Alumnae/i Community

Saturday, 10:15 - 11:45 a.m.

Jews in Post-War Germany

Roland Dollinger - German Language and Literature faculty

The assumption that the Jewish community in Germany vanished after Auschwitz is wrong. On the contrary, the Jewish communities in Germany have been growing not only in numbers but also culturally. Since the 1980s, what was a silent and relatively invisible Jewish community of the victims of the Holocaust, has begun to reemerge as a new generation of German Jews or Jews living in Germany. We will analyze not only the changing sociological make-up of the Jewish communities in Germany since 1945, but also the existential and day-to-day problems Jews in Germany are facing, including anti-Semitism.

Courbet and the Politics of Empathy

Lee MacCormick Edwards '76 - Art History faculty and Nicolaus Mills - Literature faculty

A seminar based the blockbuster exhibits of Gustave Courbet that took place in 2007-08 at the Grand Palais in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We will focus on Courbet's politics and his artistic attachment to the French countryside.

Introductory Experiential Workshop in Dance Therapy

Linni Silberman Deihl ’62 M.Ed., ADTR, LCAT

An introduction to dance therapy, which is defined by the American Dance Therapy as "the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional and physical integration of the individual." Registrants will engage in an interactive process through kinesthetic and personal involvement.  Using Laban's Effort/Shape movement analysis, participants will explore their own organization of movement behavior and, using Sullivanian theory, their own dynamics as a group.  Please wear comfortable clothing in which you can move easily.

Political Theologies

David Peritz - Politics faculty and Kristin Sands - Religion faculty

Political theologies—religiously inspired and socially enforced visions of social and political life—have played an indispensable role in domestic and international politics throughout human history. Many modern Western societies, however, have embraced the idea of secularism. In this seminar we can briefly trace the history, successes and failures of efforts to produce secular societies and the kinds of tolerant religiosity that must meet them halfway. We also can consider the reasons why these accomplishments appear so unattractive to so many persons especially outside but also within modern Western societies. We will discuss how and why it is that religion has again come to form perhaps the most important axis of global and domestic political conflict. 

How Much Are Our Grandchildren Worth? Economists Debate Global Warming

Marilyn Power - Economics faculty

In the fall of 2006, the British Parliament received a report from Sir Nicholas Stern, an economist, arguing that putting policies in place to immediately begin mitigating global warming was both morally right and economically efficient.  Since the Stern Review was published, economists have been engaged in a vigorous debate over its findings, with some arguing that the proposals are too modest, while others argue that it would be more cost effective to start slowly, leaving most of the expense of addressing global warming for future generations.
These disagreements rest on differing assumptions about the costs of global warming, about the likely state of future generations, and about how we should value the future compared to the present.  These debates are likely to affect climate policy on both national and global levels.  This seminar will examine the findings of the Stern Review, the resulting debate, and the implications for global warming policy, addressing both the economic and the ethical assumptions underlying the argument.

Stop My Life, I Want to Get On!

Thomas Stern '78

Join Tom as he speaks about the demands of modern society and how they often leave us spinning and feeling that we’re not in control of our lives. This humorous and powerful program offers life lessons about how each of us can gain that sense of “inner-balance” that allows us to spin as long as we want, as fast as we want, and more importantly, when we want. Tom reveals how he became a success addict who tried to compensate for the sense that he disappointed and failed his CEO dad and how he was relieved of this compulsion when the lives of his family were threatened. Only then did he finally realize what was truly important. Tom spent ten years in comedy and entertainment management before becoming one of the top executive recruiters in the nation. He is the author of a national syndicated comic strip CEO Dad and his book CEO Dad, How to Avoid Getting Fired By Your Family.

Screenwright: The First Filmmaker and the Journey of the Screenplay to the Screen

Frederick Strype - Filmmaking faculty

Films are not shot on a sound stage or on a location.  They are first made in the mind of a screenwriter and then rendered on paper.  Indeed, before a film is projected on any screen, there is the screenplay.  As the so-called “blueprint” in filmmaking, which has been acknowledged as one of the most complicated and collaborative of the arts, the screenplay holds singular importance in the outcome of any successful film.  But, what does a screenplay look like? What are the mechanics unique thereto?  And how do words on pages of paper eventually yield unforgettable images and sounds through flickering light? Excerpts from screenplays along with clips from their respective films will form the basis for discussion and exploration of one of our most influential art forms.  

The Rising Sun: The Cultural Renaissance of African Americans in the City

Komozi Woodard - History faculty

Historians are rethinking the urban history of African Americans. As the power of major interpretative frameworks about cultural poverty is disintegrating, a new paradigm is emerging. This new framework is based on a reinterpretation of the major 20th century migrations, the Harlem Renaissance, and the cultural impact of African American urbanization. When we shift the focus from the Harlem Renaissance to concentrate on musical and cultural innovation, it is clear that Blues, Jazz and Gospel correspond more closely to the chronology of a “New Negro” Renaissance that flowered in American cities. There was a dramatic change in black ethos that affected a series of innovations in the cultural, social, spiritual, popular and political life of African Americans; and those dynamics in turn transformed American cities. This seminar will provide an overview of the new scholarship that is rethinking Black urban history.