 | With the spring semester now in full swing, the Humanities Institute is pleased to share the activities we have planned for the Spring 2019 semester. Our February 2019 Newsletter includes an invitation to our featured event, the 2019 Dr. Paul and Mary Ho Distinguished Lecture in China Studies featuring Dr. Judith Farquhar; details on the first Health & Humanities Research Seminar for the semester, "Narratives, Health and Healing," with guest speaker Dr. Lynn Harter; and information on this month's Controversy & Conversation documentary film screening of Ai Weiwei's Human Flow, with guest speaker Nancy Schiesari. We are also excited to announce the 2019 Community Sabbatical Research Leave (CSRL) Grantees and to share information on the work of the outgoing 2018 CSRL Grantees. Please read below to find further details on our February 2019 events and programs! | "Gathering Medicines: Plants and Powers in China's Southern Mountains" Tuesday, February 26, 2019
7:00 - 8:30 PM: Lecture and Discussion
The Avaya Auditorium, Peter O'Donnell Building
POB 2.302, 201 E. 24th Street, Austin, TX 78712 UT's Humanities Institute in partnership with the Center for East Asian Studies is pleased to announce that anthropologist Judith Farquhar (University of Chicago) will deliver this year's Paul and Mary Ho Distinguished Lecture in China Studies on Tuesday, February 26, 2019. The lecture, "Gathering Medicines: Plants and Powers in China’s Southern Mountains," will begin at 7:00 pm in the Avaya Auditorium (POB 2.302) in UT's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Building (201 E 24th St, Austin, TX 78712). The lecture will be preceded by a reception. The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here if you would like to attend Dr. Farquhar's lecture. About the Lecture:
Herbal medicine practice in China’s southern mountains is often represented as ethnic, folkloric, rural and esoteric. It is also of interest to the knowledge-producing state. This talk explores practices of assembling, using, and protecting knowledge of “wild and natural” medicines among herbalists whose expertise stems from their lifelong experience of gathering medicines in the mountains. |  Dr. Judith Farquhar, University of Chicago | About the Speaker:
Dr. Judith Farquhar is Max Palevsky Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Anthropology at The University of Chicago. From 2016-2019 she served as the faculty director of The University of Chicago Center in Beijing. Her research on contemporary China spans almost four decades, focusing on theories and practices of modern traditional Chinese medicine; everyday life and embodiment; popular culture and media; post-Mao and post-socialist micropolitics; and, most recently, national and local movements to systematize the traditional medicine practices of China’s minority nationalities. She is the author of Knowing Practice: The Clinical Encounter of Chinese Medicine (1994); Appetites: Food and Sex in Post-Socialist China (2004); Ten Thousand Things: Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing (2012); and Way of Life: Things, Thought, and Action in Chinese Medicine (forthcoming, early 2020). About the Lecture Series:
The Paul and Mary Ho Distinguished Lecture in China Studies aims to extend and deepen understanding of China in the University community and among the general public. The lecture was endowed in 2006 by University of Texas faculty members Dr. Paul Ho and Mrs. Mary Ho. The China Studies faculty works with the Institute to identify prominent and exciting lecturers in the field. Dr. Farquhar's lecture continues the Institute's inquiry into Health, Well-Being, and Healing. |  Dr. Lynn Harter, Ohio University | Monday, February 11, 2019
4:00-5:30 PM: Seminar and Dialogue
The President's Room East, the University of Texas Club
2108 Robert Dedman Drive, Austin, TX 78712 The Health and Humanities Research Seminar is a monthly series intended to engage scholars and practitioners across the health and humanities disciplines in research-oriented dialogue. Seminars feature a presentation by a speaker followed by a group discussion and casual conversation. The first seminar of the semester will take place on February 11th at the University of Texas Club and will feature a presentation from Dr. Lynn Harter, Professor and Co-Director of the Barbara Geralds Institute for Storytelling and Social Impact in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. Dr. Harter's presentation is entitled "Narratives, Health, and Healing: Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Storytelling in Health Contexts." Abstract:
Stories matter. People engage in storytelling to account for expectations gone awry, reconstruct identities in the aftermath of tragedy, and foster social change. This interactive discussion will be guided by questions including: How does storytelling foster resilience among individuals living in vulnerable bodies? How do narrative logics function in therapeutic contexts? Under what conditions can storytelling foster empowerment in healthcare organizing? About the Guest Speaker:
Dr. Harter is a Professor and Co-Director of the Barbara Geralds Institute for Storytelling and Social Impact in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. Her work focuses on the communicative construction of possibility as individuals and groups organize for survival and social change amidst profound vulnerability. She co-produced and directed an Emmy-award winning PBS documentary series titled The Courage of Creativity. She has published over 75 journal articles and book chapters and edited three scholarly books. Seats are limited and require advance reservation. For more information, please contact seminar organizer, Phillip Barrish, at pbarrish@austin.utexas.edu. Dr. Harter's presentation is sponsored by the Sterling Clark Holloway Centennial Lectureship, the Humanities Institute, and Dell Medical School. | Free and open to the public.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
6:30PM - 9:15PM Screening & Discussion
Terrazas Branch, Austin Public Library
1105 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, TX 78702 February's Controversy & Conversation documentary screening of Ai Weiwei's Human Flow (2017) will feature a discussion with filmmaker Nancy Schiesari, Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at UT's Moody College of Communication. Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. | About the Speaker:
Nancy Schiesari is an experienced director, producer and cinematographer on both broadcast documentaries and award winning independent films. Her latest full-length documentary, Canine Soldiers, the Militarization of Love, premiered at the Austin Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. She also directed and produced feature length documentaries, Cactus Jack, Lone Star on Capitol Hill (PBS), Tattooed Under Fire (PBS), Hansel Mieth-Vagabond Photographer (Independent Lens) and History Man (BBC). Controversy & Conversation is a collaboration between the Humanities Institute's Difficult Dialogues Program and the Austin Public Library. Documentary screenings take place the first Thursday of the month at the Terrazas Branch of the Austin Public Library. They begin at 6:30PM and are followed by a 30-50 minute community conversation. Light refreshments are provided. | Announcing the 2019 Community Sabbatical Research Leave Grantees by Stephanie Holmes, HI Undergraduate Assistant | The University of Texas Humanities Institute announced the 2019 Community Sabbatical Research Leave Grantees on Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at the Community Sabbatical Roundtable Reception, "Community Archives," which featured the projects of the 2018 grantees (described below). The CSRL Grant provides support for research by members of the non-profit community in Central Texas. This year's grant selection committee awarded three grants beginning in January 2019. Listed below are the new grantees and a description of their research: | Susana Almanza, Executive Director, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER). Almanza’s research project is titled “A Comparative Analysis of Low-Income Housing Along the East Riverside Corridor Master Plan, 2010-2018.” Her research will document the loss of low-income housing in East Austin by conducting quantitative analysis on demographic and cost-of-housing data to ascertain if and how low-income housing has been impacted in the areas affected by the East Riverside Corridor Master Plan. | K.C. Lawrence, Memory Connections Program Director, AGE of Central Texas. Lawrence’s research project is titled “AGE’s Memory Connections: Evaluating Interventions for People Living with Dementia.” Her research will include designing and potentially implementing a quasi-experimental study to measure the efficacy of early-stage memory loss intervention methods, with the intention of sharing best practices with other organizations. | Gabriel Solis, Executive Director, Texas After Violence Project (TAVP). Solis's research project is titled “Violence, Trauma Narratives and Transformative Justice." His research focuses on the impact of documenting personal stories of trauma connected with the American justice system in order to have a restorative effect on victims. The results of this research will be compiled into a manual for collecting trauma narratives that can be shared with other institutions. | The January "Community Archives" event featured presentations by the 2018 grantees, Heather Barfield, PhD, Development Director & Associate Artistic Director for The VORTEX Repertory Theatre, and Lilia Rosas, PhD, Executive Director, Red Salmon Arts and Lecturer in the UT Department of Mexican American and Latino/a Studies. Speaking on the theme of “Community Archives,” Dr. Barfield and Dr. Rosas unveiled their projects to archive materials related to the VORTEX Theatre and Resistencia Bookstore, two important cultural organizations in Austin. | The Humanities Institute's Newsletter is edited by Kathryn North, Administrative Program Coordinator. For more information on the Humanities Institute at the University of Texas at Austin visit our website. To contact us, please write to Kathryn at knnorth@austin.utexas.edu or call (512) 471-9056. | | |
