Dean's Lecture Series Committee| Fall 2011| Spring 2012| Fall 2010| Spring 2011| Suggest a Speaker or Topic

The Dean's Lecture Series provides an opportunity for the college faculty, students and staff to join together with colleagues across campus for stimulating conversation about issues that cross our disciplines.  Lectures and performances may address either enduring or emerging questions central to the arts and humanities, or questions arising from other disciplines to which the arts and humanities might speak.  In addition to presenting a major public event, each lecturer interacts in smaller settings with faculty, graduate students and/or undergraduates.  This new series follows up on the spirited and popular moderated round table discussions, "WORLDWISE: The Arts and Humanities in the 21st Century" (2007-2009). Lectures and performances in the series may be co-sponsored with particular programs, centers, or departments within the college, with other colleges, and with external organizations. 

Fall 2011

All Dean's Lecture Series events are free and open to the public

Bill T. Jones in conversation

 
CHOREOGRAPHER, DIRECTOR, PROVOCATEUR

Moderated by UM Professor of Theatre Leigh Wilson Smiley

Monday, October 24th, 5:30 PM
Kay Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

"For me, the big struggle has been to find a place in the world through identity, history, and love...Though I move on, I must always ask the questions: Whom do I love, and what values are worth holding on to?"
- Bill T. Jones 

Earlier this year, NPR's Tom Ashbrook said, "Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones is a force of nature.  Artist.  Exhibitionist. Contrarian.  Crowd-pleaser. He’s been denounced and picketed – and hailed as a genius... Dance Master, Bill T. Jones." Join us for an open conversation with this provocative, award-winning artist who was named “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2000 and is internationally acclaimed as a trailblazer with a "fearless reflection of political concerns in his work." His company, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is now in its 29th year and has performed worldwide in over 200 cities in 30 countries on every major continent and is recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful forces in the modern dance world - having "foreshadowed issues of identity, form and social commentary that would change the face of American dance."  Mr. Jones has been profiled on the NBC nightly news, the Today show, and was featured in HBO’s documentary series MASTERCLASS as well as one of the final episodes of Bill Moyer's Journal. He has received major honors ranging from a 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award to 2010 Kennedy Center Honors to four Tony Awards, three for the 2010 critically acclaimed Broadway musical FELA!, which he co-conceived, co-wrote, directed, and choreographed, and one for 2007's Spring Awakening.

In collaboration with Artists-in-Residence and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Spring 2012 Lectures

Noam Chomsky

LINGUIST, PHILOSOPHER, SOCIAL CRITIC

"Grammar, Mind, and Body: A Personal View
Thursday, January 26th, 2012, 4:30 PM
Colony Ballroom, Stamp Student Union
Followed by audience Q&A and reception

"Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours"
A talk on politics
Friday, January 27th, 2012, 7:00 PM
Dekelboum Concert Hall Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Followed by audience Q&A

We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”
- Noam Chomsky
 
 "Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today,” wrote Paul Robinson in The New York Review of Books.   The London Times named him one of the thousand “makers of the twentieth century.” Come hear talks on two of the renowned scientist’s great passions: politics (Friday) and language (Thursday).  Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has written prolifically, taught courses, and lectured widely throughout the world. His ground-breaking research “into the nature of human language and communication” has “had an impact on everything from the way children are taught foreign languages to what it means when we say that we are human." Chomsky has also earned a place in history as an activist, social critic, and unrelenting and compelling voice in the debate over American politics. Among his recent books are New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, On Nature and Language, Hopes and Prospects, and Gaza in Crisis.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science and a recipient of the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. 

In collaboration with the Department of Linguistics

David Simon in conversation

REPORTER, WRITER, PRODUCER

Moderated by UM Professor of American Studies Sheri Parks

March 1st, 2012, 5:30 PM
Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Followed by audience Q&A and reception

"Learning to catch how people really talk is the way you show what's true in everything.”
- David Simon
 
“Surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America…no other program has ever done anything remotely like what this one does, namely to portray the social, political, and economic life of an American city with the scope, observational precision, and moral vision of great literature.”  So said Jacob Weisberg in 2006 writing in Slate about HBO’s five-season crime drama The Wire, set in Baltimore and co-created, produced, and written by UM alum David Simon. Just about every other critic agreed. Join us for a candid conversation with the passionate, irascible former crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun who, after spending a year with the city homicide squad and on a West Baltimore drug corner, wrote two works of narrative non-fiction that went on to become award-winning television series - The Corner, an HBO miniseries winning three Emmy Awards in 2000 and NBC’s critically acclaimed Homicide: Life on the Streets.  Simon is currently at work on the HBO drama Tremé which centers on a group of local musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans.  He also writes for The New Yorker, Esquire and The Washington Post, among other publications.

In collaboration with the Graduate Field Committee in Film Studies and The Graduate School

Ticket price:

• Free: Tickets required. See below.

Day-of reservations:

1. Reserve a ticket: Starting Thursday, March 1, 11:30AM, you may reserve up to two free tickets in-person or over the phone: 301.405.ARTS (2787). No online reservations.
2. Pick up ticket: You must pick up your reserved ticket from the Ticket Office between 4:30PM and 5PM. At 5PM, we will release any remaining tickets to the standby line. No exceptions.
3. Enter venue: At 4:30PM we will form a line in the Center Pavilion for ticket holders waiting to enter the Gildenhorn Recital Hall. We will begin seating around 5PM. You must have a ticket in hand before queuing in this line.

Note: Although we start accepting reservations at 11:30AM, we will not distribute tickets until 4:30PM. You must have a ticket to enter the venue.

Standby line:

If any reserved tickets are not picked up by 5PM, we will release them on a first-come, first-served basis to patrons in a standby line. We will form the line outside starting at 4:30PM. We are unlikely to release any tickets to the standby line.
Note: If you have reserved a ticket, you do not need to wait in the standby line at 4:30PM. Please go inside to the Ticket Office and pick up your ticket before 5PM.

Angela Davis

AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, ACTIVIST

A Conversation with Angela Davis
Lecture title TBA
April 18th, 2012, 5:30 PM
Colony Ballroom, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Followed by audience Q&A and reception


"We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society."
- Angela Davis

For over four decades, philosopher and writer Angela Davis has been one of most influential, controversial, and fearless activists and public intellectuals in the United States. She has been hailed as "a courageous voice of conscience on matters of race, class, and gender in America.".  Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender justice. Professor Davis is a leading advocate for prison reform and abolition and the founder of "Critical Resistance," a grassroots organization working to abolish what she has popularized as "the prison-industrial complex." Currently Professor Emerita of the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor Davis has taught and lectured internationally on feminism, African-American studies, Marxism, popular music, social consciousness and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons. Among her notable books are Women, Race, and Class (1981),  Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender, and Race in U.S. Culture (1996), The House That Race Built (1998), Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), and most recently an acclaimed new critical edition of Frederick Douglass’s classic work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.  Renowned poet and civil rights activist June Jordan said, "Behold the heart and mind of Angela Davis, open, relentless, and on time!"


In collaboration with Adele H. Stamp
Student Union, ADVANCE, the
Departments of American Studies,
Philosophy, and Women’s Studies, and
the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer

Fall 2010 Lectures
 
Alan Liu

 
Alan Liu, chair of English at University of California, Santa Barbara asks “What is cool when even our youngest children know to say “cool” in the presence of high technology?” Come hear Liu, author of The Laws of Cool, discuss his current work on the transformative effect of our increasingly digital world in his talk "Rerouting Creativity: New Media Arts after the Ideology of Creativity.

 Monday, October 4, 2010
3:30-5 PM
Ulrich Recital Hall, Tawes Hall

Buffet reception immediately following event in Tawes lobby.

Following the reception, please join us at 7 P.M. at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center for Creative Dialogue: Laurie Anderson & David Harrington with Kojo Nnamdi.

In collaboration with MITH, the Digital Cultures and Creativity Honors Program, and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies.

 
Saul Williams

Grand Slam Poetry Champion and HBO Def Poetry Jam performer Saul Williams says, “Who I am and what I do seems to vary by mod, mood, and mode of expression. I write. I act. I perform.” Join UMD’s own Terpoets for an electrifying performance by this multi-talented musician, actor, writer, and artist.

Performance followed by Q&A

Thursday, October 28th, 2010
7:30-9:30 PM
Hoff Theatre, Stamp Student Union

Reception immediately following event.

In collaboration with the student group Terpoets, "UMD's premier open mic for poetry and prose."

 
Louis Menand

"The Future of Disciplinarity: The Case of Literature." 

 Louis Menand, professor of English at Harvard University, Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker writer, says trying to reform the university is like trying to get on the Internet with a typewriter. Author of The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University, Menand talks about the future of the disciplines that have defined American higher education for 140 years.

Thursday, November 4, 2010
4:30-6 PM
Ulrich Recital Hall, Tawes Hall

Reception immediately following event.

In collaboration with the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and the Center for Comparative and Literary Studies, hosts of the symposium "Reading Comparatively," November 4-5, 2010.

Spring 2011 Lecture

 

Tony Kushner

Pulitzer, Emmy, Obie, and Tony award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Tony Kushner, “gives voice to characters who have been rendered powerless by the forces of circumstances – a drag queen dying of AIDS, an uneducated Southern maid, contemporary Afghans,” according to The New Yorker.  Professor Emeritus of English Jackson Bryer sits down for an intimate conversation with the dynamic author of Caroline, or Change, Steven Spielberg’s Munich and his epic Angels in America.

Tuesday, February 22, 2010
3:30-5 PM
Dekelboum Concert Hall
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Book-signing and reception immediately following event in the Grand Pavilion

In collaboration with the Clarice Smith Center and the School  of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Dean's Lecture Series Committee, 2011-2012 (for 2012-2013 events)