Northeastern University Humanities Center Year in Review 2015-16

NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER | COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

2015 – 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

The Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service; the College of Social Sciences and Humanities; and the Northeastern Humanities Center; in partnership with the University Scholars Program; Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion; International Student and Scholar Institute; the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; and the Social Justice Resource Center present

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND WORLD CULTURES, THE NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE PRESENT

Fear into Fortitude:

NOR

Interfaith Peacebuilding Lessons from Liberia

THE

AST

ERN

2 UA–RY 6:00 PM FE BR Y, 4:30

onald

Anna Macd

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. at Northeastern University

FREE and Open to the Public REGISTRATION REQUIRED at http://neu.universitytickets.com

Ache l Leagu Ms. Ray Internationa Women’s om (WILPF) and Freed

Global ting the Naviga Is Free Trade y? ht: Food Figh Food Securit rch ible wit ssor and Canada Resea ity, Sustainabil es, Compat Profe TUE

Leymah Gbowee KEYNOTE ADDRESS WITH

ITY

ted Nat acy on Diplom urity at the Uni Critical Will, ing and Sec son Director, Reach e for Peace

tariat

Arms Secre

RY 23 PM BR UA – 6:00 FESDA Y, 4:30

Blackman Auditorium, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston

ERS

22 PM RC H ce – 6:00 MASDA Y, 4:30 tional Peaions TUE Interna

TUE SDA of Death: de chants The Merg the Arms Traaty de Tre Curbin Arms TraDirector, Control and the

Thursday, February 11, 2016

UNIV

ity and rce Studi Clapp Food Secur Jennifer t and Resou of Waterloo Global Chair in Environmen University rsity

n Unive s, Northeaster Food System sentor: co-pre Consortium on , and Equity y, Health Sustainabilit

13 AM – 5:00 PM icy: 9:00 AP RIL eign Pol NES DAY,

l For is ’s Paralle Europe aine-Russia CrisK. Davis Cross Dr. Mai’a The Ukr

WED

and ized by Science shop organ Political rn University A Work Professor of easte toward Assistant l Affairs, North have contributed on Comm rs Internationa dozen schola in Journal of K. Davis one l issue Dr. Mai’a , More than oming speciaco-edited by (Chair guest Karolewski Poland), the forthc aw, Studies, sz Pawel Market Dr. Ireneu rsity of Wrocl Cross andScience, Unive publication. .

Political January 2017 d online for s poste to slated of event . Go schedule ed to attend ionalcenter/.

Detailed requir ternat Registration .edu/cssh/in astern northe

ALL EVENTS HELD AT 909 RENAISSANCE PARK, 1135 TREMONT ST, BOSTON, MA

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For more information about the series, email internationalcenter@neu.edu.

Ms. Gbowee will share stories from her experiences as a leader of the interfaith women’s peace movement, which helped bring the end to the Second Liberian Civil War. Her reflections will highlight ways the Northeastern community can develop skills of global citizenship and peacemaking as we confront cultures of violence in the U.S. and around the world.

Photo: Michael Angelo for Wonderland

THIS EVENT IS THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE FIRST NEW ENGLAND INTERFAITH STUDENT SUMMIT. For more information about the summit, please visit northeastern.edu/spirituallife/.

Questions? Email csds@neu.edu

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

northeastern.edu/humanities CE N T E R Y E A R I N R E V I E W 20 15-16

Humanities Center Resident Fellowship: ByDesign PA G E 2

Fall 2015 Events and Programs PA G E 4

Spring 2016 Events and Programs PA G E 7

Controversial Issues in Security Studies Series

YEAR IN REVIEW

PA G E 9

Holocaust Awareness Week PA G E 10

Collaborative Research Clusters PA G E 12

Faculty Works-inProgress Colloquium PA G E 14

Directors and Staff Advisory Board PA G E 16 NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER, LORI LEFKOVITZ Discerning patterns and making connections are integral to the pleasures of thinking, discovery, learning, and intellectual progress. The theme of the Northeastern Humanities Center’s 2015-16 Residential Fellowship program, “By Design,” encouraged us to consider matters of intention, creativity, politics, and ideology in human cultural and material production. Research projects ranged widely, from the design of cities to graffiti, from the pious fashions of Muslim women to the use of visuals in school curricula, from designing apps that focus on stories rather than numbers in promoting healthy habits to natural theology in literary studies, and more. As Director of the Center, I remain ever-grateful to be situated where people come together to connect ideas and make connections with one another, across the disciplines. It is an exhilarating place to be, exhilarating to be reminded daily of the power and potential of academic collaborations.

Exhilarating. Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gwobee, Liberian peace activist and women’s rights advocate, spoke to our campus community about her experience bringing together Muslim and Christian women to end Liberia’s fourteen-year-long civil war. Her energy and resilience inspire us to believe in the possibility of lifesaving partnerships and in the individual’s capacity to intervene in seemingly inexorable tragedy. In the pages of this annual report, you will find more about her talk, other events that the Humanities Center was privileged to co-sponsor, and the research groups and lecture series that we supported.

I notice an emphasis on confronting the urgent problems of our day: controversial issues in security and resilience studies; flooding in megacities; blindness to genocides; and America’s culture of incarceration. Our colleagues and students across the disciplines, from sociology to law, political science, business, history, literature, and international affairs, are thinking together about gender equity in entrepreneurship and gender and carceral complexes. A week of programs was devoted to slave labor during the Holocaust, and more particularly to how the letters to and from one survivor of enslavement were transformed into an exhibit, a book, and a play—transformations that demonstrate how creative artists make history meaningful over time and to diverse audiences. Sustainability, one of Northeastern’s research themes, is the focus of one of the Humanities Center’s research clusters, as colleagues work to determine how humanistic disciplines contribute to efforts to preserve a planet fit for life.

These pages also name our dedicated board members, who ensure the excellence of our programs, and our hardworking staff. We are all grateful to our indispensable administrative coordinator, Ignacio Chaparro, and we wish fair winds to Tim Cresswell, the Associate Director for Public Humanities, as he moves to a new position. I especially thank Uta Poiger, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and her office and staff, whose material support and efforts on behalf of the Humanities Center testify to a resolute commitment to our mission.

Lori Hope Lefkovitz Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

ByDesign

HUMANITIES CENTER RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

The appearance of design—fine detail and intricate patterning—is ubiquitous in nature and culture. The 2015-16 “By Design” fellows developed projects, had interdisciplinary discussions, and presented public programs about topics in design, ranging from questions of ornamentation, utility, aesthetics, creativity, emotion, rationality, and intention to theories and principles of design. They inspired conversation about how people make meaning and how we project our desires into the future.

Over the course of the year, our Humanities Center fellows learned about and led our community in dialogues about when and where we infer the presence of design, the role of cultural consensus and conflict in the appreciation of design, the politics of design, shifts in design aesthetic, and relationships between form and function. We asked: What makes for good design? Is absence of design possible? How do we design for change and anticipate unintended consequences? What is gained from reflecting on design?

NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

ByDesign FELLOWS

ByDesign PUBLIC EVENTS

Liz Bucar, Associate Professor,

Stuart Peterfreund, Professor,

Department of Philosophy and Religion, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Pious Fashion

From Natural Theology to Irreducible Complexity: The Way of the Argument from Design after Darwin

Victoria Cain, Assistant Professor, Department of History, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Worth a Thousand Words: Photography, Technology, and Making of Modern Education

College of Arts, Media, and Design, College of Computer and Information Science

Determinism and Unpredictability in Naturalist Fiction Matthias Felleisen, Trustee Professor,

Emily Cummins, Ph.D. Candidate,

Theo Davis, Associate Professor, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Computer and Information Science

How to Design Programs Benedict Jimenez, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Inequality by Design?

Andrea Parker, Assistant Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, BouvĂŠ College of Health Sciences

Designing for the Qualified Self

A roundtable discussion with Humanities Center Fellows

Gillian Smith, Assistant Professor,

Understanding the History of Generative Design: Uncovering Themes in Procedural Content and Generative Methods Across Media

OCTOBER 26, 2015 Designating Design: An (Inter)disciplinary Conversation

DECEMBER 7, 2015 Designs on Education Featuring: Victoria Cain, Matthias Felleisen, Stuart Peterfreund

MARCH 14, 2016 Urban Design

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Featuring: Charles Lesh, Emily Cummins, Liz Bucar, Andrea Parker, and Gillian Smith

Planning Uncertain Futures: Contesting Space and Home in Detroit Charles Lesh, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Writing Spaces and Places: A GeoEthnography of Graffiti Writing in Boston

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

3

Events & Programs Humanities Center programs attract audiences from diverse disciplines within the Northeastern community and from the wider public. These exciting and timely educational events develop through strategic partnerships and build important relationships across university units and with other institutions and the community.

NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

FALL 2015 OCTOBER 3, 2015

Slow Catastrophe: New England Medieval Conference HOSTED AT NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

The theme for NEMC 2015 was “Slow Catastrophe.” In Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard U P, 2011), Rob Nixon examines the “attritional lethality” of “climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and the environmental aftermath of war,” which “takes place gradually and often invisibly.” In the medieval period, such events as floods, earthquakes, famine, the toppling of dynasties and the onset of war may register as spectacularly sudden, not only for the people who experienced them, but sometimes for the scholars who now study them. Participants in this daylong conference engaged in the long view, and asked: How did medievals think across time and how do we think about them across time?

Sponsored by the Department of English, the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Northeastern Humanities Center, the Environmental Studies Program at Northeastern University, Boston University Center for the Humanities, the Boston University Interdisciplinary Program in Medieval Studies, the Harvard University Standing Committee on Medieval Studies, and the English Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston

OCTOBER 21, 2015

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Antoinette Burton: The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism

Rachel Hills: Let’s Talk about the Sex Myth

Part of the Global History Seminar Series by the Department of History, this talk featured Antoinette Burton, Bastian Professor of Global and Transitional Studies at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

Sponsored by the Department of History, the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, and the Northeastern Humanities Center N ORTH E AST E R N

Rachel Hills led a discussion on her new book, The Sex Myth, sex positivity, and sex culture. Hills, a feminist journalist, TED speaker, and writer, is widely published and her blog, “Musings of an Inappropriate Woman,” has more than 100,000 subscribers. A cultural phenomenon, The Sex Myth questions what messages we are sold about sexuality and how they play out in everyday life, as well as why sex is a matter of such profound anxiety for so many people.

Sponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, the Office of Student Affairs, and the Northeastern Humanities Center

H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

5

FALL 2015

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Roya Hakakian: What Jewish Life in 20th-Century Iran Reveals about Iran Today

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Anni Irish: The History of the Tattooed Lady This lecture focused on the history of the tattooed lady, a prominent subculture filled with untold stories. Anni Irish’s research follows the sociocultural history of the tattooed female body from the 1840s, the days of the “freak show,” to recent popular culture such as reality shows LA Ink and New York Ink. Sponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Northeastern Humanities Center

Iranian-American poet and journalist Roya Hakakian spoke personally about her life growing up as a Jewish girl in preand post-Revolutionary Iran. In her discussion, she talked about the hopes and disappointments of the revolution and what we can learn from her family’s experiences. Hakakian is among the leading new voices in Persian poetry as well as a widely published columnist, essayist, and reviewer.

Sponsored by the Northeastern Humanities Center, the International Affairs Program, the Jewish Studies Program, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Jodi Rudoren: Journalism in a Land of Few Facts

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015

Tim Cresswell: Poetry Reading and Book Reception for Fence Associate Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center and geographer Tim Cresswell read his new book-length poem, Fence, an exploration of the vast, frozen Svalbard islands. Fence has been described as “an epic of fragments that is at once beautiful and beautifully strange…a kind of travel poetry whose taut, minimalist lyric synthesizes subjects as diverse as history, politics, and Arctic ecology.”

NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

In a compelling talk, The New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief (from 2012–2016), Jodi Rudoren addressed critics on both sides of the IsraeliPalestinian divide in this year’s Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture. She discussed what she learned in one of the most controversial journalist positions in the world and the many ways in which contested facts complicate media coverage.

The annual Ruderman Memorial Lecture is presented by the Northeastern Humanities Center and the Jewish Studies Program and is generously sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation in memory of alumnus Mort Ruderman, E ’59.

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

SPRING 2016 MARCH 13, 2016

Local Environmental Action Conference FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Leymah Gbowee: Fear into Fortitude: Interfaith Peacebuilding Lessons from Liberia In honor of United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week, Northeastern hosted Nobel Peace Prize Winner Leymah Gbowee, who shared stories and reflections from her experience as leader of the interfaith women’s peace movement that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. She offered thoughts about how our students and communities might develop skills of global citizenship and peacemaking as we confront cultures of violence in the United States and around the world.

Sponsored by the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service; the College of Social Sciences and Humanities; and the Northeastern Humanities Center. In partnership with the University Scholars Program; Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion; International Students and Scholar Institute; the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute; and the Social Justice Resource Center

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Jeff Lieberman: “The Amazing Nina Simone” Film Screening This film screening and talkback with filmmaker Jeff Lieberman was hosted and moderated by Professor of Political Science William Miles.

Sponsored by the Northeastern Humanities Center, the Department of Political Science, the Department of African American Studies, the Department of Music, the Jewish Studies Program, the Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Media and Screen Studies Program N ORTH E AST E R N

The largest annual environmental education conference in New England was hosted for the fourth year in a row at Northeastern, where speakers, scholars, advocates, students, and faculty networked with change makers in the environmental field.

Sponsored by the Northeastern Humanities Center, the Ethics Institute, the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, and the Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative

MARCH 15, 2016

Adele Reinhartz: “Jesus: Bad Jew or Good Jew?” Adele Reinhartz, professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, addressed the question: How has Jesus’ Jewishness been construed in scholarship in the 19th through 21st centuries? How and why have the Gospels of Matthew and John been variously interpreted over time in efforts to determine if Jesus was a good Jew or bad Jew? Reinhartz, General Editor of The Journal of Biblical Literature, is the author of many books, including Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John (Continuum, 2001), Scripture on the Silver Screen (Westminster John Knox, 2003), Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford, 2007), Caiaphas the High Priest (University of South Carolina Press, 2011; Fortress 2012) and Bible and Cinema: An Introduction (Routledge, 2013).

Sponsored by the Northeastern Humanities Center, the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and the Jewish Studies Program H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

7

SPRING 2016 MARCH 17, 2016

APRIL 22, 2016

The Reproductive Marketplace and Unconventional Family Creation

Women’s Empowerment and International Organizations

Joshua Gamson, Professor of Sociology at the University of San Francisco, recounted stories of his own family creation—which involved the “outsourcing” of key processes—and pointed to the novel forms of intimacy opened up by contemporary reproductive medicine, especially for those for whom the choice to parent remains institutionally and socially controversial.

This conference provided a platform for considering the main themes to move into the next stage of feminist efforts to promote the empowerment of women. In the wake of feminist institutionalization and gender mainstreaming, what have been the principal achievements in women’s empowerment? What are the resources available to women’s rights advocates within international organizations, and what constraints do they face in implementing their mandates?

Sponsored by the Women’s Gender, and the Sexuality Studies Program, the Human Services Program, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Northeastern Humanities Center

Sponsored by the Gender and Development Initiative, the Northeastern Humanities Center, the International Affairs Program, and the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures

MARCH 18, 2016 APRIL 28–29, 2016

WGSS Annual Symposium “Gender and Carceral Complexes” The growth of the U.S. penal system and its consequences, including mass incarceration, have generated scholarship and activism analyzing the rise of the carceral state.

This day-long conference explored the relationship between feminist and queer activism and scholarship as it challenges, or is perhaps complicit with, the logics that support an increased reliance on criminal laws, policing, and surveillance.

Sponsored by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and the Northeastern Humanities Center

MARCH 23, 2016

Stephen Sadow: Jewish Latin American Literature and Art ONLINE: The Inauguration of a Mega-Website NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) 2016 Conference: Space, Place, and Geographic Thinking in the Humanities HELD AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

This conference brought humanists together with geospatial technologists and theorists to review the current status, achievements, lessons learned, unmet needs, challenges, potentials and perspectives of applying geographic analysis in the humanities.

Sponsored by the CGA at Harvard University and co-hosted by the Arts and Humanities Research Computing, the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Harvard Library, Harvard Map Collection, Arts and Humanities Division, and the Northeastern Humanities Center

This event celebrated the life work of Professor Stephen Sadow, whose websites include approximately 1,500 original works of Jewish Latin American literature and art, dozens of translations of poetry into English, and twelve interviews with writers and artists.

Sponsored by the Northeastern Humanities Center, University Libraries, the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Jewish Studies Program, and the Latino/a Student Cultural Center

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

Launched in Fall 2013, the Controversial 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 explore the policies and systems behind improving national security and societal resilience.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 Shifts in International Relations: The Impact of the Cyber-Realm

NOVEMBER 3, 2015 The Rise of the Machines: Debating Killer Robots

Ryan Maness, Visiting Fellow in

Office of the Legal Advisor, PoliticalMilitary Affairs, U.S. Department of State

MARCH 22, 2016 Diplomacy on International Peace and Security at the United Nations

Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director,

Ms. Ray Acheson, Director, Reaching

Security and Resilience Studies, Department of Political Science, Northeastern University

Michael W. Meier, Attorney-Advisor,

Arms Division, Human Rights Watch

Nazli Choucri, Professor of Political Science, Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

OCTOBER 6, 2015 Rape During Civil War Dara Kay Cohen, Assistant Professor, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

OCTOBER 8, 2015 Transnational Threats and the Role of 21st Century Border Management Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, Former Commissioner, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Stephen Flynn, Professor of Political Science, Founding Director of the Center for Resilience Studies, Northeastern University

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 The Merchants of Death: Curbing the Arms Trade and the Arms Trade Treaty Anna Macdonald, Director, Control Arms Secretariat

FEBRUARY 23, 2016 Navigating the Global Food Fight: Is Free Trade Compatible with Food Security?

Jennifer Clapp, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability, Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo Co-presenter: Northeastern University Consortium on Food Systems, Sustainability, Health, and Equity

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

Critical Will, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

APRIL 13, 2016 Europe’s Parallel Foreign Policy: The Ukraine-Russia Crisis A workshop organized by Dr. Mai’a K. Davis Cross, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Northeastern University More than one dozen scholars have contributed to the forthcoming special issue in Journal of Common Market Studies, guest co-edited

by Dr. Mai’a K. Davis Cross and Dr. Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski (Chair, Political Science, University of Wroclaw, Poland), slated for January 2017 publication.

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

9

HOLOCAUST AWARENESS WEEK 2016 Stories of Slave Labor and the Art of Freedom COMMITTEE CHAIR: LAUREL LEFF, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM

N

ortheastern 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 from diverse 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 should never be repeated.

This year’s events focused on “Stories of Slave Labor and the Art of Freedom.” Events opened on January 25 with Northeastern’s Holocaust Commemoration, which featured Gideon Klein Scholar Madelyn Stone, who presented on “‘Reality is the Satire’: The Will to Hope in the Writings of Jura Soyfer,” and Jeffrey Burds, Associate Professor of History, who spoke powerfully on “The Pogrom in Lemberg, 1 July 1941: A Local Atrocity as International History.”

This year’s choice for the Bill Giessen Film Series was Silence of the Quandts, which explores how the owners of BMW, the Quandt family, benefited from the Nazi regime by collaborating with them and using forced labor from concentration camps. The post-film discussion was moderated by Timothy Brown, Professor of History in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.

This year’s Philip N. Backstom, Jr. Survivor Lecture Series featured Max Michelson. Born in 1924 into a large and loving Jewish family in Riga, Latvia, Michelson lost most of his family and friends during the Nazi occupation of Latvia.

He described his circumstances when the Soviets and then the Germans invaded Latvia and how he managed to survive, move to the United States, marry, and become an electrical engineer.

“Letters to Sala” is a collection of 300 letters sent to Sala Garncarz in the Nazi labor camp system, where she was imprisoned from 1940 to 1945. The letters became the basis for a book, Sala’s Gift, by Sala’s daughter, Ann Kirschner and an exhibition curated by Jill Vexler in the New York Public Library. The opening of Vexler’s exhibition in Northeastern’s International Village, sponsored in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves and the Jewish Community Relations Council, was introduced by Kirschner and Vexler, followed by a short service conducted by Alexander Kern and Rabbi Eli Herb of Northeastern’s Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service.

This year’s 24th Morton Lecture featured Kirschner, who introduced and moderated a panel that included playwright Arlene Hutton, documentarian Murray Nossel, and curator Jill Vexler, who each discussed how they transformed the material from the original letters to Sala into various media.

Holocaust Awareness Week concluded with a staged reading of Arlene Hutton’s play “Letters to Sala,” adapted from Kirschner’s Sala’s Gift (directed by Paula Plum and produced

by Erika Koss, in partnership with Northeastern’s Department of Theatre).

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

11

Collaborative Research Clusters The Humanities Center Collaborative Research Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners from multiple disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern community, around a shared concern. This interdisciplinary research 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.

NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

Achieving Gender Equality in the Workplace

Gender and Carceral Complexes

convener: Alicia Sasser Modestino, Associate Professor,

convener: Libby Adler, Professor, School of Law convener: Aziza Ahmed, Associate Professor, School of Law

School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Department of Economics, College of Social Sciences and Humanities convener: Jamie Ladge, Associate Professor, Management and Organizational Development, D’Amore-McKim School of Business This research collaboration focused on building and sustaining parity for women in recruitment, management, employment, and compensation. Members presented work in progress, completed publications, and grant proposals. Topics included: economic analyses of why women work longer, a sociological study of networking and job searching, and an investigation of how family friendly policies affect the labor market.

Interdisciplinary Determinants of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets convener: Amilcar Barreto, Associate Professor, Political Science, International Affairs, and Public Policy, College of Social Sciences and Humanities convener: Elizabeth Moore, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

The Gender and Carceral Complexes collaborative research cluster read about and discussed topics relating to the phenomenon of mass incarceration and the political, economic, and legal structures that surround and support it, with the primary goal of providing an interdisciplinary and feminist framework for examining carcerality in multiple institutional, legal, theoretical, and cultural sites. Under the auspices of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, this research group organized a day-long symposium.

Horrific Blindness: Genocides and Mass Atrocities from Armenia to Darfur convener: Natalie Bormann, Associate Academic Specialist, Department of Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Humanities convener: Gordana Rabrenovic, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

The theme of this cluster was interdisciplinary linkages between the fields of political science, particularly international relations, and international business through the examination of institutional violence and entrepreneurship. The group conducted case study research to test the proposition that high levels of institutional violence are a motivating factor for higher levels of family entrepreneurship.

This cluster explored the patterns that frame dominant perceptions of global violence and their effects. Focused on visual representations of atrocities, the cluster was guided by several questions: What can we learn from the presentation of atrocities and genocides that inform our response to halt these instances? How have those responsible for genocidal violence been represented? And what is the role of media in defining our engagement with perpetrators of mass atrocities? Where does our intellectual responsibility lie in the imperative “not to look away”?

Flooding and Politics in Urban Coastal Megacities

The Early Caribbean and the Digital

convener: Gavin Shatkin, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs; Director of Asian Studies Program, College of Social Sciences and Humanities This cluster convened a workshop on the implications of flooding for urban political change in Asian cities. The question motivating the workshop was: How is flooding and the threat of climatechange induced inundation reshaping the terrain or urban political power and contestation in Asian coastal cities? The workshop specifically explored the shifting politics of flood response, land use change, and water management.

convener: Nicole Aljoe, Associate Professor, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities This cluster explored the ethics, aesthetics, and processes of digital collection and curation of the print culture of the Early Caribbean as manifested by the Early Caribbean Digital Archive (ECDA), hosted by NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks at the Snell Library at Northeastern University.

The Sustainable Humanities convener: Christopher Parsons, Assistant Professor, Department of History, College of Social Sciences and Humanities This research cluster is working to integrate methods of humanistic inquiry more fully into the sustainability research and educational mission at Northeastern.

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

13

Faculty Works-In-Progress The Faculty Works-in-Progress Colloquium is sponsored by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities Dean’s Office and the Humanities Center.

Faculty members share their current research with colleagues and benefit from questions and discussion.

Mya Poe

Catalina Herrera Almanza

NORT HEAST ERN

Alicia Sasser Modestino

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

Timothy Brown IN

Harvey Shapiro

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

Daniel Aldrich

Lori Lefkovitz

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

OCTOBER 19, 2015

DECEMBER 3, 2015

Mya Poe, Assistant Professor, English,

Timothy Brown, Professor, History,

Lori Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor and

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Intended Consequences: What Students and Statistics Can Tell Us about Making Writing Assessment Fairer

“An Uprising in the Zone of Spirit”: Reflections on Religious and Social Movements around 1968

Director, Jewish Studies Program; Director, Northeastern Humanities Center; College of Social Sciences and Humanities

OCTOBER 1, 2015

OCTOBER 29, 2015

Catalina Herrera Almanza, Assistant

Harvey Shapiro, Clinical Associate

Professor, Economics, International Affairs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Professor, Education, College of Professional Studies

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

The Impact of Early Childbearing on School and Cognitive Skills among Young Women in Madagascar

Inclusive Exclusions: School Shootings and Giorgio Agamben’s Sovereign Exception

Is a New World Possible?: Race and the Constitutive Inequality of the Modern/ Colonial Condition

OCTOBER 5, 2015

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Alicia Sasser Modestino, Associate

Daniel Aldrich, Professor, Political

Professor, Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Economics, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Distinguished Professor, Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Power to the People or Regulatory Ratcheting: Explaining the Failure (and Success) of Nuclear Power Plant Siting Over 50 Years

Contemporary Novels as Forms of Public Policy Advocacy

Upskilling: Do Employers Demand Greater Skill When Workers are Plentiful?

In Medias Res: The Shaping of Time in Jewish Stories FEBRUARY 1, 2016 José Buscaglia, Professor and Chair,

David Rochefort, Arts and Sciences

MARCH 17, 2016 Shakir Mustafa, Teaching Professor, Arabic, World Languages Center, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Migrating Texts in Translations and the Visual Arts APRIL 11, 2016 Ellen Cushman, Dean’s Professor of Civic Sustainability; Director of Civic Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives; Professor, English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

José Buscaglia

David Rochefort

Shakir Mustafa

Ellen Cushman

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

Decolonizing Research in the Teaching of English CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

15

Directors and Staff

2015-16 Advisory Board

Lori Lefkovitz

Lori Lefkovitz

Richard L. O’Bryant

Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor and Director of the Jewish Studies Program Professor of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Director

Director of John D. O’Bryant African American Institute College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Tim Cresswell

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Associate Director for Public Humanities Professor of History and International Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Erika Koss Assistant Dean for Research, Program Development, and Outreach College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Ignacio Chaparro Administrative Coordinator, Northeastern Humanities Center

Postdoctoral Research Fellows “Living in the Mobility Transition” Research Project This project, led by Tim Cresswell, investigates diverse visions and actualities of how mobility is experienced and how it interacts with established and planned infrastructures across social groups, political contexts, and geographically diverse places.

Jane Yeonjae Lee Postdoctoral Fellow College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Andre Novoa Postdoctoral Fellow College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Cristina Temenos

Tim Cresswell Associate Director for Public Humanities

Liz Bucar

Theo Davis Associate Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon Chair and Professor of English Founding Co-director, NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Laura Green Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Alisa Lincoln Professor of Health Sciences and Sociology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology The Bouvé College of Health Sciences College of Social Sciences and Humanities

H U M AN ITIE S

Chair and Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities

David Sherman Professor of Accounting D’Amore-McKim School of Business

Thomas Vicino Associate Professor, Department of Political Science Director, Master of Public Administration Program 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

Katherine Luongo Assistant Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Lucy Maulsby On leave Assistant Professor, School of Architecture College of Arts, Media, and Design

Postdoctoral Fellow College of Social Sciences and Humanities NORT HEAST ERN

Ronald Sandler

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6

Special Thanks The Dean’s Office in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities Victoria Sax Design Photography: Skylar Shankman, Jarvis Chen, Matthew Modoono, Mary Knox Merrill, Mariah Tauger, Brooks Canaday

ABOUT THE NORTHEASTERN HUMANITIES CENTER 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.

N ORTH E AST E R N

H UM A N I T I E S

CE N T E R Y E A R

IN

R E V I E W 20 15-16

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 NORT HEAST ERN

H U M AN ITIE S

C E N TE R YE AR

IN

R E V I E W 20 1 5-1 6