Symposia/Tertulias 2008-09

Trinity 100/126,Thursdays 4-5:30pm and Fridays 3-5 pm unless otherwise noted
Director: Troy Jollimore, 898-4506, tjollimore@csuchico.edu

Fall | Spring

AUG. 29
Andrew Flescher, Religious Studies “Passage to Peru”

Humanities Center Friday Tertulia, 3-5 pm, Trinity 100

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts is sponsoring a tour for students, staff, faculty, alums, and the community to Peru including Machu Picchu January 5-15, 2009. The faculty-in-residence is Professor Flescher, who earned his PhD from Brown University. He has traveled extensively to Brazil and spent one summer studying wildlife in the Amazon River basin. This past January he led a group of 35 on an eleven-day trip to Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands. It is possible for CSU, Chico students to earn 1-3 units through the Department of Religious Studies. Flescher will talk about Peru and the upcoming trip.

OCT. 3
Andrew Flescher, Religious Studies "Bringing Religion to the Public Square in the Context of the Separation of Church and State: Barack Obama's Endorsement of Faith-Based Initiatives" Humanities Center Friday Symposium co-hosted with the Religious Studies Lecture Series

3-5 pm, Trinity 100

This paper will explore the seemingly glaring tension between Barack Obama's support of faith based initiatives and his belief in the separation of church and state, a platform most recently criticized and brought to our attention by James Dobson, chairman of the board of Focus on the Family. Most supporters of faith-based initiatives are evangelicals whose justification for bringing religion into the public square is grounded in biblical revelation or in a communitarian ethos of a distinct Christian identity. Obama's support of faith based initiatives, by contrast, rests on the economic and other pragmatic advantages of supporting religiously backed schools and programs within the larger context of a secular, pluralistic society.

NOV. 7 Kyle Wiley Pickett, Music Humanities Center Friday Symposium

4-5:30 pm,Trinity 100*

Kyle Wiley Pickett, music director of the North State Symphony (NSS), will discuss beauty as it relates to the upcoming NSS production Nov. 14-16 that includes Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night.

APR. 9 Mike Mazur, Theatre and Humanities Center Board “I Feel Pretty: Beauty as a Theme in the Lyrics of Stephen Sondheim” Humanities Center Thursday Tertulia

4-5:30 pm, Trinity 126 and 100*

APR. 17 S. Elise Archias, Art History and Humanities Center Board "Everydayness" Humanities Center Friday Symposium

3-5 pm, Trinity 126 and 100*

In the 1960s, New York artists inserted the quality of everydayness into the works and spaces of art where beauty and grandeur had once confidently reigned. This presentation will provide a chance to look at examples of the performance art made during this period and to discuss both what was lost and gained—what, that is, we contemporary art makers and viewers do and do not want to inherit from this negative, creative episode of history.

APR. 23
Kyle Killian, Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University “Beauty in the Cloister: Viewing in a Monastic Utopia” Humanities Center Thursday Tertulia

4-5:30 pm, Trinity 126 and 100*

This presentation will look at some medieval theories about beauty with a focus on the discussion between Abbot Suger of St. Denis and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux about the place and nature of beauty in the cloister.

* The Humanities Center’s theme for this year—“Regarding Beauty”—is being partially underwritten by a grant from New Urban Builders, which enables the Center to bring a wide range of outside speakers to campus as well as to host a number of community events.