Lectures

Ruchira Gupta | The Last Girl and Sex Trafficking: New Vulnerabilities in the New World Order

Lecture | September 30 | 12-1:30 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conf. Room)

Speaker:  Ruchira Gupta, Founder of Indian anti-sex trafficking organization, Apne Aap

Moderator:  Angana Chatterji, Research Anthropologist and Co-chair, Initiative on Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights, Center for Race and Gender, UC Berkeley

Sponsors:  Institute for South Asia Studies, Center for Initiative on Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Race and Gender

Talk by founder of Indian anti-sex trafficking organization, Apne Aap, Ruchira Gupta on bottom-up approaches to end sex-trafficking and the intersecting inequalities that create its vulnerabilities. it will also delve into the aestheticization of exploitation in a world where the market can justify anything.

What is Strange?

Lecture | September 30 | 6:30-8 p.m. |  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Speakers/Performers:  Rabih Alameddine; Lawrence Rinder

Sponsor:  Arts + Design

Presented by BAMPFA

Rabih Alameddine, Author
Lawrence Rinder, Director, BAMPFA

Beirut and Bay Area–based, internationally acclaimed author Rabih Alameddine joins BAMPFA Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder for a conversation on concepts of “strangeness” in relation to the museum’s exhibition Strange, which Rinder organized. Featuring works from many cultures and time periods that...   More >

Voices of Vietnam: A Century of Radio, Red Songs, and Revolution

Lecture | October 1 | 5-6:30 p.m. | 180 Doe Library

Speaker:  Lonan O'Briain, Associate Professor of Music, University of Nottingham

Sponsor:  Center for Southeast Asia Studies

This lecture reconstructs an oral history of music production processes and listening practices during the Second Indochina War, when radio was the principal mass medium for sound-based communications and the primary source for new music. The research draws on interviews with current and former employees of the Voice of Vietnam radio, supplemented by recent print collections and archival documents.

From Revolution to Routine? Patterns of German Democracy in the 20th Century

Lecture | October 1 | 5-6:30 p.m. | 223 Moses Hall

Speaker/Performer:  Lutz Raphael, Trier University, Germany

Sponsors:  Institute of European Studies, Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington, Center for German and European Studies, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Lutz Raphael explores the specificities of 100 years of German Democracy. Modern democracy develops under the double impact of revolutionary moments and everyday routines. To better understand the interplay between these two central elements in the history of German Democracy three different layers of temporality or change are taken into consideration. Firstly, four moments of revolutionary...   More >

Townsend Book Chat with Alva Noë: Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark

Lecture | October 2 | 12-1 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220 Stephens

Sponsor:  Townsend Center for the Humanities

Noë explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game — a window on language, culture, and the nature of human action, intertwined with deep and fundamental human truths.

What do Climate Change and Girls’ Education have to do with Food Security in the Sahel?

Lecture | October 2 | 12-2 p.m. | 5101 Berkeley Way West

Speakers/Performers:  Daniel Perlman, PhD, Centre for Girls Education; Lawali Nassourou, PhD, University Abdou Moumouni; Alisha Graves, MPH, The OASIS Initiative

Sponsor:  The Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability

Agricultural strategies and environmental change in the ancient eastern Mediterranean

Lecture | October 2 | 12-1 p.m. | 101 2251 College (Archaeological Research Facility)

Speaker:  John M. Marston, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Boston University

Sponsor:  Archaeological Research Facility

Marston presents recent work from an ancient urban center in central Anatolia (modern Turkey), where complex agricultural strategies were employed to adapt to coincident environmental and social change on both local and regional scales.

Fung Institute presents: Engineering Leadership Speaking Series

Lecture | September 4 – November 20, 2019 every Wednesday with exceptions | 4-5:30 p.m. | 310 Sutardja Dai Hall

Sponsor:  Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

Join UC Berkeley Master of Engineering students for an executive speaker series with leaders from different technology industries. The technology industry forms a vital part of the Northern California economy and these sessions provide an opportunity to deepen your understanding and connections. Engage with innovative leaders from top companies, deepen your industry and functional knowledge and...   More >

Ancient Amazons: Warrior Women in Myth, Art, and Archaeology

Lecture | October 2 | 5-7 p.m. | 370 Dwinelle Hall

Speaker/Performer:  Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University

Sponsor:  Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS)

Fierce Amazons are featured in some of the most famous Greek myths.
Every great hero, from Heracles to Achilles, battled these powerful warrior queens.
But were Amazons real? Join Adrienne Mayor as she recounts tales of women warriors and uncovers some realities behind the myths.

Janaki Bakhle | Gandhi, Savarkar and the Muslim Question: Celebrating the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

Lecture | October 2 | 5-7 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conf. Room)

Speaker:  Janaki Bakhle, Associate Professor of History, UC Berkeley

Moderator:  Munis Faruqui, Director, Institute for South Asia Studies; Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies; Associate Professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies

Sponsors:  Institute for South Asia Studies, Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies, Center for Initiative on Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Race and Gender, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for British Studies, Department of History

A talk by Professor Janaki Bakhle, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley.

Lecture and Lecture-Demonstration with Dr. I Wayan Dibia, I Wayan Suweca, and Ni Made Wirathini, moderated by Dr. Lisa Gold: New Trends and Current Directions in Balinese Performing Arts

Lecture | October 3 | 3 p.m. | 125 Morrison Hall

Sponsor:  Department of Music

Dr. I Wayan Dibia, renowned dancer and scholar will discuss ways that the contemporary Balinese performance scene incorporates past traditions while constantly innovating. In Bali the concept of “tradition” is defined by personal innovations in which performers explore their relationships with past practices in terms of the contemporary world. Dr. Dibia will present the latest trends in Balinese...   More >

Moscow Has Ears Everywhere: Olga Ivinskaya and the loss of Pasternak’s 'will'

Lecture | October 3 | 5-6 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall

Speakers/Performers:  Paolo Mancosu, Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy, UC Berkeley; Harsha Ram, Associate Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley

Sponsors:  Institute of European Studies, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Program for the Study of Italy

The struggle between the Soviet Communist Party and Boris Pasternak over the publication of Doctor Zhivago did not end when he won the Nobel Prize, or even with his death. After the prize the Soviets vilified and impoverished him. After his death, they turned against Olga Ivinskaya, his literary assistant, companion, and the model for Zhivago’s Lara, sending her and her daughter to a labor camp...   More >

Deioces’ Ultimatum: How to Choose a King

Lecture | October 3 | 5:30 p.m. | 370 Dwinelle Hall

Speaker/Performer:  Josiah Ober, Mitsotakis Professor of Classics and Political Science, Stanford University

Sponsor:  Department of Classics

The Sather Classical Lectures, part 3.

Astronomy Night at UC Berkeley

Lecture | October 3 | 7-9:30 p.m. | 131 Campbell Hall

Speaker/Performer:  Miguel Zumalacarregui, UC Berkeley

Sponsor:  Department of Astronomy

This month's Astronomy Night @ UC Berkeley features a talk by Marie Curie Global Fellow Miguel Zumalacarregui. He'll discuss gravitational waves, the effort to detect them, and how they are providing new means of testing Einstein's ideas about gravity.

Julia Miele Rodas, “Autism and Narrative Invention in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.”

Lecture | October 4 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. | 330 Wheeler Hall

Featured Speaker:  Julia Miele Rodas, Professor, English Department, Bronx Community College / CUNY co-chair, University Seminar in Disability, Culture, and Society at Columbia University

Sponsor:  Department of English

Abstract: Is the novel a form of autistic innovation? Presenting work from the recently published Autistic Disturbances (UMichP, 2018), Julia Miele Rodas will explore autistic dimensions of Robinson Crusoe. Interweaving conversation and formal reading, this talk will first consider how the novel’s themes of human isolation and imprisonment play into autism stereotypes. Ultimately, however, the...   More >

Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukraine

Lecture | October 4 | 12:30-2 p.m. | Kroeber Hall, Garron Reading Room (346)

Speaker:  Jennifer J. Carroll, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Elon University

Sponsors:  Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), UCB Medical Anthropology Program, Berkeley Center for Social Medicine

In the last few years, Ukraine has born witness to the major geopolitical crises of our decade: revolution; state-sponsored killings; foreign invasion; forceful occupation by a major world power; and ongoing war. Ukraine is also experiencing an enormous opioid epidemic and is home to the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the world. Despite all of our differences, Ukraine’s ongoing struggles with...   More >