NYU Proffessor Lectures at 'Berg as Part of of the Series Ethics of Space: Power of Space
The Muhlenberg College Center for Ethics presents Modernist Aesthetics and Urban Politics, a lecture by Dr. Thomas Bender, on Wednesday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m., Miller Forum, Moyer Hall.Friday, November 13, 2009 02:21 PM
This event, co-sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Bringing together early 20th century modern art, ideas of the city, and urban politics, Bender explores the aesthetics and implicit politics of two circles of early modern modernists: John Sloan and the Eight and Alfred Stieglitz and his circle, associating their urban visions with the politics of Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, respectively.
Bender joined the faculty of New York University in 1974, where he now holds the position of University Professor of the Humanities and professor of history. He has been a visiting professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris and at the University of Venice, and is an advisory professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. Currently a fellow at Princeton’s Davis Center for Historical Studies, he has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a Getty Scholar, and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research interests span the history of cities, intellectual and cultural history, including the history of universities and academic disciplines, urban culture, forms of narrative in history, and, most recently, the global context of American history. Publications include A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History; The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea; Urban Imaginaries: Locating the Modern City; and American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of American History and Modern Intellectual History.
Bender’s lecture is part of the series Ethics of Space: Power of Place, programs that will examine three different sub-themes relating to the concept of “space:” BOUNDARIES, including the invisible, the visible, and the geo-political; CONTROLLING SPACE, considering the differences and overlaps between public and private space, and physical and metaphorical space; and SPACE IN BODIES, which will tackle issues of shared identity, constructing differences, and the spaces between people.
Each year, the Center for Ethics sponsors an intensive series designed to encourage discussion and reflection on a timely, pertinent topic. Center for Ethics programs are free and open to all members of the Muhlenberg campus and the local community. For more information on the series, visit www.muhlenberg.edu/cultural/ethics.
Muhlenberg College gratefully acknowledges the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation’s support of the Center for Ethics.
