Tailoring Identities: Mobility, Technology, and Men’s Fashion in Independence-Era Bénin
A Talk By Elizabeth Ann Fretwell, Assistant Professor of African History, Old Dominion University
Friday, February 7, 2025 1–2:30 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 102 This talk traces the development of artisanal tailoring in mid-twentieth century Bénin, West Africa to show how everyday tailors served as important cultural and technological innovators. Drawing on evidence from apprenticeship, oral history, and archives, it explores the entanglement of materials, craft knowledge, and sartorial meaning in the creation of popular and enduring Béninois men’s styles. In doing so, it demonstrates how tailors helped fashion identities through clothes-making, giving form and expression to the political and social challenges of modernity, urbanization, and decolonization.Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Sure Banker! The Cultural Politics of Commercial Gambling in Urban Nigeria, 1880 to 2020
A Talk by Folarin Ajibade, Assistant Professor of History, Florida State University
Monday, February 10, 2025 5–6:30 pm
Hegeman 204 This talk traces the sociocultural and political significance of urban gambling in Nigeria from the colonial to the contemporary period, exploring a critical moment of transition in Nigeria's history between the 1960s and the 1980s. Ajibade argues that during the first two decades of Nigeria's independence, popular gambling came to embody contentions in Nigerian civil society over the nature of the relationship between the Nigerian state and its urban masses. Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Angelic Speech & Aramaic Translation: A Talk by Professor Bruce Chilton
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 1:20–3 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 307 For over a thousand years, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Aramaic. The rendering was often free-ranging, adaptive, and expansive. The Targumim, as they are called on the basis of their Aramaic name, reflect how the biblical texts were understood as much as what the original words said. Yet midway through the period of Targumic formation, some rabbis have been interpreted to say that the angels before God speak only Hebrew, so that prayers in Aramaic are not heard. This discussion of Aramaic translations will try to elucidate this discrepancy between the interpretations. For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
How to Eat Copper: Indigenous Mining in 19th and 20th-century Central Africa
A Talk by Peter Vale, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 5–6:30 pm
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium In mid-May each year, following the annual sorghum harvest, the heads of the Bayeke and Basanga of the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as Katanga, declare: tuye tukadie mukuba, “let’s go eat the copper.” But what does it mean to “eat” copper? This talk traces the evolution of this unique idea during the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods. In drawing together copper artifacts, oral accounts, colonial ethnographies, historical images, and postcolonial propaganda, this talk suggests that the “eating” of copper represents the deep material and conceptual tie between agriculture and mining in Central African environmental systems.
Indigenous miners consistently re-imagined modes of human engagement with the earth and its resources to foster new economic and ecological potentials. The historical persistence of this notion of “eating copper” underscores the profound cultural and economic attachments that have shaped Congolese communities’ relationships to extraction in a locale that has become the epicenter for global decarbonization and inequality initiatives.Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Beyond the Self: Imagination, Buddhism, and the Ethics of Empathy
A Talk by Qianyi Qin, Lecturer of Philosophy, Smith College
Friday, February 14, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A When you imagine something, are you yourself present in some way, in that imaginative episode? This talk explores whether imagination necessarily includes a “self”, and what this means for empathy, ethics, and self-transformation. While some argue that some acts of imagination involve, at most, a thin sense of self, others suggest that a thicker self, shaped by personal values and emotions, also permeates imagination. This raises profound questions: Can we ever imagine neutrally, without bias? Can we truly empathize with others, or are we always imagining ourselves in their place? By blending philosophical analysis with insights from psychology, this talk invites us to rethink the nature of imagination, empathy, and the self.Sponsored by: Dean of the College; Philosophy Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Imagining Disaster Otherwise: Philosophical Resources for the Climate Crisis
Jordan Pascoe, George A. Miller Visiting Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Friday, February 21, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A When disasters strike, we often imagine them as scenes from an action movie: violent, heroic, and focused on self-preservation. However, 100 years of disaster sociology tells us that, in reality, people tend to come together, care for one another, and find new ways to make life collectively possible. In this talk, I will examine the power of our dominant, violent disaster imaginary and ask: how can we begin to imagine disasters differently? What kinds of new imaginaries can foster collective, coalition-building, and aspirational practices?
Drawing on Black feminist thought, literature and social movements, Indigenous philosophy, and moral frameworks grounded in African and Haitian practices of resistance, I will outline a set of tools that offer possibilities for reimagining our response to the climate crisis. To ensure our survival in the era of climate crisis, we must develop disaster policies and practices that actively support aspirational visions and collective creativity, while helping us resist nostalgic and reactionary narratives. I’ll draw on the work of doulas (those who support others through the crisis of birth) to show how we can practice disaster otherwise, even in the face of a hostile state.Sponsored by: Dean of the College; Philosophy Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Chapel of the Holy Innocents A vigil marking three years since Russia's full-scale invasion and the eleventh year of war. For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
A talk by Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, Visiting Fellow, New York University
Friday, February 28, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A According to the Humean consensus in philosophy, sense experience provides “no impression from which the idea of the infinite may be derived.” This talk explores the possibility that the consensus is mistaken. Can infinity in fact exist in the physical world, and if so, can our senses give us epistemic access to it? An affirmative answer would have consequences not just for the philosophy of mathematics but also for epistemology and the philosophy of mind. The discovery that we can, against the odds, experience infinity would compel us to rethink what it means to experience something, and to rethink what our sources of knowledge for distinct realms (abstract and concrete) might be. For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
Tailoring Identities: Mobility, Technology, and Men’s Fashion in Independence-Era Bénin
A Talk By Elizabeth Ann Fretwell, Assistant Professor of African History, Old Dominion University
Friday, February 7, 2025 1–2:30 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 102 This talk traces the development of artisanal tailoring in mid-twentieth century Bénin, West Africa to show how everyday tailors served as important cultural and technological innovators. Drawing on evidence from apprenticeship, oral history, and archives, it explores the entanglement of materials, craft knowledge, and sartorial meaning in the creation of popular and enduring Béninois men’s styles. In doing so, it demonstrates how tailors helped fashion identities through clothes-making, giving form and expression to the political and social challenges of modernity, urbanization, and decolonization.Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Sure Banker! The Cultural Politics of Commercial Gambling in Urban Nigeria, 1880 to 2020
A Talk by Folarin Ajibade, Assistant Professor of History, Florida State University
Monday, February 10, 2025 5–6:30 pm
Hegeman 204 This talk traces the sociocultural and political significance of urban gambling in Nigeria from the colonial to the contemporary period, exploring a critical moment of transition in Nigeria's history between the 1960s and the 1980s. Ajibade argues that during the first two decades of Nigeria's independence, popular gambling came to embody contentions in Nigerian civil society over the nature of the relationship between the Nigerian state and its urban masses. Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Angelic Speech & Aramaic Translation: A Talk by Professor Bruce Chilton
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 1:20–3 pm
Olin Humanities, Room 307 For over a thousand years, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Aramaic. The rendering was often free-ranging, adaptive, and expansive. The Targumim, as they are called on the basis of their Aramaic name, reflect how the biblical texts were understood as much as what the original words said. Yet midway through the period of Targumic formation, some rabbis have been interpreted to say that the angels before God speak only Hebrew, so that prayers in Aramaic are not heard. This discussion of Aramaic translations will try to elucidate this discrepancy between the interpretations. For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
How to Eat Copper: Indigenous Mining in 19th and 20th-century Central Africa
A Talk by Peter Vale, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 5–6:30 pm
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium In mid-May each year, following the annual sorghum harvest, the heads of the Bayeke and Basanga of the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as Katanga, declare: tuye tukadie mukuba, “let’s go eat the copper.” But what does it mean to “eat” copper? This talk traces the evolution of this unique idea during the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods. In drawing together copper artifacts, oral accounts, colonial ethnographies, historical images, and postcolonial propaganda, this talk suggests that the “eating” of copper represents the deep material and conceptual tie between agriculture and mining in Central African environmental systems.
Indigenous miners consistently re-imagined modes of human engagement with the earth and its resources to foster new economic and ecological potentials. The historical persistence of this notion of “eating copper” underscores the profound cultural and economic attachments that have shaped Congolese communities’ relationships to extraction in a locale that has become the epicenter for global decarbonization and inequality initiatives.Sponsored by: Africana Studies Program; Dean of the College; Historical Studies Program.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Beyond the Self: Imagination, Buddhism, and the Ethics of Empathy
A Talk by Qianyi Qin, Lecturer of Philosophy, Smith College
Friday, February 14, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A When you imagine something, are you yourself present in some way, in that imaginative episode? This talk explores whether imagination necessarily includes a “self”, and what this means for empathy, ethics, and self-transformation. While some argue that some acts of imagination involve, at most, a thin sense of self, others suggest that a thicker self, shaped by personal values and emotions, also permeates imagination. This raises profound questions: Can we ever imagine neutrally, without bias? Can we truly empathize with others, or are we always imagining ourselves in their place? By blending philosophical analysis with insights from psychology, this talk invites us to rethink the nature of imagination, empathy, and the self.Sponsored by: Dean of the College; Philosophy Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Imagining Disaster Otherwise: Philosophical Resources for the Climate Crisis
Jordan Pascoe, George A. Miller Visiting Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Friday, February 21, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A When disasters strike, we often imagine them as scenes from an action movie: violent, heroic, and focused on self-preservation. However, 100 years of disaster sociology tells us that, in reality, people tend to come together, care for one another, and find new ways to make life collectively possible. In this talk, I will examine the power of our dominant, violent disaster imaginary and ask: how can we begin to imagine disasters differently? What kinds of new imaginaries can foster collective, coalition-building, and aspirational practices?
Drawing on Black feminist thought, literature and social movements, Indigenous philosophy, and moral frameworks grounded in African and Haitian practices of resistance, I will outline a set of tools that offer possibilities for reimagining our response to the climate crisis. To ensure our survival in the era of climate crisis, we must develop disaster policies and practices that actively support aspirational visions and collective creativity, while helping us resist nostalgic and reactionary narratives. I’ll draw on the work of doulas (those who support others through the crisis of birth) to show how we can practice disaster otherwise, even in the face of a hostile state.Sponsored by: Dean of the College; Philosophy Program.
For more information, call 845-758-7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Chapel of the Holy Innocents A vigil marking three years since Russia's full-scale invasion and the eleventh year of war. For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
A talk by Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, Visiting Fellow, New York University
Friday, February 28, 2025 12–1:30 pm
Hegeman 204A According to the Humean consensus in philosophy, sense experience provides “no impression from which the idea of the infinite may be derived.” This talk explores the possibility that the consensus is mistaken. Can infinity in fact exist in the physical world, and if so, can our senses give us epistemic access to it? An affirmative answer would have consequences not just for the philosophy of mathematics but also for epistemology and the philosophy of mind. The discovery that we can, against the odds, experience infinity would compel us to rethink what it means to experience something, and to rethink what our sources of knowledge for distinct realms (abstract and concrete) might be. For more information, call 845-758-7662, or e-mail [email protected].
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