This panel discussion with two leading Jewish cultural historians examines the remarkable contributions and tragic death of the great actor, theater director, playwright, visionary of Yiddish culture, and Jewish activist Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (1890–1948). Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), the genius actor Mikhoels became the chief director of the State Jewish Theater in Moscow. During World War II, he served as chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mikhoels’ assassination by Stalin’s secret police, although officially billed as an accident, augured the...

Read more about Solomon Mikhoels: Actor, Director, Playwright and Visionary

Luis Gilberto Murillo-Urrutia is a Former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and a very well-known national political figure in that country. He is a policy expert with nearly 30 years of experience in public policy design, implementation and advocacy; particularly, in the areas of sustainable regional development, social inclusion and peace building. Mr. Murillo-Urrutia has led numerous initiatives, both domestically and internationally. A decade ago, he played a key role as leading voice in advocating in Washington, DC for a U.S. policy towards... Read more about "Climate Change Crisis and Tropical Forest and Biodiversity Conservation: An Afro-Colombian Perspective"

A journey through the world of Byzantine and Ottoman sacred and secular music and their legacy in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. This highly interactive workshop examines the sacralization of the profane and the profanation of the sacred in music theory and practice of the Orthodox Christian and Islamic East.

Featuring:

-Kyriakos Kalaitzidis, PhD, award-winning composer, musician, and founding member of the En Chords Ensemble

-Rev. Fr. Romanos Karanos, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Liturgical Music, Hellenic College Holy Cross and Artistic...

Read more about Sacred and Profane: Byzantine and Ottoman Music Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean

The Somali Territories and Somali Diaspora in the Modern World: Knowledge, Power, Practice

November 15, 2019
Harvard University
Location: Lower Library, Robinson Hall
Time: 9-5pm

9:00-10:20am
Home and Belonging in the Diaspora
Carrying Culture: Temporal and Spatial Constructions of Somalia Among Women in the Diaspora
Suban Nur Cooley (Michigan State University)

The Qalanjo Project: Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogical Approaches to Bridge Gaps & Create...

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The Mahindra Center for the Humanities Rethinking Translation Seminar

presents 

The Catastrophe of Translation

Adriana X. Jacobs
Associate Professor and Cowley Lecturer in Modern Hebrew Literature; Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford...

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Rebecca Kobrin, Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History, Columbia University; Joseph Engel Visiting Professor in American Jewish Studies: History Department, Harvard University (fall 2019) 

Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University; with the Davis Center Seminar on Russian and Eurasian Jewry, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University

Free and open to the public! 

Read more about Russian Jewish Immigrant 'Bankers' and American Finance: The Case of Saul Singer and the Bank of United States

Speaker: Ruodi Duan (Harvard University)

Co-chairs: David Armitage and Erez Manela

The Harvard International & Global History Seminar (HIGHS) is a forum for cutting-edge work in the fields of international and global history. The seminar, organized at the Department of History and generously supported by the Weatherhead...

Read more about HIGHS Seminar: "Chinese Visions of African American History, Politics, and Culture, 1960-1964"

Speaker: Elizabeth Ingleson (Southern Methodist University)

Co-chairs: David Armitage and Erez Manela

The Harvard International & Global History Seminar (HIGHS) is a forum for cutting-edge work in the fields of international and global history. The seminar, organized at the Department of History and generously supported by the Weatherhead...

Read more about HIGHS Seminar: “Making Made In China: Race, Labor, and Politics in U.S.-China Trade 1971-1980"

Past and Present of Southeast Asia: A Research Workshop at Harvard University
Talk title: From Bandung to Jakarta: Sino-Japanese Rapprochement and Links to South East Asia 
Speaker: Bohao Wu, PhD Candidate, Department of History, Harvard University

ABSTRACT 
Since secret meeting between Zhou Enlai and Takasaki Tatsunosuke at Bandung Conference in 1955, Japan and the PRC forged important connections in the two decades to follow while standing on opposite sides in the Cold War confrontation. The interactions between China and Japan - either...

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Speaker:
Mathieu Hauchecorne
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Paris 8

Chair: 
David Armitage
Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Harvard University; CES Faculty Associate & Semianr Co-chair, Harvard University

Before John Rawls eventually entered the French canon of philosophy, he had attracted close attention in French public debate, as well...

Read more about American Liberalism in France: The French Reception of Rawls, 1971-2010

Talk Title: "From Supply Lines to Supply Chains: The U.S. Military, Infrastructural Development, and the Origins of South Korea’s Export Boom"

Speaker: Patrick Chung, Assistant Professor of History, University of Maryland

This paper examines the U.S. military’s development of the South Korean port city of Busan. The city would become the center of UN military logistical operations during the Korean War, as massive quantities of soldiers and supplies...

Read more about Patrick Chung, “From Supply Lines to Supply Chains: The U.S. Military, Infrastructural Development, and the Origins of South Korea’s Export Boom.”

In conjunction with the exhibition Winslow Homer: Eyewitness, New Orleans–based photographers Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun will discuss their decades-long, expansive documentary work that explores criminal and environmental justice, the history of slavery, and African American life and culture in the American South. They will be joined in conversation by Makeda Best, the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums, and John Stauffer, the Sumner R...

Read more about Louisiana Medley: The Social Justice Photography of Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun

Speakers
Paul Reitter
Professor of History, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University

Peter E. Gordon
Amabel B. James Professor of History & CES Resident Faculty and Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

Sponsors
-Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History...

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The recently released documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, is an artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller. The film examines Morrison's life, works, and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career. It features interviews with Morrison and a number of her peers, critics, and colleagues, including HDS’s Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America.

HDS is hosting a screening of the film. Carrasco will give an introduction, and there there will be a Q&A and panel discussion with...

Read more about Harvard Divinity School Film Series - Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Abstract: Thousands of Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic legal documents from medieval Egypt and Syria survived in the Cairo Geniza. This talk will zoom in on the earliest layer of this corpus, which offers indirect clues to a lost history of Judaism during the first Islamic centuries.

Speaker biography: Eve Krakowski is an assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies and Judaic Studies at Princeton University. She is a social historian of the medieval Middle East and its Jewish populations, interested especially in family life and in the mundane settings of...

Read more about Eve Krakowski, "The Jewish Courts of Tenth-Century Fustat: Clues to a Historical Mystery"