March 6, 2012

Award Winner! Lisa Keller Wins for Her "Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space in New York and London"

Congratulations to Lisa Keller upon winning The New York Academy of History’s Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship for her book Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space in New York and London. This award, named in honor of...

March 5, 2012

Hilary Ballon on The Greatest Grid

Hilary Ballon, author of The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, will discuss the book, the very popular exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, and the grid itself,at The Tenement Museum tomorrow, Tuesday, March...

March 2, 2012

David Rieff on Doctors Without Borders

The following is an excerpt from David Rieff’s afterword to Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience: There was never any room for compromise in the myth of the “French doctors”. Aid was a moral imperative, full stop. Like all doctrines...

March 2, 2012

The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History Hits the Airwaves

The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History, edited by Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum was recently featured on the podcast, Books and Culture. The podcast discusses a variety of the essays but on his blog Religion in American...

March 1, 2012

Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed in the Gaza Strip

In a chapter from Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience, Caroline Abu-Sada recounts and analyzes some of the complications Doctors Without Borders//Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has grappled with in Palestine. Specifically, Doctors Without Borders has had to navigate a perilous...

March 1, 2012

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Judith Butler

February 24 was the birthday of famed philosopher Judith Butler. Butler is a prolific scholar of diverse interests. She has published important books on feminist and queer theory, modern French philosophy, literature and literary theory, political ethics, and Jewish philosophy....

February 29, 2012

Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed — Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan

The authors of Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience recount their experiences with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In particular they focus on some of the practical and frequently difficult experience of having to work with unfriendly governments or...

February 29, 2012

Denis Lacorne: Breaking Down the Wall of Separation from JFK to Santorum and Romney

“Excessive or opportunistic professions of faith can only damage the political process when the truth is distorted in the name of religion to the point of absurdity.”—Denis Lacorne Recent news about the Republican primary has seen its fair share of...

February 28, 2012

Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed in Somalia

On the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has published Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience exploring the practical realities of conducting humanitarian negotiations in complex situations. In a recent...

February 28, 2012

New Book Tuesday — Mark Taylor on Art and The Foundations of the American Century

The following titles are now available: Refiguring the Spiritual: Beuys, Barney, Turrell, Goldsworthy Mark C. Taylor Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations and the Rise of American Power Inderjeet Parmar Sacred Exchanges: Images in Global...

February 27, 2012

Santiago Zabala: How to Be a European (Union) Philosopher

In recent weeks, Santiago Zabala, coauthor of Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx, has been writing about the importance of continental philosophy in addressing some of the current political, economic, and even existential crises. In a recent op-ed in the...

February 27, 2012

Book Giveaway — Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience

This week our featured book is Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience, edited by Claire Magone, Michael Neuman, and Fabrice Weissman, published on the fortieth anniversary of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. Throughout the week we will highlight aspects of...