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ProgramsFaculty Response Forum | Emory College Research Grants in Humanistic Inquiry Faculty Response Forum
Faculty Response Forum VII"Humanities and War "January 30, 2008Table Descriptions: War as Metaphor What are the implications of discussing responses to terrorism, drugs, poverty and disease in terms of war (as in the oft-used “War on X”)? To what extent does such frequent metaphorical use of war alter our notions of war, or make the discourse of war more acceptable (no matter what context it is employed in)? Is war-based discourse ever needed or desirable? The Wounds of War From the Iliad and Aeneid to Guernica and Dr. Strangelove is a long march. What do the humanities have to say about how we represent or suppress the wounds of war? How does the imagination of physical and mental wounds change with time, medium, and culture? If we find Achilles in Vietnam, is it enlightening, therapeutic, both, or neither? Ethics in a Time of War What resources can a humanistic ethical vision offer us for thinking about war, about citizen responsibility, and about our possible political futures? "Ethics" is broadly conceived here not as the province of specialized ethicists, nor as the domain of "ethical theory," but as the desire to account for human events in the context of a vision of value and imagination. "War" does not simply mean military conflicts. War in Film and Literature Based on Walter Benjamin's observations in "The Storyteller," this roundtable will explore the ways in which the representation of war in film and literature shatters the frameworks of experience. Do attempts to depict modern war entail the risk of its betrayal? How do filmmakers and writers push the representational and stylistic bounds of their media in attempting to depict this dilemma? Does the depiction of combat provide a paradoxical pleasure in seeing the spectacle of destruction? The Artist Responds From the Battle of Issus to the ceilings of Versailles the artist has been enlisted to represent the victories of war. A more personal response survives in Callot's Miseries and Picasso's Guernica. What is the role of the artist in responding to war? War, Social Status, and Change In U.S. history and society, war and military service have been seen as opportunities or explanatory forces for changes that might not occur otherwise. For example, in African American history, the Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War Two are seen as moments at which African Americans achieved new levels of citizenship. Similarly, enlistment in the military has been presented as a path for individuals and their families to shift their class and social status advantageously. And the military industrial complex has pumped money and resources into poor communities and regions (southern states, New Mexico, etc.) To what degree is the U.S. exceptional in this regard--what are the experiences of other countries around these issues? How might we interrogate the narrative of war and the military as a path to positive change--or should we? Is war necessary? War and Exile Recent history has confirmed Edward Said's remark that "our age . . . is indeed the age of the refugee, the displaced person, mass immigration." Our discussion will consider some of the paradoxes of "war and exile" especially as their confluence shapes and is shaped by humanistic inquiry. Ironically, the humanities often look to exile as a resource for understanding--whether literally, as in the case of the great intellectual exiles fleeing Nazism, such as Hannah Arendt or Erich Auerbach, or figuratively as in the modern image of the exile as the very type of the "human." Yet the conjunction of war and exile may well put humanistic inquiry itself into question, for how can learning responsibly address the violent uprooting of human life? In other words, how can the humanities address the inhuman? Such questions (along with short readings drawn from Arendt and Agamben) will serve as the point of departure for what we hope will be a wide-ranging discussion. Artistic Response to War In many different times and places, from the Iliad in ancient Greece to award-winning photography of the present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, artists have employed creative media to capture their responses and to provide trenchant commentaries on the experience of war. Our table will discuss the aesthetic issues entailed in the use of music, theater, dance, and other arts as social commentary. We will devote particular attention to one of the most compelling works in the choral repertory, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (1962). Arms and the Man: War and Gender What now are the relations between queer studies and authority? Does queer work make claims for certain kinds of authority (theoretical, political, moral, prophetic, stylistic) while disdaining others? To what extent has this “bad” girl/“bad” boy critical practice maintained its outlaw status in the midst of a culture that has given us, say, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” not to say the prospect of some kind of institutionalization of LGBT Studies at Emory? Are there other critical and political questions, in addition to those of gender and sexuality, to which queer work might speak with some authority? Is there even such a thing as queer authority? War and Sectarian Conflict How and why have protracted sectarian conflicts such as those between Catholics and Protestants or Sunni and Shiite Muslims erupted into violence? How have they shaped societies, institutions, literatures, social and ritual practices, and thought? How and why have such conflicts persisted or been overcome? What are the prospects for ending sectarian violence in contemporary Iraq, and what political structures might enable this to happen? Does history offer any applicable lessons? Faculty Response Forum VI"The Authority of the Humanities"January 31, 2007Partial List of Table Topics: Authority in Mass Media Entertainment We will discuss the ways in which authority operates to rule in and out possible world views presented through entertainment offerings, and the ways in which these are driven by, and subsequently drive, market demand. In addition, we will explore how new forms of grass-roots censorship, such as organized protest groups and web communication, articulate certain responses as occurred, for example, with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and The da Vinci Code. Religious Authority What models have been proposed in the attempt to analyze religious authority in the history of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions? What are their inadequacies? How have competing authorities clashed within a single tradition, and what has been the result? When and how does a clash between competing authorities become evident? What strategies do competing groups within a single tradition typically use to found and support claims to authority? What are the definitions of orthodoxy and heresy, or inclusion and exclusion, that have been built on the various conceptions of religious authority? The Humanities and the Public What kind of authority does humanities scholarship and teaching have in public realms? Should humanities scholars be worried about their public authority? Are there multiple publics that we can engage? To what extent should we be worried about our public authority? The Power of Creative Critical Thought Does creative thought also imply a critical dimension insofar as it represents taking a position in reference to tradition? And how would such a strategic move square with the play of chance in determining the nature of artistic making? Faculty Response Forum V"Humanities and Dis-ease"January 25, 2006Partial List of Table Topics: Race, Health and Dis-ease: What difference does difference make? Perspectives on Disease: Patients and Health Care Providers Life Endings/Ending Lives Readings include "Not Dead at All: Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo" and "Unspeakable Conversations," both by Harriett McBryde Johnston. Faculty Response Forum IV"The Humanities and Race"January 26, 2005Partial List of Table Topics: Race in Cross-Cultural Perspective Race relations and the notion of “race” itself are importantly different in different world areas and from the perspective of different national and cultural perspectives. World area differences and attitudes both contextualize and throw into relief race relations and understandings of race in the U.S. Race and Migration Does race travel? Does it remain with the subject when the change of political, economic, and/or cultural landscape occur? Does it change, or is it changed by migration, movement, and exile? Is race a stationary category of representation? From Integration to Transformation Brown University and Yale University have examined their university and local ties to slavery and the slave trade. What are the creative possibilities and the political dilemmas of addressing and redressing the racial past in academia?
Faculty Response Forum III"Worlds at Risk: The Responsibility of the Humanities"January 28, 2004Partial List of Table Topics: Ethics and Scientific Research The circles of the sciences and the humanities intertwine nowhere more closely than in issues of research ethics. Who shapes the rules on cloning, genetic therapies, and human subject research? How do we best form an interdisciplinary cohort on these issues? The Risk and Price of Playing It Safe in the Humanities: Conformity, Careerism, Coercion and Other Cancers of Intellectual Inquiry How do hiring practices, tenure processes, grants, awards, and what the US Senate has recently termed “liberal bias” affect the course of free intellectual inquiry in humanistic studies? What can Emory do to value individualism in research and pluralism in community? The Crisis in American Medicine What are the major issues in contemporary America relating to health care, the standing of medical authority, and the role of doctors? What is the need in comparing these ‘crises’ in American history? Censorship What is the meaning of “free” speech in our evolving democracy and does it help or hinder our democratic aspirations? Should recent events, and developments in technology, take center stage as we formulate our present views on censorship? Faculty Response Forum II"Who Owns the Art(s)?"January 29th, 2003Partial List of Table Topics: Disposable Art What is the changing nature of evaluating artistic significance? When a work of art gains availability, to what degree is subjectivity lost? Imaginative Properties If imagination, as Einstein suggests, is more important than knowledge, what are the implications for both art and science? What are the implicit and explicit connections between them? The Problem of Religious Offense What are the functions of religious and anti-religious art? When is a work of art “critical” f a religious tradition, and when does it cross the line to “offense?” Should it matter? The Artworld as Mental Property? According to Arthur Danto, the “artworld” is as much constituted by theory, art criticism, and museum curators, as by artists. To what extent is contemporary art mental property? Faculty Response Forum I"The Humanities and Terror"February 6, 2002David Bright: The Paradox of Aesthetic Terror Maria Mercedes Carrion: Engendering Terror Alan Cienki: Speaking of Terror Steve Everett: Representation of Terror Tom Flynn: “Hell is Other People”: Existentialism and Violence Frances Smith Foster: Silence: Terror Laurie Patton: Divine Love and Holy Terror Ron Schuchard: The Universality of Terror
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