Arts Ideas

Framingham State University is proud to present the – a year-long series of engaging speakers, performances, exhibitions and films. Most events are free and open to the public. Designed to stimulate the kind of thought-provoking conversations that represent co-curricular learning at its best, this year’s series explores two complimentary themes: “Science as Part of Our Living World” and “Stasis and Change.”

The challenge of evaluating change marks one of our chief responsibilities as an academic community - be it the multi-faceted change made imperative by climate change, or hard-to-read harbingers of social change, big and small. In fields as diverse as the visual arts, publishing, History, conflict resolution and animal rights, a central question guides us: "How much have we changed and how much have we remained the same?"

The presumed opposite of change, "stasis, " says one thing to a social scientist studying institutionalized racism in what has been optimistically termed “post-racial America, ” and another to a classical rhetorician for whom "stasis" names the practice of slowing down an argument in order to ask questions. Ultimately, how do we know whether changes are positive or negative – or something else altogether? Join us for these debates and the responsive actions they promise to inspire.