The Great Texts/Big Questions lecture series is an initiative of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) at the University of Cape Town. The institute was established to enhance the arts within UCT and the broader community whilst facilitating a broad range of collaborative and interdisciplinary projects.
It is intended to “kindle a culture of ideas, arguments, and conjectures at the university and around it”. Each hour-long lecture will focus on the speaker’s encounter with a single book or work of art, which has transformed his or her own history. In keeping with the series’ emphasis on questioning and enquiry, the audience is encouraged to discover the text beforehand and the speaker will engage with both the audience and facilitator from the university community. Past speakers have included Andre Brink, Zackie Achmat, Jonathan Schapiro (Zapiro), Mamphela Ramphele, William Kentridge and others
The next Great Texts/Big Questions lecture is on Thursday 12 August at 17h00, at the University of Cape Town’s Hiddingh Hall in Orange Street. Deborah Posel, the founding director of UCT’s Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) and Professor of Sociology, will be discussing Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste: Thorsten Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen. The lecture looks at the life and writing of a man who provoked many controversies and is often seen as an intellectual and social maverick. Deborah has published widely on the history of Apartheid and is interested in the interdisciplinary space.
On 19 August, Mark Ellyne, economist and Resident Representative in Africa of the International Monetary Fun (IMF) will speak, and on 26 August, Coilin Parsons, English lecturer, will speak on James Joyce’s Shorter Masterpiece: The Dead.
For more information, visit www.gipca.uct.ac.za or call 021 480 7156 or e-mail fin-gipca@uct.ac.za.
Admission is free.
