Humanities

For the acclaimed author Marilynne Robinson, religion is one of the most profound aspects of American life. As such, religious themes inform much of her fiction and nonfiction. She is currently completing a book on the Old Testament; her lectures this November will offer the Washington University community a glimpse of her thinking on the Hebrew Bible.

In addition to the 2018 comic book, LaValle has published four novels: “The Ecstatic;” “Big Machine;” “The Devil in Silver;” and “The Changeling;” two novellas: “Lucretia and the Kroons” and “The Ballad of Black Tom;” and the short story collection, “Slapboxing with Jesus.” His numerous awards include the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, a United States Artists Ford Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

As a doctoral student of religious studies at Harvard, Elaine Pagels found her own “forbidden fruit,” which came in the form of secret writings that were decreed heretical a very long time ago.

Though Mary Shelley didn’t predict climate change in Frankenstein, Wysession sees similarities between the actions of the eponymous scientist and our excessive production of greenhouse gasses.

He was the little blonde-haired boy in the iconic picture of children being liberated from the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was one of the lucky ones who made it out alive.

So you think you know the “Frankenstein” story? If you haven’t read Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, think again. And if you wish to experience this treasure trove of evocative ideas, now would be a good time, as Washington University’s Class of 2021 embarks on a journey to delve into the rich and complex dystopian tapestry this teenager wrote so eloquently about, and in doing so, contemplate how eerily similar some of the questions she raised 200 years ago still haunt us today.

Washington University alumna Sara Taksler is a senior producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where she has pitched stories and jokes, and researched footage for the iconic funnyman for more than a decade.

“Fortune,” said Mark Twain, “knocks at every man’s door once in a life, but in a good many cases the man is in a neighboring saloon and does not hear her. Fortunately for Garth Risk Hallberg, when fortune came knocking, he was at home with the manuscript for “City on Fire,” a 900-page novel set in 1970s punk-era New York.

For Washington University’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Lecture, Bergen will deliver an address on “Holocaust or Genocide: Uniqueness and Universality” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2 in Umrath Lounge.

The beloved children's author Maurice Sendak spoke on campus more than once, but on Nov. 29, 1989 his talk was on "Creative Theft."

British archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson and his research team had unprecedented access to Stonehenge and its surroundings, and his research findings are replacing centuries of speculation with facts. He will share them at an Assembly Series program at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.

At 4 p.m. Thursday, April 11, Kathleen Coleman will give an Assembly Series talk that paints a real picture of the Roman arena spectacle, explaining Roman penal theory and practice regarding Christian martyrdom in the context of the expectations and attitudes of both the Roman authorities and audiences. Coleman’s talk, the annual John and Penelope Biggs Lecture in the Classics, will be held in Steinberg Hall Auditorium on Washington University’s Danforth Campus; it is free and open to the public.

Best selling novelist Curtis Sittenfeld shared stories about her work for the Neureuther Library Lecture, held on November 12, 2014, in Simon Hall May Auditorium.

In his October 27, 2014 lecture,”Talking About Race in 19th-century American Science: Louis Agassiz and His Contemporaries,“ Christoph Irmscher discussed the brilliant and controversial Swiss immigrant who became the most famous scientist of his time. Irmscher gave the annual Thomas Hall History of Science Lecture in Rebstock Hall Room 215.

On March 4, 2015, Shanti Parikh moderated a panel discussion on the cultural implications of an ebola outbreak, featuring: Adia Benton, Steven Lawrence, Corinna Treitel, and Priscilla Wald.

Anca Parvulescu, professor of English with a joint appointment with the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH), used Hermann Hesse’s novel, Der Steppenwolf, as well as a contemporary video installation, to consider the role of laughter in modernity. In her talk, she raised the question of whether Hesse’s faith in the promise of laughter is a relic of the past or whether it is still available to us as a potential resource.

Christiane Gruber's research interests span medieval Islamic art to contemporary visual culture and predominantly focus on Islamic book arts, paintings of the Prophet Muhammad, and Islamic ascension texts and images. In her talk, "The Praiseworthy One: Devotional Images of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Traditions," Gruber will explore the ways in which, within a variety of Islamic expressive cultures, artists and viewers alike used pictorial language to express devotion to the Prophet Muhammad.

On March 19, David Sedley delivered the annual John and Penelope Biggs Lecture in the Classics, in Anheuser-Busch Hall, Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom. Sedley addressed the question: "What Is Plato's Theory of Forms?"

The screenwriter, director, actor and producer returned to his alma mater several times, and delivered three Assembly Series addresses (most recently in 2009). He also served two terms on the Board of Trustees, and handled Homecoming's master of ceremonies duties in 1984.

Jay Winter, PhD, the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale University.