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Lecture Series 2001-2002 |
The Body in Question series:
Why the body? In some fundamental sense we are our bodies; only as we are embodied can we apprehend the world or act upon it. Our bodies are sources of pleasure - through food and sex, for instance - as well as strength, mobility, endurance and grace. Yet through the body we experience pain, injury, sickness, and disability. Certain dimensions of identity, especially race and gender, seem to be defined by bodily differences, and in countless ways we judge and classify others - and are ourselves judged in turn - on the basis of bodily appearance. Many (even most) of us are painfully aware of our bodily imperfections: we may work assiduously to improve our bodies - exercising, dieting, depilating, anointing, and adorning. In extreme cases we may deprive, mutilate or abuse our bodies. Struggles over who has control over the body - individuals, the family, or the state - continue to shape political life in the US and in the world.
And almost every branch of inquiry has something to say about the body: Western philosophy struggles with the question of the relation of the body to the mind, while the biological sciences ground their investigations in the material body. The arts often work on or through the body, while the social sciences aim to lay bare what the world makes of the body.
Our programming this year will focus on many of these dynamic tensions. We have an exciting array of performances and talks. In addition to presentations by our invited guests, there will be films, presentations of faculty and student work, and other events. Please visit our web site http://academics.hamilton.edu/organizations/kirkland then click on Kirkland Project for up-to-the minute information.
We hope to see you this fall!
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Director
Kirkland Project for the Study of
Gender, Society and Culture
September 5, 2001 Join us for a panel discussion to launch the series; Hamilton College faculty members will frame the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Panel discussion: ”What the Body Knows,” with moderator Chandra Talpade Mohanty and panelists Carole Bellini-Sharp, Katheryn Doran,
Sue Ann Miller, Susan Sanchez Casal, and Thomas Wilson. (Picture)
Stay for the Opening Reception and take the opportunity to see the very fitting show, “Photographer as Magician,” featuring the work of Duane Michals, one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
September 9, 2001 Performance artist: Kate Bornstein, “Men, Women, and the Rest of Us.”
Identifying hirself as neither a man nor a woman, Kate Bornstein performs an entertaining mix of slam poetry, high theory, and low comedy. Born male and raised as a boy, she went through both boyhood and adult manhood, underwent a gender change and “became a woman.” A few years later, she discovered that being a woman didn’t work for her any better than being a man had worked. So she stopped being a woman and settled into being neither.
September 28, 2001 Lecture: Nayan Shah, “Sexualized Bodies through Law: Constructing Race and Gender in South Asian Migration in North America, 1910-1930.”
Associate Professor of History at the University of San Diego, Nayan Shah focuses on an intriguing contradiction. In the early twentieth century, the law defined Asian migrant male bodies as sexually active (overly so) and aggressive, while white male bodies were passive and in a perpetual state of boyhood. But in literature at the same time, Asian men were feminized. His talk reveals a very interesting relationship between gender, sexuality and race in the legal discourse around masculinity and boyhood.
At 1 p.m. that afternoon, Shah will visit College 130, Coming of Age in America: Narratives of Difference. All are welcome. Kirner-Johnson Auditorium.
October 27, 2001 Multimedia dance: HT Chen & Dancers, “Bian Dan.” Sponsored by the Performing Arts at Hamilton. For tickets: 315-859-4331.
Chen & Dancers fuse the spirited energy of American modern dance and traditional and contemporary Asian aesthetics. Bian Dan gets its name from the Chinese word for the bamboo pole used to carry heavy loads. These poles figure prominently in the dance, a work about the immigrant experience, the shifting from one culture to the next. A kaleidoscopic multimedia piece involving company dancers and community participants, the work builds to an exhilarating climax.
September 15, 2001 Related event: William H. Roehrick Lecture in the Fine Arts:
Duane Michals. Reception following in Emerson Gallery, Christian Johnson Building.
October 18, 2001 Related event: Lecture: Bernard Lefkowitz, author of “Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Suburb,” Sponsored by English 270: Public Affairs Journalism and the Levitt Center.
At 1 p.m., October 19 Lefkowitz will visit College 130 Coming of Age
in America: Narratives of Difference. All are welcome. Kirner-Johnson Auditorium.
November 15, 2001 Lecture: Elizabeth Siegel Watkins, “Birth Control and Controlling Birth: Struggles over Reproductive Rights in the Twentieth Century.”
Birth control is not only a personal but a social and political issue, as Watkins, History Fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shows. Taken for granted today, birth control had to be struggled for; Watkins will present the history of that struggle and the resistance these efforts met from legislators, judges, religious leaders, doctors, and others who sought to make women’s reproductive decisions for them.
On Friday at 1 p.m., Watkins will visit College 130, Coming of Age in America: Narratives of Difference. All are welcome. Kirner-Johnson Auditorium.
November 28, 2001 Film: “The Heart of the Matter,”
a documentary exploring women’s sexuality through the prism of AIDS, directed by Amber Hollibaugh.
November 29, 2001 Lecture: Amber Hollibaugh,
“My Dangerous Desires: Exploring Social Change Activism through the Lens of Sexuality.”
Amber Hollibaugh, political activist, essayist, and award-winning filmmaker, makes clear the relationship between sexuality and changing the world. Hollibaugh grew up poor and of mixed race; her personal story of hurt, self-discovery, and personal and political empowerment frames an American story of human rights activism. Her wide-ranging work links union struggles and erotic needs, prostitution and the feminist sexual nightmare, class or race struggles and sexual passion, with the larger and smaller questions that shape our daily lives and our political battles.
At 1 p.m., November 30 Hollibaugh will visit College 130, Coming of Age in America: Narratives of Difference. All are welcome. Kirner-Johnson Auditorium.
January 25, 2002 3:30 p.m., Events Barn, Beinecke
Panel: “Body Images.” Lynne Luciano: “Remaking Male Bodies: The Defeminization of Cos- metic Surgery in Modern America.” Karen L. Smith: “The Politics of Hunger.” Jan P. Fisher: “Body Image: The Hamilton Connection.” Moderated by Mark Thompson. Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by Student Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services. (Picture)
February 1, 2002 8:00 p.m., Dwight Lounge, Bristol Campus Center
Poetry Reading: Olga Broumas. Olga Broumas is the award-winning author of seven books of poetry and poet-in-residence/director of creative writing at Brandeis University. Co-sponsored by the Department of English.
February 16, 2002 8:00 p.m., location TBA
Sharon Bridgforth and Sonja Perryman, “word orchestrations/for two.” A staged reading of jazz/conjuring/word rhythms/blues/prayers, featuring a mother/daughter duo.
February 26, 2002 8:00 p.m., College Chapel
Henry Holden, “The Misconceptions Continue: How the Media Represents People with Disabilities.” Organized by the Disability Action Group and co-sponsored by the Kirkland Project, the Kirkland Endowment, the President’s Office, the Dean of Students’ Office, and the Sociology Department.
March 8, 2002 4:10 p.m., College Chapel
Susan Bordo, “Beauty on the Brain.” A multi-media exploration of the emergence of the new psycho-biological “science of beauty.” Co-sponsored by the Levitt Public Affairs Center and Faculty for Women’s Concerns.
March 9, 2002 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Kirner-Johnson Building
Conference: “Questioning the Body.” An interdisciplinary series of presentations by members of the College community. Opening reception for “Body Marks and Remarks.” An installation of several quilt-like “walls” built out of contributions from members of the community.
April 13, 2002 8:00 p.m., Wellin Hall, Schambach Center
Tim Miller, “Glory Box.” A funny, sexy, and politically charged performance. Contains nudity and adult language. Sponsored by the Performing Arts at Hamilton. For tickets call 315-859-4331.
April 25, 8 p.m.Related Event: College Chapel
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tolles Lecture
Body in Question film series: Join us for four evenings of film. All films will be shown at 8:00 p.m. in Kirner-Johnson Auditorium.
February 7 - “Boogie Nights”, and “Live Nude Girls Unite!”
February 21 - “Harold and Maude” and “The Body Beautiful”
February 28 - “Double the Trouble, Twice the Fun” and “Freaks”
March 7 - “The Life and Times of Sara Baartman: “The Hottentot Venus”
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