WORKSHOPS
Interdisciplinary Workshops for Graduate Students 2009-10
The Humanities Center interdisciplinary workshops, open to Harvard graduate students in all departments and programs, are intended to foster discussion of important areas of study that often cross departmental boundaries. While the workshops are especially focused on dissertation work, they will include periodic discussion of general issues and questions. Harvard graduate students at all levels of study, from the first year of graduate school to the dissertation stage, are encouraged to attend. Workshop meetings will include: discussions of chapters and works-in-progress, research areas, theoretical questions of general interest, current issues in the field, and professional development.
Hegel and Theory
Faculty Director: Gordon Teskey (English and American Language and Literature)
Graduate Student Coordinator: Julie Orlemanski, jorleman@fas.harvard.edu
Why should the young humanities scholar read philosophy, and what kind of philosophy? We will continually return to this question as we explore others raised by Hegel's texts, centrally the Phenomenology of Spirit, which through Alexandre Kojeve's lectures in Paris influenced almost all the continental literary theorists of the twentieth-century. We will be concerned with the history of theory and the philosophy that underlies it--"most of us are Hegelians," Paul de Man wrote, "and quite orthodox ones at that"--but we will also turn to contemporary theory to see how Hegel's intellectual style is radically challenging and powerful today. We will read contemporary theoretical texts, from Adorno to Agamben, in the light of Hegel's work. From time to time, we will have invited speakers. Past speakers have included Peter Fenves, Timothy Bahti, and Simon Jarvis. All are welcome, regardless of background and interests: we want to address the humanities in the broadest terms possible.
Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Study of Religion
Faculty Directors: Mahzarin Banaji (Psychology), Elizabeth Spelke (Psychology)
Graduate Student Coordinator: Larisa Heiphetz, larisa@wjh.harvard.edu
Relevant to several graduate programs—including history, philosophy, psychology, law, religion, and sociology, as well as the Divinity School and the Kennedy School—this workshop will bring together faculty and graduate students from across the university to engage in a critical discussion of scholarship about religion, particularly religion as a social force in contemporary culture. The group will meet approximately once per week, and the majority of these meetings will be devoted to presentations of graduate student work. In addition, several meetings will be devoted to discussing classic and/or contemporary scholarly literature concerning religion, and one or two meetings will incorporate a talk given by an external speaker.
Islam in the West
Faculty Directors: Ali Asani (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations), Jocelyne Cesari (Middle Eastern Studies)
Graduate Student Coordinator: Abraham Zamcheck, zamcheck@post.harvard.edu
One of the primary objectives of the student workshop on Islam in the West is to bring students together from a number of departments and schools to examine issues of common interest from a genuinely interdisciplinary perspective. Meetings have attracted students from five departments—Government, Anthropology, Sociology and Social Policy, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies—and four Harvard schools—GSAS, the Divinity School, the Law School and the Kennedy School. Students participating in the workshop work with faculty drawn from across the United States. This allows the students the opportunity to receive feedback and guidance on their research from a diverse array of scholars.
Research Workshop in Political Theory
Faculty Directors: Michael Frazer (Government; Social Studies), Dennis Thompson (Government; Kennedy School)
Graduate Student Coordinator: Sabeel Rahman, rahman@fas.harvard.edu
This workshop brings together graduate students and faculty working in political theory for intensive discussion of student research. It is intended primarily for Government graduate students in political theory, but other Harvard graduate students are welcome with permission of the directors. Meetings are held for two hours each week during the academic year, and each meeting examines a single piece of work in progress by a graduate student. The workshop also convenes an annual graduate student conference in political theory, which attracts attendees from across the U.S. and abroad.
South Asia across Disciplines
Faculty Directors: Asad Ahmed (Anthropology), Smita Lahiri (Anthropology), Parimal Patil (Study of Religion; Sanskrit and Indian Studies
Graduate Student Coordinators: Daniel Majchrowicz, dmajchr@fas.harvard.edu; Dinyar Patel, dpatel@fas.harvard.edu
This workshop brings together students and faculty from a range of humanities and social science departments who work on South Asia. Meetings will be organized around participants’ shared interests in matters such as languages and publics, cultural citizenship, politics and governance, identities, social movements, and the law. We aim to develop and enrich each other’s scholarship through biweekly discussions of works in progress and occasional visits by guest speakers.
To join a workshop or to receive more information about a workshop, including the date of its first meeting, please contact the graduate student coordinator(s).
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