Date / Time
- September 5, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
The Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania will bring us up to date on the saga misleadingly known as Brexit.
Upcoming Events
In Conversation with Maya Jasanoff
Date / Time
- September 12, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World, a brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature. Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization.
In Conversation with Joe Queenan
Date / Time
- September 18, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Prolific freelance satirist and critic Joe Queenen discusses a new story detailing a friendship that started between two 17-year-old boys on a bus that continued over 47 years.
In Conversation with Steven Olsen-Smith | Melville’s Reading and the Arc of Literary Genius
Date / Time
- October 10, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Herman Melville acquired some 1,000 books prior to his death, after which his library was dispersed among family members and second-hand book dealers. Less than a third of the collection is known to survive, but copies with his autograph and notes continue to resurface. This program will discuss ongoing efforts to trace the dispersal of Melville’s library and analyze evidence of his reading, including technical recovery of annotations that were erased after his death, and will address the role of Melville’s engagement with books in the formation of his genius and the creation of his art.
Mini-Series: Three Looks at Jonah | Jewish Perspectives with Natalie B. Dohrmann
Date / Time
- October 16, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Sea monsters in Jewish tradition bear with them always tales of the beginning of time, and its end. Jonah, riding in the belly of his great fish, is carried uncertainly between them. Johan has baffled Jewish interpreters for centuries, and ignited a wide range of conflicting interpretations. The rabbis said the eyes of the whale were like windows though which Jonah could observe the foundations of creation – we’ll look back through at him to try to get a hold on what has made this short book such a fathomless riddle for Jews.
In Conversation with Kevin M. Scott | The Dark Sea Gothic: Melville, the Amistad, and the Mystery of Identity
Date / Time
- October 23, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Scott joins us to discuss Herman Melville’s lesser known masterpiece, the novella Benito Cereno, published in 1855, as the nation stumbled toward civil war. Like the two sides of the coming war, Melville saw in the nation incommensurable ideals, completely in opposition but equally a part of the American body politic.
In Conversation with Carlos Eire | The 500th Anniversary of the Erasmus New Testament
Date / Time
- November 13, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Erasmus’s 1519 Novum Testamentum (his translation of the New Testament), with woodcuts by Hans Holbein, printed by Johann Froben, and produced specially for Bishop Tunstall, was later passed to the library at York Minster. In 1930, Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach purchased the book in an auction that helped pay for a new roof for the cathedral. Carlos Eire joins us for an illuminating discussion of the significance of this translation in the Reformation movement in Europe.
In Conversation with Joshua Specht | Author of Red Meat Republic
Date / Time
- November 20, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Author Joshua Specht joins us to discuss his book Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America.
In Conversation with Jim Casey | Shakespeare and Authorship
Date / Time
- December 10, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Although most scholars and historians agree that William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the plays and poems we associate with “Shakespeare,” there are still those who believe these works were written by someone else. It may be impossible to say anything for certain about the authorship of plays written more than 400 years ago, but we do know quite a lot about the history of playwriting and the early modern theater. Please join Jim Casey, Associate Professor of English at Arcadia University, for a discussion of the authorship debate, the collaborative process of Renaissance playwriting, and the related staging practices of the early modern theater.
Mini-Series: Three Looks at Jonah | Christian Perspectives with Rev. Bill Golderer
Date / Time
- December 11, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
From Father Mapple’s sermon to the very premise of The Whale, the Biblical figure of Jonah hovers throughout Moby-Dick. The ancient story of Jonah is a shared text that has influenced literature and religion across cultures and centuries. In conjunction with the Rosenbach’s American Voyager exhibit, scholars and faith leaders from Philadelphia will explore the importance of the prophet Jonah to understandings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.