Patti Smith, world-renowned musician, poet, and punk icon, will read from her new book of poetry, Auguries of Innocence, as well as perform some of her own music with guitarist Lenny Kaye.
Distinguished Visiting Fellow In Residence: Christopher Ricks, Oxford Professor of Poetry. Ricks will be speaking on "True Friendship: Geoffrey Hill and T.S. Eliot".
Discussing the theory of Modernity outside the West, speakers will include Arjun Appadurai, Partha Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj, Steven Lukes, Sheldon Pollock, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and David Washbrook.
Gordon Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University, will address the question, "Does History Teach Any Lessons?" Harry Harootunian, NYU, and Robert Ferguson, Columbia University, will respond, and then the floor will be opened for questions.
In Collaboration with Poets House, a Symposium on Beauty. Noted poets, philosophers, novelists and literary critics will discuss beauty and morals. Speakers will include Elaine Scarry, Shirley Hazzard, John Hollander, Alexander Nehamas, and Marie Ponsot.
Stanley Cavell will speak about "Thinking About and Eating Animals: Reflections on Coetzee's The Lives of Animals." John McDowell will respond.
Frank Kermode will speak about "Living On the Hyphen: Yeats, Anglo-Irish Poet."
Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at Columbia University and was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank.
Professor Stiglitz will present and discuss his recent attention-gathering article, "The True Costs of the Iraq War," which he co-authored with Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
The Heyman Center for the Humanities brings together four world-renowned journalists to share and discuss their experiences reporting war. Featuring Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, and Charles Glass.
Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of six books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, and The Blank Slate.
