On Friday, October 27, the Humanities Institute at the University of Buffalo will kick off a two-day conference celebrating the start of its second year of existence. Titled “How We Became Human: Genealogies of the Humanities,” the conference brings together 14 scholars from seven different disciplines and 10 universities to address how the humanities has emerged as a discipline, as well as what its role has been in the tangled relations of the West to its global neighbors. Central to the conference is an examination of how humanistic ideas have been used both to privilege Western culture and to critique it.

Given this focus, it’s not surprising that many of the lectures highlight the more shadowed side of the humanities, and come from scholars outside the traditional Western old boys’ network. Distinguished African-American scholar Hazel Carby delivers the initial lecture on “Racializing Subjects.” Following this is a talk on “Globalization and the Inhuman” by Pheng Cheah, a UC Berkeley professor whose work explores the intersections of Western philosophical ideas and the non-Western world.

In the afternoon the focus shifts to the 19th century for an exploration of Orientalism—the question of how other cultures are represented in Western art, literature and philosophy—by Louisiana State University professor Susan Marchand, currently working on a book about Orientalism in German thought. The afternoon’s second lecture will be by Mary Beard, a classics professor at Newnham College, Cambridge and classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement; she’ll speak on “What is a Liberal Education (for): Some Nineteenth Century Answers.”

Saturday highlights an examination of the way the humanities have been used to define the borders between Western civilization and everything else outside it. The first talk, “Humanities and Animalities,” will be by Harriet Ritvo, a history professor at MIT whose work explores how society defines itself by the boundaries it draws between itself and others. The second talk will feature Henry Sussman, Julian Park Professor of Comparative Literature at UB and a visiting professor of German at Yale. With the title “Systems, Games, and the Player: Did We Manage to Become Human?” it promises to explore many of the issues underlying the entire conference.

The final event, on Saturday afternoon from 2 to 4pm, is a roundtable discussion with all the participants, moderated by David Hunter, a philosophy professor at Ryerson (formerly of Buffalo State), and UB English professor Steven Miller.

All lectures will take place at the Center for the Arts on UB’s North Campus, and both days start with an opening reception at 9:30am, with a continental breakfast being offered on Saturday morning. In coordination with the conference, the Rare Books Room at Capen Library is sponsoring a Friday afternoon reception for its exhibition of Robert Creeley works. For more information, call 645-2711, or e-mail jcs32@buffalo.edu.