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Humanities

Progressive Activists and the Bible

Some of America’s most effective reformers did not just refer to the Bible, but fused their own struggles with its narratives, seeing themselves as part of a cosmic divine battle within history. Claudia Setzer will have us consider how abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and others used multiple methods of biblical interpretation to make sense of their struggles and to reject despair. We will also consider contemporary activist groups that root themselves in the Bible and religious traditions. Register here for the Zoom link.

The Great Search with John Philip Newell

The story of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden is a mythical account of humanity’s broken relationship with the divine, with Earth, and with themselves. In contrast, Celtic wisdom is built on a strong bond with Earth. In the prophetic figures that author John Philip Newell draws from in his book The Great Search, the Garden of Eden represents the inner garden of our souls and the outer garden of Earth, which are seen as essentially one. To live in relation to what is deepest in us is to live in relation to the ground…

The Art of Duo: A Journey through Europe to the USA from 1700 to 1930

Ambroise Aubrun, violin Steven Vanhauwaert, piano “ A Journey through Europe to the USA from 1700 to 1930” invites you to an exploration of the violin and piano duo’s rich history. Each piece performed will reflect the evolving styles and cultural influences that shaped the duo’s repertoire from the baroque era to the early 20th century. The performance is complemented by engaging presentations and discussions, offering a guide to a deeper understanding of this timeless repertoire. Further details and the complete program are on the website.

Chamber Music at the Clark 30th Anniversary presents Borromeo String Quartet

Concert presented in honor of Bruce Whiteman Each visionary performance of the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet strengthens and deepens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. Admired and sought after for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by twentieth- and twenty-first-century composers, the ensemble has been hailed for its “edge-of-the-seat performances” by the Boston Globe, which called it “simply the best.” The group recently premiered new works written for it by Sebastian Currier and Aaron Jay Kernis at recitals at Carnegie Hall, Shriver Concerts, and the Tippet Rise Art…

California Medieval Seminar (Spring 2025)

Participation in the Seminar consists of group discussion of pre-circulated papers, typically drafts of articles, book chapters, or dissertation chapters (with complete apparatus). Two of the papers are ordinarily by emerging scholars (including PhD students) and the other two are by established scholars. We allocate one hour per paper and presenters should anticipate substantial, and substantive, feedback. Calls for presenters are circulated via e-mail from the Center approximately two months prior to each meeting and papers are accepted on a first-come basis. More information can be found here. Register to attend in Royce 306 Register to attend via Zoom

Early Global Caribbean: Conference 3: Materialities

Conference organized by Carla Gardina Pestana (University of California, Los Angeles) and Gabriel de Avilez Rocha (Brown University) Co-sponsored by the Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America in the World The tangible realities of daily life and the patterns of exchange in the Caribbean and the other Atlantic regions integrated into the Caribbean’s orbit enhance our understanding of the local dimensions of global processes that have long shaped the Caribbean Basin. This final conference will consider how the region’s early global histories may be tracked through their material manifestations in constructed and natural environments from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives. Focusing on the…

Cases and Scale in Historiography

Conference organized by Michael Osman and Cristóbal Amunátegui (University of California, Los Angeles) In the last few decades, debates stemming from the science and history “wars” have called attention to the ways in which cases are constructed and proven across disciplines. “Cases and Scale in Historiography” will explore the relationship between the case and one of its constitutive elements: scale. Among many other things, cases are a way of managing distance: between the past and the present, the far away and the near, norms and exceptions, ideation and reality. Thus defined, cases are inevitably bound to the shifting measures and temporalities of scale, something…

Katherine Philips, Meta-Metaphysical Poet

Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship   Lecture by Arya Sureshbabu, Ph.D. Candidate in English, University of California, Berkeley. Recipient of the 2024–25 Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship Katherine Philips (1632–64) occupies an unusual place in the canon of seventeenth-century poetry. Now alternatively billed as an apostle of female friendship or a proto-sapphic icon, she was also known in her own time as an exemplary practitioner of intimacy. But a less adulatory strain of reception history reads her verse as overstuffed with hyperbolic praise and extended conceits that fail to sustain readerly interest. This talk suggests that these seemingly contradictory assessments…

Preserving Your Family History

Join us at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library to learn the basics of understanding and caring for your family heirlooms with the Clark’s librarians and conservators from the UCLA Library Preservation & Conservation Department. Participants may bring up to five paper-based heirlooms (no larger than 18” x 24”) from their own collections. These items will become part of the instructional display, alongside examples from the Clark Library’s stacks. Using this group display, librarians and conservators will be able to discuss and show common issues – and provide guidance for next steps and other preservation resources. For more information and to…