Thursday, April 9, 2015 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Mendenhall Lab 191
The Undergraduate Humanities Scholars Program will be hosting a Folklore and Tradition themed Dinner and Dialogue event on Thursday, April 9 at 5:30-6:30 PM in Mendenhall Lab 191. Our very own Ehsan Estiri will be the speaker and will lead the discussion. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Ehsan's abstract for the talk-
Tradition is southern shotgun houses, the canned foods your grandmother makes, or hillbilly music. Tradition is also cross burning, lynching of black people, and female genital mutilation. So, what really is tradition? What kind of behaviors have the capacity to get formulated as tradition? Is tradition constructive or destructive? Restrictive or enabling? Real or fake? Is it about claiming power or is it about resistance? In this talk we will try to address these questions, and also consider the ways in which tradition can be deployed in the construction of national identity.