By Kate Rix

Over the past four years the Townsend Center for the Humanities has invited some of the world’s leading scholars and artists to Berkeley as part of its Forum on the Humanities and the Public World. Its mission: to demonstrate the many ways that the humanities are connected to life inside and outside of the University.

Forum speakers have included writer and performer Anna Deavere Smith, who uses interviews to create “documentary theater” about headline news events, South African artist William Kentridge, and world- renowned Chopin interpreter Garrick Ohlsson, who delivered a master class on how to listen to Chopin.
The unique viewpoints of each speaker help show how deeply the humanities are woven through the fabric of public life. From philosophy and religion to music and literature, the variety of disciplines that make up the humanities — which are, after all, the study of the human condition — take center stage in the Forum’s presentations.

“The Forum evolved out of my sense that we, humanists at Berkeley, needed to do more to illustrate the connections between the humanities and public contexts,” says Anthony J. Cascardi, director of the Townsend Center and a professor of Comparative Literature, Rhetoric and Spanish. “With its long and distinguished tradition of humanistic scholarship, open dialogue and innovation, Berkeley is ideally situated to host leading figures from both the academic and public worlds in settings designed for scholars and the public at large.”

A highlight from past Forum events was when Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh came to speak three years ago. With less than a month to go before the presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain were scheduled to debate that same evening. Taking full advantage of Hersh’s presence, Cascardi set up large screens in the Townsend Center so that a gathered audience could watch the televised debates while Hersh delivered live commentary. Afterwards the group headed over to Zellerbach Hall, where Hersh spoke to a full house.

Headline-generating questions about the role of public higher education are sure to play heavily into the talk delivered by the speaker scheduled for April. Pauline Yu, a scholar of Chinese Literature, is president of the American Council of Learned Societies. Her talk is entitled “Of Storms, Frontiers, and Master Plans: Claims for the Future of Higher Education.” Yu is a past Dean of Humanities at U.C. Los Angeles.

For information about the April Forum for the Humanities and the Public World event, visit the Townsend Center website.

Forum participants pictured above, left to right from the top: Rebecca Solnit, William Kentridge, Garrick Ohlsson, Azar Nafisi, Anna Deavere Smith, Seymour Hersh.