Speakers representing departments and programs across the Division of the Humanities will share their work with the public at Humanities Day on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The annual event includes more than 40 lectures, tours, panel discussions and readings that showcase UChicago’s scholarship in literature, visual arts, linguistics, music and philosophy.
Prof. David Levin will deliver the day’s keynote address, “Elektra Shock: Opera and Radical Interpretation” at 11 a.m. in Mandel Hall. Levin, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in Germanic Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Theater and Performance Studies, and the College, is the founding director of the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. He will discuss a recent production of Richard Strauss’ 1909 opera Elektra, exploring what it tells us about the possibilities and responsibilities of interpretation.
Other highlights include:
- A guided tour of Poetic Associations, a new exhibition of 19th-century English poetry at the Special Collections Research Center
- Sculptor and DOVA chair Jessica Stockholder discussing her new installation at the Smart Museum of Art, Rose’s Inclination
- Art historian Cécile Fromont describing her award-winning work on the art and history of the Congo
- A lecture on the emergence of sign language in Nicaragua from linguist Diane Brentari
- An analysis of Russia’s role in Hollywood films from Malynne Sternstein in Slavic Languages and Literatures
Humanities Day is free and open to the public. Register online at humanitiesday.uchicago.edu.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart