Past Events

Invisible Hands traces the rise in eighteenth-century Europe of a belief in self-organization—such that large systems, whether natural or human-made, are seen as capable of creating their own order, without any need for external direction.

Award-winning Brazilian novelist and poet Adriana Lisboa speaks in conversation with Professor Candace Slater (Spanish & Portuguese) about the work of writing and translation.

Sacred Founders argues that from the time of Augustus through early Byzantium, a discourse of "sacred founders” helped legitimate the authority of the emperor and his family.

Territories of the Soul draws upon queer and affect theory to explore structures of belonging experienced by the black diasporic subject.

In Hidden Hitchcock, D.A. Miller does what seems impossible: he discovers what has remained unseen in the movies of this best-known of filmmakers.

Jenna Wortham is technology reporter and staff writer for the New York Times Magazine. Nadia Ellis is associate professor of English at UC Berkeley and author of Territories of the Soul: Queered Belonging in the Black Diaspora.

Namwali Serpell’s book Seven Modes of Uncertainty contends that literary uncertainty is crucial to ethics because it pushes us beyond the limits of our experience.

Shannon Jackson discusses her recent co-authored book on the Builders Association, a New York-based multimedia theater company that creates original productions based on stories drawn from contemporary life.

Mark Greif is author of Against Everything and associate professor of literary studies at the New School for Social Research. Linda Williams is author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible and professor emeritus of Rhetoric and Film & Media at UC Berkeley.

Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. Maggie Nelson is author of The Argonauts and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.