Violence, meet nonviolence
In the fall of 2014, Harvard will launch a University-wide humanities seminar designed to bring a wide range of disciplines to bear on a tragically central subject: violence. But in an unusual twist, the seminar also will examine the fate of nonviolent action as an antidote. The seminar, made possible by a $775,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center, where the idea was conceived. The center already hosts two of Harvard’s most prestigious public talks about the humanities, with a historical emphasis on analysis, criticism, and speculation: the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures and the Tanner Lectures. Over three years, one theme will abide in the new seminar: how violence and nonviolence interact. That only seems like a paradox, said center director Homi K. Bhabha. “Violence and nonviolence exist in an intimate yet antagonistic relationship,” he said. “The moral claims and efficacy of nonviolence depend...