Residency

During her 2015-2016 ISI residency, Professor Danielle Citron sat down with 'Secrecy, Publicity, Privacy, Security' ISI fellow Jarice Hanson to discuss hate crimes in cyberspace. The interview was produced by Amherst Media, and can be found here.  

April 4-7, 2016

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) is delighted to welcome Professor Danielle Citron, Lois K. Macht Research Professor and Professor of Law, who will visit UMass from April 4-7 as part of the 2015-2016 ISI Residency. Professor Citron will present a public lecture entitled “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” on Tuesday, April 5 at 4:30 pm, location TBA. During her stay at UMass, Professor Citron will interact with students and faculty across the disciplines in a series of events, including graduate seminars, classroom visits, and meetings with faculty from Computer Science as well as with this year’s ISI Faculty Fellows, who have been considering the topic "Secrecy, Publicity, Privacy, Security" from various perspectives throughout the year.

Professor Danielle Citron is the Lois K. Macht Research Professor & Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Her scholarship focuses on information privacy, civil rights, and administrative law. Professor Citron is the author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace published by Harvard University Press in 2014, which was nominated by Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar as one of the top 20 “Best Moments for Women” in 2014. Her book chapter “Civil Rights in the Information Age” was featured in The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation, edited by Martha Nussbaum & Saul Levmore (Harvard University Press 2010).

Professor Citron serves as an Adviser to American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law Third, Information Privacy Principles Project. She is an Affiliate Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project, an Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Center on Internet and Society, and a Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy. She serves on the advisory boards of the Future of Privacy, Without My Consent, Cyber Civil Rights (CCRI) and Teach Privacy. She is a tech contributor at Forbes and has been a permanent blogger at Concurring Opinions since 2008.

In late October 2011, Professor Citron testified at the House of Commons before the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combatting Anti-Semitism Task Force on Internet Hate, of which she is a task force member. During the past five years, she has given more than fifty lectures and talks, including at the Department of Homeland Security, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and others.

April 12-15, 2015

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.

Professor Zelizer’s scholarship is motivated by a particular interest in how economic activities affect the meaning of interpersonal relations. A constant in her work is the belief that economic activity plays a key role in the way individuals conceive the value of those who are near and dear to them. Her books include Morals and Markets; Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children; and The Purchase of Intimacy. Reviewers have praised her work for its theoretical contributions, and for providing readers with a completely new perspective on markets and intimacy.

Widely recognized for her innovative scholarly contributions, Professor Zelizer has been elected to the American Academy for Arts & Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and received the first Distinguished Career Service Award for the Section on Children and Youth from the American Sociological Association. Viviana Zelizer is Professor of Sociology at Princeton University.

Schedule of Events

Public Lecture
"Valuing Intimacy: Does Money Corrupt?"
Tuesday, April 14
4:00 p.m.
Campus Center, room 904-908

Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar
Monday, April 13
Facilitated by Professor Nancy Folbre
Location: Herter 601

Additional Visits
Professor Zelizer will make several other visits to graduate and undergraduate classes on campus, including a visit with Public Health faculty and graduate students, a sociology class, and a visit to the 5 College Childhood Seminar. Professor Zelizer will also meet with the 2014-2015 ISI Faculty Fellows, who have been considering the topic of "Value" from a variety of perspectives throughout the year.

February 18 - 20, 2014

Barbara Fields visited the UMass campus and the ISI community from February 18 - 20 as the 2014 ISI Resident. Her visit was active, wide-ranging and successful. She presented a public lecture entitled "Was Emancipation a War Crime?" to an engaged audience of faculty, students, and community members. In addition, she visited classes in the departments of History, Anthropology, and Afro-American Studies, as well as taking part in several graduate seminars, and conversing with this year's ISI fellows, who have been discussing the theme of "Emancipation" in this year's seminar. Special thanks to Professor Fields and the many others in the ISI community who made the 2014 Residency such an exciting, engaging experience for all.

A leading scholar in American history, Professor Fields specializes in southern history and 19th-century social history. Her many books include Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland during the Nineteenth Century (1985) as well as the co-authored volumes The Destruction of Slavery (1985), Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War (1992), and Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War (1992). Her most recent book, co-authored with Karen Fields, is Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (2012). Called urgent, compelling, demanding and impressive, Racecraft locates the failure of achieving a post-racial America in the limited and inadequate vocabulary, language, and concepts presently used to discuss race and inequality.

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. 

Events

Public Lecture

"Was Emancipation a War Crime?"
Wednesday, Feb 19
5 p.m.
Campus Center, rooms 165-69

Conceptualizing Racecraft 

Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar
Tuesday, Feb 18
Facilitated by Professor Barbara Krauthamer
Location TBD
Email isi@umass.edu by Feb. 7 to register

Additional Visits

Professor Fields made several other visits to graduate and undergraduate classes alike, including a graduate seminar on slavery, a civil war history class, an undergraduate honors class in STPEC, and a graduate seminar on critical race theory. Professor Fields also met with the 2013-14 ISI fellows who have spent this year discussing "Emancipation."

October 23 - 25, 2012

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) hosted inspirational anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff for its inaugural residency. For the past thirty years, the Comaroffs’ work has influenced a generation of scholars interested in questions of identity and resistance in both colonial and postcolonial cultures in Africa and elsewhere. Writing both separately and together, their recent work has ventured into the intersections of law and ethnicity as well as relations between the global north and south. For many years distinguished professors at the University of Chicago, Jean and John Comaroff are now Professors of African and African American Studies and Oppenheimer Fellows in African Studies at Harvard University. Their most recent books include Law and Disorder in the Postcolony (2006), Ethnicity, Inc. (2009), and Theory from the South, or How Euro-America is Evolving Toward Africa (2011).

Events

Theory from the South
The Inaugural ISI Residency Lecture
Tuesday, October 23rd
4:30 pm
Massachusetts Room, Mullins Center

Rarely has the “Global South” been seen as a source of theory and explanation for world historical events. Yet, as many nation-states of the northern hemisphere experience increasing fiscal meltdown, state privatization, corruption, ethnic conflict, and other crises, it seems as though the “Global North” is evolving southward, so to speak, in both positive and problematic ways. In tracing this pattern the lecture asked how we might understand the world through theory developed in the south, presenting a new twist to the evolutionary pathways long assumed by social scientists.

Divine Detection
Public lecture
Thursday, October 25th
4:30 pm
Campus Center, Room 101

This talk examined the problematic relation of law, citizenship, and sovereignty in contemporary African polities, especially in post-apartheid South Africa. Many African postcolonies are haunted by the waning efficacy of enforcement, the ambiguity of authority, the incapability of the state in recognizing its subjects. The lecture focused on the “metaphysics of disorder” that seems to be conjured in its wake.

The Politics of Memory/Judicialization of History
Interdisciplinary graduate seminar, lunch provided
Thurs Oct 25th
12-2pm
Draper Hall, 2nd floor conference room
Email isi@umass.edu by October 10th to register

The Comaroffs discussed ‘History on Trial: Memory, Evidence, and the Forensic Production of the Past’ from Theory from the South in a small seminar with graduate students from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. This was an opportunity for our students not only to meet with a pair of unusually illuminating scholars and theorists, but also to engage with one another across fields and forms of understanding.

Additional Visits
In addition, the Comaroffs visited two graduate seminars in the Anthropology Department, an undergraduate class in the History Department on “Truth and Reconciliation, History and Justice,” and met with the current ISI Faculty Fellows on the topic “Engagement: The Challenge of Public Scholarship.”

In April 2011, under the rubric of its ‘Beyond Borders’ Residency Program, ISHA will host three remarkable jazz musicians, Gary Smulyan, Ray Drummond, and Kenny Washington. The residency takes place in collaboration with the Department of Music and Dance at UMass, and also with Amherst College. 

On April 8th, in Room 44, Fine Arts Center on the UMass campus, the three musicians will be presenting a masterclass for students from 4.30-6.30 pm. Then on April 9th, 8 pm, Amherst College presents a concert featuring the artists at Buckley Recital Hall. Immediately following the performance, ISHA again hosts a talk back with the musicians. All these events are free and open to the public. 

Biographies

Gary Smulyan is critically acclaimed across the board as the major voice on the baritone saxophone today. He has recorded eleven CDs as a leader and has appeared on many more as an in-demand sideman. Smulyan has appeared on seven Grammy-winning recordings and has won both the Down Beat Critic’s Poll and the Jazz Journalist Award for the past four years; currently he teaches at Amherst College. 

Ray Drummond’s career has spanned over thirty years, in which time he has appeared with some of the most important musicians in jazz, such as Milt Jackson, Johnny Griffin, Hank Jones, Stan Getz, Betty Carter, and Benny Golson. A highly regarded educator, Drummond is a retired Professor of Jazz, Theory, and Practice at California State University at Monterey Bay. 

Kenny Washington was one of the young hard bop revivalists arriving on the New York scene in the late 1970’s, sought after by many older, well-established musicians. He has an enormous discography, and is a highly respected jazz historian. He is also a radio personality, known as ‘The Jazz Maniac’ on his show of the same name, which airs on both WBGO in New Jersey and XM Satellite Radio.

Program

Master Class
Friday, 8 April
4:30-6:30pm
Room 44, Fine Arts Center, UMass Amherst
Free and open to the public

Smulyan, Drummond, & Washington in Concert
Saturday, 9 April
8:00pm
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College
Free and open to the public, seating by general admission

Audience Talk Back
Saturday, 9 April
Immediately following 8pm concert
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College
Free and open to the public

Download the Residency poster.

Sponsors

ISHA is grateful for sponsorship from the following. 

UMass Amhest Department of Music and Dance
Amherst College.

ISHA Residency Spring 2010: Writing/Migration

April 5th-9th, 2010

In April 2010, ISHA welcomed the renowned writer Caryl Phillips for its inaugural residency in the ‘Beyond Borders’ residency program. The weeklong event, on the theme of ‘Writing/Migration’, took place from April 5th-9th 2010, with major funding from a College of Humanities and Fine Arts Visioning Grant. Through Caryl Phillips’s examination of migration and exile in settings ranging from Africa, to Europe, to the new world, he has founded a body of work that is both relevant and timely as well as innovative in form and approach. He joined the University community in a full spectrum of activities, including a fiction reading, a lecture, a screening of one of his films, and a reading of one of his plays.

Images from the Residency

View images from Caryl Phillips’s fiction reading, “Distant Shores,” the Annual ISHA Lecture, “Colour Me English,” and more.  Photographs of Caryl Phillips at ISHA public events courtesy Dennis Vandal.

See full album. 

Biography

Born in St. Kitts, Caryl Phillips left the West Indies at the age of four months when his parents migrated to Britain. He grew up in Leeds and later attended Oxford University. He began writing for the theatre and has written several plays, as well as dramas and documentaries for radio and television. Notable among these are his screenplays for Playing Away (1986) and for the Merchant Ivory adaptation of V. S. Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur (2001). 

To date Caryl Phillips has published nine novels, including The Final Passage (1985), A State of Independence (1986), Higher Ground (1989), Cambridge (1991), Crossing the River (1993), The Nature of Blood (1997), and A Distant Shore (2003). He is also a prolific essay writer, and his non-fiction volumes include The European Tribe (1987), The Atlantic Sound (2000), and A New World Order (2001). His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Phillips was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 1992 and was on the 1993 Granta list of Best of Young British Writers. His literary awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a British Council Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and Britain's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for Crossing the River, which was also shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize. A Distant Shore won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize, while Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond the Margins Award. 

Caryl Phillips has taught at universities in Ghana, Sweden, Singapore, Barbados, India, and the United States, and in 1999 was the University of the West Indies Humanities Scholar of the Year. In 2002-3 he was a Fellow at the Centre for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Formerly Henry R. Luce Professor of Migration and Social Order at Columbia University, he is currently Professor of English at Yale University. Phillips is an Honorary Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Caryl Phillips’s most recent novel, In the Falling Snow, has just been published. For more information, see http://www.carylphillips.com.

Listen to Phillips’s Interview with WFCR

Phillips speaks about literature, education, and his life during an interview with WFCR’s Morning Edition host Bob Paquette. 

Listen to the interview.

Program

Tuesday, 6 April, 8pm
Distant Shores: A Fiction Reading by Caryl Phillips
Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Building.

Wednesday, 7 April, 4:30 pm
The Shelter by Caryl Phillips (Act 2)
Caryl Phillips will introduce the performance and participate in discussion.
In collaboration with the Theater Department.
Curtain Theater.

Wednesday, 7 April, 7:30 pm 
Playing Away, with screenplay by Caryl Phillips. 
In collaboration with the 17th Annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Series "Cinematic Cities."
Isenberg School of Management 137.

Thursday, 8 April, 4:30 pm 
Annual ISHA Lecture 2010
Caryl Phillips, ‘Colour Me English’
Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Building.

All events free and open to the public. 

Sponsors

ISHA is grateful for sponsorship from the following. 

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts Visioning Grant (Joel Martin, Dean); Vice-Chancellor for Research and Engagement; Dean of the Graduate School; Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Department of English; Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies; Department of Afro-American Studies; 17th Annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival; Graduate Colloquium in Film Studies; Department of History; Department of Anthropology; The Center for the Study of African American Language.

Caryl Phillips in Stockholm image courtesy of Laurent Denimal