The Center for the Humanities

Welcome to The Center for the Humanities

The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY, was founded in 1993 as a public forum for people who take ideas seriously inside and outside the academy. By bringing together CUNY students and faculty with prominent journalists, artists, and civic leaders, the Center seeks to promote the humanities and humanistic perspectives in the social sciences. In the tradition of CUNY and The Graduate Center’s commitment to ensuring access to the highest levels of educational opportunity for all New Yorkers, all events are free and open to the public.

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> Conferences

 

A Selection of Upcoming Events

View our full Spring 2010 Program Schedule!

 

Turnstyle Reading Series

JAN HELLER LEVI, JOHN WEIR, and others
February 9th 2010, Tuesday, 6:30pm, Martin E. Segal Theatre

Jan_Heller_Levi

 

Writers and graduating students from the four MFA Programs in Creative Writing (City College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, and Queens College) come together for readings of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at the Graduate Center. Join Jan Heller Levi, John Weir, and others for an evening of cross-campus, cross-genre readings.


Co-sponsored by the CUNY MFA in Creative Writing Affiliation Group and the Office of Academic Affairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



An Evening with Leon Wieseltier

February 10th 2010, Wednesday, 6:30pm, Elebash Recital Hall

Leonwieseltier

 

For over 25 years, Leon Wieseltier has been the literary editor of The New Republic. In that capacity, he has worked with some of the leading writers of our time. He regularly pens TNR’s Washington Diary column and has established himself as one of the most important and erudite critics at work today. He is also the author of the widely acclaimed Jewish theological rumination Kaddish. Richard Wolin is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

 

Co-sponsored by the PhD Program in History



Jesse Prinz

“Emotions and Aesthetic Value”
February 18th 2010, Thursday, 12:00-2:00pm, Room 9204

Jesse Prinz is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He has most recently taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of The Conscious Brain (in progress), Beyond Human Nature (in progress), The Emotional Construction of Morals (2007), and numerous other books and articles on emotion, moral psychology, aesthetics, and consciousness.

 

Precirculated paper and suggested reading will be posted here shortly.



The Changing Contours of American Religiosity

COURTNEY BENDER and CLAUDE FISCHER in Conversation

February 18th 2010, Thursday, 6:30pm, Martin E. Segal Theatre

bender_bwclaude

 

Join two prominent analysts of American culture for a conversation about the changing American religious landscape, particularly the growth in the population of those who understand themselves as “non-affiliated” and “spiritual but not religious”. Courtney Bender is Associate Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the author of Heaven’s Kitchen: Practicing Religion at God’s Love We Deliver. Claude Fischer is Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. His books include Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character. Moderated by John Torpey, Professor of Sociology, the Graduate Center, CUNY.

 

The Changing Contours of American Religiosity

Courtney Bender and Claude Fischer in Conversation

February 18th, Thursday, 6:30pm

Martin E. Segal Theatre

Join two prominent analysts of American culture for a conversation about the changing American religious landscape, particularly the growth in the population of those who understand themselves as “non-affiliated” and “spiritual but not religious”. Courtney Bender is Associate Professor of Religion at Columbia University and the author of Heaven’s Kitchen: Practicing Religion at God’s Love We Deliver. Claude Fischer is Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. His books include Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character. Moderated by John Torpey, Professor of Sociology, the Graduate Center, CUNY.



The Empty City: American Film and the Imagination of Disaster

MARIANNA TORGOVNICK
February 19th 2010, Friday, 4:00pm, Room 4406 (English Lounge)

torgovnick

 

Marianna Torgovnick is Professor of English at Duke University and Director of the Duke in New York Arts and Media Program each Fall and Summer. Torgovnick is the author of six books, including the acclaimed Gone Primitive, its sequel, Primitive Passions, and an award-winning memoir called Crossing Ocean Parkway. Her most recent book The War Complex explores the memory of World War II and the imagination of destruction at the heart of modernity.