HUMANITIES CENTER
2018–2019 YEAR IN
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From the Director
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Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Studies
Resident Fellowship: Cultures of Ability
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Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week
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Fall 2018 Events and Programs
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Collaborative Research Clusters
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New England Humanities Consortium
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Faculty Works-inProgress Colloquium
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Spring 2019 Events and Programs
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Directors and Advisory Board
FRO M THE DIRECTOR LO RI LEFKOVITZ The programs of the Northeastern Humanities Center emerge from original research and interdisciplinary conversation, close analysis, and deep reflection. At Northeastern University, where the Experiential Liberal Arts is a signature commitment, we are also alert to the extent to which humanistic knowledge shapes—and is shaped by—the priorities of the moment. I was conscious of a special urgency this year and concern for the circumstances of people in distress. From our residential fellows’ projects on the theme of “Cultures of Ability” to collaborative research clusters on such topics as “Feminist Resilience” and “Freedom of Religion vs. National Identity: Democracy and Secularism on Trial,” there was a collective awareness among colleagues, students, and audiences that humanities’ approaches, methods, and competencies make distinctive contributions in our confrontation with social and political challenges. As you review these pages and see the list of Center events and programs more fully elaborated, you will notice various examples of humanistic scholarship intended to inform public engagement. The range of our fellows’ projects invited conversation about translational research, with a culminating symposium that featured Angela Frederick and Sandy Ho, both activist researchers in the field of disability justice. Holocaust and Genocide Awareness week featured Adama Dieng, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, who pointedly taught his audience about the warning signs that typically precede genocides. And historian Omer Bartov described the role of formerly cordial neighbors in both carrying out genocide and seizing material advantage from Nazi extermination policies. The question-and-answer conversations suggested that our students were hoping to better understand their own present. The work of our Humanities Center is enabled by effective partnerships, and we congratulate Associate Director, Sari Altschuler for her leadership in the new interdisciplinary minor in Health, Humanities, and Society. As a founding member institution of the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC), our Center is benefitting from and supporting collaborations across institutions in the region. Most important, the Humanities Center is supported by the College of Social Sciences and the Humanities, under the leadership of Dean Uta Poiger, whose administration generously facilitates the Center’s commitment to sharing knowledge across fields, including a regular collaboration on faculty works-inprogress events. The Center’s distinguished board, composed of our finest colleagues across the disciplines (please read their names on our back pages), thoughtfully sets our agenda and makes determinations about the allocation of resources. It is a singular privilege to work with these extraordinary colleagues. Deborah Levisohn Stanhill often assists in Center events. Finally, our Events and Administrative Operations Manager, Gabrielle Fiorenza, professionally manages every facet of the Center’s work and reliably ensures the excellence of our events and programs. I am very grateful. Our research theme next year will be “Authority and Subversion.” I look forward to persisting in our work of analysis and cultural and intellectual intervention.
RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
CONVENERS:
Sari Altschuler, Associate Director, Northeastern Humanities Center
Lori Lefkovitz, Director, Northeastern Humanities Center
C U LT U R E S O F A B I L I T Y The call for proposals: What are the shifting material and immaterial conditions that determine whether persons are perceived to be able or competent, or alternatively, disabled or incompetent? Designed and natural environments and cultural and aesthetic forms have profound effects on our perceptions and experiences of ability. Contexts for, and consequences of, judgments about ability may be social, cultural, economic, educational, historical, and/or political. Alert to President Joseph Aoun’s call, in Robot Proof, to think about how human productivity and flourishing are defined in a technologically networked era, the Humanities Center aims to create an interdisciplinary group of scholars whose projects consider how the category of “ability” (as well as its cognates, such as competence, aptitude, and health; its antonyms, such as disability, incompetence, and sickness; and the terms with which it often travels, such as commitment, will, and effort) shapes identities, cultures, representations, and lived experience.
The proposed Health, Humanities, and Society Lab at Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities received generous gifts totaling $50,000 from Northeastern parents. The Northeastern Humanities Center will coordinate the launch of the Health, Humanities, and Society Lab, which builds from the new Health, Humanities, and Society minor directed by Sari Altschuler, Associate Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center. This funding will support faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research teams, generating new ideas and approaches to the social, structural, intellectual, and interpersonal challenges of health and healthcare, especially in the emerging area of digital health. The lab’s innovative approach will be its joint humanities and social science focus, especially on the interaction between the digital world and healthcare, using the rigorous intellectual tools of the humanities and social sciences. By developing a cross-disciplinary model of collaboration, the lab’s aim is to improve the relationship between healthcare and our society.
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FELLOWS Meryl Alper Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies College of Arts, Media, and Design
The Cultural Politics of “Sensory-Friendly” Mediated Spaces Moya Bailey Assistant Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Creating a Black Feminist Disability Framework Linda Blum Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Managing Precarious Normality in an Age of Inequality Elizabeth Britt Associate Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
The Ability to Change: Batterer Intervention as Rhetorical Education Laura Frader Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Addressing Gendered Cultures of Ability: European Community Equality Policies 1957–1980
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Denise Garcia Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, International Affairs Program
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Artificial Intelligence and the Earth’s Global Commons Adam Hossein Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Anti-Discrimination Norms, Conceptions of Ability and Social Change Bridget Keown Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
She is lost to time and place: Women, War Trauma, and the First World War Rachael Lee Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Moral Understandings of Responsibility for Type II Diabetes Management among Community Health Center Patients Philip Thai Assistant Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Risky Businesses – Insurance and the Emergence of Financial Capitalism in Modern China
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E V E N TS AND PROGRAMS
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.
FALL 2018
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SEPT EMB ER 26, 2018
ALON TAL, The Fifth Annual Israel Studies Lecture, “Seeking Environmental Justice in Israel” Alon Tal is a professor of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University and a prominent Israeli environmental activist. Professor Tal founded the Israel Union of Environmental Defense, Israel’s leading green advocacy organization, and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a regional center for Arabs and Israelis. Professor Tal discussed Israel’s current environmental crisis, with air pollution levels causing high cancer and asthma rates in Israeli cities, greenhouse gas emissions at record highs, water resources contaminated, the Dead Sea disappearing, and biodiversity collapsing. He addressed the question, “to what extent are these phenomena linked to broader social trends?” and described what Israeli environmental activists are doing to restore the ecological integrity of the “Holy Land.” Sponsored by: The Middle East Center, Jewish Studies Program, Northeastern Humanities Center
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N OVEMB ER 17-18, 2018
Global Anti-Imperialism in the Interwar Period and Beyond Workshop The intensive two-day workshop brought together, for the first time, international scholars to discuss pre-circulated essays researching the League Against Imperialism (LAI) from a wide range of linguistic, geographic, and historical specialties. The LAI is a rarely studied yet tremendously important institution that coordinated a global response to imperialist and capitalist hegemony of the early twentieth century. The workshop recovered the debates, introduced the personalities, and revealed the ideas that seeded the global movement against empires in the turbulent world of the interwar years and the early Cold War. The pre-circulated essays will appear in an edited volume of the same name.
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SE PT E MB E R 26, 2018
ALON TAL, Israel’s Desalination Program Presentation, Northeastern Marine Science Center (Nahant, MA) Alon Tal also spoke powerfully about Israel’s desalination program to students and faculty at the Marine Science Center in Nahant as part of his visit. The Humanities Center and Jewish Studies Program are grateful to Northeastern parents Linda Bronfman and Briane Nasimak for recommending Professor Tal and for supporting his day-long visit to Northeastern University. Linda Bronfman offered the following reflection:
Sponsored by: Department of History, College of Social Sciences and Humanities Office of the Dean, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies, and the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, Northeastern Humanities Center
Global Anti-Imp Interwar Period
Following the unflaggingly energetic Alon throughout the day as he gave talks to supporters of the Arava Institute (early morning), NU students at the Marine Science Center, Nahant (mid-day) and the annual NU Israel Studies lecture (evening), I was most impressed by his unique and dynamic presentations on the state of the environment based on scholarship and engaged activism. I learned alongside the marine science students that Israel has developed groundbreaking methods to desalinate water, and has, for the most part, solved their water scarcity problems. In his lecture “Seeking Environmental Justice in Israel” Alon brought a historical perspective to Israel’s environmental problems and highlighted the need to address the concerns of nonhuman animals inhabiting the land alongside humans.
A Er S. Su
Sponsored by: The Middle East Center, Jewish Studies Program, Northeastern Humanities Center
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NEHC NEW ENGLAND HUMANITIES CO N S O RT I U M
Thomas J. Vicino, Dean Uta Poiger and Lori Lefkovitz
ANNUAL CONSORTIUM OF HUMANITIES CENTERS AND INSTITUTES (CHCI) 2019 MEETING Lori Lefkovitz, Director of the Northeastern Humanities Center, Thomas J. Vicino and Ryan Cordell, Northeastern Humanities Center Advisory Board Members, and Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities Dean Uta Poiger, attended the annual Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) 2019 meeting “Cultural Interventions” held in Dublin, Ireland.
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The Northeastern Humanities Center is pleased to be a founding member of the recently constituted New England Humanities Consortium. The New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) is a network of universities and colleges across New England dedicated to intellectual collaboration, interdisciplinary exchange, and regional humanities programming. Together, the eleven founding members—Amherst, Colby, Dartmouth, Northeastern, Tufts, University of Connecticut, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, Wellesley, and Wheaton—are dedicated to building a dynamic hub of academic activity that creates opportunities otherwise impossible without the shared resources of the consortium. The programming and activities of the NEHC are made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and by the participating institutions. The Humanities Institute of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut is the executive and administrative hub of the NEHC through 2020.
With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the NEHC and its member institutions hosted a number of events throughout the 2018-2019 academic year as part of the TIME’S UP: WHAT NOW? series. The series explored current expressions of the “Time’s Up” movement, sexism, misogyny, romance, and solidarity.
Northeastern Professor of History Martin Blatt also received a research award from NEHC providing $9,500 in funding toward his project WILLIAM APESS’S EULOGY ON KING Martin Blatt PHILIP – PUBLIC READING AND PANEL DISCUSSION, in collaboration with NEHC member institutions: Dartmouth College, Wellesley College, and the University of Connecticut. The program is slated to take place in spring 2020. The goal of the project is to bring together Native Americans in New England from different tribes and the general public to experience a critical moment in colonial history. It will also address the history of the conversion to Christianity of Native Americans; the significance of King Philip’s War and Philip in colonial New England history; and the importance of Pequot minister William Apess’s Eulogy on King Philip.
Laurie Essig (at the podium)
Laurie Essig, Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College and author of Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Neverafter, visited Northeastern University, Dartmouth College and Tufts University on February 14, for an alternative Valentine’s Day activity, discussed feminist perspectives on online dating and romance. The shared speaker event was a resounding success that attracted a full audience of students, faculty, staff, and the public, with a lively Q&A post-presentation.
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SPRING 2019
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Climate Change/Crisis/Creativity Conference FEB R UARY 14, 2019
LAURIE ESSIG, Author of Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Never After Professor and Director of Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College, Laurie Essig, author of Love, Inc.: Dating Apps, the Big White Wedding, and Chasing the Happily Never After, came to Northeastern for a special Valentine’s Day talk on her new book. To a standing room only crowd, Professor Essig discussed her comprehensive research around romance and invited readers to wipe the fairy dust out of their eyes and see romance for what it really is: an ideology. This talk was generously supported by the Mellon Foundation through the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC) series Time’s Up: What Now? The events all interrogate the Time’s Up movement — sexism, misogyny, romance, and solidarity in our present moment. Sponsored by: Northeastern Humanities Center and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, and generously supported by the New England Humanities Consortium (NEHC)
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NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks presented a one-day conference featuring lightning talks by Northeastern faculty and staff, presentations by artists whose work engages with climate change, a hands-on working session, and a keynote address by Bethany Wiggin, Founding Director of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, entitled “Climate Change and Pedagogy: Experiential and Embodied Learning for the Academy and Beyond.” Sponsored by: School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, the Global Resilience Institute, and Northeastern Humanities Center
M ARC H 15, 2019 WGSS SYMPOSIUM
Feminist Resistance: Structures & Strategies for Troubled Times
M AR CH 13, 2019
RAFIKI Film Screening and Director Talkback Rafiki is the story of Kena and Ziki, two very different girls living in a Nairobi housing estate. When they fall in love, they must choose between love and safety against a backdrop of insular gossip, local politics, and burgeoning maturity. The special screening of the film Rafiki was followed by a moderated discussion with the director, Wanuri Kahiu, and was part of the roaming “Women Take the Reel Festival,” a project of the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality.
The sixth annual Women’s History Month Symposium, “Feminist Resilience: Structures & Strategies for Troubled Times” built upon a grant received by the Global Resilience Institute and featured a mix of academics, activists, authors, and organizers from around the nation. The interdisciplinary symposium focused on the hidden premises, obfuscations, and ideological biases of Resilience Studies. Speakers discussed challenging the mainstream perceptions of resilience and offered a feminist critique of resilience narratives while helping us imagine varieties of alternative feminist responses to vulnerability. Featured panels included “Women’s Leadership on Climate, Energy, and Health,” “Unpacking the Resilience of Patriarchy,” and “Imagining (Real) Feminist Resilience.” Panelists included: Moya Bailey (Northeastern University), Shalanda Baker (Northeastern University), Stephanie DeCandia (Boston Area Rape Crisis Center/Northeastern University), DiDi Delgado (Black Lives Matter Global Network/The DiDi Delgado Experience, LLC), Leigh Gilmore (Wellesley College), Deon Haywood (Women with a Vision), Laura McTighe (Dartmouth College), L.A. Kauffmann (Author and Grassroots Organizer), Tania Rosario-Mendez (Taller Salud), and Jessica Valenti (Author and Founder of Feministing.com). Sponsored by: The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Global Resilience Institute, and Northeastern Humanities Center
Sponsored by: The African & African American Studies Program, Office of Undergraduate Research, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality, LGBTQA Resource Center, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies, Northeastern Crossing, Office of Global Services, Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, and Northeastern Humanities Center
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APRIL 1, 2019
The Shattered Lens: Captivity in Syria Conversation at the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks
M AR CH 21, 2019
Digital Public Humanities Panel This exciting panel brought together scholars who work in the digital public humanities to discuss “Mobilized Humanities: The Case of Torn Apart/Separados” with Alex Gil, Columbia University Libraries and Roopika Risam, Salem State University; “Monuments, Media & Museums: Making Digital Spaces for Practice” with Caroline Klibanoff, MIT Museum; and “Breaking Bandersnatch: Networked Publics, Interactive Storytelling, and Augmented Realities” with Jim McGrath, Brown University. Sponsored by: NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks and Northeastern Humanities Center
Jonathan Alpeyrie, author and war journalist, shared experiences described in his recently published book The Shattered Lens: A War Photographer’s True Story of Captivity and Survival in Syria. He was joined by film producer and casting director Bonnie Timmermann, who discussed the forthcoming movie. The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Kaufman, Director for the School of Journalism. Sponsored by: International Affairs Program, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies, The School of Journalism, Department of Political Science, and Northeastern Humanities Center
A P R IL 5-7, 2019
Seventeenth Annual Information Ethics Roundtable (IER): Justice and Fairness in Data Use and Machine Learning The Information Ethics Roundtable (IER) is a yearly conference that brings together researchers from multiple disciplines, including philosophy, information science, communications, public administration, anthropology, and law to discuss such ethical issues as information privacy, intellectual property, intellectual freedom, and censorship. The seventeenth annual IER explored the relationship between the normative notions of justice and fairness and current practices of data use and machine learning. Sponsored by: The Northeastern Ethics Institute, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Northeastern Humanities Center
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Sandy Ho and Angela Frederick
APRIL 11, 2019
New Discourses in Disability Studies Symposium
APR I L 4, 2019
The sixth annual Humanities Center Fellows concluded their research with a year-end symposium focusing on the future of disability studies, which complemented the “Cultures of Ability” fellows theme that asked the question, “What are the shifting material and immaterial conditions that determine whether persons are perceived to be able or competent, or alternatively, disabled or incompetent?”
Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We Read Symposium In conjunction with the exhibition, “Touch This Page! Making Sense of the Ways We Read,” the two-day symposium hosted on the campuses of Northeastern University and Harvard University explored the issues of ability, access, and the archive at the intersection of the humanities and engineering. At Northeastern, faculty from the Perkins School for the Blind, Queen Mary University of London, NYU, Emory, George Washington, San Francisco State, and Columbia discussed the possibilities and applications of technologies to redefine access to archival materials. On the second day hosted at Harvard, the symposium looked at how these conversations help us reimagine both how we can create the collaborations necessary to improve access to archival objects and also what access can mean in the future. After the symposium, episode #360 of the popular podcast, 99% Invisible, was developed out of the symposium and exhibition.
The symposium featured Angela Frederick, Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Texas at El Paso, who is a prolific scholar of disability studies, and Sandy Ho, Research Associate at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University, who is revolutionizing the way people think about disability justice. The panel was moderated by 2018-2019 Fellow and Professor of Sociology, Dr. Linda Blum, and was followed by an engaging Q&A with the audience. Sponsored by: The Northeastern Humanities Center “Cultures of Ability” 2018-2019 Fellowship
Sponsored by: Northeastern University Library, Harvard Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Northeastern University Office of the Provost, Enabling Engineering, and 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
FALL 2018
SEPTEMBER 11, 2018
JANUARY 15, 2019
Is Cyber Resilience Possible?
Urban Resilience — What’s the Role of Water Infrastructure?
John Manferdelli, Professor of the Practice; Executive Director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University
Tara Kulkarni, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director of the Center for Global Resilience and Security, Norwich University
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FEBRUARY 12, 2019
Calamity’s Reward: The Elusive Art of Resilience and Repair
SEPTEMBER 11 Is Cyber Resilience Possible?
NOVEMBER 6 The Networked Digital Reinaldo Funes-Monzote, Earth for Climate Visiting Professor in the MacMillan Adaptation and Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University; Professor of Resilient Engineering History, University of Havana Can Caribbean Environmental History Teach Us Anything About Resilience?
Jeff Howe, Assistant Professor of Journalism; Founding Director of the Media Innovation Program, College of Arts, Media and Design, JOHN MANFERDELLI Northeastern University Professor of the Practice & Executive Director of the Cybersecurity NOVEMBER 2018 College of and Privacy 6, Institute, Computer and Information Science, The Networked Digital Earth Northeastern University and for Climate Adaptation
AUROOP GANGULY
Resilient Engineering
Auroop Ganguly, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director of Sustainability & Data Sciences Laboratory, College of Engineering, Northeastern University
OCTOBER 16 Calamity’s Reward: The Elusive Art of Resilience and Repair
DECEMBER 4, 2018
JEFF HOWE
Corporate Securityof Journalism; Assistant Professor inFounding a GlobalDirector Environment of the
Professor of Civil and Environmental MARCH 19, 2019 Engineering; Director of Sustainability New Tools for Sensing & Data Sciences Laboratory, College of Engineering,Pollution, Northeastern Microplastic an University
Emerging Food Security Issue
Ethan Edson, Research Administrator, Field Robotics Laboratory, Northeastern University
DECEMBER 4 Corporate Security in 16, a Global APRIL 2019 Shifting Ideas of Crime, and Where Environment Resilience May Point to Solutions
JUSTIN RICKER
Media Innovation Justin Ricker and AJProgram, Jamgochian, College of Arts, Media and Design, Global Security Team, VERTEX Northeastern University Pharmaceuticals
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Ben Struhl, Executive Director of the AJ JAMGOCHIAN Center on Crime and Community Global Security Team, Resilience, Northeastern University VERTEX Pharmaceuticals
TUESDAYS, 4:30 – 6:00 PM Events are free and open to the public. RSVP encouraged.
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Detailed series and event information at cssh.northeastern.edu/internationalcenter/.
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ALL EVENTS HELD IN 909 RENAISSANCE PARK, 1135 TREMONT ST, BOSTON, MA For questions, please email internationalcenter@northeastern.edu.
H O LO CAU ST AND GENOCIDE AWA R E N E S S WEEK
F R O M ‘N EV ER AGA IN’ TO AGA IN A N D AGA IN
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 and Genocide 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 O M M I T T E E C H A I R:
Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies; Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies
Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week is presented by the Northeastern Humanities Center and College of Social Sciences and Humanities in partnership with the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee. Members of the Committee: Dov Waxman, Libby Adler, Martin Blatt, Natalie Bormann, Alexander Kern, Laurel Leff, Lori Lefkovitz, Debra Mandel, Gordana Rabrenovic, Yael Sheinfeld, Elizabeth Levi
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H O LO CAU ST AND GENOCIDE AWA R E N E S S WEEK
This year’s events began with “25 YEARS AFTER THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE: CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES IN THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE,” a lecture by Northeastern parent and United Nations Under-Secretary General ADAMA DIENG. Mr. Dieng is the UN Secretary-General’s Adama Dieng Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. He delivered a stirring speech about his work visiting troubled spots around the world and identifying when conditions are ripe for a genocide to take place. He explained that violence does not happen overnight and there are warning signs along the way. He has used his position at the UN to learn what the risk factors are so as to create warning systems and prevent genocides from happening. Mr. Dieng also described his work with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which helped bring to justice participants in the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda while also rebuilding a country torn apart by neighbors killing neighbors.
This year’s GIDEON KLEIN SCHOLAR, ELIZABETH LEVI, presented her research on three female refugee artists. Each escaped from Germany or Austria before the Holocaust, and they rebuilt their lives in the United States but never reclaimed full recognition of their talents. Levi’s work, conducted under the supervision of Jewish Studies Program Associate Director Laurel Leff, will be incorporated into the Rediscovering Refugee Scholars project database.
The LAUNCH OF THE DIGITAL ARCHIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST AWARENESS COMMITTEE took place on April 2, preserved and maintained by the Northeastern University Library. The archive includes videos of survivor lectures over the years as well as the Robert Salomon Morton lectures, the Gideon Klein Scholar presentations and other lectures, and programs and records of the committee itself. Under the leadership of Debra Mandel and Laurel Leff, librarians, faculty, students, and Jewish Studies Program staff worked over the course of several years to bring this project to fruition. The original source materials for much of the archives reside in the Library’s Archives and Special Collections in 92 Snell Library.
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The question of how and why people can turn on their neighbors en masse was addressed by OMER BARTOV in this year’s ROBERT SALOMON MORTON LECTURE, “ANATOMY OF A GENOCIDE: LESSONS OF STUDYING MASS MURDER FROM BELOW.” Studying the town of Buczacz in the border area of Poland and Ukraine, a place no different than many others in the area, yet famous for some well-known Omer Bartov former inhabitants, such as the Nobel Prize-winning author S.Y. Agnon and Nazi hunter Simon Weisenthal, Professor Bartov examined the cultural and political strains in pre-war society and how the Nazis were able to play on those tensions to eventually kill all the Jewish inhabitants. A handful of Germans stationed in Buczacz for a year, with responsibility for an entire region, the Nazis had no qualms about killing the people they had come to know, or using the local police forces to hunt down their own Jewish neighbors. Professor Bartov, the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University, is the author of several books on the Holocaust and genocide, including, most recently, Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz.
This year’s PHILIP N. BACKSTROM, JR. LECTURE featured GERALD HOLTON, who escaped Austria on a kindertransport in 1939. He told his riveting story, “How One Teenager and Thousands of Other Boys and Girls Escaped from the Nazis via the Kindertransport,” to a packed hall. Holton, Professor of Physics Sandra Backstrom with Emeritus at Harvard University, addressed Professor Holton himself particularly to students as he explained what his childhood had been like and how it came to an abrupt, overnight, end with the Anschluss in 1938. On the 80th anniversary of the kindertransport, Professor Holton explained a little of its history, how he and his brother were fortunate to be on it, and what it was like arriving in England. He also described how he was able to get his parents to England and then immigrate to the United States. Having used “loopholes” as he described them — which others might describe as luck and savvy — to survive, he exhorted students to study as wide a range of subjects as possible, to increase one’s resilience and ability to navigate the future.
The events concluded on April 5 with REFLECTIONS ON THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GENOCIDE IN RWANDA: A STUDENTLED SYMPOSIUM. Demonstrating their ability to synthesize different fields of study at Northeastern, 25 political science students shared their capstone projects, which examined different aspects of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. They addressed categories of context, responses, aftermath, and society today, tying their research about Rwanda to their other academic interests.
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COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH C LU ST E RS
AI and Data Ethics (AIDE) Working Group Convened by: Ronald Sandler and John Basl Participants: Kay Mathiesen, Rory Smead, Deidre Loughridge, Jessica Silbey
The Collaborative Research Clusters give faculty the opportunity for a range of interdisciplinary research collaborations. These Research Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern University community, around a shared concern. This 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.
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The goal of the AI and Data Ethics (AIDE) Working Group was to bring together faculty and students interested in the ethical challenges raised by AI and other information technologies, to develop interdisciplinary connections and research projects, and to help integrate students into faculty research. The first year of AIDE was a resounding success. The group increased participation to over twenty members, drawing faculty from philosophy, computer science, law, and music, and met regularly, including during the summer. In addition to discussing readings, AIDE also hosted a variety of guest speakers to discuss their work. Among the guests were Reuben Binns (computer science, Oxford), Cansu Canca (director of the AI Ethics Lab), David Grey Grant (philosophy, Harvard), and Kate Vredenburgh (philosophy, Harvard).
Emergent Urban Transformations: Explorations of State, Society, and Politics in India Convened by: Gavin Shatkin Participants: Liza Weinstein, Sanjeev Routray, Jonathan Anjaria, Sai Balakrishnan, Lisa Bjorkman, Neil Brenner, Asher Ghertner, Swarnabh Ghosh, Llerena Searle
According to United Nations’ estimates, India’s urban population will increase by more than 340 million over the next thirty years, to exceed 830 million by 2048 (United Nations 2014). This will be by far the largest increase in urban population of any country in the world, 50 percent more than the increase in China. Yet this misleadingly simple statistic belies a complex and variegated reality. The main objective of this research cluster was to convene a group of leading scholars at a workshop on contemporary trends in urbanization in India to hold discussions about developing collaborative research agendas. The Northeastern-based participants met regularly during the 2018-2019 academic year to develop a concept paper and agenda for the workshop. The workshop was held on May 10, 2019, and resulted in a vibrant discussion and the formulation of numerous ideas for future meetings and publication opportunities. The cluster anticipates holding an additional workshop to discuss concept papers and possible publication outlets. The aim is to convene a workshop with leading scholars in the field to discuss and develop new frameworks for interpreting changing dynamics of urbanization in India.
Cultivating Humanity Convened by: Natalie Bormann and Ioana Panaitiu Participants: Gordana Rabrenovic, Summer Marion, Macarena Flores, Taylor Robichaud, Serena Parekh
The 2010’s have no doubt been marked by worsening migrant crises worldwide, and the types of discourse we engage in surrounding the suffering of strangers is an integral part of how we collectively humanize or dehumanize such groups – with significant implications for concrete policies. For this Collaborative Research Cluster a group of faculty explored the role of compassion, humanity, and empathy in theoretical discourses across disciplines, as well as practical ways in which to can incorporate such concepts in our own various interdisciplinary research avenues. The cluster successfully achieved its three goals, reflected in the “pedagogical toolkit” built over the course of the academic year, for all cluster members to incorporate in their own syllabi and research agendas. This included ways to create a platform for communicating, sharing, and learning about the concept of compassion on campus; how to explore how practitioners engage with and incorporate compassion; and how to create concrete ideas for a teaching curriculum that incorporates both.
Moya Bailey and Carla Kaplan
broader communities and challenged its limitations, offering a feminist critique of resilience narratives and calling for alternative feminist responses to vulnerability. The group also resulted in member Rachel Rodgers, of Applied Psychology, receiving a sabbatical with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program for the 2019-2020 academic year.
Freedom of Religion v. National Identity: Democracy and Secularism on Trial
Women and Resilience in Moments of Social Crisis: A Feminist Perspective
Convened by: William Miles
Convened by: Suzanna Walters
Politicization and securitization of religion is challenging long-held norms and policies that had balanced, however precariously, religious expression with secular and democratic values. Law, politics, and faith lie at the intersection of this emerging global phenomenon, pitting religious liberty against national identity, secularization, and states’ perceived sense of security. This cluster examined the phenomenon from four religio-cultural perspectives in ostensibly democratic contexts: Turkey, where national identity has been alternatively defined both in opposition to and in congruence with Islam; Korea, where a peculiar form of Zionism is advanced to justify right-wing nationalism; Nigeria, where an Iranian-inspired Shiite movement has led to Sunni fears and government repression; and the borders of the EU, where (mainly Muslim) migrants seeking freedom draw first impressions that do anything but foster the image of a democratic Europe.
Participants: Brooke Foucault Welles, Jennie Stephens, Alisa Lincoln, Kiki Samko
The major accomplishment of the Women and Resilience Collaborative Research Cluster was the March 15 Symposium “Feminist Resilience: Structures and Strategies for Troubled Times.” This event saw over 150 registrants who listened to panelists in dialogue together on topics including “Women’s Leadership on Climate, Energy, and Health,” “Unpacking the Resilience of Patriarchy,” and “Imagining (Real) Feminist Resilience.” The panelists included Northeastern scholars (Shalanda Baker, Stephanie DeCandia, and Moya Bailey), scholars from other institutions (Leigh Gilmore), and activists, authors, and organizers from across the country (DiDi Delgado, L.A. Kauffman, Tania Rosario-Mendez, and Jessica Valenti). Group members served as panelists (Moya Bailey) and moderators (Lori Lefkovitz, Jennie Stephens). Together, panelists and moderators addressed the gendered concept of resilience in social movements, digital spaces, and
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Participants: Tasbiha Batool, Juheon Lee, Ahsen Utku, Alicia Verticelli
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FAC U LT Y W O R KS-I N PROGRESS CO L LO Q U I U M
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.
OCTOBER 4, 2018 Stacey Katz Bourns Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies Director, World Language Center College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Contextualizing 21st-Century Language Pedagogy: Challenges and Frameworks OCTOBER 15, 2018 Madhavi Venkatesan Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Economics College of Social Sciences and Humanities
The Significance of Economics Education N OVEMB ER 1, 2018 Cameron Blevins Assistant Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Beyond Bureaucracy, More than Coercion: Rethinking State Power in U.S. History N OVEMB ER 15, 2018 Libby Adler Professor, School of Law and Women’s, Libby Adler Gender, and Sexuality Studies Professor of Law College of Social Sciences and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Humanities
Tracing the Progress of Gay Rights in Political Economy AREAS OF EXPERTISE
• Administrative Law • Constitutional Law • Family Law
• Sexuality and Gender Identity
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D E CE MB E R 3, 2018
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Cultures of Ability Featuring:
Moya Bailey Assistant Professor Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Linda Blum Professor Department of Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Bridget Keown Ph.D. Candidate, World History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
FEB RUARY 28, 2019 Natasha Frost Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice Associate Dean, CSSH Graduate Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Correctional Officer Suicide and Well-being: Assessing the Impacts of Officer Suicide on the Behavioral, Emotional, and Occupational Well-being of Those Working in Corrections MARCH 11, 2019
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Cultures of Ability
JAN UARY 14, 2019 Mindy Marks
Featuring:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Laura Frader
Economic Development and the Motherhood Wage Penalty JAN UARY 31, 2019 Hillary Chute
Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Denise Garcia Associate Professor, Department of Political Science International Affairs Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Rachael Lee
Distinguished Professor, Department of English and Art + Design College of Arts, Media, and Design
Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Philip Thai Associate Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Graphicity: Fine Lines in Comics and Contemporary Art F E B R UARY 11, 2019
MARC H 28, 2019
Humanities Center Fellows Group, Cultures of Ability
Shytierra Gaston
Featuring:
Meryl Alper Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies College of Arts, Media, and Design
Beth Britt Associate Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Assistant Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice College of Social Sciences and Humanities
A Ferguson Effect, the Drug Epidemic, Both, or Neither? Explaining the 2015 and 2016 U.S. Homicide Rises by Race and Ethnicity
Adam Hosein Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion College of Social Sciences and Humanities
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DIRECTORS Lori Lefkovitz Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Sari Altschuler Associate Director, Northeastern Humanities Center Assistant Professor, Department of English College of Social Sciences and Humanities
2018-19 ADVISORY BOARD Sarah Kanouse
Aziza Ahmed
Associate Professor, Media Arts College of Arts, Media and Design
Associate Professor, School of Law
Moya Bailey
Richard L. O’Bryant
Assistant Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Director, John D. O’Bryant African American Institute
Ronald Sandler Chair and Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion Director, Ethics Institute College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Martin Blatt Professor of the Practice, Department of History Director, Public History Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Thomas J. Vicino
Cameron Blevins
Chair, Department of Political Science Associate Professor, Department of Political Science School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Assistant Professor, Department of History College of Social Sciences and Humanities
José Buscaglia
Suzanna Danuta Walters
Chair and Professor, Department of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program College of Social Sciences and Humanities
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
Liza Weinstein Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology College of Social Sciences and Humanities
STAFF
SPECIAL THANKS
Gabrielle Fiorenza
The Dean’s Office in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Events and Administrative Operations Manager, Northeastern Humanities Center and College of Social Sciences and Humanities Office of the Dean
Deborah Levisohn Stanhill Administrative Specialist, Jewish Studies Program Graphic Design: Victoria Sax Photography: Jarvis Chen, Adam Glanzman, Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
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A B O U T T H E N O RT H E A ST E R N U N I V E RS I T Y
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.
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:
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617-373-4140 nuhumanities@northeastern.edu 360 Huntington Avenue 450 Renaissance Park Boston, MA 02115