Alumnae/i Community

Friday CCE 11:00 - 1:00 Seminar

"The Emotional Brain": How Emotions Inform Our Lives
Leah Olsen - Biology faculty

What is an emotion? From the time of Descartes, emotions have been cast as the enemy of reason; in Descartes famous words “I think, therefore I am”. Reason, the story goes, is what has allowed the emergence of thinking, and is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal world.  Recent evidence from cognitive neuroscience, however, has shown that Descartes is wrong; reason cannot exist without emotions. So what is an emotion? How do emotions affect/inform our lives as a thinking, reasoning – and feeling species?  Through readings in the book “The Emotional Brain” by Joseph LeDoux, we will explore recent research from cognitive neuroscience that asks – and begins to answer – these fundamental questions. Reading: Joseph LeDoux, The Emotional Brain,  Simon and Schuster, 1996. Read at least Chapters 1-4 and Chapter 9. 

Please note that this seminar is followed by lunch.

Friday 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.

"Inventions of Farewell": Memory and Mourning in Native American Literature

Arnold Krupat - Literature faculty

This seminar will look at text focused on loss- land loss, language loss, the loss of indigenous names--as experienced by Native American peoples since the time of European contact. We'll look at the text of an oral performance from California, at the opening of a contemporary novel, and at some recent poetry. We'll throw into the mix Walt Whitman's elegy on Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn and consider the degree to which Native elegiac writing does not only mourn the past but envisions what has been called the "survivance" and "continuance" of Native tribal nations.

The Family Health History: What it Means to You

Caroline Miller Lieber MS '80 - Director of the Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics

This workshop will discuss the importance of compiling and knowing your family health history and will review the types of information to collect.  Working with current Genetic Counseling students in small groups, participants will explore methods for obtaining family history information, and begin to compile a family history profile.

Creative Collaborating

Jed Distler '78

Composer/pianist Jed Distler ('78, retired Theater faculty member) discusses how the joys, challenges and methods of working with others can enrich one's artistic development, drawing upon his rich and varied experiences as performer, creator, educator, writer and artistic director. The seminar also will feature collaborative exercises with audience participation, plus live excerpts from The Gold Standard - Jed's recent and provocative Piano Theater collaboration with playwright Ed Schmidt and director Arnold Barkus.

Writing and Parenting: Writing for Catharsis, Writing for Publication

Lyde Sizer - History faculty and Alexandra Soiseth - Assistant Director of Graduate Writing

How do you make sense of the chaos of your home and family life?  In making sense of that chaos, how can you benefit the world of worried parents and your own writerly self?  How to move beyond the parenthood-is-bliss mantra to a more complex and nuanced portrait?  Facilitated by a parent-creative writer and a parent-historian, this workshop will include reflections on readings available in advance, a small exercise to get you warmed up, and lots of discussion.

Revisiting Diaghilev: Who Put the Modern in Contemporary Ballet?

Rose Anne Thom - Dance faculty

Diaghilev's relentless curiosity in all of the arts made the Diaghilev Ballets Russes (1909-1929) a showcase for unprecedented diversity in balletic form.  We will look at outstanding excerpts, from ballets by the company's five innovative choreographers, that reveal Diaghilev's sympathies with and understanding of key artistic movements at the start of the 20th century. 

REVOLUTION, EVOLUTION – how did we get where we are?
1969 – 2008

Donald Singletary '73

Rather than dwelling on comparisons of “That was then, this is now,” this seminar will focus on the mileposts  that brought about the changes that have taken place in culture, media, the arts, technology, politics, etc., to where things stand today. Many say our generation went off track. How did a left-leaning generation morph into Reagan Democrats? In 1969, walking the dorms halls one could hear a diversity of musical tastes ranging from The Beatles “Abbey Road,” to Isaac Hayes' “Hot Buttered Soul,” to Carole King's “Tapestry” -- all major commercial hits. How is it that for the past 20 years rap music is clearly the dominant force in music, selling as many records in Omaha as it does in Brooklyn? And was the goal of the women's movement really to put women in pin-striped suits alongside men in the office? And was the goal of  the Black movement to put more Blacks on television? Did those two movements lose their way?A lot has changed. Let's go back and retrace the steps of history and culture, juxtaposed against the changes in our own lives, and look at how we got from there to here.    

What's the Difference: Why use a viol  when a cello would do?

Judith Davidoff - Music faculty
John Swartz '06 and Laurence Pangaro '97

We will discuss the history of the viol and the cello, their fierce competition, their peaceful coexistence, and the later flowering of the “early music scene”, its specialization and its tokenism. We will provide live examples from music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Judith Davidoff will be assisted by John Swartz ‘06 and Laurence Pangaro ‘97, John plays both cello and viol; Laurence plays viol (and electric guitar).     

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Kevin Confoy - Theatre faculty

A look at the epic battles among characters in a play through the prism and metaphor of boxers in a prize fight.  Participants will have the chance to read aloud scenes from contemporary and classic drama that show how a play is like a boxing match.  (No actual fisticuffs required!)     

Late Afternoon Seminar, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Great Powers in the Twenty-first Century
Donnelley Theatre

This not-to-be-missed panel will discuss the changing roles of China, United States, Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. We will explore what it means to be a Great Power in the 21st century and the impact these regions will have on the world.  The seminar will feature leading experts Shahnaz Rouse, SLC Sociology faculty and contributor to books and journals on South Asia and the Middle East; David Peritz, SLC Politics faculty; Merle Goldman '53, Professor Emerita of Chinese History at Boston University and associate of the Fairbank Center of East Asian Research at Harvard; and Marshall Goldman, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Wellesley College and former associate director of the Harvard Russian Research Center.