Hall Center announces new lineup of Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminars


Thu, 05/01/2014

author

Samantha Bishop-Simmons

LAWRENCE — The Hall Center for the Humanities has announced its 2014-2017 slate of three-year interdisciplinary faculty seminars. The seminars are the result of an open call to all University of Kansas faculty members to propose seminars and a subsequent competitive review of applications.

The seminars are a forum for interdisciplinary scholarly exchange around a particular thematic topic. Faculty seminar directors, selected from a variety of disciplines, guide the roster of their seminars each semester. Presenters from within and beyond KU deliver their scholarship in progress, receiving feedback on drafts and engaging seminar participants with topics of interest.

Seminars are open to all graduate students, faculty and staff as well as guests invited by the speakers or by faculty directors. Each seminar has a mailing list that announces upcoming talks. Those interested in knowing more about particular seminars or wishing to be added to a mailing list can email Samantha Bishop Simmons at hchseminars@ku.edu with their request.

“The Hall Center seminars are a cornerstone scholarly development program and are one of the longest-running programs at the Center,” said Sally Utech, associate director of the Hall Center. “They offer researchers a unique opportunity to receive in-depth, interdisciplinary commentary on works in progress. The seminars have and will continue to create communities of scholars that transcend traditional departmental boundaries. The Hall Center is very excited about the variety of seminars that will run for the next three years, which are led by stellar KU faculty and staff.”

The slate of seminars and their schedules are as follows:

  • Digital Humanities, co-directed by Philip Stinson, classics, and Wade Garrison, KU Libraries. The Digital Humanities Seminar, co-sponsored by the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, provides a forum for sharing and discussion of new digitally enabled humanities research efforts, with a specific focus on what digital humanities tools and practices can do for a range of humanistic research. This seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month.
  • Conflict & International Change, co-directed by Ted Wilson, history; Sheyda Jahanbani, history, and Nazli Avdan, political science. The seminar will give attention to scholarship reflecting innovative and interdisciplinary depictions of how and why individuals, groups and nations seek to avert or ameliorate international conflicts and the experience at all levels of analysis of waging warfare. This seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the first Friday of each month.
  • Disability Studies, co-directed by Sherrie Tucker, American studies; John Derby, visual art, and Ray Mizumura-Pence, American studies. The seminar will provide a much-needed forum for scholars to explore and share research on topics relevant to disability within and across the humanities, arts and social sciences. Scholars within disability studies tend to recognize disability in terms of social construction and minority culture. The seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month.
  • Early Modern, co-directed by Jonathan Lamb, English, and Patricia Manning, Spanish & Portuguese. The Early Modern Seminar meets each semester to discuss original work relating to any aspect of the history, culture, literature, art or society of any part of the world between 1500 and 1800. This seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the first Monday of each month.
  • Gender, co-directed by Ann Schofield, women, gender & sexuality studies, and Akiko Takeyama, anthropology. The seminar studies gender as a basic concept in humanistic scholarship and/or as a fundamental organizing principle in social life. The seminar will promote the study and application of gender as a viable analytical tool that not only provokes new scholarship in its primary base of women, feminist and sexualities studies, but also explores possible research dimensions in fields such as, race, ethnicity, nationality, class and (dis)ability. The seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.
  • Latin America and Its Diasporas, co-directed by Tony Rosenthal, history, and Jill Kuhnheim, Spanish & Portuguese and Latin American & Caribbean studies. The seminar will offer an ongoing dialogue about the cultural intersections of Latin America with its diasporic communities abroad, as well as the shifting power relations of minority communities and the state within Latin American and U.S. nations and cities. The seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month.
  • Nature and Culture, co-directed by Byron Caminero-Santangelo, English, and Sara Gregg, history. The seminar brings the perspective of the humanities to bear on past and present environmental issues. It includes research on the changing perception, representation and valuation of nature in human life, on the reciprocal effect of environmental change on social change, and on the variety of ways we use, consume, manage and revere the earth. This seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the second Friday of each month.
  • Place, Race, and Space, co-directed by Shawn Alexander, African & African American studies; David Roediger, American studies, and Ludwin Molina, psychology. The seminar explores the interplay of social, historical, psychological and spatial forces in configuring racial formations, identities and experiences throughout the world. Its thematic concerns are shaped by work in African & African American studies, American studies, anthropology, critical race theory, geography, history, Latin American studies, political science, psychology and urban studies. The seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the second Monday of each month.
  • The Urban Experience, co-directed by John Rury, education; Clarence Lang, African & African American studies; Marie-Alice L’Hereux, architecture, design & planning, and Bradley Lane, School of Public Affairs & Administration. Building upon last year’s Reimagining the City seminar, this seminar will focus on urban social and cultural space and attendant relationships, both as a result of ideas and imagination, and as a function of historical, social, economic and political forces. The seminar will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month.

Thu, 05/01/2014

author

Samantha Bishop-Simmons

Media Contacts

Victor Bailey

Hall Center for the Humanities

785-864-7822