Events

Apart from its regular seminars, the ISI hosts a number of related activities. We are delighted to invite eminent figures for our Annual Lecture, which supplements and corresponds to our seminar in any given year; sometimes this takes on other formats, such as a symposium or panel presentation. We also host other panels and presentations from time to time, and co-sponsor other events on campus. Details on current and past activities are below.

ISI Cosponsored Events in April

As always, ISI is happy to cosponsor events in collaboration with other organizations on campus. This month, our cosponsored events include a number of interesting lectures and symposia:

  • A visit to UMass of Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika (Clemson University) on April 8, who will speak on diversity in public radio;
  • A public lecture by Dr. Victor Burgin, renowned conceptual artist and theorist, on April 9;
  • "Neurodiversity University," a symposium on neurodiversity and autism, with events on April 16 and April 24;
  • The "Five College Multicultural Theater Conference," taking place on April 17. 

Click "read more" below for more information about each of these events.

Professor Viviana Zelizer to Deliver Public Lecture on April 14

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) is delighted to welcome prominent economic sociologist Viviana A. Zelizer, who will visit UMass from April 12-15 as part of the 2015 ISI Residency. Professor Zelizer will present a public lecture entitled “Valuing Intimacy: Does Money Corrupt?” on Tuesday, April 14 at 4:00 pm in Room 904-908 of the UMass Campus Center. In addition, during her stay at UMass, Professor Zelizer will interact with students and faculty across the disciplines. Events will include graduate seminars, classroom visits, and a meeting with this year’s ISI Faculty Fellows, who have been considering the topic of “Value” from various perspectives throughout the year.

ISI Cosponsors Conflict Transformation and Literature Series

ISI is a proud cosponsor of The Art of Conflict Transformation Event Series, whose two-day event "Conflict Transformation and Literature: Exploring Transformations of Conflict Across Boundaries of Language, Nation states, Time and Memory" will take place from November 12-13. The event is organized by former ISHA/ISI fellow Leah Wing, and features Dr. Marjorie Agosin in three different engagements.

The first, on Wednesday November 12 at 12:30 pm in Herter 601, is an interdisciplinary graduate student conversation titled "The Aesthetics of Social Justice Activism through Literature." The second is a reading and conversation titled "Weaving the Memories of OThers" in the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at November 12 at 4:30 pm. Dr. Agosin's UMass visit will conclude with "Human Rights and the Arts," a student conversation on November 13 in the Honors College, Elm 230, at 10:00 a.m.

Albie Sachs To Give Lecture at UMass

Called "arguably the world's most famous judge" in The Guardian, the famed South African judge Albie Sachs will give a lecture on September 10 at Umass at 4 p.m. in the new Integrative Learning Center, room south 331. Sachs's lecture will be on "The Value of Values: Lessons from the South African Transformation" and will inaugurate this year's ISI theme, "Value."

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