What Is Human? Symposium I:

Collaborative Theory and Practice in Humanistic and Scientific Research

The Center for the Humanities
University of Wisconsin-Madison
March 5, 2008
313 Pyle Center

To hear recordings from the symposium, click on the link, enter the password (further directions on the login page), and click AGAIN on the recording you would like to hear.

Keynote I

"Mirroring People: Existential Neuroscience and Inter-Subjectivity"
Marco Iacoboni (Associate Professor of Neuropsychiatry, UCLA)

Panel Discussions on Collaborative “What Is Human?” Projects

"Networks: Neural, Social, Civic, Technological"
Lew Friedland (Journalism and Mass Communication) and Caroline Levine (English)

"Botany and Anthropomorphism"
Tim Allen (Botany) and Theresa Kelley (English)

“The Stomach as a Second Brain"
Miles Epstein (Anatomy) and Anne Vila (French and Italian)

"Mimetic Humankind"
Rick Brooks (Professional Development and Applied Studies), Brian Hyer (Music), and Deborah Jenson (French)

"Transplantation and Chimeras: Practices of Change at the Edges of the Human"
Jill H. Casid (Visual Culture Studies and Art History), Jim Jenson (Child Psychiatry and Art), Robert Streiffer (Philosophy, Medical History, and Bioethics), and Clive Svendsen (Anatomy and Neurology)

"Human Violence and Human Rights"
Kata Beilin (Spanish), Mark Estante (English), and Lewis Leavitt (Pediatrics and Waisman Center)

"Triage of Humans, Animals, and Insects”
Hans Adler (German and Comparative Literature), Mario Ortiz-Robles (English), and Sainath Suryanarayanan (Zoology)

Lectures I & II

Craig Werner (Afro-American Studies and Integrated Liberal Studies) "Blind Men and Elephants: Teaching Beyond the Two Cultures
due to technical difficulties, the first few minutes of this lecture were not recorded

Neil Whitehead (Anthropology)
"PostHuman Anthropology"

Roundtable I

Strategies and Resources
Jay Clayton, Laura Heisler, and Herb Wang

Roundtable II

Professional Cultures and Mixed Methods
Laurie Beth Clark, Linda Hogle, Daniel Kleinman, and Jon McKenzie

Keynote II

Jay Clayton (Professor of English, Vanderbilt University)
"Literature and Science Policy: A New Paradigm for the Humanities"

Synopsis and talking points
Deborah Jenson (Director, Center for the Humanities and Associate Professor, French)

Keynote lectures for the symposium are offered by two What Is Human? national steering committee members. JAY CLAYTON is an English professor who researches the ethical and social issues raised by genetics as they appear in literature and films, as well as the organizational and funding interdisciplinary relationships between the humanities and the sciences. MARCO IACOBONI is a neuroscientist and a leader in mirror neuron research, which the New York Times calls "The discovery that is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy."