Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington

Organized by Christoph Giebel (History) and Judith Henchy (Libraries), this conference explores alternative Vietnamese histories. It highlights new scholarship on post-colonial Viet Nam that complicates, challenges and counters prevailing historiographical paradigms that have privileged the actions of central states, imposed nationalist, traditionalist or communist teleologies on Vietnamese history and culture, or enforced simplistic Cold War rhetorical postures. Ngo Vinh Long (History, University of Maine) will provide the keynote lecture, "From Polarization to Integration in Viet Nam" on Friday, May 23, at 7:00 pm in Communications 120.

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Lecture

Jean-Louis Cohen, "Writing a History of 20th Century Architecture: Questions and Methods"

Friday, June 6, 2008 • 9:30 am • Communications 202

As part of the Forum for Urban Studies in South Asia Research Cluster, Jean-Louis Cohen (History of Architecture, New York University) argues that a possible narrative for a new history book should be less a history of the "Modern Movement" or of modernism, than one of the modes and methods through which the modernization of architecture has happened. A possible new book should map the constant relations between theories, structuring ideas, designs, and buildings. But the buildings have to remain the center of attention, together with their reception—both in the domestic and international scenes—and use.

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Digital Humanities

UW Delegation Attends Project Bamboo Planning Meeting

The first planning meeting for Project Bamboo was held April 28-30, 2008, at the University of California, Berkeley. The University of Washington was represented by Ann Ferguson (Digital Initiatives Librarian), Robert Mason (Information School), Axel Roesler (School of Art), Oren Sreebny (UW Technology), Phillip Thurtle (History and Comparative History of Ideas), and Kathleen Woodward (Simpson Center and English). Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Bamboo is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary, and inter-organizational effort that brings together researchers in the arts and humanities, computer scientists, information scientists, librarians, and campus information technologists. Bamboo tackles the question, "How can we advance arts and humanities research through the development of shared technology services?"

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Visual Praxis Collective

Iterations of the Impossible

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 • 3:30 pm • Communications 120

Jonathan Beller (English, Humanities, and Critical & Visual Studies, Pratt Institute) considers the failures of realism to provide figures for the current politico-cultural conjuncture in the Philippines at a variety of aesthetic and analytic levels including: representational style, genre, experience, and medium. By examining the breakdown of certain visual forms and the hybridization of genre, the paper explores the confluence of the vertiginous changes brought about by globalization, the intensification of contradiction in the domain of official politics as the current regime struggles to manage the ongoing crisis of the Philippine State.

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Norm Dicks Receives National Humanities Alliance Award

On March 4, 2008, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) was honored with the Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished Public Service to the Humanities at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Dicks represents the 6th District of Washington State in the U.S. Congress, and has been a longtime advocate for the humanities and the arts in the Northwest. The award was presented as part of the national Humanities Advocacy Day by Raymond Jonas (History). Jonas traveled to Capitol Hill together with Jentery Sayers (Graduate Student, English) and Sarah Spreitzer (Assistant Director, Federal Relations, UW) to meet Congressional representatives and national leaders engaged in shaping national humanities policy.

Digital Humanities

Keywords for American Cultural Studies

An interactive website accompanies the release of Keywords for American Cultural Studies, edited by Bruce Burgett (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell) and Glenn Hendler (English, Fordham University). Developed through a partnership between the Simpson Center for the Humanities and New York University Press, this website enables users to revise, extend, and add to the research conversation contained in the volume. The website will provide spaces where classes and working groups can create, experiment with, and publish new keywords projects.

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