In the years before the Civil War, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Subjected to the cruelty of one malevolent owner (Michael Fassbender), he also finds unexpected kindness from another as he struggles continually to survive and maintain some of […]

In 1839 the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They’re held prisoner in Connecticut and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property […]

Part of the 2016-17 Humanities theme Revolutions, in The Birth of a Nation, Nat Turner is an enslaved Baptist preacher who lives on a Virginia plantation owned by Samuel Turner. With rumors of insurrection in the air, a cleric convinces Samuel that Nate should sermonize to other slaves, thereby quelling any notions of an uprising. As Nate […]

Throughout history, individuals have organized with others to bring about radical social change. What is it like to be on the front lines fighting for social transformation? Why do people risk life and limb to do so? Social science has addressed these questions in many different ways. This talk by Marcos Perez, postdoctoral fellow in […]

What if science studies theorist Bruno Latour is right that thinking of ourselves as “revolutionary” is one of the central constitutive myths of modernity? What if, as he asserts, “we have never been modern?” This talk with Keith Peterson, associate professor of philosophy, explores the basis of Latour’s anti-revolutionary claim and considers some responses to […]

BZ ’18-’45: One Monument, One City, Two Dictatorships is a public exhibition within the Monument to Victory in Bolzano, Italy, that illustrates the history of the monument erected by the Italian Fascist regime in 1928. This lecture by Jeffrey Schnapp, professor of romance literature and comparative literature at Harvard, recounts the tale of the monument and its reframing […]

For many of us, seeing is believing; we’re strongly influenced by an empirical understanding of what constitutes proof (“show me the proof,” as opposed to “explain to me the proof,” “tell me the proof,” etc.). Developments in how we understand data and data science, however, complicate our reliance on empiricism by introducing new standards of […]

Judy Stone, professor of biology and Dr. Charles C. and Pamela W. Leighton Research Fellow, discusses the Darwinian Revolution. Darwin’s theories on descent with modification and on evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology. Both of these theories rest upon an underlying insight called population thinking, which recognizes that variation among individuals within a species is […]

Most people today view climate science as a field wholly occupied with the practical problem of global warming. But, as with most scientific endeavors, the field has moved forward by scientists driven by their own curiosity to meet a series of fascinating intellectual challenges, whether or not they had any practical consequences. In this talk, […]

History tells us that Charles Darwin was neither the first nor the only one to think of evolution. This talk by Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard, takes the opportunity to think carefully about Darwin and the revolution in thought that carries his name. Browne, who teaches the history of […]

Early photographic experimentation was frequently less concerned with optics — with providing a picture of the world — than with physics. Techniques such as spectroscopy were developed and deployed explicitly to investigate that which was beyond the range of human perception: the nature and behavior of light. Laura Saltz, associate professor of American studies, asks why […]

From Facebook pages to WhatsApp forwards, the Internet and social media helped pave the way to the Arab Spring ongoing revolutions. Khalid Albaih, a political cartoonist from Sudan and the 2016 Oak Fellow, will discuss his cartoons that champion freedom of expression and democracy in the Arab world. During the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, […]

Gillen D’Arcy Wood, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, asks what happens when the world’s climate reaches a sudden tipping point. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the so-called “year without a summer.” The fallout from the massive 1816 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia caused a global climate emergency with […]

Professor of Philosophy Dan Cohen (Colby, Class of ’75) will discuss the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, which marked a sea change in Western thought about the world and humanity’s place in it. At its start, we located ourselves at the center of a finite, harmonious, purpose-filled cosmos. By its end, the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic […]

Despite trips to the Moon, humans in Earth orbit, and plans for exploring Mars, an expansive vision for human spaceflight has not emerged in the 21st century. Roger Launius, associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the National Air and Space Museum, will survey more 50 years of space exploration then offer comments on the possibilities […]

The themes of anthropocentrism, the intrinsic value of nature, and an ecological worldview have preoccupied environmental philosophers for decades. How have philosophers considered these topics, and which of their conclusions are relevant today? Assistant Professor of Philosophy Keith Peterson will consider whether anthropocentrism motivates the concept of the Anthropocene and ask whether an ecological worldview is […]

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, and especially in the ’60s and ’70s, Italian poets attempted a radical renovation of traditional literary institutions and conventions. What had begun as an effort to reconsider literature soon turned into a political experiment aimed at re-writing the world itself. Beppe Cavatorta, associate professor of Italian at the University […]

Paul Josephson, professor of history at Colby, discusses why big states destroy nature and move millions in the name of progress. Over the last 100 years, national powers have focused tremendous resources on big projects such as dams, canals, and other extensive earth-moving operations. While these projects have tremendous human and environmental costs, it is […]

No different from people in our times, the Greeks and Romans exhibited a wide range of behavior vis-à-vis the natural world: awe at its majesty, greed for its resources, and fear of its secrets. The witches of antiquity, however, laid claim to special status because they said that they could control, dominate, and destroy nature. […]

Charles H. Traub, photographer of the real world, will talk about his long involvement with the delights of the street, particularly those of Italy. Drawing from his two recent books, Dolce Via and Lunchtime — monographs of his color works from the ’70s and ’80s — he will talk about change and the realities of then […]

Since its beginning, futurism, the first of the historical avant-garde movements, strived to establish a radically new way of representing the world. Violence was its preferred mode of interacting with reality and the key to unlocking a new sense of aesthetics, as well as the path to creation of the new man. What, if anything, […]

Geoff Manaugh explains the 2012 Landscape Futures exhibition concerning humans' dependency on machines and other intermediaries to interpret their surrounding landscape. Manaugh will also present on artificial replacements for natural phenomena, including patents for new forms of artificial snow, trees, and geology, as well as unexpected side effects.

Nicola Twilley explores the artificial cryosphere that would enhance the public appreciation of "aeroir," a concept developed by Twilley suggesting local atmospheres capture a unique taste. Twilley will discuss her reconfiguration of how we sense and experience food touching on influences from refrigeration to air pollution.

Colby Professor of Art Veronique Plesch, author and editor of eight books, will consider how the Renaissance, traditionally conceived of as a rebirth of ancient ideas and ideals, could be seen as concerned with the creation of a convincing depiction of reality. As part of Colby 2015-16 annual humanities theme, Human/Nature, special attention will be […]

Colby Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Jim Fleming has written extensively on the social, cultural, and intellectual history of weather, climate, technology, and the environment. In this talk he will consider the neologism "anthropocene" (age of humans), which has struck a cultural nerve, pointing to what may be the decisive epoch of our planet. […]