Dr. Frank Scherer (Lecturer, Department of Equity Studies, York) will be giving a lecture on the influence of psychoanalysis on filmmaking to mark the155th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud on Thursday, March 31st from 1:00-2:00 pm in  room 764 York Research Tower (building #95 on the map found here).

The founding of psychoanalysis and the birth of the cinema are co-terminus. At the dawn of the twentieth century, when Sigmund Freud invented a new interpretative science called psychoanalysis, early silent film – both in Europe and in America – was associated with vulgarity and the morbose/pornography. If Freud was reluctant to let psychoanalysis be used and represented by Hollywood, the fundamental tenets of psychoanalysis have nonetheless emerged through the new medium of film. Be it the psychology of the dream processes in Charlie Chaplin’s The Bankrobbers (1915), the talking cure and its treatment of the neuroses in Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1941); or sexuality and its repression in Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) – the underlying concurrence of psychoanalysis and film is found in their reflection of the conflict between “the demand by the instinct and the prohibition of reality.

CCGES invited anyone interested to attend this talk, but asks that you please register in advance at: ccges@yorku.ca

On Friday, April 1, 2011, CCGES is pleased to co-present a talk by Xosé-Manoel Núñez (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) entitled “Protectors or Bystanders? – The Spanish Blue Division at the Eastern Front and the Jews, 1941-1945. This event will take place in 2183 Vari Hall (building #30  on the map found here) from 12:30-2:00 pm.

This lecture is being co-presented by York’s Department of History, the Centre for Jewish Studies and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

All are welcome to attend.

Together with the CITY Institute at York, CCGES is pleased to present a lecture by Dr. Sigrun Kabisch on Monday, April 25th from 11 am to 12:30 pm in Room 305 York Lanes (building #24 on the map found here). In the 21^st century, urban development is facing new challenges caused by the parallel occurrence of both growing and shrinking cities. The development patterns and instruments of urban growth are well-known. However, the processes of shrinkage and its broad societal consequences, which affect an increasing number of cities, need intensive investigation. (CONTINUE READING)