What to See at Duke This Week
Steven Cozart’s Pass/Fail Series turns paper bags into documentary tools. On those paper bags, Cozart uses an interplay of words and images to explore colorism in the African-American community – a legacy of white supremacy that created a stereotype that privileged light-skinned African-Americans. Winner of the Center for Documentary Studies’ Lange-Taylor Prize, Pass/Fail evokes “a discriminatory act that was used in some social circles within the African American community to determine whether an individual could have privileges of access,” Cozart says. “Being lighter than the paper bag was desirable, though colorism cuts both ways, and being of a light complexion has also been used as a means to impugn one’s ‘blackness.’” Cozart will discuss the work at an artist’s talk. 6 p.m. Center for Documentary Studies.
Historians are continuing to find new stories that underline the central role of African Americans in the Civil War. Duke Professor Margaret Humphreys is researching how the war promoted the careers of African-American doctors and nurses. She’s focusing on one doctor in particular – J.D. Harris, an African-American physician born free in Fayetteville who served as a surgeon during the war. Humphrey, a specialist in the history of science and medicine, will speak about Harris and others at a Humanities in Medicine Lecture. Noon. 2003 Duke Hospital.
Local newspapers are not dead yet. But they’re not thriving either. One solution forward involves philanthropy and the ability of foundations to support reporting on specific key issues vital to civil society. Professor Joel Fleishman of the Sanford School of Public Policy and Julie Sandorf, president of the Revson Foundation will hold a discussion of the role of philanthropy in reviving local journalism. The talk is part of a series sponsored by Duke’s Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society. 4:30 p.m. Rhodes Conference Room, 223 Sanford School.
The legacy of Nuremberg Trials remains strong as an example of a world holding individuals accountable for crimes against humanity. But that legacy has always been at risk as many war crimes go unpunished and as more national leaders challenge the validity of international law. Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, will join his son, renowned international lawyer Don Ferencz, and Michael Scharf, dean of Case Western School of Law, to consider the future of international law and the International Criminal Court. 6 p.m. Fleishman Commons, Sanford School.
We’re having a party to celebrate the opening of the Rubenstein Arts Center, and the entire arts community on campus is contributing. There will be free hot chocolate across the street at the Nasher Museum, dance workshops from the Dance program and student films screened by the Arts of the Moving Image program. But the celebration is more than a showcase for the variety of the new opportunities for arts programs at Duke the building will provide. It’s a way of honoring the central role the arts now play on campus and the contributions they make not just to the university but to the wider community. 1 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center.