Humanities News, Features, and Other Updates

Author: Samantha Canevez

Brown Bag Talk: Vamp & Godmother? Contradictions of Theda Bara and Gendered War Work

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What:

Abstract:

This talk focuses on the peculiar case of Theda Bara, a Hollywood actress who became famous for her ethnic-Other “vamp” movie character and public persona. In 1918, Bara was appointed “Godmother” to the 158th Infantry Regiment from Arizona. The practice of godmothering had started early in World War I but was prohibited in France and Britain after 1915 due to suspicions of sexual misconduct between women and their “godsons,” as well as fears about its potential for espionage. When the U.S. intervened in 1917, godmothering was discouraged by the Department of War, with exceptions made for female screen idols who offered government officials a useful mechanism by which to help promote troop morale and the will to fight. Bara’s promiscuous, even adulterous persona, however, ostensibly threatened conventional morality among men and women, and the “wholesome” model of “soldier-citizen” the camps aimed to cultivate among the men. Accordingly, her films were banned in the training camps. I explore the logic of Bara as godmother through an analysis of Hollywood’s star system in the 1910s and how its discursive construction of stardom intersects with Foucault’s discussion of discourse and sexuality.  

Who:

Presented by Sue Collins, Associate Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, April 11 2025

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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German Club Guest Speaker Professor Thomas Werner

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Join the German Club in welcoming guest speaker Professor Thomas Werner to share his experiences growing up in East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain. The talk will take place on Thursday, April 3 at 6pm in Fisher 130. All are welcome!

Dr. Werner is Professor of Genetics and Developmental Biology in Biological Sciences. His curiosity for living creatures began in his parents’ garden in East Germany, and developed into a lifelong passion for the natural world.

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Brown Bag Talk: “Beauty, Excess, and the Grotesque in the Late-Capitalism Critique of Lauren Greenfield”, Emma Johnson

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What:

Abstract:

Embracing slow cinema and focusing on women are both underappreciated approaches to filmmaking when it comes to representing the financial crisis. One filmmaker who explores the financial crisis through these underused techniques is Lauren Greenfield. In this paper, I will explore three of Greenfield’s films through the lens of theorists Jill Godmilow and Nicholas Mirzoeff to show how alternative ways of looking provide a new critique of capitalism. Typically, films on financial crises are fast paced. Juliette Feyel and Clémence Fourton’s 2019 article “Post-2008 Films: The Financial Crisis in Fictions and Documentaries” argues that 2008-crisis films are represented in specific structures and patterns. Clichéd quick cuts show phone calls, graphs, and skyscrapers. These visual depictions are limiting, often excluding how crisis affects daily life and women. An alternative approach is found in the work of Greenfield, including the films The Queen of Versailles (2012), Generation Wealth (2018), and The Kingmaker (2019). I argue that Greenfield uses beauty, excess, and the grotesque to critique late capitalism. Greenfield favors mundane daily life with long shots of mansions with neglected pools, motivational posters in a vacated office, and dog poop left on the carpet after the nannies are laid off. She pays attention to women in a sub-genre where women are largely absent and uses slow-cinema techniques in a sub-genre that mostly embraces fast-paced narratives. Interviewees who would typically be depicted in quick clips are given screen time to humanize themselves. Greenfield juxtaposes excess with relatable reasons for its pursuit, drawing attention away from subjects and toward the system that creates it, coming close to accomplishing what Godmilow terms postreal filmmaking and Mirzoeff Visuality 2. Ultimately, Greenfield invites the audience to sit with her subjects, identify with them, and begin to imagine an alternative world.

Who:

Presented by RTC PhD student Emma Johnson.

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, March 28 2025

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

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In Praise of Football: Poetics, Aesthetics, Politics, & Identities of the Ball with Guest Speaker Daniel Noemi Voionmaa

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On Friday, April 4th at noon visiting Speaker Daniel Noemi Voionmaa will be giving a public talk titled “In Praise of Football: Poetics, Aesthetics, Politics, and Identities of the Ball” in EERC 103.

This event is free and open to all. Dr. Voionmaa is Professor of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies at Northeastern University. He will be visiting Spanish classes throughout his visit in addition to the public talk.

Abstract:

On December 18, 2022, 1.5 billion people watched the penalty kicked by Gonzalo Montiel, at Lusali Stadium in Doha, that gave Argentina its third World Cup. Probably, many more heard about it in the following days. Indeed, Qatar’s World Cup was the epitome of global sports entertainment: the world was not only one, but it was also, literally, a globe, a foot-ball. The 2026 USA-Canada Mexico World Cup is expected to surpass those numbers.

Not a long time ago, in 1930, Argentina had played its first final (without so much success: Uruguay won 4 to 2). The Estadio Centenario was packed; perhaps a few thousands listen to it on the radio (we don’t have the exact numbers), nobody watched it on TV (that happened only in 1954, and just for a few Central European countries. Color came in 1970). Many things have changed in football since that evening in Montevideo, in 1930, no doubt. However, if we were able to hear a conversation of a group of friends after a football match in 1930 and in 2025, we would be surprised how similar they are. Like in life –a comparison many times drawn—change and continuity are simultaneously present. Like life, football can be thought and analyzed from many points of view: tactics and strategies on the field, attitudes of fans in the stands, the politics it involves, a never-ending market-oriented paraphernalia, nationalist discourses, philosophical discussions – postmodern takes, existentialist reverberations, post-structuralist analyses, psychoanalytical insights–, and a myriad of cultural and artistic artifacts and productions. Football, soccer, fútbol, calcio, futebol is, as Eduardo Archetti once said, a mirror of our societies (and ourselves), but also a mask that covers and hides who we are and who we want to be.

In these remarks, I will attempt to show, using specific examples, how football has not only created a vast and multilayered imaginary, one in which politics and economics play a key role; but also that it has produced an artistic and poetic corpus that, perhaps, is as attractive as the beautiful game itself.

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2025 Modern Languages Film Series Announced

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Modern Languages at Michigan Tech is proud to present our Spring 2025 Film Series!

The films this year, under the theme “Dystopian Futures” will screen on consecutive Wednesdays at 7pm in Fisher 135, and are free and open to the public.

Still from "We Might As Well Be Dead showing a woman in a security uniform laying on the floor of a cramped apartment. Next to her another woman's head can be seen through the mail slot of a closed door with her hair hanging through.

We Might As Well Be Dead

Screening March 12, 2025

Sinelnikova 2022 | Germany

Security officer Anna lives with her 16-year-old daughter in a remote high-rise on the edge of a forest. The building provides its occupants a safe haven until the caretaker’s dog disappears and irrational fear spreads.

Still from the film showing a gray, dystopian landscape with a small doorway to an elevator shaft in the middle of the frame. A figure in a full-face oxygen mask walks to the left.

Aire: Just Breathe

Screening March 19, 2025

Tonos 2024 | Dominican Republic

In the year 2147, a virus as a result of a Great Chemical War has left all men on the planet sterile, bringing humanity to the brink of extinction. Biologist and scientist Tania tries to inseminate herself to ensure the survival of the human species, assisted by an artificial intelligence system called VIDA. However, everything changes when Azarias appears, a traveler with a dark past and possibly one of the last men on the planet.

An attractive young woman lays in a rectangular black tub filled with black liquid below a large half-circle window with washed-out white light shining through.

The Beast

Screening March 26, 2025

Bonello 2023 | France

In the near future the rise of AI has led to humans being deemed useless because their emotions compromise their decision-making. Gabrielle undergoes a procedure that will purify her and get rid of her emotions, a procedure which involves delving into their past lives.

Please join us for this great lineup of films from around the world!

For more information about Modern Languages minors at Michigan Tech, visit https://www.mtu.edu/humanities/undergraduate/modern-languages/

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Brown Bag: Great Lakes Romanticism, Mark Lounibos

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What:

Humanities’ Brown Bag talks kick off again on Friday, January 31 at 12pm in the Petersen Library with “Great Lakes Romanticism” a talk by Assistant Teaching Professor of English, Mark Lounibos.

Abstract: This emerging project aims to link the historical and cultural period of British Romanticism (1789-1832) to the Great Lakes region of North America, using digital mapping methods to identify locations, actors and events in the Great Lakes area which have influenced British Romantic culture.  In particular, the project’s goal is to emphasize and perhaps also recover the influence of Indigenous culture and thought on British Romanticism.   Although much work has been done on Transatlantic Romanticism, and some important contributions focus explicitly on indigeneity in this context, few have focused primarily on the Great Lakes region.  This waterway was a critical trade/exploration route, and therefore one of the most significant channels for contact with indigenous tribes in the interior of North America. The long-term goals of this project include the production of a digital resource for both scholars and the public, and the development of a Digital Humanities course.  

Who:

Presented by Mark Lounibos, Assistant Teaching Professor of English

Co-Hosted by the Department of Humanities and the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, Jan. 31, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

Where:

The Peterson Library, Walker 318

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Café Français French Conversation Hour

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Parlez-vous français? Join us!

French conversation hour will take place in Walker 120C (in the HDMZ) twice monthly on Wednesdays through March. Whether you are a complete beginner, or a native French speaker looking to use your mother tongue, stop by for some casual conversation and cultural exchange. All levels of French are welcome!

  • Jan. 15
  • Jan. 29
  • Feb. 12
  • Feb. 19
  • March 12
  • March 26

For more information or to be added to our mailing list for French-related events, contact lalegref@mtu.edu

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La Peña Spanish Conversation Hour

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La Peña Spanish Conversation Hour will meet every other Tuesday in Walker 120A (in the HDMZ) for the spring semester.

The dates are:

  • Jan. 14
  • Jan. 28
  • Feb. 11
  • March 4
  • March 18
  • April 1

Join us for our next La Peña Spanish conversation hour!

All levels of Spanish are welcome, and you don’t need to be taking a Spanish class to participate. Stop by, chat and stay for a board game or bring your own!

¡Hasta pronto!

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Faculty Research Highlight: The Big Ride Project

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Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media Richard Canevez has big plans for the summer of 2025, when he will take on what he has titled “The Big Ride Project.” Richard has received a seed grant from the university’s Research Excellence Fund, as well as funding from the Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture with which he is both funding this project, and hopes to publish a book documenting his experiences.

Assistant Professor Richard Canevez is collaborating with Studio 13 in Houghton to generate media for his upcoming research endeavor- The Big Ride Project.

From Richard:

The rise of American right-wing populism has been enabled in part by the politicization and targeting of institutions construed as left-leaning with harassment, hostile policy efforts, and in some cases outright violence. The range of institutions is broad, ranging from women’s healthcare to diversity-supporting organizations and even federal agencies tasked with environmental stewardship. This targeting has reduced these institutions to political footballs, exploiting an aggrieved and politically divided constituency for political gain.

But who are these institutions in reality? They reflect the people who are “where the rubber meets the road”: the professionals and volunteers. But what are their stories? How do their experiences and values shape these institutions and their mission? And how are they going to navigate the political divide in the upcoming years? And what can other institutions and their people learn from them?

In the summer of 2025, Rich Canevez (Asst. Professor of Communication, Culture, and Media at the Department of Humanities) will ride a bicycle from Houghton, MI to Chicago, IL and back on a route that covers over 900 miles by road, trail, and everything in between. In this time, he will gather the stories of professionals who staff these institutions, including libraries, institutions of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), reproductive rights, transgender affirming care, and environmental stewardship, dotted across one of the most politically divided and diverse sections of America. These stories and accounts will be layered with his own experiences, by covering the distance and connecting stories with notions of spatial divide and connection, as well as his own memories of being a ethnic minority raised in this curious section of America, with a personal relationship with many of the issues these institutions, and its people, face or continue to struggle with to this day.

You can visit the project’s website at thebigrideproject.carrd.co to follow along on his journey!

The Big Ride Project on Facebook | The Big Ride Project on Bluesky

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