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Speakers: 2008-2009
Richard Allen
- Cinema Studies, New York University [+]Professor Richard Allen is editor of The Hitchcock Annual and a collection of essays from the journal, The Hitchcock Annual Anthology, will be published this Fall by Wallflower Press.
He is author, most recently, of Hitchcock's Romantic Irony (Columbia University Press, 2007).
Julian Bell
- Painter and Critic [+]Julian Bell was born in 1952. He read English literature at Oxford University but has since made his living as a painter based in southern England.
Over the past twenty years he has written many features about art for the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books. His exploration of art theory, What is Painting?, appeared in 1999, and his introduction to art history, Mirror of the World, in 2007. His expertise lies in painting; Mr. Bell approaches art history and art criticism with a generalist's curiosity. He has also written a short book devoted to Bonnard (1994).
Seyla Benhabib
- Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University [+]Seyla Benhabib is the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and was Director of its Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics from 2001 to 2007.
Professor Benhabib was the President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2006-07. She has previously taught at the New School for Social Research and Harvard University, where she was Professor of Government from 1993 to 2000 and Chair of Harvards Program on Social Studies from 1996 to 2000.She is the author of numerous works, including Critique, Norm and Utopia. A Study of the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory (1986); Situating the Self. Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (1992; winner of the National Education Associations best book of the year award); and The Rights of Others. Aliens, Citizens and Residents (2004), which won the Ralph Bunche Award of the American Political Science Association (2005) and the North American Society for Social Philosophy award (2004). Her latest book, Another Cosmopolitanism: Hospitality, Sovereignty and Democratic Iterations, with responses by Jeremy Waldron, Bonnie Honig, and Will Kymlicka, based on her Tanner Lectures delivered at UC Berkeley, was published by Oxford University Press in 2006.Professor Benhabib is a member of the Editorial Committee of the American Political Science Review and is on the editorial boards of more than ten U.S. and international journals.
Daniel C. Dennett
- Philosophy, Tufts University [+]Daniel C. Dennett, the author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon & Schuster, 1995), is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard in 1963. He then went to Oxford to work with Gilbert Ryle, under whose supervision he completed the D.Phil. in philosophy in 1965. He taught at UC Irvine from 1965 to 1971, when he moved to Tufts, where he has taught ever since.His first book, Content and Consciousness, appeared in 1969, followed by Brainstorms (1978), Elbow Room (1984), The Intentional Stance (1987), Consciousness Explained (1991), Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995), and Kinds of Minds (1996). He co-edited The Mind's I with Douglas Hofstadter in 1981. He is the author of over 300 scholarly articles on various aspects of the mind, published in journals ranging from Artificial Intelligence and Behavioral and Brain Sciences to Poetics Today and the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. In 1998 he published Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays 1984-1996 (MIT Press and Penguin). Freedom Evolves was published by Penguin Books in 2003. Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness was published in 2005 by MIT Press. His most recent book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, was published in 2006 by Viking Press.
Adam Gopnik
- The New Yorker [+]The New Yorkers art critic from 1987 to 1995, he left in that year to live and write in Paris. His expanded collection of his essays from Paris, Paris to the Moon, appeared in 2000, and was called by the New York Times the finest book on France in recent years.
He is the author of numerous other publications and still often writes from Paris for The New Yorker. His most recent book, Through the Childrens Gate: A Home In New York collects and expands his essays from the past five years about life in New York and about raising two children in the shadow of various kinds of sadness. It includes the much-anthologized essays Bumping Into Mr. Ravioli and Last of the Metrozoids. He has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times , as well as the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting and the Canadian National Magazine Award Gold Medal for arts writing. His work has been anthologized many times, in Best American Essays (six times), Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, Best American Food Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing.
James M. McPherson
- American History, Princeton University [+]From 1962 to 2004 James M. McPherson taught at Princeton University, where he is currently the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of American History Emeritus. He is the author of fifteen books and the editor of another dozen, mostly on the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
His books have won several prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize (1989) for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, the Lincoln Prize (1998) for For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and a second Lincoln Prize (2009) for Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief. He has served as president of the Society of American Historians and the American Historical Association.
Caroline Walker Bynum
- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ [+]Caroline Walker Bynum received her BA from the University of Michigan in 1962 and her PhD from Harvard in 1969. She taught at Harvard, the University of Washington, and Columbia University, where in January, 1999, she became University Professor, the first woman to hold this title at Columbia. In January 2003 she became Professor of European Medieval History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She was a MacArthur Fellow from 1986 to 1991 and holds honorary degrees from twelve American and foreign universities.
She is the author of numerous award-winning articles and books, including Holy Feast and Holy Fast (1987), Fragmentation and Redemption (1991), The Resurrection of the Body (1995). Her recent collection of essays, Metamorphosis and Identity (New York: Zone Books, 2001; paperback 2005), explores medieval conceptions of self, survival, and mutability. Her book Wonderful Blooda study of blood piety in fifteenth-century northern Germany in its larger European contextwas published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2007. It was awarded the American Academy of Religion's 2007 Award for Excellence in the Historical Studies category. She is currently working on the role of objects in late medieval religion, placing them in the context of contemporary theories of miracles and materiality.
Robert Wilson
- Theater Director and Visual Artist [+]In an exceptional performance, director and artist Robert Wilson invites us into his astonishing aesthetic universe. Combining striking images from throughout his prolific career, Wilson will provide an intimate self-portrait of his creative process. Mr. Wilson will reference his landmark original works for the stage such as Deafman Glance, A Letter for Queen Victoria, Einstein on the Beach (created with composer Philip Glass), the Civil Wars, and The Black Rider, as well as his acclaimed work for the operatic and theatrical repertoire including his luminous stagings of Madame Butterfly, Wagners Ring Cycle, The Magic Flute, Ibsens Peer Gynt and Heiner Muellers Quartett.
Since the late 1960s, Robert Wilson's productions have decisively shaped the look of theater and opera. Through his signature use of light, his investigations into the structure of a simple movement, the classical rigor of his scenic and furniture design, Wilson has continuously articulated the force and originality of his vision. Wilson's close ties and collaborations with leading artists, writers and musicians continue to fascinate audiences worldwide.
About The Watermill Center: The Watermill Center, located in Southampton, Long Island, was founded in 1992 by artistic director Robert Wilson to support interdisciplinary approaches to the arts and provide emerging artists with unprecedented opportunities for professional research and practice. Almost 14 years later, the Center has established a worldwide reputation as a one-of-a-kind center where young artists regardless of their cultural, social and religious backgrounds can live and work together in a stimulating community, exploring their own interests while collaborating with internationally renowned performers. Many of the worlds most celebrated artists have participated in Watermill programs including Trisha Brown, David Byrne, Lucinda Childs, Philip Glass, Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Moreau, Lou Reed, Miranda Richardson, Dominique Sanda, Susan Sontag and Robert Wilson himself. Theaters and museums around the world have mounted dozens of projects that were originally developed at the Watermill Center. In the words of Jessye Norman, Watermill is the best idea to find a place in the world of arts since Pierre Boulez created IRCAM in Paris. Robert Wilsons unique gifts and spirit provide the strong basis of a new vision of the creation and presentation of all that we think of as theatre in particular, combining all of the arts in a fresh perspective.The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation operates the Center and coordinates its artistic programs, which include community outreach projects. In addition, collaborative networks between the Center and local schools and neighboring cultural and educational institutions have been established.In 2002, the Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation initiated a capital campaign in order to ensure the dedication of the main building by 2006. The Watermill Center is financed through the generous support of individuals, foundations, corporations and state institutions.
For more information please contact Charles Fabius, Executive Director, in New York (tel: 212.253.7484 ext. 17, fax: 212.253.7485).
The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation thanks Aventis Foundation, The Brown Foundation, LVMH/ Mot Hennessy.Louis Vuitton, Robert W. Wilson, Laura Lee W. Woods, Luciano & Giancarla Berti, Donna Karan, The Peter J. Sharp Foundation, Louise T. Blouin MacBain, The Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Foundation, Montres Rolex S.A, Gabriele Henkel, Katharine Rayner, Philippine de Rothschild, Maja Hoffmann & Stanley Buchthal, The Scaler Foundation, Betty Freeman, The Guttman Family, Pierre Berg, Agnes Gund, Zora Danon, William & Christine Campbell, Asher Edelman, The Rudkin Family Foundation, Marina Eliades, Earle & Carol Mack, Richard D. and Lisa Colburn, The Rudin-DeWoody family, Bacardi USA, Inc., Elaine Terner Cooper (in memoriam), Robert Louis Dreyfus, Irving Benson, William Kornreich, Margherita di Niscemi, Louisa Stude Sarofim, Katharina Otto & Nathan Bernstein, Bettina & Raoul Witteveen, The Alexander C. & Tillie S. Speyer Foundation, Robert Wilson Stiftung, The Giorgio Armani Corporation, Jol-Andr & Gabriella Ornstein, The Martin Bucksbaum Family Foundation, Lyndon L. Olson Jr., Neda Young, The Barbara L. Goldsmith Foundation, Ethel de Croisset (in memoriam), Laura Pels, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Park Avenue Charitable Fund, Nancy Negley, Leslie Negley, American Friends of the Paris Opera and Ballet, Anne Randolph Hearst, Dianne Benson, Marc Jacobs, Richard & Marcia Mishaan, Stanley Stairs, The Felix & Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation, Hlne David-Weill, Andr Bernheim, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Deutsche Post-Stiftung, The Soros Family, and many other esteemed donors.