Titian’s Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa with Open Hand (both Madrid, Museo del Prado) stand out for a number of reasons. Firstly, they were not commissioned but were done as gifts, so they reflect Titian’s artistic volition rather than the will of a patron. Secondly, the materials that Titian chose to use demand attention: the Ecce Homo is painted on slate while the Mater dolorosa is painted on a slab of marble.

Nancy Ries is Professor of Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University, Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program there, and a member of Colgate's Russian and Eurasian Studies faculty. She has done anthropological fieldwork in Russia since the 1980s, and is the author of Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika. Ries has published essays on Russian mafia, gender relations, and on the everyday violence of war and social conflict.

Responses will be offered by Nancy Condee (Global Studies), Alberta Sbragia (Political Science), and Gregor Thum (History)

A discussion of anthropological research and the Can't Go Native multi-film project, with excerpts from More About Mizusawa.

Panelists:
David Plath
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Illinois

L. Keith Brown
Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh

John W. Traphagan
Faculty Research Associate and Associate Professor of Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin

In recent years, various influential voices in Japan have proposed that the country open itself to immigration as a partial solution to revitalize the economy, to prop up the demographic decline, and in recognition of already present streams of migration who enter through “side” or “back” doors. Where will Japan go from here? In this presentation, Roberts traces connections among developments in migration policy in recent years.

In Lucky Girl (Algonquin, 2009) Mei-Ling Hopgood tells the story of when her birth family from Taiwan contacted her for the first time when she was in her twenties. The book explores her developing relationship with them and their culture. Her most recent book, How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm (Algonquin, 2012) is a tour of child-rearing practices around the world. Her visit is in connection with Marianne Novy's class, Changing Families in Literature, EngLit 0617.

Russell Berman is Director of German Studies at Stanford, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Editor of TELOS,
and recent President of the Modern Language Association. He is an expert on German literature and culture and
on cultural relations between Europe and the United States, and is a pioneer in German Cultural Studies.
In more than 80 articles and five books, he has written widely on modern German and European literature and politics,
as well as on issues in contemporary cultural theory.

The prevailing work on globalization argues that foreign investment reduces corruption, either by competing down monopoly rents or diffusing best practices of corporate governance. However, openness to foreign investment has differential effects on corruption (specifically, petty bribery) even within the same country and under the same domestic institutions over time. Specifically, foreign investment is most closely associated with corruption when firms seek to enter restricted sectors that offer higher rents.

With its post-Cold War role in Europe behind it, an end to its role in Afghanistan planned for 2014, and new challenges in the Arab world, NATO is at yet another turning point in searching for a new role. This conversation will focus on what that role might be and how it relates to the security perspectives (broadly conceived) of the United States and its European allies.

Professor Spivak’s talk (and Q&A) will engage with some of the key issues confronting the western historical and intellectual tradition, especially as they relate to post-colonialism and gender.