Previous Events

Fall 2023

  • Tuesday, September 19, 2023
    • What: Tertulia Meet and Greet!
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • Tuesday, October 24, 2023
    • Who: Bryan A. Plummer (Computer Science)
    • What: “What features are important? Towards robust and fair machine learning by building better representations”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • Thursday, November 16, 2023
    • Who: Minjung Son (Chemistry)
    • What: “Harnessing the energy from the sun: What lasers can tell us about solar energy conversion”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • Tuesday, December 12, 2023
    • Who: Andreana Cunningham (Anthropology)
    • What: “Interdisciplinary approaches to studying group formation and change in 19th century enslavement contexts”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm

Spring 2023

  • Thursday, February 9, 2023
    • Who: Eric Cueny
    • What: “Sustainable Chemical Approaches to Plastic Recycling Strategies”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • Thursday, March 23, 2023
    • Who: Rachel Nolan
    • What: “Life after Deportation to Central America”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • Thursday, April 20, 2023
    • Who: Christine M. Slaughter
    • What: “Resilience to Adversity and African American Political Behavior”
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm

Fall 2022

  • September 22, 2022
  • What: Tertulia Meet and Greet!
  • October 17, 2022
    • Who: Dr. Mary Battenfeld
    • What: Dr. Battenfeld will introduce Tertulia to BU’s chapter of the AAUP.
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • November 21,  2022
    • Who: Dr. Amanda Leiss
    • What: Reconstructing paleoenvironments and hominin behavior at Gona during the Acheulean transition
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • December 12, 2022
    • Who: Dr. Amanda Leiss
    • What: Reconstructing paleoenvironments and hominin behavior at Gona during the Acheulean transition
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm

Spring 2022

  • February 23, 2022
    • Who: Luke Glowacki
    • What: The evolution of warfare in humans
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • March 16, 2022
    • Who: Wade Campbell
    • What: Searching for Dibé Bichaan: Early Navajo Pastoral Archaeology in the US Southwest
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • April 27, 2022

Fall 2021

  • September 15, 2021
    • What: An in-person Tertulia meet and greet!
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
      • Please join Eva Garrett (Anthropology) and JJ Hermes (Astronomy) at the CILSE Conference Room to celebrate our first in-person event for more than 1.5 years, and to meet junior faculty from across the campus!
  • October 13, 2021
    • Who: Luke Glowacki
    • What: The evolution of warfare in humans (cancelled)
    • Where: PLS 505 African Studies Seminar Room (fifth floor; 232 Bay State Road); 6:00 pm
  • November 10, 2021
    • Who: Carolyn R. Hodges-Simeon
    • What: Testosterone therapy masculinizes speech and gender presentation in transgender men
    • Where: CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm
  • December 15, 2021
    • Who: Zeba Wunderlich
    • What: Robustness and evolvability: Transcriptional control in development and immunity
    • Where: PLS 505 African Studies Seminar Room (fifth floor; 232 Bay State Road); 6:00 pm

    Spring 2021

    • February 3, 2021
      • What: Tertulia happy hour!
      • Where: The most happening place in the country! Zoom. (A link will be sent out in advance)
    • March 3, 2021
      • What: Tertulia Spring Break breakdown
      • Where: Zoom
    • April 7, 2021
      • What: Tenure information session/panel
      • Where: Where else? Zoom!

    Fall 2020

    • September 23, 2020
      • What: Tertulia meet and greet!!
      • Where: Zoom (invitation will be sent to the Tertulia list)
        • Please join Eva, Juan, and JJ virtually to welcome the new academic year pandemic style!
    • November 11, 2020
      • Who: Eva Garrett (Biological Anthropology)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “Are Saguinus tamarins the key to understanding human pheromone detection?”
        • There is a pervasive hypothesis when studying primate evolution that there was a trade-off between vision and olfaction in some of the earliest primates. Humans, apes, and Old World monkeys certainly have excellent vision but olfaction receives much less attention. A genus of small New World monkeys – tamarins in the genus, Saguinus, appear to use olfaction regularly in social signaling, as do many species of New World monkeys. The organ that may be most important in detecting odorants conveying social information – the Vomeronasal Organ (VNO), is present in Saguinus tamarins but it is unclear if the proteins in the VNO can bind to such odorants. The VNO is noticeably absent in humans, apes, and Old World monkeys which has created confusion as to whether humans can detect and respond to pheromones. I hope to build on the current understanding of tamarin VNO morphology by sequencing genes related to olfaction in the genus Saguinus. There are several families of genes involved in olfaction in mammals – the Olfactory Receptor (OR) gene family, which is a large family of genes scattered across all chromosomes in mammals and whose proteins are expressed in the Main Olfactory Epithelium, the Vomeronasal Receptor (VR) gene family which is more specialized and expressed in the sensory epithelium of the VNO, and the Trace amine-associated receptors (TAAR) which may act as olfactory receptors for amine odorants. If Saguinus tamarins display a pattern of few specialized VR genes compared to OR and TAAR genes, it is plausible that the Main Olfactory System may process pheromones in tamarins. If these tamarins are capable of detecting and processing social odorants through the Main Olfactory System, it is plausible that humans and our close relatives are capable of a similar method of pheromone detection.
    • December 02, 2020
      • Who: Anne Feng (History of Art and Architecture)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “Perspective, Water, and Meditation in Buddhist Caves on the Silk Road”
        • Buddhist cave sites across Asia were often designed to interact with water. My current book project provides a new approach to the intersections of art and the environment by examining the relationship between new visions of paradise and projects of water management in medieval China. My research begins from the question of why so many painters, based in China’s arid northwest, became interested in depicting the transformations of water, envisioning perilous sea monsters, numinous waterfalls, and divine lotus ponds. I rethink the status of this image of paradise as caught between imperial attempts to dominate and control natural space and the efforts of anonymous painters to use the qualities of water—its transparency and fluidity—to reimagine space and vision.

    Fall 2019

    • September 25, 2019
      • What: Tertulia meet and greet!!
      • Where: Sunset Cantina; 916 Commonwealth Ave.; 6:00 pm
        • Please join Sean Tallman (Anatomy & Neurobiology and Anthropology), Eva Garrett (Anthropology), and Catherine Espaillat (Astronomy) at the Sunset Cantina to ring in the new academic year and meet junior faculty from across the campus!
    • October 16, 2019; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 pm (dinner). Please RSVP by 11 October!
      • Who: Kate Lindsey (Linguistics)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “Papua New Guinea: A proposal for collaboration”
        • Papua New Guinea is a linguistic paradise boasting at least 850 diverse languages in an area the size of California. Though field linguists, anthropologists, and biologists have flocked to PNG for decades to explore its beauty, the southern region of the country is still relatively undocumented. In this talk, I will illuminate some fascinating aspects of language and life in Southern New Guinea, focusing on the area where Ende is spoken, the language about which I wrote my dissertation. I will show some photos, maps, and videos and try to convince some of you to collaborate with me in this exciting field.
    • November 13, 2019; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 pm (dinner). Please RSVP by 8 November!
      • Who: Various junior faculty
      • What: Mid-semester reflection
        • Come to discuss with other faculty about the various ups and downs of the semester: what were some of the challenges faced?; how did you address difficulties?; what worked or didn’t work in the classroom?; how do you balance research and teaching obligations?; how do you maintain a healthy work/life balance?; how do you support students?; and many other topics!
    • December 4, 2019; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 pm (dinner). Please RSVP by 29 November!
      • Who: Chris Schmitt
      • What: Expressing the Thrifty Phenotype: Using Gene Expression Analyses to Better Understand the Evolution of Obesity
        • TBD

    Spring 2020

    • January 29, 2020; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 pm (dinner). Please RSVP by 24 January!
      • Who: Crystal Williams (Office of the Provost)
      • What: Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at Boston University
        • Come hear about various diversity and inclusion initiatives at BU and what we can do as junior faculty educators, advisors, and mentors to increase and retain students with diverse perspectives and experiences.
    • February 19, 2020; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 (dinner). Please RSV P by 14 February!
      • Who: Cecilia Lalama, Assistant Director, Foundation Relations; Meghan Frost, Assistant Dean of Development for CAS
      • What: Lean about the Development Office resources for junior faculty!
        • TBD
    • March 18, 2020; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 (dinner). Please RSVP by 13 March!
      • Who: Anne Feng, History of Art and Architecture
      • What: TBD
        • TBD
    • April 22, 2020; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 (dinner). Please RSVP by 17 April!
    • May 6, 2020; CILSE Conference Room (first floor; 610 Commonwealth Ave); 6:00 pm (talk), 7:30 (dinner). Please RSVP by 1 May!
      • Who: JJ Hermes (Astronomy)
      • What: When the referee lets you name your stars
        • Digital surveys have mapped the positions of most stars in our night sky
          down to a limit roughly 100 million times fainter than can be seen by
          the unaided eye. It is therefore rare for astronomers to “discover” new
          stars. However, unraveling new classes of stars by grouping similar
          types of objects connected by a physical phenomenon happens often at the
          cutting edge of astronomy. I will discuss the joys (and pitfalls) of
          naming new classes of stars by focusing on a recent discovery: stellar
          remnants that were once in a close pair of binary system but have
          recently been slung-shot out of the Galaxy after a disruptive supernova
          explosion.           (COVID-cancelled)

    Spring 2019

    • January 30, 2019; PLS505 (African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:15 (dinner)
      • Who:  Laura Johnson, BU HubDirector of Advising, and Chip Celenza, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Director
      • What: Tertulia talk: BU HUB and UROP Panel
        • Representatives from the BU HUB and UROP offices will discuss the opportunities, benefits, and ins and outs of these important BU programs.
    • February 13, 2019; PLS102 (Anthropology Seminar Room, 1st floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:15 (dinner)
      • Who: Catherine Espaillat(Astronomy)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “From Disks to Planets: Observing Planet Formation in Disks Around Young Stars”
        • We know that many young stars are surrounded by protoplanetary disks, but how these disks evolve into planetary systems is a fundamental question in Astronomy. Observations have revealed remarkable structures in disks that may indicate the presence of forming planets. This talk will review these key observations and compare them to current theoretical predictions of planet formation. To conclude, I will discuss possibilities for future progress in the field.
    • March 7, 2019; PLS505(African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:15 (dinner)
      • Who: Charles Chang(Linguistics)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “A Critical Period for First Language Attrition?”
        • How does our ability to speak and understand our native language change over the lifespan? In this talk, I’ll describe some recent work attempting to identify a so-called ‘critical period’ for first language attrition (i.e., examining the idea that there may be a turning point in development when knowledge of one’s native language solidifies, becoming resistant to loss). In particular, the discussion will address whether, and when, immigrants maintain native-like speech perception abilities in their first language, with a focus on native Korean speakers in the U.S.
    • April 10, 2019;PLS505 (African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:15 (dinner)
      • Who: Juan Fuxman Bass(Biology), Alberto Cruz-Martin (Biology)
      • What: Tertulia talk:Juan Fuxman Bass: Identifying new players regulatingcytokine production
        • Cytokines are signaling proteins that play fundamental roles in delineating immune responses to infections. Cytokine production is a highly regulated process that, when affected, can lead to diseases such as immune deficiencies, autoimmunity, and cancer. In this talk, I will discuss some of the limitations and biases of current approaches used to study cytokine production and how my lab tackles this complex problem. Finally, I will present some new players regulating cytokine production and some provocative findings on cytokine production beyond immune responses.
    • What: Tertulia talk: Alberto Cruz-Martin: The role of complement component 4 in cortical developmental dynamics
      • Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a devastating psychiatric disorder characterized by hallucinations, emotional withdrawal, and a decline in cognitive function. Although the complex genetic origins of SCZ are not well understood, recent genetic studies showed that risk of SCZ is highly associated with increased expression levels of the immune molecule complement component 4 (C4). In the brain, complement proteins are locally synthesized by resident neurons and glial cells. It remains unknown how the increased expression of neuronal C4 impacts the developmental wiring of the brain. Additionally, the role of complement proteins in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function, a brain region that is highly implicated in SCZ pathology, remains unclear. Our long-term goal is to understand how neural circuits are established and maintained, and to discover how deficits in these processes lead to disease. Towards these goals, we will test the hypothesis that developmental over-expression of C4 in neurons leads to aberrant cortical connectivity and deficits in cognitive behavior.
    • May 8, 2019; PLS505(African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:30 (dinner)
      • Who: Jennifer Cazanave(Romance Studies)
      • What: Tertulia talk: The Missing Images of French Cinema
        • Cinema has always been haunted by what is notthere—by what lies outside the frame and remains invisible or unseen. The birth of cinema in Paris in 1895 is largely haunted by a transnational—and traumatic—historical context of French colonial expansion, an aggressive imperialism that rested upon France’s mission civilisatrice, a self-appointed and racist mission to “civilize” indigenous populations. As France colonized, chasseurs d’images, the pioneers of cinema, traveled around the globe recording the first moving images, effectively depicting and documenting through amateur footage, travelogues and propaganda films colonial constructions of race, gender, and domesticity. In my talk, I will focus on two moments in this intertwined history of imperialism and cinema through a study of two recent French documentaries: colonization recovered in Rithy Panh’s use of early film footage in France is our Homeland (2015) and decolonization in Eric Caravaca’s personal account of disability and familial amnesia in Plot 35 (2017).

    Fall 2019

    • October 3, 2018; PLS505 (African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:00 pm (dinner). Please RSVP by 28 September!
      • Who: Victor Kumar(Philosophy)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “Cultural Evolution in Deep History”
        • I’ll discuss a perspective on human evolution that explains major adaptive changes in terms of the co-evolution of cognitive and social adaptations. My focus will be on cultural evolution in “deep history,” i.e., a period spanning from roughly 70,000 years ago to the beginnings of recorded history. In particular, I’ll unpack the role of social institutions in cultural evolution.
    • November 7, 2018; PLS505 (African Studies Seminar Room, 5th floor of 232 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:00 pm (dinner)
      • Who: Joanna Davidson(Anthropology), Trevor Siggers (Biology), Mac Marston(Anthropology/Archaeology), Alexis Peri (History)
      • What: Tertulia panel: The Tenure Process
        • Newly-minted Associate Faculty and faculty who have recently submitted their case for tenure will discuss their experiences going through the tenure process.
    • December 12, 2018; HIST304 (226 Bay State Road); 5:30 pm (talk), 7:00 pm (dinner)
      • Who: Emily Whiting(Computer Science)
      • What: Tertulia talk: “Mechanics-Based Design for Computational Fabrication”
        • Advancements in rapid prototyping technology are closing the gap between what we can simulate with computers and what we can build. Thanks to innovations such as 3D printers, it is now possible to fabricate complex shapes at the press of a button. However, today’s computational tools for design are largely unaware of the fundamental laws that govern how geometric models will behave in the real world. In this talk I will highlight recent work that aims to bridge between geometric modeling, structural engineering, and design.

    Spring 2018

    • Wednesday, January 31, 5:30 PM, CILSE 106B (Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue)
      • Who: Michaela McSweeney (Philosophy)
      • What: “What Metaphysics Could Be”
        • In this talk I’ll give some brief background about one of many perennial philosophical crises: what is metaphysics and how could we be justified in doing it? Most of the defenses of metaphysics that have been given in response to this crisis have either tried to align metaphysics with natural science, and often in particular with physics. I will propose an alternative picture–and defense of doing metaphysics–on which metaphysics has much more in common with art than with science.
    • Wednesday, February 21, 5:30 PM, CILSE 106B (Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue)
    • Wednesday, March 14, 5:30 PM, CILSE 106B (Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue)
      • Who: Eva Garrett (Anthropology) and Sean Tallman (Anatomy & Neurobiology, MED)
      • What: short talks about topics in biological anthropology
        • “The Anatomy and Evolution of Smell” (Garrett)
          • There is a long-held belief among many anthropologists that the evolution of excellent vision in primates replaced the necessity for a well-developed olfactory system. I will discuss my research on the evolution of the primate sense of smell, focusing on the olfactory subsystem that is responsible for pheromone detection. Based on comparative anatomy, it appears that pheromone detection was not traded for excellent vision early in primate evolutionary history. Rather the reduction of the pheromone detecting system was lost in more recent lineages of primates that include humans and Old World monkeys. I integrate comparative anatomy of the primate nose with paleontology and genomics to test this sensory trade-off hypothesis.
        • “Forensic Anthropological Approaches to Exploring Human Skeletal Variation and Improving Identifications” (Tallman)
          • This talk explores my work in the recovery and identification of U.S. service members killed in past conflicts, and my ongoing research focused on improving biological profiles (sex, age, ancestry, stature) for individuals from East and Southeast Asia.
    • Wednesday, April 4, 5:30 PM, CILSE 106B (Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue)
      • Who: Elizabeth Coppock (Linguistics)
      • What: “Targeted Comparative Fieldwork in Linguistic Semantics”
        • There are documentary linguists who ride camels through the mountains and produce grammars of previously undescribed languages. There are typologists who use these grammars to map out the space of variation across the world’s languages. And there are more theoretical linguists who do detailed studies on a particular aspect of one or two languages, aimed at developing formally explicit models of grammatical systems (that’s me, normally). I will report on my recent, perhaps foolhardy, attempts to become all of these things at once: Documenting a particular empirical issue across a broad sample of languages, one that arises out of theoretical considerations. I call the method “targeted comparative fieldwork”. The reason for attempting this is that linguists like me often have data questions that are not addressed in documentary grammars, for which additional fieldwork is necessary, and mapping out the space of variation across human languages with respect to this issue might shed light on the human language faculty. For endangered languages, collecting this information is quite time-sensitive. As evidence that my research team has achieved something towards this end, I submit the following interactive map:
          I will report on how I arrived at these classifications, and claim that I have discovered a linguistic universal. I will then seek advice from my wiser peers as to whether and how to take this research program forward.
    • Wednesday, May 2, 5:30 PM, CILSE 106B (Kilachand Center, 610 Commonwealth Avenue)
      • Who: Sarah Davies (Biology)
      • What: “Mechanisms for Coping with Rapid Environmental Change in Reef-Building Corals”
        • Organisms can exhibit four possible response strategies to changing climates: i) disperse to new, more favorable environments, ii) acclimate to current conditions by modifying their physiologies, iii) adapt through natural selection on standing genetic variation, or iv) remain local but suffer reduced fitness. By integrating ecology, population genetics and genomics, my research focuses on understanding patterns of genetic exchange and the potential for acclimation and adaptation to climate change using reef-building corals and their algal symbionts as models. In this talk I will discuss some of my previous research before coming to BU and the upcoming research projects that are in their infancy. I promise lots of beautiful photos and a cool video. I will also share the contest I had in my lab to design our lab logo!

    Fall 2017

    • Wednesday, September 27, 5:00 PM (till around 7:30), Sunset Cantina (916 Commonwealth Avenue)
      • Who: all junior faculty, old and new!
      • What: annual meet-and-greet
    • Wednesday, October 18, 5:30 PM, IRC 220 (Pardee School, 152 Bay State Road; enter from Silber Way)
      • Who: Kathleen Levine Einstein (Political Science), Daniel Erker (Linguistics)
      • What: short talks on the theme of “Community”
        • “Who Participates in Local Government? Evidence from Meeting Minutes” (Einstein)
          • Scholars and policymakers have identified neighborhood activism and participation as a valuable source of policy information and civic engagement. Yet, these venues may be biasing policy discussions in favor of an unrepresentative group of individuals. Using the case of housing policy, we compile a novel data set on all citizen participants in Planning and Zoning Board meetings concerning the development of multiple housing units in 97 Massachusetts cities and towns. We match these thousands of individuals to the Massachusetts voter file to descriptively investigate local political participation. We find that individuals who are older, male, longtime residents, voters in local elections, and homeowners are significantly more likely to participate in these meetings. These individuals are overwhelmingly likely to oppose new housing construction, and cite a wide variety of reasons. These participatory inequalities have important policy implications and may be contributing to rising housing costs.
        • “Spanish-Speaking Immigrants, Their U.S. Born Children, and the Myth of Linguistic Non-Assimilation” (Erker)
          • In an influential 2009 paper titled The Hispanic Challenge, Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington wrote “Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves”. The belief that Spanish-speaking immigrants to the U.S. are unmotivated, unwilling, or simply unable to learn and use English is a central tenet of a narrative that anthropologist Leo Chavez (2013) has called The Latino Threat. In this talk I will report on research conducted in Boston and New York City that contradicts the linguistic dimension of the Latino Threat narrative. Data show that Spanish-speaking Bostonians and New Yorkers are highly motivated to learn and use English. Among first-generation immigrants, usage of and proficiency in English increases with time spent in the U.S., and among the U.S. born, Spanish monolingualism is nonexistent. The overwhelming majority of study participants express positive attitudes towards English, and there is no evidence that they would prefer to linguistically sequester themselves. I will also examine the stubborn persistence of the Latino Threat narrative despite its continual failure to withstand empirical scrutiny. I argue that xenophobia and racism alone cannot explain it. I propose that it is also fed by confusion about language and suggest that linguists have an opportunity, if not a responsibility, to further weaken the Latino Threat narrative as well as other anti-immigrant sentiment driven by language myths.
    • Wednesday, November 8, 5:30 PM, IRC 220 (Pardee School, 152 Bay State Road; enter from Silber Way)
      • Who: April Hughes (Religion)
      • What: “Maitreya’s Paradise: Terrestrial Buddhist Utopias in Scriptures and Paintings in Medieval China”
        • The talk illuminates connections between scriptural descriptions of Maitreya Buddha’s terrestrial paradise and visual representations found in medieval mural paintings at the cave-temple complex at Dunhuang, China. How did the change in the medium from scripture to mural painting affect the understanding of this paradise?
    • Wednesday, December 6, 5:30 PM, IRC 220 (Pardee School, 152 Bay State Road; enter from Silber Way)
      • Who: Kimberly Arkin (Anthropology)
      • What: “Doctoring and the Soul: Debating Desire, Personhood, and Autonomy in Neoliberalizing France”
        • This talk will highlight some of the major themes of my new book project, which concerns how medical professionals in France respond to legislative changes that push them to think of patients as sovereigns of their own health and as doctors’ partners in making health care decisions. I am particularly interested in how these professionals claim to excavate patient subjectivity while resisting the idea that patients’ “desires” can ever be either transparent or serve as road maps for their care.

        Spring 2017 (Tertulia)

        • Thursday, February 16, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Christopher Schmitt (Anthropology, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies)
          • What: “The Integration of Quantitative Genetics, Paleontology, and Neontology Reveals Genetic Underpinnings of Primate Dental Evolution”
            • Chris will be discussing some of his work (recently published in PNAS) and the new research direction it’s led him to pursue.
        • Wednesday, March 29, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Ashley Farmer (History, African American Studies)
          • What: “Black Women, Black Revolutionaries, and the Black Panther Party”
            • Ashley will talk with us about some of her research (which was recently profiled in BU Research).
        • Wednesday, May 3, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Merav Shohet (Anthropology)
          • What: “Sustaining Sacrifice: Language, Care, and Devotion in Vietnam”
            • Merav will be workshopping the plan for her next book.

        Fall 2016 (Tertulia)

        • Tuesday, September 13, 5 PM, Sunset Cantina (916 Commonwealth Avenue)
          • Who: all junior faculty, old and new!
          • What: annual meet-and-greet (joint with Junior Faculty Colloquium)
        • Thursday, October 20, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Neil Myler (Linguistics)
          • What: “The Grammar of Having Things”
            • Linguists have made great strides in understanding how the structures of words and sentences in human languages relate to their meanings, but one troublesome area is in possession sentences—the way we talk about having things. On the one hand, the relationships that we can talk about using such sentences seem to have almost nothing in common conceptually. Why should language after language talk about having a Playstation, having a sister, having brown eyes, and having the flu using the same construction? On the other hand, languages differ startlingly in how they talk about having the exact same thing: where English has I have a book, Russian has at me is a book, Xhosa has I am with a book, Hungarian has there is a book of mine, and some Quechua languages have something like there is a book for me. My upcoming book, Building and Interpreting Possession Sentences, offers a theory explaining why the grammar of having things seems so irregular, while still explaining why we see so much regularity in the relationship between structure and meaning otherwise. In this talk, I’ll give an accessible summary of this theory.
        • Thursday, November 10, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Alexis Peri (History)
          • What: “Fraternizing with the Enemy: The Soviet-American Friendship Project”
            • In 1945, women from the United States and the Soviet Union began a letter-writing campaign through which they hoped to create lasting friendships and safeguard international peace. Their letters poignantly capture the shared traumas and personal challenges that women confronted in the wake of WWII. They also reveal how international tensions came to bear on women’s attitudes and relationships. Writing as confidantes at times and as competitors at others, Soviet and American women struggled to achieve and maintain some mutual understanding, which became increasingly difficult with the coming of the Cold War.
        • Friday, December 9, 5:30 PM, SED Room 250 (Pi Lambda Theta Room; 2 Silber Way)
          • Who: Rosella Capella (Political Science, CAS), Saida Grundy (Sociology & African American Studies, CAS), Melissa Holt (Counseling Psychology, SED), Spencer Piston (Political Science, CAS)
          • What: interdisciplinary panel on the theme of “Violence”
            • Dr. Capella’s research focuses on security studies and a myriad of forms of organized violence, including how domestic political and economic considerations influence foreign policy and the persecution of conflict.
            • Dr. Grundy will be discussing her work on sexual violence in relation to the construction of middle class Black masculinity.
            • Dr. Holt will be discussing “Psychological and health consequences of exposure to bullying and other victimization forms.”
            • Dr. Piston will be discussing “Not fully human: Dehumanization of Black people and White support for state violence.”

        Spring 2016 (Tertulia)

        • Tuesday, February 23, 5:30 PM, Pardee School conference room (154 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: Charles Chang (Linguistics)
          • What: “When Less English is Better than All English: Language Interference Reconsidered”, a research presentation addressing how and why foreign language learners differ from native speakers (with insights drawn from native Korean learners of American English)
        • Wednesday, March 30, 5 PM, Pardee School conference room (152 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: Jeffrey Gavornik (Biology)
          • What: research presentation about how neural circuits in the brain are modified by experience to encode function
        • Thursday, April 14, 5 PM, Pardee School conference room (152 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: Alexis Peri (History), Renata Keller (Pardee School)
          • What: grant application workshop discussing in-progress NEH grant proposals

        Fall 2015 (Tertulia)

        • Monday, September 21, 5 PM, Sunset Cantina (916 Commonwealth Avenue)
          • Who: all junior faculty, old and new!
          • What: annual meet-and-greet (joint with Junior Faculty Colloquium)
        • Tuesday, October 6, 5 PM, Pardee School conference room (152 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: multiple speakers
          • What: publishing roundtable addressing pitfalls, questions, and tips in regard to the process of book publishing
        • Thursday, October 29, 5 PM, Pardee School conference room (152 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: Jonathan Foltz (English)
          • What: “In the Theater of Distaste: Aldous Huxley, Film and the Extinction of the Novel”, a presentation about research being prepared for a book chapter
        • Wednesday, November 18, 5 PM, 154 Bay State Road, Room 203
          • Who: Julie Klinger (Pardee School)
          • What: “Mining in Brazil, China, and on the Moon”, a workshop discussing ideas for an upcoming book prospectus
        • Wednesday, December 2, 5:45 PM, Pardee School conference room (152 Bay State Road, 2nd floor)
          • Who: Benjamin Siegel (History)
          • What: “Grain and Geopolitics: Salvaging ‘Abandoned’ Projects”, an article workshop addressing how to turn portions of books and manuscripts into journal articles