Katherine Hite

April 13, 2022.

Katherine Hite, Professor of Political Science on the Fredrick Ferris Thompson Chair and Director of Research and Development at Vassar College, talks about her recent research on Texas history, published in her articles "Texas, Monuments, and the Politics of Self-Reckoning in Texas," (Memory Studies Special Issue 14:6, 2021) and "A Monumental Battle for the Story of Texas," (Revista: The Harvard Journal of Latin Amerian Studies, 20:23, 2021), as well as about her books on monuments and the politics of memory in Latin America and Spain: The Politics and the Art of Commemoration: Memorials to Struggle in Latin America and Spain (Routledge, 2013) and Memory in Chile from Pinochet to Bachelet (First Forum, 2013). 

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Nicholas Adams

April 15, 2015.

Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Art Nicholas Adams discusses his new book: Gunnar Asplund's Gothenburg: The Transformation of Public Architecture in Interwar Europe (Penn State, 2014).


“This brilliant book offers a unique insight into one of the most cherished models of modern monumentality: the Gothenburg Courthouse extension, designed by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund and completed in 1936. Setting his subject in an international perspective, Nicholas Adams carefully addresses questions on modern law and modern architecture, reaching far beyond the actual case. Through his inclusively contextual approach, we learn that the introduction of modernism in public architecture was a difficult task, operating on different levels of a democratic society through the interplay of architect, commissioner, and—not least—public opinion.”   -- Anders Bergstöm, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

46:54 minutes.

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Mary-Kay Lombino

February 25, 2015.

Mary Kay Lombino, Emily Hargroves Fisher 1957 and Richard B. Fisher Curator of Collections at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, discusses the exhibition on view January 30 - March 29, 2015 entitled: XL: Large-Scale Works from the Permanent Collection.

43:30 minutes.

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Matthew Israel

May 21, 2014.

Matthew Israel (VC'00), Director of the Art Genome Project, talks about the Project, Artsy, and taxonomies of the history of art.

"The Art Genome Project's search technology is the product of an ongoing art-historical study—undertaken by a team of contributors with art-historical backgrounds—seeking to define the characteristics which distinguish and connect works of art, architecture, ancient artifacts and design."

30:30 minutes.

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John Long

November 28, 2012.

John Long, Professor of Biology and Cognitive Science at Vassar College, discusses his book Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology, chosen by the New Scientist as one of the top five books published in the spring of 2012.

“Though [Long] is a gifted storyteller, this is no simple fish tale. The engineering draw of robots is clear, but Long also emphasises the value for science, showing how robots can serve as physical models of biological organisms; evolving biorobots can shed light on why organisms evolved as they did; and robot interaction can illustrate coevolutionary dynamics, as between predators and prey…. With Darwin’s Devices, Long reminds us that science is always an adventure, and that new technology only drives us faster and further into the unknown.” -- Josh Bongard in the New Scientist.

61:59 min.

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