Date: Mar 09, 2011

Hofstra Cultural Center Presents a Conference, "1935: The Reality and the Promise"; April 7, 8 and 9, 2011

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … In honor of Hofstra University’s 75th anniversary, the Hofstra Cultural Center, will present a conference titled 1935: The Reality and the Promise, April 7, 8 and 9, 2011.

The year 1935 was momentous for Hofstra University because it is the year that Hofstra College opened its doors for classes. But 1935 was historic for reasons far reaching from the Hofstra campus. The United States was still in the throes of a global depression. The great democracy that had stunned the world with its industrial magic was reeling under the weight of joblessness, frustration and confrontation, while across Europe the specter of a war was looming once again. And yet 1935 was a year of new beginnings in our nation; a New Deal working to restore the economy, a cautious release from provincialism, advances in science and medicine, and a glimmer of hope in the struggle for a more just society.

To better understand this momentous time in history and to appreciate its lessons for the present, scholars have been invited  from all disciplines to present papers exploring the reality and the promise of events, personalities and culture, from the local to the global, in the year of our institution's birth.

Highlights of the conference include:

*Banquet address and special presentation for students by former NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, author and documentary filmmaker of On the Shoulders of Giants, about the Harlem Rens, the first black owned and operated basketball team from Harlem, which won the First World Basketball Championships in 1939.

*Cultural overview of 1935 presented by keynote speaker Morris Dickstein, Distinguished Professor of English at The Graduate Center/CUNY,  renowned author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression. The title of his presentation is “Culture and Crisis: The Divided Mind of the Great Depression.”

*A keynote address featuring Dr. Fritz Stern, Columbia University Professor Emeritus, noted scholar, author, and historian of German and Jewish history in the 20th Century. The title of his address is “1935: The Fatal Illusions of Europe.”

*A keynote address featuring Gail Levin, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Baruch College and The Graduate Center / CUNY. Her presentation will focus on “Lee Krasner in the 1930s: Making Art, Making Trouble, and Making Do in the Great Depression.”

* Special invited scholars, including Kirstin Downey, author of The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins – Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and the Minimum Wage; Susan Jacoby, author of Never Say Die: Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age and The Age of American Unreason; and Distinguished Professor Morris Rossabi, Queens College and The Graduate Center/CUNY and Columbia University, who will give a presentation titled “The 1930s in the Far East: Japanese Belligerence and Chinese Fragmentation.

*Speaker sessions focusing on Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, featuring presentations by scholars from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Museum and Presidential Library.

*Special session presented by Hofstra’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, featuring Senior Fellows Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Edward Rollins, former Reagan campaign director.

*Panels on science and aviation during the 1930s, race relations, education, media, Depression Era literature, art, culture, music, film, Hofstra and Long Island in the 1930s, and many other topics.  (See sampling of panels listed below.)

*Performances featuring music of the 1930s, including Escape Into Romance: Lyrics by Dorothy Fields, performed by David Lahm, pianist and Gail Newman, vocalist; The Smart Set, featuring music by Irving Berlin; a lecture/performance by Hofstra Professor of Music Emeritus Herbert Deutsch titled Jazz in 1935: A Struggle for Identity; and “Miserable With You”: Broadway Songs from the Great Depression, a talk presented by Drama Professor James J. Kolb.

*A pre-conference theater piece titled 1935: Word for Word, conceived and directed by Bob Spiotto. This unique performance will highlight some of the most famous - and perhaps infamous - words from the year 1935 drawn from famous speeches, quotes, anecdotes, comedy routines, headlines and radio shows, as well as literary samples from stories, plays, novels, poetry and perhaps even a song. 1935: Word for Word will be performed on April 6 at 8 p.m.

*Hofstra University Museum exhibition titled 1930s: Art in America, at the David Filderman Gallery, 9th Floor, Axinn Library, South Campus. Drawing upon works from the Hofstra University Museum collection and utilizing loans from the Heckscher Museum of Art, The Old Print Shop, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, the Sragow Gallery, and the Syracuse University Art Collection, this original exhibit is intended to provide a "snapshot" of the visual arts in America during the 1930s.  Featured works highlight artists of the Works Progress Administration/Federal Artists Project (WPA/FAP), the shift from a rural to an urban society, the exploration of new artistic techniques andmedia, and the influence of European artist émigrés.  Included in the exhibit are paintings by Ilya Bolotowsky, Jon Corbino, Arthur Dove, and John Whorf; photographs by Berenice Abbott, John Gutmann, Dorothy Norman, and Man Ray; and works on paper by James Allen, John Steuart Curry, Marion Greenwood, George Grosz, Louis Lozowick, Isaac Soyer and Grant Wood.

*Additional exhibitions include: New York in the 1930s: The Photography of Max Drucker, April 7, 8 and 9, at the Guthart Cultural Center Theater, First Floor, Axinn Library; Tarzan in Literature and Film, celebrating the Tarzan films and highlighting the literary tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, March 31-May 30, Main Floor, Axinn Library (items from Hofstra University, Library Special Collections); and a photography exhibition featuring views of Long Island, April 1-May 31, Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall, 10th floor, Axinn Library.

Organizing the conference with the Hofstra Cultural Center are faculty directors Professor of History Michael D’Innocenzo, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Zenia DaSilva; and Professor of Geology J Bret Bennington.  Professors D’Innocenzo and DaSilva hold the distinction of being Hofstra’s longest serving faculty members.

For an up-to-date list of conference speakers, panels and exhibitions, visit hofstra.edu /1935. This Web page
will include conference participants, special panels, keynote speakers, musical interludes as well as the complete conference program and registration materials. There is also a link so that registration forms may be completed and fees paid online. For further information please call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.

Registration fees are as follows:
Regular Rate: $75 • Senior Citizen (65 & over): $50 • Nassau County Resident (with ID): $50
Matriculated non-Hofstra student: $35 (with ID) • Banquet: $65
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Sampling of panels (complete program posted at hofstra.edu/1935)

1935 and the Enduring New Deal 
Sponsored by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library and Museum
Lynn A. Bassanese, Acting Director
Herman Eberhardt, Supervisory Museum Curator
Robert Clark, Supervisory Archivist
Jeffrey Urbin, Education Specialist

 

A "New Deal" in the 21st Century? Comparing Presidential Leadership and Policy Making in the FDR and Obama Administrations 
Sponsored by the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency
Meena Bose, Director
Howard B. Dean III, Senior Presidential Fellow
Edward J. Rollins, Senior Presidential Fellow
Richard Himelfarb, Hofstra University

Fiorello La Guardia: Race, Politics and Priests in the Great Depression 
Timothy Coogan, LaGuardia Community College/CUNY
Fiorello Fights for the Forgotten
Charles Kaczynski, Lehman College/CUNY
Syncretic Discord: Americanization Tensions Among the Polish Vincentian Fathers in New York
Abigail Mellen, Lehman College/CUNY
The Mayor's Reformers: A Daughter's Recollections of LaGuardia's Treasurer "Junie" Mellen

Pop Goes the Decade: The Student Wiki Interdisciplinary Group Looks at the 1930s
Joan Dupre, Queensborough Community College/CUNY
Barbara Lynch, Queensborough Community College/CUNY
Neera Mohess, Queensborough Community College/CUNY
Students: Isabella Asbrona, Sarah Denard, Nadia Garris, Sarah Naqvi, Anastasia Robinson, Andre Simms

The Seventh Comintern Congress and the Popular Front 
Sponsored by the Historians of American Communism
Vern L. Pedersen, University of Great Falls, Panel Moderator
It's Hard to be Popular: The Marine Workers Industrial Union and the Popular Front
James G. Ryan, Texas A&M University
Communism is 20th Century Americanism: Earl Browder and the Communist Party's Americanization Campaign
Lauren Weiner, Baltimore, MD and Robert Cohen, Kingston, NY
I Dreamed I Saw Joe Stalin Last Night: The Music of the Popular Front

A 75 Year History of Medicine on Long Island
Sponsored by the School of Education, Health and Human Services
and
Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University
David M. Weiss, Ph.D.,Hofstra University
David L. Battinelli, M.D., Hofstra North Shore-LIJ Health System
Maria Torroella Carney, M.D., Nassau County Department of Health
Lyn Weiss, M.D., Nassau University Medical Center

Related Link: More About "1935: The Reality and the Promise"