University of Richmond 2016-17 Arts & Sciences Lecture Series to feature nationally recognized scholars and experts

The University of Richmond School of Arts and Sciences is hosting lectures and performances on topics ranging from literature to climate change this fall.

Speakers include:
Thomas Constantinesco, Oct. 26, 6-7:30 p.m., Robins School of Business, Queally Hall, Ukrop Auditorium
Constantinesco’s talk, “Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Mark Twain's America” will focus on what Twain’s classic novels tell us about the national character. Tom and Huck invite us, each in his own way, to think about the meaning of America as it takes shape in the pages of its greatest literature. This event is sponsored by the Department of English, the Office of International Education and the Cultural Affairs Committee.

Simona Wright, Nov. 2, 3-4:30 p.m., Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
Wright, a professor at the College of New Jersey, will speak on “Mediterranean Crossings: Borders, Islands, Bodies and the Making of a New Archive.” Exploring this growing archive, we can recognize different resistances, defying ways to memorialize, historicize, and commemorate, narrations that make the Mediterranean the unexpected laboratory of a new modernity. The event is sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Avram Hiller, Nov. 3, 4:30-6 p.m., Jepson Hall 120
Hiller, a philosophy professor at Portland State University, will speak on “Modeling Non-Human Value in Climate Policymaking.” This talk proposes that we also try to measure climate change’s intrinsic impacts on nature and gives a framework for how to proceed. This lecture is art of the Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law program speaker series.   

Sergi Belbel, Nov. 10, 5-6:30 p.m., Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
Belbel, National Endowment for the Humanities artist in residence at the University of Richmond, has written and directed a staged reading of the Spanish play “Morir,” a contempory Catalan play about the fine line between life and death, to be performed by students in a Spanish literary class. This event is sponsored by the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies.

Adam Schwartz, Nov. 11, 4-5:30 p.m., Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
Schwartz, a professor at Oregon State University, will speak on “Mock Spanish, Gringoism and Talking About Race in Spanish Language Classrooms.” He seeks to understand why and how culture, borders, foreignness, race and privilege are socially constructed both in and outside classroom spaces. This event is sponsored by the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies.

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