CHAT Past Lecture Series & Programming Archive

2019–2020 Lecture Series

October 10, 2019
Travis Glasson (Department of History)
CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“Sunshine Patriots: Family and Divided Loyalties in the American Revolution”

November 7, 2019
Mariola Alvarez (Department of Art History)
CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“Becoming Modern, Becoming Brazilian: Japanese Brazilian Abstract Artists”

November 21, 2019
Rebeca Hey-Colón (Department of Spanish)
“Spectral Waters: Diasporic Women’s Writing from Hispaniola”

December 5, 2019
Lee-Ann Chae (Department of Philosophy)
“Trust and Contingency Plans”

January 23, 2020
Jess Newman (Department of Anthropology)
“Territorializing Rumors, Dangerous Sex”

Postponed Events (2020)

James Salazar (English), CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“Embodying Time: Pedagogies of Rhythm in 19th Century American Culture”
Patricia Melzer (German; Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies), CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“Militante Mannsbilder: Alternative Masculinities in Men’s Groups of the Autonomen”
Brian Creech (Journalism), CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“Private Platforms, Public Demands: Tech CEOs as Locus of Popular Critique”
Katya Motyl (History), CHAT Faculty Fellow 2019–2020
“The Mysterious and Endangered Reality of Femininity: New Womanhood in Vienna, 1890–1930”

2018–2019 Distinguished Lecture Series

Gary Mucciaroni (Political Science)
Answers to the Labor Question: The Origins of Industrial Relations Regimes in the Anglophone World, 1880–1945
Thursday, September 13 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Starting in the mid-19th century, elites and reformers grappled with “the labor question,” rooted in wage labor systems that produced class divisions. This talk examines how countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States developed distinct industrial relations systems—voluntarist, statist, and legalist—despite shared origins.

Noriko Manabe (Music Studies)
How Sound Shapes Demonstrations, and How Demonstrations Shape Sound
Thursday, October 18 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Drawing on fieldwork and theoretical analysis, this lecture explores how protest soundscapes are shaped by sociopolitical conditions, policing, and urban environments, with a focus on Japanese “sound demonstrations.”

Eugene Chislenko (Philosophy)
Believing Against the Evidence
Thursday, October 18 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

This talk interrogates the paradox of holding beliefs against evidence, offering new ways to understand self-deception, superstition, and belief formation.

Katherine Henry (English)
Queering “Civil Disobedience”
Thursday, November 1 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

This lecture rethinks civil disobedience through gender and queer theory, examining how refusal and dissent expose the coercive nature of governance.

Hosea Harvey (Law & Political Science)
Creating an American Myth: How the U.S. Census Defines Race
Thursday, November 15 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Explores how evolving census categories reflect shifting political, cultural, and methodological understandings of race in the United States.

Tania Jenkins (Sociology)
Doctors’ Orders: Status Hierarchies in the Medical Profession
Thursday, January 24 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Examines how status hierarchies among physicians are constructed and maintained, particularly through educational pedigree.

Mónica Ricketts (History)
Women and the Spectacle of Politics: Theater in Lima, 1800–1850
Thursday, February 21 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Highlights women’s participation in political culture through theater, revealing alternative spaces of civic engagement.

Geoffrey Baym (Media Studies & Production)
Tabloid Trump and the Political Imaginary, 1980–1999
Thursday, March 21 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Analyzes the early media construction of Donald Trump as a political figure through tabloid culture.

Benjamin Talton (History)
The Afterlife of Radicalism: African Americans and Africa in the Age of Reagan
Thursday, April 18 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Explores African American political engagement with Africa during the 1980s and its decline in the 1990s.

2018–2019 Boundaries Lecture Series

Lee McIntyre (Boston University)
What Does It Mean to Be “Post-Truth”?
Wednesday, September 26 | 4:00–5:30 PM

Nasser al-Jahwari (Sultan Qaboos University)
Reimagining the Agency of Borderland Populations
Wednesday, November 7 | 4:00–5:30 PM

Claudia Castro Luna (Poet Laureate, Washington State)
Imagining Their Voices: The Murdered Women of Juárez
Wednesday, November 28 | 4:00–5:30 PM

Sarah Igo (Vanderbilt University)
The Known Citizen: Privacy in Modern America
Wednesday, February 13 | 3:00–5:30 PM

Hector Amaya (University of Virginia)
Hate and Border Ephemerality in the Digital Realm
Thursday, March 28 | 4:00–5:30 PM

(Co-sponsored by programs including Global Studies, Anthropology, and Klein College.)

Professional Development & Workshops (2018–2019)

Humanities Internships for Graduate Students – A Conversation
Thursday, October 11 | 12:30–1:50 PM | CHAT Lounge

Could internships be the first step for careers and research in the public humanities? What kinds of internships exist? What are employers looking for? How do your skills apply in the workplace? How do you get an internship?

An experienced graduate intern, internship supervisor, and faculty member discussed how they obtained internships, what their experiences were, and how they benefited from them.

Participants included:

Jonathan Burton, Executive Director, Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks
Joy Feagan, intern and professional with experience at historical societies, libraries, and museums including the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Mote Marine Aquarium’s Arthur Vining Davis Library, and the Tampa Baseball Museum
Hilary Iris Lowe, Assistant Professor of History, Temple University and faculty internship advisor

CLIR Opportunities: Balancing Academic and Alt-Ac Career Paths for Doctoral Students
Tuesday, March 12 | 3:30–5:00 PM
CHAT Lounge, 10th Floor, Gladfelter Hall

This panel brought together Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) postdoctoral fellows from research universities and liberal arts colleges. Speakers discussed their doctoral research, career trajectories, and broader questions of professionalization, the changing nature of doctoral study, and opportunities for meaningful employment beyond traditional academic paths.