Being Human

An interview with David Crandall and Elizabeth Dowd of Theatre Nohgaku, an international performance ensemble whose members share a passion for noh theater and a conviction that it has profound power for audiences today. The interview took place on September 11, 2019, ahead of their upcoming performance of Gettysburg: An American Noh in Pittsburgh. For more information on the company, the performance, or noh theater in general, visit their website here: www.theatrenohgaku.org/.

An interview with Caspar Pearson, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy and Art History at the University of Essex. The interview focuses on Professor Pearson's life and career, particularly his work on Alberti and contemporary European architecture.

An interview with Maria Loh, Professor of Art History at CUNY Hunter College. The interview focuses on Professor Loh's life and career, particularly her work on Titian and early modern painting. Her newest book is titled Titian's Touch: Art, Magic, and Philosophy.

A reading and interview with Andrea Brady, professor of poetry at Queen Mary University of London and fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina. The interview was taped live at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh on February 27, 2019. It focuses on Professor Brady's recently completed poem The Blue Split Compartments as well as her writing on Drone Poetics. A sample of the poem she reads can be found here: www.manifold.group.shef.ac.uk/issue20/An…yBM20.html. The essay "Drone Poetics" was published in volume 89-90 (2017) of the journal "new formations."

An interview with Ed Ayers, Tucker-Boatright Professor of the Humanities and president emeritus at the University of Richmond. The interview focuses on Professor Ayers' life and career, particularly his work with digital humanities and southern history. The "Everyone Their Own Historian" address that Professor Ayers references can be viewed here: www.edwardayers.com/presidential-address. Many of the other digital projects discussed in the interview can be found through Professor Ayers' website, here: www.edwardayers.com/.

An interview with Steve Lyons, director of research for the Natural History Museum. The interview focuses on NHM's work within the museum sector, particularly their attempts to change the politics of museum practice. More information on all of the exhibits and projects we discuss can be found on NHM's website, here: thenaturalhistorymuseum.org/. More information on the artist collective Not an Alternative is available here: notanalternative.org/.

An interview with Nuruddin Farah, novelist and winner of the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Farah was in Pittsburgh for an editorial meeting of the journal boundary 2. Special thanks for Professor Paul Bové for helping arrange the interview.

An interview with Kazuo Hara, Japanese documentary filmmaker and winner of the first biennial University of Pittsburgh Japan Documentary Film Award. The interview focuses on Hara's nearly 50 years of documentary filmmaking and the social impact his films have had in Japan and worldwide.

Special thanks to Charles Exley, professor of modern Japanese literature and film at Pitt, for translating and recording Hara's responses. And thanks as usual to Noah Livingston, humanities media fellow at Pitt, for his production work.

An interview with Noël Carroll, distinguished professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The interview focuses mostly on Professor Carroll's work on horror, particularly his 1990 book The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart. It was part of the 50th anniversary celebration of George Romero's film Night of the Living Dead, which was filmed in Pittsburgh in 1968.

Highlights from a panel conversation on September 26, 2018 titled "Environmental Institutions: Representing Nature in the Anthropocene." The panel featured Reid Frazier (Energy Reporter, The Allegheny Front and StateImpact Pennsylvania), Nicole Heller (Curator of the Anthropocene, Carnegie Museum of Natural History), and Heather Houser (Associate Professor of English, University ofTexas-Austin). It was hosted by Dan Kubis (Associate Director, University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center).

Reid, Heather, and Nicole were representing three different kinds of institutions: universities, museums, and the media. These institutions help us understand our relationship with the environment and define possibilities moving forward. But do they see these realities and possibilities in the same way? How might they work together to better formulate our current environmental realities or motivate future action? What can other institutions or perspectives add to the conversation? Our guests worked towards answering these questions as they shared their experiences working with environmental issues and the communities they affect.