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Colloquia | Annual Lectures | Upcoming Conferences

Upcoming Conferences

For 2007-2008, the Oakley Center and the Williams College Libraries are co-sponsoring two events focused on the politics of information. On January 17, 2008, Siva Vaidhyanathan (University of Virginia), will offer a colloquium and a public lecture touching on the themes of technofundamentalism and what Vaidhyanathan is calling the "Googlization of everything." On February 18, Christopher Kelty (Rice) will offer a colloquium and public lecture on open-access publishing, intellectual property, and the free-software movement.

Past Conferences

In 2006-2007, the Center sponsored two lecture series, "Theorizing the Political Today " and "Visual Studies at Williams. "

Both series will ran all year long, and each brought an especially distinguished group of scholars to campus for faculty colloquia and, in some cases, public lectures. Visual Studies at Williams coordinated with the interdisciplinary and multi-indstitution visual studies discussion group jointly sponsored by the Williams College Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute's Research and Academic Program. Attendance at the colloquia is open to all Williams faculty and staff, Clark Fellows, and other area faculty. The schedule of colloqiua (all events at the Center unless otherwise indicated):

Thursday, October 5, 4:00 p.m. Maraget Livingstone, Professor of Neurobiology at the Harvard Medical School, "Art and the Biology of Vision."

Monday October 30, 2006 , 4:00 p.m. Mieke Bal, Professor of the Theory of Literature, University of Amsterdam, "Re-reading Rembrandt for Our Time: Painting, Philosophy, and the Relation to Sources."

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the colloquium with Arthur Danto, originally scheduled for November 6.

Thursday, November 16, 2006 , 4:00 p.m. Mieke Bal, Professor of the Theory of Literature, University of Amsterdam,"Double Mobility: Toward a Migratory Aesthetics of Video."

Tuesday, February 20, 4:00 p.m. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurence S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University, "On the Reception of 'African Art'."

Tuesday, April 10, William Kentridge, artist (South Africa). Time and topic TBA.

 

Theorizing the Political Today brought to campus some of the leading figures in contemporary political theory. K. Anthony Appiah, who is contributing to the both of the Center's series, will give a public lecture, for his political theory presentation. The schedule of colloqiua (all events at the Center unless otherwise indicated):

Tuesday, October 17, 4:00 p.m. Graham Hammill, Associate Professor of English, Notre Dame, "A Poetics of Political Theology: Harrington with Marvell."

February 19, 2007, 8:00 p.m,. Griffin 3. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurence S. Rockefellor University Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University, "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers."

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 3-4, 4:00 p.m. Jacques Rancière, Professor of Philosophy (emeritus) University of Paris-VIII (St. Denis). Tuesday: lecture on "The Misadventures of Critical Thinking," followed by discussion. Wednesday: discussion based on pre-circulated paper, "The Aesthetic Dimension: Aesthetics, Politics, Knowledge."

Thursday, April 19 4:00 p.m., Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Topic TBA.