Gauss Seminars in Criticism: Hortense J. Spillers
Hortense Spillers, Vanderbilt University (Emerita)
October 25, 2022 · 5:00 pm—7:00 pm · Betts Auditorium
Humanities Council
The Humanities Council’s Fall 2022 Gauss Seminars in Criticism will be presented by Hortense Spillers (Emerita, Vanderbilt University). Her visit, under the general title, “Criticism in Times of Stress,” will comprise a public lecture on Tuesday, October 25 and a seminar on Wednesday, October 26.
Hortense J. Spillers is a Black Feminist scholar and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University. A specialist of the African diaspora, Spillers is known for her essays on African American literature, collected in Black, White, and In Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture (2003) and Comparative American Identities: Race, Sex, and Nationality in the Modern Text, a collection edited by Spillers (1991). Her essay in Diacritics, “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book,” is among the most important and influential articles in the contemporary humanities.
Tuesday, October 25 at 5:00 PM in Betts Auditorium
Public Lecture: “Ethics and the Everyday”
How can we be ethical in a world where many think of ethics as a joke?
*Masks will be required for this event.
Wednesday, October 26 at 12:00 PM — Location TBA *seminar full, wait list only*
Seminar: “Women and the Laws”
This seminar focuses on Le Code Noir (the Black Code)—the infamous edict by King Louis XIV, as well as “the most monstrous legal document of modern times,” that established the terms of enslavement in the French colonies. We will ask: how does the nameless, faceless female slave bear the weight of the moral disaster of slavery?
RSVP required for this lunch seminar, which is open only to members of the Princeton University community. To reserve a spot, please email both Andrew Cole (acole@princeton.edu) and Jeannine Matt Pitarresi (jp16@princeton.edu). The location will be communicated to all registrants several days before the seminar.
