[MassHistPres] Lecture, Thurs, Feb. 26th on "Architecture of Utopia, The American College Campus"

[BMangum411 at aol.com]

Historic Somerville presents the first of a 2009 four part local history 
lecture series this coming Thursday evening, 7-8PM at the Somerville Museum on one 
Westwood Road, Somerville 02143.   The talk is entitled: The Architecture of 
Utopia and The American College Campus.   The lecture is presented by 
Professor David Guss, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology of Tufts University. 
Tickets are $3 at the door.   HS Members, students and seniors are free.   For 
information and to reserve a seat, email info at historicsomerville.org. 

     How well does the American university fit the mold of an experiment in 
Utopian architecture? Communities are regularly created within and strangers 
forge life-long attachments to both their classmates and their adopted Alma 
Maters (nourishing mothers). How does this particularly American environment 
support not only the production of knowledge but also of character?   Examples will 
be drawn from a range of schools both nation-wide and in the college-rich 
Boston area, including Harvard, Bunker Hill, MIT, Suffolk, Emerson and Tufts 
University.   Utopias, as we shall see, come in many shapes and forms.

     Prof. David M. Guss is a poet, translator, editor, folklorist, and 
anthropologist who has lived and worked in various parts of Latin America. His most 
recent book, The Festive State: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism as Cultural 
Performance (University of California Press), is an exploration of the ways in 
which festive behavior is used to negotiate, challenge, and constitute 
identity.   Long interested in issues of placemaking, he curated a year-long 
exhibition in 2003-04, tracing the historyof Somerville's 14 movie theatres (
www.LostTheatres.org). His current project, “The Architecture of Utopia and the 
American College Campus” continues to explore the relation between the built 
environment, cultural institutions and the creation of a sense of place and 
community.



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