Upcoming Events

Oct
19

Faculty Fellow Talk:
Dr. Dana Shaaban (Department of English),
"The Arabian Nights and the Making of 'British' Identity in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights"

Nineteenth-century Britain is haunted not only by ghosts of the past but by fantastical tales that have traveled across deserts, oceans, and cultures. Made widely available through translations, popular editions, and abridged versions, The Arabian Nights seeped through British culture and became part of the imaginative infrastructure of the Victorian era.  The Brontë sisters, like many canonical Victorian authors, read The Arabian Nights in their formative years and were inspired by it, often adopting some of its foundational elements in their own works. This paper joins the movement of “undisciplining” Victorian studies by offering a contrapuntal reading of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) as viewed through the lens of The Arabian Nights. Specifically, I demonstrate how, through the process of imperial “cultural traffic,” this influential palimpsestic text introduced young British readers (and future authors) to a new narrative structure of framed stories, gendered forms of storytelling, and patterns of desire and violence. For instance, the protagonists of The Arabian Nights, Shahrayar and Shahrazad, illustrate how storytelling is used to control violence and maintain social order.  Brontë’s Heathcliff parallels the despotic Sultan Shahrayar, as a figure who experiences trauma and ends up perpetuating this cycle of abuse towards others. Although Sultan Shahrayar eventually heals from his traumatic experience with his first wife through Shahrazad’s storytelling, Heathcliff does not seem to recuperate from his desire for revenge, revealing sadistic tendencies that linger throughout the novel. I contend that Heathcliff exhibits what Homi Bhabha terms “cultural ambivalence” in that he simultaneously desires to fit into the mold of what is considered “British,” while at the same time resisting the racial capitalism that structures that society. My reading of Wuthering Heights ultimately suggests that “British” identity is shaped by overlapping stories, cultures, and desires, which move through empire and unsettle the British domestic space.

4pm, Humanities 201

Oct
22

University Speakers Series:
Krysta Ryzewski (Wayne State University),
"Unearthing Detroit: Archaeology, Community, and the University”

How can university research strengthen relationships with local communities, and how can those relationships reshape the knowledge universities produce? Join Krysta Ryzewski, Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Wayne State University, for a conversation about archaeology and the university’s public responsibilities. Drawing on her experience leading over a dozen community-engaged research projects in Metro Detroit, Krysta will discuss how faculty, students, and community collaborators bring important, and often marginalized histories into public view by creating opportunities for shared research and engagement with the city’s past, and by advancing initiatives and policies that ensure their visibility into the future.

Don Lavigne and Christopher Witmore will guide the conversation, with time for audience questions and discussion.

2:30pm, Qualia Room, Basement of CMLL Building

 

Oct
23

"Reading the University: A Three-Part Book Club on Academic Freedom, Democracy, and the Purpose of Higher Education"

Chapter 2: Academic freedom and the First Amendment. Freedom of speech,  freeom of inquiry, and the freedom to teach and learn. Disagreement, discomfort, and censorship.  

TLPDC 153 or on Zoom. 

Registration is encouraged but not required. If you register and commit to attending all three sessions, you can be entered to win a free copy of University: A Reckoning. Winners will be selected at random. 

Register here.

 Nov
4

Alumni College Symposium 2026

Join us for an evening of scholarly presentations by this year's cohort of Alumni College Research Fellows. Reception to follow.

6:00pm-9:00pm, SUB (Mesa Room, Traditions Room, Matador Lounge)

Nov
20

"Reading the University: A Three-Part Book Club on Academic Freedom, Democracy, and the Purpose of Higher Education"

Chapter 3 & Conclusion: Universities as democratic institutions. Knowledge, citizenship, and public accountability. Defending the university in times of political pressure.

TLPDC 153 or on Zoom. 

Registration is encouraged but not required. If you register and commit to attending all three sessions, you can be entered to win a free copy of University: A Reckoning. Winners will be selected at random. 

Register here.