Higgins School of Humanities presents yearlong symposium on ‘Bodies’

The Higgins School of Humanities at Clark University has launched a yearlong exploration of Bodies — and of the many aspects of life that affect them.

“What if we talked not about ‘the body’ but about bodies?” asks Meredith Neuman, director of the Higgins School. “In the shift from singular to plural comes a movement away from abstraction and its claims to universality and toward specific embodiments and diverse lived experiences.”

To pluralize bodies is to begin breaking down rhetorical binaries — body and soul, mind and body, sickness and health, pleasure and pain, flesh and spirit. To consider actual bodies is to interrogate and re-engage familiar metaphors with a new perspective — the body as temple, bodies of work, bodies politic, and the body as a machine.

“Bodies incorporate and synthesize contradiction,” Neuman says. “They are simultaneously metaphor and reality, machine and sensorium, the mortal coil and the site of transformation and wonder.”

Fall semester events in the series are listed below; all will be held on the Clark campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Exhibit Opening and Reception
In the Flesh

• Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 4:30 p.m.
  
• Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons

Mind/body duality. The human place in the natural world. Studio Art Professor Elli Crocker (pictured at top) will delve into these central motifs with her latest exhibit, “In the Flesh,” an evocation of the elemental connections that exist between the earth, the cosmos, and all living things.

“Our living bodies are supported by the spirit and matter of all that came before us,” Crocker says. “We stand on layers of life accumulated over millennia, knowing that we too will become part of these strata of spirit, flesh, sand, soil, stone, and stardust.”

Crocker has been actively exhibiting for 40 years and has received numerous commissions, awards, and artist residencies. Her art has been featured in various publications, including New American Paintings, Volume 50. Last year, she received a major grant from the Higgins School of Humanities to produce a Catalogue Raissoné, a comprehensive chronicle of her artwork to date.

In the Flesh will be on display in the Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons through December 6. Please contact the Higgins School for hours and availability.

This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Studio Art program.

Lecture
Opioids: From Cells to Communities

• Thursday, Oct. 24 at 4:30 p.m.
• Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons

Opioids have been front and center in both medical literature and the popular press as our society struggles with the burden of chronic pain and the unprecedented rise in opioid overdoses. Dr. Edward Bilsky, provost and chief academic officer at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, researches the neurobiology of pain, pain management, and addiction. In this talk, he will provide a broad overview of the effects that opioids have on the human body — from cellular to complex behaviors — including those effects associated with the long-term, high levels of exposure seen in the management of chronic pain, opioid use disorders, and medication-assisted therapies. Bilsky will examine the impact of opioid systems on the family unit and communities, tracing their influence through human evolution. How can we connect liberal arts, social and biomedical sciences, medicine, and public health to better address what is arguably one of society’s highest health, social, and economic priorities?

This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Department of Biology; the Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology; and the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE).

Conversation
An Evening with Tressie McMillan Cottom

• Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
• Daniels Theater, Atwood Hall

In her most recent book, “Thick and Other Essays” — on beauty, media, money, and more — Tressie McMillan Cottom uses her characteristic melding of humor and irreverence, sociological expertise, and deep cultural critique to show “precisely how the political, the social, and the personal are almost always one and the same.” Join us as she brings her distinctive voice to issues of race, gender, power, and other themes in this conversation facilitated by Studio Art Professor Toby Sisson.

Cottom is an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Called “the author you need to read now” by the Chicago Tribune, her work has been featured by the Washington Post, NPR’s Fresh Air, The Daily Show, The New York Times, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others. In 2017, she published “Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy.” A powerful presence on Twitter, McMillan Cottom also co-hosts Hear to Slay with Roxane Gay, a podcast with an intersectional perspective on celebrity, culture, politics, art, life, and love.

A book signing will immediately follow the conversation; copies of “Thick and Other Essays” and “Lower Ed” will be available for purchase at the Clark University Campus Store and at the event.

This is not a ticketed event, but please arrive early for the best seating.

This event is part of the African American Intellectual Culture Series and is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Office of the Provost; and the Office of the President. Additional support has been provided by the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies; the Department of English; the Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education; the Media, Culture, and the Arts program; and the Department of Sociology.

Storytelling Event
The Horror Within

• Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.
• Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons

What draws us to twisted tales of zombies, mutants, and monsters? Why are we fascinated by stories of transfiguration wrought by death and disease, magic and the occult, experimental science and technology? As external threats, these dramatic transformations provide metaphors for our social, political, and cultural anxieties. And yet, when alteration comes unbidden and from within, the change can terrify us on an even deeper level. The internal becomes visible, and the uncanny uncontrolled. What happens when bodies rebel? Is it desired release, or our worst fears revealed?

Continuing our popular Halloween tradition, Professors Gino DiIorio (Theatre Arts), Jay Elliott (English), and Jennifer Plante (The Writing Center) will read scary tales exploring the fear of and fascination with disruptive bodies and embodied horrors. Combining the beauty of language, the art of storytelling, and the desire for community, Readings in the Higgins Lounge continues to showcase the power and pleasure of the humanities.

This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Department of English; and the Theatre Arts program at Clark University.

Community Conversation
Bodies and Borders

• Monday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m.
• Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons

Movement across borders is an entirely common occurrence in modern life. How and why do people transcend borders, and why is the movement of some bodies disproportionately monitored, regulated, and prohibited? What has led to a perceived and alarming increase in selective incarceration, deportation, removals, and bans? What role does the media play in creating a rhetoric fear about bodies imagined as threatening or dangerous, both globally and in the U.S.? In a precariously shifting landscape of policy change and legal challenges, there is a pressing need to consider what protections are possible for those most vulnerable to anti-immigrant sentiment, both because of and despite legal status and humanitarian interest.

Professor Heather Silber Mohamed (Political Science) researches Latino politics, immigration policy, and media; Anita Fábos (International Development and Social Change, IDCE) works on issues related to refugees and forced migration. Together, these two Clark scholars will offer their expertise as a springboard for this community-focused dialogue.

This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; Difficult Dialogues; the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies; the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment; and the Department of Political Science through the Chester Bland Fund at Clark University.

Lecture
Urban and Unruly

• Thursday, Nov. 14 at 4:30 p.m.
• Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons

What does it mean to be urban? How might the everyday lives of black women provide an archive for understanding the city? Geography Professor Asha Best is an urbanist whose teaching and research bring together interdisciplinary perspectives in black studies, post-colonial studies, urban geographies, and mobilities studies. In this talk, she will consider everyday practices, desires, styles, and ways of being that often fall outside the traditional scope of urban studies. Engaging a range of black women artists and intellectuals, from bell hooks and June Jordan to Mickalene Thomas and Ebony G. Patterson, she will explore how the intimacies of black urban life foster robust ways of understanding place and placemaking. Focusing particularly on working-class communities, Best will show how unruly women imagine and script livable urban worlds.

This event is part of the Higgins Faculty Series and is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Africana Studies concentration; the Graduate School of Geography; the Urban Development and Social Change concentration; and Women’s and Gender Studies.