Session 3

Over the past 2-3 decades, linguists have attempted to account for the emergence of language in mankind on the Darwinian evolutionary model. The scholarship has generally focused on articulating various ecological factors, chiefly changes in the hominine anatomy and mental capacity, which account for the protracted and incremental way in which language may have arisen.

Successful collaborations between humanists, artists, and scientists are all too rare. The Arts|Science|Culture Initiative unites graduate students across disciplines to bring such collaborations to life. Hear from two A|S|C teams and learn about their research projects. “Syntax & Songbirds” analyzes the syntax and biophysics of finches to interpret birdsong through sound and imitation by an instrument of the research team's own invention.

For over a decade, the Civic Knowledge Project (CKP) has worked to enhance diversity at the University of Chicago. By building rich South Side community connections based on humanities programming, the CKP has introduced thousands of members of the University community to such leading South Side figures as Timuel D. Black, the legendary Bronzeville historian and civil rights activist. Recent projects have also included a documentary on the UChicago origins of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and a tribute to the work of Dr.

A great many of the stories told in Europe come ultimately from India, and some of the history of their journey has been traced through a series of translations, teaching us much about the connections between scholarship and the rise of empires. In this talk the evidential importance of narrative oddities is examined through a fresh look at Sanskrit texts reflecting what must have been the Indian original of Boccaccio's tale of the friar who seduced a lady by impersonating the angel Gabriel.

In the early twentieth century, artists in Latin America broke free from the elite sanctuary of the academies and began to imagine new forms of art that would speak directly to the masses. Between the 1920s and the 1940s, two radically opposed solutions emerged: muralism and abstraction. This presentation will examine the very different ways in which each sought to define the masses of the Americas and will investigate their conflicting claims to be a truly revolutionary art for the region.

After a short interlude when “Western” horror, suspense, and action films looked to sites other than Eastern Europe for its villain—think of the spectacular failure of the remake of Red Dawn (2012) with North Koreans instead of the Soviets—the Russian scourge is back (it never left) and its specter haunts the screens of the “civilized world” arguably more so now than during the Cold War. Why does the Eastern European foe endure in mass media?