October 5, 2023
ArtSci Roundup: A Conversation with Emily M. Bender, Dubal Memorial Lecture, and more
This week, learn why Emily Bender believes “AI” is a bad term, take part in the Dubal Memorial Lecture on ‘Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era’, view the film screening of Tortoise Under the Earth, and more.
October 12, 7:00 – 8:30pm | Jewish History and Jewish Memory Revisited: ‘Zakhor’ at 40, Husky Union Building
Rachel B. Gross, an expert on Judaism and American Jewish history, will open the conversation by addressing Yerushalmi’s influence on the field of Jewish Studies. Gross will give an overview of how and why she uses the term “nostalgia” to bridge what Yerushalmi sees as a division between Jewish history and memory.
This panel will be moderated by faculty member Nicolaas P. Barr (Comparative History of Ideas), who specializes in antisemitism, intellectual history, and modern Europe. Faculty member Jason Groves (German Studies), who specializes in memory studies in the context of ecology, will share his perspective as well.
Free | More info & RSVP
October 12 – 15 | Chamber Dance Company, Meany Hall
The Chamber Dance Company returns to the Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater stage in October 2023. This year’s program celebrates a broad sweep of contemporary dance performed by world class artists, including Robert Moses’ Kin celebrated work, Speaking Ill of the Dead, and two sections from Doug Varone’s dynamic and moving dance, Possession. Completing the program are new works created by second year MFA students, Noel Price-Bracey, and Beth Twigs, that will be performed by company members with guests from the Department of Dance and Seattle’s professional dance community.
$10-22 tickets | More info
October 13, 3:00 – 4:45pm | Film Screening: Tortoise Under the Earth, Allen Library
In conjunction with Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, the Film Screening of Tortoise Under the Earth explores the deeply intertwined connections between tribal communities and the forest that is their traditional home. Interweaving the vivid colors of their festivals, folk songs, and the sense of community that binds them together. The film utilizes a couple’s tragedy, expanding to reveal regional details, emphasizing the broader environmental crisis and human rights issues affecting the Santhal tribe, native people of India and Bangladesh who are threatened by uranium mining.
Free| More info & Registration
October 13, 7:30pm | Faculty Concert: Marc Seales – Piano, Brechemin Auditorium
Faculty pianist Marc Seales is joined by UW colleagues Ted Poor, drums, and Steve Rodby, bass, for a concert of original works by Seales, a Wayne Shorter tribute, and more.
Marc Seales is a noted pianist, composer, and leading figure in the Northwest jazz scene. He has shared stages with many of the great players of the last two decades and played with nearly every visiting jazz celebrity.
Beginning October 13 | Readers’ Choice: “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson, Online
Marilynne Robinson, ’77, is one of the world’s premiere fiction writers. In 2023, the UW awarded her the Alumni Summa Laude Dignata Award — the highest award an alum can earn. In this Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, an Iowan preacher with a terminal illness writes a letter to his young child, chronicling his own life and that of his forefathers. This tender, meditative tale explores the accumulation of wisdom and the precious bonds between fathers and sons.
Free | More info
October 13, 1:30 – 2:50pm | The Dubal Memorial Lecture – Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era, Zoom
As the first ethnography of its kind, Weighing the Future examines the implications of ongoing pregnancy trials in the U.S. and United Kingdom, illuminating how processes of scientific knowledge production are linked to racism, capitalism, surveillance, and environmental reproduction. This groundbreaking book makes the case that science, and how we translate it, is a reproductive project that requires feminist vigilance. Instead of fixating on a future at risk, this book brings attention to the present at stake.
Free | More info
October 16, 7:30pm | Guest Pianist Recital: Min Kwon, Rutgers University, Brechemin Auditorium
Pianist Min Kwon shares selections from her ambitious America/Beautiful project, for which she commissioned variations on “America the Beautiful” from 75 diverse American composers.
While some of us baked bread, sewed masks, or doom-scrolled through the latest “Breaking News,” internationally-celebrated pianist, arts advocate and educator Min Kwon was busy Zooming with American composers, inviting them to come together and contribute their unique, individual talents—to create something altogether new.
Free | More info
October 16, 3:30 – 5:00pm | Large Language Models and the Humanities: A Conversation with Emily M. Bender, Communications Building
This event is part of the AI, Creativity, and the Humanities project. UW Professor Emily M. Bender is one of the leading voices in both public and academic conversations about large language models (LLMs). In this discussion with Anna Preus and Melanie Walsh, Bender will specifically address how LLMs intersect with the humanities and those who care about them. She will discuss how LLMs work, what labor underlies them, and why “AI” is a bad term.
Free | More info
October 17, 6:30 – 8:00pm | Jack O’Dell and the Black Radical Tradition – Fall 2023 Reading Group
In anticipation of the Reckoning with the Black Radical Tradition Conference in 2024 at the UW, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies is hosting a reading group focused on the writings of Jack O’Dell.
Jack O’Dell (1923-2019) was a visionary intellectual and an astute organizer who helped shape the course of the Black freedom movement in the second half of the twentieth century. Though driven out of the spotlight by anticommunism, O’Dell worked creatively and tirelessly to advance the Black Radical Tradition through labor activism, piercing analysis, and political mobilization.
Free | More info & Registration
October 19-21, 8:00 pm | Grupo Corpo, Meany Hall
With energy to burn, the exhilarating Grupo Corpo combines classical technique with a modern take on popular Brazilian dance. The heart and soul of the company is the Pederneiras family, who produce powerful work of stunning physicality and rich visual finesse. Brazil’s leading contemporary dance company returns to Meany with two works. Gil Refazendo — set to a spirited soundtrack by one of the godfathers of Brazilian music, Gilberto Gil — features the spirit of renewing, rebuilding and remaking. With Gira, choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras delves into the religious traditions of his homeland with rich poetic imagery animated by gestures of praise and worship.
Please note: this performance contains partial nudity.
$10-79 tickets | More info
Have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).
Tag(s): ArtsUW • College of Arts & Sciences • Comparative History of Ideas Program • Department of Linguistics • Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies • Jackson School of International Studies • Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program • School of Music • Simpson Center for the Humanities • Stroum Center for Jewish Studies
