Neubauer Collegium

Ulrike Malmendier (University of California, Berkeley), spoke on "The Evolution of Organizations in Ancient Rome: The Political and Legal Environment" as part of the Boundaries of the Firm 2013-2014 Spring Symposium. Presented by The Working Group on Comparative Economics, a project of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. Ulrike Malmendier is the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at the Haas School of Business and Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds PhDs in both Business Economics (Harvard University) and Law (University of Bonn). In 2013, she received the Fischer Black Prize, awarded biennially by the American Finance Association to the leading finance scholar under 40. Professor Malmendier currently serves as a co-editor for the Journal of Economic Perspectives. She is the co-organizer of the Psychology & Economics SITE meetings and the Behavioral Annual Economics Meetings

Bruce Hall (Duke University), presented "'We must correspond with the slaves in order to gather news': Slavery and Agency inside the 19th-century Saharan Commercial House of `Isa b. Hmida al-Ghadamisi in Timbuktu" as part of the Boundaries of the Firm 2013-2014 lecture series. The Working Group on Comparative Economics is a project of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. The paper seeks to explain how slaves came to be used as commercial agents by trans-Saharan trade networks in the period before European colonial occupation of Africa. I argue that employing slaves as traveling agents was an important means of overcoming problems of trust that were so crucial in the Sahara. My research reveals that slavery was highly adaptive to the social needs of merchants in African societies. Based on previously unknown Arabic letters written by members of a single extended family of trans-Saharan merchants in the nineteenth century, the paper opens a window

Avner Greif (Stanford University), spoke on "The Clan and the City: Sustaining Cooperation in China and Europe" as part of the Boundaries of the Firm 2013-2014 lecture series. Presented by The Working Group on Comparative Economics, a project of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. "The Clan and the City: Sustaining Cooperation in China and Europe" Joint with Guido Tabellini (Bocconi University) Over the last millennium, the clan and corporations, epitomized by the self-governed European city have been the locus of cooperation in China and Europe respectively. This paper examines the cultural, social, and institutional co-evolution that led to this bifurcation. We highlight that groups with which individuals identify are basic units of cooperation. Such groups impact institutional development because intra-group moral commitment reduces enforcement cost implying a comparative advantage in pursuing collective actions. Moral groups perpetuate due t

University of Chicago Professor William Sewell spoke on "The Ecology of Firms in the Eighteenth-Century Lyonnais Silk Industry" as part of the Boundaries of the Firm 2013-2014 lecture series. Presented by The Working Group on Comparative Economics, a project of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. William Sewell is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. Although he retired in 2007, he still teaches the occasional course and continues to be co-director of the Social Theory Workshop and a Resident Fellow of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory. Learn more about the series and project at: March 5, 2014 Regenstein Library, The University of Chicago Hosted by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to the Neubauer Colle

University of Chicago Professor Kenneth Pomeranz spoke on "Corporate Villages? Property Rights and Community Membership in the Late Imperial and 20th Century Yangzi Delta" as part of the Boundaries of the Firm 2013-2014 lecture series. Presented by The Working Group on Comparative Economics, a project of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago. Pomeranz is a Professor of Modern Chinese History and in the College. He spoke at the workshop following a presentation given by Avner Greif (Stanford University). Learn more about the series and project at: February 19, 2014 Regenstein Library, The University of Chicago Hosted by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to the Neubauer Collegium at collegium@uchicago.edu.

On March 1, 2014, the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago presented: A Numerate Film History? Cinemetrics Looks at Griffith, Sennett and Chaplin (1909-1917) This one-day conference examined the possible promises—or traps—that emerge as a result of the encounter between century-old films and computational statistics. Your Number Is Up! Questioning Numbers in Film History (or Can Numbers Provide Answers?) Tom Gunning, Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Art History, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, and the College Video 2 of 5 View them all at: Conference Description: Does looking at numbers help make sense of film history? People in filmmaking used to count, and not just money. For "the pace of a picture to wed the pulse of an audience," as D.W. Griffith once put it, the director must know for how long this or that shot will stay on the screen. In 1912, a critic for The Moving Picture World counted the n

As part of the official launch of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago, South Africa's most celebrated contemporary artist William Kentridge and South African writer, curator, and scholar Jane Taylor discussed the role of collaborations in creating narrative across media. The discussion was moderated by David Nirenberg, founding Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, and Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought. Learn more about the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago at: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to the Neubauer Collegium at collegium@uchicago.edu.

South African artist William Kentridge delivered the inaugural lecture of the Nuebauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society to a full house at Mandel Hall on October 3, 2013. The lecture was a fitting tribute to the collaborative, interdisciplinary work of the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago. Mr. Kentridge spoke on the practice and theory of making meaning in the studio, through an exploration of the relationship of sound and image. The lecture focused on a current project, Schubert's song cycle, "Winterreise", for which he is making films to be performed at the Vienna Festival next year. Mr. Kentridge was joined by The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center music director and pianist Craig Terry and tenor John Irvin. Opening Remarks were given by President Robert J. Zimmer and David Nirenberg, Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. Learn more about the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago at: If you experience any t

Quentin Skinner, Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary University of London, delivers a Neubauer Collegium Director’s Lecture, “How Should We Think about Freedom?” on April 20, 2015, in Breasted Hall of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. The concept of individual freedom is usually understood in negative terms as absence of interference or constraint. In his lecture, Skinner argues that this orthodoxy is in need of qualification and perhaps abandonment. He begins by noting that, because the concept of interference is such a complex one, there has been much dispute even within the liberal tradition about the conditions under which it may be legitimate to claim that freedom has been infringed. Furthermore, some writers challenge the liberal tradition by insisting that its emphasis on non-interference leaves us without any grasp of the content of human freedom. Skinner suggests that both these traditions of thought arguably fail to recognize the centr

In a milestone for the ambitious research initiative, the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society celebrated the opening of its permanent home at 5701 S. Woodlawn Ave. on April 20 with remarks by University of Chicago leaders and a panel discussion featuring Neubauer Collegium Faculty Fellows. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research.This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholarsto challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchicago *** ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please email digicomm@uchicago.edu.