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The Power of Photography for Social Change
REZA is an acclaimed photojournalist whose work has been featured in National Geographic, Time Magazine, Stern, Newsweek, El País, Paris Match, as well as a series of books, exhibitions and documentaries made for the National Geographic Channel. He discusses the importance of using images to serve social change, by training younger generations to become the actors of the future. Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts
Find out more »The Dancing Sowei: Performing Beauty in Sierra Leone
This exhibition focuses on one spectacular work in the Cantor’s collection—a sowei mask, used by the women–only Sande Society that is unique to Sierra Leone. Used in dance by senior women of the society, the sowei mask symbolizes knowledge of feminine grace and is part of a young girl’s initiation into adulthood. Thus, for many women of the region, beauty is literally performed into existence through ndoli jowei (the dancing sowei or the sowei mask in performance). IMAGE: Gola or Mende…
Find out more »“Crossroads” by Bahram Beyzaie
New play written and directed by Bahram Beyzaie. Approximately year eighty of the Persian calendar. In a busy crossroads of Tehran, a woman and a man run into one another, torn apart by the events of the last fifteen years! Play is in Persian. Part of the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts. **More information and ticket sales coming soon!
Find out more »Betray the Secret: Humanity in the Age of “Frankenstein”
The Cantor’s contribution to the campus-wide celebration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus reveals ways artists have represented the body, life, and death, as well as the boundary separating humanity from technology. IMAGE: Beth Van Hoesen (U.S.A., 1926–2010), Stanford (Arnautoff Class), 1945. Graphite and ink on paper. Gift of the Estate of Beth Van Hoesen
Find out more »How to Save Politics in a Post-Truth Era: Thinking Through Difficult Times with Ilan Baron
Ilan Zvi Baron is an Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, where he is also the Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Jewish Culture, Society and Politics. He has published on International Relations theory, identity and security, dual loyalty, the Jewish Diaspora’s relationship with Israel and the international cultural politics of Israeli cuisine. His most recent books include, “Obligation in Exile: The Jewish Diaspora, Israel and Critique,” published by Edinburgh University Press,…
Find out more »Jewish Museums in Europe: Cabinets of Curiosities or Theatres of History with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
What comes first? The collection or the story? What is the story the collection tells, and can the story the museum wants to tell be told through the collection? Given the politics of history and historical policies in Europe today, Jewish museums have a special role to play. Prague, Budapest, London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Vienna – Jewish museums in these and other European cities have taken different approaches. Their strategies reflect not only the history of the institution and…
Find out more »Is AI the New Frankenstein? with Ken Goldberg
Is AI the New Frankenstein? (Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley with Fred Turner, Stanford) 200 years after Mary Shelley’s masterwork appeared in print, “Artificial Intelligence” is running amok, provoking extreme claims of opportunities and threats. Many assert that AI is an “exponential technology”, a “new electricity” that will transform every industry. Advocates claim that fully autonomous cars and robots with human dexterity are just around the corner. At the same time, headlines report that robots will soon steal the majority of…
Find out more »Hidden Beneath Diebenkorn’s “Window”
Two hidden compositions lie below the surface of Window by painter and Stanford graduate Richard Diebenkorn, BA ’49. These hidden compositions were unknown to the art community except as barely visible reworkings, or pentimenti, until brought to light by Stanford student Katherine Van Kirk, ’19, during her fellowship in the Cantor’s Art+Science Lab. This installation shows the multiple layers uncovered through infrared reflectography as evidence—in a single painting—of the transition Diebenkorn was making in his art from figurative to still…
Find out more »Todd Lewis: “Reconfiguration and Revival: Newar Buddhist Traditions in the Kathmandu Valley (and Beyond)”
Bio: Todd Lewis, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA Abstract: Beginning with Sylvain Lévi, most scholars for the past century who have assessed the state of Newar Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley have described the tradition as “decadent,” “corrupted by Hinduism,” and so in serious decline. Many predicted its withering away, most often due to competition from the reformist Theravādins, a movement that arrived in Nepal a century ago. The predations of the modern Nepalese state with its staunchly Hindu…
Find out more »Nemtsov: Film Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker Vladimir Kara-Murza and Michael McFaul
Nemtsov is a documentary film about the late leader of the Russian opposition, directed by his friend and colleague Vladimir Kara-Murza. The film chronicles a remarkable political life. It is a story told by those who knew Boris Nemtsov at different times: when he was a young scientist and took his first steps in politics; when he held high government offices and was considered Boris Yeltsin’s heir apparent; when he led Russia’s democratic opposition to Vladimir Putin. The film contains…
Find out more »International Health Humanities Consortium Conference 2018
The Health Humanities Consortium promotes health humanities scholarship, education, and practices through interdisciplinary methods and theories that focus on the intersection of the arts and humanities, health, illness, and healthcare, with annual conferences sharing practices and scholarship. This year’s conference coincides with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and as such will highlight the themes of science’s risky aspirations and how the humanities help communicate them. Keynote speakers include Alexander Nemerov, Professor of Art and Art History…
Find out more »James A. Benn: “Controversies in the Doctrine and Practice of Self-immolation in Medieval China”
Abstract: In this seminar we will read selected passages from the chapter on self-immolation (sheshen pian 捨身篇) in the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist compendium Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林. We will see how the compiler of the work—Daoshi 道世 (596?–683) places a range of somatic practices including burning the body within the context of the propagation of Buddhism. We will note how he deploys key jātaka tales and Mahāyāna sutras as scriptural supports for the practice, and reflect on his choice of hagiographical material from China. Bio: James A. Benn…
Find out more »Languages About Music: 2018 Stanford Graduate Music Colloquium
A conversation space for scholars throughout the humanities and sciences, to share and exchange different ways of talking about and engaging with music How do we talk about music and sound? What is the language that we use to describe music? What makes music an interesting object of inquiry? Each discipline brings with it new approaches and methodologies for answering these questions. Come and join a day of interdisciplinary conversation exploring music and its many languages. Featured Events – schedule TBA…
Find out more »Hisham Matar Reading, part of the Lane Lecture Series
Photo by Diana Matar Part of the Lane Lecture Series Hisham Matar was born in New York City to Libyan parents, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo, and has lived most of his adult life in London. His critically acclaimed 2016 memoir The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between won the Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography and received the PEN America Book of the Year Award. In The Return, he recounts his search for his father, who was…
Find out more »A Conversation with Award-Winning South African Author Jonny Steinberg
Join us for an evening with best-selling author and Oxford University Professor of African Studies Jonny Steinberg. Professor Steinberg will give a talk, followed by a short reading of his forthcoming book One Day in Bethlehem, and a moderated Q&A session with Jeremy M. Weinstein, the Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division. One Day in Bethlehem begins late in the evening of April 2, 1992, when, on the brink of apartheid’s end, the South African security police…
Find out more »“Denial”, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving with Deborah Lipstadt
Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory College Deborah received her B.A. from City College of New York (1969) and her M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1976) from Brandeis University. Professor Lipstadt is frequently called upon by the media to comment on a variety of matters. She has appeared Good Morning America, NPR’s Fresh Air, the BBC, Charlie Rose Show, and is a frequent contributor to and is widely quoted in a variety of newspapers…
Find out more »Tim H. Barrett: “A Possible Buddhist Influence on Chinese Political Thought”
Abstract: Much work has been done in recent decades on the way in which Chinese rulers made use of Buddhism to bolster their power, but in fact some Buddhist ideas concerning kingship found in South Asian materials were quite negative. China was in imperial times an autocracy in which such negativity towards kingship generally did not flourish. But if we look carefully, is there really no trace at all of these Buddhist ideas entering the Chinese tradition of political thought? …
Find out more »The Polish Roots of Right-Wing Zionism with Daniel Heller
Daniel K. Heller, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at McGill University How interwar Poland and its Jewish youth were instrumental in shaping the ideology of right-wing Zionism By the late 1930s, as many as fifty thousand Polish Jews belonged to Betar, a youth movement known for its support of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism. Poland was not only home to Jabotinsky’s largest following. The country also served as an inspiration and incubator for the development of right-wing Zionist…
Find out more »The Ruined House with Ruby Namdar
Ruby Namdar, author Ruby Namdar was born and raised in Jerusalem to a family of Iranian-Jewish heritage. His first book, Haviv (2000) won The Ministry of Culture’s Award for Best First Publication. His novel The Ruined House has won the Sapir Prize—Israel’s most prestigious literary award. In The Ruined House, an elegant NYU professor at the peak of his powers is reduced to a quivering puddle by a violent, unsought, yearlong spiritual awakening. Jumping between New York of 2000 and the Holy Temple…
Find out more »When Vilna was Young: Vilna’s Last Generation with Justin Cammy
Justin Cammy is a literary and cultural historian with research and teaching interests in Yiddish and modern Jewish literatures, Eastern European Jewish history, and Zionism and contemporary Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies from McGill University. In addition to appointments in Jewish studies and comparative literature, he also is a member of Smith’s Programs in Middle East studies, Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies, and American…
Find out more »Rupert Gethin: “On Death and Rebirth, and What Happens in Between: Two Buddhist Accounts of Why it Matters”
Abstract: Ancient Indian Buddhist thinkers for the most part took it as given that death was followed by rebirth, but they disagreed on whether death was followed immediately by rebirth or by an in between state (antarābhava). The lecture will consider two accounts of death and rebirth, both from the fourth to fifth centuries CE but representing the traditions of two different schools: (1) the account found in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa, which presents the traditions of the Sarvāstivāda school and advocates an in between state, and (2) the account found in the…
Find out more »Making Hungary Great Again: State Building, Mass Violence, and the Irony of Global Holocaust Memory in Twentieth-Century Europe with Raz Segal
Raz Segal, Assistant Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Sara and Sam Schoffer Professor of Holocaust Studies at Stockton University Dr. Segal is engaged in his work with the challenges of exploring the Holocaust as an integral part of modern processes of imperial collapse, the formation and occasional deformation of nation-states, and their devastating impact on the societies they sought (and seek) to break and remake. Integrative and comparative, his research stands at the intersection of modern European history, Holocaust scholarship, Genocide Studies, and Jewish history, and links the Holocaust to…
Find out more »墨境 Ink Worlds: Contemporary Chinese Painting from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang
Ink Worlds considers ink painting from the 1960s through the present, examining salient visual features and international connections, as well as the ongoing impact of historical techniques, materials, and themes. In so doing, the exhibition addresses not only the capacity of ink painting to evolve but also the contemporary nature of ink painting as a distinct genre whose achievements can already be documented. Caption: Irene Zhou (China, 1924–2011), Untitled, 1995. Ink on paper. Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang
Find out more »The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age with Steven P. Weitzman
Steven Weitzman, Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures, Ella Darivoff Director of the Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies at Pennsylvania University Prof. Weitzman specializes in the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Jewish culture. Recent publications include Surviving Sacrilege: Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity(Harvard University Press, 2005); Religion and the Self in Antiquity (Indiana University Press, 2005); The Jews: A History (Prentice Hall, 2009); and a biography of King Solomon, part of the new “Jewish Lives” series, published by Yale University Press in…
Find out more »Oliver Freiberger: “Lines in Water? On Drawing Buddhism’s Boundaries in Ancient India”
Abstract: This talk explores the ways in which religious agents – and modern scholars – distinguish religions. Illustrated by examples from ancient India, it will problematize the popular notion of blurred boundaries and suggest a multilayered approach for analyzing religious boundary-making. The paper argues that scholars should be prepared to find, even within one religious community, numerous and possibly conflicting ways of drawing a boundary between “us” and “them.” Bio: Dr. Oliver Freiberger is associate professor of Asian Studies and…
Find out more »Stanford Gu-zheng Ensemble – NEW DATE!
The Stanford Guzheng Ensemble is a group of Stanford students from all disciplines, drawn together by their interest in gu-zheng (Chinese harp). This instrument is considered the ancestor of other Asian instruments such as the Japanese koto. Led by renowned gu-zheng player Hui You, the ensemble explores both traditional and contemporary pieces for gu-zheng. Note: This event was originally scheduled for June 3 at 7:00 PM.
Find out more »Robert Daniel DeCaroli: “Snakes and the Rain: Nāga Imagery, Water Management, and Buddhist Rainmaking Rituals in Early South Asia”
Abstract: When considering the water-related challenges that confronted the monks and architects involved with rock-cut monasteries, it becomes apparent that the veneration of nāgas complimented methods of hydraulic engineering designed to regulate the flow of water at the sites. The highly visible nature of this arrangement helps to explain the emergence of ritual texts, primarily dating to after the fourth century CE, in which Buddhist ritualists adopt the role of rainmakers. The ritualists invariably invoke a special relationship with the…
Find out more »Stanford Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble: Spring Concert
The Stanford Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble is dedicated to the performance, interpretation, and study of Afro-Latin music and its fusion with North American jazz. It is the ensemble’s belief that the evolution of “American music” is not indigenous to the United States but rather encompasses developments and influences from Latin and South America as well. Established in Winter 2008 by director Murray Low, the group has made rapid progress since its inception and is now one of the finest academic performing…
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