Public Events

Labyrinth Books in Princeton will host a conversation with Joan Wallach Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, and Gayle Salamon, Assistant Professor of English at Princeton University, about the continued relevance of psychoanalytic theory just when the culture at large seems set to ring its death knell. In her recent book The Fantasy of Feminist History, Scott argues that feminist perspectives on history are enriched by psychoanalytic concepts, particularly fantasy.

This event will take place at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, NJ. See the Labyrinth Books event site for more information.

The (surprising) nostalgia for densely hung exhibitions that developed among some French museological circles in the 1920s and 1930s has much to tell us about interpreting display practice. In this lecture, Martha Ward, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago, will consider nostalgic critical commentary and exhibition practice in relation to new methodologies at the time, especially as concerned with the role of attention, memory, and materiality.

The lecture is supported by the Dr. S.T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies.

This lecture is part of the series Art and Its Spaces, cosponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study and the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

There will be a concert talk with the performers prior to the evening's concert. No tickets are required to attend the talk in Wolfensohn Hall, but concert tickets will be required for the performance to follow.

 Prior to the Terror (1793–94), the French Revolution was generally viewed positively by American, British, and Irish as well as German and Italian democrats and progressive constitutional thinkers and law reformers. One of the most impressive expressions of international enthusiasm for the universal values of human rights, equality, freedom of expression, and democracy proclaimed by the early French Revolution (1789–93) were the gatherings of the “British Club,” an Anglo-American salon of supporters of democracy and human rights in Paris. At the great banquet at the British Club in Paris held on November 18, 1792, more than a hundred distinguished Anglo-American democrats including Tom Paine, David Williams, Joel Barlow, Eleazar Oswald, John Oswald, Helen Maria Williams, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald gathered to celebrate liberty, human rights, and the spread of democracy across the world—what they viewed as the assured democratic future of mankind. Mary Wollstonecraft, who was staying at the hotel where the banquet was held, and several other founders of modern feminism were an integral part of this movement. In this lecture, Jonathan Israel, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, will explore the vast significance of the toasts drunk to at this banquet and of the public address that was afterward presented to the French National Assembly. They illuminate the relationship between the French Revolution and modernity, the history of our own time, and the many ironies of the values and propositions that the British Club in Paris proclaimed to the world.

For additional information, please see the news release.

There will be a concert talk with the performers prior to the evening's concert. No tickets are required to attend the talk in Wolfensohn Hall, but concert tickets will be required for the performance to follow.

One of the oldest subjects in mathematics is the study of Diophantine equations, i.e., the study of whole number (or fractional) solutions to polynomial equations. It remains one of the most active areas of mathematics today. Perhaps the most basic tool is the simple idea of “congruences” particularly congruences modulo a prime number. In this talk, Richard Taylor, Professor in the School of Mathematics, will introduce prime numbers and congruences and illustrate their connection to Diophantine equations. He will also describe recent progress in this area, an application, and reciprocity laws, which lie at the heart of much recent progress on Diophantine equations, including Wiles’s proof of Fermat's last theorem. This talk should require no more than middle school mathematics.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Growing bacteria are subject to different types of environmental changes. Some changes are regular: for example, daily variations of light intensity. Others are stochastic, such as the random appearance of predators or toxins. Bacteria have developed an astonishing panoply of strategies to survive in fluctuating environments. We are only beginning to understand mechanisms underlying adaptive microbial behaviors and their consequences. In this talk, Stanislas Leibler, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, will describe recent experimental and theoretical studies of some of these complex phenomena.

Stanislas Leibler has made important contributions to theoretical and experimental biology, successfully extending the interface between physics and biology to develop new solutions and approaches to problems. Interested in the quantitative description of microbial systems, both on cellular and population levels, Leibler is developing the theoretical and experimental methods necessary for studying the collective behavior of biomolecules, cells, and organisms. By selecting a number of basic questions about how simple genetic and biochemical networks function in bacteria, he and his laboratory colleagues are beginning to understand how individual components can give rise to complex, collective phenomena.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Solo pianists Uri Caine and Mario Laginha will perform. These renowned jazz pianists will reinterpret baroque forms, including canon and fugue, at the border of composition and improvisation. The Friday evening concert will be followed by a concert talk with the performers from the stage. More details to come.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Solo pianists Uri Caine and Mario Laginha will perform.  These renowned jazz pianists will reinterpret baroque forms, including canon and fugue, at the border of composition and improvisation. The Friday evening concert will be followed by a concert talk with the performers from the stage. More details to come.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Current educational policy discussions frequently invoke “equality” as the reigning ideal. But how clear a view do we have of what we mean by this? What exactly are we trying to achieve? In this lecture, Danielle Allen, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science, will revisit the question of how to understand the ideal of equality in the context of educational policy.

Danielle Allen is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education (2004), and Why Plato Wrote (2010). In 2002, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her ability to combine “the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement.” Allen is currently working on books on the Declaration of Independence, citizenship in the digital age, and education and equality.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Institute Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel performs on clarinet with composer Timothy Andres on piano, accompanied by Haruni Rhodes on violin. Bermel and Andres will present their own works, viewed through the prism of older compositions by Schumann, Ives, and Copland. More details to come.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Institute Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel performs on clarinet with composer Timothy Andres on piano, accompanied by Haruni Rhodes on violin. Bermel and Andres will present their own works, viewed through the prism of older compositions by Schumann, Ives, and Copland. The Friday evening concert will be followed by a concert talk with the performers from the stage.

For additional information, please see the news release.

This exhibit is open weekdays from October 24 until December 2.

A selection of photographs taken in the Institute Woods by Vladimir Voevodsky, Professor in the School of Mathematics, is being displayed at the D&R Greenway Land Trust. The photographs are part of an exhibit of art and photography highlighting lands protected within the D&R Greenway partnership. The exhibit is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Institute Woods comprise 589 acres of woods, wetlands, and farmland, which form a key link in this network of green spaces in central New Jersey. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on November 6 from 4–6 p.m. For more information, visit www.drgreenway.org or call (609) 924-4646.

U.S. presidential elections often drive many citizens to vote strategically—to vote for a candidate they don’t like in hope of preventing someone they dislike even more from winning. Many who favored Ralph Nader in the 2000 election ended up voting for Al Gore (though not enough to stop George W. Bush from getting elected). And a lot of those inclined toward Ross Perot in 1992 voted for George H. W. Bush instead (though Bill Clintonstill won). An electoral system that induces widespread strategic voting, which is hardly unique to America, is undesirable for many reasons. Most obviously, it deprives citizens of the chance to express their views without fear that doing so will lead to the election of someone they strongly oppose. In this lecture, Eric Maskin, Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science and winner of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, will discuss how to design electoral systems that don’t put voters in this bind.

For additional information, please see the news release.

There will be a concert talk with Derek Bermel and some of the performers prior to the evening's concert. No tickets are required to attend the talk in Wolfensohn Hall, but concert tickets will be required for the performance to follow.

Fundamental physics started the twentieth century with the twin revolutions of relativity and quantum mechanics. Much of the second half of the century was devoted to the construction of a theoretical structure unifying these radical ideas, confirmed experimentally to exquisite precision over the past three decades. Yet questions remain. The union of quantum mechanics and gravity strongly suggests that space-time is doomed—but what replaces it? The unification of relativity and quantum mechanics predicts violent short-distance quantum fluctuations that make the existence of a macroscopic world wildly implausible, and yet we comfortably live in a huge universe. What tames these violent fluctuations, and why is there a macroscopic universe? A spectacular new experiment—the Large Hadron Collider—is now running and poised to shed significant light on at least some of these mysteries. In this talk, Nima Arkani Hamed, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, will describe these ideas and discuss what we can expect to know by 2020.

For additional information, please see the news release.

There will be a concert talk with Derek Bermel and some of the performers prior to the evening's concert. No tickets are required to attend the talk in Wolfensohn Hall, but concert tickets will be required for the performance to follow.

Percussion is the word of the day when Lisa Pegher, Joe Locke, and Bernard Woma perform in Mallet Madness.  Marimbist Lisa Pegher will perform the world premiere of Institute Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel's Figure and Ground, along with selections from Paul Lansky's Idle Fancies, Peter Klatzow's Dances of Earth and Fire, and Leigh Howard Stevens's Rhythmic Caprice.  Vibraphonist Joe Locke will perform works of his own composition along with selections fromt eh American Songbook.  Bernard Woma, who plays the Dagara Gyil (African xylophone), will perform his own compositions, including Ghana puore na (Greetings from Ghana), Gyil nyog me na (I am addicted to the gyil), and Naawin nu tom (The Ideal Woman).

There will be a concert talk in Wolfensohn Hall at 6:30 p.m.on the day of the performance.

Tickets may be ordered online beginning on November 22.  Please visit http://www.ias.edu/special/air/music and scroll down to the December dates to register for tickets at that time.

For additional information, please see the news release.

In Greek religion, the encounter between mortals and gods was dominated by fear. The belief in the power of gods was based on experience and enhanced through rituals. Cult regulations, narratives of punitive miracles, confession inscriptions, and funerary curses allow us to study how the fear of god was constructed, justified, and aroused through narratives and rituals. Angelos Chaniotis will discuss how the public display and recitation of such inscriptions contributed to the construction and transmission of the concept of the divine in the Hellenized East.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The Borromeo String Quartet will perform with guest artists Derek Bermel on clarinet, Paul Neubauer on viola, and Fred Sherry on cello. Works on the program are scheduled to include Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, Bermel's Soul Garden and Coming Together, and Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 6.

There will be a concert talk in Wolfensohn Hall at 6:30 p.m.on the day of the performance.

Tickets may be ordered online beginning on October 20.  Please visit http://www.ias.edu/special/air/music and scroll down to the November dates to register for tickets at that time.

For additional information, please see the news release.

In this lecture, Enrico Bombieri, IBM von Neumann Professor in the School of Mathematics, will attempt to give an idea of the numerous different notions of truth in mathematics. He will explain the difference between truth, proof, and verification, using accessible examples.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The early work of Condorcet in the eighteenth century, and that of Arrow and others in the twentieth century, revealed the complex and interesting mathematical problems that arise in the theory of social choice. In this lecture, Noga Alon, Visiting Professor in the School of Mathematics, will explain how the simple process of voting leads to strikingly counterintuitive paradoxes, focusing on several recent intriguing examples.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The nature and extent of experimentation in ancient Greek and Roman science remains controversial.  Taking experiments conducted on living animals as a case study, this lecture will analyze several experiments done from the fourth century BC to the second century AD by biologists and physicians, in order to address some of the more controversial issues.  Looking closely at the motivations of the ancient scientists, the purposes of their experiments, their methods, their results, and the range of animal species – indigenous and exotic – on which they performed experiments, allows a better understanding of the nature of experimentation in antiquity.  Significant changes over time, in particular the bold move from a long tradition of conducting such experiments only in private, before a small circle of students, to performing experiments on animals in public spaces, often before a sizable audience, will also be examined.  The final part of the lecture will explore the limits – ethical or other – on animal experimentation in antiquity. 

For additional information, please see the news release.

The relationship between artistic media has been something of a thorny issue both in the Renaissance and in scholarship ever since. Formulated as the paragone or comparison between the arts, discussions focused mostly on painting and sculpture and left architecture largely on the periphery of these classic debates. Yet architecture was not only a monumental scaffolding for the figural arts, but entered more profoundly into a relationship of exchange with them. This lecture will examine one such area of intersection and its consequences for architecture’s interface with the viewer: the material surfaces of buildings and their crafting, the “skin” of architecture and its dialogue with sculpture.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Described in the Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Vijay Iyer is a largely self-taught musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon who draws from a range of Western and non-Western traditions.

Craig Taborn has moved from early collaborations with James Carter to work in a wide variety of settings, from acoustic trios to electronic and techno music. According to All About Jazz, "In whatever setting he appears, Taborn leaves an indelible mark."

The concerts will feature the world premiere duo-recital by these two accomplished jazz pianists.

There will be a concert talk in Wolfensohn Hall at 6:30 p.m. on the day of the performance.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Described in the Village Voice as "the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years," Vijay Iyer is a largely self-taught musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon who draws from a range of Western and non-Western traditions.

Craig Taborn has moved from early collaborations with James Carter to work in a wide variety of settings, from acoustic trios to electronic and techno music. According to All About Jazz, "In whatever setting he appears, Taborn leaves an indelible mark."

The concerts will feature the world premiere duo-recital by these two accomplished jazz pianists.

There will be a concert talk by freelance writer Nate Chinen, who writes for the New York Times, the Village Voice, and JazzTimes, following the performance in Wolfensohn Hall.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The basic problem of all pictures is grounded in their bipolar existence. They are created objects, but nonetheless present themselves as physical beings. This paradoxical double-structure is exemplified in the “ME FECIT” of numberless inscriptions. With its “EGO,” the pictorial work declares that it does not consist of artificially shaped dead material, but of a living form. Dramatizing this problem, Leonardo da Vinci created the formula that pictures “imprison” the audience. In this lecture Horst Bredekamp, Professor of Art History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, will follow a chain of examples from antiquity, the Middle Ages, early modernity, and the twentieth century in order to question the traditional concept of the relationship between the work of art and the beholder. It will try to conceptualize the theory of picture-act, which tries to develop alternatives to traditional concepts of representation, illustration, and mimesis.

For additional information, please see the news release.

A new modern ecology of images took form in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. Our ways of understanding and describing this new situation artistically and sociologically have relied on crude conceptual tools: notions of mass and elite cultures; highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow audiences; modernist fine art and commercial kitsch. Among other shortcomings, these categories are inadequate to the new, socially complex configurations of audience; to the profound hybridity of so-called fine and commercial works; and to the interpenetration of production and consumption in modern image markets. The metaphor of an image ecology of modernity (adapted from McLuhan's "media ecology," to which Ann Ardis has appended "of modernity") may serve as a more productive conceptual platform. My paper will test ways of modeling audience reception within this modern image ecology.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Violinist Midori will discuss her experiences as a performer with Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel.

The celebrated views of the Normandy coast painted by the Impressionists in the 1860s/70s may be seen against a continuous development in the modes and objectives of visual representation dating back half a century. This was not, however, a simple evolution, but a succession of stages through which different technical applications paralleled the shifting paradigms of historical and cultural awareness in post-revolutionary France. This lecture seeks to trace some of the main themes and motifs that developed as lithography, wood and steel engraving, and eventually photography, communicated their messages to different audiences: from the connoisseurs who collected the sumptuous prints of the Voyages pittoresques in the 1820s to the tourists who recorded their travels through their selection of picture postcards. A constant theme can be detected in this overall transition from ‘Romantic’ to ‘Modern’. The ‘vertical sublime’ that is epitomised by the famous medieval monuments of the province, gives way to a ‘horizontal sublime’ evoked particularly in the panoramic vistas of the sea coast.

For additional information, please see the news release.

William Bolcom will discuss his music.

In the aftermath of several great imperial expansions, especially those of the Arabs and the Europeans, one sees the phenomenon of the native who has accepted the religion and/or culture of the hegemonic foreigners, only to rediscover his native identity and proceed to take political action against them. In this lecture, Crone will explore what lies behind this reaction and why it was much less characteristic of Islamized natives than it has been of Westernized ones.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The quest for understanding the origin of our universe has been dramatically transformed since the expansion of the universe was discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1929, thanks to impressive advances in astronomical observations and laboratory experiments. Cosmology is now widely regarded as a precision science. Although confidence in our models has increased, deep questions remain unanswered. In this lecture, Zaldarriaga will focus on what we currently think happened during the earliest phases in the history of our universe and what we hope to learn in the next decades.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Cole's talk is in the Institute's annual series, Lectures on Public Policy, which aims to address issues relevant to contemporary politics and social conditions and scientific matters of broad import. Cole will discuss how it became legal in the United States to engage in techniques such as water boarding by examining the role of lawyers in the Bush Justice Department. Addressing the once-secret memos that authorized such tactics, he will argue that the lawyers failed their constitutional and ethical responsibilities, and became accomplices to criminal conduct. Cole will consider who, if anyone, should be held accountable for the CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques"; whether we should merely "move forward," as President Obama has suggested; and whether those who authorized these tactics should be investigated. Cole will discuss what these issues teach us about law and lawyering, and what our collective response to the experience might teach us about ourselves.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Featuring Derek Bermel, clarinet; Christopher Taylor, piano. Their performance will trace the history of works for clarinet and piano, taking the audience on a journey beginning with Brahms and moving through the 20th and 21st centuries with Milhaud and the American composers Leonard Bernstein, Paul Moravec, Sebastian Currier, and Bermel, who will be represented by three works — SchiZm, Thracian Sketches, and Turning. Tickets are free and required for all concerts.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Featuring Derek Bermel, clarinet; Christopher Taylor, piano. Their performance will trace the history of works for clarinet and piano, taking the audience on a journey beginning with Brahms and moving through the 20th and 21st centuries with Milhaud and the American composers Leonard Bernstein, Paul Moravec, Sebastian Currier, and Bermel, who will be represented by three works — SchiZm, Thracian Sketches, and Turning. Tickets are free and required for all concerts. For information on reserving tickets online, please click here.

The concert will be followed by a discussion from the stage of the music on the program with New York Times Chief Music Critic Anthony Tommasini, Bermel, and Taylor.

For additional information, please see the news release.

For the past decade, the Institute's Science Initiative Group (SIG) has worked with the World Bank and other partners to strengthen science in developing nations. In this talk, Phillip Griffiths, who helped create SIG when he was Director of the Institute from 1991 to 2003, will address the context for and evolution of SIG's programs, with emphasis on the new Carnegie-IAS Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), which prepares PhD-level scientists and engineers in sub-Saharan Africa through university-based research and training networks.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Although the concept of randomness is omnipresent, it turns out to be difficult to generate effectively a sequence of random events. The need for “pseudorandomness” in various parts of modern science, ranging from numerical simulation to cryptography, has challenged our limited understanding of this issue and our mathematical resources. In this talk, Professor Jean Bourgain explores some of the problems of pseudorandomness and tools to address them.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Trio Solisti is joined by soprano Amy Burton for a concert featuring the music of Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and Modest Mussorgsky.  They will also perform the World Premiere of Paul Moravec's Vita Brevis.  For additional information about the Edward T. Cone Concert Series and the 2008-2009 season, please see the news release.

Solving societal problems involves changing people’s behavior – inducing them to drink less, exercise more, turn down the heat, stay in school, and so on. Interventions designed to change these behaviors have met with limited success. School of Social Science Visiting Professor Deborah Prentice discusses how a closer look at interventions and their affect on people’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations reveals why some succeed and others fail, and she also suggests strategies for improving these outcomes.

For additional information, please see the news release.

From the time of its original display through the present day, the subject of Hieronymus Bosch's so-called "Garden of Delights" has eluded audiences. In a lecture devoted to what is arguably the most enigmatic work in the history of art, Joseph Leo Koerner, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, examines why Bosch's subject was made deliberately unspeakable. The lecture is part of the Art as Knowledge series, which features talks by leading art historians on the subject of how art develops and conveys knowledge.

For additional information, please see the news release.

For additional information about the Edward T. Cone Concert Series and the 2008-2009 season, please see the news release.

Cosponsored by the Tang Center for East Asian Art. For additional information, please see the news release.

Cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Geoffrey Burleson 

Matt Haimovitz is a musical pioneer who has inspired classical music lovers and won over countless new listeners to the genre by bringing  his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses.  Geoffrey Burleson has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America.  Equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer, he is the winner of the Silver Medal in the International Piano Recording Competition.
For more information on the concert series, visit www.ias.edu/air.

Robinson's talk is part of the Institute's series, Lectures on Public Policy, which features speakers who elucidate and weigh in on issues relevant to contemporary politics and social conditions and address scientific matters of broad import.  As we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Robinson takes stock of current challenges and setbacks while identifying the key issues over the next decade. 

For additional information, please see the news release. 

One of the remarkable successes of twentieth century astronomy was the demonstration that the laws of physics derived in the laboratory can successfully describe a wide range of astronomical objects and phenomena. One of the great hopes of twenty-first century physics is that astronomy can return the favor, by allowing us to explore physics that cannot be studied in the laboratory. As examples, Professor Tremaine described three exotic forms of matter that (so far) are known to exist only from astronomical observations: black holes, dark matter, and dark energy.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performed a concert at 6:30 p.m. that was repeated at 8:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall. The Grammy Award-winning group is internationally renowned for its fine artistry and distinctive approach to music-making, with a performing and recording legacy spanning 35 years. They performed the premiere of Institute Artistic Consultant Paul Moravec's Brandenburg Gate and Haydn's Symphony No. 59, the Fire Symphony.

For additional information, please see the news release. 

In the 1660s and onward, the Radical Enlightenment pushed for full freedom of thought, religious freedom, and personal liberty together with democracy and the principle of equality.  In this lecture, Jonathan Israel addressed how this part of the Western Enlightenment used medieval Islamic freethinkers and their ideas, and interpreted the special features of Islamic society and politics to illustrate and broaden its own arguments for transforming the Western World.  In recent years, this intellectual movement has been much more intensively studied and better understood, and this lecture -- the outgrowth of a highly innovative colloquium recently held at the Institute, Islamic Freethinking and Western Radicalism -- highlighted recent research into what might be broadly termed the Democratic Enlightenment. 

This lecture was presented with support provided by the Dr. S.T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies. 

Video of the lecture is available here.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Graham Walker, Cello and Geoffrey Burleson, Piano

British Cellist Graham Walker has a flourishing career as a solo and chamber musician, playing throughout Europe and the United States. This performance was part of his second American tour. Acclaimed pianist Geoffrey Burleson is equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer. He is the recipient of the Silver Medal in the International Piano Recording Competition.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Through the works of Fermat, Gauss, and Lagrange, we understand which positive integers can be represented as sums of two, three, or four squares. Hilbert's 11th problem, from 1900, extends this question to more general quadratic equations. Its complete solution relies on recent advances in number theory and related fields over the years. Professor Sarnak explained some of these developments, as well as certain far-reaching conjectures that the problem has inspired.

Video of the lecture is available here.

Quartet New Generation recorder collective, performing the music of Bach, Bruckner, Dowland, Tompkins, Moravec, and others.

For additional information, please see the news release.

The political season is upon us and so, if they were not before, our newspapers, radios, computer screens and televisions are now overfull with sound-bites; and countless people are complaining about the degradation of political conversation. But is a sound-bite really such a bad thing? In the Western context, Homer was the first purveyor of them and Aristotle offered the first theory of them, but he called them maxims. This lecture explored why sound-bites are a necessary and valuable part of political conversation, considered the ways in which they are also dangerous, and analyzed the particular challenges to political discourse presented by the new media of the 21st century. At the end of the day, it is listeners, not speakers, who have the most work to do to deal responsibly with sound-bites.

Video of the lecture is available here.

Enso String Quartet, performing the music of Haydn, Moravec, Wolf and Ravel.

For additional information, please see the news release.

Influenza viruses are unusual because we can become infected by a similar virus almost every year during our lifetime and occasionally there are worldwide pandemics that can cause many fatalities. Why does our usually excellent immune system fail us? How does this come about?

Video of the lecture is available here

The Red Violin, Maria Bachmann with Simon Mulligan, performing the music of Debussy, Corigliano, Moravec, Enescu and Gershwin.

For additional information, please see the news release.

A new opera by composer Tarik O'Regan and librettist Tom Phillips , currently a Director's Visitor at the Institute.  Based on the novel by Jospeh Conrad. In association with American Opera Projects.

For additional information, please see the news release.

This lecture provided an overview of the production and characteristics of alien history in early China, while acknowledging and attempting to gauge the cultural influence of these accounts among the alien people themselves, as "consumers" of histories they did not produce, but were used politically and in other ways. These reflections also served as a first step towards a comparative discussion, across the historiographic traditions of literate civilizations, about the fundamental issues of who wrote alien histories, why, and for whom.

Video of the lecture is available here.

Beyond Crossover, David Krakauer with Marija Stroke, Will Holshouser and Nicki Parrott

For additional information, please see the news release.