Havel at Columbia

• « Back to Interviews

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

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:

• Audio (Podcast Version)
• Video (Podcast Version)
• Video with Chapters (Flash Version)