Havel at Columbia



Symposium, in Honor of the Columbia University Residency of Václav Havel

The Examined Life: A Symposium Dedicated to the Literature and Politics of President Havel

Photo: The Examined Life:  A Symposium Dedicated to the Literature and Politics of President Havel Harriman Institute
Nov 11
10:00am to 6:00pm
Room 1501, International Affairs Building (420 West 118th Street)

Welcome and Opening Remarks by Catharine Nepomnyashchy : Director, Harriman Institute

--- Morning Session on Literature: 10:00a-12:30p ---

Moderator: Christopher Harwood , Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University.

Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz : Professor at the University of British Columbia, author of The Silenced Theatre: Czech Playwrights Without a Stage , and co-editor of Critical Essays on Václav Havel
"Václav Havel's Theater: Plays for Our Times"

Paul Wilson : Freelance writer, editor (of Havel's Open Letters , among others), and translator of fiction by Josef Škvorecký, Bohumil Hrabal, and Ivan Klíma, as well as many of Havel's belletristic and dramatic works.
"Reading Havel: Remarks on a Life in Translation"

Peter Steiner : Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn-in-Prague Program, and author, most recently, of The Deserts of Bohemia: Czech Fiction and its Social Context.
"The Power of the Image: Vaclav Havel's Visual Poetry"

Carol Rocamora : Professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU' s Tisch School of the Arts and author of the new biography Acts of Courage: Václav Havel's Life in the Theater.
"Havel's Drama on the English-Speaking Stage"

--- Afternoon Session on Politics: 2:00p-4:30p ---

Moderator: Bradley Abrams , Associate Professor, History Department, Columbia University.

Ambassador Martin Palouš : Czech Ambassador to the United Nations, former Czech Ambassador to the United States and former spokesperson of Charter 77
"What Antipolitical Politics Is and What It Is Not"

Jiří Pehe : Director, NYU in Prague, former Director of the Political Department of Havel's Presidential Office
"Václav Havel: From a Political Dissident to a Dissident Politician"

Petr Pithart : First Deputy Chairperson and former Chairperson of the Czech Senate, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and leading dissident in communist Czechoslovakia.
"The Dissident and Intellectual in Politics: The Three Roles of Václav Havel"

--- Reception: 4:30p-6:00p ---

For more information on this and other Harriman Institute Events, please see: www.harrimaninstitute.org

For more information about Czech events at Columbia, please see: http://sipa.columbia.edu/regional/ECE/Czech.html

Also available:

Comments

A stimulating event. Looking forward to the video & audio feed as I missed part of it. Thank you for your efforts in organizing all these programs. Havel is certainly a worthy subject.

Congratulations and thank you for a brilliant symposium, a worthy addition to the long line of important programs organized by the Harriman Institute. You are an NYC treasure. The speakers treated us to original, thought provoking presentations in which they advanced understanding of Vaclav Havel also for our time. Bravi!

I can never thank you enough for making me a part of the Havel Symposium. What a magnificent trubte to a magnificent human being. And following it with that splendid reception, where the guests could 'meet and greet' and discuss the proceedings. Bravo - Hurrah - waiting for a return engagement - or ENCORE. Mary Gaydos