The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute’s Annual Richard A. Macksey Lecture

SAVE THE DATE! We are excited to announce Dr. K. Anthony Appiah as our next Macksey lecturer! Dr. Appiah will be joining us on Thursday, March 9^th, 2023 to deliver a talk entitled, “Whose Heritage? Preservation, Possession, and Peoples.”

Museums and monument funds typically understand the works that they collect, display, and preserve through a concept of heritage. Heritage is meant to explain why various works are to be valued or disavowed, repatriated or collected, dismantled, or preserved. Yet it’s a concept that’s interwoven with other concepts—ancestry, identity, property, memorialization—in ways that can create confusion. Gaining clarity about cultural heritage can help us understand the broader heritage of humankind.

Kwame Anthony Appiah is a Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU. Professor Appiah was born in London, where his parents met, but moved as an infant to Kumasi, Ghana, where he grew up, and where his three sisters were born. He took BA and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy at Cambridge and has taught philosophy in Ghana, France, Britain, and the United States, with professorships at Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, and Princeton. In 2012 he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama. His most recent book is The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity. Copies are available at: https://www.theivybookshop.com/

Click here for more details and to register via Eventbrite (free)!