Calendar of Events

For individuals with disabilities requiring special accommodations, please contact the Department hosting the event within a minimum of 5 days prior to the program or service so that proper consideration may be given to the request.

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Events in 2013

December

Fancy Assemblages: An Archaeology of the Dandy, the Madame, and Other Urban Players
December 7, 2012
3:00 pm, Turlington L011

Shannon Lee Dawdy, MacArthur Fellow and Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago

Sponsors: Department of Anthropology and the Hyatt and Cici Endowment for Florida Archaeology
Open to all of Gainesville

November

September to November

This series of twelve lectures is co-sponsored by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere (Rothman Endowment), the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History Program, the UF Honors Program, the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish History at UF, the UF International Center, the UF Office of Research, UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the UF Center for Jewish Studies, the UF Libraries, the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, the UF France-Florida Research Institute, the Hyatt and Cici Brown Endowment for Florida Archaeology, the UF Department of History, the UF Department of Classics, the UF Department of English, the Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Chair, the Albert Brick Chair in English at UF, the UF African American Studies Program, the UF Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research, UF College of Design, Construction and Planning, and the Alachua County Library District.

For more information on the Rehumanizing the University series, please visit http://www.humanities.ufl.edu/.

Contact: Bonnie Effros, humanities-center@ufl.edu, 352-392-0796.

November 15
7:00 pm, Ustler Hall Atrium (2nd floor) A reception will follow.

"How Can We Rehumanize the University, Here and Now?"
Educational philosopher Harry Brighouse to discuss higher education and social justice.

Prof. Harry Brighouse of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will visit UF to give the concluding public lecture for the series "Rehumanizing the University: New Perspectives on the Liberal Arts". He will examine 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).

Prof. Brighouse's lecture is the last of eighteen public talks in the "Rehumanizing the University" series, organized by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. All events are free and open to all and include time for questions and discussion.

September 13, 6:00 pm (Smathers Library 1A)

"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.

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.

Prof. Wolfe's lecture is the first of four public talks in the fall 2012 portion of the "Rehumanizing the University" series, organized by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.

October 1, 7:30 pm (Smathers Library 1A)

"Civilizing Students, Civilizing Communities: Frederick Law Olmsted's Plans for Colleges and Universities"
Professor 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. Prof. Schuler's lecture is the second of four public talks in the fall 2012 portion of the "Rehumanizing the University" series, organized by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. All events are free and open to all and include time for questions and discussion.

October 22, 2012, 7:00 pm

Location: Smathers Library (East) 1A

Historian Marsha Synnott to speak on admissions discrimination in higher education

Marsha Synnott, Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina will visit UF next week to share her research on universities' use of discriminatory admissions quotas. Her visit is part of the ongoing series, Rehumanizing the University: New Perspectives on the Liberal Arts, sponsored by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. She will give a public lecture, followed by Q&A and discussion.

Prof. Synnott's research has focused specifically on the use of quota systems to limit Jewish enrollment at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton during the early 1900s. By the 1920s, these universities had already opened their doors to previously marginalized Europeans groups like the Irish, Italians, and Roman Catholics. As the growing Jewish population likewise struggled for access to these elite institutions, however, administrators anticipated a flood of Jewish applicants and began limiting Jewish enrollment. Prof. Synnott questions why this increase in Jewish applicants stimulated the quota system and what this says about the role of universities in early-twentieth-century America.

Jewish quotas in higher education were phased out after World War II, as professors and administrators revised their admissions policies to emphasize merit over race. Quota systems continued in limited use, however, until 1978, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that racial quotas violated the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision nevertheless upheld affirmative action policies that favor minority races. Affirmative action was upheld as recently as 2003 but is again before the Supreme Court in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas Austin, in which a white applicant claims that she was denied admission due to race-based acceptance policies. This case was heard on October 8, 2012, although a decision will likely not be published until next year. In this atmosphere, Prof. Synnott's research is especially important for demonstrating the role of universities as mediators of social values.

Prof. Synnott's lecture is the third of four public talks in the fall 2012 portion of the "Rehumanizing the University" series, organized by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere. All events are free and open to all and include time for questions and discussion.

October 10, 2012
7:00 pm

Location: O'Connell Center

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.

October 11-13, 2012
Various Events/Times

Florida Writers' Festival, Presented by MFA@FLA
Location: Ustler Hall Atrium

Readings and craft talks by Mary Gaitskill, Lauren Groff, Ben Lerner, Karen Solie, and Kevin Wilson

*Ustler is located near the intersection of E. West Drive and Fletcher Drive, on UF's campus, near Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and the campus infirmary. To reach Ustler, take University, then turn onto Buckman Drive. Parking can be found immediately on Buckman Drive, or you can take Buckman to Stadium, then turn right onto Fletcher and park in the small lot across from the infirmary.

Sponsors: MFA@FLA - UF's Program in Creative Writing
http://www.english.ufl.edu/crw/index.html

Center for Women's Studies and Gender
http://web.wst.ufl.edu/

Alachua County Library District
http://www.aclib.us/

October 12, 2012
5:00 pm

Location: Smathers Library 1A

"Good Dog, Bad Dog: Pets and Pests in Attic Black- and Red-Figure Pottery"
Presenter: Dr. Seth Pevnick, the Richard E. Perry Curator of Greek and Roman Art, Tampa Museum of Art

Sponsored by the Department of Classics. Open to all of Gainesville.

October 22, 2012
7:00 pm

Location: Smathers Library (East) 1A

From the Margins to the Mainstream: Jewish Students and Administrators at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton

Historian Marsha Synnott to speak on admissions discrimination in higher education
More information

Friday, October 26, 2012
Various times

Location: Smathers Library and Ustler Hall

The Legacy of Zora Neal Hurston: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Their Eyes Were Watching God

This event, sponsored by the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research & The George A. Smathers Libraries, is organized by Judith W. Page and Florence M. Turcotte.

11:15 am, Smathers Library, Room 1A, Exhibit of materials for the Hurston collection

11:30 am-1:30 pm, Smathers Library, Room 1A, 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

2-4 pm, Ustler Hall Atruim, 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.

25th Anniversary Celebration of the UF Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR)
Silver Anniversary Celebration Series: Open House
November 14, 2012 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
CGRC (Cancer and Genetics Research Complex) ICBR Lobby
2033 Mowry Road

25 Years of Advancing Science! Meet with ICBR scientists and tour the laboratories while you await the Anniversary Symposium. Open House includes lunch while supplies last!

Anniversary Symposium
November 14, 2012 1:00 - 5:00 PM, CGRC Auditorium 101

Drs. Doug & Pam Soltis, from the Department of Biology, will be speaking at the Symposium on evolving technologies of evolutionary biology.
Full Symposium details here

February

Ovid and Violence in Text and Art
February 7, 2013
5:00 pm, Smathers Library 1A

Dr. Carole E. Newlands, Professor of Classics, University of Colorado

Sponsors: Classics (http://www.classics.ufl.edu/) and George A. Smathers Libraries
Open to all of Gainesville

June 2013

June 14-15, 2013
June 14, 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
June 15, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location: The University of Florida Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy Complex
Various presenters to be announced.

The People's Conference to Promote Health and Eliminate Health Disparities

The goal of The People's Scientific Conference to Promote Health and Eliminate Health Disparities is to provide culturally diverse patients, caregivers, community members, health care providers, health promotion professionals, and health researchers opportunities to (a) teach each other ways to provide or obtain culturally sensitive, patient-centered health care and (b) learn about evidence-based strategies and programs to increase health literacy, prevent and overcome common physical, mental, and sexual health problems, and help eliminate health disparities in racial/ethnic minority and under-served communities.

Sponsored by UF Health Disparities Research and Intervention Program

Contact information: Dr. Carolyn M. Tucker (tuckerresearchassoc@gmail.com), phone number: 352-273-2167

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