First-Year Seminar Series Explores "Revolution and the Limits of Reason" on Monday Afternoons

BARD’S FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR SPRING SERIES EXPLORES “REVOLUTION AND THE LIMITS OF REASON,” THROUGH CONCERTS, PERFORMANCES, AND LECTURES ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Monday afternoons from February 5 through May 14, Bard’s spring 2007 First-Year Seminar program, “Revolution and the Limits of Reason,” offers a series of concerts, performances, and lectures. All the events are free and open to the public and begin at 4:30 p.m. in Olin Hall (except for the May 7 program with the American Symphony Orchestra, held in the Sosnoff Theater of the Fisher Center). The spring lecture series is part of the First-Year Seminar at Bard College, a required two-semester program for first-year students that introduces them to worldwide intellectual, artistic, and cultural traditions and to methods of studying those traditions. The lecture series provides a public forum for students, the public, and leading scholars and artists to explore contemporary and relevant issues, as well as the latest scholarship on enduring questions. A highlight of the series, on May 7, is the seminar in the Fisher Center with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO), which includes a lecture/demonstration followed by a performance of Claude Debussy’s La Mer. Another program of note is on April 23, when Brown University professor Michael P. Steinberg, director of Cogut Center for the Humanities, discusses “Sigmund Freud and Our Discontents.” Other prominent presentations in the series by Bard professors include: February 5, “Dialectics of Enlightenment,” Robert Weston; February 12, “Eurabia: the Muslim Challenge in Europe,” Ian Buruma, author of Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance and Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies; February 19, “Bad Reproduction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Gothic Logic of Enlightenment,” Cole Heinowitz; February 26, “The Intellectual Revolution That You’ve Never Heard of: The Discovery of Non-Euclidean Geometry in the Age of Enlightenment,” Ethan Bloch; March 5, “Franz Schubert: ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet,” performance by the Colorado Quartet with -continued- Arthur Burrows, lecture by Christopher H. Gibbs; March 12, “Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg,” Jennifer Day, coauthor of My Petersburg, Myself: Mental Architecture and Imaginative Space in Modern Russian Letters; March 19, “Pathos of Distance: Nietzsche, the Crisis of Christianity, and the Politics of Imperial Germany,” Gregory Moynihan; March 26, “1848: The Revolution and Why It Failed,” Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts; April 9, “The Ghost in the Machine: Max Weber and the End of Enlightenment,” Roger Berkowitz, author of The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition; April 16, “Einstein vs. The Enlightenment,” Peter Skiff; April 30, “Dream + Reality, Ornament + Architecture in Vienna, ca. 1900,” Noah Chasin; May 14, “Photography and the Alchemical Ancestor,” Laurie Dahlberg, author of Victor Regnault and the Advance of Photography: The Art of Avoiding Errors and a monograph about Larry Fink. All events are free and open to the public; no reservations are necessary. For information or directions to Olin Hall, call 845-758-7512; for further information or directions to the Fisher Center for the May 7 program, call 845-758-7900. For information about the First-Year Seminar at Bard, visit inside.bard.edu/firstyear/. # The American Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski with a mission to “perform concerts of great music within the means of everyone.” Today, under music director Leon Botstein (who assumed the post in 1992), that mission has broadened into an effort to revitalize the concertgoing experience in order to maintain it as a vibrant force in contemporary culture. As part of Lincoln Center Presents Great Performers, the American Symphony Orchestra performs thematically organized concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, linking music to the visual arts, literature, politics, and popular culture, often in collaboration with museums and other cultural institutions. The American Symphony Orchestra is the resident orchestra of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it participates in a winter concert series as well as the summer Bard Music Festival. The American Symphony Orchestra also offers a variety of music education programs at high schools in Manhattan and New Jersey. Leon Botstein is music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, founder and coartistic director of the Bard Music Festival, and president of Bard College. He is also the music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Botstein is editor of The Musical Quarterly and has published several books, including The Compleat Brahms and Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture. # Schedule of Events: All events begin at 4:30 p.m. Location: Olin Hall (except May 7 program as noted) Information: 845-758-7512 February 5: “Dialectics of Enlightenment” Lecture by Robert Weston, Bard College February 12: “Eurabia: the Muslim Challenge in Europe” Lecture by Ian Buruma, Bard College February 19: “Bad Reproduction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Gothic Logic of Enlightenment” Lecture by Cole Heinowitz, Bard College February 26: “Intellectual Revolution That You’ve Never Heard of: The Discovery of Non-Euclidean Geometry in the Age of Enlightenment” Lecture by Ethan Bloch, Bard College March 5: “Franz Schubert: ‘Death and the Maiden’ Quartet” Performance by the Colorado Quartet with Arthur Burrows, lecture by Christopher H. Gibbs March 12: “Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg” Lecture by Jennifer Day, Bard College March 19: “Pathos of Distance: Nietzsche, the Crisis of Christianity, and the Politics of Imperial Germany” Lecture by Gregory Moynihan, Bard College March 26: “1848: The Revolution and Why It Failed” Lecture by Luc Sante, Bard College April 9: “The Ghost in the Machine: Max Weber and the End of Enlightenment” Lecture by Roger Berkowitz, Bard College April 16: “Einstein vs. The Enlightenment” Lecture by Peter Skiff, Bard College April 23: “Sigmund Freud and Our Discontents” Lecture by Michael P. Steinberg, Brown University April 30: “Dream + Reality, Ornament + Architecture in Vienna, ca. 1900” Lecture by Noah Chasin, Bard College May 7: “Claude Debussy: La Mer” Lecture/demonstration and performance by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center 845-758-7900 May 14: “Photography and the Alchemical Ancestor” Lecture by Laurie Dahlberg, Bard College # # # (01/08/07)

This event was last updated on 05-15-2007

Back to Top