Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

Audio Recordings, Videos, and Transcripts of Past Conversations from the Cullman Center


Mark Morris in Conversation with Wendy Lesser, May 5, 2008
Choreographer Mark Morris celebrates the 20th anniversary of "L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed il Moderato," his transporting dance project inspired by the work of Milton, Handel and Blake, with Threepenny Review editor and former Cullman Center Fellow Wendy Lesser.
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Michael Kinsley
Fresh Takes: Michael Kinsley, Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich, moderated by Sean Wilentz, April 21, 2008
To celebrate the publication of Michael Kinsley's Please Don’t Remain Calm: Provocations and Commentaries, a collection of witty and trenchant columns, the distinguished editorial writers Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich join Kinsley to discuss the pleasures and challenges of their craft. Kinsley is a columnist for Time and a past editor of The New Republic, Harper’s, and Slate, which he founded. Maureen Dowd is a New York Times Op-Ed columnist and the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. Her most recent book is Are Men Necessary: When Sexes Collide. Frank Rich is a New York Times Op-Ed columnist and the author, most recently, of The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth. Sean Wilentz, a former Fellow of the Cullman Center, is George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, and his award-winning books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln.
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Whale Song
Whalesong: Past and Future, New York and the World, April 19, 2008
A symposium on the history, science and perennial romance of the leviathan in America, presented in conjuction with the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Humanities Initiative at New York University.

Part I: "Cetology and the City: Studying the Whale in Nineteenth-Century New York." Participants include Tom Bender, University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, NYU; D. Graham Burnett (session curator), Associate Professor of History, Princeton University and author, most recently, of Trying Leviathan: The Ninteenth Century Court Case that Put the Whale on Trial and Challenged the Order of Nature; Joyce Chaplin, James Duncan Philips Professor of Early American History, Harvard University, and author of The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius; Stuart Frank, curator, New Bedford Whaling Museum; and Cyrus Patel, Associate Professor of English, NYU, and author of Negative Liberties: Morrison, Pynchon, and the Problem of Liberal Ideology.
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Part II: "The Song of the Humpback Whale." Participants include Sal Cerchio, Associate Scientist, Cetacean Conservation and Research Program (CCRP) Marine Program, Wildlife Conservation Society; Scott McVay, founding director (retired), Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; Roger Payne, founder and president of the Ocean Alliance, best known for his discovery (with Scott McVay) that humpback whales sing songs and for his theory that the sounds of fin and blue whales can be heard across oceans; and David Rothenberg (session curator), composer, jazz clarinetist, professor of philosophy and music, New Jersey Institute of Technology and author, most recently, of Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound. Discussion moderated by Elizabeth Bradley, Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Music performance by Lukas Ligeti, percussion; Michelle Makarski, violin; David Rothenberg, clarinet.
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Joseph O'Connor and Colum McCann, November 14, 2007
Writers and former Cullman Fellows Joseph O'Connor and Colum McCann debut O'Connor's dazzling new novel, Redemption Falls, a panoramic tale of love, war, and the American West, which he wrote at the Cullman Center.
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Celebration of Leonard Michaels
Going Places: A Celebration of the Writer Leonard Michaels, with David Bezmozgis, Wendy Lesser, Wyatt Mason, Robert Pinsky and Deborah Treisman, October 27, 2007
A conversation about the work of the late writer Leonard Michaels, featuring the award-winning short story writer David Bezmozgis, translator, literary critic and former Cullman Center Fellow Wyatt Mason, Poet Laureate Emeritus Robert Pinsky, and New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman. Moderated by Wendy Lesser, founding editor of the Threepenny Review and a former Fellow of the Cullman Center.
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Edmund White in Conversation with Joyce Carol Oates, October 16, 2007
The celebrated writers and Princeton professors discuss White's latest novel, Hotel de Dream, an imagining of Stephen Crane's final days, which White wrote while a Fellow at the Cullman Center.
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Julia Child in America: A Panel with Dan Barber, David Kamp, Molly O'Neill, Melanie Rehak and Laura Shapiro, October 10, 2007
A discussion of the complex legacy of Julia Child, arguably America's first celebrity chef. Featuring the award-winning culinary historians David Kamp, Molly O'Neill, and Laura Shapiro, and acclaimed chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Moderated by author, journalist, and former Cullman Center Fellow Melanie Rehak.
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