Posts Tagged humanities

Joan Saab, associate professor of art history and visual and cultural studies, points to illustrations popularized in the 19th century press purporting to prove there was life on the moon, during the inaugural Hagop and Artemis Nazerian Humanities Lecture. “I’m interested in this moment in the 19th century when people are willing to suspend disbelief and see things—and even though they know they’re not true, to believe for that moment that they are.” (University photo / J. Adam Fenster)

During the mid-19th century, a series of grand hoaxes captured the American imagination: the Great Moon Hoax, the Cardiff Giant, and the fantastical creatures of P. T. Barnum. Joan Saab, an associate professor of art history and visual and cultural studies, examines the relationship between seeing and believing.

The International Theatre program explores one woman’s struggle against the status quo through Federico Garcia Lorca’s famed tragedy, Yerma, which runs through December 13 in Todd Theater.

While damage to daguerreotype plates is often visible by eye, evidence of further deterioration may only be detected at the nano level. The University is leading groundbreaking research that bridges the gap between science, history, and the arts.

This year’s Polish Film Festival, put on by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, features stories of elusive happiness, personal struggles, history, and murder.

Christopher White, associate professor of religion at Vassar College, will give the talk, “Doorways to Invisible Dimensions: Claude Bragdon’s Other-Worldly Art, the ‘Fourth Dimension’ and Modern Forms of Enchantment.”

The International Theatre Program kicks off its 26th season on Thursday, Oct. 8 with a rare stage production of Dylan Thomas’ play, Under Milk Wood. Originally written for radio in the 1950s as a “play for voices,” Under Milk Wood was the only play Thomas ever completed.

University of Rochester Trustee Ani Gabrellian ’84 and her husband, Mark Gabrellian ’79, have committed $2 million to establish a directorship for the University’s newly created Humanities Center.

Dean of Arts & Sciences Gloria Culver has announced the creation of a Humanities Center, which will support multidisciplinary engagement around literature, history, the arts, and philosophies of cultures past and present. Culver and interim director of the new center Joan Shelley Rubin have chosen “Humanities at the Crossroads: Charting Our Future” as the center’s theme for its first year. Faculty and students will organize research projects, seminars and symposia around the theme.

Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew is often criticized for its portrayal of women as weak and submissive. But on Thursday, April 9, the University’s International Theatre Program will present a new take on the classic comedy in a production performed by a largely male cast.