The Collegium de Lyon seminar

This presentation, based on the first chapter of Ming Chong's project, is an analysis of nature and history in Montesquieu's thought. History is the main tool in the knowledge of modernity for Montesquieu. He is not, however, an historian or a positivist because he measures the history by the nature or the universal principles. Yet, the nature of the human being shows three aspects in Montesquieu. The interactions and tensions between the physical nature, the moral nature and the social nature illustrated by history are the key to understanding both the diversity and the universality of humanity. They also shed light on the legitimacy and ambiguity of modernity presented by Montesquieu.

This talk will provide a general introduction to the diverse relations between the military and the theater in the French-speaking world from Louis XIV’s reign to Napoleon’s final defeat. Grounded in theater and performance studies and in the cultural history of the military, I provide a holistic examination of theater’s roles in creating early modern military cultures and of the military’s influence in changing the norms of dramatic literature and theatrical performance.

Jean Meslier (1664-1729), priest of Etrépigny, left at his death a manuscript in which he develops an atheistic and materialistic philosophy. In general, my current research concerns the genesis, meaning and reception of Meslier’s thought. In particular, I propose to offer an interpretation of Meslier’s Mémoire des pensées et des sentiments (ca. 1729) from a specific point of view: the radical antagonism between the concepts of bon sens / droite raison and foi / créance aveugle.

In the late 19th century Europe experienced an unprecedented wave of political assassination attempts and bomb attacks. These were mostly committed by anarchists under the term ‘propaganda by the deed’ and are often considered as the prototype of modern terrorism. The attacks failed to achieve their goal of mobilising the working classes, but they had a huge impact on the political space, notably due to the late 19th century media revolution.

Weapons are one of the many findings in archaeological excavations. The extant archaeological literature has mainly focused on traditional studies of these weapons, such as typological and comparative studies. These studies are limited in that they only allow for typo-chronological information. However, when a systematic and multidisciplinary perspective is adopted to study weapons, this method contributes to extensive information about the societies in ancient times that used these weapons.

The Neolithic Dzheitun culture (ca 6300 - 4500 BC), the period of the origin and early development of agricultural economies in Western Central Asia, was followed by the Chalcolithic Anau and Namazga cultures. The names of these cultures came from the names of two archaeological sites in southern Turkmenistan. The period Anau IA (4500 - ca 4000 BC) was period of the Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition in this region. For the history of Western Central Asia, this was a major era of social transformation caused by the technological change (e.g. introduction of irrigation farming, metallurgy), which allowed increasing economic production and exchange in turn leading to social stratification (i.e., the formation of “elites”). The main elements of the Dzheitun culture disappeared.

In 1924 the self-taught artist Iurii Nikolaevich Rozhkov created a series of photomontages inspired by Vladimir Maiakovskii’s propagandistic ode to labor, “To the Workers of Kursk,” and the geological discovery of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (KMA), the biggest iron-ore basin in the world. The series was first shown at the “Twenty Years of Work” exhibition in January 1930, which the poet himself curated. In the exhibition catalogue, Maiakovskii made note of Rozhkov’s work as: “A temporary monument. Rozhkov’s montages. To be printed.” Two months after the exhibition Maiakovskii committed suicide. Rozhkov’s photomontages remained unpublished during his lifetime.

Most European languages use alphabetic orthographies, and these can vary extensively in their transparency, or letter-sound consistency. An important question in cross-linguistic research on literacy development considers the impact that orthographic consistency may have on the neuropsychological predictors as well as on the patterns of alphabetic spelling development.

Exploratory research in the sciences and social sciences has increasingly turned to the analysis of large textual data sources. Common examples include electronic medical records, social media posts, online reviews, and digitized collections of books and periodicals.

Ancient Athens developed democracy to a higher level than any other state before modern times. It was the leading cultural innovator of its age. Athens is rightly revered for its political and cultural achievements. Less well known is this state’s extraordinary record of military success. Athens transformed ancient warfare and became one of the ancient world’s superpowers.

Prof. Arthur Stepanov (Center for Cognitive Science of Language - University of Nova Gorica - arthur.stepanov@ung.si) : The children's remarkable capacity for syntactic segmentation

Lisalou Martone (PhD candidate in history at the LER-Université Lyon 2 & the University of Ottawa) : This presentation will focus on the development of a productivity-oriented forest science in the first half of the XXth century in Canada’s eastern provinces, conceived as a “business proposition” aiming at making the forest pay.

During this lecture presented by Thaer YARTAH, we will try, through the architectural and symbolic data of Tell ' Abr 3 and other Neolithic sites in levant, to penetrate more closely into the symbolic thought and mental constructions of Neolithic communities in this area.

Simone Martini, Aurélien Belot and John Hamman, Collegium de Lyon fellows, lead a discussion on the reasons for the trend to introduce computer sciences in many national school systems and under very different terminologies.

Lia Epperson, Collegium de Lyon fellow, offers a discussion based on some themes covered in the film "Denial"

Organized by Marta Abrusan

Organized Lindsey Dodd, Thiago Chacon, Todd Reeser, Brady Wagoner, Erika Wicky,

"Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation", de Pierre Lascoumes et Patrick Le Galès (2007)

Jean-Alexandre Perras is a research associate at the Maison Française and the Voltaire Foundation of Oxford University. His thesis (Montreal University / University Paris 8), dealt with the history of genius between the XVIth and XVIIIth centuries. On this topic, he published L’Exception exemplaire: Inventions et usages du génie (Garnier Classics, 2015). Pursuing his works on the issue of value under the Ancien Régime, he now focuses more specifically on the notion of frivolity and its bearings on the practices of sociability and literary hierarchies.

The lecture will focus on the ways in which the ancient Maya have been studied, and the issues on whether it is possible to extend the analogies with the present-day Mayas. The Classic Maya built a fascinating civilization, which was firmly rooted in the ideology that involved beliefs in the inevitability of time changes, as well as in the complex sets of deities and spirits. The rulers had a special place in this microcosm, as they were believed to be direct descendants of the deities responsible for each city-state. Recent advancement in the decipherment of ancient Maya writing enables us to gain unprecedented insights into the structure and organization of their societies, as well as of the roles of the spiritual components in them.

Memorials are sites for a group to remember the past as part of its identity and present challenges. Over the last hundred years there has been a shift in memorial forms from a figurative representation of heroes and victories to a modern, abstract focus on victims and loss, exemplified by Maya Lin’s 'Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial'. This talk will explore this change and analyse from a psychological perspective how visitors experience and interact with different kinds of memorial sites, including ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe’ in Berlin and the ‘Ground Zero National September 11 Memorial’ in New York and ‘Valley of the Fallen’ in Spain. Brady Wagoner is Professor of Psychology and Director of the MA and PhD programs in Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University (Denmark).

Languages throughout the world have dedicated mechanisms to specify information about the shape, animacy, consistency, size, location, or utility of the entities around us. An important question in linguistics is to what extent the nominal classification system of a language mirrors the way speakers see the world they live in, and to what extent the documented similarities reflect underlying, general cognitive processes in the human mind. Thus, an adequate theory of human language requires a broad sampling of diverse languages. Amazonian languages have been identified as a priority in this respect, since they are both poorly documented and highly endangered - Rosa Vallejos | Professeur associé de linguistiques à l'University du Nouveau Mexique, Albuquerque, USA

Gordon Cumming | Professor of European Foreign Affairs and International Development in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Cardiff University - Professor Tony Chafer (Portsmouth University) - Dr Roel van der Velde (RA, Cardiff University)

Gianni Paganini | Professor of history of philosophy | University of Piedmont Orientale (Vercelli)

Aurélien Belot | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine | Biostatistic | Partner laboratory : LBBE

Érika Wicky | Histoiry of Art | Partner laboratory : LARHRA

Emmanuel Delille | Humboldt university | History of sciences | Partner laboratory : IHRIM

Hervé Joly | École Normale Supérieure de Lyon | History | Laboratory Triangle

Lia Epperson | American University | Law | Partner laboratory : EDPL

Todd Reeser | University of Pittsburg | French Studies | Partner laboratory : Centre Max Webber

Laurent Bartholdi | University Georg-August, Göttingen | Mathématics | Laboratoire partenaire : UMPA

Aleksandar Boskovic | University of Belgrade | Anthropology | Partner laboratory : LADEC

John Hamman | Florida State University | Economy | Partner laboratory : GATE

Akbar Abedi | Tabriz Islamic Arts University | Archéology | Partner laboratory : Archéorient

Simone Martini | University of Bologna | Computing sciences | Partner laboratory : LIP/IRPhil

Thiago Chacon | University of Brasilia | Linguistic | Partner laboratory : DDL

Lucia Shimbo | University of São Paulo | Urban studies | Partner laboratories : EVS and IMU

Penka Stateva | University of Nova Gorica | Linguistic | Partner laboratory : institut des sciences cognitives

Florence Paulhiac | University of Québec in Montréal | Urban studies | Partner laboratory : LAET

Photo credits : Des enfants évacués arrivent à Guéret depuis Boulogne-Billancourt, avril 1943. Courtoisie des archives départementales de la Creuse (987 W 110)

Thaer Yartah | Archéology | Partner laboratory : Archéorient