Hall Center for the Humanities

Colloquia

	RESPECTABILITY Fall 2009 Faculty Colloquium Respectability, like pornography, is difficult to define but we believe we know it when we see it. Despite the challenge a definition of respectability poses for the person on the street, when one turns to scholarship in a variety of disciplines, it seems that a concern for respectability is everywhere -- anthropologists debate the difference between respectability and reputation in the Caribbean, labor historians ask how the working class distinguished itself as respectable, students of African American culture deploy "the politics of respectability", and gender scholars ask if respectability limits or empowers women and men. Respectability can be embedded in objects like pianos and violated by artists like les fauves. Respectability plots drive English literature from Austen to Dickens and social scientists question the relationship of respectability to class. In other words, one would be hard pressed to find a field in the humanities of social sciences where respectability can't be fruitfully studied. Director: Ann Schofield, Professor, American Studies/Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
	Readings: Week 1 & 2 Besson Higginbotham Richardson Skeggs Smith	Week 4 Takeyama	Week 7 Freeman	Week 10 Elliott	Week 11 Dorman

	The Tree of Life 2008 Spring Faculty Colloquium - A Component of the Creative Campus Project The Tree of Life crosses diverse cultures and contexts as concept, metaphor and motif, from folklore and religion to science and commerce. As a theme, therefore, the concepts, metaphors and applications of The Tree of Life should be explored across the sciences, humanities and the arts. Directors: Kris Krishtalka, Director, Biodiversity Institute & Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; and Victor Bailey, Director, Hall Center for the Humanities & Distinguished Professor of History.

	Discourses: Theory in the Humanities Humanities scholars are often accused of possessing a slavish devotion to "isms" and spilling too much ink on theory. In reality, many faculty are rather more theory-averse. For this reason, a number of KU faculty have decided to offer a series of roundtables in the Fall 05 and Spring 06 semesters on some of the most renowned theorists of the past few decades to assess exactly how influential they have been. In each case, a particular work will form the nucleus of the presentation. All the texts under scrutiny continue to have appeal for historians, philosophers and literary critics and are well worth re-visiting. View past Discourses >
PAST COLLOQUIA
FALL FACULTY COLLOQUIA Below is a list of the Fall Faculty Colloquia from past semesters. Click on any of the links to see a list of each of the colloquia presented that semester. Fall Faculty Colloquium 2006: Representing the Middle East Fall Faculty Colloquium 2005: Capitalism and Culture Fall Faculty Colloquium 2003: Collecting & Collections - Interdisciplinary Perspectives Fall Faculty Colloquium 2002: Re(searching) Life - A Contemplation of Organzing Collectively Fall Faculty Colloquium 2001: Globalization, Ethics, and Culture Fall Faculty Colloquium 2000: Gender & Nationalism Fall Faculty Colloquium 1998: Performances: Cultural, Theatrical, Historical Fall Faculty Colloquium 1997: Professions & Professional Ethics Fall Faculty Colloquium 1996: The Contested Terrain of Public Space - Past, Present, and Future Fall Faculty Colloquium 1995: Gender as Concept and Method Fall Faculty Colloquium 1994: Creativity Fall Faculty Colloquium 1993 Fall Faculty Colloquium 1992: The Canon Fall Faculty Colloquium 1991: Narrative, History, and Lifewriting Fall Faculty Colloquium 1990: Human Rights, Ideology, and Social Change
OTHER COLLOQUIA Below is a list of other colloquia series the Hall Center for the Humanities has sponsored in addition to the annual Fall Faculty Colloquium. Click on any of the links to see a list of each of the colloquia presented that semester. Spring Faculty Colloquium: Tree of Life Food & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium Laboring Americans Colloquium Spring Faculty Colloquium 2001: Law & Literature

Featured Resident Fellow

Garth Myers
Humanities Research Fellow

During his residency in the Fall of 2009, Garth Myers will focus on writing three chapters of his book, African Postmetropolis: Urban Theory and Contemporary Zanzibar.

Featured Publication

A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir
by Donald Worster

Moving Encounters: Sympathy and the Indian Question in Antebellum Literature
by Laura Mielke

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