Lowell Humanities Series Spring 2019

Werner G. Jeanrond
“Hopes, Hope and Radical Hope: Christian Hope and the Praxis of Love”
February 6
Devlin 100

Now a professor at the University of Oslo, Jeanrond served as Master of St Benet’s Hall and professor of theology at the University of Oxford, after teaching systematic theology at Trinity College Dublin as well at the universities of Lund and Glasgow. His books and articles in theology and hermeneutics have been translated into many languages. Co-sponsored by the Theology Department.

Martha C. Nussbaum
“Fear, Anger, Democracy: Our Need for the Liberal Arts”
February 13
Gasson 100

The University of Chicago’s Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Nussbaum—who identifies the liberal arts as one “practice of hope”—has worked on political emotions and the capabilities approach, with such recent publications as Creating Capabilities and Anger and Forgiveness. Last year she published The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis on fear, anger, and hope in the current American political moment. Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Liberal Arts.

Fiction Days: Carmen Maria Machado
“Her Body and Other Parties”
February 27
Gasson 100

Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, won the Bard Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. A fiction writer, critic, and essayist who holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is University of Pennsylvania writer-in-residence, Machado has published her work in prominent periodicals and outlets; her memoir House in Indiana is forthcoming this year. 

James C. Scott
“In Praise of Floods: The Study of Rivers and Civilization”
March 20
Gasson 100

Yale University’s Sterling Professor of Political Science, Scott is also an anthropologist and directs its Agrarian Studies Program. His research concerns political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of hegemony and resistance, peasant politics, revolution, Southeast Asia, and theories of class. Recent publications include Against the Grain: A Deep History of the First Agrarian States. He has received many prestigious grants, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has recently been working on hill-valley relations in Mainland Southeast Asia.

Francisco Cantú
“The Line Becomes a River”
March 27
Gasson 100

An agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012, Cantú is a former Fulbright fellow and recently received an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Arizona. His essays and translations appear frequently in Guernica magazine, and his work appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, among other publications. His memoir, The Line Becomes a River, was published in 2018. Co-sponsored by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics.

Alvin Jackson
“The Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2017: Bloodshed, Borders and Brexit”
April 10
Gasson 100

A former Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at BC, Jackson is the University of Edinburgh Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History and considered a leading scholar on Brexit. His research on modern Irish, Scottish, and British history has been supported by three major national awards. He has published many articles and six books, including The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007—shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s Scottish History Book of the Year and for the Ewart-Biggs Irish Literary Prize. Co-sponsored by the Irish Studies Program and made possible by the Gerson Family Lecture Fund, established by John A. and Jean N. Gerson, P’14.