The injuries suffered by soldiers during WWI were as varied as they were brutal. How could the human body suffer and often absorb such disparate traumas? Why might the same wound lead one soldier to die but allow another to recover?

In The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe, Stefanos Geroulanos (Professor of History, NYU) and Todd Meyers (Associate Professor of Anthropology, NYU Shanghai) uncover a fascinating story of how medical scientists came to conceptualize the body as an integrated yet brittle whole. Responding to the harrowing experience of the Great War, the medical community sought conceptual frameworks to understand bodily shock, brain injury, and the vast differences in patient responses they occasioned. Geroulanos and Meyers carefully trace how this emerging constellation of ideas became essential for thinking about integration, individuality, fragility, and collapse far beyond medicine: in fields as diverse as anthropology, political economy, psychoanalysis, and cybernetics.

Join us for an in-depth discussion with the authors and other featured panelists analyzing the various themes and stories surrounding these ideas. Featuring:

Emily Martin
Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, NYU

Samuel Moyn
Professor of Law and History, Yale University

With an introduction by Dr. Katherine E. Fleming, NYU Provost.

The music of Broadway is one of America's most unique and popular calling cards. In Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, author Laurence Maslon tells the story of how the most beloved songs of the American Musical Theater made their way from the Theater District to living rooms across the country. This talk will investigate the immense appeal of the Broadway song book as heard by millions of Americans through original cast albums, pop recordings, radio, and television.

Featuring Laurence Maslon, Arts Professor, Associate Chair, Grad Acting Program, NYU Tisch, in conversation with Amanda Vaill, Biographer, Journalist, and Screenwriter.