Lewis Porter, guest jazz pianist, will give a presentation on Miles Davis and John Coltrane in Emerson Auditorium Monday November 16th at 1pm.

(who schedules these things? do they know some of us take classes?)

Dr. Vincent Roscigno, professor of Sociology at Ohio State University will be giving a lecture titled Micro-Politics of Discrimination, Incivility, and Legitimation at Work on Tuesday evening at 7pm in Gannett Auditorium.

The Oct. 6 talk will focus on what Roscigno describes as “the sociological evidence…that race, gender, and age discrimination, as well as more general forms of incivility, persist in American workplaces.” Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data of nearly 75,000 cases of employment discrimination and ethnographic accounts of workplace bullying, Roscigno has analyzed the prevalent dynamics of inequality and the ways in which such inequality is legitimated by employers. <via Scope>

Benny Morris  Professor of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University and the Skidmore College Middle East Scholar in Residence will be giving a lecture tonight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict titled 1948: Back to the Beginnings. The talk is free and open to the public and begins at 8pm in Gannett.

Born in Israel in 1948, the year of Israel’s founding, from parents who emigrated from Britain to Israel in 1947, Benny Morris “grew up in the heart of a left-wing pioneering atmosphere.”* While a journalist at The Jerusalem Post for many years, Morris established his reputation as an historian – and as pre-eminient among the “new historians” – with the 1988 publication of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, in which he “revolutionized Israeli historiography and, to a great extent, a nation’s understanding of its own birth.” In this and subsequent writing – nearly a dozen books and countless articles – Morris has painted “a far more complex picture (of the Israeli-Arab conflict) than many Israelis were prepared to accept,” and indeed a more troubling picture than the scholarly and general public on all sides of the political divide have frequently been happy to receive. Without abandoning his allegiance to the historical record, Morris plays out t! he consequences of his findings, as he sees them, in commentaries on the current political conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world. Indeed, though he still characterizes himself as a liberal Zionist, his work has recently provoked Liberals for his forceful depiction of what he sees as predominatly Arab responsibility for the failures of the various peace processes. Never one to “flatter anyone’s prejudices, least of all his own,” and possessed now of what he has called a “cosmic pessimism,” Morris’ mastery of, and perspective on, the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict is unique, if not unmatched.

Details on the Residency and future events may be found here.

Gustavo Esteva will be on campus giving a lecture entitled From Cuba to the Zapatistas: Social Change and Revolution At The End Of An Era. Esteva was an advisor to the Zapatista Army for National Liberation that declared war against the Mexican state in the mid-nineties and is now a Post-Development critic and founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca. His lecture will be a true treat for every student, particularly those interested in Latin American history, government and international affairs.

Wednesday Sept. 23^rd
7pm @ Gannett

Posters have popped up around campus for a lecture Monday entitled Crack The Code: The Rockefeller Drug Laws. For those of you that don’t know the New York State has a set of draconian, archaic drug laws on the books that are responsible for filling state prisons with non-violent and petty criminals.

The social repercussions of these laws are astounding and harrowing. I encourage every student to attend Monday’s lecture at 8pm in Davis.

For more information Rockefeller Drug Laws, which thankfully are on their way out the door, check out the New York Civil Liberties Union website.

At the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, eight young protesters were arrested on the charges of terrorism. Two of the protesters, Max Specktor and Garret Fitzgerald will be speaking about their experiences thanks to the Skidmore Democrats and United Students Against Sweatshops. The talk begin at 8pm Wednesday night in Gannett.

The RNC 8 are eight activists with the RNC Welcoming Committee arrested and charged under Minnesota terrorism law with “Conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.”

On August 30, 2008, two days before the Republican National Convention was held, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department raided three homes and arrested five activists, Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, and Eryn Trimmer. Later that day, Luce Guillen-Givins was arrested leaving a public meeting at a park. The remaining two activists, Rob Czernik and Max Specktor, were arrested on September 1, the first day of the protests surrounding the RNC convention.

The eight activists face charges of conspiracy to riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism, a felony under Minnesota law, and with the 50% terrorism enhancement face a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years in prison if convicted.

Police allege the eight planned to kidnap RNC delegates, assault officers and raid the Xcel Energy Center[1] but in the course of their searches uncovered no evidence to support such claims. <Wikipedia.com>

(fbook)
RNC8.org

In a comically perfect compliment to tomorrow’s festivities Jessica Wahman ’90 will be giving a lecture titled “Eyes of the World”: The Grateful Dead and Philosophy. The lecture begins at 5:30pm in Davis.

“Wahman, associate professor of Philosophy at Dickinson College, will examine the Grateful Dead worldview that embraces a paradoxical relationship between fatalism and freedom. In the song “Eyes of the World” an awakened spirit is liberated to wander imaginatively, while tethered to its physical host as part of the inevitable life-and-death cycle of the natural world. Such a naturalistic sense of spirituality is expressed in the writings of American philosopher George Santayana. This presentation will draw on Santayana’s work so as to articulate the naturalism that draws the Deadhead community together.” <via>

Titled “ ‘No Direction Home’: George Tooker, Deviance, and Visibility in 20th-Century America,” the talk will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Emerson Auditorium.  Free and open to the public.

Tooker’s Waiting Room II (1982) (Ed. note- It is impossible to find a picture of this painting online), is an extraordinarily early indictment of the Reagan administration’s neglect of both the homeless population and those suffering from HIV/AIDS, according to Hauser. Artists and collectives like Krzysztof Wodiczko and Gran Fury have enjoyed critical success for their projects associated with homelessness and those living with the stigma caused by HIV/AIDS, however they began their projects in the late 1980s.  Hauser argues that Tooker’s sensitivity to both marginalized populations explains this work’s prescient condemnation of Reagan-era negligence. <via Events>

Columbia University Professor of Art History and Archeology Holger A. Klein will be on campus tomorrow giving an Art Department sponsored lecture entitled Cities, Saints, and Sacred Matter: Relics and Ritual in Jerusalem, Constantinople,and Venice. Klein will be speaking in Davis at 5:15.

Prof. Klein will examine the cult of relics in these three cities from about 350 to 1350. Focusing initially on the cult of relics and their public performance in Jerusalem during the first three centuries, he will explore the translation of relics to Constantinople in advance of the Persian attacks of 614, and the dispersion of relics to Venice and elsewhere in the West after 1204. <via Events>

(left to right) Spinoza, Spinoza, Spinoza, Spinoza, Spinoza and Spinoza

Daniel Selcer of Duquesne University will speak on “Matter and Individuation in Spinoza: Towards a Dynamic Materialism,” at 8pm on Tuesday (3/17) in the Pohndorff Room on the 3rd floor of the Library.  The lecture, sponsored by the Philosophy Department is of particular interest to students interested in modern philosophy and the connections between Spinoza’s writings and the German idealists. Selcer is rumored to be a fantastic lecturer and has recently published a book on the subject: Philosophy and the Book: Early Modern Figures of Philosophical Inscription.

If you spent your Spring Break thinking about Hegelian dialectics and the ethics of post-structuralism you should definitely attend; If you spent your break perusing the swimsuit issue…. maybe not. Being a lowly English major the event description soars over my head, but in an email William Lewis, Chair of the Philosophy and Religion Department, assures us that the lecture will be accessible for “all those interested in philosophy who have taken at least an introductory course.”  For more information, and an example of the blatant overuse of parentheses, clicky here.