2007-2008 GHF Executive Committee

• Joseph Benatov, Comp Lit

• Claire Taylor Jones, Comp Lit

• Adrian Khactu, English

• Erik Mathisen*, History

• Sarah Van Buerden, History

*PHF Research Assistant

Graduate Humanities Forum
Calendar

Origins
Eighth Annual Graduate Humanities Forum Conference

February 28–29, 2008 | 3619 Locust Walk

To speak of origins in the humanities is to speak in spirals. In the absence of some cause-and-effect model of explanation—long since ceded to certain precincts of science—the humanities often broach the concept of origins as ever-absent historical provocations.

Click here for Conference details.

In the Beginning: Exploring Origins in Contemporary Art
Art Exhibition

February 4–29, 2008 | Fox Gallery, Logan Hall
Closing Reception: Friday, February 29, 5–7pm

Conceived as the visual counterpart of the Graduate Humanities Forum Conference on Origins, the exhibition presents artwork by 46 artists from the US and abroad.

Click here for Exhibition details.

Origins of Rock Sock Hop

October 23, 2007 | 5:00-7:00
3619 Locust Walk

We start with a short presentation on the origins and early years of rock music. Then join us for an hour-long swing and jitterbug lesson led by Yau Ng and Sanja Benak of the Penn Latin and Ballroom Dance Club. Come learn how they danced at the origins of rock!

Up-Close in the Flat World:
What We Can Learn about Globalization from Starbucks and Teens
in Singapore

Bryant Simon, Temple University

October 9, 2007 | 5:00-7:00
3619 Locust Walk

Bryant Simon is a Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948, which examined the history of workers and their ideas about politics in 1930s South Carolina, and Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America. He has also co-edited a collection of essays entitled ‘Jumping Jim Crow’: Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights. Currently, he is working on a project that focuses on public spaces and public culture in the United States and across the globe in the 21st century: a study of Starbucks and the making (and distribution of) coffee house culture.