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Sarah Lawrence’s History Matters series explores how the past continues to live on in each of us, helping make us better informed citizens of the world.
At a time when fewer and fewer college students in the U.S. are electing to study history, delving deep into the past to better understand its impact on the future is more important than ever. Through a combination of keynote speakers, workshops, and panels, this series explores the roots of urgent and relevant matters: struggles over reproductive rights and the meaning of the Constitution at home; the long destructive underpinnings of enslavement; global capitalism and its impact on climate; public memory and the nature of the “archive”; and the histories of human migration and immigration, to name a few.
Join us in person or online on Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 7pm as historian Brett Gary, the author of Dirty Works: Obscenity on Trial in America’s First Sexual Revolution, and history faculty member Matthew Ellis discuss censorship battles in American culture. They will consider the censorship strategies and spectacles that continue to rattle the nation’s legislatures, schools, and libraries—over art, literature, history, reproductive rights, and queer bodily autonomy. An audience Q&A will follow.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN THE SERIES INCLUDE:
ARCHIVE FEVER! THE ART OF PRESERVING THE PAST
Tuesday, February 14
1:45 p.m.
In person
More than a repository of dusty documents for historians to sift through, archives can serve as a vital bridge between our collective past, present, and future. But what is an archive and what will happen to physical archives and the bountiful treasures from the past that they contain? This panel of Sarah Lawrence faculty and staff will explore the notion of the archive from various vantage points. Panelists include: Matthew Ellis (History), Margarita Fajardo, (History), Roy Ben-Shai (Philosophy), Sophie Barbasch (Visual and Studio Arts), and Christina Kasman (College Archivist).
VICTORIA REDEL AND PARADISE
Thursday, February 23
2 p.m.
In person, Library Reading Room
No registration required, all are welcome
As part of its Faculty Spotlight series—which celebrates the publication and creation of significant new faculty work in any medium—the Sarah LawrenceSLC Library is excited to recognize Writing faculty member Victoria Redel and the recent publication of her book of poetry, Paradise. In Paradise, Redel interrogates the idea of paradise within the historical context of borders, exile, and diaspora that brought us to the present global migration crisis. Drawing from a long family history of flight and refuge, the poems in Paradise interweave religion and myth, personal lore and nation-building, borders actual and imagined.
CONVERSATIONS ON REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE AND INTERSECTIONALITY: THE JANES
Monday, April 3
7 p.m.
In person and online
Join faculty and staff from Women’s and Gender Studies for a screening of The Janes, a film about the movement to provide safe abortions pre-Roe. A discussion with the film’s directors Emma Pildes '02 and Tia Lessin will follow the screening.
AN EVENING WITH LONNIE BUNCH IN CONVERSATION WITH PRESIDENT CRISTLE COLLINS JUDD
Tuesday, April 18
7 p.m.
In person and online
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. He assumed his position June 16, 2019. As Secretary, he oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Two new museums—the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum—are in development. Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He chronicled the creation of the museum in his book, A Fool’s Errand: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump, and is the first historian to be Secretary of the Institution. In 2021, he received France’s highest award, The Legion of Honor.
About the History Matters Series
History is an especially critical tool for understanding the most urgent questions of today, and if we're prepared to give our fullest attention to the complex ways in which we are embedded in history, the more empowered we'll be to make better, more humane choices as we seek to shape history and nudge it forward. Without an informed, nuanced, and empathic appreciation of the past in all its complexity, we risk losing the capacity to speak to each other—as families, as communities, and as citizens.
As the College community comes together with eminent guests throughout the academic year, it is our hope that alumni, families, neighbors, and friends will join the conversation.