February 5, 7:00 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Fiction Reading: “The Age of Shiva”
Manil Suri
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Manil Suri, author of the bestselling novel The Death of Vishnu, will read from his new novel The Age of Shiva.  In this new book, India's birth as a new nation parallels a woman's complex psychological journey confronting tradition and modernity. Richly layered with themes from Hindu mythology, The Age of Shiva is at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.  Dr. Suri is a professor of Mathematics at UMBC.

"Like Anna Karenina, The Age of Shiva is both intimate and epic, a balance of sensual beauty and visceral reality. Suri reveals truths about human nature: our circumstantial passions, the obsessions that confine us, and the many ways we rebel and find self-expression. “ -- Amy Tan

Sponsors:
Dresher Center for the Humanities
Friends of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery
Ivy Bookshop

March 5, 4:00 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Drawing Serious Laughter: The Art of Political Satire
Kevin KAL Kallaugher
Political Cartoonist

Internationally acclaimed political cartoonist Kevin KAL Kallaugher has for over  30 years skewered politicians from Baltimore to Berlin. In this entertaining presentation, KAL will illustrate the excitement, challenges and pitfalls of cartooning in today's world. KAL will also share his fun and important work he is creating as artist-in-residence at UMBC.

Sponsors:
Dresher Center for the Humanities

March 26, 4:00 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library, 7th Floor

The Daphne Harrison Lecture
What Does the Bible Say about Women?
Adele Berlin, Robert H. Smith Professor of Hebrew Bible
University of Maryland, College Park

The Hebrew Bible has a lot to say about women even though they played a subordinate role in ancient Israelite society. When we look at the portrayal of a few individual women, famous and not so famous, and at some general statements about women, we see that biblical representations of women are more complex than we imagined. Moreover, by examining its writings about women, we learn a good deal about biblical thought.

Sponsors:
Judaic Studies Program
Dresher Center for the Humanities

May 7, 4:00 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library, 7th Floor

The Low Lecture
Confederate Emancipation
Bruce Levine, James G. Randall Professor of History
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne

Prof. Levine’s most recent book is entitled Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (2005).  It probes the public debate that dominated politics in the South during the last six months of the war, the controversy over whether to emancipate and arm slaves to fight on behalf of the Confederacy.  This book uses the rich, dramatic, and revealing record of that debate and its aftermath to explore racial and pro-slavery ideology, the real interaction of blacks and whites during the war, the nature of southern nationalism, divisions within the South’s white population, and the complex process of emancipation and Reconstruction.

Sponsors:
Department of History
Dresher Center for the Humanities