Chomsky’s second speech, a discussion of Harold Pinter’s censorious Nobel Prize acceptance speech, failed to impress contributor Armin Rosen. He sends this evaluation of the MIT linguist’s decidedly uncritical reception. I remember reading somewhere that Noam Chomsky was a controversial figure, but if I had to depend on my own sense perceptions for evidence, I’d […]

Albert Maysles, with his brother and co-director David, is responsible for some of the most famous and influential documentaries of all time. If you haven’t heard of him, just pick up Grey Gardens at Kim’s. The story of two of Jackie Kennedy’s lesser-known relatives living in a crumbling Long Island mansion, it has inspired a […]

Busy Bwog reporter Bari Weiss found herself in Hamilton Wednesday evening, listening to the stories of students who stepped outside their comfort zone this summer. Her account follows. Two Jews, two Palestinians, one half-Jew half-Palestinian—sounds like the introduction to a bad joke.  But tonight in Hamilton 603, these were the identities (or, as they will […]

Harvey Mansfield, government professor at Harvard, stopped by to speak about his latest book Manliness. Virile Bwog correspondent Andrew Flynn was there to report from the frontlines of the War on Girly-men… “Be yourself… but don’t expect to be as respected.” This was the advice that Harvey Mansfield gave to those of us who don’t fit his definition of […]

A new student organization, the Organization of Latin American Students, held their first panel discussion last Monday in Hamilton on the topic of “Social Conditions in Latin America: The Indigenous Element from Colonization to the Present.” Bwog staffer Alex de Leon has this report. There’s a lot to cover in the five hundred year history […]

 “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith”: The 2006 Thomas Merton Lecture, delivered by Professor Stephen Barr in St. Paul’s Chapel,  October 30th. “Science and Religion,” “Faith and Reason” – buzzword dichotomies for the sound-bite arguments of our polarized political discourse. Given this, the absence of publicity surrounding Stephen Barr’s lecture “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith” – […]

“Gandhi, Newton, and Enlightenment”: University Lecture delivered by Professor Akeel Bilgrami in Low Memorial Library Rotunda, October 25th.   Akeel Bilgrami is Columbia’s secret big deal. He’s not a Foner, Sachs, Khalidi, or even a Massad, but… Bilgrami… that sounds familiar right? If it doesn’t, Alan Brinkley’s introduction to Bilgrami’s University Lecture (“Gandhi, Newton, and […]

Adam Katz brings us a discussion of the October 17th talk sponsored by the Poetry Society of America on the life and poetry of Pablo Neruda. The Tribeca Performing Arts Center of the Borough of Manhattan Community College was set off by the blue and green lights to lend it the “wine-dark” appearance of a […]

In which an anonymous Bwog contributor tells us what else happened the evening of October 4th. As protestors marched around Lerner Hall last Wednesday evening, a very different showdown was taking shape across campus in Schermerhorn Hall.  The Art History Underground, Columbia’s nascent (and, judging by their president’s introduction, quite enthusiastic) art history club had […]

Previewing Stiglitz’s Next Best-Seller Last Tuesday night’s World Leaders Forum kickoff event was billed as “a discussion with distinguished panelists” on the subject of globalization. It ended up more like the first leg of a book tour for University Professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who monopolized the event, discussing his forthcoming manifesto, Making Globalization Work. No […]

When I arrived at Jerome L. Greene Hall last week at 6:20 for a 7:00 lecture, I found a large mob already milling around the doors. This can’t be for Steven Pinker, I thought, although he is psycholinguist with, as some linguists would have me say, an emphasis on the “psycho.” But by the time […]

Yelena Shuster has a few notes from author Megan McCafferty’s Wednesday night bookstore visit. The svelte author, clad in a red sundress, began by asking the 99% female audience “You know I don’t have food for you right?” and established her alumna status right off. “Because I know the only way to get people to […]

At promptly 3 pm at the Graduate School of Journalism, Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, announced the 2006 winners. By announced, I mean that press kits that had a list of winners and other information about them were made available to those present. And by those present, I mean approximately ten journalists and […]

Packed with more old women and men than actual Barnard students, the Women Poets at Barnard’s final Spring 2006 lecture was insightful. The Sulzberger Parlor served as the perfect space for the intimate and soft spoken reading of poetry accompanied by free samples of wine among other refreshments. The Women Poets at Barnard reading series […]

Roger Hodge, E.I.C., discusses Harper’s Graduate School of Journalism, 4.6.2006 Harper’s Editor-in-Chief Roger Hodge explained “I… like to hide behind the written word.” . . . Hodge is not the impromptu-thinking type, and his speech at the J-School last Thursday showed it. The moderator had recently handed him a shopping list of points to cover, […]