Past Events

Panel Discussants: Elaine Pagels, Daniel Boyarin (Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric) and Susanna Elm (History and Classics)
Moderator: Anthony J. Cascardi (Townsend Center Director)

Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Elaine Pagels is well known for her work in the field of religious studies and theology. She first gained recognition for her research disproving the myth of the early Christian Church as a unified movement—in The Gnostic Gospels, she provides analysis of 52 early Christian manuscripts that show the pluralistic nature of the early church and the role of women in the developing Christian movement.

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, and the author of over fifteen books that have had a broad influence in political philosophy, constitutional law, and public policy.

Panel Discussants: Greil Marcus, Shannon Steen (Theater, Dance and Performance Studies) and Bryan Wagner (English)
Moderator: Anthony J. Cascardi (Townsend Center Director)

Music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus is noted for his scholarly and literary work connecting rock & roll to political and social history.

Strange Culture follows the surreal nightmare of acclaimed artist Steve Kurtz that began when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Local police who responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed his art—which explores germ warfare and genetically-modified foods—to be suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours, the artist was detained as a suspected bioterrorist, and dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife’s body.

Manufactured Landscapes is the striking documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris. The film follows him through China, as he shoots the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution.

Azar Nafisi’s work focuses on the political implications of literature and culture, as well as the human rights of Iranian women and girls and the important role they play in the process of change for pluralism and an open society in Iran.