November 7 | 3:00-4:30 | Tisch 304
“History of the Book Group”
Laura Light
The History of the Book Group involves faculty and librarians from art history, classics, history, music, philosophy and literary studies. Laura Light, of Les Enluminures, will guide us through an examination of our newly acquired Latin Bible (France 1240-1260). We will spend time brainstorming ideas for use in the classroom. Please invite colleagues and advanced graduate students to attend. A special thanks to Dorothy Meaney, Christopher Barbour, and Lisa Lowe for making this event possible.
September 26 | 5:00-7:00 | Tisch 304
“Asmarina”
Medhin Paolos
Medhin Paolos is an Italian photographer, film director, musician and activist. She will screen her film, “Asmarina,” about Eritrean and Ethiopian community in Italy, and following the film, will participate in a discussion.
October 5 | 4:30-6:30 pm | Alumnae Lounge
“Surrogate Humanity”
Neda Atanasoski
Kalindi Vora
Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora speak about their co-authored book project, Surrogate Humanity, elaborating what they call the “surrogate human effect” in both political and cultural imaginaries of civil rights and decolonization movements, and in recent developments in industrial and military robotics. They analyze the raced and gendered social relations between bodies, both machine and human, which are not generally recognized as such, and argue that these relations, too, are part of the fabric of racial liberalism in which practices of reducing the humanity of (racialized) others functions continues to buttress and define the value of the human, and what makes us feel human. By tracking the surrogate human effect, Atanasoski and Vora expose how a seemingly neutral technological modernity is in fact infused with the racial, gender, and sexual politics of political modernity, based as they are in racial slavery, colonial conquest and genocide.
October 16 | 4:30-6:30 pm | Alumnae Lounge
“Art and Immigration: One Artist / Several Paths”
Wen-ti Tsen
Wen-ti Tsen, the Fall 2017 Knaster Artist-in-Residence at Tufts University, will speak about the role of public art in the politics of immigration in contemporary society, and discusses the different ways that his art and art practices communicate immigrant experiences. His visit is made possible by the Martha and Nat R. Knaster Charitable Trust, the Center for the Humanities at Tufts, and the Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora.
Wen-ti Tsen’s lecture will be followed by a Public Reception, 6:00-8:00 pm, in the Balch Arena Lobby.
October 19 | 4:30-6:00 | CHAT Conference Room
Seminar: “Imperial Debris and Colonial Presence”
Ann Laura Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies, The New School for Social Research
In this fellows seminar, Professor Stoler will discuss her work on the politics of knowledge and histories of the present, focusing particularly on the concept of “colonial presence” in her recent book, Duress: Imperial Durabilities in Our Times (2016) and in her larger body of work. Participation is limited, please contact CHAT director if you would like to obtain the readings to participate in this seminar: lisa.lowe@tufts.edu
October 20 | 2:15-3:30 | Breed Memorial Hall, 51 Winthrop Street
“In Carceral Motion: Disposals of Life and Labor”
The 2017 Tufts Graduate Humanities Conference Reworking Labor Keynote Address
Ann Laura Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies, The New School for Social Research
October 25 | 6:00-8:00 | Rabb Room
Poets Series
Kathy Fagan
Kathy Fagan will read from her latest collection of poems, Sycamore (Milkweed Editions, 2017)
November 9 | 4:30-7:00 | Cabot 702
“Aapothkalin-trikalika: the Kali of Emergency”
Ashish Avikunthak
Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak will screen his film, “Aapothkalin-trikalika: the Kali of Emergency,” and will participate in a discussion following the screening.
November 14 | 4:30-6:30 pm | Alumnae Lounge
“Material Worlds: Genealogies of Race and Nature”
Mel Y. Chen, Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
Jake Kosek, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley
Alexander Blanchette, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Tufts
In this symposium, Chen, Kosek, and Blanchette will explore alternative biologies of race and racism, not through the most common routes of blood, skin or gene, but through other material biologies and rethinkings of life, matter, human, nature, and machine.
