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    2019 Jun 25

    Gallery Talk: Introduction to the Dark Arts—Ancient Egyptian Magic

    12:30pm to 1:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    Jen Thum, the Inga Maren Otto Curatorial Fellow in the Division of Academic and Public Programs, will give this gallery talk.

    The Harvard Arts Museums galleries are full of stories—this series of drop-in talks gives visitors a chance to hear the best ones! The talks highlight new works on view, take a fresh look at old favorites, investigate artists’ materials and techniques, and reveal the latest discoveries by curators, conservators, fellows, visiting artists, technologists, and other contributors.

    Free with museums admission. Gallery talks are limited to 15...

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    2019 May 21

    Preserving Zapotec Weaving Practices

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    The town of Teotitlán Del Valle in the Mexican state of Oaxaca is renowned for its weaving traditions and its importance as a Zapotec cultural center. Porfirio Gutiérrez will examine the rich history of Zapotec weaving from the perspective of its practitioners. He will also discuss his studio’s role in preserving and promoting the use of natural dyes in his community, and abroad, using pigments derived from plants and insects.

    ...

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    2019 Apr 17

    The American Land Museum: Places as Cultural Artifacts

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

    The Center for Land Use Interpretation explores how land in the United States is apportioned, utilized, and perceived. Through exhibitions and public programs, the Center interprets built landscapes—from landfills and urban waterfalls to artificial lakes—as cultural artifacts that help define contemporary American life and culture.

    Matthew Coolidge, Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, will discuss the Center’s approach to finding meaning in the...

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    2019 Apr 16

    The Mexican Revolution of 1910: A Sociohistorical Interpretation

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge

    The Mexican Revolution of 1910 began as a multilocal revolt against the 35-year regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz and evolved into a national revolution and civil war lasting nearly a decade. Javier Garciadiego—a leading historian of Mexico’s revolution—will discuss the precursors, armed struggles, political factions, U.S. manipulations, and triumphs of Mexico’s revolution, including the development of a landmark constitution—one of the first in the world to enshrine social rights.

    ...

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    2019 Apr 09

    Film Screening: The Barber of Siberia

    7:00pm to 10:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Join the Davis Center for a film screening for "The Barber of Siberia." This 1998 Russian film follows the story of Jane Callahan (Julia Ormond), a beautiful American woman, writes to her son, a cadet at a famous military academy, about a long kept secret. Twenty years ago she arrived in Russia to assist Douglas McCracken (Richard Harris), an obsessive engineer who needs the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich's patronage to sponsor his invention, a massive machine to harvest the forests. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young...

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    2019 Mar 13

    Great Russian Jews: David Oistrakh

    4:30pm to 5:45pm

    Location: 

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

    This panel examines the remarkable achievements of the great violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974). Born and raised in Odessa, Oistrakh became one of the 20th century’s preeminent musical virtuosi. He collaborated with leading musicians and composers of his time, among them Aram Khachatourian and Dmitri Shostakovich.

    Panelists will include: Oleh Krysa (Ukrainian-American Violinist; University of Rochester) and Harlow Robinson (Northeastern University).
    Moderated by Maxim D. Shrayer (Boston College; Davis Center).

    ...

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    2019 Mar 11

    Lecture: Kenneth Helphand, “Lawrence Halprin”

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

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

    Join us for a lecture from Kenneth I. Helphand FASLA, a Philip H. Knight Professor of Landscape Architecture Emeritus at the University of Oregon where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory and design since 1974. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (1968) and Harvard's Graduate School of Design (MLA 1972). Helphand is the recipient of distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. He is also the author...

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    2019 Feb 21

    Magic and Demonology in Ancient Egypt

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Ancient Egyptian texts and objects associated with funerary rituals often include references to “magic” and “demons.” Rita Lucarelli will look at how these concepts were defined and used in ancient Egypt, with a special focus on the roles that demons played in magical practices and spells. Through an examination of textual and material sources produced from the early Pharaonic to the Greco-Roman periods, she will also address how Egyptian beliefs about demons compare with those of other ancient cultures.

    ...

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    2019 Feb 12

    Are Koreans Human? A Lecture with Best-Selling Author Min Jin Lee

    4:15pm

    Location: 

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

    Who are the modern Koreans, and what do they care about? Koreans have experienced colonialism, diaspora, war, national division, immigration, and a persistent nuclear threat—and yet, they have achieved extraordinary gains in their homelands and elsewhere. Min Jin Lee, the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko who is working on the third novel of The Koreans trilogy, will explore the will of Koreans to survive and flourish as global citizens, their enduring faith in education, and the costs of such a quest and what it may mean...

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    2018 Dec 06

    Lecture and Book Signing: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America

    6:00pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

    After World War II, evolutionary scientists began rethinking their views on humanity’s past. What if human history was not merely a cooperative struggle against a harsh environment? What if violence and war were normal states of existence, punctuated by brief moments of peace? These are the questions Erika Lorraine Milam explores in her new book, Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America. She will discuss how anthropologists and zoologists during the Cold-War era struggled to reconcile humanity’s triumph as a species with the possibility that this...

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    2018 Nov 07

    Photographing Tutankhamun: How the Camera Helped Create “King Tut”

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

    Christina Riggs, Professor of the History of Art and Archaeology, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom

    When Howard Carter found the sealed entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, he secured the services of archaeological photographer Harry Burton to document the site. Over the course of ten years, Burton produced more than 3,000 glass negatives of the tomb, its contents, and the many people—including Egyptian men, women, and children—who participated in the excavation. Christina Riggs will discuss how Burton’s photography helped create “King Tut” at a...

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    2018 Oct 24

    Origins of the Silk Roads

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

    Approximately 4,000 years ago, the peoples of China and Eurasia gradually began to develop networks of interaction and exchange that radically transformed the cultures of both regions. These networks eventually gave rise to the Silk Road trade routes connecting the East and West. Rowan Flad will examine the archaeological evidence—from the Qijia Culture of Northwest China—that documents the agricultural, metallurgical, and technological innovations that resulted from the earliest trans-Eurasian exchanges, and how studies of the Silk Road origins are being reinvigorated by China’s One...

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    2018 Oct 18

    Memories of the Kings and Queens of Kush: Archaeology and Heritage at El Kurru

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

    Geoff Emberling, Research Scientist, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology; Lecturer, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan

    Ancient Nubia was one of Africa’s earliest centers of political authority, wealth, and military power. After the Nubian kings and queens of Kush rose to power around 800 BCE, they controlled a vast empire along the Middle Nile (now Northern Sudan) and conquered Egypt to rule as its Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The kingdom’s political center, known as El Kurru, was first excavated by George Reisner in 1918–1919 on behalf of the...

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    2018 Apr 17

    Henry N. Cobb, Peter Eisenman, and Rafael Moneo, “How Will Architecture Be Conceived?”

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, Room 105, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge

    Please join us for an evening with Rafael Moneo, Henry N. Cobb, and Peter Eisenman as they investigate the question, “How will architecture be conceived?” Each... Read more about Henry N. Cobb, Peter Eisenman, and Rafael Moneo, “How Will Architecture Be Conceived?”

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