Commonwealth Center Sponsored Events

The Commonwealth Center is co-sponsoring two upcoming events as part of a mini-symposium on interdisciplinary approaches to time.  Both events are listed below and will be held in the Chao Auditorium on Friday, April 10, 2009.

Noon - 1:30pm
The Department of English, the Division of the Humanities, and the Medieval-Renaissance Faculty Workshop present Ray Liuzza,  Professor of English, University of Tennesse-Knoxville.
"The Sense of Time in Anglo-Saxon England"

It is sometimes said that the modern world is ruled by the clock, the calendar, and the idea that time can be mechanically chopped into identical units, whether the billable minutes of an attorney or the  nanoseconds of a physicist. This sense of time is inseparable from the sophisticated devices by which we measure it—the appointment books, timers, watches and schedules that govern our lives. Our practices of timekeeping create and sustain our belief that time is a thing that is  objective, standardized, and separate from ourselves; there is a connection between the ways we measure time and the ways we imagine it. This talk will look at different ways of measuring and recording time in Anglo-Saxon England—rural time, regnal time, ecclesiastical time, liturgical time, and others—and the influence these may have had on the ways the Anglo-Saxons situated themselves in the temporal world. A culture’s "sense of time" leaves its mark on its vision of the past and its hope for the future, on its ideas about permanence and transience, on its rituals and ceremonies. Recapturing  this sense of embodiment in time, and the diversity of ways it is manifest in other cultures, is an important task for literary and cultural history.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Andrew Rabin (andrew.rabin@louisville.edu) or Dr. Karen Britt (karen.britt2@louisville.edu).

1:30 - 3:30pm

"Humanities, Culture(s), Controversies" presents Robert Jaffe, Morningstar Professor of Physics and MacVicar Faculty Fellow, Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"The Time of Your Life -- and Other Times: Going Beyond the Human Perspective and Perception of Time"

Most of us are familiar with the story of the Copernican Revolution, which removed mankind from its place from the center of the Universe. Less familiar is an analogous revolution that has displaced the natural human timescales --- seconds, minutes, years --- from their central role in fundamental science.  This revolution was driven by the discovery of quantum mechanics and the emergence of scientific cosmology, both achievements of 20th century physics.  The natural rhythms of fundamental physics are measured in time intervals so short that they are impossible to relate to human experience.  At the other extreme, the cadences of cosmology are so long that they prove equally difficult to comprehend.  Professor Jaffe will explore how this revolution in the scientific perception of time took place, and then take a tour of the landscape of times in physics, returning at the end to explore the origins of the times scales we perceive.  

Professor Jaffe's talk is part of a mini-symposium on interdisciplinary approaches to time.   This event is co-sponsored by the Humanities PhD Program, the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society, and the UofL Medieval Renaissance Program.

April 17, 2009

Annual Book Party

Belknap Research Building

The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society and the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Office presents the Annual Book Party, honoring those who have published books since April 2008.

"Life of the Mind" Series

During the Centennial Celebration, the College began presenting "The Life of the Mind" Series, a special series of public lectures and programs by a fascinating group of guests, representing a wide range of intellectual and artistic interests. Events like these are one of the hallmarks of great universities as civic cultural institutions, and one of our goals during the Centennial is to raise the funds to endow "The Life of the Mind" on a permanent basis.

All events are free and open to the public, though in some cases seating may be limited. Please join us for one or all of these exciting programs.
For more information on the "Life of the Mind" fundraising initiative, please visit: The Centennial Fund

Dr. Tom Byers, Director of the Commonwealth Center, with Tony Kushner, award winning playwright, during "An Evening with Tony Kushner," a "Life of the Mind" event