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Talk: Interstellar Crossings: The Image of Exoplanets and the Imagination of Other Worlds

McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB Santa Barbara

When seven rocky planets were discovered around the star TRAPPIST-1, claims of potentially habitable worlds animated the scientific discourse and press coverage. Beautiful animations of the surfaces of these planets and imaginative tales of planet hopping suggested that this discovery was not just about discovering more planets, but that it was also about discovering worlds. In this talk, Messeri will recount ethnographic findings from her work with exoplanet astronomers. She will explore how planets become worlds and what resources scientists draw on to execute this conceptual crossing and imaginatively leave the boundary of our world to extend human presence beyond the solar system.

TALK: Jackals and Arabs (Once More: The German-Jewish Dialogue)

Mosher Alumni Hall Mosher Alumni House, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara

The lecture takes its point of departure in Maurice Blanchot’s claim that Kafka initiates a new form of dialogue. By reinserting Kafka in the debates (or dialogues) on the German-Jewish dialogue and the way in which that dialogue was always already framing, rehearsing and announcing the Arab-Jewish dialogue, Anidjar argues for the significance of form — and what it entails — in and toward the Arab-Jewish dialogue. Gil Anidjar teaches in the departments of Religion and of Middle Eastern, South ...