FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDIANAPOLIS — Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist and a specialist in cyborg anthropology join minds in a discussion of one of life’s most fundamental questions during the inaugural event of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute Entanglements Lecture Series.
Biologist E.O. Wilson and social and literary critic Katherine Hayles will address the question “What Makes Us Human?” from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Indianapolis Central Library, Clowes Auditorium, 40 E. St. Clair St. The event is a collaboration between the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute; the Spirit and Place Festival, affiliated with the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI; and Indiana Humanities. The Entanglements Lecture Series is sponsored by the Efroymson Family Fund, the IU School of Dentistry, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
Lecture tickets, $15 for students and $35 for general admission, are on sale now through Eventbrite.
Wilson and Hayles will discuss whether human and animal societies are that much different, how and when we became human, and whether we now are living in an age of cyborgs.
Wilson, professor emeritus and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard University, is a prominent environmental advocate and considered the world’s leading authority on ants. In March, the government of Mozambique opened the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory in Gorongosa National Park — a tribute to Wilson’s worldwide impact.
Hayles, professor of literature at Duke University, is a leading social and literary critic with interests in cyborg anthropology, digital humanities, electronic literature, science and technology, science fiction, and critical theory.
The IAHI Entanglements Lecture Series is designed to bring together scientists, humanists and artists to discuss life’s “big questions.” Other upcoming IAHI-sponsored events include:
- Oct. 13: Lecture, “The University of Facebook,” Claire Potter, professor of history at The New School for Public Engagement in New York City
- Nov. 17: Lecture and exhibit of 260 artists’ books, IUPUI Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Symposium, Randa Jarrar for Al-Mutanabbi.
- March 5: The Future of the Arts & Humanities Roundtable: Keira Amstutz, William Blomquist, John Dichtl, Valerie Eickmeier, John Elmer, David Lawrence
- April 1: Lecture, “Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism,” Jacob Darwin Hamblin
- April 2: “Fjord/Glacier/River Reception and Art Talk,” Rebecca Allen