Lectures
Monday, February 5, 2018
What's in a grape? Science, politics, and the race for authenticity in the West Bank wineries
Lecture | February 5 | 12:30-2 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Ariel Handel, Tel Aviv University
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Lecture by Ariel Handel on the wine industry in Israel-Palestine.
John E. Cort | No One Gives like the Guru
Lecture | February 5 | 5-7 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conf. Room)
John E. Cort, Professor of Asian and Comparative Religions and the Judy Gentili Chair in International Studies at Denison University
Alexander von Rospatt, Professor, Buddhist and South Asian Studies; Acting Chair, South and Southeast Asian Studies; and Director, Himalayan Studies Initiative
Institute for South Asia Studies, Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion
A talk by John E. Cort, Professor of Asian and Comparative Religions and the Judy Gentili Chair in International Studies at Denison University.
Connectivity as Human Right
Lecture | February 5 | 6:30-8 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Nicholas Negroponte, Architect at MIT
Berkeley Center for New Media, Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
Nicholas Negroponte is the co-founder (with Jerome B. Wiesner) of the MIT Media Lab (1985), which he directed for its first 20 years. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. He gave the first TED talk in 1984, as well as 13 since. He is author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been... More >
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Cognitive Adaptations to Harsh Environments
Lecture | February 6 | 10-11:30 a.m. | 5101 Tolman Hall
Willem Frankenhuis, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University
Growing up in a harsh environment has a major impact on cognition. People from such environments tend to score lower on a variety of cognitive tests. The predominant view in psychology is, therefore, that chronic exposure to harsh conditions impairs cognition. I have recently challenged this consensus by proposing that harsh environments do not exclusively impair cognition. Rather, people also... More >
An Epidemiologic Characterization of the TMPRSS2: ERG Subtype of Prostate Cancer
Lecture | February 6 | 2:30-3:30 p.m. | 150 University Hall
Rebecca Graff
Nearly half of prostate tumors harbor the somatic TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion, annually yielding diagnoses of more than 100,000 fusion-positive prostate cancers in the United States. Such cancers represent a unique paradigm of malignancy – one in which an oncogene (ERG) becomes regulated by androgens because it is fused to a gene that is androgen-regulated (TMPRSS2). The etiology and disease courses... More >
GFI Talk: The Future of Protein: How Your Business Will Save the World
Lecture | February 6 | 8-9 p.m. | 20 Wheeler Hall
Aylon Steinhart, The Good Food Institute
Aylon Steinhart, coming from the Good Food Institute, a graduate from our very own Haas and co-founder of two start-ups, will be coming to give us insight about the issues that come with the meat industry and how plant-based meat industries are successfully finding ways around those problems. He has spoken at top campuses such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Yale about the entrepreneurial and... More >
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Townsend Center Berkeley Book Chat: David Marno: Death Be Not Proud: The Art of Holy Attention
Lecture | February 7 | 12-1 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220 Stephens
Townsend Center for the Humanities
In his book Death Be Not Proud (Chicago, 2016), David Marno explores the precedents of Malebranche’s advice by reading John Donne’s poetic prayers in the context of what Marno calls the “art of holy attention.”
A Talk with Ken Ueno
Lecture | February 7 | 12-1:30 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Ken Ueno, Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor in Music Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
Experimental composer/vocalist/sound artist who collaborates with visual artists, architects, and video artists to create unique cross-disciplinary art works. Ueno, is the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music at UC Berkeley
Ken Ueno, Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor in Music, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
Rome Prize and... More >
From Saliva to Saints: (m)oral Hygiene in the Middle Ages and the Case of Late Medieval Villamagna
Lecture | February 7 | 12-1 p.m. | 101 2251 College (Archaeological Research Facility)
Trent Trombley, University of California, Berkeley Department of Anthropology
Archaeological Research Facility
Human dentition and the accompanying oral cavity is a dense source of biocultural information and has enjoyed a long history of anthropological fascination. Analyses have ranged from establishing biological affinity in archaeological communities via dental metric and non-metric traits, to larger evolutionary questions of morphology. However, dental tissues have seldom been analyzed for their... More >
Bowen Lectures: Lecture 1: Mathematics and Computation (through the lens of one problem and one algorithm). The problem, the algorithm and the connections.
Lecture | February 7 | 4:10-5 p.m. | Calvin Laboratory (Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing), Auditorium
Avi Wigderson, Institute for Advanced Study
In this lecture, we introduce and motivate the main characters in this plot:
- Singularity of symbolic matrices: a basic problem in both computational complexity.
- Alternating Minimization: a basic heuristic in non-convex optimization.
I will explain how variants of this algorithm are applied to variants of this problem, how they are analyzed, and how the analysis gives rise to problems... More >
Book Lecture | David Biale on Hasidism: A New History
Lecture | February 7 | 5:30-7 p.m. | Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life (2121 Allston Way)
Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
Free and open to the public
Far from a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world. So argue the eight distinguished authors, led by David Biale, of Hasidism: A New History, the first comprehensive account of the movement’s place in modern Jewish history. The book represents an innovative collaboration... More >
ARCH Lecture: 2017 Branner & Stump Fellows
Lecture | February 7 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. | 112 Wurster Hall
College of Environmental Design
WED, FEB 7, 6:30pm. Recent fellowship recipients will present their research from their international travels. Followed by a reception in the Wurster Gallery, alongside the 2017 Branner & Stump Fellows Exhibition. Open to the CED community!
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Improving prediction of intervention effects across populations
Lecture | February 8 | 2:30-3:30 p.m. | 150 University Hall
Kara Rudolph, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
In public health, there is frequently an implicit assumption that an intervention that works in one place will work in another. This is often not the case in practice, where expansion of interventions may yield disappointingly null results or even unexpected adverse effects. In this talk, I will discuss how some of my recent work in transportability and mediation can help better predict how an... More >
The EU’s ad hoc Policy Towards the Middle East after the Refugee Crisis. A View From Central Europe
Lecture | February 8 | 4-5:30 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220 (Townsend)
Łukasz Fyderek, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Institute of Middle and Far East Studies, Jagiellonian University
Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)
Over the years the Southern Dimension of the European neighborhood policy has been characterized by efforts to promote stability and prosperity. The aim was to build “a ring of friends” from the Caucasus to the Sahara, using a plethora of foreign policy instruments and economic incentives. Within the EU, the matter was relatively uncontroversial, and since 2008 a division of labor became visible,... More >
Working Together: How the Supreme Court Divided the Labor and Civil Rights Movements
Lecture | February 8 | 4 p.m. | 2521 Channing Way (Inst. for Res. on Labor & Employment)
Catherine Fisk, Professor, Berkeley Law
Institute of Research on Labor & Employment, Center for the Study of Law and Society, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law
Once, activists dreamed of an all-inclusive movement for poor people. But then came the 1950s – labor began to decline as a social movement, and civil rights leaders turned away from their early focus on labor rights. What role did the courts play in pushing these movements apart?
Professor Fisk finds that the era’s labor laws, which were hostile to picketing by labor organizers, encouraged... More >
After the Airlifts: Battling over Vietnamese Children and the Place of Vietnamese Refugees
Lecture | February 8 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
Allison Varzally, Professor of History, CSU Fullerton
Center for Southeast Asia Studies
This talk is derived from Prof. Varzally's new book Children of Reunion: Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Family Migrations (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).
Allison Varzally
The Berkeley Seminar on Global History: Karl Jacoby on The Strange Career of William Ellis
Lecture | February 8 | 4-6 p.m. | 3335 Dwinelle Hall
Karl Jacoby, Professor, Department of History, Columbia University
Chip Williams, Descendent of William Ellis
Department of History, Institute of International Studies
To his contemporaries in Gilded Age Manhattan, Guillermo Eliseo was a fantastically wealthy Mexican, the proud owner of a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, a busy Wall Street office, and scores of mines and haciendas in Mexico. But for all his obvious riches and his elegant appearance, Eliseo was also the possessor of a devastating secret: he was not, in fact, from Mexico at all. Rather,... More >
Bowen Lectures: Lecture 2: Mathematics and Computation (through the lens of one problem and one algorithm). Proving Algebraic Identities.
Lecture | February 8 | 4:10-5 p.m. | 60 Evans Hall
Avi Wigderson, Institute for Advanced Study
In numerous mathematical settings, an object typically has several representations. This leads to the “isomorphism problem” or “word problem”: when are two given representations equivalent. Such problems have driven much structural and algorithmic research across mathematics.
We will focus on the algebraic setting, where our objects will be polynomials and rational functions in many... More >
Buddhism and Divination in Tibet
Lecture | February 8 | 5-7 p.m. | Faculty Club, Heyns Room
Brandon Dotson, Georgetown University
As a poor cousin of both science and religion, a begrudged relative of ritual, and a strange bedfellow of play, divination persists at the margins of established traditions. Buddhism shows some ambivalence toward divination, sometimes barely tolerating it, and other times making full use of divination as a medium for Buddhist messages. Buddhists, for their part, have employed divination in much... More >
We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria
Lecture | February 8 | 5:30-7 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Wendy Pearlman, Northwestern University
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Author Wendy Pearlman presents her book, We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria, which is an astonishing collection of intimate wartime testimonies and poetic fragments from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight.
Wendy Pearlman is a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in Middle East politics.
A Long Civil War or a Long Reconstruction?: A Case for 1865
Lecture | February 8 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | 300 Wheeler Hall
Brook Thomas, UC Irvine
Department of English, Americanist Colloquium
An evening lecture and discussion with UC Irvine professor Brook Thomas; Sponsored by the Americanist Colloquium
SOLD OUT - The Science of Cannabis: The Genetics of Cannabis Breeds
Lecture | February 8 | 6-7:30 p.m. | UC Botanical Garden
There is a rich informal taxonomy of Cannabis strains with exotic and evocative names. How do these breeds reflect the genetic relationships among different strains, and how do those genetic relationships reflect the chemical properties of the specific plants?
$30 / $25 UCBG Members / $15 Current students
SOLD OUT.
Celebrate Michael Krasny’s 25 Years as host of KQED’s Forum
Lecture | February 8 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. | North Gate Hall, North Gate Hall Library
Michael Krasny, KQED
You are invited to a very special evening celebrating the career of legendary Bay Area radio host and author Michael Krasny.
RSVP: https://goo.gl/8B6wvu
Seating is first come, first served. Advance registration does not guarantee seating.
Hilton Als in Conservation with Stephen Best
Lecture | February 8 | 7:30 p.m. | Nourse Theater
275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA
Stephen Best, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley English
Hilton Als began contributing to The New Yorker in 1989, writing pieces for ‘The Talk of the Town,’ he became a staff writer in 1994, theatre critic in 2002, and lead theater critic in 2012. Week after week, he brings to the magazine a rigorous, sharp, and lyrical perspective on acting, playwriting, and directing. With his deep knowledge of the history of performance—not only in theatre but in... More >
Memory and the Ear: Sather Lecture #1
Lecture | February 8 | 8 p.m. | Wheeler Hall, Maud Fife Room | Note change in time and location
Maurizio Bettini, Università degli Studi di Siena
Friday, February 9, 2018
Austria in a Changing Europe. Diplomatic Perspectives
Lecture | February 9 | 12-1 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
Andreas Launer, Consul General of the Republic of Austria in Los Angeles; Martin Rauchbauer, Co-Director of the Open Austria Silicon Valley Office
Austria is in the heart of a Europe that continues to go through fundamental political, economic, and social changes. As the country takes over the Presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year, two Austrian diplomats based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, share their perspectives on developments and challenges in Austria, Europe, and on relations with the United... More >
Leveraging Big Data to Improve Operational Performance, Reliability, and Efficiency
Lecture | February 9 | 4 p.m. | 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building
Jonny Simkin, Swiftly
Institute of Transportation Studies
Abstract: The existing public transit infrastructure in the United States already generates a tremendous amount of data, however, this information is often not used as effectively as it could be. In this session, we will discuss some of the ways that Swiftly is leveraging billions of data points to help transit agencies improve operational performance, reliability, and efficiency.
Bio: Jonny... More >
Bowen Lectures: Lecture 3: Mathematics and Computation (through the lens of one problem and one algorithm). Proving Analytic Inequalities.
Lecture | February 9 | 4:10-5 p.m. | Calvin Laboratory (Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing), Auditorium
Avi Wigderson, Institute for Advanced Study
The celebrated Brascamp-Lieb (BL) inequalities, and their reverse form of Barthe, is a powerful framework which unifies and generalizes many important inequalities in analysis, convex geometry and information theory.
I will exemplify BL inequalities, building to the general set-up. I will describe the structural theory that characterizes existence and optimality of these inequalities in terms... More >
Hesiod, the Presocratics and Hellenistic Poetry
Lecture | February 9 | 5 p.m. | Dwinelle Hall, Nestrick Room (142)
Richard Hunter
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Career Clinic: Making A Successful Career Transition: Roadmap for Change
Lecture | February 10 | 9 a.m.-3 p.m. | UC Berkeley Extension (Golden Bear Center), Room 204
Rebecca Andersen, Career Services at the UC Berkeley Information School; RuthAnn Haffke, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Making a career transition can be bewildering: how do you find jobs? How can you stand out as a candidate? And, if you finally get an interview, how do you showcase yourself as the best candidate? This workshop will walk participants through each step of making a career transition. Through interactive exercises, we will cover strategies in personal branding, networking, résumé and LinkedIn... More >
$50
