Annual Report 2014-2015
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Introduction
Toril Moi
Director for PAL, 2009-present
James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies
PAL 2014-15 in numbers
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10
Writing Groups
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Years of PAL at Duke
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Speakers
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Graduate student parties
PAL seeks to make a strong interdisciplinary contribution to the humanities at Duke. In 2014-15 we worked particularly hard to support the writing lives of our graduate students. With the help of Heather Gates (History) we co-ordinated and sponsored writing groups for over 50 graduate students. We ran a monthly series of workshops on writing. In spring, our writing events culminated in PAL’s third “Writing Is Thinking” Workshop, headlined by Verlyn Klinkenborg. PAL organized a reading group on Hannah Arendt. A panel of graduate students responded to Mark Greif’s presentation of his book The Age of the Crisis of Man. We sponsored talks by our young international visitors, Salla Peltonen and Corina Stan, with responses by Duke graduate students. PAL’s Graduate Certificate continues to attract students from across the humanities. PAL also launched a new series on intellectual women. In the fall we had a symposium on on Mme du Châtelet and Mary Wollstonecraft; in spring one on Hannah Arendt.
As usual, we sponsored lectures in In 2014-15 we welcomed the first philosophy and the arts: The distintwo PAL/FHI Seminars on “Concepts, guished art historian Keith Moxey Figures, Art Forms,” sponsored by the shared his thoughts on time and art, Mellon Foundation: Bruce Matthews (one of Duke’s Hu- • Whose Kafka? led by Saskia Zimanities Writ Large olkowski and Kata Gellen. “PAL seeks to make a fellows) presented • The Novel, led by Nancy strong interdisciplinary Schelling’s vision of Armstrong and Erdag the University, and contribution to the hu- Goknar. the renowned literary manities at Duke” In 2015-16 we will concritic Derek Attridge tinue the “Intellectual discussed literature Women” series, sponsor in history. We ended the year with more writing-focused events, and, a symposium on the philosopher J. not least, host PAL’s fourth Young L. Austin with Sandra Laugier (SorScholars Workshop on literature, ethbonne), Estelle Ferrarèse (Strasics, and philosophy, with Niklas Forsbourg), and Sarah Beckwith (Duke). berg (Uppsala) and Nora Hämäläinen On the invitation of then Dean Laurie (Helsinki). Patton, PAL set up a working group I hope to see many of you at our on Humanities education for underevents this year! graduates, and sponsored a symposium on teaching in the humanities October 2015 today, with Paula Findlen (Stanford), Toril Moi Sean Kelly (Harvard), and James Director of PAL Simpson (Harvard).
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PAL 2014-2015
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Index Introduction
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Intellectual Women Series
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PAL Lectures 7 PAL Symposia
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PAL for Graduate Students
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Writing is Thinking
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PAL Forums
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Co-sponsored events
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PAL and FHI seminars
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Graduate Student Staff
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Intellectual Women Series October 2 The Making and Unmaking of Women’s Intellectual Reputations Mme du Châtelet and Mary Wollstonecraft Karen Detlefsen
Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Andrew Janiak Philosophy, Duke
Angela Maione
Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities Bard College
April 9
Hannah Arendt Lori Marso
Political Science, Gender Studies Union College
Ella Myers
Political Science, Gender Studies University of Utah
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PAL Lectures
October 23
Imagining the Time of Art’s Histories A lecture by Keith Moxey
Moxey is Barbara Novak Professor of Art History at Barnard College and Columbia University. He is the author of Visual Time: The Image in History (2013). November 13
Envisioning the Modern University: Schelling’s Jena Lectures A lecture by Bruce Matthews
Matthews was a 2014-2015 Humanities Writ Large Visiting Fellow at Duke. He discussed the fragmentation and specialization of the disciplines within the university.
The Work of Literature: Event, Invention, History
January 15
A Lecture by Derek Attridge
Attridge presented a section of his forthcoming book, “The Work of Literature.” Attridge teaches at the University of York and is a Fellow of the British Academy.
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PAL Symposia January 30
Undergraduate Education and the Humanities A Symposium for humanities faculty Paula Findlen
History, Stanford
Sean Kelly
Philosophy, Harvard
James Simpson English, Harvard
PAL was invited by Dean Laurie Patton to be the home for a conversation with Duke Humanities Faculty on undergraduate curriculum and the humanities. PAL hosted a symposium and faculty discussion with experts from other institutions that run special liberal arts programs. A committee of faculty members are working on a proposal for an intensive liberal arts program for Duke undergraduates.
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April 21
J.L. Austin now A Symposium Sandra Laugier
Philosophy, Paris Sorbonne
Estelle Ferrarese
Political Science, Strasburg
Sarah Beckwith English, Duke
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PAL for Graduate Students September 3
Happy Hour kick-off party
At PAL’s first party of the year, we introduced the PAL Writing Groups and the PAL Certificate to the graduate student community. We served signature cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at this fun bash. Running from Fall 2014 to Spring 2015
Writing Groups
PAL hosted 10 graduate student writing groups with more than 50 participants. Groups crossed disciplinary boundaries and across the stages of graduate coursework and writing. Running Spring 2015
Reading Group on Hannah Arendt A community of graduate students and faculty read and discussed from The Portable Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, and other Arendt texts
Responses to invited speakers
Six graduate students from various departments presented or responded at PAL’s events in 2014-2015: Salla Peltonen (Women’s Studies, PAL Visiting Scholar), Justin Mitchell (English), Myles Oldershaw (English), Jacob Soule (Literature), Brian Valentyn (English, Thompson Writing Program) and Heather Wallace (Philosophy)
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PAL strives to provide a relaxed yet intellectually exciting atmosphere, in which graduate students are invited to come together across disciplinary boundaries to explore questions of common interest. You don’t have to be committed to any of PAL’s core fields to find PAL a welcoming space. PAL encourages graduate students to come together to read and write, and to discuss works of intellectual interest in many disciplines.
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PAL Graduate Certificate
The PAL Graduate Certificate seeks to connect the study of specific works of art and specific art forms (e.g., literature, music, theater, painting, film) to questions concerning creativity, the nature of specific art forms, the relationship between knowledge and art, and between ethics and aesthetics. The Certificate aims to make students conversant with philosophical reflections on literature and the arts. The Certificate seeks to foster an understanding of the historical nature of different art forms, and of aesthetics and philosophy, and to encourage exploration of philosophy, art and literature from different historical periods. The Certificate is designed to provide students with a firm grounding in the research skills required to enable them to intervene in contemporary debates within the field and to encourage them to consider their own field of study from an inter- or cross-disciplinary approach. For more information 12
www.dukepal.org/certificate
PAL Graduate Certificate Steering Committee
Sarah Beckwith
Owen Flanagan
Neil McWilliam
Toril Moi
Thomas Pfau
Jacqueline Waeber
Professor of English and Theater Studies; Chair of Theater Studies
James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies; Professor of Philosophy, English and Theater studies
James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy; Professor of Neurobiology
Alice Mary Baldwin Professor and Eads Family Professor of English and German; DGS-German Studies
Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Art History
Associate Professor of Music
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Writing is Thinking PAL Writing is Thinking 2015 PAL’s 3rd Biennial Writing is Thinking included our usual two-day workshop for the Duke community. This year we also introduced Graduate Student Writing Groups and monthly workshops on the writing process. We had a record number of participants with more than 50 applications to join writing groups!
Graduate Students writing groups PAL supported over 50 graduate students in forming in writing groups. We hosted in-person feedback groups and online accountability groups. Participants came from a variety of departments including History, Music, English, Literature, Cultural Anthropology, and Philosophy.
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Workshop series on writing
Workshop leaders:
• How to Start a Writing Group • The Writing Process • How to move from Research to Drafting • Several Short Sentences on Writing
• Kristen Neuschel • Jennifer Ahern-Dodson • Sarah Beckwith •Toril Moi
Workshop with
Verlyn Klinkenborg Verlyn Klinkenborg was Writing is Thinking’s 2015 keynote speaker. Klinkenborg is the author of Several Short Sentences About Writing (2012), and More Scenes From the Rural Life (2013). He is the recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship and was a member of the New York Times editorial board from 1997 to 2013. He teaches at Yale University. Mr. Klinkenborg lives in rural New York state. During his visit to PAL, Klinkenborg met individually with participants in PAL Writing Groups and made two presentations: March 19
The Writer at Work March 20
The Language of Place Supported by
Graduate students read Klinkenborg’s book “Several Short Sentences on Writing” (graciously provided by the Thompson Writing Program) in the semester prior to his visit. 15
PAL Forums Reflections on the Posthuman
February 19
A PAL forum with
Salla Peltonen
Peltonan, PAL Visiting Scholar, presented a Wittgensteinian view on discussions of the posthuman in feminist theory.
February 10
How to Live with Others A talk by PAL Visiting Scholar Corina Stan
Stan presented a paper on the concept of interpersonal distance in Barthes, Murdoch, and Orwell.
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April 21
The Age of the Crisis of Man: Thought and Fiction in America, 1933-1973 Presentation by
Mark Grief
A book presentation by the author with graduate student respondents Co-sponsored by PAL and FHI
Screening of
November 5
Blade Runner (1982 dir. Ridley Scott)
The 1982 American neo-noir science fiction cult movie directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer
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Co-sponsored Events
Faculty Bookwatch:
February 20
Enlightenment Orientalism: Resisting the Rise of the Novel
A panel discussion on Srinivas Aravamudan’s Enlightenment Orientalism: Resisting the Rise of the Novel (University of Chicago Press, 2011). Presented by the Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Libraries. Co-Sponsored by English, Romance Studies, the Program in Literature, and The Center for Art, Philosophy and Literature (PAL) at Duke University.
Presentation by Dr. Philip J. Ivanhoe:
February 20
The Contemporary Significance of Confucian Views about the Ethical Values of Music Co-sponsored by PAL and the Center for Comparative Philosophy
Ivanhoe presented a chapter of his forthcoming book. He described some of the ways that Confusians thought music was critical for personal and social wellbeing.
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PAL and FHI Seminars Concepts, Figures, Art, Forms The “Concepts, Figures, Art Forms� collaboration between PAL and FHI is a central element of a new series of FHI Seminars in Historical, Global, and Emerging Humanities, a 3-year initiative generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation concerned with the state and direction of the humanities in the light of the interdisciplinary developments of recent decades.
Whose Kafka? Multiplicity, Reception, and Interpretation
Saskia Ziolkowski Kata Gellen
The Novel Nancy Armstrong Erdag Goknar Supported by
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PAL Graduate Student Staff
Heather Wallace
Filippo Screpanti
Jack Bell
Heather Gates
Assistant Director
Assistant
Graphic Design
David Berka Assistant
Writing group coordinator
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In Memoriam Kaila Brown
Assistant Director for PAL, 2010-2013 PAL’s sixth year began in tragedy. We still mourn the loss of PAL’s longtime assistant, Kaila Brown, who died in September 2014. This annual report is dedicated to her memory.
Kaila was luminous. She shone with passion for literature, and for ideas. She was everyone’s favorite student. I was privileged to be allowed to work with her for five years. Our hearts go out to Kaila’s friends and family. — Toril Moi Kaila Brown was a beautiful soul, illuminated by her capacious loves–for books, for thinking, for dance and theatre–and above all, for others. She was funny, quick-minded, full of wit, spunk and spark. She was a catalyst for others. I am so sad to lose her. — Sarah Beckwith Kaila carried the banner for PAL while Toril was on leave. She was a model for me in how to host a rich intellectual community through attention to detail, grace, good spirits, and passionate inquiry. She shaped us in indelible ways. — Heather Wallace
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PAL Center for Philosophy, Arts and Literature Duke University
B184 Smith Warehouse, Bay 5, 1st Floor Box 90403 114 S. Buchanan Blvd. Durham, NC 27708
palinfo@duke.edu www.dukepal.org
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