Thu, November 19, 2009 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Perkins Library Rare Book Room. In 1989, Valentin Mudimbe's /The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge/ was awarded the Herskovits Prize, given annually by the African Studies Association for the best scholarly book on Africa. To mark the 20th anniversary of this important occasion, please join us for discussion of the book's legacies and impacts with Gaurav Desai (Tulane) and Achille Mbembe (Duke/Wits Institute), with Charlie Piot as moderator and Valentin Mudimbe himself in response. Presented by the Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI), FHI Working Group on Atlantic Studies, Center for French and Francophone Studies, Duke University Libraries, and Program in Literature. Questions? email FHI@duke.edu

The FHI is pleased to collaborate with the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke to present two seminars with noted critical theorist Slavoj Žižek: Wednesday, November 11, 5:30 PM, 240 Franklin Center IDEOLOGY IN A POST-IDEOLOGICAL ERA: HOLLYWOOD TODAY Friday, November 13, 5:30 PM, 240 Franklin Center IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO BE A HEGELIAN TODAY? - Reception to follow each session - No registration is necessary.

The FHI is pleased to collaborate with the Institute for Critical Theory at Duke to present two seminars with Slavoj Žižek: Wednesday, November 11, 5:30 PM, 240 Franklin Center IDEOLOGY IN A POST-IDEOLOGICAL ERA: HOLLYWOOD TODAY Friday, November 13 IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO BE A HEGELIAN TODAY? - Reception to follow each session - on November 11 (Wednesday) and 13 (Friday) - both at 5:30 PM in Room 240, John Hope Franklin Center. Each session will be followed by a reception. No registration is necessary.

Fri, August 21, 2009 9:00 AM - Sun, October 18, 2009 6:00 PM See description. Free and open to the public. The Durham Art Guild - in partnership with the Franklin Humanities Institute and the Duke University Center for International Studies - presents a collection of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscripts, ephemera, and video produced by and about Sun Ra and his associates, much of it previously unseen. -|- August 21-October 18 at the CCB Gallery, 120 Morris Street, Durham, NC. Mon-Sat 9am-9pm, Sun 1-6pm. -|- Co-sponsors include: Downtown Durham, Inc., Raleigh Little Theater, Durham Blues Festival and the Duke University Vice Provost for the Arts.

Thu, October 15, 2009 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM Perkins Library Rare Book Room. Free and open to the public. The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Pinochet, a memoir of dictatorship and exile and their long aftermath in Chile, has won the second annual WOLA-Duke Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. Written by Amb. Heraldo Muñoz and published by Basic Books, the story explores Augusto Pinochet's legacy of violence and corruption from a uniquely personal perspective. The author, currently Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, was imprisoned and exiled by the Pinochet regime because of his political views. The ambassador will read from his poignant and wide-ranging memoir, recounting how Chileans brought the former dictator to account for some of his crimes right until his death in 2006. Ariel Dorfman, the Walter Hines Page Chair of Literature and Latin American Studies and a long-time friend of the ambassador, will introduce. The Gothic Bookshop will provide copies for sale and signing.

Mon, October 12, 2009 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM White 107 Lecture Hall. A Workshop with Film Director Ram Loevy. Mr. Loevy will show clips from his films and discuss his position as a filmmaker in each and in general. Contact: shaig@duke.edu

Wed, September 23, 2009 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM White 107 Lecture Hall. Avi Mograbi and Ram Loevy will discuss Israeli documentaries and their politics of representation. Respondents: Rebecca Stein, Yaron Shemer, Shai Ginsburg Contact: shaig@duke.edu

Mon, September 21, 2009 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Bryan Center Griffith Film Theater. In what he calls a "musical-documentary-tragedy," Avi Mograbi features an Israeli ex-soldier who participated in a revenge operation where several Palestinian policemen were murdered. The soldier now seeks forgiveness for what he has done, but his girlfriend does not think it is that simple, and raises issues he is not ready to address. Mograbi alternates interviews with the soldier and his girlfriend with scenes in which the director uses songs cabaret-style to comment on his own film and most conspicuously, about the ways in which documentary films both reveal and conceal their subject matter: the soldier willingly testifies for camera as long as his identity is not exposed. While the filmmaker keeps looking for the proper solution for concealing the soldier's identity he questions his own political and artistic conduct. Contact: shaig@duke.edu

Mon, September 14, 2009 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Bryan Center Griffith Film Theater. Based on S. Yizhar's 1949 novella of the same name, the film portrays the violent expulsion of Palestinian villagers by the Israeli army during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. The drama created a public uproar when it was scheduled to be shown on Israeli television just months after the Likud Party formed the ruling coalition, for the first time in Israeli history. The screening will be preceded by a presentation by Mr. Loevy, who will frame the film within his lifelong engagement with bringing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the television screen; the director will also be available to answer questions following the screening. The screening is co-sponsored by Brit Tzedek and Triangle Tikkun. Contact: shaig@duke.edu

Mon, September 14, 2009 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM John Hope Franklin Center 240. Lectures by HENT DE VRIES (Johns Hopkins University) and RUTH MARSHALL (University of Toronto), with responses by ACHILLE MBEMBE (Wits Institute for Social & Economic Research/Duke), BIRGIT MEYER (VU University Amsterdam) and BRIAN GOLDSTONE (Duke). This event is co-organized by the Franklin Humanities Institute and Atlantic Studies Research Group and Department of Religion at Duke. Questions? Please e-mail fhi@duke.edu.

Fri, August 21, 2009 9:00 AM - 9:00 AM See description. Free and open to the public. The Durham Art Guild - in partnership with the Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Center for International Studies - presents a collection of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscripts, ephemera, and video produced by and about Sun Ra and his associates¿much of it previously unseen. August 21-October 18 at the CCB Gallery, 120 Morris Street, Durham, NC. Co-sponsors include: Downtown Durham, Inc., Raleigh Little Theater, Durham Blues Festival and the Duke University Vice Provost for the Arts.

Wed, April 15, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM John Hope Franklin Center 240. Free, lunch provided. Since 1984, the Havana Biennal has been known as "the Tri-continental art event," presenting artists from America (Latin, Latino, and Caribbean), Africa, and Asia. The presentation proposes that at the heart of the Biennal has been an alternative cosmopolitan modernism (that we might call "contemporary" or "post-colonial") that was envisaged by a group of local cultural agents, critics, philosophers, art historians, and also supported by a network of peers around the world. Using the Havana Biennal as case study this work goes to disentangle and reveal the socio-political and intellectual debates taking place in the conformation of what is called today global art. Miguel Rojas-Sotelo is Visiting Scholar at the Duke Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies. Contact FHI: 668-1901; fhi@duke.edu

Fri, April 10, 2009 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM East Duke Parlors. Day two of "The Common & the Forms of the Commune: Alternative Social Imaginaries": panels on "The Common & Commodity Fetishism," "'Modes' of Community," "Difference in Common." See full schedule here:
http://www.fhi.duke.edu/programs/panels-symposia-conferences/the-common-communism/

Questions? E-mail symposium organizers Ceren Ozselcuk (co36@duke.edu) and Anna Curcio (annacurcio@gmail.com)

Thu, April 9, 2009 1:00 PM - 5:15 PM Nasher Museum of Art Auditorium. "The Common & the Forms of the Commune: Alternative Social Imaginaries" is a two-day symposium featuring (on Day 1, April 9) a public conversation (via videoconference) with political philosophers Etienne Balibar and Antonio Negri on "The Common, Universality, and Communism" and additional panels. For a full listing of the program, see: http://www.fhi.duke.edu/programs/panels-symposia-conferences/the-common-communism/ Questions? E-mail symposium organizers Ceren Ozselcuk (co36@duke.edu) and Anna Curcio (anna.curcio@duke.edu)

Join us for an informal discussion of the 2009 World Social Forum with fellows from the FHI Annual Seminar Alternative Political Imaginaries, who attended the forum in Belem, Brazil. Contact FHI: 668-1901; fhi@duke.edu

When: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Where: John Hope Franklin Center 240
Cost: Free, lunch provided

Co-sponsors: Franklin Humanities Institute and John Hope Franklin Center
Categories: Brown Bag, Lecture/Talk