October 08, 2008
Higgins School of Humanities Fall 2008 events
Higgins Faculty Series Lecture Monday, October 27, 2008 "The Poetics of Politics? The Persuasive Rhetoric of Leadership" Clark University, Dana Commons, Second Floor 7:30 p.m. It is clear to anyone even casting a glance at a televised political rally that its staging and language are intended to evoke success and belief in the candidate. Even audiences scanned by a carefully selective camera percolate with a shiny confidence in their shared future. SunHee Kim Gertz, professor of English, will explore the staging of such performances, rhetorically and semiotically, and put them into their literary context in order to explicate the more subtle examples of persuasive leadership. This lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities. For more information, call 508-793-7479.
Modern Poetry Series Poetry Readings Thursday, November 6, 2008 Poetry Readings by Joan Houlihan and Susan Richmond Clark University, Dana Commons, Second Floor 7:30 p.m. Joan Houlihan is founder and director of the Concord Poetry Center and is a professor of creative writing at Lesley University in Cambridge. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals and magazines. A full biography is available at: http://www.concordpoetry.org/zHoulihan.html
Susan Richmond teaches creative writing at the Shirley Medium Correctional Facility and offers poetry tutoring for teens through The Concord Poetry Center. Her most recent poetry collection, Purgatory Chasm, was published by Adastra Press in 2007. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Higgins School of Humanities. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 508-793-7479.
Lecture Tuesday, December 2, 2008 "Shylock's Turquoise Ring: Jane Austen, Romanticism, and Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'" Clark University, Dana Commons, 2nd floor 7:30 p.m. This talk considers the representation and interpretation of Shakespeare's Jew in the Romantic period through the lens of Jane Austen (author of the novel "Mansfield Park") and other writers. No longer a comic villain, Shylock from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice emerges as a flawed but sympathetic character, and also as a cultural figure who haunts the various discourses about, and representations of, Jews in the Romantic period and beyond.
The presenter, Judith Page, is a professor of English at the University of Florida. Page has developed special topics courses in conjunction with UF's Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author of "Imperfect Sympathies: Jews and Judaism in Romantic Literature and Culture" (2004). This lecture is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities at Clark. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 508-793-7479.