japan) and Anne Burkus-Chasson.
In conjunction with:
Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, College of Fine and Applied Art, Department of Anthropology, Department of East Asian Languages and Culture, Department of English,
Department of History, Japan House, Program in Art History, School of Art and Design, Society of Art History and Archaeology, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Shakespeare as a Skywatcher: Joining Astronomy with English Literature
March 25, 2008
Tuesday, 7:30 pm
Auditorium, Beckman Institute
405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana
David H. Levy
Science Editor, Parade Magazine and President, National Sharing the Sky Foundation
Astronomy is not meant just for professional astronomers. It's all about passion -- the passion of finding perspectives in the night sky in readings throughout literature, music, and many other activities throughout daily life. This talk will concentrate on the relationship of the night sky through English literature, from Hamlet's possible sighting of the supernova of 1572 to Thomas Hardy's famous eclipse of the moon. By discovering astronomical images in literature, we open a new door to the enjoyment and understanding of the night sky.
Hosted by:
Department of Astronomy, Department of Chemistry, Department of Journalism, Department of English, Department of Physics, Department of Geology, Astronomical Society at the University of Illinois
CANCELLED The New Me: What Knowing Your Own Genes Will Mean March 28, 2008
Friday, 4:00pm
Theatre, Lincoln Hall
702 South Wright Street, Urbana
Ian Hacking University Professor and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Toronto, Philosophy Professeur Honoraire, College de France
In conjunction with:
Beckman Institute, Department of Anthropology, Department of Economics, Department of Psychology, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Institute for Genomic Biology, Program for the Study of Religion, School of Integrative Biology, Graduate Philosophy Organization
Defiant Trespass: Lessons from the Black Arts Movement for "this place called America"
April 3, 2008
Thursday, 7:30pm
Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center
919 West Illinois Street, Urbana
In 1968, America was shaken by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the urban uprisings that followed. An anti-war movement was in full swing, France teetered on the brink of revolution, and the Mexico City Summer Olympics was punctuated by the defiant fists of Black Power. That same year, publication of the Black Fire Anthology announced a Black cultural revolution. Standing at the intersection of these revolutionary currents and an emerging feminist movement, award-winning poet, scholar and social activist Sonia Sanchez speaks to their meaning for post-Katrina America.
This presentation is also part of the conference “Rupture, Repression and Uprising: Raced and Gendered Violence Along the Color Line” organized by the African American Studies and Research Program. For more information, see www.aasrp.uiuc.edu.
In conjunction with:
Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Program,
Center for African Studies,
Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society,
Department of History,
Gender and Women's Studies Program,
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts,
Robert J. and Katherin Carr Visiting Author Series
Globalization and Language Endangerment: Africa vs. The Americas
April 9, 2008
Wednesday, 4:00pm
Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center
919 West Illinois Street, Urbana
Although English is indeed now spreading rapidly all over the world, it is not necessarily endangering the indigenous vernaculars of the populations that have been embracing it as an international lingua franca. Much of this has to do with the fact that globalization is far from being a uniform phenomenon and has in fact created more socio-economic inequities around the world. In this lecture, Mufwene focuses on Africa and the Americas to paint a global picture from a long, differential historical perspective connecting globalization and colonization.
Hosted by:
African-American Studies and Research Program, Department of French, Department of Linguistics, Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, Language Dynamics Reading Group (Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities), Linguistics Student Organization
Protecting the Prophet: Understanding Muslim Reactions to the Danish Cartoon Controversy
April 24, 2008
Thursday, 4:00pm
Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center
919 West Illinois Street, Urbana
Lawrence Rosen
William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University
In 2005-06 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad led to protests by Muslims worldwide. The controversy became local when the Daily Illini published several of the cartoons. Professor Rosen will discuss why Muslims feel so intensely that they must protect the Prophet, and why the Prophet, seen not just as a messenger, war leader, and arbiter, but also in a master-disciple relationship proves the rule of necessary deference by being the most exceptional social tie of all.
In conjunction with:
American Indian Studies Program, Asian-American Studies Program, Center for African Studies, Center for Global Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Department of Geography, Department of History, Department of Human and Community Development, Department of Journalism, Department of Landscape Architecture, Department of Linguistics, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, European Union Center, Global Crossroads Living/Learning Center, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, International Programs and Studies, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, Program in Asian Law, Program in Comparative and World Literature, Program for the Study of Religion, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center, School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center, Hillel Foundation.
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