Galileo, Shakespeare Help Celebrate Kahn Institute's 15th Anniversary

For 15 years, Smith’s Louise W. and Edmund J. Kahn Liberal Arts Institute has been supporting collaborative research and breaking down boundaries between departments and disciplines.

Since the Kahn Institute was founded in 1998, more than 250 Smith faculty members, as well as educators in the Five Colleges and other schools, have participated in projects sponsored by the Institute.

In addition, more than 250 students have participated as Kahn Institute Fellows on projects built around broad topics such as Galileo, democracy and wellness and disease—among others.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, the Kahn Institute will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a gala evening including two panel discussions—one featuring Smith faculty members in full costume portraying 17th-century luminaries Galileo, Shakespeare, astronomer Sir Thomas Digges and Galileo’s daughter, Suor Maria Celeste.

The Liberal Arts in Depth: Kahn Institute at 15, begins at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of Neilson Library. In keeping with the event’s liberal arts theme, the celebration will also honor the 450th birthdays of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

The celebration is free and open to the public. 

Institute Director Rosetta Cohen says the event will highlight the Kahn Institute’s contributions to cross-disciplinary learning.

“The Kahn Institute is unique in a number of ways,” said Cohen,  Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Professor of Education and Child Study. “It invites both faculty and students to work together as equals. It’s a true liberal arts institute that draws together faculty from all three divisions.”

Cohen noted that the Kahn Institute is also unusual in that the projects require no product from those who participate. “Rather, the discourse that happens on a weekly basis, the kind of intimacy that is developed through the intellectual work of the Kahn Institute is itself the product,” she said.

The anniversary event will begin with a panel, “The Possibility of the Liberal Arts: Three Reflections,” a discussion among Cohen and two past directors of the Institute. They are Marjorie Senechal, Louise Wolff Kahn Professor Emerita in Mathematics and History of Science and Technology—the Institute’s first director —and Rick Fantasia, B. Richmond 1940 Professor of Sociology.

A reception will follow in the Kahn Gallery, with drop-in visits from faculty in full 17th-century costumes and a display of original books by Galileo and Shakespeare, courtesy of Smith’s Mortimer Rare Book Room.

At 7:15 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room, Galileo, Shakespeare and their contemporaries will begin the second panel, “Running the Kahn Institute in the Early 17th Century: or, What Advice Would Galileo Give Shakespeare?”

Speakers include Doug Patey, Sophia Smith Professsor of English Language and Literature, assuming the role of Galileo; Bill Oram, Helen Means Professor of English Language and Literature, as Shakespeare; Dava Sobel, the Jacobson Visiting Non-fiction Writer-in-Residence, as Suor Maria Celeste; and Nat Fortune, professor of physics, as Sir Thomas Digges.

Panelists will consider the challenges of directing a Kahn Institute project, circa 1622.

The Kahn Institute emerged following a self-study at Smith in 1997, when faculty members proposed the creation of a forum for intellectual exploration beyond the classroom that could also act as an extension of scholarly research. A bequest from Louise Wolff Kahn ‘31 established the Institute in 1998. It moved into its permanent home on the third floor of Neilson Library in 2000.

The Kahn Institute invites Smith and Five College faculty, as well as Smith students and staff members, to engage in yearlong and semester-long research projects within broad topics.

This year’s projects include “The Power of Disappearance,” which explores varied forms and implications of disappearance, and “The Question of Privacy,” which will take place in spring of 2015. The Privacy project kicks off this month with a talk by NPR national correspondent Martin Kaste on Friday, Nov. 21, at 4:30 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.

The Institute also hosts short-term projects of two days to one week, such as its recent “Contested Cosmologies: Our Place in Space,” which explored literal and metaphorical conceptions of space.

Senechal said she is delighted to be celebrating the Kahn Institute’s role at Smith, noting, “The Institute continues to grow and develop in response to Smith’s ever-evolving academic culture.”

The Kahn Institute 15-year anniversary celebration is one of three events in an ongoing series, “Galileo in Perspective,” which will conclude with a lecture, “Forging the Moon: or, How to Spot a Fake Galileo,” by Nick Wilding, associate professor of history at Georgia State University. Wilding will speak on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.