Wednesday, September 23, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
First humanities lecture to focus on Christian pain
By Carolyn Mollott
Kansan staff writer
Many Christians have debated whether it is preferable to suffer pain during this life or suffer eternal pain.
Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, professor of religious studies, will give her speech, "Wounds over Wounds: Christianity, Pain and Religious Experience," at 8 tonight at the Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium.
The speech opens the 1988-1999 Humanities Lecture Series.
She will use three historical stories to illustrate the centrality of pain in many Christian beliefs and teachings.
"Some Christians have certainly wondered if, by avoiding pain in this life, they are avoiding it in the next," Zimdars-Swartz said.
Although Zimdars Swartz studies pain in a historical context, she said the subject could be applied to modern times. An example is modern medicine.
"The question always becomes 'when should you alleviate pain?'" she said.
She said pain referred to both physical and emotional pain because they were inseparable in
this context.
"Physical pain always has an emotional component, and emotional pain always has a physical component." Zimdars-Swartz said.
Two of the stories she will examine deal with suffering in this life. One is about a third-century martyr. The other is about a late,19th century female stigmatic, that is, someone who bears sores corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.
The third story is an other-worldly journey from the 13th century dealing with suffering in the afterlife.
Upon returning to this life, the visionary in the third story is able to relate information to the living about dead relatives. Zimdars-Swartz said that ability made the visionary powerful.
"People who experience pain are perceived as either very weak or very powerful," she said.
Zimdars-Swartz said each of the stories involved public performances of pain that empowered the sufferers.
Zimdars-Swartz will be the first of four lecturers for the series this year. She will be the only KU faculty member to speak. Typically, the series premieres with a KU faculty member and the other speakers visit from other universities.
Other scheduled lectures
- October 21, "Living in Performance" by Joanne Akaiatis, American Theater Director, codirector of the Directing Program at the Juilliard School and Co-founder of Mabou Mines.
February 11," The Strength of These Arms: Endurance, Creativity and Authority in the Plantation Landscape" by John Vlach, George Washington University professor of American Studies and Anthropology.
March 15, "Toward a Theory of Grace" by Patricia Williams, professor at Columbia School of Law.
This year is the 51st anniversary of the Humanities Lecture Series. It is the oldest continuing series at the University.
Roberta Johnson, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, said the series always included speakers from a variety of humanities disciplines. Humanities disciplines are those that study the human condition in terms of values rather than absolute quantitative measures.
Johnson said the lectures were open to anyone.
"We seldom have to turn people away, but the fill up." Johnson said.
Identity politics basis of talk
Queer theorist Steven Seidman, of the State University of New York at Albany, explains his ideas about the homosexual political movement. Seidman spoke yesterday in the Kansas Union. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
By Steph Brewer
Kansan staff writer
Queer theorist Steven Seidman discussed queer identity politics in the Kansas Union yesterday.
Seidman, visiting the University of Kansas from the State University of New York at Albany, kicked off the Prairie Theory Lectures at 3 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room. About 60 people attended the speech.
The lectures are being sponsored by the sociology department and the Center for Applied Social Theory.
"Queer politics struggles against normalizing any identity," he said.
Seidman said queer politics could be viewed as anti-normalizing politics.
Normalization makes judgments about what is right and wrong based on society's views about what is normal and healthy, Seidman said. He said this was not only applied to homosexuality, but also to sexual acts.
Seidman said movies, such as "Philadelphia," were ground breaking in many ways but asserted the normal status of the homosexual. He said that although the main character, Andy, was homosexual in all other ways, he fell into the normal category for Americans. He was hard working, successful and had a strong home background with supportive parents
who had been married for 50 years.
"Only the homosexual who is a mirror image of the heterosexual is acceptable." Seidman said.
He said the attempted normalization of homosexuality could be related to the feminist movement, where feminists critiqued the stereotypical roles and values to which women were supposed to adhere.
she attended the speech to get ideas for a paper she was writing about feminism. She said the speech, and the theories behind it, were interesting.
Laura Horne, Lawrence junior, said
Christine Robinson, graduate teaching assistant in sociology, said she thought Seidman had a lot to offer in the way people think about sexuality.
"I think he is the most prominent and engaging queer theorist in sociology today," she said.
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