An annual lecture series hosted by the MDHI brings leading practitioners of the digital and public humanities to campus to present their individual research work and projects, and to share insights into new digital forms of teaching, scholarship and chronicling community. Lectures provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and community members to engage in instructive and enlightening conversations with expert colleagues in the field. Events and details for the 2017-2018 academic year will be added below as they are scheduled.
Please visit the website for the Our (Digital) Humanity: Storytelling, Media Organizing and Social Justice Conference which will take place at Lehigh University April 20-22, 2018.
Global Studies, Co-sponsor Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative
Film Series
The film series is free to the public, and is screened at the ArtsQuest Center theaters at SteelStacks in South Bethlehem and other community venues. It screens new and recent documentaries on topics relevant to the local community, as well as films that showcase innovative new documentary practices and technologies. Films arefollowed by roundtables and open discussion led by visiting filmmakers and speakers, resident faculty, and community experts.
Past Events of 2017-2018
Pull of Gravity
700,000 inmates are released every year. What happens when they come home?
Communities Film Series Fall 2017
Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema
Sponsored by Lehigh University’s Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative
All films will be shown at 7:15pm with post-screening discussions
Free Admission
This semester’s Communities film series will focus on the theme of health. These films address various issues related to health and their effects on different communities.
Past 2016-2017 Film and Lecture Series (2016-2017)
Communities Film Series Spring 2017
Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema
Sponsored by Lehigh University’s Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative
All films will be shown at 7:15pm with post-screening discussions
Free Admission
This semester’s Communities film series will focus on the theme of migration. These films address various issues related to migration and their effects on different communities. As the very concept of migration suggests movement from one location to another, we will use this series to consider the impacts of immigration, refugee crises, and cultural diaspora on different communities, especially the Lehigh Valley. We are presenting films that showcase the traumatic effects of displacement, and point to the joy and promise of new community.
After Spring: March 21
With the Syrian conflict now in its sixth year, millions of people continue to be displaced. After Spring is the story of what happens next. By following two refugee families in transition and aid workers fighting to keep the camp running, viewers will experience what it is like to live in Zaatari, the largest camp for Syrian refugees. With no end in sight for the conflict or this refugee crisis, everyone must decide if they can rebuild their lives in a place that was never meant to be permanent.
Post-screening panel:
Katie Morris, Lehigh University, class of 2018, Global Studies and Journalism
Sarah Stanlick, Lehigh University, Director of the Center for Community Engagement
Timothy Daly, Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley
The Other Side of Immigration: April 4
Based on over 700 interviews in rural Mexico, The Other Side of Immigration asks why so many Mexicans migrate to the United States and what happens to the families and communities they leave behind. Through an approach that is both subtle and thought-provoking, director Roy Germano reveals a perspective on undocumented immigration rarely witnessed by American eyes, challenging audiences to imagine more creative and effective bilateral solutions. The Other Side of Immigration is an American Library Association Notable Video and has screened at hundreds of film festivals, universities, high schools, government institutions, and public libraries.
Post-screening panel:
Hugo Cerón, Lehigh University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
José Antonio Ortiz, Nuestro Valle, Producer/Host
Erika M. Sutherland, Muhlenberg College, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
CANCELLED :The Great Fallacy: April 18
Paco Vázquez’s award-winning documentary treats the political, economic, and social situation of Puerto Rico. Based on current circumstances of the Island and using history as the foundation for the film, Vázquez reveals how politicians manipulate the system so big corporations can maintain control. The Great Fallacy also promotes solutions for the people to force changes to the system through themselves and not through the government.
Post-screening panel:
Javier Toro, Community Activist, Bethlehem
Alexis Torres, B. Braun Medical, Inc.
Past Events (2016-2017):
MDHI Beyond the Bars Spring Series 2017
Prison Poetry: An Active of Resistance
Public Lecture with Rend Smith, Prison Poetry Workshop>
Thursday, March 23, 4:10pm
Location:The Roemmele Global Commons, Williams Hall,
31 Williams Drive, Bethlehem, PA Lehigh University
Sit in any prison classroom or juvenile center and ask: How many writers are in the room? How many people are writing rhymes or poems? From pockets, carefully folded pieces of paper will emerge, each with words upon them written in precise, tightly composed handwriting. They are written on the backs of grievance forms and scrap paper, and each week, they are mailed off to loved ones. Considering our country’s two-million-plus prisoners, these exchanges constitute one of our largest literary movements to date. Taken individually, these poems are powerful testaments to highly individual struggles. Collectively, they are also part of an important literary practice involving citizens speaking from and representing their humanity despite being behind bars – from Voltaire to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Poetry Beyond Bars- Spoken Word event with Host Professor Kashi Johnson
Thursday, March 23
8:00pm (Doors open @ 7:30pm)
Location: Touchstone Theater, 321 E 4th St, Bethlehem, PA 18015
Performances by:
Miles J. Davis
Scribe
Yodi Vaden
Tariana Hernandez
Kiskeyana
Basement Poets
...as well as contributions form poets incarcerated in PA prisons
Wednesday, March 29
Film Screening & Panel Discussion: Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Location: Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts
321 E 3rd St, Bethlehem, PA 18015
6:00 pm- Movie Screening of the Prison in Twelve Landscapes
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. The Prison in Twelve Landscapes is a film about the prison in which we never see a penitentiary. Instead, the film unfolds as a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from a California mountainside where female prisoners fight raging wildfires, to a Bronx warehouse full of goods destined for the state correctional system, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
7:30 pm- Panel discussion with:
Brett Story- Filmmaker of The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
Jude Laure- Denis- Executive Director of Power NE (Pennsylvanians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild) - An Interfaith Movement
Hasshan Batts- Father, son, brother, friend and community healer; survivor of the NYC public school system and juvenile detention and adult prison survivor.
Brenda Harris, Coalition Against Death By Incarceration (CADBI) from Philadelphia
Moderator: Shanita Hubbard, Professor of Criminal Justice at Northampton Community College
Co-sponsors: Southside Initiative, Southside Film Institute
Master Class with Yeong-Ung Yang and Public Lecture For Undergraduates & Graduates
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 , 1:10-3:00 pm
Williams Hall 070
An afternoon master class for undergraduate and graduate students with award-winning independent New York photojournalist and photographer Yeong-Ung Yang. Yang will discuss the present state and challenges of the industry of photojournalism, how he has progressed through his own freelancing career, and the relationships he has developed with editors and media outlets through his projects.
https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/the-casino-as-lifeline/
http://www.yeongungyang.com/
Bus-kkun: Documenting a Community on the Move
Public Lecture by Yeong-Ung Yang
Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 4:10 pm,
STEPS 101, Lehigh University
Yeong-Ung Yang, a New York based photojournalist, will speak about how his documentary photography work from school became his everlasting long-term project, bus-kkun—which documents Korean and Chinese immigrants who ride buses daily from Flushing, New York, to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in order to make money selling the complementary gambling vouchers the casino provides. Yang will discuss how his photo essay on the bus-kkun lead him to writing articles, producing a multimedia piece, and reporting for a major publication about his subjects. He will talk about the process of documentation, the challenges of being an independent journalist, and maintaining long-term relationships with his subjects.
Memories of Steel: Women of Bethlehem Steel
Friday, 12/2, 6:30 p.m.
Northampton Community College/Southside Center
511 E. Third Street, Bethlehem PA
Come hear about the many roles that women played at Bethlehem Steel, from a previously funded MDHI-funded project "Women of Bethlehem Steel."
This event will feature a panel discussion, exhibits of photographs and memorabilia, and a demonstration of the "Beyond Steel" digital archive that contains interviews from women who worked at Bethlehem Steel.
Master Class with Laura Israel and Screening of “Don’t Blink”
For Undergraduates & Graduates Master class with Laura Israel
Tuesday, November 1, 2:30-4:00 pm
Williams Hall 070
Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative in partnership with the Lehigh University Art Galleries and ArtsQuest
An afternoon master class for undergraduate and graduate students with Laura Israel, director of Don’t Blink-Robert Frank, the recently released documentary about the eminent photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank. Israel will discuss the process and challenges of documentary filmmaking, and reflect on her recent work documenting the life of Robert Frank. As part of the class, Israel will screen an early sample trailer for her film that she created for seeking financing for production, as well as several short films that she worked on in collaboration with Frank.
https://filmmakermagazine.com/people/laura-israel/
http://www.dontblinkrobertfrank.com/
Don’t Blink - Robert Frank
Free Film Screening / Open to All
Tuesday, November 1, 7:15 pm
Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas
ArtsQuest, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem
Robert Frank, now 91 years old, is among the most influential photographers and filmmakers of the last half-century. He is a cult figure whose ties to the Beat Generation and Rolling Stones earned him both respect and a certain infamy. Most celebrated for his seminal photo book The Americans (1958) and the landmark independent film Pull My Daisy (1959), Frank has spent hiscareer ignoring aesthetic and cultural boundaries. Frank’s multi-layered life and work are largely inseparable, and he has never been ready to let someone tell his story until Don’t Blink, directed by Laura Israel, his longtime film and video editor. Don’t Blink offers audiences revelatory insight into theintricacies of his photos, films and personal history while artfully revealing Robert Frank’s complex life story.
The E-Word: Ebonics, Race and LanguagePolitics- Thursday, October 13
(event co-sponsored by Africana Studies, College of Education, and Office of Multicultural Affairs)
Film Screening
Thursday, October 13, 4:10 p.m.
Sinclair Auditorium
Free and open to the public
Last Day of Freedom Film Screening- Monday, October 3
(event co-sponsored with Muhlenberg College and Lafayette College)
Film screening and discussion
Monday, October 3, 7 p.m.
Civic Theater
527 N. 19th St.
Allentown, PA 18014
See flier and workshops page for more information about animation Workshop with filmmaker Nomi Talisman on Tuesday, October 4
Walking Towards Autonomy- Friday, October 7
The film Walking Towards Autonomy (53 min) examines traditional communal forms of self governance practiced in Cherán, Mexico after community members expelled all government officials, police, military, and political parties.
Lecture & Discussion with filmmakers Simón Sedillo and Eugénie Tailhandie
Friday, October 7 from 12:00-1:30pm in the Roemmele Global Commons of Williams Hall
Cosponsored by Latin American Studies & the Humanities Center
Light lunch provided
5 X 10 Collaborative Communities Track
Free Community Screening of Walking Towards Autonomy
Friday, October 7, 7pm at Victory Firehouse, 205 Webster St., Bethlehem
Cosponsored by the South Side Initiative and the southside film institute
Light Dinner served
See 2016-2017 Film and Lecture Series Here
See 2015-2016 Film and Lecture Series Events Here