The Center for the Humanities Audio Archive
 Gayatri Spivak and Peter Hitchcock
February 7, 2008
Gayatri Spivak and Peter Hitchcock discuss an ethics of reading and writing Asia in the age of globalization and transnationalism. Gayatri Spivak is University Professor and the Director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. Her most recent book is Other Asias. Peter Hitchcock is Professor of English at the Graduate Center and a 2007-08 Mellon Fellow at the Center for the Humanities. His books include Imaginary States: Studies in Cultural Transnationalism.
Queer Darwin
December 13, 2007
While Queer Theory has rigorously explored the implications of Marxist and Freudian thinking over the years, Darwin and Darwinian ideas remain an under-explored and even ignored area of inquiry for scholars working in the area of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Studies. Yet today the influence of Darwin is everywhere in evidence in numerous scholarly fields, just as are the controversies that Darwinian concepts have created among social and religious conservatives. This panel brought together humanists and scientists for an exploration of the intersections between Queer Theory, sexual selection, and evolution. Participants included: Valerie Rohy, Professor of English, University of Vermont; Neville Hood, Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin and Cassandra Laity, Professor of English, Drew University. The panel was moderated by Richard Kaye, Department of English, The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Active Liberty / Modern Liberty: The Benjamin Constant Moment in America
December 10, 2007
A founding father of modern liberalism, Benjamin Constant’s thoughtful distinction between ancient and modern liberty has taken on new meaning nearly two centuries later for many prominent intellectuals. Organized by Helena Rosenblatt, Associate Professor of History at Hunter College, this half-day conference was be open to the public and united world-renowned jurists, historians, political philosophers, and legal academics for a discussion about the contemporary meaning of liberty and the ways in which Benjamin Constant’s work still structures our ideas of liberty and democracy. Sponsored by the Florence Gould Foundation.
Disaster Capitalism: Naomi Klein and Neil Smith in Conversation
November 16, 2007
When moments of collective crisis are exploited in the free market who wins – and who loses? Naomi Klein and Neil Smith discussed America’s path of destruction and reconstruction. Naomi Klein is the award-winning author of No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies and Fences and Windows. Her column for The Nation is syndicated throughout the world. Her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, will be published this fall. Neil Smith is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, where he also directs the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. His books include American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization and The Endgame of Globalization.
Politics, Religion, and Sexuality
November 8, 2007
Keynote address by Michael Warner, Professor of English at Rutgers University. This conference examined the appeal of conservative, politicized forms of religion on the rise today and how they are linked with sexual controversies. Through a series of panels and workshops, participants will examine how this rise of religiosity is linked to a rejection of the dominant forms of secularism, and consider what forms of radically new secularisms might provide new alternatives.
Making it Personal: Katha Pollitt & Anna Quindlen in Conversation
November 5, 2007
Katha Pollitt spoke with fellow journalist and writer Anna Quindlen about personal and political writing. Pollitt has been a columnist for The Nation since 1980. The title essay of her most recent collection, Learning to Drive, created quite a stir when it was published in The New Yorker 2002. Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer-prize winning columnist and a novelist. Her most recent book of essays is Loud and Clear.
Writing Musical Lives
November 1, 2007
Four eminent music critics and biographers discussed the problems and pleasures of writing about the many lives of musicians. Participants include Holly George-Warren, author of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry; Gary Giddins, author of Weather Bird, Satchmo, and Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; David Hadju, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn and Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña; and Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic and author of On Michael Jackson. Moderated by Marc Dolan, Associate Professor of English, The Graduate Center, CUNY.
The Irving Howe Memorial Lecture
Avishai Margalit: Sectarianism-political and religious
October 30, 2007
Avishai Margalit, a leading political theorist and social critic, spoke on the varieties of sectarianism, past and present. Margalit is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he is currently the George Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. His books include The Ethics of Memory, Occidentalism, and The Decent Society.
Fear in America: Susan Faludi and Corey Robin in Conversation
October 23, 2007
Corey Robin, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, and author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea talked with Susan Faludi, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women about her latest book, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.
Writing Other Lives: Janet Malcolm and Wendy Lesser in Conversation
October 18, 2007
Wendy Lesser, the founding editor of The Threepenny Review, and the editor of Hiding in Plain Sight: Essays in Criticism and Autobiography, spoke with Janet Malcolm about her new biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice. Malcolm is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession, and Inside the Freud Archives.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: History and Social Action: An Appreciation on the 90th Anniversary of his Birth
October 15, 2007
Speakers included Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History and Provost, Columbia University; Blanche Wiesen Cook, Distinguished Professor of History, John Jay College; Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University; David Levering Lewis, biographer; David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Chair in American History, the Graduate Center, CUNY; Adam Rothman, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University; Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University; and Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History; Director of American Studies, Princeton University.
Lincoln Kirstein Centennial Reading
October 12, 2007
An evening celebrating Lincoln Kirstein’s own poetry and the poets that meant the most to him, including Hart Crane and W.H. Auden. Participants included Hilton Als, author of The Women; Martin Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, and author of The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein; Nicholas Jenkins, editor of BY WITH TO & FROM: A Lincoln Kirstein Reader; and Edward Mendelson, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Lionel Trilling Professor of Humanities at Columbia University.
Representing Cuba: Sujatha Fernandes & Elio Rodriguez in Conversation
October 11, 2007
Elio Rodriguez, a prominent Cuban artist whose work deals with race, desire, and sexuality, spoke with Sujatha Fernandes, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College, and author of Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures.
Jason Moran
October 10, 2007
On the 90th anniversary of Thelonious Monk’s birth, pianist Jason Moran explored Monk’s music and discussed his legend with critic Gary Giddins. Jason Moran is a leading jazz pianist and composer of the past decade. He will soon debut a major commission: IN MY MIND: Monk at Town Hall 1959. His many recordings include Soundtrack to Human Motion, Modernistic, and Same Mother. Gary Giddins is the author of nine books, including Natural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music and Books, Weather Bird; Satchmo; Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; and Visions of Jazz: The First Century, for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
The Face of Presidential Politics
October 3, 2007
This panel examined the current presidential campaign, with a specific emphasis on issues of how gender and race are presented and performed by the media and the candidates. What are the differences between the symbolic and the substantive meaning of race and gender in the campaigns, and what does this difference mean for women and African Americans? Participants will include Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Associate Professor of Political Science, Princeton University; Tavia Nyong’o, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies, NYU; Jennifer Senior, Associate Editor, New York Magazine; Gary Younge, columnist for The Nation and the author of Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States. Moderated by Ruth O’Brien, Professor of Political Science, The Graduate Center.
Pop Art and Poetry: Jim Dine & Vincent Katz in Conversation
October 2, 2007
Internationally renowned artist Jim Dine spoke with poet and critic Vincent Katz about printmaking, poetry, and the exhibit in the Graduate Center’s art gallery, entitled Jim Dine Selected Prints, 1996 – 2006, Diane Kelder, Professor of Art History at the Graduate Center and the curator of the exhibit will moderate the conversation.
A Memorial Tribute to Tillie Olsen
September 11, 2007
Best known for her first short story collection, "Tell Me a Riddle," Tillie Olsen was a formative voice in the women’s movement. Join friends and family in a tribute to her work as a writer and activist. Speakers included Meena Alexander, Maureen Brady, Marilyn French, Mary Gordon, Florence Howe, Anne Humpherys, Edith Konecky, Jane Lazarre, and Laurie Olsen.
The Interpretation of Habeas Corpus
May 8, 2007
Taking the fall 2006’s Military Commission Act as a starting point, this interdisciplinary panel examined the historical precedents for limiting habeas protections as well as the recent legislation’s potential impact on US citizens’ constitutional protections. Participants included David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University and legal affairs correspondent for The Nation; Aziz Huq, Director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice; and Corey Robin, Associate Professor of Political Science, the Graduate Center, CUNY.
A Great Engine of Comedy: Kingsley Amis in Perspective
April 30, 2007
Zachary Leader, Professor of English Literature at Roehampton University, discussed Kingsley Amis's centrality to British literary culture and the relation of his writing to his life. Zachary Leader's books include The Life of Kingsley Amis and On Modern British Fiction. He edited The Letters of Kingsley Amis.
Activist Culture and the State of Radical Art
April 24, 2007
What is the meaning of radical art and cultural resistance in a city full of expensive galleries and sleepy politics? Professor Stephen Duncombe (Media and Cultural Studies, Gallatin School, NYU), author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy and a panel of artists and curators examined the current state of radical art.
Jan Gross - Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz
April 19, 2006
Jan Gross' books include Neighbors, a finalist for the National Book Award, and The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath. His most recent book is Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz. He is Professor of War and Society in the Department of History at Princeton University.
Writing the Contemporary
March 27, 2007
Academics and art critics discussed the relationship between art history and art criticism, working inside and outside the academy, and the various problems of writing contemporary history. Moderated by Katy Siegel, Associate Professor of Art History at Hunter College, with Johanna Burton, contributor to Grand Street, Artforum and author of Cindy Sherman; Branden Joseph, Associate Professor, Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University; Scott Rothkopf, senior editor of Artforum, and Lawrence Weschler, former staff writer for The New Yorker and author of, among other books, Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences. Co-sponsored by The PhD Program in Art History.
The Role of Religion - The Secular, the Sacred, and the State
March 6, 2007
From Iraq to Iowa, the rise in the significance of religion as a cultural and political phenomenon has had implications for both politics and policy, often creating unstable tensions between the secular and the religious. This interdisciplinary discussion explored the religious and the secular as political forces. Participants included Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, the Graduate Center, CUNY and author of Formations of the Secular and On Suicide Bombing; Vincent Crapanzano, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, the Graduate Center, CUNY and author of Serving the Word: Literalism in America from the Pulpit to the Bench; Jane Kramer, European Correspondent for The New Yorker and author of Lone Patriot: The Short Career of an American Militiaman; and Eyal Press, contributing writer to The Nation and author of Absolute Convictions.
Europe and the Challenge of Islam - A conversation between Ian Buruma and Richard Wolin
February 23, 2007
Ian Buruma and Richard Wolin discussed the current tension between the religious and the secular in contemporary Europe. Ian Buruma is Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights, Democracy, and New Media at Bard College. His most recent book is Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance. Richard Wolin is a Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
Undoing Jews - The Jew of Malta and the Merchant of Venice
February 13, 2007
In conjunction with Theater for a New Audience’s simultaneous productions of Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, a conversation with actors, directors, and scholars about what these plays can tell us about our own time’s increasingly apocalyptic sectarian antagonisms. Participants included David Herskovitz, director, The Jew of Malta; Richard McCoy, Professor of English, the Graduate Center, CUNY; and James Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.
The Decline and Fall of Truth
November 20, 2006
A conversation with Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times and author of, most recently, The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina, and Alan Brinkley, Provost and Professor of History at Columbia University, author of, among others, Liberalism and Its Discontents.
Pioneering Lesbian Literature - A conversation between Marijane Meaker and Leslie Feinberg
November 14, 2006
Marijane Meaker’s 1952 novel, Spring Fire, published under the pseudonym Vin Packer, was one of the first pulp fiction novels to deal with a lesbian theme. Her groundbreaking 1955 account of lesbian life in New York City, We Walk Alone, and its sequel, We Too Must Love, have been re-published by the feminist press. She spoke with Marcia Gallo, Professor of History, Lehman College and author of Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement about lesbian life and literature in the 1950’s.
Lion & Scotsman
November 13, 2006
David Nasaw, the Executive Director of the Center for the Humanities and Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, talked about writing his latest biography, Andrew Carnegie.
Taner Akçam on Turkey and the Armenian Genocide
November 1, 2006
As Turkey lobbied to enter the European Union, Taner Akçam, controversial author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility discussed its evasion of responsibility for the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the international community’s inadequate attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice. Taner Akçam is one of the few historians to have mined significant evidence on the genocide in Turkish military and court records, parliamentary minutes, letters, and eyewitness accounts.
The Irving Howe Memorial Lecture with Robert Alter
October 30, 2006
Robert Alter is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of seventeen books, including The Art of Biblical Narrative, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought, and The Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age. His most recent publication is The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary.
Does Diversity Matter: Race, Class and Higher Education
October 19, 2006
A panel discussion on diversity and racial inequality. Moderated by William Kelly. President of the Graduate Center, with Walter Benn Michaels, author of The Trouble with Diversity: How we Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality; David Harvey, Professor of Anthropology and Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and author of, most recently, A Brief History of Neoliberalism; Leith Mullings, Presidential Professor of Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center and author of, among others, On Our Own Terms: Race, Class and Gender in the Lives of African American Women; and Gary Younge, columnist for The Nation and The Guardian.
Why Arendt Matters
October 12, 2006
A panel discussion with Elizabeth Young-Bruehl, author of, most recently, Why Arendt Matters; John Torpey Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and author of Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics; and Jonathan Schell, The Nation’s peace and disarmament correspondent.
War Reporting - Two Generations of Journalism Under Siege
October 5, 2006
A panel of prize-winning war correspondents compared their experiences and discussed ongoing issues such as the government’s role in reporting war, the cultural legitimacy of the first-person account, and the nature of “embedded” reporting. Participants included Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post and author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City; Frances FitzGerald, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam; Christian Parenti, author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq; and Sydney Schanberg, author of The Life and Death of Dith Pran. Lonnie Isabel, former deputy managing editor at Newsday and professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, moderated.
The Iraq War and the Politics of Memoir
February 22, 2006
The Nation correspondent Christian Parenti spoke with young veterans of the Iraq war about politics and aesthetics of writing memoirs. Participants included John Crawford, author of The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of War in Iraq, Camilo Mejia, author of The Road from Ar Amadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia, and Kayla Williams, author of Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army.
Tony Judt
February 3, 2006
Director of the Remarque Institute at New York University, Tony Judt is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The New Republic, and The New York Times. In this talk he discussed Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945.
E.L. Doctorow and Victor Navasky in conversation
December 8, 2005
A conversation between award winning novelist E.L. Doctorow and his longtime friend and fellow writer Victor Navasky, Editor-in-Chief of the Nation.
Tzvetan Todorov – The Avant-Garde and Politics
November 9, 2005
Tzvetan Todorov, director of the Centre National de la Reserche Scientifique in Paris, discussed the new role that art and artists found themselves entrusted with in the first half of the 20th century: the transformation of society.
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