About the Event
This First Friday Lecture is supported by the Anastaplo Lecture Series Fund in memory of Basic Program Instructor George Anastaplo.
Lecture Description:
In this talk, Basic Program instructor Paul Cato will outline testimony as a fundamental tool for protecting the humanities from today’s authoritarianism and disregard for human rights. Recounting a summer spent conducting research at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Cato will outline and employ forms of testimony modeled by several Black Harlemites, including James Baldwin, Jacob Lawrence, and Nella Larsen, among others. In doing so, he calls upon all lovers and teachers of the humanities to integrate personal testimony into their discussions of noteworthy literature, art, film, and theory. Drawing on the aforementioned Black humanists, Cato insists that the social, cultural, and existential power of humanistic works only manifests when they are connected to the personal.
Who's Speaking
Paul Cato
Paul Cato (He/Him) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Committee on Social Thought currently studying religion, literature, and intellectual history. His research focuses on discourses on love and intersubjectivity, particularly those developed by African American intellectual James Baldwin. He joined the Basic Program instructional staff in March 2022.
Paul Cato (He/Him) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Committee on Social Thought currently studying religion, literature, and intellectual history. His research focuses on discourses on love and intersubjectivity, particularly those developed by African American intellectual James Baldwin. He joined the Basic Program instructional staff in March 2022.