Claremont Discourse is a faculty lecture series sponsored by the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges, and all lectures will be held in the Founders Room of Honnold/Mudd Library. A discussion follows each lecture, and refreshments will be provided. From more information about the Claremont Discourse lecture series, contact Adam Rosenkranz at adam.rosenkranz (at) libraries.claremont.edu.
Through the Glass Closet:
The Homosexual Origins of the Far Right
Robert Dawidoff, Professor of History, Claremont Graduate University
Thursday, February 21, 4:15 pm
What types of closets are there? Whether one constructs a closet as a place of respite from society’s norms or as a cloak of those same norms, both are survival strategies. One provides freedom; the other constriction, psychological suppression, and denial. Both have costs and both have influenced the very society that marginalized and demonized them. In his lecture, Robert Dawidoff will preview a chapter of his forthcoming book, The Glass Closet: A History of Solutions.
The Practical Use of History:
A Panel Discussion of the Puente Hills Preserve Project
Janet Farrell Brodie, Professor of History, Claremont Graduate University with cgu History Students
Wednesday, March 5, 4:15 pm
In January 2005, the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority contracted with the cgu History Department to provide student researched papers about the history of the Puente Hills. The History Department believed that such a sponsored research project would be an ideal way to acquaint the public with the Preserve while providing graduate students in the doctoral and master’s programs with professional experience in producing local history for a sponsor. This panel will discuss the project and the unique opportunities it presented to faculty and graduate students.
Pomona Poet/National Poet:
Robert Mezey Reads from His Works
Robert Mezey, Professor Emeritus of English, Pomona College
Wednesday, March 26, 4:15 pm
Winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize the pen Poetry Award, and many other garlands, Robert Mezey is a poet of wide experience, erudition, voice and form. The topics of his poems range from Thomas Hardy to Charles Starkweather to reflections on being a Jewish son. An explorer of poetic forms, he has written in blank verse, syllabics, ballads, sonnets, terza rima—even a haiku and a blues. His talents as a teacher found a welcoming home at Pomona College from 1976 until he retired in 1999. Professor Mezey will read from his works and talk about the art of teaching poetry.
Embedded at Harvey Mudd College:
An Anthropologist’s Ventures in Knowledge Making Practices
Marianne de Laet, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society, Harvey Mudd College, and Chair, Intercollegiate Program in the Study of Science, Technology and Society
Postponed: Wednesday, April 9, 4:15 pm
New Date: Wednesday, April 23, 4:15 pm
What do an extra large ground-based astronomical observatory-in-the-making, a patent, a bottle of exquisite Burgundy wine, and a Harvey Mudd student have in common? As she reflects on the role anthropology can play in a science and engineering environment, Marianne de Laet will connect these four objects of her own scholarly research and explore how her research and teaching have been informed and transformed by her curious constituency: engineers and scientists in-the-making; “subjects” and “objects” of her work. In a somewhat broader context, she will discuss Claremont’s unique Intercollegiate Program in sts.
