Spring 2011
Graduation for January/May 2011
Graduation is on the horizon! Make sure you check out the registrar's Graduation Services page to keep track of where you should be in the process!
Important
Information about Course Renumbering Effective Summer 2011
Beginning with the Summer 2011 session, NYU
will roll out its overhaul of the next generation of the Student Information
System (SIS) with the implementation of PeopleSoft, a new University-wide tool
for accessing course information, student records, academic scheduling, etc.
This will effect many changes throughout the University as a whole, most
notably with the re-numbering of the old course numbers.
The prefix of "V90." will be replaced by the more accessible prefix
of "RELST-UA " (for undergraduate courses), and "G90." will
become "RELST-GA" (for graduate courses) within the Religious Studies
program. Although this will not impact our courses in the summer (as RS has
limited summer offerings), you should nonetheless be aware of this change as we
move into Fall 2011 and beyond. Keep a lookout for official information from
the University regarding this transition.
*********************************************************************
Fall 2010:
Events sponsored by the Center
for Religion and Media.
Thursday, October 14th, 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.Colloquia/Lecture Series“What do Middle-Aged Hasidic Women Want?"Ayala Fader, Anthropology, Fordham UniversityIn collaboration with the Department of Anthropology: “What do Middle-Aged Hasidic Women Want? Self-Help Cassettes and Everyday Ethics”
Co-Sponsor: Gallatin School of Individualized StudyLocation: Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, One Washington Place
Friday, October 15th - Sunday, October 17th
Film Festival
REEL CHINA 5th Documentary Biennial Department of Cinema Studies, NYU China House, and the Asian Cultural Council
New documentary work, revealing startling aspects of a China rarely seen, ranges from great public disasters such as the Sichuan earthquake of May ’08, to the private lives of parents, children and lovers in the exuberantly uncontrollable cities of economic reform.
Post-screening discussions with filmmakers including Du Haibin and Huang Weikai.
Co-sponsors: The department of Cinema Studies, NYU China House, and the Asian Cultural Council.
Location: Cinema Studies Screening Room, 721 Broadway, 6th floor
Thursday, October 28th, 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Colloquia/Lecture Series
"Images Without Borders"
Patricia Spyer (Anthropology/University of Leiden/ NYU Global Distinguished Professor)
In collaboration with the Department of Anthropology: "Images Without Borders: Violence, Visuality, and Landscape in Postwar Ambon, Indonesia"
Co-sponsor: The Department of Art History.
Location: Silver Center, Room 300, 100 Washington Square East
Friday, November 5th, 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Hope
George Stoney and Robin Nagle
Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Hope, a film by George Stoney with David Bagnall, David Olive and Julio Wainer.
A compilation of material recorded with the Brazilian educational philosopher during his final decade.
Discussion to follow with filmmaker George Stoney and his collaborators. Moderated by Robin Nagle (Draper Program). Location: 721 Broadway, Room 006
Thursday, November 11th - Sunday, November 14th
Film Festival
The Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival
American Museum of Natural History
The longest running showcase for international documentaries in the United States.
http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead
Location: American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West
Friday, December 3rd, 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
TAQWACORE, Visual Culture Series
Omar Majeed, filmmaker
After-film discussion with filmmaker Omar Majeed.
Taqwacore (80 min, Canada), is a film that follows the journey of a Muslim punk band across the U.S. and Pakistan, transforming themselves, their religion and those around them.
www.taqwacore.com
Co-sponsor: The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.
Location: Kevorkian Center Screening Room, 50 Washington Square South (enter at 255 Sullivan Street)
*********************************************************************
Spring 2010:
Friday, January 22nd, 5:00 p.m.
- 7:00 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
Coffee Futures
Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, Turkey,
2009, 22 min.
Dr. Zeynep Devrim
Gürsel (Anthropology, University
of Michigan)
will screen and discuss her documentary that juxtaposes the rhetorics and
practices of everyday coffee fortune telling with the story of Turkey's
decades long attempts to become a member of the European Union.
Co-Sponsored by the Kevorkian Center.
Location: Hagop Kevorkian Center, 50 Washington Square South
(enter at 255 Sullivan Street)
Thursday, January 28th
- Tuesday, February 2nd, 6:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m.
Film Festival
The Second Annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival
ReelAbilities
ReelAbilities is
dedicated to promoting the awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and
artistic expressions of people with different abilities. http://www.reelabilities.org/
Location: various
Friday, February 5th, 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Screening/Panel
Discussion
New Muslim Cool
(Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, 2008, 83 minutes)
New Muslim Cool follows
the story of Hamza Perez, a Puerto-Rican American young Muslim hip-hop artist
confronting the realities of the post-9/11 world.
Followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, Hamza Pérez, Zaheer Ali
(Columbia U), and artist Popmaster Fabel. Moderated by Imam Khalid Latif (NYU
Islamic Center).
Co-Sponsored by: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Hemispheric
Institute of Performance and Politics, Kevorkian Center,
NYU’s Islamic Center, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis/Program in
Latino Studies, The Center for Multicultural Education and Programs and The
Center for Spiritual Life.
Location: The King Juan Carlos
Center Screening Room, 53 Washington Square South
Saturday, February 6th, 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
Petition: the Court of the Complainants
(Zhao Liang, China,
2009, 123 min)
The film, an official selection
of the Cannes Film Festival, looks at the lives of petitioners who come to Beijing
to visit a government Complaints Office, and who wait for years on end to air
grievances against local abuses of justice.
Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Zhao Liang.
Co-sponsored by NYU’s Department of Cinema Studies (Tisch)
Location: Cinema Studies
Screening Room, 721 Broadway, 6th floor
Friday, February 19th, 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Screening/Panel
Discussion
Creativity and Activism
Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU
This event will
investigate and celebrate the lives of two Japanese American women who were
imprisoned in the U.S. concentration camps during WWII and have since become
activists.
Panelists include Greg Robinson, author and Sharon Yamato and Nancy Kapitanoff,
Co-directors, “Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn.” Moderated by Karin Higa (Japanese American National Museum).
Co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, the Japanese American
Association of New York
and JACL New York Chapter.
Location: TBA
Thursday, March 25th, 3:30 p.m. - 7:45 p.m.
Screening/Panel
Discussion
BURMA VJ
BURMA VJ: Reporting from a
Closed Country (Anders Østergaard, 2008, 90 minutes)
Has religious conflict
been changed, exacerbated or eased, through use of digital technologies among
the protagonists? Has crowd-sourcing and citizen journalism changed coverage of
political and religious life? How have digital media transformed the politics
of human rights organization?
3:30–5:30pm Screening: BURMA VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country Anders
Østergaard (2008, 90 minutes)
This award-winning documentary gives a rare inside look into the 2007 uprising
in Myanmar through the cameras of the independent journalist group, Democratic
Voice of Burma. Q&A with Sam Gregory, (WITNESS)
5:45–7:45pm Roundtable: “Witnessing, reporting, and digital mediation of
religious conflict: challenges for human rights”
This program is the public portion of “Digital Religion: Transforming Knowledge
and Practice,” a workshop funded by the Henry R. Luce Foundation.
Location: The Cantor Film Center, 36 East 8th Street
Thursday, April 1st, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture
Permutations of the Species
David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder
(Institute on Disabilities, Temple University)
David T. Mitchell and
Sharon L. Snyder (Institute on Disabilities, Temple University)
Co-sponsored by The NYU Council for the Study of Disability, Department of Social
and Cultural Analysis, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Center
for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
Location: 20 Cooper Square, 4th floor
Thursday, April 8th, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lecture
Teaching Culture and Religion
Susan Harding (University of California, Santa Cruz,
Anthropology)
Susan Harding (University of California, Santa Cruz,
Anthropology)
Co-sponsored by The Department of Anthropology.
Location: Hemmerdinger Hall, 100 Washington Square East
Friday, April 9th, 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
Afghan Star
(Havana
Marking, 2008, 87 min.)
After 30 years of war
and Taliban rule, Afghan Pop Idol is taking the nation by the storm, and
contestants are risking their lives to sing.
Followed by a discussion with director Havana Marking.
Cosponsored by The Kevorkian Center.
Location: The Kevorkian Center
Screening Room, 50 Washington Square South
at 255 Sullivan Street
Friday, April 23rd, 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Screening/Discussion
Operation BabyLift
(Tammy Nguyen, 2009, 72 min.)
Followed by a panel
discussion with the filmmaker, adoptee participant and associate producer Jared
Rehberg and Lili Johnson, NYU- SCA student and adoptee from China.
Moderated by Laura Chen-Schultz (Deputy Director, A/P/A).
Co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, Families with
Children from China
of Greater New York.
Location: Cantor Film Center, 36 E. 8th Street
*********************************************************************
Spring 2009:
The Religious Studies Program is proud to present our spring film
series,
Holy Celluloid!
Film has always promoted new and exciting forms of artistic
expression and allowed audiences to interpret a language framed through images.
Our spring film series, “Holy Celluloid!” features an aspect of film
long underrated: its ability to communicate sacred things.
Friday, Feb. 20th - Groundhog
Day
presented by Angela Zito
2:00pm to 5:00pm, 726
Broadway room 542
Legendary SNL player Billy
Murray stars in Groundhog Day, a film generally classified as a
blockbuster comedy, but one which has been taken seriously by religious
practitioners for what it tells us about spiritual possibilities.
Come join us for a screening
and discussion with Professor Angela Zito, co-director of the Center for
Religion and Media and Professor of Religious Studies at NYU, where we’ll
explore just why MOMA led off its pathbreaking “Faith on Film” series with Groundhog
Day.
Friday, Mar. 27th - Star
Trek episode: "The Apple"
presented by Adam H.
Becker
2:00pm to 5:00pm, 726
Broadway room 542
"The Apple" (1967)
tells the story of how the crew of the starship USS Enterprise finds what seems
a new Eden on the planet Gamma Trianguli VI. Little do they know that, in
the end, they will have to destroy paradise in order to save it. This classic
Star Trek episode provides a heavy-handed, silly, yet scary narrative about
colonialism, religion, sexuality, and the necessity of secular violence.
Come join us for a screening
and discussion with Adam Becker, Director of the Religious Studies Program,
Professor of Classics, and Star Trek Fan.
Friday, April. 3rd - Tongues Untied
presented by
Ann Pellegrini
2:00pm to 5:00pm, 726
Broadway room 542
This critically
acclaimed account of Black gay life by Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T.
Riggs uses poetry, personal testimony, rap and performance to describe
the homophobia and racism that confront Black gay men. The stories are fierce examples of
homophobia and racism: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his color;
the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing; the
loneliness and isolation of the drag queen. Yet they also affirm the
black gay male experience: protest marches, smoky bars, "snap diva",
humorous "musicology" and Vogue dancers.
Friday, April 17th -
Satyajit Ray's Devi
presented by Varuni Bhatia
2:00pm to 5:00pm, 726
Broadway room 542
1860. As English education and enlightenment ideas seep into traditional,
upper-caste Hindu sensibilities, how does a young woman negotiate her position
as at once a goddess and a wife? Satyajit Ray’s brilliant film, Devi (the
Goddess) explores a changing Indian society with sensitivity and depth. Set in
the context of the Bengal Renaissance, British colonialism, and socio-religious
reforms in India,
this film portrays the travails of a woman who is deeply loved as a wife and a
daughter-in-law, deeply revered as a goddess, and is herself confused about who
she is. The film brings into focus the intense debates that took place in the
nineteenth century on Hindu religious practices and beliefs and explores the
changing nature of patriarchal authority. And finally, the film asks an
unanswerable question: just who is a goddess?
Friday, April. 24th - Tykocin-
A Purimspiel in Poland.
presented by Brigitte Sion
2:00pm to 5:00pm, 726
Broadway room 542
The Jews of the Polish town of Tykocin
were killed by the Nazis in 1942. For the last ten years, however, the
villagers put up a Purimspiel--a carnivalesque play based on the story of
Esther saving Jews in ancient times. Today, all the actors are Poles dressed as
"Jews," and the performance takes place in front of the synagogue--a performance
about Jews, but without Jews.
Join Brigitte Sion, Assistant
Professor/Faculty Fellow in Religious Studies and Journalism, who was on the
film shooting of Tykocin. We'll discuss roles, representations, and ghostly
reenactments.
**************
Public Events
Spring 2009
Center for Media, Culture
and History/Center for Religion and Media
Culture, Religion and the
Politics of Change
SCREENING/ ARTIST’S TALK
Thursday/ January 29/ 6-8
PM
The Great Room, 19 University Place
At Home with Their Books
Artist's Talk with Elena
Climent
Screening: Writers'
Rooms: The Making of a Mural (2008,
30 min)
Directed by Marcia Rock
Introduction, Una Chaudhuri
(English,NYU), Discussion with Marcia Rock (NYU, Journalism) and Elena Climent.
NYC-based Mexican
artist Elena Climent discusses her 5-part mural painted on the walls of 19 University Place,
depicting the writing spaces of famous NY writers Washington Irving, Edith
Wharton, Zora Neale Hurston, Jane Jacobs and Pedro Pietri.
Followed by a reception and
viewing of the mural
Co-Sponsored by The
Departments of Anthropology, English, and the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism
Institute.
SCREENING/DISCUSSION
In Search of Bene Israel
Friday/ February 6/ 4-6PM
Kevorkian Center Screening
Room
50
Washington Square South at 255 Sullivan Street
In Search of Bene Israel
(2008, 36 min)
Directed by Sadia Shepard
Documentary filmmaker and
writer Sadia Shepard grew up in the US
with a Muslim mother, Christian father and Jewish grandmother. In 2001 she
journeyed
to India
to connect with her grandmother’s Indian Jewish community. This film-and her
acclaimed 2008 book ,The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked
Ancestors, Forgotten
Histories, and A Sense of Home—offer
an account of what she discovered.
Post screening discussion
with the filmmaker.
Co-sponsored by NYU’s Hagop
Kevorkian
Center
LECTURE/ SCREENING
Friday/ February 13/ 3-7pm
The Kevorkian Center, 50 Washington Square South
at Sullivan Street
Female Trouble: Women's
Representation in Iranian Cinema
Hamid Naficy, (Communications, Northwestern)
A leading scholar on exilic
and diasporic cinema and media, Naficy examines the ideological work
surrounding the filmic representation of women and their participation as
filmmakers in this new era of Iranian cinema.
Followed by a screening of
Under the Skin of the
City (2004, 92 minutes)
Directed by Rakhshan
Bani-Etemad
Tuba, a mother of four, faces
challenges to her way of life when her oldest son sells the family home for a
foreign work visa. When his plans crumble, Tuba takes drastic measures to save
her house and her son.
After-film discussion with
Hamid Naficy
Co-sponsored with NYU's
Hagop Kevorkian Center
Hosted by The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University.
SCREENING/DISCUSSION
Friday/ February 27/ 4-6:30PM
Kevorkian Center Screening
Room
50 Washington
Square South at 255 Sullivan Street
A Jihad for Love (2007, 81
min)
Directed by Parvez Sharma
Muslim gay
filmmaker Parvez Sharma filmed in twelve countries and nine languages, often in
nations where government permission to make this film was not an option.
Post screening
discussion with the filmmaker.
Co-sponsored by Law and
Society Program of the Graduate
School
of Arts and Sciences CSGS, SCA, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Kevorkian
Center
SCREENING/ DISCUSSION
Friday/ March 6/ 2-5:30PM
Cinema Studies Screening
Room
721 Broadway, 6th
floor
Devoted to discipline:
religion, education and punishment in prison
The Dhamma Brothers:
East Meets West in the Deep South
Directed by Jenny
Phillips, Anne Marie Stein, Andrew Kukura (2008, 76 min)
A 10-day
meditation retreat held in an Alabama
men’s maximum-security prison makes a decisive difference in several lives.
A post-screening
discussion with filmmaker Jenny Phillips, will be followed by a roundtable
exploring the paradoxes of discipline as religion, college education and
punishment in American prisons. Do religious practices and education programs
simply serve the punitive regime of the prison, rendering inmates manageable?
Or are they the lifeline for moral integrity and dignity of the individuals who
live inside?
With Tanya
Erzen (OSU), an anthropologist researching the role of faith-based
initiatives in southern prisons, and Daniel Karpowitz (Bard), a lawyer
and academic director of the Bard Prison Initiative in New York state.
Moderator: Angela Zito, (NYU)
Cosponsored by SCA, CSGS, and
Religious Studies.
SCREENING/ DISCUSSION
Thursday/ March 26/ 7PM
721 Broadway, 6th
floor
Cinema Studies, Room 646
US Premiere:
Half Moon Files (2007, 87
minutes)
Directed by Philip Scheffner
In this experimental search
“The Halfmoon Files,” Philip Scheffner traces prisoners at the Halfmoon
prisoner of war camp in Germany
during World War I to the origin of their recording.
Post screening discussion
with the filmmaker.
Co-sponsor Cinema Studies
FILM FESTIVAL
March 26-29
National Museum of the American Indian,
U.S. Custom House/One Bowling Green
4th Native American Film +
Video Festival
Celebrating 30 years of
screening outstanding Native film and media.
For more information: http://www.nmai.si.edu/
WEINER LECTURE
Thursday/ April 2/6-8PM
Hemmerdinger Hall, 100
Washington Square East
Three Modalities of Ethics
Webb Keane (Department of Anthropology, University
of Michigan)
Co-sponsored by Anthropology
SCREENING/ DISCUSSION
Thursday/ April 9th/
6:30-10PM
Cantor Film Center, Theater 101
36 East 8th
Street
Take Out (2008, 87 min.)
Directed by Sean Baker and
Shih-Ching Tsou
This film presents an
unvarnished view of a day in the harsh life of Ming Ding, an illegal Chinese
immigrant and deliveryman for a NYC Chinese take-out shop.
Post screening discussion
with the filmmakers.
RSVP at apa.rsvp@nyu.edu or
212.992.9653 or visit www.apa.nyu.edu.
Co-sponsors: The Center for
Media, Culture & History, The Museum of Chinese in America.
DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
Thursday/ April 23/ 6-8PM
Casa Italiana, 24
West 12th Street
Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America
Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University)
From cantors’
early sound recordings to contemporary Hasidic outreach on the Internet,
American Jews have become much more than the “people of the book”
during the past
century. Drawing on his lively new book, Jews, God, and Videotape (NYU
Press), Shandler argues that such engagements with media of all kinds have
become central to defining contemporary religiosity not only for Jews but more
broadly.
Co-sponsored by the department
of Anthropology
SCREENING/ DISCUSSION
Friday/ May 1/ 4-6PM
Space TBD
Sync or Swim (2008, 90 min.)
Directed by Cheryl Furjanic
An in-depth look at a
marginal sport: U.S.A.’s
top synchronized swimmers endure rigorous training and overcome unthinkable
obstacles to compete for Olympic glory.
Post screening discussion
with the filmmaker.
All events are co-sponsored by Cinema Studies (TSOA), Anthropology and
Religious Studies.
PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE
All events are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
Seating is first come, first served.
Persons with a disability are requested to call the Center for Media, Culture,
and History in advance at (212) 998-3759.
Funding has been provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
