Calendar

Sunday - MAY 4, 2008

OUR FIRST HARVARD MINI-COURSE: PROFESSOR ALI ASANI ON THINKING ABOUT ISLAM û RELIGION, CULTURE, AND POLITICS IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES

3/9/08, 4/6/08, 5/4/08 Sundays, 2:30 P.M.

Please note the date-change from March 2nd to March 9th Cost: $200 per person for all three sessions; final sale

We all know the crude stereotypes of Islam that fill the media. But what is the reality? What role does religion play in the daily lives of the world's more than 1.2 billion Muslims? In this special 3-session mini-course, Ali Asani, Harvard's Professor of the Practice of Indo- Muslim Languages and Cultures, will use the rich artistic heritages of Muslim cultures around the world, including music, ecstatic poetry, religious calligraphy, film, and more, as a mirror revealing the complex ways in which Islam has been interpreted in various historical, political, and social contexts. Through the exploration of multiple expressions and different forms of Islam in societies ranging from West Africa to China and Indonesia, members will learn to analyze widely varied ways in which Islam influences various aspects of Muslim cultures and societies.

Each session will be two hours. At the request of Professor Asani, the course will be limited to 30 students. Each reservation is for all three sessions; the sessions are not available individually.

Before each class, consider enjoying the ClubÆs Champagne Brunch, served until 2:30 P.M.. every Sunday.

Spence Porter, Program Committee

Monday - MAY 5, 2008

Tuesday - MAY 6, 2008

CHESS

We meet in the Grill Room the first Tuesday of the month at 6:00 P.M. and the third Thursday at 12:00 P.M.

MAHZARIN R. BANAJI: THE FIRST YEARS OF SOCIAL LIFE

When do babies and children know and learn about social categories? How do they go from ôselfö and ôotherö to ôusö and ôthemö? There is surprising new evidence showing just how ready human infants are to acquire these concepts and the flexibility of their social knowledge to social input in the first years of life. In this talk, Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji will share experiments that are teaching us about how social groups come to be understood and internalized in the first years of becoming a social animal.

Dr. Banaji received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1986 and taught at Yale University, where she was the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Psychology and received YaleÆs Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence. In 2002, she moved to Harvard University, where is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Program Committee

JEWISH THOUGHT AND TEXT

First Tuesday of the month, starting at 7:30 P.M. We explore the key characters and events of the Torah with an emphasis on their relevance to modern Jewish life.

Wednesday - MAY 7, 2008

AMERICAN HISTORY after LUNCH

Usually the first Wednesday of the month. 12:00 P.M. optional lunch on the Balcony, 12:45 P.M. group discussion elsewhere. April 2nd, ôSo What Was the TVA Anyway?ö; presented by guest speaker Professor Sarah Phillips. May 7th, ôThe History of the Sherman Antitrust Actö; presented by Stefan Robock.

FRANCESCA ANDEREGG Æ05 PLAYS BACH, MOZART RAVEL, AND BARTËK

Francesca Anderegg æ05 is rapidly gaining recognition as one of our most exciting young violinists. When she made her debut as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra, The New York Times hailed her for her ôrich toneö and ôpanache.ö SheÆs already performed with Itzhak Perlman and with Pierre Boulez, as well as at Tanglewood and at the Aspen Music Festival. She was a top-prize winner in the 2005 Corpus Christie International Competition.

Anderegg's program will feature some of the greatest and best-loved works of the violin repertory, including sonatas for violin and keyboard by Bach, Mozart, and Ravel, as well as Bart¾k's impassioned Rhapsody no. 1.ö

Spence Porter, Program Committee

Thursday - MAY 8, 2008

RONALD F. THIEMANN: BUSINESS ACROSS RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS û CHRISTIANITY ON WEALTH, POVERTY, AND THE WORKPLACE

Christianity and capitalism have had a close relationship, especially in the modern West. Max Weber argued in his classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that attitudes toward wealth that emerged among post-Reformation European Protestants strongly encouraged the quest for prosperity in both Europe and the United States. Many of the ôbarons of capitalismö in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were Protestant Christians who amassed enormous wealth but also used that wealth for philanthropic purposes. Contemporary evangelicalism counts many ministers among its number who preach a ôgospel of prosperity.ö

This program will explore the tensions within Christian teaching and practice concerning wealth and poverty and how these paradoxical attitudes have developed within the context of modern democratic societies. The seminar will conclude with a case study of a multinational corporation whose culture has been shaped by fundamental Christian values but operates successfully in many non-Christian societies.

Barbara Morrow, Program Committee and the Harvard Business School Club

Friday - MAY 9, 2008

Saturday - MAY 10, 2008