Lectures & Campus Events

The 2018 Cole Lecture Series

Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Lecture 1: 4 October 2018 - 7:00pm

Lecture 2: 5 October 2018 - 11:00am

Vanderbilt University, Benton Chapel

The 2018 Cole Lecture Series will be delivered by Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Philanthropist Edmunc W. Cole, president of Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and treasurer of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, endowed the annual Cole Lecture Series in 1892 "for the defense and advocacy of the Christian religion." Cole's gift provided for the first sustained lectureship in the history of Vanderbilt University.

Two lectures will be held:

Stubborn Ethical Radicalism: Christian Socialism as Political Theology and Economic Democracy (Thursday, 4 October 2018 in Benton Chapel at 7:00pm)
The New Abolition and the American Nightmare: DuBois, King, Christian Socialism, and the Black Social Gospel (Friday, 5 October 2018 in Benton Chapel at 11:00am)

Gary Dorrien was previously the Parfet Distinguished Professor at Kalamazoo College where he taught for 18 years and also served as dean of Stetson Chapel and director of the Liberal Arts Colloquium. Professor Dorrien is the author of nineteen books and more than 300 articles that range across the fields of social ethics, philosophy, theology, political economics, social and political theory, religious history, cultural criticism, and intellectual history. In 2017, Dorrien won the Grawemeyer Award for his book The New Abolition: W.E.B. DuBois and the Black Social Gospel. In 2013, Dorrien won the Association of American Publisher's PROSE Award for his book Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology . In 2010, Dorrien won the Choice Award for his book Social Ethics in the Making.

Dorrien has focused on economic democracy and social justice politics, post-Kantian philosophy, an modern theology throughout his career. His early books on theses subjects include Reconstructing the Common Good (1990), The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture, and the War of Ideology (1992), Soul in Society: The Making and Renewal of Social Christianity (1995), The Word as True Myth (1997), and The Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology (2000).

His most recent books are Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black Social Gospel and Imagining Democratic Socialism: Political Theology, Marxism, and Social Democracy, both published by Yale University Press in 2018. Imagining Democratic Socialism, to be published in November 2018, examines the intertwined history os social democracy, Marxism, and Christian socialism in Britain and Germany, making an argument for decentralized economic democracy.

Dorrien has taught in recent years as the Horace De Y. Lentz Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School and the Paul E. Raiether Distinguished Scholar at Trinity College. He lectures frequently in Germany, England, and Canada, and write for Cross Currents, American Journal of Theology and Philosophy, Tikkun, Christian Century, Telos, Commonweal, and other journals.

The Cole Lecture Series are free and open to the public.

John Gerrard

Department of Art and Studio VU Lecture Series 2018-2019

4 October 2018 - 6:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Central Library Community Room

The Studio VU Lecture Seriesand the Department of Art at Vanderbilt, in collaboration with the Memorizing the Future: Collecting in the 21st Century Conference and co-sponsored with the Jean & Alexander Heard Libraries, present acclaimed artist, John Gerrard on October 4, 2018 with a lecture beginning at 6:00pm in the Central Library Community Room on the Vanderbilt campus. The lecture will be followed by a discussion/interview moderated by Lutz Koepnick, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of German, Cinema and Media Arts; Chair, Department of German, Russian and East European Studies.

John Gerrard (1974) is best known for his commitment to large-scale works that take the form of real-time computer simulations, created in painstaking detail over the course of many months or years. Often exploring geographically isolated location, the works frequently refer to structures of power and networks of energy that have made possible the expansion of human endeavor in the past century.

2018 will see Gerrard's work included in EV+A, Limerick, Ireland, Manifesta 12, Palermo, Sicily, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), LA, USA, CCS Bard. Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale–on–Hudson, NY and the Mardin Biennial, Mardin, Turkey.

Recent solo presentations of Gerrard’s work include: Western Flag, commissioned by Channel4, UK (2017); X.Laevis (Spacelab), commissioned by Wellcome Collection, London (2017); Power.Play,UCCA, Beijing, China (2016); Solar Reserve, Lincoln Centre in association with the Public Art Fund, NYC. USA (2014); Sow Farm, Rathole Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2014); Exercise , Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey (2014); Pulp Press (Kistefos) 2013, a permanent install for Kistefos Museet, Norway; Exercise (Djibouti) 2012, for Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK; and Infinite Freedom Exercise, Manchester International Festival, Manchester, UK (2011)

His works can be found in the collections of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Irish Arts Council Collection, Dublin, Ireland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Tate, London, UK; Pinakotek der Moderne, Munich; Germany, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, USA; Inhotim Collection, Brumadinho, Brazil.

John Gerrard lives and works in Dublin, Ireland and Vienna, Austria. He is represented by Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Simon Preston Gallery, New York. For further information about John’s work visit johngerrard.net.

Making Borders in Modern East Asia: The Demarcation of the China-Korea Tumen River, 1881-1919

Department of History

24 September 2018 - 4:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Lecture by Dr. Nianshen Song (University of Maryland, Baltimore County). Dr. Song is Assistant Professor of History and an affiliated faculty in the Asian Studies Program at UMBC. His research and teaching focus on late imperial and modern China, with special interest in China's ethnic frontiers, East Asian trans-regional networks, and international relations. He is the author of Making Borders in Modern East Asia: The Tumen River Demarcation, 1881–1919 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which explores the making of the China-Korea boundary and the Korean diaspora in Northeast China.

His articles have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, the Asia-Pacific Journal, Chinese Journal of International Politics, and Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, among others.

His next book project, The West Pagoda: Three and Half Centuries of a Chinese Neighborhood, aims to examine the rise and fall of Northeast China from the nearly 400 years' evolution of a small urban space. Dr. Song has also published many academic articles in Chinese. His Chinese monograph, Faxian dongya (Discovering East Asia) (Beijing: New Star Press, 2018), rethinks East Asia's intricate relations with global modernity from the 16th century onward.

On Being Gandhi: The art and Politics of Seeing

20 September 2018 - 4:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 206

Named one of India's top 15 rising artists, photographer B.S. Shivaraju (a.k.a. Cop Shiva) documents the complexity of rural and urban India through portraiture. He is fascinated with the idea of masquerade and the roles people play in public and private.

The talk takes place in conjunction with the exhibition On Being Gandhi: The Art and Politics of Seeing at the Leu Art Gallery at Belmont University (opening September 28). One of Cop Shiva's most critically acclaimed projects, the exhibition features photographs of Bagadehalli Basvaraju, a village schoolteacher who routinely impersonates Mahatma Gandhi.

Cop Shiva's visit is generously sponsored by the Departments of History, History of Art, Art, Religious Studies, and the Asia Studies Program. All are welcome.

Bill Fick & Carlos Hernandez: Lecture and Workshop

Department of Art and the Studio VU Lecture Series 2018-2019

Lecture: 19 September 2018 - 6:00pm, E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center Room 220

Workshop: 21 September 2018 - 1:00pm to 4:00pm, E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center Rooms 314/320

Vanderbilt Unversity

The Department of Art and the Studio VU Lecture Series 2018-2019 are pleased to announce the visiting lecture and Print-O-Rama workshop with printmakers Bill Frick and Carlos Hernandez.

The public lecture will take place on September 19 at 6:00pm in Room 220 of the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center. The Print-O-Rama Workshop will be held on September 21 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm in the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center, Rooms 314/320. There is a limited workshop capacity, so please contact mark.hosford@vanderbilt.edu for more information.

Bill Fick is a printmaker who lives and works in Durham, North Carolina. He is currently a Lecturing Fellow at Duke University in the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies. Over the past 25 years, he has exhibited his prints nationally and internationally and has taught at many institutions across the United States including the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill and Greensboro), Pratt Institute and Rutgers University. Fick’s work can be found in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, The New York Public Library, and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. In 1993, Fick was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Visual Artist Fellowship and in 1995, a North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship. Along with Beth Grabowski, Fick co-authored the book, Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Processes. The book was published by Laurence King and is currently in its 2nd edition.

Carlos Hernandez is a founding partner of Burning Bone Press, a full-service printmaking studio located in the Houston Heights, and has served as an instructor of Screen Printing at Rice University, Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. His work has been featured in the 2011 Communication Arts Typography annual, the 2011 & 2012 Communication Arts Illustration annual and was also recently published in the 2012 book, Mexican Graphics by Korero Books-UK. He has designed and printed gig posters for such artists as The Kills, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Santana, and More. Corporate work has included Miller Brewing Company and more. He has recieved awards from American Advertising Federation, “Judges Favorite” from the Art Directors Club Houston, and “Best in Show” from the American Marketing Association.

Reclaiming Our Time: A 21st Century Response to Banks' "Afro-American Scholars in the University"

Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations

19 September 2018 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Kennedy Center Building Room 241

Reception to follow.

Presented by Richard J. Reddick, Ed.D - Associate Professor and Coordinator, Program in Higher Education Leadership, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin.

William Banks' 1984 article "Afro-American Scholars in the University" situated Black faculty at predominantly White institutions in a milieu noting the uses and misuses of Black scholars, constituencies in conflict, the range of responses from Black scholars, and the standards and realities for their advancement in academia. Banks further discussed the stigma of affirmative action and the burden of symbolism for Black faculty. This discussion, during the #BlackLivesMatter and Trump era, engages with the same questions that Banks raised 34 years prior. This response is centered through an analysis of community engagement experiences, the burdens of cultural taxation, and the impact of affirmative action in a post-Fisher political context for scholars in educational leadership. Incorporating events both inside and outside of academia, Reddick considers the centrality of creating spaces of resistance and leveraging the gains for Black academics over the past three decades to alter the standards of the academy to support Black scholars and their allies.

Overseas Conversations: On Translating Jenny Erpenbeck

Department of German, Russian, and East European Studies

Public Lecture: 17 September 2018 - 6:00pm, Buttrick Hall 102

Workshop: 18 September 2018 - 9:30am to 12:00pm, Curb Center Yamada Room (1801 Edgehill Avenue)

Vanderbilt University

Translator Susan Bernofsky presents to work of Jenny Erpenbeck (in particular her novels The End of Days and Go, Went, Gone) from the translator's-eye-perspective, analyzing the resistance these works offer translation even as they thematize translation in both literal and figurative senses.

Susan Bernofsky is the director for Literary Translation at Columbia in the Columbia University School of the Arts writing program. Her translations include works by Robert Walter, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Jenny Erpenbeck, and Yoko Tawada. Her translation of Erpenbeck's novel, The End of Days, won the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize, the Ungar Award for Literary Translation, and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her translation of Tawada's novel, Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2016), won the inaugural Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. She is currently writing a biography of Walser and blogs about translation at www.translationista.com.

The public lecture will be held at 6:00pm on 17 September 2018, in Buttrick Hall 102.

On September 18, Bernofsky will host a workshop in literary translation in the Curb Center's Yamada Room (1801 Edgehill Avenue) from 9:30am to 12:00pm. Lunch will be provided at the workshop. Seats are limited, so please contact sylvia.bosma@vanderbilt.edu to reserve a spot by Wednesday, September 12. The introductory session will familiarize attendees with the basic tools needed to approach literary translation and provide insights into key issues for more experience practitioners.

Co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies; the Department of English; the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy; the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities; and the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies.

Set the World on Fire: A Conversation with Dr. Keisha N. Blaine

Conversations @NPL

15 September 2018 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm

Nashville Public Library - Main Library (615 Church Street)

"How have black women shaped national and global politics?" Join us for a conversation with Dr. Keisha N. Blain, one of the most innovative intellectuals and influential young historians of her generation, as she discusses her new book, Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom. Dr. Blain will also discuss how her approach to historical scholarship mirrors contemporary activist efforts.

Dr. Blain will be joined by Dr. Brandon Byrd, Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt and an intellectual historian.

For questions, contact Special Collections at (615) 862-5782.

When, How, and Why did Jews Become a "Minority"? Remapping Difference in Central Europe, 1815-1919

Max Kade Center for European and German Studies

14 September 2018 - 3:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick Hall 212

A talk by Till van Rahden, Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies at the Université de Montréal.

Co-sponsored y the Program in Jewish Studies.

I AM: Contemporary Middle Eastern Women Artists and the Quest to Build Peace

Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery

Opening Reception: 30 August 2018 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm

Gallery Exhibition: 30 August - 10 October 2018

Panel Discussion: 12 September 2018 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Fine Arts Gallery (1220 21st Avenue South)

I AM features the work of thirty-one premier Middle Eastern women artists from twelve countries and is organized by CARAVAN and curated by Janet Rady. It is brought to the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery by the Office of the Chancellor.

An opening reception will be held on August 30. Special guests will include Nicholas S. Zeppos (Chancellor, Vanderbilt University), Rev. Canon Paul-Gordon Chandler (Founding President, CARAVAN), and Sheika Lulwa Al Khalifa (Featured Artist). A featured panel discussion will also take place on September 12.

The Fine Arts Gallery is open 11:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday, and 1:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information please visit vanderbilt.edu/gallery .

More Than Local, Less Than Global: The Connected Histories of Vernacular (India) Photography

Department of English

11 September 2018 - 4:10pm

Vanderbilt University, C210 Kissam Center

Talk presented by Christopher Pinney, Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at the University College London.

Sponsored by the Departments of English, History, History of Art, and Religious Studies.

The Deep Grammar of Cultural Transformation: Coptic Law and Muslim Courts in Medieval Egypt

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2018-2019

10 September 2018 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Talk presented by Tam el-Leithy (Johns Hopkins). Lunch will be served at noon. Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Kayleigh Whitman at kayleigh.m.whitman@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium series is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Ari Bryen.

Ghada Amer

Studio VU: The Department of Art Lecture Series 2018-2019

10 September 2018 - 3:00pm

Vanderbilt University, E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center Room 220 (1204 25th Avenue South)

Ghada Amer was born in Cairo (Egypt) in 1963. In 1974, her parents relocated to France where she began her artistic training ten years later at Villa Arson, Nice, France. She currently lives and works between New York and Paris, and has exhibited among others at the Venice Biennale, the Sydney Biennale, the Whitney Biennale, and the Brooklyn Museum.

"I believe that all women should like their bodies and use them as tools of seduction," Amer stated; and in her well-known erotic embroideries, she at once rejects oppressive laws set in place to govern women's attitudes towards their bodies and repudiates first-wave feminist theory that the body must be denied to prevent victimization. By depicting explicit sexual acts with the delicacy of needle and thread, their significance assumes a tenderness that simple objectification ignores.

Ghada Amer continuously allows herself to explore the dichotomies of an uneasy world and confronts the language of hostility and finality with unsettled narratives of longing and love.

Ghada Amer's work addresses first and foremost the ambiguous, transitory nature of the paradox that arises when searching for concrete definitions of east and west, feminine and masculine, art and craft. Through her paintings, sculptures and public garden projects, Amer takes traditional notions of cultural identity, abstraction, and religious fundamentalism and turns them on their heads.

Co-sponsored with The Frist Art Museum. For more information contact 615-343-7241 or find the Department of Art online at vanderbilt.edu/arts .

Jewish Scholarship and Religious Commitment: The Example of Leo Baeck

Program in Jewish Studies Lecture Series 2018-2019

6 September 2018 - 12:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Central Library Poetry Room (612A)

Talk presented by Michael A. Meyers (Hebrew Union College). A kosher lunch will be provided.

Rabbi Leo Baeck is known as the heroic leader of German Jewry during the Nazi years. Less well known is how he balanced a twofold commitment to Jewish faith and to modern historical scholarship. The lecture will present Back as a significant voice in creating a form of Judaism that allowed for the critical evaluation of Jewish sources, even as it reached for the mystery of a transcendent, morally demanding God.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, and the Jean and Alexander Heard Library.

Dartmoor Prison and the Pre-History of Carceral Segregation, 1813-1815

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2018-2019

3 September 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School Room 124

Presented by Nicholas, Guyana (University of Cambridge).

Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper available in the Department of History, Benson 227. Comments provided by Brandon Byrd (Vanderbilt University).

VHS Directors: Jefferson Cowie & Moses Ochonu.

For more information visit: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/history/vhs/.

Summer Institute

The Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative

4-8 June 2018

Topic - Reclaiming Our Time: Public Theology, Racial Justice, and the Fight for Democracy

America is in a kairos moment. It is a time of immense reflection, equipping, and mobilization. The Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative's Summer Institute is designed to be the gathering place for those who discern the time. We are calling all scholars, students, clergy, community activists, community organizers, politicians, concerned citizens, artists, and strategists in Nashville, Tennessee, for the convening of the first cohort of what we envision to be a think tank of leaders invested in the soul of our democracy.

Our aim this year is to equip participants to engage a wide public on the issues presented to racial minorities in the mid-term elections.

An Evening with Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry (Maya Angelou Presidential Chair, Wake Forest University)

The Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative

6 June 2018 - 5:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Langford Auditorium (2209 Garland Avenue, Nashville, TN 37232)

Interviewed by Professor Tracey Meares, JD (Yale Law School).

A Book Talk with Dr. Emilie M. Townes (Dean, Vanderbilt Divinity School)

The Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative

5 June 2018 - 5:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School Reading Room (411 21st Avenue S, Nashville, TN 37240)

Celebrating 25 years since the publication of her seminal work, Womanist Justice, Womanist Hope.

The Goodwin Prize for Excellence in Theological Writing

Theological Horizons

1 June 2018

In recognition of essays that demonstrate creative theological thinking and excellence in scholarship. 1st Place: $2,500. 2nd Place: $1,000. 3rd Place: $500.

$500 prize goes to the professor of the winning student.

Eligibility requirements: the writer must be a masters or doctoral student; the submission must be an original, unpublished essay; submissions must be postmarked by June 1st.

For more information please visit our website: www.theologicalhorizons.org/writing.

Fort Negley Descendents Project: Nashville's Black Legacies of the Civil War

Friends of Fort Negley and the Vanderbilt Center for Digital Humanities

28 April 2018 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Fort Negley (1100 Fort Negley Blvd., Nashville, TN 37203)

Join us for the unveiling of the Fort Negley Descendants Project.

Meet us at the Fort for the premiere of two interviews from our new oral history archive that honors descendants of the African-American laborers and soldiers who built and defended the fort in the 1860's. Join us for refreshments and to share your Fort Negley stories!

This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of Fort Negley and the Vanderbilt Center for Digital Humanities.

Questions? Write to us at fortnegleydescendants@gmail.com.

Families of Blood & Faith: Religion, Race, and Community in the Sephardic Atlantic

The Program in Jewish Studies 2017-2018 Lecture Series

26 April 2018 - 12:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Presented by Ronnie Perelis (Yeshiva University).

Lunch provided.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Water, Infrastructure, and American Politics: A State of the Field Discussion

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: WATER

16 April 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Presented by Andrew Needham (New York University) and Jason Scott Smith (University of New Mexico).

Discussion will be based on pre-circulated papers available in the Department of History, Benson 227. The VHS Directors are Jefferson Cowie and Ruth Rogaski.

The Canopy and the Byzantine Church

Divinity School Program in Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture

14 April 2018 - 3:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity G-23

Professor Jelena Bogdanovic (Iowa State University) will give a lecture on medieval Serbian Orthodox Iconography. The lecture will be followed by a gallery showing for the Vanderbilt Art Gallery exhibit, "Eikon: A Triple Encounter," presented by Julia Liden (Divinity School Master's student) and featuring medieval Byzantine and Slavic icon reproductions. The exhibit will be open from March 27 through May 10.

Sponsored by the Divinity School's Program in Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture. Additional sponsorship provided by the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of History of Art, the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, and the Department of History.

The Literary Imagination of Ritual in Early Japan

Robert Penn Warren Humanities Center

13 April 2018 - 12:00pm to 2:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities

Presented by Torquil Duthie, Asian Languages and Cultures (UCLA).

Lunch will be provided.

This event is sponsored by The Group for Pre-Modern Cultural Studies at the Warren Center, the Asian Studies Program, and the Department of Religious Studies.

I Think You Changed the World: The Poetics of Experiment in the Works of Pat Parker and Audre Lorde

Department of Religious Studies

12 April 2018, 1:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Wilson 112

Talk to be given by Mecca Sullivan, Assistant Professor of English (Bryn Mawr College).

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality.

The Politics of Beauty in South Africa: Art and Education Under Apartheid

The "Africa at a Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

11 April 2018 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Black Cultural Center Auditorium

Presentation by Dan Magaziner, Associate Professor of History (Yale University).

Co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Authority & Urban Space

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2018 Workshop

11 April 2018 - 9:00am to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Alumni Hall 202 / Joe C Davis Memorial Hall

With presentations by: Professor Eric Hanne (Florida Atlantic University), Professor Jennifer DeSilva (Ball State University), Professor John J. Janusek (Vanderbilt University).

Panels chaired by: Professor David J. Wasserstein (Vanderbilt University), Professor William Caferro (Vanderbilt University), Professor Tasha Rijke-Epstein (Vanderbilt University).

To submit abstracts or for more information, please email vhsw2018@gmail.com by 7 March 2018. All disciplines welcome to apply

Sponsored by the Vanderbilt History Department, Graduate History Association, Department of Religious Studies, and Islamic Studies.

The Reconstruction Constitution in the Age of Empire

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017-2018

9 April 2018 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Presented by Sam Erman, Gould School of Law (University of Southern California).

Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Heidi Welch at heidi.welch@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Climate and Empire: Habsburg History for the Anthropocene

The Max Kade Center Spring 2018 Lecture Series

6 April 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 101

Presentation by Deborah Cohen, Professor of History at Yale University.

Co-sponsored by the Vanderbilt Department of History.

Embattled Earth: Commodities, Conflict and Climate Change in the Indian Ocean

Celebrating 50 Years of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt

4 April 2018 - 5:30pm

Vanderbilt University, Jean and Alexander Heard Library (Central Library) Community Room

Presented by Amitav Ghosh, author of the Ibis Trilogy and The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable.

Free and open to the public. Reception and book signing to follow.

Sponsored by the Asian Studies Program, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Religious Studies, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Jewish Studies Program, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Dean of Arts & Science, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

Groundwater, State Power, and Environmental Conservation in a Southern Spanish Wetland, 1950-1995

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: WATER

26 March 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

To be presented by Sarah Hamilton (Auburn University). Commented on by Tasha Rijke-Epstein (Vanderbilt University).

Discussion will be based on pre-circulated papers available in the Department of History, Benson 227.

VHS Directors are Jefferson Cowie and Ruth Rogaski.

Limitation of Recoverable Losses: From Damages Circa Rem to Foreseeability of Damages - Some Aspects of an Evolution

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017/2018

19 March 2018 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

To be presented by Pascal Pichonnaz (Université de Fribourg).

Lunch served at noon.

Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Heidi Welch at heidi.welch@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Dhvanya - The Transformation of the Flute: Indian Classical Dance in the Bharatnetyam Form

Asian Studies Program

17 March 2018 - 6:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Choral Hall (Blair School of Music)

Performed by Chitra Chandrasekhar Dasarathy.

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Program in Asian Studies & Department of History, Vanderbilt University Sri Ganesha Temple Cultural Programs, and Kala Nivedanam.

Making Grief: How a Soviet Photographer Made a Photograph of Holocaust Liberation into an Icon of War's Human Tragedy

The Department of German, Russia & East European Studies

16 March 2018 - 12:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Garland Hall 101

Talk to be given by David Schneer ( Associate Professor of History and Director of Jewish Studies, University of Colorado). Lunch will be provided

The event is co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies and the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies.

About David Schneer: Called a "pathbreaking" scholar by the Frankenfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Schneer's research focuses on 20th century European, Russian and Jewish history and culture. His newest book, Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography , War, and the Holocaust (Rugters University Press, 2011), finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and winner of the 2013 Aossication for Jewish Studies Jordan Schnitzer Prize, looks at the lives and works of two dozen Soviet Jewish World War II military photographers to examine what kinds of photography they took when they encountered evidence of Nazi genocide on the Eastern Front.

About the talk: In 1942, Dmitrii Baltermants took some of the first images from the liberator perspective of photographs that document the Holocaust on the outskirts of the Russian city of Kerch. Twenty years later, he went back to his archive of Kerch photographs and produced Grief, what would go on to become one of his most widely published, exhibited, and purchased photographs. This talk examines why this photograph came to serve as a Holocaust photograph and how it functioned as a projection of the peace-loving Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Saint Louis du Senegal: The Making of an Indigenous City in the Atlantic World, from the French Revolution to WWI

The 2018 Bryn Lecture

15 March 2018 - 4:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Featheringill Hall 134

Lecture to be given by Mamadou Diouf, Leitner Family Professor of African Studies at Columbia University. Presented by the Vanderbilt Department of History.

Open to the public. Reception to follow.

Intimate Interventions in Global Health: Family Planning and HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

The "Africa at a Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

14 March 2018 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Black Cultural Center Auditorium

To be presented by Rachel Sullivan Robinson, Associate Professor, School of International Service (American University).

Co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Joe Hill Road Show

Vanderbilt Department of Sociology

14 March 2018 - 4:10pm to 5:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity 124 (Reading Room)

Learn the story of labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill and the early U.S. labor movement through music, spoken word, and historical images.

Joe Hill's songs fanned the flames of discontent in the early 20th century, becoming anthems of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Hill was executed in 1915 for a murder he probably did not commit, but his music has lived on to influence generations of social and political protest music.

Featuring the Shelby Bottom Duo and a Q&A with faculty from the Divinity School and Departments of History and Sociology.

Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public. Closest parking is Wesley Place Garage.

Co-sponsored by Vanderbilt Department of Sociology, Divinity School, Department of History, Program in American Studies, and Blair School of Music's Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology. Special thanks to the Tennessee Arts Commission.

A Common Struggle: Making Mental Health Essential Health

Chancellor's Lecture Series 2017-2018

13 March 2018 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Langford Auditorium

Presented by the Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, Congressman (Rhode Island 1995-2011) and Founder of The Kennedy Forum on Community Mental Health.

Tickets will not be distributed for this lecture. Admission is free and available on a first-come basis.

Questions for the Q+A sessions may be submitted before the event by utilizing #VUCLS on Twitter.

Fighting the Deportation Machine: Immigration Activism in the Streets and in the Courts, 1970-1985

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017/2018

12 March 2018 - 12:45pm to 1:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and a copy of the paper, contact Heidi Welch at heidi.welch@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium series is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Sin Big: Why Mary Daly's Insights (and Her Limitations) Are Valuable to Us Now

Department of Religious Studies

1 March 2018 - 1:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Wilson 112

Talk to be given by Professor Jennifer Rycenga, Professor of Comparative Religious Studies at San José State University. Dr. Rycenga is the co-editor of The Mary Daly Reader with Linda Barufaldi.

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality.

Unsettling Resettlement: Forced Concentration of the Native Population in the Colonial Andes

National Museum of Ethnology, Japan (International Symposium)

23-24 February 2018

Vanderbilt University, Community Room (Jean and Alexander Heard Library)

For more information visit http://www.r.minpaku.ac.jp/andes/events06.html

Yiddish Glory: Lost and Found Songs of Soviet Jews During WWII

The Program in Jewish Studies Lecture Series 2017-2018

21 February 2018 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt Cinema

Singer-songwriter Psoy Korolenko and historian Anna Shternshis bring to life "lost" Yiddish songs of the World War II era in this all-new concert and lecture program. These previously unknown Yiddish songs were confiscated and hidden by the Soviets government in 1949, and have only recently come to light. Refreshments provided.

For more information, email jewishstudies@vanderbilt.edu .

Co-sponsored by The Max Kade Center for European and German Studies.

Unexpected Consequences: Women and Power in Post-Conflict Africa

The "Africa at a Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

21 February 2018 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Black Cultural Center Auditorium

Talk to be given by Aili Tripp, University of Madison, Wisconsin.

Co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Bhutan: Development with Values

Asian Studies Program

21 February 2018 - 4:10pm to 5:30pm

Vanderbilt University, 203 Cohen Memorial Hall

Presentation and Q&A with the Bhutan Foundation.

Sponsored by the Bhutan Foundation.

Desert Dreams of Drinking the Sea: Technopolitical Flows of Desalination and Energy from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: Water

19 February 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Talk to be given by Michael Christopher Low, Iowa State University. Comments given by Mary Bridges, Vanderbilt University.

Discussion will be based on pre-circulated papers available in the Department of History, Benson 227.

Languages of the People: A Romanian-Jewish Philologist on Yiddish, Romanian and French

The Program in Jewish Studies 2017-2018 Lecture Series

14 February 2018 - 4:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School 124 (Reading Room)

Talk to be given by Natalie Zemon Davis, University of Toronto.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, and the Department of German, Russian & East European Studies.

Guns, Communities, and Civic Life

Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health, and Society

13 February 2018 - 7:00pm

Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center

Screening of the documentary Whose Streets?, followed by a panel discussion.

14 February 2018 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Light Hall 208 (Vanderbilt Medical School)

Panelists:

Jonathan Metzl (Director, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society): Introduction

Stephan Heckers (Chair, VUMC Psychiatry): Firearms and Mental Health

Beth Roth (Director, Safe Tennessee): Community Activism in Red States

Lee Harris (TN State Senator, 29th District): The State of Legislation

Molly Pahn (Boston University, Public Health): Firearm Violence Research

Purnima Unni (VUMC Pediatric Surgery): Trauma and Injury Prevention

Framing Questions: Ken MacLeish (Medicine, Health, and Society)

Brief presentations followed by respectful public conversation. Open to one and all.

Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Center for Medicine, Health, and Society.

Co-sponsored by the Program in American Studies and the Deans' Offices of Arts and Science and Medicine.

Protestant Veiling and Politics in Early Modern Europe

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017-2018

12 February 2018 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm (Lunch served at Noon)

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick Hall 123

Talk to be given by Susanna Burghartz (Department of History, University of Basel). Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Heidi Welch at heidi.welch@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Edutainment: A Roundtable Discussion

The "Africa at a Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

2 February 2018 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Black Cultural Center Auditorium

Music, entertainment, and political violence in Africa: a roundtable on the role of arts and entertainment in conflict transformation.

Commentators include: Rezarta Bilai (New York University), Gregory Melchor-Barz (Vanderbilt University), and Kristin Micheltich (Vanderbilt University).

Co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

A Clash of Islams: Sufism and Salafism in the Caucasus

Department of Religious Studies

1 February 2018 - 4:10pm to 5:30pm

Vanderbilt University - Center for Second Language Studies Room 003 (Furman Hall)

Presented by Dr. Alexander Knysh, University of Michigan. Dr. Knysh's talk will explore the vicissitudes of Sufism's recent history in the Muslim republics of Russia's Northern Caucasus, and shows how Sufism's status as a "mainstay of the international social order" (per Marshall Hodgson) has come under critical scrutiny as well as verbal and physical attacks from a variety of quarters. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-Sufi discourses have been motivated by its former and recent social, political, and cultural prominence in Muslim societies. The most potent challenge to Sufism's doctrinal and devotional dominance has come from various Salafi ("fundamentalist") movements. Does this "clash of Islams" represent a re-enactment, in Muslim communities worldwide, of the Protestant Reformation?

Co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, the Department of History, the Program in Jewish Studies, the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, the Department of German, Russian & East European Studies, and the Center for Second Language Studies.

The talk is free and open to the public.

In My Lifetime: An African American Perspective

1-28 February 2018

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School G-20 (Ground Floor)

Painting and mixed media by Omari Booker.

For Gallery Hours: religionandarts.com

Opening Reception: 1 February, 3:00pm to 7:00pm

Gallery Talk: 8 February, 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Omari Booker and Paul Polycarpou (Nashville Arts Magazine)

Spiritual Meditation: 28 February, 10:00am

Michael Brandon McCormack, Ph.D. (University of Louisville)

All events to be held in room G-20.

All events are open to the public.

Sponsored by: Religions in the Arts and Contemporary Culture and the Kelly Miller Smith Insitute on Black Church Studies.

The Third Reich as Supernatural Project: The Role of Folklore Occultism, and Border Science in Nazi Empire-Building

The Max Kade Center for European and German Studies Spring 2018 Lecture Series

1 February 2018 - 4:10pm to 5:40pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 102

Talk to be given by Erik Kurlander (Stetson University).

Co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies.

Post-Holocaust Visions of War and Decolonization in France, 1958-1963

Program in Jewish Studies 2017-2018 Lecture Series

31 January 2018 - 12:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities

Talk to be given by Sandrine Sanos (Texas A&M University). Lunch will be provided for attendees.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History of Art, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Department of French and Italian.

Building an Empire of Supreme Courts

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017/2018

29 January 2018 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Talk to be given by Paul Halliday (University of Virginia). Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. Lunch will be served at noon. To reserve lunch and request a copy go the paper, contact Heidi Welch at heidi.welch@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium series is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Theology, Class, and Intersectionality

Vanderbilt Divinity School

27 January 2018 - 10:00am to 12:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School G23

Join us for a special session of the Theology, Economic, and Labor course taught by Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger and Dr. Joerg Rieger. Panel participants will include Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas (E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Ethics and Society, Associate Professor of Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University), Dr. Jeremy Posadas (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Austin College), and Dr. Santiago Slabodsky (Florence and Robert Kaufman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies, Associate Professor of Religion, Hofstra University).

The discussion is free and open to the public.

To RSVP please email Dr. Rieger at j.rieger@vanderbilt.edu.

2018 Spring Signature Workshop Schedule

Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Vanderbilt University, Kissam Center C210 Multi-Purpose Room

Inclusive Excellence 101: Unconscious Bias - A New Look at an Old Dynamic!

- 24 January 2018 - 3:00pm

- 4 April 2018 - 11:00am

- 16 May 2018 - 11:00am

Inclusive Excellence 201: Everyday Bias

- 21 February 2018 - 11:00am

Inclusive Excellence 401: Mindful Communication across Diverse Groups

- 14 March 2018 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm

To register, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/equity-diversity-inclusion.

Walk in U.S., Talk on Japan

Asian Studies Program

23 January 2018 - 4:10pm to 5:30pm

Vanderbilt University, Kissam Center C216

Please join us as a delegation of the "Walk in U.S., Talk on Japan," headed by Former Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Fujisaki, visit Middle Tennessee to share their stories of Japan today through grassroots exchange. Delegation members will take part in exchanges with local communities, discuss important factors of the future of the U.S.-Japan relationship, and talk about recent positive development in Japan. Since the program's launch in 2014, 19 delegations have visited 34 states and 66 cities throughout the U.S.

For further details, please visit the official website or Facebook.

Delegation members include: Ichiro FUJISAKI (Delegation Leader), Liu XIAOYAN, Hayato SAWA, and Asako KATO.

For information on the Consulate-General of Japan in Nashville, please email info@nv.mofa.go.jp or call 615-340-4300.

This is a free, public event.

Maymester Information Fair

23 January 2018 - 11:00am to 1:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt Student Center Promenade

For more information regarding the information fair and available May and Summer Session courses, visit https://www.vanderbilt.edu/summer/.

A VHS State of the Field Discussion with Gregory T. Cushman (University of Kansas)

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: WATER

22 January 2018 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Join VHS for a discussion of Cushman's book, Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History. A short paper accompanies the talk and is available in Benson 227. Vanderbilt University's Paul Kramer will serve as commentator. The 2017-2018 VHS Series directors are Jefferson Cowie and Ruth Rogaski.

Global/Asia: Celebrating 50 Years of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt

Asian Studies Spring 2018 Event Schedule

10-19 January 2018

Lecture Series: "New Directions in Korean Studies"

23 January 2018

"Walk in US, Talk on Japan" presentation, Q&A, and networking delegation headed by Ichiro Fujisaki, former Japanese Ambassador to the United States and President of the America-Japan Society.

4:10pm to 5:30pm, Kissam C216

8 February 2018

"Imagination and Interpretation in Early China" lecture given by Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology (Harvard University).

4:10pm to 5:30pm, Cohen Memorial Hall 203

21 February 2018

"Bhutan: Development with Values" presentation and Q&A with representatives from the Bhutan Foundation.

4:10pm to 5:30pm, Wilson Hall 127

23 February 2018

Asian Studies Lunar Potluck Luncheon

12:00pm to 1:30pm, Buttrick Hall 230

15 March 2018

"From 'Literacy' to 'Civil' Culture: Redefining Literature in the Biographies of New Tang History" lecture given by Anna Shields, Professor of East Asian Studies (Princeton University).

4:10pm to 5:30pm, Buttrick Hall 123

4 April 2018

An Evening with Amitav Ghosh, author of The Ibis Trilogy and The Great Derangement.

Lecture from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, Reception and Book Signing from 6:30pm to 7:30pm

Jean and Alexander Heard Library (Central Library) Community Reading Room.

7 April 2018

Middle Tennessee Area Japanese Speech Contest

8:00am to 5:00pm, Wilson Hall

13 April 2018

"The Literary Imagination of Ritual in Early Japan" seminar by Torquil Duthie, Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (UCLA).

12:00pm to 1:30pm, Robert Penn Warren Center

Archaeological Perspectives on the 19th Century "Illegal" Slave Trade Along the Rio Pongo, Guinea

Presented by the 'Africa at a Crossroads' Trans-Institutional Program

6 December 2017 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Auditorium

Talk to be given by Kenneth Kelly, Professor (Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina). Reception to follow.

Co-sponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Cultures in Clay: The Shaping of Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations

Divinity Library Opening Reception

6 December 2017 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Divinity Library

The exhibit is curated by Dr. Annalisa Azzoni, Dr. Doug Knight, Serena Jarvis, Jonathan Redding, Michael Sekuras and Charlotte Lew.

Asian Hydro-Histories in the Longue Durée

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: Water

4 December 2017 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Talks to be given by Benjamin Cohen (Historian of South Asia, University of Utah) and Ruth Mostern (Historian of China, University of Pittsburgh). Commentators will be Professors Ruth Rogaski and Samira Sheikh of the Vanderbilt University Department of History.

Discussion will be based on pre-ciculated papers available in the Department of History, Benson 227. The Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018 Directors are Jefferson Cowie and Ruth Rogaski.

"A Principle of Incompleteness" with Fred Moten & Stefano Harney, authors of The Undercommons

Lecture: 29 November 2017 - 4:30pm, Wilson 103

Open Seminar: 28 November 2017 - 4:00pm, Buttrick 123

Vanderbilt University

Pre-circulated readings available in the Benson 4th Floor lounge, or by email at aprincipleofcompleteness@gmail.com.

Made possible with generous support from the Department of English and African American and Diaspora Studies; the Office of Inclusive Excellence; the Owen School of Management; Jefferson Cowie, James G. Stahlman Professor of History; Colin Dayan, Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities; Vera Kutzinski, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of English; Hortense Spillers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor; and Cecelia Tichi, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English.

Student Research Workshop

13 November 2015 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Commons Center Room 349

Sponsored by the "Africa At A Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

The Evolution of the Legal Subject in Classical Hindu Law

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017/2018

13 November 2017 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm (Lunch served at noon)

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Talk to be given by Donald Davis of the University of Texas at Austin.

Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Christen Harper at c.harper@vanderbilt.edu.

The Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium series is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

Nostalgia for the Future: A Documentary Film on Indian Modernity, the Making of the Citizen, and the Architecture of the Home (2017 - 54 Minutes)

9 November 2017 - 4:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Cohen Memorial Hall 203

The screening will be followed by a panel session with directors Avijit Mukul Kishore and Rohan Shivkumar, with responses by Professor Heeryoon Shin (History of Art) and Professor Akshya Sazena (English).

Sponsored by History of Art, Cinema and Media Arts, Asian Studies, Political Science, and History.

Circles of Jewish Life: Changing Family Formation and Jewish Connectedness among America's Younger Jews

Jewish Studies Lecture Series

9 November 2017 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Talk to be given by Sylvia Barack Fishman, Brandeis University. Lunch provided.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the Department of Religious Studies.

On Writing: Imagining the Very Small and the Long Ago

Presented by The Writing Studio

9 November 2017 - 4:15pm

Vanderbilt University, Alumni Hall Lounge Room 100

What is the role of the imagination in academic writing? Whether researching nanoparticles, Chinese military history, or Japanese Buddhist practices, scholars use creative thinking in their work. Join us for a conversation with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Janet MacDonald, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies Peter Lorge, and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Bryan Lowe as they discuss their creative processes in relations to their recent writing projects.

On Writing is free and open to the public.

Music, Migration and the New African Diasporas

The "Africa at a Crossroads" Trans-Institutional Program

8 November 2017 - 3:10pm to 5:00pm

Vanderbilt University, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Auditorium

Talk to be given by Patricia Tang, Associate Professor of Music in the Department of Music and Theater at MIT.

Reception to follow.

Cosponsored by the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Never in this World a Victim Like Me: What Disabled Veterans Can Teach Us About the History (and Future) of American War

MHS Hot Topic Lecture Series

7 November 2017 - 1:00pm to 2:30pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Talk to be given by John M. Kinder, Associate Professor of American Studies within the Department of History at Oklahoma State University.

Co-sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

The Complex Sex: Intersexuality in Pre-Modern Islamic Legal Texts

Vanderbilt Legal History Colloquium 2017/2018

6 November 2017 - 12:15pm to 1:45pm (Lunch served at noon)

Vanderbilt University, Buttrick 123

Talk to be given by Indira Gesink, Baldwin Wallace University. Discussion will be based on a pre-circulated paper. To reserve lunch and request a copy of the paper, contact Christen Harper at c.harper@vanderbilt.edu.

The Series is sponsored by the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science and is directed by Professor Sarah Igo.

The Restless Resource: Medieval Europeans and Water

Vanderbilt History Seminar 2017-2018: Water

6 November 2017 - 3:10pm

Vanderbilt University, Sarratt 216/220

Talk to be given by Paolo Squatriti, University of Michigan, with comments by William Caferro of Vanderbilt University. Discussion will be based on pre-circulated papers available in the Department of History, Benson 227.

VHS Directors: Jefferson Cowie & Ruth Rogaski

Click here for further information.

Teaching from and for the Margins in These Troubled Times: A Conference on Radial Love Politics and Critical Pedagogy

3rd Biennial Conference of the Society of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion (SRER)

27-29 October 2017

Vanderbilt University, Divinity School

Conference Plenary Speakers: Emilie M. Townes, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Laura S. Levitt, David Kyuman Kim.

Click here for further information.

Of Marginal Identities and Heterotopic Saints: Lived Religion in the Borderlands

2017 Cole Lecture Series

26 October 2017 - 7:00pm

27 October 2017 - 10:00am

Vanderbilt University, Benton Chapel

To be delivered by Daisy L. Machado, Professor of American Religious History at the Union Theological Seminary.