2012 Event Archives
September
- Rehumanizing the University Series: The Biopolitics of the Posthumanities. Cary Wolfe (Rice University) asks what separates humans from animals or society from nature, challenging humanists with new directions for research.
Organized by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
Prof. Wolfe argues that we are in the midst of redefining what it means to be human. Animal rights activists have long been breaking down assumptions that humans have unique privileges over non-human life. Environmental groups are also questioning whether humans can live independently of ecological constraints. Recent medical advances promise to make humans increasingly independent of their human bodies, and new technologies suggest that human intelligence itself may one day be replicated or replaced by artificial intelligence.
These trends undermine the essential humanist assumption that necessary divisions exist between humans and animals, and indeed between human society and the natural world. Wolfe will look at how our changing understanding of humanity and its role in the world indicates new and important directions for humanities research at the university.
By showing that the humanities cannot be divorced from other studies of the world around us, Prof. Wolfe's scholarship implies that academic divisions between the humanities and the sciences are obstacles. Overcoming these divisions is especially important as pressures rise to reassess the priorities of higher education and focus on science and technology fields at the expense of core teaching in the humanities and social sciences.
October
- Rehumanizing the University Series— Civilizing Students, Civilizing Communities: Frederick Law Olmsted's Plans for Colleges and Universities. David Schuyler (Franklin & Marshall College) looks at what the architecture and landscape design of land-grant universities (such as UF) say about institutional inspirations and aspirations.
The subject of Prof. Schuyler's lecture, architect Frederick Law Olmsted, may be best known for the design and construction of Central Park from 1857 to 1873, which was built to combat the negative effects of rapid urbanization. In the decades following, Olmsted was involved in the construction of public works at an unprecedented scale. Some of the most enduring icons of this period remain the land-grant universities authorized 150 years ago with the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. This act transferred federal lands to the states so they might sell them for the construction of new state universities. Olmsted and his firm were commissioned to design hundreds of these projects, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape of American education. As an editor of three volumes of Olmsted's papers, Prof. Schuyler will discuss Olmsted's idealistic vision for American universities and how his designs ultimately set the tone of higher education and study in America.
UF also has a personal connection to Olmsted's work. His sons John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. developed the landscape design plans for UF's Campus Historic District and Plaza of the Americas in 1925. To accompany this lecture, University Archivist Peggy McBride will present a curated exhibition of historic UF images and manuscripts in Smathers Library room 1A, including some of the original Olmsted Brothers drawings for UF. This exhibition will explore how the Florida Board of Control architects sought to use American Gothic architecture to create a campus with a history connected to the European world of knowledge and power, and instruct students in courtesy and the cultivation of the mind.
David Schuyler is currently the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of the Humanities and Professor of American Studies at Franklin & Marshall College.
- Dr. George Rupp, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and
former President of Columbia University, will deliver the common Humanities lecture,
"What is the Good Life?" (pdf). The event, which is free and open to the public, is
sponsored by HUM 2305: What is the Good Life and cosponsored by Accent and
the Department of Religion.
Abstract: Pursuit of the good life often includes concern for individual happiness and accomplishment—satisfaction in love and work, but as Dr. Rupp argues, it also requires consideration of larger issues, participation in ever more inclusive communities, and commitment to causes that in the end embrace all of humanity, indeed the whole cosmos.
- Florida Writers' Festival. Readings and craft talks by Mary Gaitskill, Lauren Groff, Ben Lerner, Karen Solie, and Kevin Wilson. Sponsored by MFA@FLA - UF's Program in Creative Writing, the Center for Women's Studies and Gender and the Alachua County Library District
- Good Dog, Bad Dog: Pets and Pests in Attic Black- and Red-Figure Pottery. Presented by Dr. Seth Pevnick, the Richard E. Perry Curator of Greek and Roman Art, Tampa Museum of Art. Sponsored by the Department of Classics.
- From the Margins to the Mainstream: Jewish Students and Administrators at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Historian Marsha Synnott speaks on admissions discrimination in higher education.
- The Legacy of Zora Neal Hurston: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Their Eyes Were Watching God, organized by Judith W. Page and Florence M. Turcotte. Sponsored by the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research & The George A. Smathers Libraries.
- Jump at the Sun, a film written and produced by Kristy Andersen, introduced by Professor Faye V. Harrison, Departments of Anthropology and African American Studies.
- Roundtable discussion and reception. Moderator: Professor Florence E. Babb, Vada A. Yeomans Professor of Women's Studies Participants: Professor Jack E. Davis, Department of History, Professor Paul Ortiz, Director, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and Department of History, Professor Marilyn Thomas-Houston, Department of Anthropology and African American Studies Program, Professor Debra Walker King, Department of English.
November
- 25th Anniversary Celebration of the UF Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR)
Silver Anniversary Celebration Series: Open House
25 Years of Advancing Science! Meet with ICBR scientists and tour the laboratories while you await the Anniversary Symposium.
Anniversary Symposium
Drs. Doug & Pam Soltis, from the Department of Biology, will be speaking at the Symposium on evolving technologies of evolutionary biology. - Rehumanizing the University Series: New Perspectives on the Liberal Arts. Educational philosopher Harry Brighouse examines the
fundamental question guiding this series: "How can insights from the humanities help universities to respond to current and future dilemmas?"
As Election Day draws near, educators, policy makers, and pundits have been circulating a dismaying variety of statistics about the economics of education. Public budget cuts are forcing universities to streamline programs and increase student costs, often with the assumption that education should operate as a for-profit business. Meanwhile, the average student debt across the nation is reaching record highs. As Florida politicians push for a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math, the humanities and social science disciplines, which study topics of culture, meaning, and value, are marginalized.
There is a growing sense that these attacks are the result of the view that universities are disconnected from the needs of the public and from the needs of students. Prof. Brighouse maintains that additional funding would improve their capacity to respond to these needs, but it will also be necessary to change instructional practices, as well as how faculty and students relate to each other. It is clearly a critical time for the reassessment of the objectives of higher education by universities themselves and the public. Drawing on his research, Prof. Brighouse will outline some institutional and individual reforms that would rehumanize the university.
Harry Brighouse is Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Professor of Educational Policy Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests range from theoretical issues about the foundations of justice to the evaluation of policies proposed for reducing the achievement gap in K-12 education. His book about the values that should guide educational practice, On Education (2006), is widely used in teacher preparation courses. He is also the author of Justice (2004) and School Choice and Social Justice (2000) and Educational Equality (2010).
December
- Fancy Assemblages: An Archaeology of the Dandy, the Madame, and Other Urban Players, presented by Shannon Lee Dawdy, MacArthur Fellow and Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago. Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Hyatt and Cici Endowment for Florida Archaeology.
