November Highlights

Ulrike Ottinger, South East Passage, 2002, still from video.

The Renaissance Society
“Ulrike Ottinger: South East Passage-A Journey to New Blank Spots on the Map of Europe”
Sunday, Nov. 16 through Sunday, Dec. 21
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Room 418, Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. 702-8670. www.renaissancesociety.org. Free.
Berlin-based artist Ulrike Ottinger creates a travelogue of her journey from southeast Poland to the Bulgarian shores of the Black Sea in this video exhibition. Examining the countries as they stand poised to become part of the European Union, Ottinger documents a moment further marking the transition out of communism. Focusing on two coastal cities, Odessa and Istanbul, the digital video piece is narrated with a voice-over scripted from a wide array of historical and contemporary literature. There will be an opening reception at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, and Ottinger will give an artist’s talk at 5 p.m.

Annie Hitchcock, Adolphus Clay Bartlett, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and William Rainey Harper at the cornerstone laying of Hitchcock Hall.

Special Collections Research Center
“Research at the Center: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Special Collections”
Through Jan. 12, 2004
8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Saturday.
1100 E. 57th St. 702-8705. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl. Free.
Special Collections celebrates its 50th anniversary with three exhibitions. The central exhibition, “Research at the Center: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Special Collections,” presents a portrait of the way the center has worked over time to preserve and provide broadened access to primary sources across a range of disciplines and formats. “Celebrating Our Friends: Recent Gifts to the Special Collections Research Center,” which runs through Feb. 13, 2004, features new gifts to the center from faculty, alumni and staff. The third exhibition, “Eureka! Discovering Sources in the Ludwig Rosenberger Library of Judaica,” explores various tools to access the more than 17,000 titles in the Rosenberger Library, and runs through June 25, 2004.

Middle East Music Ensemble

Department of Music
Middle East Music Ensemble
Fulton Recital Hall, 1010 E. 59th St. 702-9075. Free.
8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18
The ensemble joins the Chicago chapter of the Halverti-Jerrahi Order of Dervishes to perform devotional Sufi music. Sacred poetry, both ancient and modern, will accompany some pieces.

David Lloyd,USC; Craig Calhoun, president, Social Science Research Council; and James Chandler, Director of the Franke Institute, at a Friday, Oct. 24 Mellon Project workshop.

The Franke Institute for the Humanities
Mellon Project: Comparative Studies in Higher Education
1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 and 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20
702-8274. Free.
This 4 p.m. series of lectures and workshops will explore the role of the American research university and the appearance in the last 25 to 30 years of area and related studies. The project also looks at how universities in other parts of the world face these issues. Partha Chatterjee of Columbia University will give a talk titled “Does India Need Social Science?” at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in Room 10 of Classics, 1010 E. 59th St. Ping-Chen Hsiung of Taiwan University will lecture on “Moving the World According to a Shifted ‘I’: World History Texts in Republican China and Postwar Taiwan” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the Franke Institute, Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th St., Room S118.