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Events

Intellectual collaborations thrive in environments where ideas are shared, freely and respectfully, among people representing different backgrounds and perspectives. This is why the Neubauer Collegium regularly opens its inquiries and conversations to the public.

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The Imperative Pythagoreanism: Big Data and "Brute Force" at the Heart of AI (and "Genomics")

Image of DNA being altered by a pair of tweezers.
Lecture

The Imperative Pythagoreanism: Big Data and "Brute Force" at the Heart of AI (and "Genomics")

Giuseppe Longo will discuss AI, genomics, and the challenge of understanding "what causes what."

Two important technosciences of today, AI and genocentric biology, are based on “imperative” views of nature. Without engaging with the “intrinsic’’ structure of reality, this talk compares different perspectives, showing how the use of discrete mathematical structures places a particular bias on the understanding of ‘‘what causes what.” As a consequence, digital methods rely on the use of immense databases and “brute force” to find optimal paths or maximize statistical correlations. The talk will consider alternatives to the currently prevalent use of these technologies – in AI and, if time permits, in organismal biology.

This event has been organized by Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow Adam Nocek (Arizona State University) in partnership with the Phytological Critique research project at the Neubauer Collegium.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Giuseppe Longo is an Italian mathematician, epistemologist, and theoretical biologist. He is the Research Director Emeritus at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) at the Cavaillès interdisciplinary center of École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. Longo has conducted research in the fields of mathematics (focusing on the mathematics of computing) and its connections with biology, computer science, and physics. He has authored or co-authored five books and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. Longo is a Member of Academia Europaea,and was the founder and Editor in Chief of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science from 1990 to 2015, and co-founder of the Annals of Mathematics and Philosophy.

READINGS

G. Longo, The systemic unity in mathematics and science: beyond techno-science myths. Systems, to appear, 2025.

J. Lassègue, G. Longo, L'empire numérique. De l'alphabet à l'IA. PUF, Paris, 2025.

Neubauer Collegium

Giuseppe Longo will discuss AI, genomics, and the challenge of understanding "what causes what."

Register

Drew Gilpin Faust on "The Past and Its Burdens"

Photo of a woman in front of a shelf of books
Director's Lecture

Drew Gilpin Faust on "The Past and Its Burdens"

The renowned U.S. historian will explore the changing presence of the South in American national consciousness.

At this talk, presented as part of the Neubauer Collegium’s Director’s Lecture series, renowned U.S. historian Drew Gilpin Faust will explore the changing presence of the South in U.S. national consciousness over the past half century. Faust will argue that the South and its origins have a grip on Americans that they fail to recognize at their peril.

About the Speaker

Drew Gilpin Faust is the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor at Harvard University where she served as president from 2007 to 2018. She came to Harvard in 2001 as founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study after twenty five years on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Faust is the author of seven books, including Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury, published in August 2023. Her earlier book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, was awarded the Bancroft Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and was recognized by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2008. She and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About the Director's Lecture Series

The Roman Family Director’s Lecture series at the Neubauer Collegium, made possible through the generous support of University of Chicago Trustee Emmanuel Roman, MBA’87, brings distinguished speakers to the University of Chicago to share their insights with faculty, students, and the broader community. The aim of these events is to deepen public knowledge about the world and humanity’s place in it.

The renowned U.S. historian will explore the changing presence of the South in American national consciousness.

Register

From Eugenics to Genetics: The Role of Ancient DNA in Racist Appropriations of Classical Antiquity

Black and white photograph of a 1930s exhibit on eugenics.
Lecture

From Eugenics to Genetics: The Role of Ancient DNA in Racist Appropriations of Classical Antiquity

Professor Denise Eileen McCoskey will deliver a lecture on the dangers of how research on ancient DNA has been appropriated by the far right.

This talk looks at some of the ways that research on ancient DNA has encouraged the treatment of race as both essential and biological. The danger of this trend is underlined by placing such research – as well as its appropriations by the far right – within the context of a broader resurgence of race science over the past ten years. Organized by the Ancient Greek Philosophy of Race and Ethnicity project at the Neubauer Collegium.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Denise Eileen McCoskey is Professor of Classics and affiliate in Black World Studies at Miami University (Ohio). She is the author of Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy and is currently working on a project examining the influence of eugenics on early 20th-century American classical scholarship.

Reception to follow.

Neubauer Collegium

Professor Denise Eileen McCoskey will deliver a lecture on the dangers of how research on ancient DNA has been appropriated by the far right.

Register

New Directions in Literary Publishing: A Poetry Reading and Editorial Roundtable

Discussion

New Directions in Literary Publishing: A Poetry Reading and Editorial Roundtable

This poetry reading and editorial roundtable will feature some of the most exciting new voices in contemporary American poetry.

Please join us for a poetry reading and editorial roundtable with some of the most exciting new voices in contemporary American poetry.

Poetry Reading and Book Launch: April 29, 5–6:30 pm

The inaugural cohort of Advisory Poetry Editors for the “New Directions in Contemporary Literary Publishing” Arts Lab project—Kai Ihns, Imani Elizabeth Jackson, Aditi Machado, and Margaret Ross—will read from their new books of poetry, followed by a Q&A and book-signing reception.

Editorial Roundtable: April 30, 2–3:30 pm

English department faculty member Srikanth Reddy (Series Editor of the Phoenix Poets book series at the University of Chicago Press, and Poetry Editor of The Paris Review) will join the Advisory Poetry Editors for a roundtable conversation on new directions in contemporary literary publishing.

*Cosponsored by the Department of English


About the Poets

Aditi Machado is the author of three books of poetry--Material Witness (2024), Emporium (2020), and Some Beheadings (2017)--and several chapbooks.

Imani Elizabeth Jackson is the author of the chapbooks Context for arboreal exchanges (Belladonna*, 2023) and saltsitting (g l o s s, 2020), and, under the moniker mouthfeel, coauthor of Consider the tongue (Paper Machine, 2019) with S*an D. Henry-Smith. Flag (Futurepoem, 2024) is her first full-length collection.

Kai Ihns is a poet and filmmaker based in Chicago. She edits The Year, a chapbook press, and works as an Advisory Poetry Editor at The Paris Review, among other things. She's the author of several pamphlets, a dissertation called Aspect Choreography, and two books of poems, most recently Of (The Elephants, 2024).

Margaret Ross is the author of two books of poetry, A Timeshare and Saturday.

Neubauer Collegium

This poetry reading and editorial roundtable will feature some of the most exciting new voices in contemporary American poetry.

Register Apr. 29 Register Apr. 30