Meet the Professor - Spring, 2019

Professor Russ Vandenbroucke

"Reading Kanafani in Kentucky": A Dramatic Journey in Five Acts (with Anecdotes en Route and Denouement to Follow)

Russ Vandenbroucke, Professor of Theatre Arts and Director of the Peace, Justice & Conflict Transformation program, uses five examples from past work as a writer and director to illustrate links between Greek tragedy and directing a stage adaptation of Kanafani's novella, "Returning to Haifa." Funded by UofL's Cooperative Consortium for Social Justice Research, this project affirms theatre that engages society rather than providing escape from it by blending arts, humanities, and social science to probe the meaning of "home" and its loss through displacement, dispossession, gentrification, and urban renewal.

Professor Pam Beattie

Talking to "Others": The Medieval Roots of Civilized Discourse

Contrary to our common assumptions about the intolerant and violent Middle Ages, a significant interest in developing strategies for peaceful inter-religious dialogue emerged during this same period, reaching its height by the end of the thirteenth century. Even more surprisingly, some of the key figures in this endeavor were members of the laity, from the same social orders that generated crusading knights. In this talk, Pamela Beattie, Professor of Humanities, will explore the fascinating tension between peaceful and violent approaches to the religious "other" by focusing on medieval images and texts.

Professor Laura Moyer 

"Judges Who Look like America": President Obama's Appointments to the Federal Judiciary

President Obama was unmatched by any previous president in his successful efforts to diversify the lower federal courts, the workhorses of the federal judiciary. Surpassing the record set by President Clinton, nearly three-fourths of Obama's nominees to the U.S. Courts of Appeals were women and/or racial and ethnic minorities. Professor Laura Moyer of Political Science will discuss how this sea change has affected the decisions coming from these courts and what this might mean for the judicial legacy President Trump will leave behind.

Professor Tiffany Calvert

Low Resolution: Making Paintings in an Expanded Field

Tiffany Calvert, Professor of Art, makes paintings at the intersection of digital and traditional media. Her work is primarily concerned with fragmenting and obstructing images, interrupting the transmission of visual information in order to create an opening for the viewer. Calvert's concern with obstructing vision links up with the long history of modern painting, and is indebted to the work of Cezanne and the early Impressionists. She will discuss how painting's legacy of perplexing images dovetails with the mutability of visual information in our contemporary, everyday lives.

Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 12 noon, University Club