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Festival of Ideas Global Research Institute
2009-2010 Schedule of Events
Program History
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The Festival of Ideas Global Research Institute will present six events during the 2009-2010 academic year. These events by UT Arlington faculty members or invited speakers include five lectures and one theatrical performance. Times and locations are subject to change; be sure to check with the hosting department’s website before the event.
Event No. 1:
“The Public Life of Environmental Literature and Criticism”
Dr. Cate Mortimer-Sandilands (York University)
October 16, 2009, 3 p.m.
University library, sixth floor
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Dr. Mortimer-Sandilands’ lecture is part of the Department of English’s annual Hermanns Lecture Series. This year’s topic is “Greening English.” Dr. Mortimer-Sandilands will focus on the role of environmental literature and literary criticism in cultivating a critical, ecological public sphere. Beginning with Lawrence Buell’s widely-cited outline of the ethical and political potentials of environmental criticism and continuing into the works of Martha Nussbaum, Hannah Arendt, and Shoshana Felman, the work considers how ecocriticism holds the potential not only to represent and highlight environmental issues and their embeddedness in complex socio-historical realities, but also, in its collective practice, to cultivate the kind of worldly judgment on which environmental opinion rests. This creative potential of ecocriticism relies on literature’s ability to open the world to partiality, uncertainty and incompletion rather than to pursue the “truth of ecology.”
Cate Mortimer-Sandilands is Canada Research Chair in Sustainability and Culture in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. She is widely published in the field of environmental cultural studies, including particular interests in gender, sexuality and nature, and in environmental cultures and politics. Her books include *The Good-Natured Feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy* (Minnesota, 1999) and *Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics and Desire* (co-edited with Bruce Erickson, Indiana, 2010).
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Event No. 2:
"One Community in Multiple Voices: Engagement Scholarship in Linguistics and Education"
Dr. Anne Charity Hudley (William and Mary College)
October 30, 2009, 2 p.m.
Trimble Hall, Room 200
(A reception will follow on in the Physics Executive Conference room.)
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Dr. Hudley’s lecture is sponsored by the Deptarment of Linguistics & TESOL and will examine the English language among African Americans. Dr. Hudley is an assistant professor of English, linguistics and Africana studies at The College of William and Mary. She teaches service-learning centered courses on American Speech, African-American English, language variation and change, language and education, and speaker's attitudes towards language variation in the United States. Her research interests are situated at the intersections of Linguistics, Psychology, African-American Studies, and Education. Her publications address the relationship between language variation and K-16 educational practices and policies. She has published articles in Child Development, Language Variation and Change, American Speech, and in several book collections on African-American English and Education including the Handbook of African-American Psychology. With Christine Mallinson of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, she is currently co-authoring a book entitled Whose Words: An Educator's Guide to English Language Variation in the Classroom that was invited by James Banks, the editor of the Teachers College Press Multicultural Education Series and a founder of the field of multicultural education.
Event No. 3:
"Destroying the Figure in Order to Save It: Sixties Art in Argentina"
Dr. Patrick Frank
Nov. 19, 2009, 12:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Bldg., Rm. 148
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Dr. Frank will discuss Latin-American politics and culture and its influence on modern art. His lecture is sponsored by the Department of Art + Art History and the Center for Mexican-American Studies, and will be held in conjunction with a scheduled print residency in Buenos Aires for several art students. Dr. Frank is the author of “Los Artistas del Pueblo: Prints and Workers’ Culture in Buenos Aires, 1917-1935,” “Posada’s Broadsheets: Mexican Popular Imagery, 1890-1910,” and “Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts” and is the editor of “Readings in Latin American Modern Art.” For many years a professor of art history in various universities, he earned M.A. and Ph.D degrees at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The subject of his lecture will be his recent investigation of the New Figuration Movement. The lecture will expose the work of four members of this movement: Luis Felipe Noé, Jorge de la Vega, Rómulo Macció, and Ernesto Deira. They are little known outside Latin America, but they foreshadowed in many ways the neo-expressionist figuration that later broke out in the 1980s in Europe and the USA.
Samples of works by Luis Felipe Noé (left) and Rómulo Macció (click thumbnail to enlarge):
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Event No. 4:
“Dead Man Walking”
A Theatre Arts presentation (panel discussion to follow)
Feb. 26, 2010, 8 p.m.
UTA Mainstage Theatre, Fine Arts Bldg.
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“Dead Man Walking” features the true story of a nun who becomes spiritual advisor to a convicted murderer, while also sympathizing with the victims' families. The play touches upon the universal themes of revenge and redemption, crime and punishment, fear and salvation. Based on the book “Dead Man Walking” by Sister Helen Prejean. Written by Tim Robbins. Directed by UTA Lecturer, Anne Healy.
A panel discussion will follow, sponsored by the UTA Departments of Theatre Arts, Criminology and Criminal Science, and Political Science.
Event No. 5:
Webb Lecture Series keynote address
Dr. Thomas Benjamin (Central Michigan University)
March 11, 2010, time TBA
Location TBA
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Dr. Benjamin’s presentation will be the keynote lecture for the annual Webb Lecture Series, which will honor the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The event is sponsored by the Department of History.
Dr. Benjamin teaches courses in Latin American history as well as a course on the Atlantic world in the Age of Empire. His research focuses on Mexico and the Atlantic world. His recent publications include: “The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans and Indians & Their Shared History, 1400-1900” (Cambridge University Press, 2008); “Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450” (Macmillan Thomson/Gale, 3 volumes, 2007); and “La Revolución Mexicana: Memoria, Mito e Historia” (México: Taurus, 2003).
Event No. 6:
Lecture Title TBA
Dr. Jorge Castaneda (New York University)
April 14, 2010, time TBA
Location TBA
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Dr. Castaneda is the former foreign minister of Mexico. This event is sponsored by the Center for Mexican-American Studies.
The Festival of Ideas began in 2005 with a generous donation by UT Arlington alumnus Mustaque Ahmed (’81). In 2007, that support grew into an endowment to further strength the program’s ability to offer six events each year to the university academic community and the community at large. These events have included lectures by scholars in History, Linguistics, Middle Eastern Studies, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Political Science, and Physics; presentations by artists and writers about their creative work; and concerts and theatrical performances.
“Mustaque Ahmed’s generous gift for the College of Liberal Arts’ Festival of Ideas Global Research Institute, as it supports a vibrant and illuminating program of events for everyone on our campus and in our community, enhances our faculty and student research in international cultures, histories, languages, literatures, and the arts,” said Dr. Beth Wright, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “We are very grateful for this support of our excellence in education, research scholarship, and creative activity. ”
The Festival of Ideas Global Research Institute not only guarantees the continuity of the Festival of Ideas events but provides a venue for research into the world’s significant cultural and intellectual issues, integrating the scholarship and creative activity of UT Arlington’s faculty and graduate students with the insights gained from presentations by world-renowned experts who visit the UT Arlington campus.
Supporters of the College of Liberal Arts have a rare opportunity to help expand this program. Current plans including symposia, faculty and graduate research support, and bringing world-renowned speakers to the UT Arlington campus. If you would like to find out how you can support this program, please call or email development officer Myke Holt at (817) 272-1055 or mholt@uta.edu.
Details coming soon!
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