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2007

Academic Angela Zito Lecture Monday, April 23, 2007 Title TBA How can we be modern without religion? Mediating China's Falungong Monday, April 23, 2007 Lecture by Professor Angela Zito, Anthropology and Religious Studies/NYU Co-Director Center for Religion and Media ar from being as rigorously atheist as its propaganda claims, the Chinese ? state apparatus seems to be searching for properly modern religious forms. A modern secular state requires an appropriate religious Other, because secularism and religion are co-arising social categories. Hence, to be modern requires that there be religion, but not just any religion— a certain kind of religion. In this regard, Falun gong has been pronounced a failure. But the Chinese state’s reaction to Falun gong’s claims to mediate its own (religious) identity responds to yet another a perceived insult. For, besides appropriate religion, modernity also requires of a nation the development, and control of, particular forms of media networks: Falun ? gong, the wrong religion, had the further temerity to be very good at electronic and other ? forms of self-conscious media use, posing a double threat. ? GOs and Knowledge Generation: Reflections on the Knowledge Enterprise in the Global South Thursday, April 19, 2007 Lecture by Pratyoush Onta NGOs and Knowledge Generation: Reflections on the Knowledge Enterprise in the Global South Thursday, April 19, 2007 Lecture by Pratyoush Onta Experimenting with The Asthma Files Wednesday, March 28, 2007 a lecture by Kim Fortun, RPI March 28. The Asthma Files is (becoming) an electronic archive of text, still images, video and audio that illustrate multiple perspectives on asthma � from the vantage point of affected people in different locales and communities, heath care providers, and scientists from different disciplines. The Asthma Files include, for example, images of lungs annotated to describe how respiratory researchers think about lung function, and how asthma suffers experience an asthma attack. The Asthma Files also includes images of how genes express in allergic asthma; images of air pollution correlated to asthma hospitalization rates; and images that convey the extraordinary and socially uneven prevalence of asthma in different locales today. Explicated, one can see very different logics and scales of analysis in play. Physicians for Social Responsibility, for example, link escalating asthma rates to global warming. WeAct, an environmental justice organizations in West Harlem, links asthma rates and incidence to local sources of diesel pollution. Fortun will describes the purpose, structure, content and possible futures of The Asthma Files, highlighting how diverse modes of thinking about causality and truth come into play in efforts to understand and respond to asthma. She also emphasizes the need to think experimentally about ways to facilitate engagement with complex, often politically charged conditions � such as asthma -- produced through interaction between biological, ecological, social, cultural and political-economic systems. Fortun will conclude with a call for collaborators, and a description of an initial spin-off project, which will make use of the content of The Asthma Files in a live performance. In Nebulizer. video artist Surajit Sarkar and dancer/ethnomusicologist Tomie Hahn will use the dancer�s body as a projection space for images from The Asthma Files, showing how multiple forces converge in the asthmatic subject. Biographical sketch Kim Fortun is a cultural anthropologist, based in an interdisciplinary department of Science and Technology Studies, whose research focuses on how �the environment� is understood and governed in different historical and geographic locations. She is the author of Advocacy After Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders (University of Chicago Press, 2001), and currently is co-editor of Cultural Anthropology.

 

2006

Lecture Jewish Wombs in Israeli Jurisprudence Thursday, November 2, 2006 Jewish Wombs in Israeli Jurisprudence: Evolving Regulations Concerning New Reproductive Technologies in Israel. A discussion of the social uses of artificial insemination, ovum donation and surrogacy in Israel. A Lecture by Susan Kahn, author of Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel. Susan Kahn received her master's in Middle Eastern Studies and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, where she is now Associate Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Remaking the Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series Thursday, May 4, 2006 Anne Rademacher, NYU The Ecology of Invasion: Cultural Territories and Urban Environmental Improvement in Kathmandu Remaking the Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series Thursday, April 20, 2006 Elizabeth Garland, University of Chicago State of Nature: Managing Wildlife and Capitalism in Tanzania Remaking the Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series Thursday, March 16, 2006 Susan Lepselter, Columbia University The Abduction of Memory: UFOs, Indians and Captivity in American Narrative Culture Remaking the Nature/Culture Borderlands Lecture Series Tuesday, February 21, 2006 Andrew Wingfield, George Mason University Hear Him Roar Reading and Discussion of his new novel Open House Anthropology Moderation Information Session Monday, March 13, 2006 Come meet Anthropology faculty, learn about upcoming courses, and see if moderating into Anthropology is for you!

 

2005

Film Films About the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal Thursday, April 14, 2005 The Killing Terraces (45 min.) Since February 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has been waging a violent struggle in a bid to capture state power in Nepal. From its humble beginningsin five districts, the insurgency has spread all over the country and has now become the foremost challenge facing the state. In 2001, the filmmaker accompanied a group of journalists on a journey to Rolpa, Rukum and Jajarkot, three districts in far-western Nepal that make up the Maoist stronghold. Using exclusive foot-age of the rebels shot over 26 days in the tough mountain terrain of this remote region, the film attempts to understand the causes underlying the rise of the Maoists, and its effect on the local people. We will also be screening excerpts from the film The Living of Jogimara In early 2002, 17 construction workers from Jogimara, Dhading were killed by the Nepali army while building a runway in another district, Kalikot. They were branded 'terrorists' by the state, and their families did not get their dead bodies or any compensation. Some families have conducted rites for thier loved one; others wait, hoping their relatives will return. Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival Saturday, March 5, 2005 - Sunday, March 6, 2005 The American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival is a collection of independent cultural documentaries in the United States. This year, program themes include black activism in the United States, women's leadership roles in Afghanistan and Haiti, a celebration of the work of Jean Rouch, and more. The films being shown at Bard include: "Afghanistan Unveiled"; "Madanm Ti Zo (Mrs. Littlebones)"; "A Panther in Africa"; "Oscar"; "Jaguar"; "Screening Room with Robert Gardner: Jean Rouch"; and "Les Maitre Fous (Mad Masters). Saturday March 5 A Tribute to Jean Rouch 3-5:30 PM In memory of renowned French ethnographiic filmmaker Jean Rouch (1917- 2004), the festival celebrates his life and work. The filmmaker and ethnographer Jean Rouch died in northern Niger on February 19, 2004. He was 86 years old. He left behind a legacy of over 120 films - the bulk of which were recorded in West Africa. In 1960 Rouch labeled his filming style: cinema verite. Inspired by filmmakers like Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) and Dziga Vertov (The Man with a Camera), Rouch was an innovative and important figure in the French post-WWII film scene, founding the Comite du film ethnographique and inspiring the Direct Cinema movement in the U.S. Rouch's work in Africa is characterized by what is referred to as "shared anthropology" and "ethnofiction". Drawing on the works of others before him, Rouch's films illustrate a keen rethinking of the practice of both ethnography and filmmaking. Combining fiction and non-fiction techniques and often integrating a sort of documentary surrealism, Rouch's practices blur the distinctions between subject and observer, reality and fiction. Jaguar 3:00 PM Jean Rouch. 1957. 92 mins. (Niger/Ghana) Part documentary, part fiction, and part reflective commentary, Jaguar tells the story of three young men from the Savannah of Niger who leave their homeland to seek wealth and adventure on the coast and in the cities of Ghana. This seminal film, which was the result of improvised on-screen action and then later, improvised narrative voice-over, is the story of their travels, their encounters along the way, their experiences in Accra and Kumasi, and, after three months, their return to their families and friends at home. Screening Room with Robert Gardner: Jean Rouch 4:45 PM Robert Gardner. 1980/2004. 15 min. Excerpt. Video. (U.S.) World Premiere. In the early 1970s, artists and professionals fought to change commercial television in Boston. After years of litigation that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the battle was won and WCVB-TV, Channel 5 was founded. From 1973 to 1980, filmmaker Robert Gardner hosted "Screening Room," introducing viewers to seminal experimental, documentary, and animation filmmakers. In this segment, Gardner engages Rouch in an informal conversation about the history of his relationship to anthropology and film, accompanied by clips from some of his celebrated works. Les Maitre Fous (Mad Masters) 5:00 PM Jean Rouch. 1953-54. 35 min. (Ghana) An ethnographic monument whose images of rituals involving trance, considered shocking at the time, appealed to the French Surrealists and also provided the inspiration for Jean Genet's vehement anti-colonial play Les negres. The members of the Hauka movement in Nigeria, which was formed in the twenties, become possessed by the spirits of the colonial administrators and mimic the white man (and his wife). In 1953, before independence, Rouch filmed a Hauku ceremony, and explains who was imitating the colonial officer, while participants strut past the "Government Palace": a high, festively painted anthill. A Panther In Africa 6:00 PM Aaron Matthews. 2004. 71 min. (Tanzania) N.Y. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival In 1969, Black Panther Pete O'Neal was arrested on a gun charge in Kansas City, Missouri. To avoid conviction, he fled to Africa, where he has spent the last 34 years living in exile in Tanzania. During the past three decades, he and his wife have devoted themselves to community work dealing with health, literacy, and anti-racism. Now, faced with the possibility of returning to America, O'Neal reflects on his life and confronts his radical past. Sunday March 6 Afghanistan Unveiled 3:00 PM Brigitte Brault & Aina Women Filming Group. 2003. 52 min. Video. (Afghanistan) Filmed by the first team of women video journalists trained in Afghanistan, this rare film explores the effects of the Taliban's repressive rule and recent U.S. military campaign on Afghani women. Shot in rural regions of the country, the filmmakers present footage of Hazara women whose lives have been decimated by recent events, and yet manage to also find moving examples of hope for the future. Madanm Ti Zo (Mrs. Littlebones) 4:00 PM David Belle. 2004. 60 min. (Haiti) U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival Madanm Ti Zo, a midwife and herbal doctor, runs her own clinic in Jacmal, Haiti. This vÈritÈ-style film—shot primarily in the courtyard and the thatched-roof hut where "Mrs. Littlebones" examines pregnant women, helps to birth babies, and aids the steady stream of men, women, and children seeking her expertise—provides an intimate look into traditional health practices. Oscar 5:00 PM Sergio Morkin. 2004. 61 min. Video. (Argentina) U.S. Premiere at 2004 Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival Oscar is a taxi driver, family man, and intrepid guerilla artist who rebels against the bombardment of advertisements in Buenos Aires. In doing so, he attracts attention from both the media and academia as an artist/activist whose story resonates strongly. But can he pay his bills without selling out? For more information you can visit the website http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead Lecture The Politics of Recognition: Distributing Flesh and Voice in the Postcolony Thursday, April 7, 2005 Elizabeth Povinelli a professor at Columbia University will be coming to Bard to give a talk. Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Her research interests focus on indigenous and queer worlds, critical theory, and language philosophies and social power. She is the author of two books, Labor's Lot (Chicago, 1994) and The Cunning of Recognition (Duke, 2004). She is currently completing a book examining the theory and method of transnational sexuality. Unwelcome Citizens: Criminal Deportees and Civic Life in The Dominican Republic Monday, February 21, 2005 Bard graduate (1997) Nina Siulc will be speaking about her research on Dominican citizens who have been deported from the United States following criminal convictions and incarceration. The talk will be followed by a screening of Nina Siulc's documentary "Deportado". This talk critically explores the meaning of "freedom" and reveals the contradictions between lived and legal definitions of citizenship, criminality, morality and rights. Nina Siulc is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology and Program in Culture and Media at New York University. Her dissertation research is based on several years of applied and academic work with immigrant communities in New York City and fieldwork in the Dominican Republic from 2000-2004. She is currently a lecturer in the Africana and Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Department at Hunter College, CUNY.

 

2004

Lecture Imperial Technologies and the Exciting World of Colonial Film Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Lecture by Brian Larkin of Barnard College. Larkin studies the role of media technologies in the shaping of popular culture and of secular and Muslim modernities in northern Nigeria. He also teaches and research ethnographic film. Part of the "History and the Performance of Culture" Lecture Series. Real Country: Performing Working Class Culture in Texas Monday, October 18, 2004 Anthropologist and musician Aaron Fox will present his research and read from his forthcoming book, Real Country, about Lockhart, Texas, a rural working-class town just south of Austin. Real Country is an ethnography of the role music in working class culture. He shows how conversations, interviews, songs, and vocal techniques express local understandings of place, memory, musical aesthetics, working-class social history, race, and gender. Homeland Insecurity: The Gender Politics of Racial and Nationalist Fear Wednesday, October 6, 2004 Lecture by Ethan Blue. He will trace a genealogy of the new right from the war on crime to the war on terror. Blue's research focuses on race and the cultures of punishment with a focus on the United States. His upcoming book examines prisons in Texas and California in the 1930s. Part of the "History and the Performance of Culture" lecture series. Performance Performances: Osagyefo Theatre Company from Ghana Friday, March 19, 2004 - Saturday, March 20, 2004 The Ghanaian Osagyefo Theatre Company, in residence at Bard College from March 17–20, will offer two performances. On Friday, March 19, the company will perform "Dances of Life," a series of contemporary and traditional African dances; and on Saturday, March 20, they will present the play Verdict of the Cobra, written by Mohammed Ben Abdallah. Both programs are free to the Bard and Vassar communities; an $8 donation is requested from the general public.