2014 ISI Capstone, "Dimensions of Emancipation"

ISI is delighted to present a roundtable discussion featuring fellows of the 2013-14 ISI faculty seminar on Emancipation. Our seminar was inspired by the the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and during the year our fellows have addressed the general topic from a wide range of approaches across the disciplines. The aim now is to return some of their insights and interactions to a wider audience, as well as encourage our audience to participate as we bring the year to an engaging close.

The event will be held Thursday, April 24 at 4PM in Bartlett 316. It is free and open to the public, and we invite all faculty and students to attend. Following (and even during!) the event, wine and refreshments will be served to celebrate the end of a productive and engaging year.

Mandiba's Gifts: Nelson Mandela's Life and Legacies - A Tribute

The event Mandiba's Gifts: Nelson Mandela's Life and Legacies - A Tribute will take place on Friday, April 4 as part of Five College Africa Day 2014. The event will take place at 4PM in Bowker Auditorium, Stockbridge Hall and feature keynote speaker Garrey M. Dennie, former speech writer for Nelson Mandela and Professor of History at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

Barbara Fields to Deliver ISI Lecture

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) is delighted to host Professor Barbara Fields, who will visit UMass from February 18-20 for the ISI 2014 Residency. Professor Fields will present a public lecture entitled “Was Emancipation a War Crime?” on Wednesday, February 19th in Campus Center 165-169 at 5 p.m. In addition, through the course of her stay she will visit classes in an array of departments and take part in several graduate seminars, as well as engage with this year’s ISI fellows, who are discussing the theme of “Emancipation” through the year.

Professor Fields is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including a 1992 MacArthur Fellowship, the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association, the Founders Prize of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, and the Thomas Jefferson Prize for the Society of the History of the Federal Government. Professor Fields is Professor of History at Columbia University.

For a complete schedule of events, see our Residency page.

Photographer and Activist Zanele Muholi Visits Smith College

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) is pleased to co-sponsor the event 'Black Queer Born Frees in South Africa' at Smith College on February 4, 2014. Photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi will show photographs and a video produced in Durban as part of a presentation exploring Black Frees (the generation born in post-apartheid South Africa and known as Mandela's great-grandchildren) and how each person expresses him/herself queerly in a time of troubling hate crimes in South Africa. The young adults she depicts are those born in 1990-1994, and openly gay/lesbian/trans with/in South African borders. This event will take place in the Browsing Room of Neilson Library on the Smith College campus on Tuesday, February 4 from 5-7pm.

Muholi's work will be on display at the Williams College Museum of Art from February 1, 2014 - April 27, 2014.

Theaster Gates to Give Public Lecture

The ISI is a proud cosponsor of the upcoming Theaster Gates visit to UMass. Gates will give a public lecture on November 4 titled "Du Bois: The Early Social Practitioner," at 5:00 PM Thompson 104 at UMass Amherst. His talk is part of the programming for the exhibition "Du Bois In Our Time" at the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst.

The artist Theaster Gates has developed an expanded practice that includes space development, object making, performance and critical engagement with many publics. Founder of the non-profit Rebuild Foundation, Gates is currently Director of Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago.

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