WHAT: “Irene Nemirovsky and ‘The Jewish Question,’” Professor Susan Suleiman, Harvard
WHEN: Tuesday, May 3 @ 3 p.m.
WHERE: Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Language Building, 707 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana
Irene Nemirovsky was a French novelist who, despite her conversion to Catholicism, was still killed by the Nazis in 1942 because she was considered a Jew. Suleiman, a professor of French at Harvard, should have an interesting take on Nemirovsky’s experience.
WHAT: “Women In Innovation – Blagica Bottigliero’s Gal’s Guide,” Blagica Bottigliero
WHEN: Wednesday, May 4 @ 4 p.m.
WHERE: 301 Coordinated Science Lab, 1308 W. Main Street, Urbana
From the event announcement: “Ms. Bottigliero has 14 years of experience in every aspect of Internet development, online marketing, digital communications and social media technologies. Her unique background blends both corporate know-how, agency dynamics and the flexibility of a start-up. Come out and learn from one of the best in the business about how to utilize digital media most effectively for you and/or your company. She will also be providing information and opportunities to jump-start your digital career.”
WHAT: “When Existing Assemblages of Territory, Authority, and Rights Become Unstable,” Saskia Sassen, Columbia University
WHEN: Thursday, May 5 @ 2 p.m.
WHERE: Room 126 LIS, 501 E. Daniel St., Champaign
From the event description: “One way of opening up the subject of globalization to disciplines that have resisted the category of globalization is to posit that the global whether an institution, a process, a discursive practice, an imaginary– both transcends the exclusive framing of national states and also partly emerges and operates within that framing. In my research practice I chose to focus on three complex conditions (territory, authority, rights) that a) exist in all complex forms of organization (tribal societies, kingdoms, empires, republics), b) take on specific formats and interdependencies in each, including the nation-state, and c) in the case of the nation state are becoming unstable given globalization. Seen this way, globalization is more than its more common representation as growing interdependence and formation of self-evidently global institutions. It includes sub-national spaces, processes, actors.”
WHAT: “Rethinking ‘Illegal’ Immigration Through Queer Theories,” Eithne Luibheid, University of Arizona
WHEN: Thursday, May 5 @ 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Levis Faculty Center, Music Room (2nd Floor), 919 W. Illinois Street, Urbana
From the event description: “Undocumented immigration is one of the most challenging issues facing governments and citizens around the world today, but it has rarely been addressed successfully. Focusing on recent controversies over pregnant women who sought political asylum in Ireland, yet became widely viewed as illegal immigrants whose presence required the creation of extensive immigration controls, this talk suggests that queer theories enable us to significantly reframe debates and activisms concerning undocumented immigration. A reception will follow the talk.”
You live near a major university and a community college. There are smart people that come here every week to talk to the general public about interesting topics. Perhaps you were not aware of this fact, or were overwhelmed by the sheer number of opportunities for possible enlightenment. If that’s the case, Smile Politely understands and is here to help. Here are several events going on in town this week. Check out one or more of them if you have time. Get your learn on, as they say, and join the cognoscenti. It’s free, you know. Plus, sometimes there’s free food, too!
If you have a community event, speaker, or film event that you’d like to see featured on Listen Up!, send the event information to joelgillespie [at] smilepolitely [dot] com by Friday the week prior to the event. Listen Up! runs on Tuesdays when classes are in session.