Events Calendar
All events at the Mandel Center for the Humanities are subject to health standards, precautions and protocols as determined by Brandeis University and the State of Massachusetts.
Read below to find the MCH events being offered this spring. Check back for updates.
SPRING 2025
February 3, 2025
Usdan International Lounge (4:00pm-5:30pm)
A Conversation with Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, Moderated by Sarah Mayorga
"Safety through solidarity means we cannot truly end antisemitism by building higher walls, fortifying nation-states, hiring more police or militarized security at synagogues, or going along with politics that scapegoat activists of color and divide communities. It means we must fight antisemitism at its root by building powerful mass movements to transform society’s underlying inequality, exploitation, and alienation....It means we must recognize the intersectional links between antisemitism and capitalism, anti-Blackness, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, and other structures of oppression, and build relationships of co-resistance between Jews and other marginalized groups." --From Safety through Solidarity by Shane Burley and Ben Lorber
Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, the Education Program, the Legal Studies Program, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Journalism, the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, and the Dean of Arts and Sciences
February 10, 2025
Mandel 303 (12-1:30pm)
A global outlook is important to our individual and collective well-being, and multilingualism is crucial for developing such an outlook. With this idea as our starting point we will explore how multilingualism can inform our sense of identity, strengthen our civic and community spaces, clarify shared and universal value, and of course influence our educational institutions to prepare students for a more interconnected world.
Speakers: Kelly Linehan (Waltham Public Library), Robin Feuer Miller (GRALL), Chandler Rosenberger (International & Global Studies), John Tessitore (National Commission on Language Learning of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences).
February 24, 2025
Mandel Atrium (4:00pm-5:30pm)
The aim is to explore the complex and often contradictory experience of being Afro-descendant in Paris. While the city is celebrated globally as a symbol of enlightenment, culture, and opportunity, and a place of refuge, it also embodies systemic inequities, colonial legacies, and racial discrimination that cast a shadow over its bright reputation.
Through this lens, the theme examines Paris as a space of duality—where Afro-descendant communities contribute vibrantly to its identity but also face exclusion, stereotypes, and socio-economic challenges. It reflects on how the city’s history, policies, and culture intersect with race and power, and rethinks Paris as both a beacon of light and a site of struggle for equity and recognition.
February 25, 2025
Mandel 303 (4:00pm-5:30pm)
This lecture challenges the dominant narrative of universalism grounded in the Enlightenment philosophy and, often heralded as a foundation of equality and justice, by interrogating its history and applications. While universalism claims to transcend differences and promote equality, it has frequently been weaponized to impose a singular, Eurocentric perspective that erases cultural diversity and reinforces systemic racism.
It is a proposal for a vision of “grounded universality,” one that respects pluralism, centers historically excluded voices, and reimagines universalism as a framework rooted in equity, inclusion, and shared humanity rather than domination.
February 26, 2025
Mandel 303 (12:00pm-1:30pm)
This conference addresses how universalist ideals are weaponized to control and assimilate non-white bodies, particularly those of Muslim and non-white women. Framed as upholding neutrality and equality, these policies and social norms often serve to enforce conformity to white standards while marginalizing diverse identities.
The discussion delves into examples such as bans on the hijab, which claim to liberate women while denying them agency, and the imposition of beauty norms, that devalue cultural expressions. These practices are examined as tools of surveillance and assimilation, where bodies are policed to fit a narrow definition of “acceptable” citizenship under the guise of universalism.
March 12, 2025
Mandel 303 (12:15pm-1:15pm)
Time Travel with Professor Katie Elliott (Philosophy) and Professor John Plotz (English)
March 26, 2025
Rapaporte Treasure Hall (4:o0pm-5:30pm)
A Conversation with Maurice Ebileeni and Ayelet Ben-Yishai
In the fall of 2022, Ayelet Ben Yishai and Maurice Ebileeni – both faculty members in the English department at the University of Haifa – co-authored an op-ed. While in agreement on much of its content, they faced an unforeseen difficulty in forging an authorial “we” to speak in one voice on equal terms. Ben-Yishai, a Jewish Israeli, and Ebileeni, a Palestinian and a citizen of Israel, have since engaged in a candid (and mostly difficult) dialogue, writing to and with each other, testing out the possibilities for a common existence for themselves as colleagues and friends, and for Israelis and Palestinians in general – “from the river to the sea.” The dialogue is ongoing but has, since last year, taken on a new urgency and assumed the form of a work-in-progress. This event invites the audience to join in, exploring questions of identity, culture, complicity, Zionism, the occupation, Palestinian displacement, history, the present, and the future.
March 27, 2025
Mandel 303 (evening - TBD)
HYBRID EVENT
National Watch Party (virtual event hosted by the St. Louis Fed)
- Keynote Speakers Dr. Cecilia Rouse (former President of the Brookings Institute) and Ali Wolf (Chief Economist at Zonda)
In person event: Brandeis Panel on Humanities and Finance
April 1, 2025
Mandel 303 (11:30am-2:00pm)
"Archiving Identity" Sahid Mondal (English) and Lianne Gallant (History)
January 15, 2025
Mandel 303 (12pm-1:20pm)
An event with author Nicholas Nugent.
From book description: We may think of “globalism” as a recent development but its origins date back to the fifteenth century and beyond, when seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade, and profit.
These voyages only became possible after certain technical innovations—improvements in ship design, compasses, and mapping—enabled navigation across unprecedented distances. The mariners’ embarkation points were the vibrant ports of the West—Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon—and their destinations the exotic ports of the East—Malacca, Goa, Bombay—where they tracked down the elusive spices, so much in demand by Western palates.
January 28, 2025
Mandel 303 (12-1pm)
Race & Health with Professor Wangui Muigai (AAAS, History) and Professor Yesmar Oyarzun (Anthropology)