NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
HUMANITIES CENTER YEAR IN REVIEW 2017-2018
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From the Director
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NEH Summer Institute
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Resident Fellowship: Whose Story?
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Holocaust Awareness Week
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Fall 2017 Events and Programs
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Collaborative Research Clusters
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Controversial Issues in Security Studies
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Faculty Works-inProgress Colloquium
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Spring 2018 Events and Programs
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Directors and Advisory Board
NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY MINOR INTRODUCED DIRECTED BY SARI ALTSCHULER
The Health, Humanities, and Society minor is designed for students who would like to learn how to think capaciously and creatively about health using the rigorous, precise, and flexible skills trained by the social sciences and the humanities. This minor is structured around the particular competencies that the social sciences and humanities train. Those competencies are narrative and historical perspective, critical attention and observation, ethics and judgment, performance and creativity, and social and structural proficiency.
Sari Altschuler, Associate Director of the Humanities Center
FROM THE DIRECTOR LORI LEFKOVITZ Reviewing the events described in these pages, I am transported to Danez Smith’s heart-thumping poetry reading, moved again by both the words and the rockconcert level of student enthusiasm; I am reminded of the soul-wrenching faculty discussions about the ethics of sanctuary cities and the impact of changes to DACA. Workshops facilitated by such writers as Paul Murray and Shani Mootoo, panels on “Security and Resilience,” a symposium on mass incarceration, David N. Myers’ “impassioned plea” for the study of history, and Geoff Eley and Ruth Ben-Ghiat in open conversation about “Nazism and Fascism: Then and Now” are representative moments in this year’s Northeastern Humanities Center program that suggest something of the heightened urgency and depth of purpose that our colleagues are bringing to our work. I hope that in turning these pages, you, too, will sense the power of the Humanities Center’s successful community-building projects. Both the faculty works-in-progress series and the residential fellowship program visibly inspire the special creativity that comes from energetic cross-disciplinary conversation. This year’s fellows explored the relationship between truth and storytelling, workshopping projects about: infant interpretation of simple narrative; intellectual property law; “fake news” in early modern accounts of women accused of crime; the history of cooperation in Europe; Jewish collective rights in the modern state; empowerment in the favelas of Rio; spies and the Cold War in Latin American literature; material objects as vehicles for literature; design in law; and women’s belonging in the academy and in the field of literary journalism. Never have I been more grateful for the intelligent and caring attention that my colleagues bring to their scholarship and collaborations. I welcome this opportunity to express my gratitude, most especially to Uta Poiger, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and her reliably excellent administration and staff for the material and logistical support that enables the Humanities Center to thrive. Please read the names of the Humanities Center board members, the dedicated faculty whose volunteer energies guarantee the quality of our program. Thank you and farewell to Ignacio Chaparro, the Humanities Center Administrative Coordinator, and much appreciation to Deborah Levisohn Stanhill for stepping in and stepping up. We are delighted to welcome Gabrielle Fiorenza to a new position as Events and Administrative Operations Manager. Special thanks and congratulations to Sari Altschuler, Associate Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center, for inaugurating a new interdisciplinary minor and Center initiative in Health, Humanities, and Society. She will lead next year’s Residential Fellows program with the theme of “Cultures of Ability.”
Congratulations to our
GUGGENHEIM FELLOWS THE HUMANITIES CENTER IS PROUD OF NORTHEASTERN PROFESSORS JESSICA SILBEY AND THEO DAVIS WHO RECEIVED 2018-19 GUGGENHEIM AWARDS FOR RESEARCH THAT THEY DEVELOPED AS HUMANITIES CENTER FELLOWS. Professor of English Theo Davis was a Humanities Center Fellow in 2015-2016 when she began working on her book project “Sensations of Freedom: Somatics and Personal Development in American Literature,” which reevaluates the commitment to selfdevelopment at the heart of American literature, focusing upon individual embodiment as a site of transformation. THEO The project aims to connect the DAVIS commitments of a range of body-oriented modes of therapy (from somatics to sensorimotor trauma treatment) to literary studies, in order to make a new place within humanistic scholarship for the value and interest of thinking about human development and personal transformation.
GUGGENHEIM FELLOWS
As a Humanities Center fellow in 2017-2018, Jessica Silbey, Professor of Law, worked on her book project “Against Progress: Fundamental Values and Intellectual Property in the Digital Age” (Stanford University Press, 2020). She considers intellectual property debates in law and culture as a bellwether of changing social justice needs in the twenty-first century. Silbey argues that intellectual property JESSICA SILBEY law is becoming a central framework through which to discuss essential socio-political issues, extending ancient debates over our most cherished values. Professor Silbey writes that “working alongside the humanities fellows enriched and propelled my research in terms of quality and production. Meeting together exercised the interdisciplinary nature of our projects so that we could speak across our fields, making the work methodologically deeper and substantively broadly relevant.”
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WHOSE STORY? RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
We are the stories we tell. A variety of narratives—journalistic, artistic, and scholarly— compete to explain our cultural circumstances and to ground individual experiences within a collective reality, from the news site to the novel, from political rhetoric to religious doctrine. The distinction between opinion and fact seems to be breaking down. The media circulation that the historian Benedict Anderson postulated as uniting citizens in “imagined communities” now seems equally capable of dividing them. This year’s fellows considered how contemporary narratives of identity and experience, belonging and exclusion, are fostered or censored; how criteria of truth, feeling, or opinion are harnessed to assert a narrative’s importance; and how social and cultural institutions mediate the circulation of these narratives.
FELLOWS CONVENER: Lori Lefkovitz, Director, Northeastern Humanities Center
Iris Berent, Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Science
Our Language, Our Selves
Marina Leslie, Associate Professor, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Begetting Crimes: Laboring Women and Fake News in Early Modern Print Culture
Erika Boeckler, Assistant Professor, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Simon Rabinovitch, Visiting Scholar; Assistant Professor, Department of History, Boston University
‘Silent’ and ‘Invisible’ Collaborators: How Material Objects Mediate Stories
Jewish Collective Rights: Religious Liberty and Modern States
Mai’a Cross, Edward W. Brook Professor of Political Science; Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, International Affairs Program, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Carmel Salhi, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Bouvé College of Health Sciences
The Ultrasocial World: International Cooperation Against All Odds
The ‘Deserving Refugee’: Iraqis’ Contested Narratives and Identity in Resettlement
Martha Davis, Professor, School of Law
Jessica Silbey, Professor, School of Law
An Exploration of Narrative Dissonance, Design, and Democracy
Intellectual Property Stories
Anjuli Fahlberg, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Daniel Noemi Voionmaa, Associate Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies; Director, Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies Program, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Dancing around the Devil: Violence, Poverty, and New Geographies of Citizenship in Rio de Janeiro Jonathan Fitzgerald, PhD Candidate, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Setting the Record Straight: Women Literary Journalists Writing Against the Mainstream
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Spies, Writers, and Artists: Modernity’s Gaze and Paranoia in Latin America’s Cold War Kathrin Zippel, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Narratives of Belonging and Exclusion of Academics
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FALL 2017 EVENTS AND PROGRAMS
Danez Smith
Humanities Center events and programs bring together organizers and audiences from diverse disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern community, and invite wide public participation. These partnerships build relationships across university units and with other institutions and produce exciting and timely educational events.
OCTOBER 18, 2017
DANEZ SMITH, Poet Poet, performer, and educator Danez Smith came to Northeastern, leading a lunchtime writing workshop and holding an evening standingroom only performance and book signing. Smith, author of [insert] boy and the National Book Award finalist, Don’t Call Us Dead, led an overcapacity workshop on odes, in which participants read and discussed a series of odes provided by Smith, and then wrote and shared their own. For the evening performance, which was live-streamed by the English Department, Smith dazzled the crowd with their award-winning work, including “Dinosaurs in the Hood” and “Dear White America.” Attendees called the evening “necessary” and “life-changing.” Sponsored by: College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Department of English; John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; LGBTQA Resource Center; Northeastern Black Student Association; Northeastern Crossing; Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion; Social Justice Resource Center; University Honors Program; Northeastern Humanities Center
OCTOBER 26, 2017
NUANCE Launch The inauguration of Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities Undergraduate Research Journal. Sponsored by: College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Northeastern Humanities Center
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Northeastern Irish Dance Club
NOVEMBER 13 - 16, 2017
NOVEMBER 27, 2017
PAUL MURRAY, Visiting Distinguished Writer
GERSHON SHAFIR, The Fourth Annual Israel Studies Lecture, “Occupational Risks: Israel in the West Bank”
Visiting Distinguished Writer Paul Murray, author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, and The Mark and the Void, came to Northeastern for a week of readings, talks, and workshops. Irish Ambassador H.E. Daniel Mulhall, Irish Consul General Fionnuala Quinlann, and author Claire Kilroy also participated in the week’s events. Northeastern and Boston’s ties to Irish culture were showcased in many ways, including a presentation of the virtual reality experience of James Joyce’s Ulysses: “Joystick,” a dance performance by the Northeastern Irish Dance Club, and an art exhibit by Professor Mira Cantor’s 2017 Dialogue in Ireland.
This year marked the 50th anniversary of the 1967 war, during which Israel conquered the West Bank. Professor Gershon Shafir, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego, addressed two key questions about Israel’s continuing control of the West Bank: “Is the presence of Israel’s military and settlers an occupation?” and “Is the Israeli settlement enterprise reversible?” Shafir has served as President of the Association for Israel Studies, and is the author or editor of ten books. His latest book is A Half Century of Occupation: Israel, Palestine, and the World’s Most Intractable Conflict.
Sponsored by: College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Department of English; Northeastern Humanities Center
Sponsored by: The Middle East Center; Jewish Studies Program; Northeastern Humanities Center
Dov Waxman and Gershon Shafir
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FALL 2017
Sanctuary Cities workshop
NOVEMBER 30, 2017
DECEMBER 1, 2017
SHELLEY WILCOX, Are Sanctuary Cities Morally Justified?
Sanctuary, Well-Being, and the Impact of DACA: Philosophical Perspectives on Sanctuary Cities
This talk explored the moral issues associated with local sanctuary policies. Three arguments in favor of sanctuary policies were examined— the public safety, civil disobedience, and collective resistance arguments—and the latter was defended. In doing so, several important issues that have received scant attention in the philosophical literature on migration, including migrant detention and deportation, the criminalization of migrant subjects, and the militarization of national borders were addressed. Shelley Wilcox is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University. Her areas of research include social and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and applied ethics, with a special interest in migration, global justice, and urban environmental issues. She has published articles on migration justice in Philosophical Studies, Social Theory and Practice, Journal of Social Philosophy, and Philosophy Compass, as well as in numerous anthologies. Sponsored by: Global Resilience Institute; Institute for Race and Justice; Institute on Urban Health Research; International Affairs Program; Department of Philosophy and Religion; Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Program; Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy; Northeastern University’s School of Law; the Norwegian Research Council; Northeastern Humanities Center
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This day-long workshop brought together seven philosophers from the US and Canada working on the topic of sanctuary cities. What precisely are they and can they be morally justified? With a focus on issues of concern to philosophers in particular, the workshop was of broad interest to scholars in other fields and practitioners working with immigrant populations. Shelley Wilcox, Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University; Serena Parekh, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University; Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance at the University of Washington; Adam Hosein, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University; Patti Tamara Lenard, Associate Professor of Ethics at the University of Ottawa; Jose Jorge Mendoza, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell; and Matthew Noah Smith, Associate Professor at Northeastern University facilitated this workshop. Sponsored by: Global Resilience Institute; Institute for Race and Justice; Institute on Urban Health Research; International Affairs Program; Department of Philosophy and Religion; Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Program; Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy; Northeastern University’s School of Law; the Norwegian Research Council; Northeastern Humanities Center
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Launched in Fall 2013, the Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Studies series is presented by the Northeastern Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, the Department of Political Science, and the Northeastern Humanities Center. The College of Social Sciences and Humanities offers an MS in Security and Resilience Studies, which explores both the policies and systems behind improving national security and societal resilience. NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND WORLD CULTURES, THE NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE PRESENT
RN E T S A E H The Stupid Terrorist: O R T from NLessons Y Rituals of Resilience T I S History and the Social Sciences R UNIVE ING R P S SEPTEMBER 19, 2017
JANUARY 23, 2018
Carie Hersh, Assistant Teaching Professor in Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University
Max Abrahms, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University
FEBRUARY 13, 2018
NOVEMBER 7, 2017
Precarious Energy Futures
Innovation Systems for Climate Adaptation and Resilience
Shalanda Baker, Professor, School of Law and School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University
Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs, Northeastern University
DECEMBER 5, 2017
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MARCH 20, 2018
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ALL EVENTS HELD IN 909 RENAISSANCE PARK, 1135 TREMONT ST, BOSTON, MA For questions, please email internationalcenter@northeastern.edu.
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SPRING 2018 FEBRUARY 2, 2018
LISA LOWE, Barrs Lecture, “Colonial Pasts and Conditional Futures: Archives, Materiality, and Literature” Dr. Lisa Lowe of Tufts University addressed an audience of Northeastern faculty, administrators, graduate and undergraduate students, alumni, and guests and spoke about the unarchived experience of the powerless— also described as “rememory,” “the unthought known,” “thingness”—made manifest through art and the examination of art. The talk was introduced by Professor Eunsong Kim and followed by a forum with Professors Nicole Aljoe and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon. Sponsored by: Barrs Committee (Department of English); Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies; Center for International Affairs and World Cultures; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Northeastern Humanities Center
Afro Bop Alliance
FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Jazz Performance by Grammy Award Winner JOE MCCARTHY and the Afro Bop Alliance Joe McCarthy is the founder, leader, producer, and drummer of Afro Bop Alliance, winner of the 2008 Latin Grammy for Latin Jazz Album of the Year, and nominated in the same category for the 51st Grammy Awards for the Heads-Up release “Afro Bop Alliance,” featuring Dave Samuels. Joe has had a diverse career as drummer/ percussionist, bandleader, producer and educator in many settings, from symphony orchestra to bebop, big band, Afro-Cuban, theater and more. As an artist-in-residence through Northeastern’s Humanities Center, Joe put on a lively jazz performance with colleagues from Boston, taught a master class with the Department of Music, and facilitated a dialogue with students, faculty, and administrators across our Colleges about jazz and the music industry. Sponsored by: Department of Music; LatinX Student Cultural Center; Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies; Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion; NUPrime; Department of Philosophy and Religion; Cultural, Residential and Spiritual Life; John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; Northeastern Humanities Center
Joe McCarthy Profs Nicole Aljoe, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Lisa Lowe
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FEBRUARY 23, 2018
MARCH 23, 2018
Boston International Security Graduate Conference
MASS Incarceration: A Symposium on The Past, Present, and Future of Incarceration in Massachusetts
The International Security Working Group (NUISWG), sponsored by the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University, hosted its first annual Boston International Security Graduate Conference.
Organized by faculty of Northeastern University’s Program in Public History and its School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, this symposium brought together policymakers, correctional officials, scholars, students, and the general public to discuss the past, present, and future of incarceration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This one-day conference served as a forum for graduate students to present their ongoing research and to receive feedback from peers. They engaged with a broad definition of security issues and actors from a variety of geographic contexts and methodological approaches. Panelists presented both early-stage and late-stage research. Participants attended from 17 institutions across the New England region as well as Canada. Topics included comparative national security, terrorist group dynamics, foreign policy decision-making, and security in the international system. Thirty papers were presented, representing the work of 34 graduate students. The conference, which was organized by graduate students, also included 12 faculty participants.
Speakers explored: How has incarceration in Massachusetts and the larger nation changed over time? Would an increase in rehabilitation programs reduce the recidivism rate? What will be the impact of proposed sentencing reforms? How do corrections, probation, and parole perform now and how might they change?
Sponsored by: International Security Working Group (NUISWG); Department of Political Science; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Northeastern Humanities Center
The symposium took place during the display of “States of Incarceration,” a traveling exhibition that probes the history and current practice of incarceration in the United States. Sponsored by: Department of History; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; School of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Department of Sociology and Anthropology; John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; Rutgers University-Newark Humanities Action Lab; National Endowment for the Humanities; Northeastern Humanities Center
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MARCH 23, 2018
WGSS Symposium: Gender and the Rise of the Global Right The fifth annual Women’s History Month Symposium, “Gender and the Rise of the Global Right” featured a dozen panelists from the United States and abroad, including Susan B. Church (Demissie & Church), Josen Masangkay Diaz (University of San Diego), Fatema Ahmed (Muslim Justice League), Kevin Moss (Middlebury College), Rupal Oza (Hunter College, CUNY), Serena Parekh (Northeastern University), L. Cole Parke (Political Research Associates), Elizabeth Swanson (Babson College), Mieke Verloo (Raboud University), Elizabeth A. Wood (MIT), Helena Alviar Garcia (Harvard Law School and the Universidad de Los Andes), and Betul Eksi from Turkey, currently a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University. Panels addressed Authoritarianism and Gender, Gendered Violence and Displacement, and Governmentality and Gender.
Laurel Leff, Rony Shapiro, David Myers
MARCH 26, 2018 ANNUAL RUDERMAN LECTURE
DAVID N. MYERS, “Why is Jewish History So Important Today? An Impassioned Plea for Studying the Past” UCLA history professor David N. Myers delivered a timely reminder of the importance of the study of Jewish history, which among other benefits has helped forge the boundaries of religious denominations, created a vehicle for national identity, and exemplified how immigrants adapt to majority culture. It can also serve to fortify a sense of group memory and signal the growth of intolerance.
Sponsored by: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Northeastern University’s School of Law; Northeastern Ethics Institute; Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies; Department of Political Science; Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society; Northeastern Humanities Center
David N. Myers is the President and CEO of the Center for Jewish History in New York City. Myers also serves as the inaugural director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, as well as the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA. Sponsored by: Ruderman Family Foundation; Jewish Studies Program; Northeastern Humanities Center
MARCH 29, 2018
Wars of Words: Sectarianism in Arabic Online and Print Media A panel discussion featured Arab journalist Daoud Kuttab and Northeastern faculty and graduate students. Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. His most recent publication is a book on the inside story of bringing an American TV children’s program to the Middle East: “Sesame Street, Palestine,” published by BearManor Media. Sponsored by: World Languages Center; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; College of Arts, Media and Design; Northeastern Humanities Center
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APRIL 2, 2018
LEWIS HYDE, “Forgetting Story” Lewis Hyde spoke with Humanities Fellows about moments when stories are or should be forgotten, building on a new project on “Forgetting,” with illustrations from history, politics, and current events. Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic with a particular interest in the public life of the imagination. A MacArthur Fellow and former director of undergraduate creative writing at Harvard University, Hyde is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College and an Associate at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center.
Shani Mootoo
MARCH 27 – 28, 2018
SHANI MOOTOO, Visiting Distinguished Writer
Hyde is author of The Gift, which illuminates and defends the noncommercial portion of artistic practice, Trickster Makes This World (1998), which uses a group of ancient myths to argue for the kind of disruptive intelligence all cultures need if they are to remain lively, flexible, and open to change, and Common as Air, a spirited defense of our “cultural commons,” that vast store of ideas, inventions, and works of art that we have inherited from the past and continue to enrich in the present.
The Visiting Distinguished Writer for Spring 2018 was IrishTrinidadian-Canadian writer/artist Shani Mootoo. Mootoo’s most recent novel, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, won the 2017 Lambda Award. In addition to writing poetry and fiction, Mootoo is also an accomplished painter, photographer, and filmmaker. The visit kicked off with a lively and well-attended public reading from her poetry and most recent novel. She met with a graduate student reading group and ran an intimate creative writing workshop with six undergraduate students. Her visit concluded with a showing of two of her films, And the Rest is Drag and Güerita and Prietita, shown in conjunction with the “Women Take the Reel” Film Festival. Sponsored by: Department of English; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Center for Intercultural Engagement; Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies; John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; LGBTQA Resource Center; Northeastern Crossing; Northeastern Humanities Center
HC Fellows with Lewis Hyde (fourth from left) NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES
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NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
S PACE , P L ACE , AN D T H E H U M AN IT IE S The Northeastern University Humanities Center hosted “Space, Place, and the Humanities,� a three-week NEH Summer Institute in the newly-emerging interdisciplinary field of Geohumanities. At the intersection of geography, history, literature, creative arts, and social justice, Geohumanities focuses on the role of space and place in a range of humanities disciplines. The aim of the Institute was to help scholars in humanities disciplines integrate spatial thinking into their research and teaching in new ways. Prominent scholars from cultural geography, literary studies, and the digital humanities led the Institute, foregrounding the study of space and place as an interdisciplinary endeavor. Building on foundational texts from across the humanities, participants used the city of Boston as a laboratory for exploration. The curriculum blended class sessions, films, workshops, and field trips around Boston, including a geohumanist tour of the Museum of Fine Arts, a public art exhibit at Government Center, and an exploration of the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.
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DIRECTORS
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PARTICIPANTS
Timothy Cresswell Co-Director
Annie Dell’Aria Miami University (OH) Assistant Professor of Art History
Katharine Slater Rowan University (NJ) Assistant Professor of English
Anika Walke Washington University in St. Louis (MO) Assistant Professor of History
Laura Nussbaum-Barberena Bennington College (VT) Visiting Faculty in Society, Culture and Thought
Cara Cilano Michigan State University (MI) Professor of English
Monica Bravo Yale University (CT) Full-time Lecturer in the History of Art Department and Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration
Elizabeth Maddock Dillon Co-Director Sarah Kanouse Associate Director
Christina Gerhardt University of Hawaii (HI) Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities, Film and German Erich Hatala Matthes Wellesley College (MA) Assistant Professor of Philosophy
PARTICIPATING FACULTY Nicholas Brown Northeastern University Wendy Hardin University of Toulouse Bruce Janz University of Central Florida Anne Kelly Knowles University of Maine Cindi Katz City University of New York Ryan Cordell Northeastern University Catherine D’Agnazio Emerson College Khury Petersen-Smith Tufts University Andi Sutton Visiting Artist Special Thanks to the Humanities Center: Lori Lefkovitz, Director; Jennifer Sartori, Associate Director; Ignacio Chaparro, Administrative Coordinator; Dave DeCamp, Graduate Assistant/Web Developer
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Faedah M. Totah Virginia Commonwealth University (VA) Associate Professor of Political Science Genevieve Carpio University of California Los Angeles (CA) Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies Garrett W. Nichols Bridgewater State University (MA) Assistant Professor of English Joshua P. Ewalt University of Utah (UT) Assistant Professor of Communication
Jennifer Mokos Ohio Wesleyan University (OH) Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology and Geography Harrod Suarez Oberlin College (OH) Assistant Professor of English and Comparative American Studies
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Nabaparna Ghosh Babson College (MA) Assistant Professor of History Patricia G. Davis Georgia State University (GA) Associate Professor of Communications Rachel Stevens Hunter College (NY) Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies
Randall Szott Green Mountain College (VT) Instructor of Art Tara C. Foley Baylor University (TX) Lecturer in English Ann Yoachim University of Tennessee Chattanooga (TN) Director of Community Partnerships and Clinical Professor
Katelyn Knox University of Central Arkansas (AR) Assistant Professor of French
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Nicholas Gamso The Pratt Institute (NY) Visiting Instructor in Social Sciences & Cultural Studies
Regine O. Jackson Agnes Scott College (GA) Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies
John Sung Han Bloomington University (IN) Visiting Lecturer in English
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Marcos Del Hierro University of New Hampshire (NH) Assistant Professor of English
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HOLOCAUST AWARENESS WEEK 2018
NAZISM AND FASCISM: THEN AND NOW
Northeastern University’s commitment to remembrance and awareness of the Holocaust is long and deep. Since 1977, the University has hosted an annual week-long series of events dedicated to remembering the Holocaust. The Holocaust Awareness Committee was organized in 1991, made up of Northeastern students, faculty, and staff of various religious and ethnic backgrounds. The Committee’s mission is to publicly remember the Holocaust each year, not only as historical fact and a memorial to its millions of victims but also as a warning that the horrors of the past must never be repeated.
C OM M IT T EE C H AIR:
Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies; Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies Holocaust Awareness Week is presented by the Northeastern Humanities Center and College of Social Sciences and Humanities in partnership with the Holocaust Awareness Committee. Members of the Committee: Dov Waxman, Libby Adler, Martin Blatt, Natalie Bormann, Alexander Kern, Laurel Leff, Lori Lefkovitz, Debra Mandel, Gordana Rabrenovic, Hannah Sattler, Danielle Murad Waiss
This year’s events focused on the theme of “Nazism and Fascism: Then and Now.” Events opened on April 10th with the Bill Giessen Film Series featuring Welcome to Leith, the hard-edged 2015 documentary which chronicles the attempted takeover of a small town in North Dakota by notorious white supremacist neo-Nazi Craig Cobb and the persistent fight by residents to remove him and his followers. A lively post-film discussion was led by Northeastern’s Jack Levin, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Criminology and Co-Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict, and Gordana Rabrenovic, Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. Continuing on April 11th with the Philip N. Backstrom Jr. Survivor Lecture, Dr. Anna Ornstein presented a riveting talk, “What History Can Teach Us: Reflections of a Holocaust Survivor,” in which she shared her perspectives on today’s landscape of intolerance. A retired Professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati and Lecturer in Child Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School, Ornstein recounted the rapid spread of Nazism in her small town in Hungary, her horrific years in the Auschwitz concentration camp and her post-war experiences in Germany when she rented housing from a Nazi, “the perfect bystander.” The audience engaged with Dr. Ornstein in a frank and energetic question and answer session, moderated by Marty Blatt, Northeastern’s Professor of the Practice in History and Director of Public History Program. Making strong parallels between Nazism and the Trump era, Ornstein warned about today’s dire climate, where “racism is still a potent process in social and political life.” With a deep understanding of the individual’s moral role in society, she encouraged audience members to partake in protest and civil disobedience and to “make time for these conversations.” Her book, My Mother’s Eyes, is an in-depth account of her Holocaust experience. Later in the day, the 26th Annual Robert Salomon Morton Lecture, “Nazism and Fascism: Then and Now,” compared the trends of Nazism and Fascism pre-World War II to today’s disturbing anti-democratic, racist events. Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan, articulated the factors which
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influence a “drive toward radical national right-wing extremism and authoritarianism.” The factors include crises of governmental representation and paralysis, global migration, and related anxieties about borders and boundaries that have arisen during the Trump presidency and in Europe. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University Professor of History and Italian, illustrated the role potent images, film, and propaganda played in Germany and Italy under Hitler and Mussolini, and how they are being used by the far right today, especially via social media. Uta Poiger, Northeastern’s Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, moderated the conversation, and observed that it provided “many frameworks for showing us danger as well as frameworks for recognizing one’s humanity.” Today’s youth-led anti-gun-violence movement and some Germans’ outreach to Syrian refugees provide some signs of hope.
The events concluded on April 12th with the Holocaust Commemoration “NIZKOR” (We Remember), a mesmerizing collage of dance and Holocaust poetry readings, directed and choreographed by Danielle Murad Waiss, this year’s Gideon Klein Scholar. Murad Waiss, a fourth year student in political science and international affairs, created this performance to “explore the many facets of the Holocaust and hopefully bring the audience a different perspective of what happened.” Through movement, spoken word, music, lighting, and costumes, Murad Waiss, cast, and crew created a tour-de-force tribute to the human spirit. (In recognition of her contribution to the University, Murad Waiss was awarded the Presidential Global Fellows award from Northeastern.)
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The Collaborative Research Clusters give faculty the opportunity for a range of interdisciplinary research collaborations. These Research Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners COLLABORATIVE from different disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern University RESEARCH community, around a shared concern. This CLUSTERS interdisciplinary program facilitates productive discussions and collaborations among the participants, with a view toward the development of joint projects, conferences, publications, and/or major grant applications.
Security Studies Collaborative Research Cluster The Security Studies Collaborative Research Cluster fostered discussion among scholars at Boston-area institutions exploring interdisciplinary research related to traditional state-centric security studies, as well as topics in international cooperation and human security. The primary objective of this graduate student-led network is the facilitation of training, mentorship, and research by connecting doctoral students across institutions with one another as well as with more experienced scholars. In doing so, the group offers support for presentation, peer review, and publication of research as well as methodological and pedagogical training. Through fostering collaboration among students and faculty, this initiative explores, expands, and innovates on emerging topics in the field of security studies. Participants: Max Abrahms, Dylan Maguire, Justin Haner, Sidita Kushi, Summer Marion, Katharine Petrich, Maria Robson
Terrorism and Firm Resilience: Unpacking the Intersection This research cluster explored the interdisciplinary connection between terrorism and business resiliency. Novel, interdisciplinary and policy relevant, this research cluster brought scholars together from several disciplines to begin establishing the relationship between terrorism and sustainable resiliency. Participants discussed research projects and strategized how to further fund their research agendas. The cluster concluded with a presentation to the Northeastern University campus on the preliminary finding and avenues for future research on this timely subject. Participants: Max Abrahms, Luis Alfonso Dau, Daniel Aldrich, Elizabeth Moore, Katharine Petrich, Steve Flynn, Sidita Kushi, Aeshna Badruzzaman, Matt Simonson
Sectarian Discourse in Arab Print and Social Media This cluster studied the rise of openly or implicitly divisive discourses in Arabic journalism and social media. Differences and conflicts of sectarian or ethnic nature often translate into vocabularies that denigrate others’ religious or racial backgrounds. Especially after deposing the Saddam regime and the ascendance of Shia-dominated governments in Iraq, print and social media in parts of the Arab world—Iraq and neighboring Gulf and Levantine countries, specifically—witnessed
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a dramatic rise in divisive sectarian and ethnic discourses. Newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, to name a few major outlets of print and social media, engage in what seemed taboos only a decade or two ago. Sunni and Shia Muslims, Iraqi Kurds, Syrian Kurds, and Turkmens trade demeaning accusations and racial slurs at a rate unprecedented in Arab cultural exchanges. The cluster closely analyzed examples of Arab print and social media, hosted speakers to address their implications, and organized activities for Arab journalists. Participants: Shakir Mustafa, John Wihbey, Alice Verticelli, Dylan Maguire
The Past and Future of Incarceration in Massachusetts This research cluster brought together scholars and practitioners to discuss the past and future of incarceration policies in Massachusetts and created an event that enabled invited policy makers, correctional officials, NU scholars and students, and the general public to meet and discuss the history and future of incarceration. The research cluster also facilitated collaborative work in a variety of ways, including enhancing current undergraduate groups and NU faculty and student interests in correctional issues, and policies to reduce the incarcerated population and to enhance rehabilitation programs. Participants: Simon Singer, Marty Blatt, Natasha Frost, Victoria Cain, Carlos Monteiro, Amelia Caramadre, Erica Fowler, Gracie Burger, Stuti Kokkalera, Amy Gartland
Freedom of Religion v. National Identity: Democracy and Secularism on Trial Politicization and “securitization” of religion in the United States and abroad is challenging long-held norms and policies that had balanced, however precariously, religious freedom with secular and democratic values. This research cluster brought together Northeastern colleagues and graduate students from law, politics, and religion to engage in informed interdisciplinary dialogue and intellectual exchange. Invited scholar Professor Shawkat Toorawa (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Yale University) stimulated discussion by providing engaged and autobiographical perspectives. Participants: William Miles, Berna Turam, Alexander Levering Kern, Michael Tolley, Maria Robson, Alice Verticelli
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SEPTEMBER 25, 2017 Costas Panagopoulos
FACULTY WORKS-INPROGRESS COLLOQUIUM
Professor, Department of Political Science Director, Big Data, Quantitative Methods and Network Initiatives College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Please Recuse Yourself: A Field Experiment Exploring the Relationship between Campaign Donations and Judicial Recusal OCTOBER 5, 2017 Shalanda Baker
The Faculty Works-inProgress Colloquium is sponsored by the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Northeastern Humanities Center. Faculty members share their current research with colleagues and benefit from questions and discussion.
Professor, School of Law, and School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Just Energy Auctions: Creating Equitable Pathways for the Global Energy Transition OCTOBER 16, 2017 Candice Delmas Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, and Department of Political Science College of Social Sciences and Humanities
In Defense of Uncivil Disobedience OCTOBER 26, 2017 Élika Ortega Assistant Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Contemporary Literature at the Intersection of Print and Digital Cultures NOVEMBER 6, 2017 Rory Smead Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Learning to Spite and the Evolution of Envy 18
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FEBRUARY 26, 2018 Ivan Petkov
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Whose Story?
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Featuring:
Iris Berent
Will They Stay after the Flood? A Story of Insurance and Financial Intermediaries
Professor, Department of Psychology College of Science
Jessica Silbey Co-Director, Center for Law, Innovation and Creativity (CLIC), Professor, School of Law
Anjuli Fahlberg
MARCH 19, 2018
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Whose Story?
PhD Candidate Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Featuring:
Carmel Salhi
Simon Rabinovitch Visiting Fellow, Assistant Professor Department of History, Boston University
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences Bouvé College of Health Sciences
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Associate Dean for Experiential Education Professor, School of Law
Martha Davis
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Whose Story?
Kathrin Zippel Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Featuring:
Erika Boeckler Assistant Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Marina Leslie Associate Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Mai’a Cross Edward W. Brooke Professor of Political Science Associate Professor, Department of Political Science; International Affairs Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Daniel Noemi Voionmaa Associate Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Jonathan Fitzgerald
FEBRUARY 8, 2018 Kevin Drakulich
Assistant Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
APRIL 9, 2018 Sari Altschuler
Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Associate Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Assistant Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Race, Justice, and Politics: The Police, Black Lives Matter, and the 2016 US Presidential Election
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Moya Bailey
Transforming Misogynoir: Black Women’s Digital Resistance in US Culture
PhD Candidate, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
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Touching the Scarlet Letter: What Disability History Can Teach Us about Literature
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DIRECTORS
Katherine Luongo
Lori Lefkovitz
Associate Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Lucy Maulsby Assistant Professor, School of Architecture College of Arts, Media, and Design
Richard L. O’Bryant
Sari Altschuler Associate Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Assistant Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
2017-18 ADVISORY BOARD Aziza Ahmed Martin Blatt Professor of the Practice, Department of History Director, Public History Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Assistant Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Elizabeth Bucar Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities
José Buscaglia Chair and Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Chair and Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion Director, Ethics Institute College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Chair, Department of Political Science Associate Professor, Department of Political Science School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Suzanna Danuta Walters Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Liza Weinstein Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
STAFF Ignacio Chaparro
Laura Green Associate Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Experiential Education Professor, Department of English Acting Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Sarah Kanouse Associate Professor, Media Arts College of Arts, Media and Design
Administrative Coordinator, Northeastern Humanities Center
SPECIAL THANKS The Dean’s Office in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities Leslie Casey Communications and Digital Strategy Manager, Dean’s Office Deborah Levisohn Stanhill Administrative Specialist, Jewish Studies Program
Alisa Lincoln Director, Institute of Urban Health Research and Practice Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities Professor, Department of Health Sciences Bouvé College of Health Sciences
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Ronald Sandler
Thomas J. Vicino
Associate Professor, School of Law
Cameron Blevins
Director, John D. O’Bryant African American Institute
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Design: Victoria Sax Photography: Brooks Canaday, Jarvis Chen, Adam Glanzman, Mary Knox Merrill, Matthew Modoono/Northestern University, Mark Ostow, Skylar Shankman, Lauren Scornavacca/Northeastern University
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ABOUT TH E NORTH E A ST ER N U N I V ER S I T Y
HUM ANI TI ES C EN T ER
Critical and reflective study of human cultures and people’s artistic and intellectual achievements develops acumen, heightens sensitivity to experience, and enhances our sensibilities. Founded in 2008, the Northeastern Humanities Center supports faculty and student research in the humanities and social sciences; facilitates collaboration across disciplines; and presents humanistic and social scientific research to the wider university community and the general public. Through working groups, forum discussions, symposia, seminars, workshops, informal dialogues, conferences, and joint projects, the Center supports a wide-ranging interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of respect for different perspectives, experiences, and expertise. By offering various opportunities for engagement with art, literature, philosophy, history, and social and political formations, the work of the Humanities Center strengthens the foundation from which we can respond meaningfully to one another and the needs of our world.
Please visit our website and subscribe to our email list for information on upcoming events and programs. northeastern.edu/humanities Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter:
@nuhumanities
617-373-4140 nuhumanities@northeastern.edu 360 Huntington Avenue 450 Renaissance Park Boston, MA 02115