Making Visible the Invisible
Paola Bertucci
Professor of History and History of Medicine at Yale University. Curator-in-charge of History of Science and Technology Division at the Peabody Museum
This seminar explores visualization techniques introduced between the 1500s and the 1700s to make sense of natural phenomena that could not be grasped without visual or material aids. We will focus on specific examples that had extraordinary consequences both in science, philosophy, the arts, and everyday life: microscopy, astronomy, natural history, anatomy, cartography, and experimental physics. We will examine early anatomical and botanical illustrations and the relationships between naturalists and craftspeople like engravers and printers. We will also discuss the role that artistic training played in making sense of images offered by scientific instruments like the telescope and the microscope, exploring debates over the nature of the cosmos and the nature of life. We will also enter the exciting area at the intersection of science and magic by investigating optical illusions and early debates on the sense of sight.
Seminar Description
Tropical Forests: Ecology and Conservation
Liza Comita
Davis-Denkmann Professor of Tropical Forest Ecology School of the Environment at Yale University
Tropical forests play a crucial role in the earth's ecosystem. They provide ecosystem services that are critical for human well-being, including providing raw materials, regulating air and water quality, and mitigating climate change. They are also biodiversity hotspots supporting complex varieties of life. As tourist, recreational, and spiritual sites, tropical forests also provide cultural services to the human population. But they are vulnerable and face a variety of threats from both nature and the same human population that they serve. This seminar will focus on the ecology of tropical forests. We will explore the ecosystem services they provide from the local to the global scales. We will discuss drivers and impacts of tropical deforestation and degredation, as well as the tropical forest recovery and restoration. The seminar may include field trips to the Peabody Museum and a local forest site.
Seminar Description
Latine Media, Representation, and Cultural Politics
Deb Vargas
Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University
This seminar will draw from cinema, radio, and other popular media forms to explore the polotics of represenation in a U.S. context during key historical moments. From the greaser movies of the early twentieth century, the emergence of the first all-Spanish language radio stations, to the power of Instagram music artists creating their own fan following, this class considers Latine popular media to be a stage upon which class politics, color lines, and the recycling of disparaging stereotypes are reproduced and contested.
Seminar Description
