Winter 2018

A sacrifice and a sacrament, the Eucharist brings together faith and practice in a way that causes us to think about the manner in which a community is constituted by what its members eat and how that ingestion is made possible and understood as something more—understood as a community in communion. Emeritus Prof. of Religious Studies, James G. Hart (Indiana University) undertakes a phenomenology of the Eucharist that thinks through the distinction between God and the world; DePaul alum and Assistant Prof. of Religion and Theology, Anthony Paul Smith (La Salle University) considers the political aspects of the practice of the Eucharist, especially how it is tied to the suffering of the flesh of marginalized others; Lecturer in Anthropology, Rachel Briggs (University of North Carolina) turns our attention to other traditions that bring together sacrifice and eating, especially the Corn Mother myth in various Native American cultures; and Robert Beatty, Director of Music at the Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, leads the Saint Vincent de Paul Chamber Chorale in live musical performances that tie together these various traditions and practices, making a case for how art as well as scholarly investigation leads to enlightenment, understanding, and satiation.

Monday, January 29, 2018
DePaul Student Center, Room 120
2250 N Sheffield Avenue, Chicago

Academy Award/Golden Globe nominee and SAG Award winner, Michael Shannon visits the DePaul Humanities Center and joins Center director H. Peter Steeves to talk about a career that has taken him from stage ("Bug") to television ("Empire Boardwalk") to film (Nocturnal Animals), establishing him as one of the most talented, compelling, creative, and original artists of our time.

From Biblical Hebrew to Ancient Greek and Latin, a shade is thought to be a shadow-self, the part that continues on into the afterlife.  But our shadows, of course, are always with us—not a fake-self, not a specter of a thing, but part of what it means to be in the light, to be enlightened. 

Featuring a lecture on Plato’s “myth of the cave” by Professor of Philosophy, Michael Naas (DePaul University); Javanese “shadow puppet” court dance by Danielle Meijer (Aleph World Fusion Dance); performance of shadow puppetry poetry by Blair Thomas; an investigation of shadows’ relation to cinema by Assoc. Professor of English, Alice Maurice (University of Toronto); and musical performances of shadow-themed songs by jazz vocalist and pianist Shawn Wallace, the DHC peers into the light and the dark in a radically interdisciplinary investigation of all things shadowy. 

Be sure to arrive early (6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.) to take home a free shadow silhouette portrait by Nina Nightingale and investigate the art and science of shadows in a dozen interactive exhibits featuring the artwork of Helen Vaughn, Joao Gonçalves, Megumi Kajiwara, Tathuhiko Nijima, and scientific explorations of such themes as the weight of a shadow, how to make colorful shadows, fourth-dimension shadows, and the varieties of shadow illusions and truths.

​

The standard reading of Plato is that a physical pipe is a shadow, a poor imitation of the more real Pipe—the perfect abstract Form.  A painting of a pipe is thus twice removed from perfection: a shadow of a shadow. For this reason, artists were to be banned from Plato’s Republic as their work brings us further from the truth.  Does art lie?  Even without committing to Plato’s metaphysic, might his worry have some merit?  After all, an actor pretends to be Hamlet, and a drawing of an apple a day cannot keep the doctor away.  We begin the evening with a look at forgeries, including a screening of Orson Welles’ masterpiece hybrid documentary on fakeness and art, followed by a lecture on Welles’ film by Catherine Benamou (UC Irvine).  DHC Fellow Patty Gerstenblith next investigates the legality of fake records concerning fake and real art and artifacts.  And DePaul Theatre School alumnus, Glenn Davis, makes a case for a truth portrayed on stage or screen being just as real as a truth in everyday life.  Join us at the DHC as we artistically peel the layers of fakeness away and collectively wake from Plato’s nightmare!