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    Lev Rubinstein: Readings, Conversations about Russia Today

    Location: 

    Davis Center, Knafel Building, Room K262, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

    Moscow writer Lev Rubinstein will read from his work and engage in a wide-ranging conversation in a special Davis Center seminar.

    Rubinstein exemplifies a striking aesthetic response to life in repressive times, one that emphasizes the artist’s freedom of expression and the power of humor in the face of lies. He has won multiple prizes at home and abroad and has a readiness to push at the boundaries of literary norms. Author of more than a dozen books in Russian, Rubinstein has been more active as an essayist since the start of the 2000s. He has also emerged as a public figure...

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    Lecture: no noise disturbed the quiet of the morning

    Location: 

    Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    As a Radcliffe fellow, Anthony Romero (RI '20) is working on a multimedia research and visual art project that includes a collection of related but discrete works which attempt to articulate how indigenous populations, under European colonial rule in Australia, South Asia, and the United States, were controlled through the criminalization and legislating of native sound and music practices. Taken together, these histories reveal how carceral and criminalizing strategies sowed the seeds for the ongoing over-policing of black and brown communities.

    ...

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    Gallery Talk: Walk Like an Egyptian

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    Fellow Jen Thum explores the basics of ancient Egyptian representation, including why their bodies seem to "walk like an Egyptian."

    Free with museum admission. Gallery talks are limited to 15 people and tickets are required. Ten minutes before each talk, tickets will become available at the admissions desk.

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    Animal Talk: A Dr. Dolittle Scavenger Hunt

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Scavenger Hunt Dates:
    December 21–December 23
    December 26–December 31
    January 2–January 31

    Have you ever wished that you could talk with other animals? Doctor Dolittle, the imaginary character in the Hugh Lofting book The Story of Doctor Dolittle, could do just that! Doctor Dolittle learned animal languages and made animal friends all over the world. Use the clues to find six of his animal friends in the museum and learn how that animal really communicates. Then, like Doctor Dolittle, tell us what you think that animal is saying by drawing or writing...

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    Animal Talk: A Dr. Dolittle Scavenger Hunt

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St, Cambridge

    Scavenger Hunt Dates:
    December 21–December 23
    December 26–December 31
    January 2–January 31

    Have you ever wished that you could talk with other animals? Doctor Dolittle, the imaginary character in the Hugh Lofting book The Story of Doctor Dolittle, could do just that! Doctor Dolittle learned animal languages and made animal friends all over the world. Use the clues to find six of his animal friends in the museum and learn how that animal really communicates. Then, like Doctor Dolittle, tell us what you think that animal is saying by drawing or writing...

    Read more about Animal Talk: A Dr. Dolittle Scavenger Hunt

    The Lost Book of Moses: The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Bible

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge

    Chanan Tigay is an award-winning journalist and nonfiction writer who has covered the Middle East, 9/11, and the United Nations for such outlets as AFP, the Atlantic, GQ, and the New Yorker. In this lecture, Tigay will talk about his first book, The Lost Book of Moses: The Hunt for the World’s Oldest Bible, which tells the story of the oldest Bible in the world, how its outing as a fraud led to a scandalous death, and why archaeologists now believe it was real—if only they could find it. In addition to the story of this controversial Bible, Tigay will speak about his own hunt for the...

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    Dreaming the Sphinx in Augmented Reality

    Location: 

    Harvard Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Between the paws of the great Sphinx is the Dream Stela, a monument which describes how a young prince fell asleep in the shadow of the Sphinx by the Giza Pyramids. Visitors to the Harvard Semitic Museum galleries will be able to experience the iconic Sphinx and its Dream Stela in 3D augmented reality.

    A gallery facilitator will use a tablet to allow the Sphinx to loom above and around a real life-size cast of the monumental stela. With a tap, the ancient hieroglyphs will be highlighted and translated into English. Another tap to adjust the timeline later, and a pyramid will...

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    Human Sacrifice and Power in the Kerma Kingdom

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Join the Harvard Semitic Museum for a public lecture with Elizabeth Minor, Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Wellesley College. 

    The Kerma Kingdom was an ancient Nubian civilization located in present-day Sudan. Its capital, the city of Kerma, had monumental architecture and religious art depicting deities in the form of lions, scorpions, and hybrid figures such as winged giraffes and hippopotamus goddesses. During the Classic Kerma Period (1700–1550 BCE), funerary monuments of Kerman kings could be up to one hundred meters long and included hundreds of...

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    Exhibition: Resetting the Table: Food and Our Changing Tastes

    Location: 

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    Resetting the Table: Food and Our Changing Tastes explores food choices and eating habits in the United States, including the sometimes hidden, but always important, ways in which our tables are shaped by cultural, historical, political, and technological influences.

    One dinner served in 1910 will form the centerpiece—literally—of Resetting the Table. The historical and cultural roots of the foods on the menu, and the privileged context of their presentation, will be explored. Selections from ten University collections will reveal the long history...

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    James Sloss Ackerman Memorial Lecture: Guido Beltramini

    Location: 

    Gund Hall, 485 Broadway Lecture Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge

    This lecture, in memorium of James Sloss Ackerman, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Art Emeritus, is sponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

    James Sloss Ackerman was born in 1919 in San Francisco. At Yale University his professor, Henri Focillon, wrote to him “Remain faithful to our studies for which you are so well suited.” Ackerman's graduate work focusing on Renaissance architecture was guided by Richard Krautheimer and Erwin Panofsky at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His...

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    Great Russian Jews: Solomon Mikhoels (1890–1948)

    Location: 

    CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

    This panel discussion with two leading Jewish cultural historians examines the remarkable contributions and tragic death of the great actor, theater director, playwright, visionary of Yiddish culture, and Jewish activist Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (1890–1948).

    Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), the genius actor Mikhoels became the chief director of the State Jewish Theater in Moscow. During World War II, he served as chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mikhoels’ assassination by Stalin’s secret police, although officially billed as an accident,...

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    Virtual Reality Expedition to Ancient Israel

    Location: 

    Harvard Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

    "Travel" in fifteen minutes to an archaeological site in Ashkelon, Israel to explore the first-ever excavation of a Philistine burial ground. For years archaeologists have searched for evidence of these Biblical people. Transport yourself to the center of 360° scenes of an archaeological expedition while your gallery facilitator explains what you are seeing. Borrow a device from the museum or download the virtual reality app on your smart phone and bring it to place in a 3D viewer at the museum for an immersive experience.

    ...

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    Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Biomedical Analysis of Mummies and Canopic Jars

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Egyptian mummies and the remains found in ancient canopic jars can now be studied in great detail using noninvasive medical imaging techniques such as X-rays and computerized tomography, and chemical analysis using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.

    Drawing from interdisciplinary research conducted in the Valley of the Kings and Egyptian museum collections, Frank Rühli will discuss the value of using state-of-the-art technologies for understanding the life conditions, pathologies, death, and mummification procedures of ancient Egyptians. He will also address ethical...

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    Judy Chicago Research Portal Launch

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    This event is to celebrate the launch of a collaborative project, the Judy Chicago Research Portal, and to discuss the role of portals in providing access to feminist art archives.

    The Judy Chicago Portal will be presented, challenges in the technology of portal development will be discussed, and Christina Schlesinger and Judy Chicago will discuss the importance of preserving feminist art archives.

    ...

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    Writing Black Lives

    Location: 

    Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge

    Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Imani Perry, and Robert Reid-Pharr will join in conversation to discuss how their work as biographers speaks to key contemporary discussions about black politics, community, identity, and life.

    Perry will consider her recent book, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Beacon Press, 2018), while Reid-Pharr and Brown-Nagin will share perspectives from their own research, writing, and forthcoming books on, respectively, James Baldwin and Constance Baker Motley.

    ...

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    Lecture: Breaking the Noses on Egyptian Statues

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Why are the noses broken on Egyptian statues? Why were other sculpted body parts, including eyes, mouths, arms, and feet, purposely shattered in antiquity? Focusing on the ancient world of the pharaohs and on the Late Antique world that emerged following Egyptian conversion to Christianity, Edward Bleiberg (Senior Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at Brooklyn Museum) will examine the patterns of damage inflicted on Egyptian images for personal, political, religious, and criminal reasons. He will also highlight how close inspection of statue damage can...

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    Lecture: Bauhaus Bashing: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge

    Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a lecture delivered by Philip Ursprung, Professor of the History of Art and Architecture at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. 

    For the 100th birthday of Bauhaus, the German State supports two new museums, several exhibitions, and many celebrations. However, the current celebrations repress the fact that the Bauhaus in the late 20th century was criticized for its formalism and dogmatic design education. And while a...

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    Maintaining Heritage Languages in Our Communities

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    How can we retain the strength of our identities when our language is attacked, denied, or just lost through lack of practice and resources? How can we ensure that culturally and linguistically sustainable practices are embedded in our teaching, parenting, and social activities? Join the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology for a free panel discussion, watch short animations, view children's books, and discuss ways to support multicultural communities using these tools.

    ...

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    Film Screening: Volga Volga

    Location: 

    CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

    Join the Davis Center for a film screening of Volga Volga. 

    Volga Volga (Волга-Волга) is typical of the escapist musical comedies directed by Russian filmmaker Gregori Alexandrov. The film's star is Alexandrov's wife Lubov Orlova, here playing a physical culturalist named Strelka. The hero is Byvalov (Igor Hinsky), an itinerant musical-instrument manufacturer who dreams of forming his own orchestra.

    Directed by Grigori Alexandrov (1938). Running time 108 minutes. Russian language film with English subtitles.

    ...

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    Film Screening: Carnival Night

    Location: 

    CGIS South Building, Room S010 (Tsai Auditorium), 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge

    Join the Davis Center for a film screening of Carnival Night. 

    Carnival Night (Карнавальная ночь) managed to satirize Soviet life without offending the Politburo and was a box office hit. It’s New Year’s Eve at the House of Culture and the young stage performers in charge of entertainment are ready to put on a festive performance with singing, dancing, and magic tricks. Unfortunately, Comrade Ogurtsov (Igor Ilyinsky) arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. His idea of fun is playing serious classical music and reading...

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