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Past events archive (by semester, with photos):


Past events, Fall 2003 (details below):
28 Aug   Roundtable Discussion - "I Have A Dream"
Discussion to mark the fortieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
28 Aug: 7pm, Women's Building Formal Lounge
2 Sep   Name Change Ceremony
 Celebrating our new name, The Center for the Humanities.
2 Sep: 4pm, Women's Building Formal Lounge
22-23 Sep   Writers Series - Lorenzo Carcaterra
Author of Sleepers and Street Boys.
22 Sep: 8pm, Reading, Rm 204, Anheuser-Busch Hall
23 Sep: 4pm, Seminar, McMillan Café, Old McMillan Hall
13-14 Oct   Writers Series - Terry Teachout
Columnist and author of The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken.
13 Oct: 8pm, Reading, Rm 204, Anheuser-Busch Hall
14 Oct: 4pm, Seminar, McMillan Café, Old McMillan Hall
17-18 Nov   Writers Series - Katherine Paterson
Author of Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge to Terabithia.
17 Nov: 8pm, Reading, Rm 204, Anheuser-Busch Hall
18 Nov: 4pm, Seminar, McMillan Café, Old McMillan Hall
4 Dec   Celebrating Our Books,
Recognizing Our Authors
Second annual ceremony and presentation honoring faculty authors.
4 Dec: 4pm, Women's Building Formal Lounge

Roundtable Discussion
Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech
28 August 2003

L to R: Professors Howard Brick, Leslie Brown, and Wayne Fields. Professor Gerald Early, Director of The Center for the Humanities, with panelists Frankie Muse Freeman and Percy Green. The audience awaits their turn to speak.

 

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered in our nation's capitol as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest and most historically significant mass demonstrations of the civil rights era. Standing before the Lincoln Memorial, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his immortal "I Have a Dream" speech, one of the most famous and most stirring addresses in U.S. history.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of both the march and King's speech, Washington University's International Writers Center in Arts & Sciences hosted a roundtable discussion featuring more than a half-dozen local scholars and civil rights activists.

The event — which was co-sponsored by the University's African & Afro-American Studies Program and American Culture Studies Program, both in Arts & Sciences — began at 7 p.m. Thursday, August 28, in the Ann W. Olin Women's Building Formal Lounge. (The Women's Building is located just south of Throop Drive, or a short walk north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.) The event was free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Participants included Frankie Muse Freeman, a noted St. Louis civil rights attorney during the 1950s and 60s and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; community activist Percy Green, a leader of the St. Louis civil rights movement in the 1960s and 70s; and former Washington University trustee Margaret Bush Wilson, a prominent civil rights attorney in the 1960s and the first woman to chair the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Also joining the discussion were Washington University faculty members Wayne Fields, Ph.D., the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English in Arts & Sciences, the director of American Culture Studies, and an expert on political rhetoric; Howard Brick, Ph.D., professor of history in Arts & Sciences, who teaches 20th-century U.S. intellectual, cultural, social and political history; and Leslie Brown, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and African & Afro-American Studies, who teaches African-American history since Emancipation and the history of the civil rights movement, among other topics. Gerald Early, Ph.D., director of the International Writers Center and interim co-director of the African & Afro-American Studies Program, served as moderator.

The discussion, which lasted about an hour, was preceded by a 15-minute video of King's speech, played in its entirety, and followed by a reception.

Name Change Ceremony
IWC Becomes The Center for the Humanities
2 September 2003

Mark Wrighton, Chancellor of Washington University. Edward Macias, Executive Vice Chancellor of Washington University and Dean of Arts & Sciences. L to R: Robert Koff, Director, Education Skills Initiative; James McLeod, Vice Chancellor for Students and Dean of Arts & Sciences; Prof. Gerald Early, Director, The Center for the Humanities; Ida Early, Senior Assoc. Director, Alumni and Development.

Under the guidance of its advisory board, the International Writers Center of Washington University has recently expanded its mission, and as a reflection of this growth, beginning in September 2003, the center has a new name as well. The International Writers Center became The Center for the Humanities with the tagline: Dedicated to Letters and Humanistic Research and Their Presence in the Public Life.

In honor of this new name and to show our appreciation for all who’ve supported the Center over the years, The Center for the Humanities hosted a celebration and name-changing ceremony. The ceremony included brief remarks by Mark Wrighton, Chancellor of Washington University, Edward Macias, Executive Vice Chancellor of Washington University and Dean of Arts & Sciences, and Gerald Early, director of The Center for the Humanities. There was a reception immediately following the remarks.

The event took place at 4:00pm on Tuesday, September 2 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge. (The Women's Building is located just south of Throop Drive, or a short walk north of the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.) It was free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Although the Center for the Humanities will continue to focus on literature and the act of writing, it will expand its reach within the humanities to be more inclusive of other scholars and various segments of the larger community. The conference the Center held on the Korean War last May is one indication of this new outreach. Other approaches include future programming involving children and film, the morality of war, and public intellectuals. The Center also hopes to launch semester-long visits by writers and scholars.

The Center for the Humanities will continue to produce the bi-monthly review Belles Lettres: a Literary Review and the monthly newsletter The Figure in the Carpet, which features the St. Louis Literary Calendar. It will maintain its commitment to fostering literary communities within the university and around St. Louis. In addition, as reflected in its mission statement, the Center for the Humanities will embrace a variety of humanistic pursuits:

The Center for the Humanities at Washington University is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of humanistic thinking and the pursuit of letters as essential activities in the intellectual, political, and artistic life of this university, the community it serves, and the world.

“We are very excited about this new direction,” director Gerald Early said. “It shows how much faith the advisory board has in the Center and how much potential the Center has to be a compelling voice for the humanities on the campus and in St. Louis.”

Writers Series:
Lorenzo Carcaterra
22-23 September 2003

Dr. Gerald Early introduces Mr. Carcaterra. The audience waiting for the program to begin. Mr. Carcaterra profiles the characters from his first book, A Safe Place.

Lorenzo Carcaterra is the author of two highly successful works of non-fiction: Sleepers, a New York Times bestseller that was made into a feature film starring Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, and Dustin Hoffman and A Safe Place: The True Story of a Father, a Son, a Murder. He has also written the popular novels Street Boys, Gangster, and Apaches. Mr. Carcaterra is a contributor The National Geographic Traveler and Details magazines, as well as a script writer for television and movies. Recently, he began work as a writer and producer for the NBC series Law&Order. Mr. Carcaterra grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen and lives in New York City.

Lorenzo Carcaterra read from his work on Monday, September 22 at 8 pm in Room 204 of Anheuser-Busch Hall (Law School) on Washington University's Hilltop Campus.

He gave a seminar with time for audience questions on Tuesday afternoon, September 23, at 4 pm at McMillan Café in Old McMillan Hall. A reception and book signing followed both events, which were free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Writers Series:
Terry Teachout
13-14 October 2003

Dr. Early introduces Mr. Teachout prior to his reading. Terry Teachout reads from The Skeptic. As always, refreshments were in great abundance.

 

Terry Teachout is the music critic of Commentary, the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, and a contributor to The Washington Post, for which he writes “Second City,” a column about the arts in New York City. His books include The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken (2002, HarperCollins) and A Terry Teachout Reader, forthcoming next spring from Yale University Press. He also writes about art, books, and music for The Wall Street Journal, jazz, dance, and television for The New York Times, books for The New York Times Book Review, The Baltimore Sun, and National Review, and film for Crisis.

Born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 1956, Teachout lived in Kansas City from 1975 to 1983, working as a jazz bassist and as a music critic for the Kansas City Star. He was an editor of Harper’s Magazine from 1985 to 1987, an editorial writer for the New York Daily News from 1987 to 1993, and the News’s classical music and dance critic from 1993 to 2000. He currently lives in New York City.

Terry Teachout read from his work on Monday, October 13 at 8 pm in Room 204 of Anheuser-Busch Hall (Law School) on Washington University's Hilltop Campus.

He gave a seminar with time for audience questions on Tuesday afternoon, October 14, at 4 pm at McMillan Café in Old McMillan Hall. A reception and book signing followed both events, which were free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Writers Series:
Katherine Paterson
17-18 November 2003

Ida McCall introduces Ms. Paterson. Katherine Paterson gives a spirited reading from The Great Gilly Hopkins. The audience eagerly await their chance to question the author.

 

Katherine Paterson’s works have received wide acclaim. Among them are Jacob Have I Loved, winner of the 1981 Newbery Medal; Bridge to Terabithia, winner of the 1979 Newbery Medal; The Great Gilly Hopkins, a Newbery Honor Book and winner of the 1979 National Book Award; and The Master Puppeteer, awarded the 1977 National Book Award.

Katherine Paterson was born in China, the daughter of missionary parents, and spent part of her childhood there. She was educated in both China and the United States, and she worked for four years as a Christian Education Assistant to a group of eleven pastors in rural Japan. Her four children and their friends have provided her with some of the subject matter for her sharply observant stories of family life. She lives with her family in Barre, Vermont.

Katherine Paterson read from her work on Monday, November 17 at 8 pm in Room 204 of Anheuser-Busch Hall (Law School) on Washington University's Hilltop Campus.

She gave a seminar with time for audience questions on Tuesday afternoon, November 18, at 4 pm at McMillan Café in Old McMillan Hall. A reception and book signing followed both events, which were free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5576.

Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors
4 December 2003

 L to R: Presenters Prof. Pascal Boyer and Prof. Rebecca Messbarger; Prof. Gerald Early (Director of the Center for the Humanities); William Danforth (chancellor emeritus and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Washington University).

 
Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, by Pascal Boyer, Henry Luce Professor of Individual & Collective Memory in Arts and Sciences.

Many of us have endless questions about faith, spirituality, and the place of religious thinking in the world. But one central question - perhaps the central question - about religion has remained strangely inaccessible: Why do we have it at all?

  The Century of Women: Representations of Women in Eighteenth-Century Italian Public Discourse, by Rebecca Messbarger, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages.

By uncovering the characteristics of the expansive discourse about women among Italian Enlightenment thinkers and the counter-discourse women authors produced to assert their own authority over constructions of femininity and the public sphere, this study reconceives eighteenth-century Italian culture and rectifies misconceptions about Italy's position and influence within the literary republic of the Enlightenment of Republic of Letters.

 

Washington University's Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences presented Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors, its second annual faculty book colloquium, at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the Ann W. Olin Women's Building Formal Lounge.

The event, which honored the work of scholars from across the arts & sciences disciplines, was free and open to the public and was sponsored by The Center for the Humanities with support from the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences.

In conjunction with the event, the Washington University Campus Bookstore displayed books by colloquium participants and other faculty authors, all of which were available for purchase, and authors were available after the colloquium to sign their works.

William H. Danforth, Ph.D., chancellor emeritus and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Washington University, presented opening remarks. In addition, Pascal Boyer, Ph.D., Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory in Arts & Sciences, and Rebecca Messbarger, Ph.D., associate professor of Romance Languages in Arts & Sciences, read from their recent publications and took questions from the audience.

Boyer is the author of Tradition as Truth and Communication (1990), The Naturalness of Religious Ideas (1994), and Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (2001). His scholarship combines anthropological fieldwork and psychological experiments, and aims to describe the psychological foundations of culture.

Messbarger is the author of The Century of Women: Representations of Women in Eighteenth-Century Italian Public Discourse (2002), which the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago recently nominated for the International Flaiano Prize, awarded by the Ministry of Italian Culture. Messbarger is currently writing a book on the life and work of Anna Morandi Manzolini.

 

  
 



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