Discussion and reading
George Perec’s The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise(Verso, 2010; translated by David Bellos)
DAVID BELLOS
Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Princeton University; author of Georges Perec: A Life in Words
EMMANUELLE ERTEL
Assistant Professor of French, NYU; translator; author of La Maison des mots
Book will be available for purchase on site.
Wednesday, March 9, 7:00 p.m.
Institute of French Studies Colloquium
New Grounds for Race-equality Policies and Legal Decisions:
A French-American Dialogue
REVA SIEGEL, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law, Yale University, author of From Colorblindness to Antibalkanization: An Emerging Ground of Decision in Race Equality Cases, Yale Law Journal (forthcoming2011)
PATRICK WEIL, Senior Research Fellow in History and Political Science at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), visiting Professor at NYU’s Institute of French Studies (spring 2011), author Races at the Gate: Racial Distinctions in Immigration Policy: A Comparison between France and the United States, in From Europe to North America, Migration Control in the Nineteenth Century (2003).
Moderated by RAHSAAN MAXWELL, assistant professor of political science (UMass Amherst), author of Assimilation, Expectations, and Attitudes: How Ethnic Minority Migrant Groups Feel About Mainstream Society, Du Bois Review (2008)
For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has sharply divided in equal protection race discrimination cases. Should the Equal Protection Clause be interpreted through a colorblind principle applied to all individuals or through an antisubordination principle primarily concerned with group inequalities? Reva Siegel argues that a rising third perspective on equal protection has been guiding the opinions of swing Justices: a concern about the social divisiveness that results both from extreme racial stratification and unconstrained racial remedies. Could this new legal ground for race-equality policies inspire the French as they seek to implement policies fighting racial discriminations but fear the divisiveness of racial categorizations? Is this principle easily enforceable and sufficient to combat racial discriminations?
Thursday, March 10, 7:00 p.m.
ANKA MUHLSTEINWriter; author of Napoléon à Moscou; A Passion for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine; Garçon, un cent d'huitres. Balzac et la table
Proust and Balzac: A Closer Look at the Baron de Charlus
Proust's contemporaries were obsessed by the question of keys, of real life models, and seem to have neglected the literary models that were essential to his creative process. Through the very complex character of Charlus, Anka Muhlstein will show the points of contact between Proust, Saint-Simon, and above all Balzac.
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