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 […]
Are you brave enough to tell a joke? On a TV show under an authoritarian regime? Bassem Youssef, “The Jon Stewart of Egypt” was, and Sara Taksler tells the fascinating story of this heart surgeon turned comedian in her film, Tickling Giants. Taksler will show the film and lead a discussion with the audience.
“The central question driving literary aesthetics in the age of the iPad is no longer ‘How should novels be?’ but ‘Why write novels at all?”
Garth Risk Hallberg must have a good answer to this question, because his novel, “City on Fire,” all 900 pages, was one of the most anticipated books of 2015 and landed on many of last year’s “best books” lists. The WashU alumnus returns to campus to talk about two subjects he knows well: the novel and New York City.
“Hatred alone does not result in genocide. Sadly, there’s a lot of hatred in this world. What galvanizes or transforms it into action is usually, maybe always, leadership.”
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.
The Bosnian genocide, carried out between 1992 and 1995, displaced nearly a quarter of Bosnia’s pre-war population, with refugees scattered throughout the world. This year’s annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture will feature anthropologist Sarah Wagner discussing “Srebrenica’s Legacies of Loss and Remembrance,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Umrath Hall Lounge.
On September 12 Steven Galloway gave a talk on his book, The Cellist of Sarajevo, this year’s First Year Reading Program selection. The Canadian author’s third novel is based on a real event that occurred in the beseiged eastern European city in the early 1990s as its citizens attempt to live their lives — and […]
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.
