2013-2014

Interpreting Capitalism Film Series: The Queen of Versailles

A whimsical documentary that offers an off-center view of a billionaire couple as they begin construction on a mansion inspired by the French palace of Versailles. The film chronicles how their empire–fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money–falters due to the economic crisis. Introduced by Robert Spadoni, Associate Professor of English, CWRU.

History in Fiction: Reading the Novels of Nobel Laureate Mo Yan

Controversies about Chinese writer Mo Yan have been heated since last October, when the Swedish Academy announced him to be the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work “with hallucinatory realism merging folk tales, history and the contemporary.” The most recent debate was aroused by German Sinologist Wolfgang Kubin, who commented at a May conference in Hong Kong: “I cannot come to a thorough understanding of post-1911 Chinese history through his fiction.” In response to the criticism, this lecture investigates Mo Yan’s fictional historiography by focusing on four of his thirte

The Historical and the Metaphysical in George Oppens’ “Route”

Robert Baker’s fields of interest are modern poetry from the romantic period through the present, twentieth-century and contemporary literature, and the relationships among literature, philosophy, and religion. His first book, “The Extravagant: Crossings of Modern Poetry and Modern Philosophy,” includes detailed discussions of Kant, Wordsworth, Lyotard, Rimbaud, Nietzsche, Bataille, Kierkegaard, Dickinson, Mallarme, and Derrida.

Improvisation and Transgression: Musicians of the Harem

The Western perception of the harem, or women’s quarters, and assumptions about the residents and their lifestyle remains a persistent Orientalist fantasy. Professor Nielson–the Anisfield-Wolf SAGES Fellow–will share her research regarding how, even in those cultures with seemingly inflexible rules regarding gender segregation, musicians had the unique ability to negotiate both physical and social boundaries surrounding the harem.

An Afternoon with Nikki Giovanni

Join The Baker-Nord Center and our guest, Nikki Giovanni, as she reads and discusses her works. Many of Giovanni’s books have received honors and awards. Her autobiography, Gemini, was a finalist for the National Book Award; Love Poems, Blues: For All the Changes, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Acolytes, and Hip Hop Speaks to Children were all honored with NAACP Image Awards. Blues: For All the Changes reached #4 on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller list, a rare achievement for a book of poems.

American Glamour: Modern Architecture, Marketing, and Popular Culture in the 1950s

Alice T. Friedman–the Grace Slack McNeil Professor of American Art at Wellesley College–will examine key examples of Mid-century Modern architecture in the United States, focusing on the ways in which buildings and interiors came to reflect the forms, narrative structures, and emotional appeal of mass-market media such as advertising, fashion photography, film and television.

Interpreting Capitalism Film Series: Garbage Dreams

On the outskirts of Cairo lies the world’s largest garbage village, home to 60,000 Zaballeen–Arabic for garbage people. The Zaballeen have survived for centuries by recycling Cairo waste. Following the international trend to privatize services, however, Cairo sold contracts to corporations to pick up the city’s garbage. As these foreign companies came in and began carting garbage to nearby landfills, the Zaballeen watched their way of life disappearing.

Emerging Methodologies: An Introduction to the Field of Digital Humanities

A Baker-Nord Digital Humanities Event

Allison Schifani, Baker-Nord Center Postdoctoral Scholar in the Digital Humanities, presents an informal introduction to the field. This talk will provide a broad overview of emerging methodologies for research and teaching across the humanities. In addition to offering new ways to help answer central research questions and alternative means to explore texts, digital technologies can aid in collaboration between scholars and institutions, augment and distribute scholarly writing and enliven classroom discussions and scholarly debate.

The Falling Rate of Profit: Karl Marx’s Struggle to Prove the Demise of Capitalism

Although never explicitly mentioned in Vol. 1 of Capital, the idea of a falling rate of profit was central to Karl Marx’s understanding of both the workings of capitalism and to what he expected to be its ultimate demise. Jonathan Sperber–Curator Professor of History at the University of Missouri–will explain Marx’s concept of the falling rate of profit and the difficulties he encountered with definitively proving what he knew intuitively to be the case.

From Russia to Cleveland: Politics, Sports & the LGBT Experience

Join the Panel Discussion looking a the Russia/Winter Olympics situation as it relates to politics and the LGBT community. Learn about the GG (Gay Games 2014) held in Cleveland, and explore how global thinking at a local level has been incorporated into preparing to host athletes and visitors from all over the country and the world.

This event is part of CWRU’s International Education Week. More information can be found at case.edu/international/IEW.