On February 8, 2019, the 200th anniversary of John Ruskin’s birth, the BBC published a feature asking “Was John Ruskin the most important man of the last 200 years?” The question is entirely warranted. John Ruskin, Victorian art critic turned social commentator, was an early analyst of the damage done to the earth by industrialization, and placed questions of beauty at the heart of all his writings on science, architecture, urban environments, painting, economics, education, and what we now call ecology. Deeply trained in scripture by his evangelical parents and in classics by his education at Oxford, Ruskin was a champion of the most innovative British painters of the nineteenth century, an activist deeply committed to the education of the working class, and a utopianist, whose plan for a Guild of St. George tried to model a community that would honor both the earth’s and the human worker’s need for connection and replenishment. Leaving behind an enormous body of writing, Ruskin continues to influence art history, architecture, literary studies, political theory, ethics, environmental studies, and schooling. This conference, convening on the weekend of his 201st birthday, will explore how his legacy continues to challenge the disciplinary divides that separate art from science and ethics from economics; and how his critique of Victorian capitalism and industrialization can address our own concerns today.…
On February 8, 2019, the 200th anniversary of John Ruskin’s birth, the BBC published a feature asking “Was John Ruskin the most important man of the last 200 years?” The question is entirely warranted. John Ruskin, Victorian art critic turned social commentator, was an early analyst of the damage done to the earth by industrialization, and placed questions of beauty at the heart of all his writings on science, architecture, urban environments, painting, economics, education, and what we now call ecology. Deeply trained in scripture by his evangelical parents and in classics by his education at Oxford, Ruskin was a champion of the most innovative British painters of the nineteenth century, an activist deeply committed to the education of the working class, and a utopianist, whose plan for a Guild of St. George tried to model a community that would honor both the earth’s and the human worker’s need for connection and replenishment. Leaving behind an enormous body of writing, Ruskin continues to influence art history, architecture, literary studies, political theory, ethics, environmental studies, and schooling. This conference, convening on the weekend of his 201st birthday, will explore how his legacy continues to challenge the disciplinary divides that separate art from science and ethics from economics; and how his critique of Victorian capitalism and industrialization can address our own concerns today.…
The College of Arts and Letters Showcase for Junior Parents Weekend will begin at 10 am on Saturday, February 15, with a presentation by Arts and Letters faculty in the Browning Cinema.
From 11:15 am to noon there will be an informal reception for parents and students to meet with faculty and other representatives from the College of Arts and Letters.…
