Calendar of Events

The Department of French and the Center for Humanistic Inquiry invite you to join us for the second lecture in a series in honor of Professor Emerita Leah Hewitt, who taught for 30 years in the French department at Amherst College. We have invited Laure Murat to give a CHI Salon talk titled “My Way: Crossing the U.S., from Venice to Babylon.” Professor Murat is the director of the Center for European and Russian Studies at the University of California, where she also teaches French.

“My Way” is the title of a work in progress, both a road trip and a book. The purpose of this project is to cross the U.S. from the West Coast to the East Coast and back again, stopping only in places named after foreign cities. From Venice, Calif., to Babylon, N.Y., Professor Murat will analyze how America paid homage to the rest of the world, revealing the "elsewhere" hidden within the "here." Paris, Texas, and Memphis, Tenn., will serve as highlights of a trip which is also a wandering of the mind, inspired by the magic of names.

The lecture and reception are free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Lurcy Lecture Fund Series at Amherst College, the Amherst College French department, The Center for Humanistic Inquiry and the Turgeon Fund.

Ty P. Kāwika Tengan (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi) is an associate professor of ethnic studies and anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, as well as the author of Native Men Remade: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Hawai‘i (Duke U, 2008). He has both researched and participated in community-based efforts to regenerate Native Hawaiian masculinities through Indigenous cultural practice. In this talk, he will describe the work carried out by the Hale Mua (Men's House) and the ‘Aha Kāne (Foundation for the Advancement of Native Hawaiian Men) and discuss the potentials and limitations that their respective projects hold for decolonizing Indigenous masculinities.