Thursday, Sept. 7 - 4:30 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 230-232
Notice change of location

Bruno Andreotti:
The Song of Dunes

This lecture in English is geared especially towards the non-scientists among us...

Singing sands, first mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo, have been described by many explorers. These dunes can emit a loud and harmonious sound that has been compared to a cross between a twin-engined jet and an organ (recordings available at http://www.pmmh.espci.fr/~andreotti/SongOfDunes.html). These mysterious acoustic emissions result from avalanches in which the grains drum on one another, exciting elastic waves on the dune surface. In turn, the vibration of the sand bed tends to synchronise the collisions. This mechanism of interaction allows predicting the incredible loudness of the sound (105 dB), its frequency (100 Hz) and its coherence.

Bruno Andreotti teaches physics at the Université Paris-7, and is a researcher at the Morphodynamics Lab, CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique).

Sunday, Sept. 10 - 3:00 pm
Freeman Center for Jewish Life Map

Shmuel Trigano:
The Future of Jews in France

Lecture in English.

Shmuel Trigano is a professor of religious and political sociology at Paris X- Nanterre and acts as president of l’Observatoire du monde juif as well as director of the Collège des études juives of the Alliance israélite universelle. He has published numerous works including L’E(xc)lu (Denoël, 2003), La démission de la République: Juifs et musulmans en France (P.U.F., 2003), Qu’est-ce que la religion? (Flammarion, 2001), Le monothéisme est un humanisme (Odile Jacob, 2000), and most recently L'avenir des Juifs de France (Grasset, 2006).

Lecture organized by the Department of Religious Studies at UNC and the Center for Jewish Studies at Duke.

Monday, Oct. 30 - 2:50 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240

Conversation with Faïza Guène:
On her novel "Kiffe kiffe demain" and other topics

Event in French

Daughter of Algerian immigrants, Faïza Guène, a writer and aspiring filmmaker, grew up in Les Courtillières, one of Paris' large public housing projects in the northeastern suburbs. She attends the University of St. Denis and has just completed her first short film. Her first novel, Kiffe kiffe demain (Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow) recounts the life of a heroine named Doria. The book was published in France in August 2004. It was an instant hit. 

About Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow:

The Paradise projects are only a few metro stops from Paris, but here it's a whole different kind of France. Doria's father, the Beard, has headed back to their hometown in Morocco, leaving her and her mom to cope with their mektoub—their destiny—alone. They have a little help-- from a social worker sent by the city, a psychiatrist sent by the school, and a thug friend who recites Rimbaud.

It seems like fate’s dealt them an impossible hand, but Doria might still make a new life. She'll prove the projects aren't only about rap, soccer, and religious tension. She’ll take the Arabic word kif-kif (same old, same old) and mix it up with the French verb kiffer (to really like something). Now she has a whole new motto: KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW.  

Friday, Nov. 3 - 8:00 pm
Goodson Chapel, Westbrook Building, Divinity School

Les Voix Humaines concert

Tickets: $15 General Admission
ORDER TICKETS

Susie Napper and Margaret Little have been thrilling audiences with their performances of exotic masterpieces of the 17th and 18th centuries for over two decades. The Montreal-based duo are renowned for their passionate performances offering fresh insight into music that is shrouded by the mists of time. Their program will include music by the two greatest French masters who wrote for the viol, Sieur de Sainte-Colombe and his brilliant pupil Marin Marais, the most influential gambist at the court of Louis XIV. French chamber music of this time reveals an intimacy in musical expression and makes use of a language at once moving and discreet, evoking a world where freedom and intimacy go hand in hand. Organized by Duke Performances.