Lectures
Monday, November 18, 2019
Insurgent Aesthetics: Flight, Freedom, and Fantasy on the Frontiers of US Empire
Lecture | November 18 | 12:30-2 p.m. | Moffitt Undergraduate Library, BCNM Commons - 340
Ronak K. Kapadia, University of Illinois at Chicago
Center for New Media, Asian American Studies, Center for Race and Gender, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Gender and Women's Studies
In Insurgent Aesthetics, Ronak K. Kapadia theorizes the world-making power of contemporary art responses to US militarism in the Greater Middle East. He traces how new forms of remote killing, torture, confinement, and surveillance have created a distinctive post-9/11 infrastructure of racialized state violence. Linking these new forms of violence to the history of American imperialism and... More >
Expanded Internet Art
Lecture | November 18 | 12:30-2 p.m. | Moffitt Undergraduate Library, BCNM Commons, Room 340
Ceci Moss, writer, curator, educator, LA
In this talk, author Dr. Ceci Moss discusses her new book “Expanded Internet Art: Twenty-First-Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu” (New York: Bloomsbury, 2019). The publication is the first comprehensive art historical study of “expanded” internet art practices. Charting the rise of a multidisciplinary approach to online artistic practice in the past decade, the text discusses... More >
‘She had…a Womb Subjected to Bondage’: The Afro-Atlantic Origins of British Colonial Descent Law
Lecture | November 18 | 12:45-2 p.m. | Boalt Hall, School of Law, Selznick Seminar Room, 2240 Piedmont Avenue
Stephanie Jones-Rogers, Associate Professor, History Department, University of California, Berkeley
In December of 1662, Virginia’s legislators decided to pass an act which made the free or enslaved status of a child born to an “Englishman” and a “negro” woman in the colony contingent upon the free or enslaved status of their mother. Such a choice was and remains remarkable to scholars because it stood in direct contrast with the paternal descent laws that prevailed in England (except in cases... More >
BIDS Forum: Statistics and Machine Learning Forum
Lecture | November 18 | 1:30-2:30 p.m. | 190 Doe Library
Berkeley Institute for Data Science
Full details about this meeting will be posted here: https://bids.berkeley.edu/events.
Korean Conglomerates (Chaebol) in Times of Crisis
Lecture | November 18 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
Rebecca Chunghee Kim, Professor, College of International Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS), Center for Korean Studies (CKS)
This research investigates responses of the international and domestic (South Korean) publics to one of the most hotly debated corporate scandals in recent years: Korean Air’s so-called nut rage incident. By analyzing both international and domestic media coverage of the occurrence, we reveal contrasting interpretations between the two. Whereas the South Korean public tends to generate intense... More >
Two Talks: “Generalization through Memorization: Nearest Neighbor Language Models” and “Probing Neural NLP: Ideas and Problems”
Lecture | November 18 | 4:10-5 p.m. | 202 South Hall
Urvashi Khandelwal & John Hewitt
Berkeley Natural Language Processing Seminar
My Place Is the Placeless: Sherin Guirguis
Lecture | November 18 | 6:30-8 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Sherin Guirguis
Presented by the UC Berkeley Department of Art Practice
Sherin Guirguis, Visual Artist
Egypt-born, Los Angeles–based artist Sherin Guirguis discusses her work, which investigates narratives and histories that have often been forgotten, marginalized, or erased. Using a specific site, related text (poems, biographies, songs), and historical research as the core of each series, Guirguis... More >
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
SPH Brown Bag: Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR): Overview, Research Advances, and Challenges
Lecture | November 19 | 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | 5101 Berkeley Way West
Dr. Emily Ozer, PhD Professor, Community Health Sciences Co-Director, Innovations 4 Youth (i4Y), will discuss her research program on youth empowerment, participatory research, and adolescent development over the past 15 years, challenges, and next steps in the rapidly growing youth participation field. She will discuss the partnership context for local research on YPAR with SF Peer Resources and... More >
Carlo Rotella: Craft: How Writers, Musicians, Athletes, and Others Cultivate Their Talent
Lecture | November 19 | 4 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe room, 220 Stephens
Townsend Center for the Humanities
Writer, journalist, and scholar Carlo Rotella is joined in conversation by UC Berkeley professor of English Scott Saul.
The Cuban Revolution and the Transformation of Nature during the Cold War
Lecture | November 19 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 3335 Dwinelle Hall
Reinaldo Funes, (University of Havana / Yale University)
Environmental historian Reinaldo Funes (University of Havana / Yale University) will speak about the development of the concept of "geotransformation" in socialist Cuba and ideas, projects, and policies for its implementation during the Cold War.
The Myanmar Shwe: Rule of Law in the New Burma
Lecture | November 19 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
Stephen Rosenbaum, Lecturer, Berkeley Law School, UC Berkeley
Center for Southeast Asia Studies
Foreign development actors, policymakers and civil society have initiated a number of rule of law activities in Myanmar, with many references to concepts such as “access to justice” and “human rights.” Global marketplace competition and development of human capital are among the drivers leading the nation to modernize its entire educational system and produce a corps of professional and ethical... More >
Stephen Rosenbaum
The Mystery of Van Gogh's Ear
Lecture | November 19 | 5-7 p.m. | Doe Library, Morrison Library
Bernadette Murphy
Institute of European Studies, Department of History of Art, Arts & Humanities, Letters & Science Division of , Bancroft Library, Department of French, Townsend Center for the Humanities
Bernadette Murphy spent seven years looking into the night of Vincent van Gogh's infamous self-harm. Using modern technology, her investigation ignored everything that had been written about the subject and she started afresh like a detective. She made an important discovery that re-wrote the story of the world's most famous artist and was reported all over the world. This discovery became the... More >
Bernadette Murphy
GUH Lecture: “The World is Always Coming to An End: Pulling Together and Apart in a Chicago Neighborhood”
Lecture | November 19 | 7-8:30 p.m. | 315 Wheeler Hall
College of Environmental Design
Carlo Rotella will speak on his new book, which one reviewer called “an urban history with the soul of a memoir.” The World is Always Coming to an End: Pulling Together and Apart in a Chicago Neighborhood is a hauntingly personal account of... More >
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Berkeley Boosts Webinar: "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber" with Mike Isaac, The New York Times: Online Program
Lecture | November 20 | 10-11 a.m. | Online Program
Mike Isaac, Berkeley Law
Berkeley Law Executive Education
Berkeley Boosts is a monthly series of free webinars (with MCLE credit) and articles for legal practitioners and organizational leaders. Berkeley Boosts content is carefully curated by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business and Berkeley Law Executive Education to ensure engaging discussions on subjects that matter.
DCRP Lecture Series: Ben Metcalf
Lecture | November 20 | 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | 305 Wurster Hall
College of Environmental Design
WEDNESDAY, NOV 20, 11 AM. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Through State Action: Moving Away From Exclusionary Zoning in California
Townsend Book Chat with Sugata Ray: Climate Change and the Art of Devotion: Geoaesthetics in the Land of Krishna, 1550-1850
Lecture | November 20 | 12-1 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220 Stephens
Townsend Center for the Humanities
In the north Indian pilgrimage region of Braj, the landscape is considered sacred. Ray shows how this place-centered theology and its art emerged in the wake of the climatic catastrophe of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550–1850).
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
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 >
Sol and Arthur at the Seige of Mafeking: Lecture with Jane Taylor
Lecture | November 20 | 4 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall
Jane Taylor will present her research on two diarists of the South African War—Sol Plaatje and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Her talk considers the fact that Plaatje and Doyle both wrote about the Siege of Mafeking, a significant moment in the narrative of the South African (Boer) War. Taylor will discuss what the Siege writings do and do not reveal about empire, sentiment, and the uncanny.
An evening with Dr. Louise Aronson, author of “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life”
Lecture | November 20 | 5:30-8:30 p.m. | The David Brower Center
2150 Alston Way, Berkeley, CA
Join us for nibbles (5:30), talk (6:30), book signing (7:30)
TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS to the Lecture Series can be made:
ONLINE www.sutterhealth.org/lifshay
By CHECK payable to “Alta Bates Summit Dept of Philanthropy” & designate “Lifshay Lecture Fund” on memo line (mail to: Alta Bates Summit Dept of Philanthropy, 2855 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 601 Berkeley CA 94705)
QUESTIONS? Contact... More >
Tri-Valley: Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: Can lifestyle practices protect the brain?
Lecture | November 20 | 5:45-8 p.m. | Roundhouse Market & Conference Center
2600 Camino Ramon, San Ramon, CA 94583
Dr. Susan Ladau, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
Cal Alumni Association, Tri-Valley Cal Alumni Club
Susan will educate us on best practices for a healthy brain as we age!
About this Event
Join us for an evening with Dr. Susan Landau to learn how lifestyle changes may influence the brain later in life and how they may reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
Susan is an Associate Research Scientist at the UC Berkeley Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Her work focuses on the sixth-leading... More >
Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: Can lifestyle practices protect the brain?
Lecture | November 20 | 5:45-8:05 p.m. | Roundhouse Market & Conference Center
2600 Camino Ramon, San Ramon, CA 94583
Dr. Susan Landau, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
Susan will educate us on best practices for a healthy brain as we age!
About this Event
Join us for an evening with Dr. Susan Landau to learn how lifestyle changes may influence the brain later in life and how they may reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
Artist’s Talk: Edie Fake in Conversation with Elaine Yau
Lecture | November 20 | 6 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Artist Edie Fake discusses his new Art Wall project with BAMPFA Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Elaine Yau, who organized it. They will address the idea of queer space in Fake’s architectural motifs, and the role of art in growing dialogue around trans rights.
Arms Trafficking: Its Past, Present, and Future
Lecture | November 20 | 7-8:15 p.m. | Faculty Club, Great Hall
Brian DeLay, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley Department of History
Priya Satia, Professor, Stanford University History Department; Daniel Sargent, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley Department of History; Ron Hassner, Professor, UC Berkeley Political Science
David A. Hollinger, Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley Department of History
Department of History, Berkeley Program Committee, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The Berkeley Program Committee of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences invites you and a guest to join historian Brian DeLay as he discusses the history of the arms trade, which he argues reaches much farther back than the post-World War II military-industrial complex, and has entangled state and market since George Washington's day.
After DeLay's presentation, Priya Satia, Daniel Sargent,... More >
Register online or by calling Tinbite Gadsden at (617) 576-5083, or by emailing Tinbite Gadsden at mevents@amacad.org
Thursday, November 21, 2019
View from the Top: Craig Federighi: Questionable Advice from One Very Lucky Berkeley Engineer
Lecture | November 21 | 12-1 p.m. | Sutardja Dai Hall, Banatao Auditorium, 3rd floor
Craig Federighi, Senior VP, Software Engineering, Apple
Society of Women Engineers, UC Berkeley College of Engiennering
Bancroft Library Roundtable: “To make letters live, that men themselves may have more life”: Manuscript Analysis and the Lettering Arts
Lecture | November 21 | 12-1 p.m. | Faculty Club, Lewis-Latimer Room
Chris McDonald, Assistant Pictorial Archivist, The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is home to one of the more significant collections of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the nation. Chris McDonald will discuss the esoteric tradition of study of letterforms in the scripts found in such documents, illustrating this analysis along the way.
The Lewis-Latimer Room has a maximum capacity of 28 people. The doors will be shut and no more attendees may enter once the room is at capacity.
Amy Franceschini: Presence as Practice
Lecture | November 21 | 12-1:30 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Amy Franceschini
Amy Franceschini, founder of Futurefarmers
This week’s A+D Thursdays speaker is Amy Franceschini, the founder of Futurefarmers, a group of artists, designers, farmers, and architects with a common interest in creating frameworks of participation that recalibrate our cultural compass. Their work uses various media to enact situations that disassemble habitual apparatus: public policy, urban... More >
Aging Services Faculty Search Candidate Talk
Lecture | November 14 – December 5, 2019 every Thursday with exceptions | 12:10-1:30 p.m. | Haviland Hall, Haviland Commons
Spectacle of Empire: The Visual Destruction of Iraq | Dena Al-Adeeb
Lecture | November 21 | 12:30-2 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Dena Adnan Al-Adeeb, University of California, Davis
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
The Spectacle of Empire critically investigates the relationship between art, architecture and archaeology and militarized visual culture, analyzed against the historical and political backdrop of imperial and neoliberal processes in the Middle East. Drawing from the fields of postcolonial theory, visual culture, and media studies, The Spectacle of Empire sheds light on the United States’ 2003... More >
Member's Walk: Australasia
Lecture | November 21 | 1-2:30 p.m. | UC Botanical Garden
James Fong
Garden members are invited to take an in-depth look into the Australasia Collection with Horticulturist James Fong. This diverse collection represents flora from the temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates of Australia, New Zealand, and more!
Anthony W. Fontes Mortal Doubt: Transnational Gangs and Social Order
Lecture | November 21 | 4-5 p.m. | 2334 Bowditch (Center for Latin American Studies)
Anthony Fontes, Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University, American University
Center for Latin American Studies
Maras (transnational gangs) like the MS-13 stand at the center of ever-growing politics of fear. Based on years of fieldwork in Central America, Anthony W. Fontes illuminates how the maras became the region’s public enemy #1. However, the problem goes beyond gangs. By providing cover for a host of other actors taking advantage of extreme violence, maras help create a sense of order in the midst... More >
A man in a mausoleum in Guatemala City. (Photo by Anthony W. Fontes.)
Foerster Lectures on the Immortality of the Soul featuring Jane Taylor: On Uncertainty: Wittgenstein: Habits of Thought and Thoughts of Habit
Lecture | November 21 | 4:10 p.m. | Alumni House, Toll Room
Jane Taylor, Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape
Taylor's lecture is about uncertainty. The lecture will be accessible and interesting to a broad audience. She will be engaged with the English, Drama, and other departments on campus as her work is widely respected.
Jane Taylor
Singing Schubert, Hearing Race: Black Concert Singers and the German Lied in Interwar Central Europe
Lecture | November 21 | 5-6:30 p.m. | 201 Moses Hall
Kira Thurman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Institute of European Studies, Center for German and European Studies, Department of History, Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington
Kira Thurman explores the rise in popularity of African American classical musicians in interwar Germany and Austria. Singing Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, and others, they challenged audiences’ expectations of what a black performer looked and sounded like in the transatlantic “jazz age.” Audiences labeled singers such as Marian Anderson and Roland Hayes “negroes with white souls,” and marveled at... More >
Kira Thurman
35th Colin and Elsa Miller Lecture: Elections and Protests: Government Influence and Social Attitudes in Today’s Russia
Lecture | November 21 | 5:15-6:45 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room, 220
Maria Lipman, Editor, Point & Counterpoint
Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES)
The year 2019 has been marked by several unexpected developments. The Moscow city council elections, usually a non-event, resulted in mass street protests after the government barred undesired candidates from the race. The police responded with unprecedented brutality. The prosecution of some of the protesters was extremely arbitrary, even by Russian standards. What followed was a campaign of... More >
The Daily Life of Betel: from Leaf to Nut, Preparation to Ritual
Lecture | November 21 | 6-7:30 p.m. | Hearst Museum of Anthropology
Deepa Natarajan, UC Botanical Garden
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Institute for South Asia Studies, Botanical Garden
Betel nuts (Areca catechu) and leaves (Piper betle), are for many, a part of daily life in Southern India. Come explore the world of vethela paaku (the preparation of betel leaves and nuts) through a visual journey through Southern India.
Deepa Natarajan is the Program Coordinator at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, where she has transformed her love of plants into a year-round series of... More >
Friday, November 22, 2019
Design Conversations: Aza Raskin
Lecture | November 22 | 12-1 p.m. | 310 Jacobs Hall
Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
This fall, we continue our series For Whom? By Whom? Designs for Belonging launched in Spring 2019. Inclusion, accessibility, and justice are unavoidable terms in debates on design and technology today. Aza Raskin is a cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology, which is leading the charge in reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity’s best interests.
Serge Lang Undergraduate Lecture: Adding numbers and shuffling cards
Lecture | November 22 | 4:10-5 p.m. | 60 Evans Hall
Persi Diaconis, Stanford University
When numbers are added in the usual way, 'carries' appear along the way. It turns out that the carries form a Markov chain with an 'amazing' transition matrix. Strangely, this same matrix appears in the analysis of the usual way of shuffling cards (the seven shuffles theorem). I will explain all this 'in English'.
Temple Mount: Heritage and Conflict | Katharina Galor
Lecture | November 22 | 4:30-6:30 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
This lecture surveys the historical and archaeological legacy of Jerusalem’s most contested site, the Jewish Temple Mount (Har HaBayit), known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif). In an effort to disentangle the historical facts from the religious and political agendas, Galor will examine key research initiatives and define how the recent conflict has impacted the preservation of... More >
