Full slate of events at Chicago Humanities Institute this quarter

Several lecture series, as well as conferences ranging from "European Feminisms" to "The Atlantic Slave Trade and African-American Memory," will be presented by the Chicago Humanities Institute this quarter. In celebration of National Poetry Month, a series of poetry-related events will be offered as well.

All events will take place at the Chicago Humanities Institute, located in Regenstein S-118, unless otherwise noted. For further information, pick up announcements at the institute, call 702-8274 or send e-mail to org_chi@midway.uchicago.edu.

Conferences Sawyer Symposium: "The Family"

The University is one of eight institutions participating in the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's three-year Sawyer Seminar Program to link area studies and comparative studies in the analysis of historical and cultural origins of contemporary developments. The Spring Symposium, "The Family," will address family issues from a global perspective and from the viewpoints of diverse disciplines. Topics will include marriage in India and family law in Muslim countries.

The symposium will be led by a committee of distinguished faculty members: Frank Reynolds, Professor in the Divinity School; John Comaroff, the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in Anthropology; Richard Helmholz, the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Professor in the Law School; and Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Professor in the Law School.

The symposium schedule follows. "Islamic Law and Colonial Encounter in British India," Michael Anderson, British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Noon, Thursday, April 3.

"Gender, Property and Land Rights: The Law and Beyond," Bina Agarwal, University of Delhi. 4:30 p.m., Thursday, April 3.

"Marriage and Civil Society in Colonial South India," Kamala Visweswaran, University of Texas and Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellow, CHI. Noon, Friday, April 4, Swift Commons.

Plenary Address: "Religion, Law and Female Identity," Susan Okin, Stanford. 4:30 p.m., Friday, April 4, Swift Lecture Hall.

"Family Law in Select Muslim Countries: A Feminist Muslim Critique," Azizah al-Hibri, University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law. 12:15 p.m., Monday, April 7, Law School. _ _ _ "Justice or Reconciliation" Friday, April 25, at the Hotel Intercontinental, 505 N. Michigan Ave., and Saturday, April 26, Law School.

Plenary addresses: Mac Maharaj and Jutta Limbach. 5 p.m, Friday, April 25. Hotel Intercontinental. Plenary Addresses: Mahmood Mamdani, University of Capetown, and Juan Mendez. Noon, Saturday, April 26. Law School.

"Politics of Memory and the Pursuit of Justice" Panel. Richard Goldstone. 2 p.m., Saturday, April 26. Law School. _ _ _ "Commerce, Culture and Enlightenment: Reconsiderations of 18th Century Anglo-American Political Culture" Saturday, May 3, in Wilder House and Sunday, May 4, CHI. A project of the joint Chicago-Northwestern Seminar on Early Modern Anglo-American political culture, this conference will focus on new forms of story-telling and the new field of political economy in the Enlightenment. _ _ _ "Representing Globalization" Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10. Culminating the three-year CHI Rockefeller program on "Public Spheres and the Globalization of Media," this conference will address a wide range of communication, reception, and globalization topics by focusing on issues about transnationally mediated images and perceptions of cultural change, migration, and civic life. _ _ _ "History of Early Modern Philosophy" Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18 This conference presents papers by members of the Midwest Seminar on the History of Early Modern Philosophy. _ _ _ "The Atlantic Slave Trade and African-American Memory" Saturday, May 24, and Sunday, May 25, CHI. Conference panels will include "Literary Representation," "Memory in Oral Tradition, Ritual and Institutions," "Memorialization Projects and Museums," and "Models/Theory."

Plenary address: "Origins of New World Slavery: Seeking the Big Picture," David Brion Davis, Yale. 4 p.m., Friday, May 23. Social Sciences 224. _ _ _ Seminars "Arcangela Tarabotti: A Literary Nun in Baroque Venice" Friday, April 18 through Saturday, April 19. Topics will include convent life and marriage strategies of the Venetian aristocracy, the Accademia degli Incogniti and libertine Venice, the Inquisition and the printing industry, issues of literary genre, and the works of Suor Arcangela Tarabotti and her correspondents.

Keynote address: "The Permeable Cloister," Anne Jacobson Schutte, Virginia. Friday, April 18. _ _ _ "Images of Woman as Widow: Historical Perspectives in Pre-Industrial Societies" Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3.

Keynote address: Virginia Hunter, York. 4:45 p.m., Friday, May 2. Other sessions will focus on "Widows in Ancient Rome," "Widows in Late Antiquity and the Early Christian Church," "Widows in Western Society, 10th-17th Centuries," and "Widows in Eastern Society." _ _ _ "The Romani: Issues of Repression and the Politics of Visual Representation" Tuesday, May 6 and Wednesday, May 7. Videos featuring Romani (gypsies) from Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Slovakia will be screened, with discussion by CHI visiting fellows Dina Iordanova and Slawomir Kapralski and University faculty members. _ _ _ "European Feminisms: Theories and Practices of Sexual Difference" Friday, May 16. By bringing together European and American feminist theorists, this symposium will draw parallels and highlight differences between feminisms in the U.S. and Europe. Speakers include Luisa Muraro, University of Verona; Maria-Milagros Rivera Garretas, University of Barcelona; Mary Russo, Hampshire; and Carol Lazzaro-Weis, Southern University.

Lectures Lecture series: "Anthropology, Theory and the Study of Ancient Religions" "Julian Pitt-Rivers, J.K. Campbell and the Religions of the Mediterranean Littoral," Michael Herzfeld, Harvard. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 3, Classics 10.

"The Post-Modern Critique from the Margins," Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Professor in the Divinity School. 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 7, Swift Hall.

"James Frazer and the Cambridge School," Jonathan Z. Smith, the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in the College. 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 28.

"Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism," Jonathan Lear, Professor in Philosophy and Committee on Social Thought. 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 19, Swift Hall. _ _ _ Rockefeller Lecture Series: "Media, Democratization and Global Mass Mediation" "Writing About Labor in an Age of Globalism," Thomas Frank, editor-in-chief, Baffler magazine and Rockefeller Fellow, CHI. Noon, Thursday, May 1.

"A Nation from Ashes? The Memory of Extermination and Political Ethnogenesis of the Roma in Central Europe," Slawomir Kapralski, Central European University and MacArthur Fellow. Noon, Thursday, May 8.

"Between the Screen and the Dust: Performing Ironies," Oga Abah, Ahmadu Bello University and Rockefeller Fellow, CHI. Noon, Thursday, May 22. _ _ _ Other Lectures "Resurrection and the Cannibalized Body: Gift and the Exchange of Body Parts," John Frow, University of Queensland. 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 9. "Imminent Domain: Queer Space in the Built Environment," Christopher Reed, Lake Forest College. 4 p.m., Thursday, April 10, Cochrane-Woods Art Center 157. "For a Constructive Comparatism," Marcel Detienne, Johns Hopkins. 4 p.m., Friday, April 11. _ _ _ Poetry Readings Phoenix Poetry Series, University of Chicago Press Jeredith Merrin, Ohio State University, author of Shift, Susan Hahn, TriQuarterly, author of Confession, and David Gewanter, Harvard University, author of In the Belly. 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 15.

Panel Discussion: "Poems that I Love, Poems that Drive Me Crazy," Robert von Hallberg, Chicago, moderator. 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 16. James McMichael, University of California, author of The World at Large, and Alan Shapiro, University of North Carolina, author of Mixed Company. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 17.