Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections

Fall 2019, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• Dante's 1564 Divine Comedy and Censorship
  • Discussants: Laura Quinney (English) and Govind Sreenivasan (History)
• Zilia Sánchez, "Las troyanas [The Trojans]," 1987-1997
  • Discussants: Faith Smith (English) and Raysa Mederos (Romance Studies)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Spring 2020, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• Exploring Roman Daily Life through the Objects in the Classical Studies Artifact Research Collection
  • Discussants: Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow (Classical Studies) and Alexandra Ratzlaff (Classical Studies)
• William Villalongo, "Vanitas," 2017
  • Discussants: James Mandrell (Romance Studies) and Maria Durán (Romance Studies)
• Annette Lemieux, "Left Right Left Right," 1995
  • Discussants: Muna Guvenc (Fine Arts) and Sheida Soleimani (Fine Arts)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Fall 2018, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• Brandeis University Architecture Collection
  • Discussants: Christopher Abrams (Fine Arts) and Gordie Fellman (Sociology)
• “Corpse of a Man” by Hyman Bloom
  • Discussants: David Sherman (English) and Anita Hannig (Anthropology)
• Francis Quarles' "Emblems, Divine and Moral; Together with Hieroglyphicks of the Life of Man”
  • Discussants: Emiliano Gutierrez Popoca (PhD Student, English) and William Flesch (English)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Spring 2019, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• "What Remains to be Seen: Untitled #18" by Howardena Pindell
  • Discussant: John Wardle (Astrophysics)
• Archival Materials Related to the Establishment of AAAS
  • Discussant: Chad Williams (AAAS)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Fall 2017, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• “Viene qui Bella” by Carrie Moyer
  • Discussants: Tom King (English) and Susan Metrican (Fine Arts)
• “Siege of Leningrad Diary” (The Yakov Borisovich Kantorovich Papers)
  • Discussant: Irina Dubinina (GRALL)
• “Black Monolith VIII (for Maya Angelou)” by Jack Whitten
  • Discussant: Faith Smith (English)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

October 10, 2017

A presentation of rare books that provide context for the ideas, forms and imagery in the exhibition "Long Hand Poem," a collection of hand-carved sculptures by New Hampshire-based artist Sachiko Akiyama.

Sponsored by the Kniznick Gallery and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department

Spring 2018, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary series which features viewing of original art and manuscripts housed at Brandeis and discussions led by faculty members.

• “The Walter F. and Alice Gorham Collection of Early Music Imprints”
  • Discussants: Sarah Mead (Music) and Ramie Targoff (English)
• Director’s Lecture
  • Discussant: Luis A. Croquer (Rose Art Museum)
• Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” (The Bern Dibner Collection in the History of Science)
  • Discussants: James Morris (Biology) and John Plotz (English)

Presented by the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. This series is sponsored by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

October 27, 2016

This two-day conference evaluated the legacy of comedian Lenny Bruce, whose corrosive and transgressive satire as well as his boldness in pushing the envelope of the laws of obscenity have made him an iconic figure in American culture. “Comedy and the Constitution” coincided with the formal opening of this collection of archival material associated with the most influential American comedian of the post-World War II era.

March 26, 2017

A symposium celebrating the Lilith magazine archives and Jewish feminist collections at Brandeis

This two-day symposium celebrated the Lilith magazine archives and Jewish feminist collections at Brandeis University. Sunday's program features a panel discussion and Q&A. Monday's program features a special conversation with Susan Weidman Schneider ’65, founder and editor in chief of Lilith.

Fall 2015, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary event offering in-depth discussion of some of our university's greatest treasures from the library's Special Collections and the Rose Art Museum.

• "Ruth" by Marisol
  • Discussants: Todd Pavlisko (Fine Arts) and Cameron Anderson (Theater)
• World War I Posters
  • Discussants: Michelle Mann (History) and Dave Sherman (English)
• "Two 1959 People" by James Rosenquist
  • Discussant: Scott Weiner (Fine Arts)

Close Looking is a project of the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department.

November 11, 2015

An event to mark the launch of the Civil War Letters Project, a joint educational digital exhibition website created in conjunction with Wellesley College, and funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War. Speakers included Brandeis professors John Burt (English) and Abigail Cooper (history) and Mariana Oller, associate curator of special collections at Wellesley College.

March 9, 2016

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary event offering in-depth discussion of some of our university's greatest treasures from the library's Special Collections and the Rose Art Museum.

• Discussant: Eric Chasalow (Music)

Close Looking is a project of the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department.

Fall 2014, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary event offering in-depth discussion of some of our university's greatest treasures from the library's Special Collections and the Rose Art Museum.

• "Light of Reason" by Chris Burden
  • Discussants: Chris Abrams (artist-in-residence/sculpture) and Gordon Fellman (Sociology)
• Hall-Hoag Collection of Extremist Literature
  • Discussants: Joyce Antler (Samuel B. Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture and Women's and Gender Studies) and Karen Hansen (Sociology, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies)
• "Duck Foot" by Elizabeth Murray
  • Discussants: Christian Gentry (music, PhD’12)

Close Looking is a project of the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department.

October 1-2, 2014

The conference coincided with the 50th anniversary of the publication of Marcuse's most famous book, "One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society," and the Archives' discovery of an early draft of this book that was given to Brandeis by Marcuse himself.

October 30, 2014

A thought-provoking talk by Howard Eiland (MIT) as he discussed the work of renowned critical theorist Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) and the Benjaminian and Proustian theme of "Reality as Palimpsest."

Sponsored by: European Cultural Studies Program, History of Ideas Program, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections

December 2, 2014

A documentary screening, followed by a Q&A by the director

Sponsored by: Center for German and European Studies, History of Ideas Program, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections

Spring 2015, multiple dates

Close Looking is an interdisciplinary event offering in-depth discussion of some of our university's greatest treasures from the library's Special Collections and the Rose Art Museum.

• Roger Tory Peterson wildlife photographs
  • Discussants: K.C. Hayes (Biology) and Dan Perlman (Biology)
• Jewish Community of Venice Receipt Book
  • Discussants: Ramie Targoff (English) and Ben Ravid (Emeritus, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

Close Looking is a project of the Mandel Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Rose Art Museum and the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department.

March 25, 2015

Philosopher and sociologist Michael Löwy of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and Centre national de la recherche scientifique spoke about the ethical, social, historical and political dimensions of ecosocialism.

Hosted by the Department of Philosophy's Environmental Ethics course. Co-sponsored by the History of Ideas program; the Center for German and European Studies; the departments of English, philosophy and sociology; the Peace, Conflict and Coexistence Studies program; and the Robert D. Farber Archives and Special Collections Department.