2009
January | February | March | April| May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
February
February 2 | The Presence of the Past
Bernhard Schlink, Acclaimed author and professor of law at Humbold University Berlin
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Boston University Humanities Foundation, Brandeis University, and the Goethe Institut Boston | In cooperation with the literary journal AGNI, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
March
March 16 | A Lecture and Conversation with Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda
is one of the world’s leading filmmakers. Trained in art and photography, her first film La Pointe Courte (1954) anticipated the French “New Wave”. Varda’s movies, documentaries and art installations mix documentary realism and social commentary with a distinct experimental style.
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pultizer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Boston University Humanities Foundation, Brandeis University, and the Goethe Institut Boston | In cooperation with the literary journal AGNI, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press.
March 19 | Poetics between Languages: The Turkish-German Experience
Zafer Senocak
Born in Ankara in 1961, Zafer Senocak has been living in Germany since 1970, where he has become a leading voice in the German discussions on multiculturalism, national and cultural identity, and a mediator between Turkish and German culture.
Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright
has been translating Zafer Senocak and other contemporary German poets for years. Door Languages, a selection of Senocak’s poems in her translation was published by Zephyr Press in Fall 2008.
Moderator: Askold Melnyczuk
Founder and former editor of AGNI, professor at UMass Boston and in Bennington’s MFA program, and author of the new Europe-trotting, gripping, noirish family mystery The House of Widows.
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
March 26 | Translating a Moving Target: Poetry of a New Romania
Liliana Ursu
is an internationally acclaimed Romanian poet, prose writer, and translator. Ursu’s first book in English, The Sky Behind the Forest (Bloodaxe Books, 1997), translated by Ursu, Adam J. Sorkin, and Tess Gallagher, became a British Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation and was shortlisted for Oxford’s Weidenfeld Prize.
Sean Cotter
has translated several books of Romanian poetry, including Goldsmith Market (Zephyr Press, 2004) and the forthcoming Lightwall (Zephyr Press, 2009)
Moderator: Askold Melnyczuk
Founder and former editor of AGNI, professor at UMass Boston and in Bennington’s MFA program, and author of the new Europe-trotting, gripping, noirish family mystery The House of Widows
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
April
April 7 | Beyond the Iron Curtain: New Voices from Eastern Europe
Attila Bartis
After completing his degree in photography, Bartis published his first novel A Séta in 1995 along with a collection of short stories. He was awarded the Tibor Déry Prize and the Sandor Márai Prize in 2001 for Tranquility (Archipelago, 2009), his first novel to appear in English.
Clemens Meyer
started his working life as a builder, furniture removal man and security guard, before studying at the Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig. His first novel, Als wir träumten, published in 2006, won several prizes. For his 2008 collection of short stories, Die Nacht, die Lichter, he received the Leipzig Book Fair Prize.
Moderator: Askold Melnyczuk
Founder and former editor of AGNI, professor at UMass Boston and in Bennington’s MFA program, and author of the new Europe-trotting, gripping, noirish family mystery The House of Widows
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
May
May 4 | EURO-DENTITY: Webs of Language and Self
Bernardo Atxaga
is Basque’s strongest literary voice. He belongs to a group of Basque writers who began publishing in the Basque language in the 1970s; his work has been translated into more than seventy languages. An English translation of The Accordionist’s Son is was published by Graywolf Press in February 2009.
Ilan Stavans
Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pultizer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
May 8 | Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
Sandor Ellix Katz (aka Sandorkraut), author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, demonstrates how easy it is to make sauerkraut, pickles and other live-culture ferments in your own kitchen. Highly nutritious and filled with life, fermented foods have a long history and a promising future.
Cooking with a Conscience
Featuring nationally recognized eco-chef, author, and food-justice activist Bryant Terry, co-author, with Anna Lappé, of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and author of the recently released Vegan Soul Kitchen. With the help of a Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellowship, Bryant has started the Southern Organic Kitchen Project in order to educate primarily African-Americans living in the Southern United States about the connections between diet and health.
King Corn
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.
In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat – and how we farm.
Film-screening introduced by Ian Cheney, filmmaker, and followed by discussion with Aaron Woolf, director.
May 9 | The Future of Food: Transatlantic Perspectives
Opening Keynote Address
Satish Kumar, Editor, Resurgence
Session I: From Farm to Fork: The Global Food Chain
This session traces the increasingly obscure path of food from farm to fork. The focus is on “food production” and the industrialization of agriculture. It explores the alignment (or lack thereof) of business and consumer interests and the impact of the transformation of the food system on culture.
Participants:
Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)
Henrik Selin, Professor of International Relations, Boston University
Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
Moderator: James McCann, Professor of History and Associate Director for Development, African Studies Center, Boston University
Session II: The End of Cheap Food: Food and Geopolitics
This session centers on “food security.” It addresses the rising cost of food and the “fuel vs. food” debate. Is the growing demand for biofuels responsible for food inflation? Other threats to food security are explored, namely, fossil fuel dependence, loss of biodiversity, and water shortages.
Participants:
Benedikt Haerlin, Foundation on Future Farming | Save Our Seeds
Jim Harkness, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Tim Wise, Director of the Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University
Moderator: Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University
Session III: What’s in What You Eat? Food Safety in a New Ecology
This panel focuses on “food safety” with an emphasis on regulation in the United States and Europe, the GMO debate, recent “food scares,” and the looming threat of bioterrorism.
Participants:
Benedikt Haerlin, Foundation on Future Farming | Save Our Seeds
Helen Holder, GM Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe
Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director, Center for Food Safety
Moderator: Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University
Session IV: Eating Green: Food and Climate Change
This panel looks at the relationship between food production and climate change, addressing issues of deforestation, soil degradation, and factory farms and considers whether what we eat can make a difference.
Participants:
Björn-Ola Linnér, Linköping University, the Tema Institute
Mia MacDonald, Founder and Executive Director, Brighter Green
Moderator: Henrik Selin, Professor of International Relations, Boston University
Session V: What Is “Good” Food? The Ethics of Eating
Is “good” food healthy, sustainable, delectable or cheap? This panel explores why our food choices matter. It addresses the “ethics of eating” and the health and environmental costs of “cheap food.” It looks at some of the grassroots alternatives including the rise of organic farming, locavorism, and the “slow food” movement.
Participants:
Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
Satish Kumar, Editor, Resurgence
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director, Fair Trade Foundation
Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)
Moderator: Molly Anderson, independent consultant on science and policy for sustainability
Closing Keynote Address
Michael Ableman, farmer, author, and photographer and a recognized practitioner of sustainable agriculture and proponent of regional food systems
Watch closing keynote video
Conference funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC with additional support from the Ford Foundation.
In cooperation with Boston University’s Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy and programs in food studies, the Center for International Relations at Boston University, and Slow Food BU
September
September 21 | Out of the Blue: Order from Chaos
Simon Armitage
has published fourteen volumes of poetry including Killing Time (1999) and Selected Poems (2001). His most recent collections are Out of the Blue and The Not Dead, both published in 2008. His lauded translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appeared in 2007.
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the Boston University Poetry Series, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC with additional support from the Boston University Humanities Foundation
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
October
October 5 | “There lives the dearest freshness deep down things…”
Saskia Hamilton
is the author of As for Dream and the editor of The Letters of Robert Lowell (FSG, 2005). She teaches at Barnard College and lives in New York.
Kieron Winn
is a freelance teacher and poet. His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, The Spectator, and on BBC1.
Moderator: Christopher Ricks
William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the Boston University Poetry Series, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
October 15 | Ulrike Ottinger: A Critical Symposium
“Ulrike Ottinger: A Critical Symposium” consists of talks and round table discussions to place Ottinger’s four decades-long film work in multiple contexts ranging from representations of sexuality and issues of theatricality and anthropology to debates on documentary aesthetics and ethics. The symposium was organized by Roy Grundmann, Associate Professor of Film Studies and Film Studies Program Director at Boston University. Participants include Nora Alter, Ute Meta Bauer, Noll Brinckmann, Barton Byg, Alexandra Juhasz, Laurence Rickels, and Deborah Swedberg.
Artist Talk
Ulrike Ottinger
German filmmaker, documentarian and photographer
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Department of Film and Television at Boston University, the Goethe Institut Boston, the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC, the Ford Foundation, the Boston University Humanities Foundation, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
October 28 | 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall: Revealing the Truth
Wolf Biermann
Poet, songwriter, essayist and former East German dissident
Marianne Birthler
Head of the state-funded body which manages the archives of the former East German secret police (Stasi)
Moderator: Karl Kaiser
Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School and Director of the Program on Transatlantic Relations of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Co-sponsored by the Goethe Institut Boston, the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC and the Goethe Institut Boston
October 30 | Mozart’s Third Brain
Winner of the 2006 Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, Swedish writer Göran Sonnevi is undoubtedly one of the most important poets working today. In “Mozart’s Third Brain,” his thirteenth book of verse, he attempts “a commentary on everything” – politics, current events, mathematics, love, ethics, music, philosophy, nature.
In celebration of Sonnevi’s 70th birthday and the publication of his new book, “Mozart’s Third Brain,” Rika Lesser, Sonnevi’s English-language translator, and Rosanna Warren, Emma Ann MacLachlan Metcalf Professor of the Humanities at Boston University, read from Sonnevi’s work. Lesser also read several of her own poems.
Organized by the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature with support from the Boston University Humanities Foundation and the Institute for Human Sciences at Boston University
In cooperation with he literary journal AGNI, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and Zephyr Press
November
November 5 | Poetry and Place
Tomaz Salamun
Considered Slovenia’s greatest living poet and one of the foremost figures of the Eastern European poetical avant-garde, Tomaz Salamun is revered by many American poets for his unique surrealistic style. His most recent collection in English is The Book for My Brother (Harcourt, 2006, translated by Christopher Merrill and others).
Moderator: David Rivard
Poetry Editor at the Harvard Review; author of Bewitched Playground (2000), Wise Poison (1996), and Torque (1987)
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the Boston University Poetry Series, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC with additional support from the Boston University Humanities Foundation
Listen to this lecture on WBUR
Watch video on BUniverse
December
December 3 | Art, Trauma and Democracy: Immigrants and Veterans”
Krzysztof Wodiczko
was born in Warsaw, Poland, and lives and works in New York and Cambridge. Since 1980, he has created more than seventy large-scale slide and video projections of politically-charged images on architectural façades and monuments worldwide. By appropriating public buildings and monuments as backdrops for projections, Wodiczko focuses attention on ways in which architecture and monuments reflect collective memory and history.
Moderator: Mark Feeney
Boston Globe Living Arts Reporter and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for criticism
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Relations at Boston University and the literary journal AGNI | In cooperation with the Polish American Networking Organization (PANO) of New England, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and Zephyr Press
Funded by the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC
