Provost's Lecture Series 2009/10
The Provost announces the fifth year of an annual series of related lectures on a topic of major campus and broader societal importance.
We reside in the age of the archive. Our ability to capture text, video, audio, and electronic communications is unprecedented. This new power has also raised questions about security, privacy, relevance, access, selection, cost, and long-term preservation. In the digital environment, everything is saved yet little is preserved. Whose archives are saved and why? Who benefits and how? Are there important facts that escape the seemingly all-encompassing capacity of such archival processes? How can these holdings be efficiently searched and put to scholarly, public and other kinds of use without endangering values such as privacy, accuracy of the historical record, and others? The speakers of the Provost’s series, drawn from different areas of the humanities and other disciplines, will explore questions concerning performance, memory, genealogy, power, and the definition, boundaries, and viability of the archive itself in an age of rapid electronic change.
The lecture series brings the University's research and teaching mission to bear on some timely societal issues. While the campus community is its core audience, it is directed as well to the Durham, national, and international audiences. The substance of the lecture series is developed with input from an appropriate committee of faculty. In addition to giving a public lecture, speakers are invited to meet with students and faculty in smaller group activities.
The Provost wishes to thank the following Lecture Series Advisors for their work in helping to design this year's series: Srinivas Aravamudan (Dean of the Humanities), Ian Baucom (Franklin Humanities Institute), Gregson Davis (Classical Studies), Meg Greer (Romance Studies), Karla Holloway (English), Deborah Jakubs (University Library), Robyn Wiegman (Women’s Studies).
Upcoming Speakers
The lectures are open to the Duke and local communities.
They are free of charge. No tickets are required.
The Digital Revolution in the Humanities: Does it create new knowledge or just make us work harder?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 5-6:30 p.m.
Location to be confirmed
Lynn Hunt, Professor of History at UCLA
Additional details to be posted as they become available
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 5-6:30 p.m.
Location to be confirmed
Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law and Co-Founder/Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University
Additional details to be posted as they become available
For information, contact Susan Booth at 1-919-668-2596.
Past Speakers
A Report Card on Obama's Foreign Policy
Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 5-6:30 p.m.
Page Auditorium
Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and author
This lecture is cosponsored with support from the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and the Duke Libraries
The Digital As Anti-Archive?
Monday, October 26, 2009, 5-6:30 p.m.
Love Auditorium, Levine Science Research Center
Diana Taylor, University Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish and Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at the Tisch School of the Arts
Click here for video of lecture.
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Previous Series:
2005 - 2006 - Science, Evolution, & Religion Series
2006 - 2007 - Privacy at Risk?
2008-09 - Policy Visions for a New Presidency