“It’s the Religion, Stupid”: Religious Dimensions in Current Crises
“From the River to the Sea” in the Hamas Charter
Monday, November 4, 2024 12:30–2 pm
Bard Hall After the Cold War ended American politicians became fond of the mantra, “It's the Economy, Stupid.” They were not wrong, although other factors also have their sway. This autumn's series will consider global crises in which religion plays a central role, sometimes overrules self-interest, and needs to be understood for any address of the situation to be productive.
Presented by Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion and director of the Institute of Advanced Theology.Sponsored by: Institute of Advanced Theology.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Olin Language Center, Room 115 Join students from the course "The 2024 Election and You" as we discuss what is at stake in the election and why voting is important to you.Sponsored by: Center for Civic Engagement; Politics Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7693, or e-mail [email protected].
They, the People: Decolonization and Popular Politics
A talk from Sandipto Dasgupta, Assistant Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research
Thursday, November 7, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 102
Sandipto Dasgupta is Assistant Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research. For the academic year 2024-25, he is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in Social Sciences and Historical Studies. He is the author of Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony, which reconstructs the institutionalization of nascent postcolonial futures through a historical study of the Indian constitution making experience.
Sponsored by Dean of the College, Division of Social Studies, Asian Studies, Global and International Studies Program, Human Rights Project, Politics, Middle Eastern Studies, and Union College Political Science Department, and Dean of Academic Department and Programs
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
This presentation tracks the ways images of violence in Palestine have circulated and functioned in the past thirteen months. Examining photographs (including images from previous decades), evidence of war crimes, and the visual techniques of villainization, Broomberg and Nahari will address how these images both define the moral limits of violence and play an integral role in its enactment. Like modern warfare’s autonomous weaponry, its documentation also distances brutal cause from devastating effect. Vital to this discussion is the visibility of affliction—the war-torn bodies of damageable Arab victims vs. seemingly invulnerable Israeli soldiers—and how such optics sanctify certain forms of life while devaluing others wholesale.
Please note that the visuals that will be presented are distressing and graphic. We do not intend to inflict further harm, but to look at them with critical understanding together.
Sponsored by: Human Rights Project; Photography Program.
For more information, call 845-857-5518, or e-mail [email protected].
"The Wonderful Years": Mundane Archives of Soviet Sexuality
Film screening and conversation with Galina Yarmanova and Masha Shpolberg
Thursday, November 14, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Ottaway Film Center
Galina Yarmanova will present the short film "Щасливі роки" ("The Wonderful Years," 9 min.) alongside their research project on sexuality in late Soviet Ukraine. The film, created in collaboration with film director Svitlana Shymko, explores how the generation of their mothers coped with the mundane societal pressures to get married and raise children. "The Wonderful Years" draws on data from several research projects on sexuality and uses official Soviet reels alongside home videos from the Lviv Center for Urban History collection. After the screening, Yarmanova and Masha Shpolberg invite you to a discussion about film as a tool for activism and research, and how the feminist decolonial lens brings challenges to archival work.
Galina Yarmanova is a Fellow at Bard College Berlin. They teach queer theory in Kyiv and Berlin and work with the community-driven project on activist history with the queer feminist collective samozvanky. For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
Dark Reconstruction, or the Architecture of Russian Worlding
Guest lecture by Michał Murawski
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Hegeman 204 In Russian, the word for “world” (mir) has a double valence – it also means “peace.” Amid the devastation unleashed by the collapse of the USSR, a revanchist fantasy of a boundless “Russian world” (Russkiy mir) has gradually, but steadily, infiltrated the political and ideological mainstream. Russkiy mir denotes something like pax russica – an earthly realm which has been (or is yet to be) pacified by Russia by means of war. Today, this fantasy is steadily turning into material reality. This talk interrogates the forms and structures of Russkyi mir-in-the-making through the lens of “reconstruction” projects carried out by Russian (state and private) actors in places that the armies of the Russian Federation have laid to waste.Sponsored by: Anthropology Program; Architecture Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
When Rape Goes Viral: Youth and Sexual Assault in the Digital Age
Anna Gjika, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY New Paltz
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 5:30–7 pm
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
Stories of teen sexting scandals, cyberbullying, and image-based sexual abuse have become commonplace fixtures of the digital age, with many adults struggling to identify ways to monitor young people's digital engagement. In her new book, When Rape Goes Viral, Anna Gjika argues that rather than focusing on surveillance, we should examine such incidents for what they tell us about youth peer cultures and the gender norms and sexual ethics governing their interactions. Drawing from interviews with teens and high-profile cases of mediated juvenile sexual assault, Gjika exposes the deeply unequal and heteronormative power dynamics informing teens' intimate relationships and online practices, and she critically interrogates the role of digital cultures and broader social values in sanctioning abuse.
Sponsored by: Experimental Humanities Program; Gender and Sexuality Studies Program; Science, Technology, and Society Program; Sociology Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7899, or e-mail [email protected].
A talk by Jan-Willem Romeijn, University of Groningen
Friday, November 22, 2024 12 pm
Hegeman 107 In the talk we investigate so-called enantiomorphs, objects whose mirror image is intrinsically different. We start with the analyses provided by the philosopher Kant, culminating in his eventual vindication of a Newtonian idea of space. We then trace the phenomenon of enantiomorphy though the history of geometry in the nineteenth century, constructing a model of the aforementioned fancy fair attraction with paper and tape, and we find out how the phenomenon sheds light on the development of Einstein's relativity theories. Zooming out, we see that the puzzle of enantiomorphs crisply illustrates a philosophical insight that has arguably had huge significance beyond the philosophy of physics, all the way into the economic theory and political philosophy of Marx.Sponsored by: Philosophy Program; Physics Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
“It’s the Religion, Stupid”: Religious Dimensions in Current Crises
“From the River to the Sea” in the Hamas Charter
Monday, November 4, 2024 12:30–2 pm
Bard Hall After the Cold War ended American politicians became fond of the mantra, “It's the Economy, Stupid.” They were not wrong, although other factors also have their sway. This autumn's series will consider global crises in which religion plays a central role, sometimes overrules self-interest, and needs to be understood for any address of the situation to be productive.
Presented by Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion and director of the Institute of Advanced Theology.Sponsored by: Institute of Advanced Theology.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Olin Language Center, Room 115 Join students from the course "The 2024 Election and You" as we discuss what is at stake in the election and why voting is important to you.Sponsored by: Center for Civic Engagement; Politics Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7693, or e-mail [email protected].
They, the People: Decolonization and Popular Politics
A talk from Sandipto Dasgupta, Assistant Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research
Thursday, November 7, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 102
Sandipto Dasgupta is Assistant Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research. For the academic year 2024-25, he is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in Social Sciences and Historical Studies. He is the author of Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony, which reconstructs the institutionalization of nascent postcolonial futures through a historical study of the Indian constitution making experience.
Sponsored by Dean of the College, Division of Social Studies, Asian Studies, Global and International Studies Program, Human Rights Project, Politics, Middle Eastern Studies, and Union College Political Science Department, and Dean of Academic Department and Programs
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
This presentation tracks the ways images of violence in Palestine have circulated and functioned in the past thirteen months. Examining photographs (including images from previous decades), evidence of war crimes, and the visual techniques of villainization, Broomberg and Nahari will address how these images both define the moral limits of violence and play an integral role in its enactment. Like modern warfare’s autonomous weaponry, its documentation also distances brutal cause from devastating effect. Vital to this discussion is the visibility of affliction—the war-torn bodies of damageable Arab victims vs. seemingly invulnerable Israeli soldiers—and how such optics sanctify certain forms of life while devaluing others wholesale.
Please note that the visuals that will be presented are distressing and graphic. We do not intend to inflict further harm, but to look at them with critical understanding together.
Sponsored by: Human Rights Project; Photography Program.
For more information, call 845-857-5518, or e-mail [email protected].
"The Wonderful Years": Mundane Archives of Soviet Sexuality
Film screening and conversation with Galina Yarmanova and Masha Shpolberg
Thursday, November 14, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Ottaway Film Center
Galina Yarmanova will present the short film "Щасливі роки" ("The Wonderful Years," 9 min.) alongside their research project on sexuality in late Soviet Ukraine. The film, created in collaboration with film director Svitlana Shymko, explores how the generation of their mothers coped with the mundane societal pressures to get married and raise children. "The Wonderful Years" draws on data from several research projects on sexuality and uses official Soviet reels alongside home videos from the Lviv Center for Urban History collection. After the screening, Yarmanova and Masha Shpolberg invite you to a discussion about film as a tool for activism and research, and how the feminist decolonial lens brings challenges to archival work.
Galina Yarmanova is a Fellow at Bard College Berlin. They teach queer theory in Kyiv and Berlin and work with the community-driven project on activist history with the queer feminist collective samozvanky. For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
Dark Reconstruction, or the Architecture of Russian Worlding
Guest lecture by Michał Murawski
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 5–6:30 pm
Hegeman 204 In Russian, the word for “world” (mir) has a double valence – it also means “peace.” Amid the devastation unleashed by the collapse of the USSR, a revanchist fantasy of a boundless “Russian world” (Russkiy mir) has gradually, but steadily, infiltrated the political and ideological mainstream. Russkiy mir denotes something like pax russica – an earthly realm which has been (or is yet to be) pacified by Russia by means of war. Today, this fantasy is steadily turning into material reality. This talk interrogates the forms and structures of Russkyi mir-in-the-making through the lens of “reconstruction” projects carried out by Russian (state and private) actors in places that the armies of the Russian Federation have laid to waste.Sponsored by: Anthropology Program; Architecture Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
When Rape Goes Viral: Youth and Sexual Assault in the Digital Age
Anna Gjika, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY New Paltz
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 5:30–7 pm
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
Stories of teen sexting scandals, cyberbullying, and image-based sexual abuse have become commonplace fixtures of the digital age, with many adults struggling to identify ways to monitor young people's digital engagement. In her new book, When Rape Goes Viral, Anna Gjika argues that rather than focusing on surveillance, we should examine such incidents for what they tell us about youth peer cultures and the gender norms and sexual ethics governing their interactions. Drawing from interviews with teens and high-profile cases of mediated juvenile sexual assault, Gjika exposes the deeply unequal and heteronormative power dynamics informing teens' intimate relationships and online practices, and she critically interrogates the role of digital cultures and broader social values in sanctioning abuse.
Sponsored by: Experimental Humanities Program; Gender and Sexuality Studies Program; Science, Technology, and Society Program; Sociology Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7899, or e-mail [email protected].
A talk by Jan-Willem Romeijn, University of Groningen
Friday, November 22, 2024 12 pm
Hegeman 107 In the talk we investigate so-called enantiomorphs, objects whose mirror image is intrinsically different. We start with the analyses provided by the philosopher Kant, culminating in his eventual vindication of a Newtonian idea of space. We then trace the phenomenon of enantiomorphy though the history of geometry in the nineteenth century, constructing a model of the aforementioned fancy fair attraction with paper and tape, and we find out how the phenomenon sheds light on the development of Einstein's relativity theories. Zooming out, we see that the puzzle of enantiomorphs crisply illustrates a philosophical insight that has arguably had huge significance beyond the philosophy of physics, all the way into the economic theory and political philosophy of Marx.Sponsored by: Philosophy Program; Physics Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
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