Fueling the Community's Minds

Public lecture series brings distinguished scholars to the University of Miami.

The intellectual stimulation usually enjoyed by University of Miami faculty and students was shared with local residents this spring, courtesy of the College of Arts and Sciences. A series of public lectures given by distinguished experts from around the country – the 2008 Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professors in the Humanities – addressed such wide-ranging topics as philosophy, literature, and art.

Established in 1980 to serve as a permanent memorial to former University of Miami president Henry King Stanford, the professorship is awarded each year to eminent scholars who visit the University for up to a semester, teach courses, exchange ideas with faculty, and deliver lectures to the broader south Florida community.

Holders of the 2008 professorship included philosopher Stephen Neale, historian Natalie Zemon Davis, art historian Edward Sullivan, author Edwidge Danticat, and cultural anthropologist Ruth Behar. “We were particularly excited about this year’s group of Stanford Professors,” said Michael R. Halleran, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “These are brilliant thinkers, scholars and writers, and collectively they reflect the richness
of the humanities for the University and the community to enjoy.”

Stephen Neale, the John H. Kornblith Family Chair in the Philosophy of Science and Values at the City University of New York, was the first scholar to visit. Regarded by colleagues as one of the most renowned philosophers of his generation, Neale is an expert on the language of law and the interpretation of statutes and regulations. His public lecture “The Interpretation of Statutes: Textualism and Legislative Intent” included discussion of Justice Antonin Scalia’s “textualist” theory by which Scalia believes that the literal meaning of a statute – as opposed to non-textual sources such as the intention of the legislature in passing the law – should govern its interpretation.

Natalie Zemon Davis, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History emeritus at Princeton University and an adjunct professor and senior fellow at the University of Toronto, was another visiting scholar this spring. A risk-taking and innovative historian who focuses on untold stories of ordinary people, Davis is best known for her book The Return of Martin Guerre and for serving as an advisor for its 1982 film version starring Gérard Depardieu. Her talk “Joanna, Stedman, and the Knot of Slavery,” focused on the lives of Suriname Jews who were forced out of Europe during the last half of the 18th century. Davis explored their connections to slaves and other principal players in the plantation world.

Edward Sullivan, an expert in the colonial, modern, and contemporary art of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula, was the third lecturer in the series. Sullivan, who serves as dean of humanities and professor of art history at New York University, lectured on “Haiti at the Crossroads: Haitian Art in the Hemispheric Context.” His commentary on individual Haitian artists and communities of artists provided thoughtful perspectives on the political, cultural, and religious intentions revealed in their work.

Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-born author of several books – including her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club in 1998 – spent a semester at the University of Miami. Danticat did a public reading of her book Brother I’m Dying (nominated for a National Book Award), in which she chronicles her parent’s experiences as U.S. immigrants and her own story as a child left behind in Haiti to live with her aunt and uncle. Reviewers have lauded the book as an insightful and touchingly beautiful story.

Ruth Behar, the last speaker in the series, also spent a semester at the University of Miami. Her public talk entitled “Why Identity Matters” focused on contemporary Jewish life in Cuba. Raised in New York City, her interest in Cuban Jews began as a child when she spent hours examining photographs of her parents and grandparents before they fled communist Cuba. Behar, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, has received both a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Photos from her recent book An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba were exhibited at the Wesley Center from March 18 through April 5.