Carnal Knowledge
In religious texts, mythology, literature and popular culture, sex (and sometimes love) is often considered a key to unlocking hidden truths. In her book 'The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade,' Wendy Doniger explores the 'bedtrick' (where one part...
The Correspondence of Queen Elizabeth I and King James VI
Queen Elizabeth I of England never married or produced an heir, yet she played a unique role in selecting England's next king. As University of Chicago English professor Janel Mueller explains, Elizabeth engaged in a long-running correspondence with Ki...
End-of-Life Decisions
In this article from 2000, based on a four-part forum held at Columbia University, experts on end-of-life issues discuss the ethics of deciding when to prolong the lives of patients. They debate the relative merits of living wills and whether a person ...
Emotion, Rationality and Human Potential
In making decisions, do we prioritize an emotional response or logic seemingly achieved through dispassionate analysis? And are these two approaches as distant as we might assume? John Cacioppo, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, app...
Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal
Much of what we know about the Vikings comes to us from the histories written by their victims, who normally remember them as ruthless marauders. But how did the Vikings portray themselves? In a lecture prepared in conjunction with the millennial anniv...
Digital Media and the Egalitarian Classroom
Candace Vogler, associate professor of philosophy at The University of Chicago, examines how virtual classrooms help her overcome common pedagogical issues. Faced with large class sizes and oftentimes timid students, Vogler discovered that online discu...
Creoles, Pidgins and the Evolution of Languages
Salikoko S. Mufwene, professor and former chair of the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, looks at some of the issues surrounding the evolution of English. Drawing on material in his book, 'The Ecology of Language Evolution,' Mufwe...
Civil Rights and Military Tribunals
Can military tribunals protect the rights of the accused and offer fundamentally fair trials? What role, if any, will there be for review by civilian courts? These and other questions were taken up at a January 17, 2002, panel discussion at the Univers...
Carnal Ignorance
Is sex (or love) a lie? In her book 'The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade,' Wendy Doniger explores the 'bedtrick' (where one partner in coital love is disguised as another) in mythology, literature and popular culture. Here, she examines Shakespea...
Capital Punishment in the U.S.: A Forum on Death-Penalty Issues
In this lively debate, four leading experts discuss reasons why the US still retains the death penalty at a time when many other countries in the world have abandoned capital punishment. This forum introduces many of the socio-economic, racial and lega...