Symposia/Tertulias 2011-2012

Trinity 100/126,Thursdays 4-5:30pm and Fridays 3-5 pm unless otherwise noted
Director: Sarah Pike, 898-6341, spike@csuchico.edu

September | November | February | March | April | May

Thursdays, Sept. 15, 22, 29, 4–5:30 pm
Fridays: Sept. 9, 16, 30, 3–4:30 pm

Secret Cinema Tertulias with Peter Hogue, Emeritus, English "Ballpark Figures/ Cahiers du Fotoplay"

Sept. 8 reception 5–7 pm, Trinity Hallway.

A multi-media memoir and work-in-progress: Photographs, collage and photocopy, written and spoken word, video, etc. Baseball, the Far West, movies, personal icons, friends and family.

Peter Hogue taught modern literature and cinema studies in the English department at Chico State from 1971–2006. He co-founded CSU's University Film Series with Ira Latour and booked films for the series 1973–1990 and 1999–2002. He has also been a film critic for Chico News & Review, 1978 to date.

Sept. 23 
On the Very Idea of 'East and West' Asa Mittman, Art and Art History and Jason Clower, Religious Studies
4–5:30 pm, Trinity 100.*

This event kicks off the Humanities Center's year-long theme, "China and the West," with a lively discussion between two scholars who challenge representations and assumptions about the meanings of "East" and "West." They will debate the origins of Orientalist concepts and explore the false and problematic East-West binary.

Nov. 10 

"Screening Modern China in Film" Sandra Collins, History, Humanities Center tertulia,
4-5:30pm, Trinity 100*

This is an informal talk about how to decode the key tropes of defining modern China in cinema today. Addressing some of the films in the Humanities Film Series, we will explore various representations of "Chinese-ness" for both domestic and international audiences.

Feb. 9

Humanities Center tertulia: “What Remains”
4-5 pm Trinity 126

We all work with fragments of the past that survive into the present for us to study. How do we deal with this separation of our material from its larger and earlier contexts?

February 16

China and the West Roundtable on the Silk Roads
4-5:30, Trinity 100

In this interactive roundtable a panel of faculty members will discuss the importance of the Silk Roads in the movement of music, language, religion and other goods and ideas across the cultures of China, India and the Mediterranean World. To what extent did the Silk Roads help to create a network of exchanges across regions and cultures? Do the Silk Roads indicate a unified Afro-Eurasian history, as some historians have recently argued? Drawing on their own areas of expertise, panelists will address these and other questions.

Featuring Jason Clower (Religious Studies), Sandra Collins (History), Yoshio Kusaba (Art and Art History), and Daniel Veidlinger (Religious Studies)

Optional reading for discussion: David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History.” (PDF) Journal of World History 11, no. 1 (2000): 1–26.

February 23

Humanities Center tertulia: “Periods and Types”

4-5 pm Trinity 126

In order to think about complex things we need to categorize them synchronically (types) and diachronically (periods). How do we evaluate the validity and utility of these categories

February 28

Humanities Center tertulia: China and the West Reading Group on Yiyun Li’s short story “Prison”

4-5 pm Trinity 126

Reading: Yiyun Li, "Prison" (from Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, 2010): “In Yiyun Li’s stories, destiny—zealously assisted by the punitive state, the ill will of one’s neighbors, the secret agendas of those we imagine we know best and the flaws in our own nature—continually subverts our plans for happiness. In “Prison,” a couple who have emigrated to the United States return to China in search of a surrogate mother to bear their child and learn a harrowing lesson about the consequences of suffering and the ferocity of maternal affection.” (The New York Times, 9/17/10). For a pdf of the reading, please e-mail spike@csuchico.edu.

March 8

Humanities Center tertulia: “Frames”

4-5 pm Trinity 126

Writing about something delineates and defines it. How then do the rhetorical and narrative styles of our respective disciplines organize how we think?

March 29

Humanities Center tertulia: ”Patterns”

4-5 pm Trinity 126

Spatial metaphors have always been important, if often implicit, tools for understanding the world around us. What types of spatial patterns dominate how we see things today and how do they impact our view of the things we study?

April 5

Humanities Center tertulia

4–5 pm Trinity 126*

Reading from Xi Lian's Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China, facilitated by Jason Clower. For a pdf of the reading, please e-mail Sarah Pike at spike@csuchico.edu

April 12

Humanities Center Tertulia: Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Why Creative People Shouldn't Try to Make Movies

Robert O'Brien (English) discusses Orson Welles's lifelong Shakespeare obsession and three films: Macbeth, Othello, and The Chimes at Midnight.

4–5 pm in Trinity 100.

April 19 
Humanities Center Tertulia:
Daniel Veidlinger (Religious Studies) talks about religion and the Internet.
4–5 pm Trinity 126

April 27 

HFA Faculty Book Celebration 

4–5:30 pm Trinity 100

May 3

Humanities Center tertulia: Geoff Baker (English) looks at the varied uses of Chinese characters by major European novelists in the 19th century.

5–6 pm Trinity 126*

*The Humanities Center's theme for this year is "China and the West."