16th Annual Sequels Symposium: Security, Precarity, Surveillance

Thursday, February 16, 2017
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
CLA 1.302B

Friday, February 17, 2017
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
CLA 1.302D
305 W. 23rd St., Austin, TX 78712

E3W and the Department of English, with support from the Humanities Institute, is hosting a two-day discussion that draws on expertise from across the UT Austin campus and outside speakers to probe critical alternatives and disciplinary agendas in making sense of the concatenation of security, precarity, and surveillance.

David Roediger: "Reconsidering Race and Class"

Tuesday, February 21, 2017
7:00 PM
Belo Center for New Media 1.202
300 W. Dean Keeton, Austin, TX 78712

HI is co-sponsoring a public talk, hosted by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, by historian David Roediger, who will speak on “Reconsidering Race and Class,” drawing on his forthcoming book Race, Class, and Marxism, to think about how we can productively write, think, and organize at the intersections of race and class in the United States, past and present.

Democracy & Community Action Reading Group

Tue, February 21, 2017
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Cepeda Branch, Austin Public Library
651 N. Pleasant Valley Road, Austin, TX 78702

At the second meeting of the Democracy & Community Reading Group, we will read and discuss the U.S. Constitution and how it is called upon in today's political discourse. For more information or to RSVP, please contact HI Program Coordinator Clare Callahan. You may also visit our Wiki to browse our resources.

Max Rayneard, Former HI Community Sabbatical Grantee, Reevaluates the Relationship Between Telling a Story and Healing

During his time as an HI Community Sabbatical Research Grantee, Dr. Rayneard of The Telling Project—"a national performing arts non-profit that employs theater to deepen our understanding of the military and veterans' experience"—asked, what does it mean to tell a story? He worked with Dr. Megan Alrutz to research the work of scholars who question the assumption that applied theater's primary goal should be to "heal" its performers.

Dialoguing Across Borders by Dr. Suzanne Seriff

Dr. Suzanne Seriff teaches in the Department of Anthropology at UT. She also directs the Gallery of Conscience (GoC) at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM. In 2014, she began a collaboration at GoC with Creativity for Peace, a non-profit organization that trains young Israeli and Palestinian women to be peacemakers in their communities. She reflects on her experience working with these young women in our newest featured blog post.

O N E E V E R Y O N E: A Conversation with Ann Hamilton, January 26, 2017

The Humanities Institute kicked off the Spring 2017 semester with its co-sponsorship of O N E E V E R Y O N E: A Conversation with Ann Hamilton. The event, which took place on Thursday, January 26, featured a talk by Ann Hamilton on O N E E V E R Y O N E—a series of more than 500 photographs visualizing touch, commissioned by Landmarks for the Dell Medical School. The event also featured readings by Brian Rotman, an expert in semiotics and the cultural studies of mathematics, and Natalie Shapero, a poet, in response to Hamilton's public art project. The event closed with a panel discussion led by HI Director Pauline Strong and questions from the audience.

Earlier that Thursday, Ann Hamilton discussed the influences on her work and her previous art projects leading up to O N E E V E R Y O N E at our Faculty Fellows Seminar on the theme of "Health, Well-Being, Healing." HI's Program Coordinator, Clare Callahan, wrote about this seminar discussion in our blog, Thinking in Community.

An internationally recognized visual artist, Ann Hamilton is known for her large installations and public projects, which concentrate on the senses. She attended the University of Kansas and Yale School of Art, where she was trained in textile design and sculpture. Over the span of her career, Hamilton has received awards such as the MacArthur Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, NEA Visual Arts Fellowship, the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and the National Medal of the Arts Fellowship.

The event was attended by roughly 400 students, faculty, and visitors.