For a complete list of events, including any last-minute changes, please visit our website:
www.williams.edu/go/atwilliams
Admission is free unless otherwise noted, and the public is always welcome.
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Tuesday, April 7
Sarkozy and Obama: Cross-Portraits and Intricate Policies
2:45 p.m., Weston 10
Thierry Leterre, Professor of Political Science at the University of Versailles, France, will speak on Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Franco-American relations. Leterre is currently a Fulbright Fellow at Georgetown University and a distinguished scholar whose interests range over The History of Ideas, Political Philosophy, and Security Studies. He was previously a professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques ("Sciences Po") and graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris). International Studies Colloquium.
Practical Aesthetics
5:30 p.m., The Clark, 225 South Street
Lecture by Clark Fellow Jill Bennett, associate dean and director of the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics in the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales. Her latest book, Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art (2005), is a theoretical analysis of art dealing with trauma and conflict from places such as Northern Ireland, South Africa, Colombia, and indigenous Australia. Her Clark project is "practical aesthetics" through a study of art's relationship to real events. She will analyze the event as an aesthetic entity, focusing on perceptual and affective relationships, to demonstrate the practical value of aesthetic inquiry. This lecture is free. More...
In der Sprache des Fremden leben / Living the Other's Language
7:30 p.m., South Academic Building 241
Reading and discussion in German and English, led by Zafer Senocak, poet and author of Atlas of a Tropical Germany.
The Financial Founding Fathers and Financial Crises
8:00 p.m., Griffin 6
Robert Wright teaches courses in public policy and global business history as Clinical Associate Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University, and is a guest curator at the Museum of American Finance in downtown Manhattan. He is the author of ten books: one on the construction industry, one on publisher John Wiley and Sons, another on the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, and seven on the early U.S. financial system. He is at work on a book for pessimists on the hyper-dysfunctional parts of the economy like retirement savings, mortgage markets, and healthcare.
Moving America Beyond Coal
8:00 p.m., Wege Auditorium, Chemistry 123
Mary Anne Hitt is deputy director of the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign, which is working to eliminate coal's contribution to global warming by preventing the construction of new coal-fired power plants, accelerating the retirement and replacement of existing coal plants, and ensuring the massive coal reserves in the U.S. remain underground and out of export markets. Hitt previously served as executive director of Appalachian Voices, where she was one of the creators of iLoveMountains.org, an online campaign to end mountaintop removal coal mining that received national recognition for innovation and impact.
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Wednesday, April 8
Midweekmusic
12:15 p.m., Thompson Memorial Chapel
Lunchtime recital series featuring student and faculty performers. Presented by the Department of Music. All are invited to bring a lunch and listen to classical, jazz and world music. Note: This concert is in Thompson Chapel to feature organ students. More...
Ann Armbrecht on writing "Thin Places"
4:00 p.m., Griffin 7
Ann Armbrecht will talk about the process of writing and researching Thin Places, a book that cuts across disciplines of anthropology, women's studies, environmental studies, and memoir. "Recounting her search for 'thin places' of sacred connection, Ann Armbrecht's unflinching honesty and eye for luminous detail leads readers between locales and across received genres. Simultaneously a spiritual autobiography, a fieldwork memoir of village Nepal, a meditation on relations with land, the story of a complicated marriage, and more, this courageous book vividly shows how anthropologists' professional journeys are entwined with personal quests." - Kirin Narayan, professor of anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gallery Talk: "Lincoln to the Nth Degree"
4:00 p.m., Williams College Museum of Art
WCMA Senior Curator Nancy Mowll Mathews will discuss the current exhibition "Lincoln to the Nth Degree," which explores the way images and texts helped construct Lincoln's image during his lifetime and after his death. More...
Paraguayan Journalism during the Great War, 1864-1870
4:00 p.m., Griffin 5
War is not just a matter of bullets, it is also a matter of winning hearts and minds. In his lecture, "Building the Nation while Destroying the Land: Paraguayan Journalism during the Great War, 1864-1870," Professor Thomas Whigham of the University of Georgia will address how this cliched perspective played itself out during the Paraguayan War of 1864-1870, focusing on "war journalism," Native American languages, and how an authoritarian government can make a lost cause seem worth dying for.
The Myth of the Purple Bubble: Poverty and Inequality on our Doorstep
8:00 p.m., Griffin 3
In these times of economic hardship, it is increasingly urgent for the Williams community to think about how our neighbors have been affected. This panel event will bring together key organizational leaders from North Adams to speak about the growing need for services in the Berkshires, and to help us think about the role that Williams students, faculty and staff can play in alleviating these needs. Panel: Jim Canavan, Northern Berkshire United Way; Marie Harpin, Northern Berkshire Community Action; Kim McMann, Target:Hunger; Jennifer Munoz, REACH Community Health; and Alison Basdekis, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. Sponsored by the Lehman Council for Community Engagement. Free. More: WL1@williams.edu
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Thursday, April 9
Bone Marrow Registry Drive
11:00 a.m.- 2:30 p.m., Baxter Hall, Paresky Center
Williams hosts a Bone Marrow Donor Registry Drive to recruit donors from Williams and the surrounding community. Increasing the number of donors gives hope to blood cancer patients around the world in need of a peripheral blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Registering is quick and easy and requires filling out a registration form and swabbing cells from inside your cheek. Registrants must be 18-55 and in general good health. Testing tissue samples costs $65 each, so voluntary donations are accepted. More...
Looking at Lunchtime: "Portrait of a Man"
12:30 p.m., The Clark, 225 South Street
Join the Clark's senior curator Richard Rand as he discusses Agnolo Bronzino's striking "Portrait of a Man," on loan to the Clark from the Phillips Family Collection. Admission to the gallery talk is free. More...
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
4:00 p.m., South Academic Building, room 129
Presentation by Shawn Cole of Harvard Business School.
Bruegel's Crows: Some Reflections on Contemporary Art History
5:30 p.m., Lawrence 231
Keith Moxey, Professor of Art History at Columbia University and Barnard College. Art History has often defined itself as a discipline more interested in the historical location of artworks rather than their continuing activity in the present. More attention has been paid to defining their meaning in the past than their function in contemporary culture. This talk looks at the new emphasis placed on the presence of the work, the way in which it may or may not provoke a response in the viewer. Can the autonomy of the image be captured in words? What language can we use to describe its perennial power over us?
Native American Prophecy and the Politics of Oppression
6:00 p.m., Griffin 3
Professor Lee Irwin of the College of Charleston will review the history of Native American prophecy in the context of the encounter between aggressive non-native colonizers and resistant native religious leaders. More information: Peggy Weyers 413-597-2241.
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Friday, April 10
Two Summers in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
12:00 p.m., The Log, Spring Street
Environmental Studies Log Lunch presentation by Chris Little '98, Ph.D. Candidate in Geosciences at Princeton University: "An AUV, CTDs, HIM, and SLR: Two Summers in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica." Vegetarian meal prepared by student cooks: $4. Call 413-597-2346 or email szepka@williams.edu for reservations. All welcome.
Visibility Polygons and Deformations of Polyhedra
1:00 p.m., Bronfman 106
Mathematics and Statistics Department Colloquium Professor Satyan Devadoss. Given a simple polygon P, we construct a complex which captures the geometry of noncrossing diagonals of P. We describe topological properties of this complex and provide elegant realizations based on secondary polytopes. Moreover, using the visibility graph, a deformation space of polygons is created leading to some simple open problems.
Engineering after Williams
2:30 p.m., Thompson Physics 205
Joint Physics and Astronomy colloquium by Toby Schneider '07 of MIT/Woods Hole and Joseph Schoer '06 of Cornell University.
Spring Planetarium Show
7:30 p.m., Hopkins Observatory, Main Street
Experience the wonders of our universe with the high-precision Zeiss Skymaster ZKP3/B opto-mechanical planetarium projector at the Milham Planetarium, located inside the Old Hopkins Observatory. More...
Nir Rosen: "Update from Iraq"
7:30 p.m., Griffin 3
Nir Rosen is a journalist who has written extensively on American policy toward Afghanistan and Iraq. He spent more than two years in Iraq reporting on the American occupation, the relationship between Americans and Iraqis, the development of postwar Iraqi religious and political movements, interethnic and sectarian relations, and the Iraqi civil war. He is the author of In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq. Sponsored by the Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy. More...
Dance Company: "Overexposed"
8:00 p.m., CenterStage, '62 Center
Watch out! Ideas that were quick drafts and sketches in the fall have been exposed to peers and artists from every corner of the community. They are saturated with creativity, with insight, with passion. See original student choreography, original student musical compositions. Be there or be under-exposed! Box office: 413-597-2425. More...
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Saturday, April 11
Bone Marrow Registry Drive
7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., Baxter Hall, Paresky Center
Williams hosts a Bone Marrow Donor Registry Drive to recruit donors from Williams and the surrounding community. Increasing the number of donors gives hope to blood cancer patients around the world in need of a peripheral blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Registering is quick and easy and requires filling out a registration form and swabbing cells from inside your cheek. Registrants must be 18-55 and in general good health. Testing tissue samples costs $65 each, so voluntary donations are accepted. More...
Senior Recital: Eric Kang '09, piano, and Richard McDowell '09, bass-baritone
2:00 p.m., Chapin Hall
Kang will play Brahms's Rhapsody in B Minor, opus 79, no. 1; Ravel's Menuet sur le nom de Haydn; and Prokofiev's Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, opus 75. McDowell will perform Barber's Dover Beach, opus 3 with Stephanie Jensen '12 and Sophia Vargas '10, violin, and Betsy Ribble '09, cello. Together the gentlemen will also perform selected movements from Schubert's Schwanengesang. More...
Free screening of "French Cancan"
2:00 p.m., The Clark, 225 South Street
Catch a free screening of French Cancan (1955, 93 min., in French with subtitles, not rated). Jean Renoir's great backstage musical stars Jean Gabin as the impresario of the Moulin Rouge, and the director emulates his painter father in love of color, movement, and female flesh. In connection with the exhibition Toulouse-Lautrec and Paris, the film series "Ooh La La! Montmartre on Film" explores the artist's bohemian environs. More...
Dance Company: "Overexposed"
8:00 p.m., CenterStage, '62 Center
Watch out! Ideas that were quick drafts and sketches in the fall have been exposed to peers and artists from every corner of the community. They are saturated with creativity, with insight, with passion. See original student choreography, original student musical compositions. Be there or be under-exposed! Box office: 413-597-2425. More...
Iraq: The Lost Generation
8:00 p.m., Paresky Auditorium
In the past five years more than four million Iraqis -- 20 percent of the entire population -- have been driven from their homes as a result of the war and sectarian bloodshed. Two million have become exiles, living desperate lives across the border in Syria and Jordan. This edition of Dispatches investigates the biggest and most catastrophic refugee crisis in the Middle East since the Palestinian diaspora of 1948. Award-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy travels to Syria and Jordan to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees. These are the very people on whom the new, democratic Iraq was to be built -- the professional middle classes -- nearly half of whom now live as desperate refugees, driven out by the violence and civil breakdown. Reception to follow. More...
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Monday, April 13
"Lioness" film screening
7:00 p.m., Images Cinema, Spring Street
Integrated programing for the play "Betrayed" (at the '62 Center April 16 and 17), the film will be introduced by Magnus Bernhardsson, Professor of History, with a post-screening discussion with filmmakers Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers. Free. Images Cinema
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Tuesday, April 14
Lunch with Professor Carol Ockman
12:45 p.m., Lawrence 231
An informal talk by Professor of Art Carol Ockman on her work done last year while on sabbatical. The event is free and open to the public with pizza and light refreshments.
Beyond Blond: Diversity in Modern Scandinavia
2:45 p.m., Weston 10
International Studies Colloquium by Brian Martin, an Assistant Professor of French Literature and French Language, specializing in Nordic Literature from Scandinavia to Quebec. Other specialties include the 19th-Century French Novel, 20th-Century French Fiction and Film and Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies.
Library Tuesday Teas: Mike Glier, Professor of Art
4:00 p.m., Griffin 3
For the kick-off the 2009 Library Tuesday Teas series, Mike Glier, professor of Art, will discuss his blog-based project 'Along A Long Line' and the upcoming book integrating materials from the blog, paintings, photographs and essays. More...
A Conversation with Svetlana Alpers
5:30 p.m., The Clark, 225 South Street
Renowned art historian Svetlana Alpers's books have fundamentally changed people's understanding of 17th-century Dutch art, and of Rubens, Tiepolo, and Velasquez, among others. Alpers, an artist and renowned art historian, will discuss her life, career, engagements, and interests with the Clark's Starr Director of Research and Academic Programs Michael Holly and Williams College associate professor of art history Stefanie Solum. Free. More...
War Stories: Artists, Filmmakers, and Scholars Consider the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
7:00 p.m., Directing Studio, '62 Center
Integrated Programming for the play "Betrayed" (at the '62 Center April 16 and 17), this panel discussion will feature Michael Rackowitz, Associate Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University, "Lioness" filmmaker Meg McLagan, and journalist and playwright George Packer. Moderated by Liza Johnson, Associate Professor of Art.
Why Vietnam Matters
7:30 p.m., Griffin 6
Rufus Phillips became a member of the Saigon Military Mission in 1954 and the following year served as the sole adviser to two Vietnamese army pacification operations, earning the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work. He later worked as a CIA civilian case officer in Vietnam and Laos, then joined the U.S. Agency for International Development's Saigon Mission to lead its counterinsurgency efforts. In 1964 he became a consultant for USAID and the State Department and served as an adviser to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Phillips is the author of Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned (2008), in which he describes in first-hand detail such figures as John F. Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor, Robert McNamara, Henry Cabot Lodge, Hubert Humphrey, and Ngo Dinh Diem.
Small Jazz Ensembles
8:00 p.m., Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Bernhard Music Center
The Department of Music presents Small Jazz Ensembles. Free and open to the public. More...
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee on Wednesday signed off on more than $1 million in cost cutting measures for the planned Main Street fire station.
