The Moosnick Lecture Series

Rabbi Michael J. Cook, PhD.

Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures, and the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor in Judaeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio.

“Gospel Dynamics’: When the Jewish Jesus Isn’t Enough”

Date:
-
Location:
Transylvania’s Carrick Theater
Event Series:

2nd Lecture in Jewish Studies Speaker Series Nov. 12, 8pm W. T. Young Library

Israel’s democracy has been often described in academic literature as “unique”, “extreme” or “a significant exception”. Nevertheless it is almost impossible to properly understand the Israeli political experience without recourse to comparative research. In this talk, Harel-Shalev analyzes minority-majority relations in Israel by comparing Israel to other deeply divided societies that have chosen to pursue the democratic path. The lecture will analyze strategies that divided democracies utilize to cope with the complexities of minority-majority relations, while sustaining democratic processes, in the face of religious, ethnic, and national conflicts. Specifically the lecture will focus on the Arab minority in Israel and compare it to other homeland minorities in deeply divided societies, including the Muslim Minority in India, the Albanian minority in Macedonia, the Turkish minority in Cyprus, and the Tamil minority in Sri-Lanka.

AYELET HAREL-SHALEV is a Lecturer at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program and The Department of Politics and Government Department, Ben-Gurion University. During the current academic year, Harel-Shalev is a research Fellow at the Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and the Department of Political Science, UCLA.

Harel-Shalev is the author of The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies - Citizenship, Rights, and Ethnic Conflicts in India and Israel - Lexington, 2010. Her book has won the Israeli Political Science Association (ISPSA) prize for the best book of 2010. A second edition of the book is about to be published in India by Foundation Books and Cambridge University Press, India, 2012/2013. Harel-Shalev specializes in Comparative political studies; Ethnic conflicts; Gender studies; Indian politics and society; and - Israeli politics and society.

Date:
-
Location:
8 pm W.T. Young Library
Event Series:

Following the Campaign Trail: Currents Fall 2012

Fall of 2012 was the perfect time to conduct a class about American electoral politics - so it was taken up as the topic for Currents, a class offered to incoming Freshmen. The course explores the 2012 election from a variety of academic perspectives - including, but not limited to, philosophy, economics, history, and, of course, political science. In this podcast, five Currents students shared their experiences with the class. 

Bryan Hanks and Jean-Luc Houle, Presentations on Archeology in Russia and Mongolia

Hanks' presentation will focus on the role that hyper-nationalism has played in archaeology since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The speaker has been leading collaborative field research since 2005 with several Russian universities at Bronze Age (2100-1700 BCE) sites in the Southern Ural Mountains region. These sites, and the archaeological evidence associated with them, have become a popular resource for what has emerged as a dynamic socio-political discourse on the prehistoric and mythic past (proto-Slavs and Indo-Aryans). Such views contrast sharply with the archaeological evidence from recent field research. The important question of how these issues may continue to influence politicized perspectives of the past, and the negative effect this may have on programs of education and cultural heritage, will be examined.

Houle's presentation will examine ethnographic and archaeological data gathered this past summer in the Altai region of western Mongolia and contrasting this with data from the Khanuy Valley region of north-central Mongolia, the region he worked in previously.

 

Date:
-
Location:
Bryan Hanks, University of Pittsburgh and Jean-Luc Houle, Western Kentucky University

Stefan Pugh, Lecture, "The Rusyns and their language: East Slavs in search of identity"

In this talk we explore who the Rusyns are, the language(s) they speak, and the complex interplay of issues that contribute to the construction of their ethnic and linguistic identities. Although we do not address the detailed workings of their language, we examine the position of Rusyn within the larger societies in which Rusyns live, and we also attempt to put it into perspective vis-à-vis its closest relative (Ukrainian) and other Slavic languages.

Date:
-
Location:
Niles Gallery, Fine Arts Library

Daniel Prior, Lecture ”How a Horse Theft Becomes a Praise Poem"

Equestrian art takes many forms, even poetic. In 1864 a band of Kirghiz nomads in Central Asia crossed into China and stole a herd of several hundred horses from their long-time Mongol enemies at the cost of many lives. This unprovoked act of violence, which was an episode in a major outbreak of unrest, soon became the subject of a Kirghiz epic-like narrative poem celebrating the heroism of the raiders. Literature traditions show us that stealing herds of horses and protecting them from theft has held worldwide fascination for millennia. Daniel Prior, in studying and translating the previously unpublished manuscript of the Kirghiz raid narrative, found an extraordinarily well-documented window on the complex relationship between such historical events and the stories people tell about them.

Directions to the venue:

1. Enter Keeneland Race Course at Gate 1

2. Take the first right on Entertainment Court.

3. At the top of the hill, veer left into the Keeneland Library parking lot.

http://www.keeneland.com/discover/visit (select “other facilities,” choose the Library)

 

Date:
-
Location:
Keeneland Library, Keeneland, 4201 Versailles Rd.
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