Humanities (Video)

Rachel Kadish is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction, author of several novels and a novella. Her fiction work has won the National Jewish Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize, the John Gardner Fiction Prize, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award. She discusses her latest book, "The Weight of Ink," a work of historical fiction set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34680]

Emma Marris argues that there are different strategies to achieve the balance between nature, wilderness and the built environment. She challenges the idea of the pristine, pre-human state given that humans have altered their environment since pre-history. And, human-caused climate change is altering even the most remote places. She offers ideas on the future of nature and how we might think about it. Series: "Institute for Practical Ethics Speaker Series" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 34391]

Join Peter Cowhey, Dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy for an in-depth conversation with Steven Pinker, an experimental psychologist and Johnstone Family Professor Psychology at Harvard University. In his new book, Enlightenment Now, Pinker makes a powerful argument that by every measure, the conditions of human life have been improving steadily for the past 200 years. This improvement can be attributed not just to the spread of eighteenth-century principles of enlightenment, but also to the evolved properties of the modern human mind. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34248]

Despite the explosive growth of Holocaust studies, scholars of Nazi Germany and the Shoah long neglected gender as an analytical category. It wasn’t until 1984 when the essay collection When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany raised awareness of women’s experiences under fascism. It explored women’s double jeopardy as females and as Jews. In this lecture, Marion Kaplan, one of the editors the publication, takes the audience on a historical tour of her research, from the first workshops raising questions to the first publications providing answers. Since then, the gender perspective has provided significant insight into our understanding of Jewish life in Nazi Germany and during the Holocaust. Kaplan concludes her talk with a forward look at new areas of research that highlight women’s and gender studies. Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34018]

New inflections given to old lyrics, the casting of non-professional singers in Across the Universe, and the impact of relocating Beatles tunes to American settings are topics covered in this wide-ranging discussion between acclaimed music journalist Greil Marcus and Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro. The two delve into the stylistic decisions of director Julie Taymor and the spectatorial pleasures that arise when song lyrics are unexpectedly connected to historical events. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34640]

The Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB hosts a live musical performance by The Three Cantors: Cantor Mark Childs (Congregation B’nai B’rith, Santa Barbara) Cantor Marcus Feldman and Organist Aryell Cohen (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles) and Cantor Shmuel Barzilai (Chief Cantor of the Vienna Jewish Community). Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 34681]

The suite of international conventions and declarations about genocide, human rights, and refugees after the WWII is known as the “human rights revolution.” It is regarded as humanizing international affairs by implementing the lessons of the Holocaust. In this presentation, Dirk Moses, Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney, questions this rosy picture by investigating how persecuted peoples have invoked the Holocaust and made analogies with Jews to gain recognition as genocide victims. Such attempts rarely succeed and have been roundly condemned as cheapening the Holocaust memory, but how and why does genocide recognition require groups to draw such comparisons? Does the human rights revolution and image of the Holocaust as the paradigmatic genocide humanize postwar international affairs as commonly supposed? Series: "Library Channel" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34019]

Sooner or later, the food requirements of nine billion people with increasing appetites for seafood must be addressed. Although aquaculture may supply the majority of the global ‘seafood’, most aquaculture is fed meal from wild caught fish, such as sardine and anchovy. To estimate the distributions and abundance of these and other small fish off the west coast, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center routinely conducts “acoustic-trawl” surveys. David Demer will briefly describe the vessels, instrumentation and methods that are used to conduct these surveys, and provide a virtual tour of the world-class facilities in La Jolla that are used to develop the next generation of autonomous, ocean-sampling technologies. Join us to learn more about this exciting technology and be part of a discussion about possible ethical challenges. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Humanities] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34378]

Documentary filmmaking risks, the technical challenges of solar-powered flight, and attuning to the human struggle behind a quest to fly around the world without a drop of fuel are all central topics in this discussion between UCSB instructor Chris Jenkins and Point of No Return co--directors Quinn Kanaly and Noel Dockstader. The three talk frankly about the difficulty of earning trust as documentarians and how the crew adjusted filming plans when the Solar Impulse 2 mission began to falter.

  Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34593]

Director Jeremy Podeswa joins Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan for a Script to Screen discussion of the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones, “The Dragon and the Wolf.” Podeswa recalls his admiration for the cast, the challenges of creating a show that transcends the episode length and production values of typical television programming, and his creative influences. The talk focuses in particular on shooting a complicated ensemble showdown where many main cast members finally share a scene simultaneously and what was involved in bringing that moment to the screen. Series: "Script to Screen" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34755]