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Events

These are events sponsored wholly or in part by the Center for the Humanities for 2023-2024

SEPTEMBER

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

Odds Bodkin Performance
"The Odyssey: Belly of the Beast"

Renowned storyteller Odds Bodkin performs a 70-minute long presentation that follows Odysseus through reflections on the War at Troy while he waits with the others inside the Trojan Horse, through the Sack of Troy, then to Ismaros, the Great Storm, the Lotus Eaters, the Isle of Goats and lastly through some vivid and terrifying scenes in the Cave of the Cyclops. Odds is a mesmerizing performer whose presentation is without props and told in voice and character.

Odds Bodkin has been called “one of the great voices in American storytelling” by Wired and “a consummate storyteller” by The New York Times. Loyola audiences have given Odds standing ovations for this performance in the past. Come see why. Experience Homer’s great story in a clear, accessible way. 

McGuire East
7:00 PM

If you require additional accommodations, please contact Disability Support Services at dss@loyola.edu.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

CFH Annual Celebration of Teaching, Learning, and Research in the Humanities

Teaching Faculty Excellence Award presented to Andrea Leary, PhD, Writing Department
Student Presentations from the CFH Summer Student Research Fellows, Summer Study Fellows, and Internships
Nachbahr Address by David Carey, PhD, History.

Fourth Floor Program Room
3:00 PM

OCTOBER

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4

Lecture by Rolf Elberfeld, "How Philosophy Became Exclusively European in 18th and 19th Century Germany"

Prof. Rolf Elberfeld, Professor at the University of Hildesheim, will explore how  “philosophy” became exclusively “Western philosophy,” that is, how its purview became restricted to the Western tradition rather than continuing to include Asian and other non-Western traditions, in 18th and 19th century Germany. The field of philosophy is only now beginning to pluralize and "decolonize," and Prof. Elberfeld is leading this movement in Germany and more broadly in Europe.
Reception following with light refreshments.

Fourth Floor Program Room
4:30 PM

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10

Writers at Work Series: Faculty Reading
Jane Satterfield and Gary Slack

Jane Satterfield is the author of five poetry books, including The Badass Brontës (a winner of the Diode Editions Book Prize, published in 2023), Apocalypse Mix (Autumn House Poetry Prize, 2016), Her Familiars, and Assignation at Vanishing Point. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry from Bellingham Review, the Ledbury Poetry Festival Prize, and more. Her nonfiction book, Daughters of Empire: A Memoir of a Year in Britain and Beyond, features selections that received the Florida Review Editors’ Prize and the Faulkner Society/Pirate’s Alley Essay Award. 

Gary Slack is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the English Department at Loyola University Maryland. Gary’s research interests include print culture and publishing during the Black Arts Movement. His dissertation, titled Editing Black Aesthetics: Hoyt Fuller, Toni Morrison and the Black Book, examines how editors, in their search of “Black aesthetics,” shaped African American literature of the 1960s and 1970s. He is currently revising his dissertation into a book centered around The Black Book (1974).

Fourth Floor Program Room
6:00 PM

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13

Center for the Humanities Student Grants Info Session

Join us to learn what grants are available for Loyola students from the CFH! 

We will discuss Student-led Seminars, Summer Research Fellowships, stipends for Summer Study programs, stipends for otherwise unpaid Internships, and our pilot program Digital Humanities Summer Fellows. After the presentation by CFH Student grant coordinator, Dr. Matthew Moser and past student recipients, there will be time for pizza and conversation.

Writing Department Lounge Maryland Hall 038
4:15 PM

MONDAY, OCTOBER 23

Lecture by K. Wilson, "Colonizing the Past: Situating Ancient Race in Place and Time"

Dr. K. Wilson teaches Classics at Washington University in St. Louis and will investigate ancient Greek and Roman depictions and ideas of Black Africans and other non-white cultures. The history of scholarship on non-white populations and colonial practices produced by the disciplines of History and Classics is crucial to understanding both modern and older views of ancient Egypt, Nubia, and North African people.

Knott Hall B03
4:30 PM

NOVEMBER

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2

Lecture by Dr. Andaleeb Banta, “Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe”

Dr. Andaleeb Banta is the Senior Curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is currently running a comprehensive exhibition of European women artists and makers from this period. For centuries, women artists in Europe were considered rare and less talented than their male counterparts. Women who achieved professional artistic careers were deemed anomalous or exceptional, while those who engaged in creative pursuits in the home were dismissed as amateurs, and their works were categorized as material culture rather than art. Dr. Banta will discuss how the BMA exhibition aims to correct these broadly held but mistaken beliefs.

Fourth Floor Program Room
5:00 PM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Poetry Reading by Joseph Bottum

Catholic intellectual, essayist, and poet Joseph Bottum will read from his latest book, Spending the Winter, a brilliant, formalist, religious and whimsical collection of poems.

Knott Hall B01
2:00 PM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3

Modern Masters Series: Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Kathleen Hall Jamieson employs rhetorical analysis, surveys, and experiments to understand campaign communication, the science of science communication, and ways to blunt misinformation and conspiracy theories. She has authored or co-authored 18 books, including Democracy Amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, and Persuasion (2023) with the Annenberg IOD Collaborative, Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped (2022) and Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President (Revised paperback ed. 2020).

McGuire Hall
5:00 PM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Writers at Work: T Kira Māhealani Madden

T Kira Māhealani Madden is a Chinese, Kānaka Maoli writer and amateur magician. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Tin House, MacDowell, and Yaddo, she serves as the Founding Editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art. She is the author of the 2019 New York Times Editors’ Choice memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, which is now being developed as a feature film, and her work has appeared in Harper’sThe Sun, and New York Magazine. 

Fourth Floor Program Room
6:00 PM

NATIONAL 2023 FRENCH WEEK  -  Celebrating Créolité

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 TO WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2023

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Derek Walcott, Peter Doig,and the ‘Great Noise’ of Trinidad
Keynote Speaker: Martin Munro, Ph.D.,Eminent Scholar and Winthrop-King Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Florida State University
6:00 - 7:00 PM
Knott Hall B03

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Soca Sing-Along
Led by Caribbean Students’ Union
7:00 PM
3rd Floor of Andrew White Student Center

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Haitian Kreyòl Workshop led by Komité Ayiti
This interactive Haitian creole workshop led by native speakers Garry Bien Aimé and Joe Gaston includes a cultural presentation, drumming led by master drummer Gerald
Rameau, Ph.D., and free food tasting.
6:00 PM
McGuire Hall West

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Bilingual French -English Mass
4:00 PM
Alumni Memorial Chapel

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15
Creole and Music
Loyola Steel Pan Ensemble, directed by Barry Dove, leads an open rehearsal followed by an interactive workshop with students.
7:00-8:00 PM
College Center W010

Check loyola.edu/frenchweek for times and other details. You may also contact the Department of Modern Languages.

DECEMBER

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2

Center for the Humanities Student Grants Info Session 

 Join us to learn what grants are available for Loyola students from the CFH!    We will discuss Student-led Seminars, Summer Research Fellowships, stipends for Summer Study programs, and stipends for otherwise unpaid Internships. After the presentation by CFH Student grant coordinator, Dr. Matthew Moser and past student recipients, there will be time for pizza and conversation.

Writing Department Lounge
Maryland Hall 038
4:15 PM

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Douglass Day Events

Educate and gather: 
Students will run a Frederick Douglass trivia game with prizes to learn about Frederick Douglass and his political activism. Enjoy hot chocolate and other treats.
Fernandez Center Outdoor Classroom
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Transcribe-a-thon
Participants will transcribe papers from Douglass’s correspondence, housed at the Library of Congress. Faculty, staff, and students will be welcome to log into LOC’s "By the People" server, get an image of a document from Douglass’ papers, and then type the contents electronically, making it accessible for scholarship. As the transcribe-a-thon is happening, we will stream national Douglass Day celebration programming and enjoy a birthday cake made by a local black-owned bakery.
Loyola Notre Dame Library’s Learning Lobby, 1st Floor
12:00 – 3:00 PM

ITALIAN WEEK 2024 - Innovatori italiani: Italian Innovators from the Renaissance to Today

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19
Italian Mass
Alumni Chapel
4:00 PM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20
Cena Futurista: A Futurist Dinner Party
Sellinger VIP Lounge
6:00 - 8:00 PM

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Ford vs. Ferrari
(screening)
Language Learning Center (Maryland Hall 443)
6:30 PM

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Lecture by Matt Lallo 
“The Ferrari Phenomenon: An Italian Story”
Cohn 133
6:00 – 8:00 PM 

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Leonardo da Vinci Bridge Building Competition
Beatty 114
4:00-5:30 PM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20

Modern Masters: Edgar Kunz Poetry Reading

Edgar Kunz is the author of two poetry collections: Fixer, published by Ecco in 2023 and named a New York Times Editors’ Choice book, and Tap Out, published by Ecco in 2019.

McManus Theater
5:00 PM

MARCH

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 and THURSDAY, MARCH 14
Student-Faculty Colloquia for the 2024 Humanities Symposium: "Celebrating Nature"


Aimee Nezhukumatathil's World of Wonders

Two days during the official Symposium week are set aside for Loyola student/faculty colloquia. During each scheduled class period, faculty and their classes will meet with faculty and students from other classes. These colloquia have traditionally been led by panels composed of faculty members from different disciplines who lead informal discussion, posing questions to stimulate the participation of students, and to engage the Symposium text across narrow disciplinary boundaries. This year’s text is World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

The colloquia will be in-person. Faculty from all disciplines are invited to bring their classes to our student-faculty colloquia March 13 and March 14 to discuss the book as a group. 

McManus Theater
9:00 - 4:30 PM on both days

THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2024
LOYOLA'S 2024 HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: 
Remembering Wonder: A Reckoning

Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil will deliver the 2024 Humanities Symposium keynote address.
woman with necklace and green blouse
Aimee Nezhukumatathil's 2020 essay collection is World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments. In these short, beautifully written essays, Nezhukumatathil combines an exploration of natural phenomena (lightning bugs, the cactus flower, the narwhal, monsoons) with memoir. These essays celebrate the wonders of nature and encourage readers to slow down, notice, marvel at, and protect the environment. Aimee Nezhukumatathil has also written four award-winning poetry collections, most recently, Oceanic. Awards for her writing include fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Council, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her writing has appeared in NY Times Magazine, ESPN, and Best American Poetry. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program. photo: Caroline Beffa Photography.

McGuire Hall
6:30 PM

Keynote Registration

For more information, please consult the Symposium webpage.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20

Clear Day of Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut (film by Murphy & Wood, 2023)

The Loyola Humanities Symposium is happy to be a co-sponsor for this year's Baltimore Environmental Film Series. All events are free and open to the public.

This documentary tells the story of passionate citizen scientists and researchers working to restore this ecologically and economically important species. Following the film, Dr. David Gordon, Philosophy, will lead a Q&A with Karl Mech, president of the Maryland chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation.

Loyola Notre Dame Library Auditorium
6:00 PM

Clear Day Thunder Registration

APRIL

TUESDAY, APRIL 10

2024 Hanna Geldrich-Leffman Colloquium on Language, Literature, and Society:
"Global Foodways: The Intersections of Food Politics and Cultural Identity"

AWSC Fourth Floor Program Room
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM

1:00 PM - Dr. Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado (Washington University), "Cultural Density Beyond Authenticity: Reflections on the Idea of the Taco."
Professor of Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Film and Media Studies, Dr. Sánchez Prado is also Director of Undergraduate Studies in Latin American Studies program and Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in Humanities. His talk will address stereotypes and authenticity in Mexican Cuisine.

2:00 PM - Dr. Jennifer Lin LeMesurier (Washington University), "Gut Feelings: The Racial Rhetoric of Asian Food in America."
Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, Dr. Lemesurier's research focuses on how rhetoric surrounding food, eating, and cuisine influences Asian and Asian American identity and agency. 

3:00 PM - Coffee and cookies.

4:00 PM- Dr. Priya Wadhera (Adelphi University), "Hunger: A User's Manual for Post-War France." 
Professor of French and Chair of the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department, Dr. Wadhera's research explores the intersections of food and literature in modern French literature, including “Food Fears:  From Proust to Perec, Madeleine to Anti-madeleine,” Georges Perec’s Silent Protest of the Holocaust in La Disparition,” and “Manger chez Perec: Food on the Threshold between Metaphor and Matter in W ou le souvenir d’enfance.” Her talk for our colloquium will treat the theme of hunger in post World War II French literature and culture.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11

Writers at Work: Matt Bell

Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book) and the craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, and revision. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

AWSC Fourth Floor Program Room
6:00 PM

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11

The Letter—A Message for Our Earth (a film by Brown, 2020)

The Loyola Humanities Symposium is happy to be a co-sponsor for this year's Baltimore Environmental Film Series. All events are free and open to the public.

The Letter tells the story of a journey to Rome of frontline leaders to discuss the encyclical letter Laudato Si’ with Pope Francis. The exclusive dialogue with the Pope, included in the film, offers a revealing insight into the personal history of Pope Francis and stories never seen since he became the Bishop of Rome. Following the film, Dr. Bernadette Roche, Biology, will lead a discussion with the audience about the film.

Knott Hall B03
6:00 PM

The Letter Registration

THURSDAY,  APRIL 18

Modern Masters Reading Series: Susanna Sonnenberg

Sonnenberg is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, Her Last Death and She Matters: A Life in Friendships. Her essays have appeared widely including in Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Self, The Nation, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The Village Voice. Sonnenberg has received fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Djerassi Foundation, VCCA, Brush Creek and others. For several years she’s been teaching writing, mostly memoir and also essays and generative prompts. She’s taught for the Atlantic Center for the Arts as a Mentoring Artist, for Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Omega Institute, Community Building Art Works, the California Institute of Integrative Studies, 24PearlStreet, 406, the Missoula Writing Collaborative and, since 2017, as summer faculty at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. 

AWSC Fourth Floor Program Room
6:00 PM

MAY