25 February 2009 – (HARC) – Professor Fran Bartkowski takes up the questions surrounding contemporary ideas of kinship. How in times of constantly expanding knowledge from the biological sciences, neurosciences, and genetics do we continue to determine in our daily lives those whom we invest with intimacy? Who counts as our kin? What are the forms of care to which we commit ourselves? What about our relations with our pets, or companion animals, as some suggest we call them?
Nikolaos Chrissis – The Common Cause of Christendom: Crusading Rhetoric in Byzantine Diplomacy towards the West
24 February 2009 – speaker: Nikolaos Chrissis – Using a wide variety of sources, Dr. Chrissos analyses the rhetoric applied by Constantinople to deal with the influx of crusaders from the West, as well as their wider implication for the Church (such as the granting of indulgences).
Fiona MacIntosh – Aeschylus and the Enlightenment
18 February 2009 – (HARC) – speaker: Dr. Fiona MacIntosh – The often overlooked first complete translation of Aeschylus’ plays into French by Le Franc de Pompignan (1770) lies at the centre of Dr. Macintosh’s investigation into the reception of the Oresteia in pre- and post-revolutionary France.
Nelida Fuccaro – Middle Eastern Urban Frontiers, Migrants and States
17 February 2009 – Dr. Nelida Fuccaro traces the development of the urban settlements of Bahrain and Kuwait and their (predominantly Iranian) migrant communities, as well as the rapid economic change from pearl fishing and merchants to the modern petroleum industry.
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Judith Butler – Frames of War: The Politics of Ungrievable Life
4 February 2009 – (HARC) – Professor Judith Butler explores the way that recent US-led wars have enforced a distinction between those lives that are recognized as grievable, and those that are not.