Spring 2008 Events

Lecture Series

Karl Bryant
Sociology Department
Wednesday, February 6th
Queering Childhood

Lynn Spangler
Communication and Media Department
Monday, March 3rd
John Burroughs: A Naturalist in the Industrial Age

Judith Halasz
Sociology Department
Monday, April 7th
The Bohemian Scene in New York

Michelle Marzullo
Scholar-in-Residence
Anthropology Department
Wednesday, April 16th
Sexual Politics: New Paltz, Past and Present

Katharine French
History Department
Wednesday, April 23rd
Surviving Widowhood in Late Medieval Westminster

Gregory Bray
Communication and Media Department
Wednesday, April 30th
A Horse Connection

Seminars

HON325 Origins of Evil Incarnate: The Grim Adventure
Instructor: Marlis Paffenroth (English)

In this course students will explore how major writers of the Western tradition have considered the role of evil in human experience. Specifically, students will study how our understanding of evil as a "force" or "character" has shaped philosophical, theological and artistic thinking throughout the ages and across cultures.

HON 305 Media and America
Instructor: Rob Miraldi (Communication)

The Media and America will explain and explore the role the mass media play in American society, from history to politics, to culture. It will especially cover the relationship between American history and the various stages of the press's development, as well as the relationship between government and the press in a self-governing society. A focus will be on the increasingly blurry line between entertainment and news in both electronic and print media.

HON 323 Illuminating the Darkness: African Narratives and Realities
Instructor: Laura Dull (Education Studies)

In this course, discussions and texts will introduce students to theories that inform interpretations of African history and culture, identify the most convincing sources and accounts of history, and propose ways to better inform citizens about African history.

HON 303 Education and Poverty
Instructor: Sue Books (Secondary Education)

Exploration of the relationship between education and poverty will entail probing the public discourse on poverty as well as popular thought about educational reform, considering issues of social justice, and thinking about the politics of represenation. The overall course objective is to prepare students to participate more meaningfully in public conversations about education. Recognition of the significant relationship between education and poverty has led, at best, to serious attention to educational inequities, but, at worst, to counterproductive perceptions of poor children as somehow deficient.

HON393 Democracy & the Press
Instructor: Sydney Schanberg (Communication and Media)

An exploration of the ways in which American democracy is degrading and how the fast-changing press-with its new technologies, a growing corporate influence and journalists' re-definition of their role-has become part of that decline. It will look at the important stories the press chooses not to cover and the reasons why; and the shallower subjects to which the press increasingly gives preference that have distracted the public and weakened the debate necessary for citizen-involved government to thrive.

 

Seminars from previous semesters

The Individual and Society
A Matter of Taste: Modern Aesthetic Theory
Love and Humanity
The Graphic Text
The Art of Listening to Music
The Greek Idea of Unity
The Aesthetics of Witnessing
The Art of Listening
Education and Poverty
Studies in 20th Century Word & Image
Education and Indoctrination
Ideas of the Social Sciences

Descriptions of these courses can be found in the undergraduate catalog,

Lectures from previous semesters

Eve Waltermaurer, Sociology Department
Is Chocolate Good for You? Settling the Debate Once and for All (Fall 2007)

Nancy Kassop, Political Science and International Relations Department
Bush and Cheney and the Separation of Powers Ledger: Will they Leave the Presidency Stronger Than They Found It? (Fall 2007)

Jan Schmidt, English Department
Confronting the Void: The Autobiographical Journey in Second Generation Women's Holocaust Memoirs (Fall 2007)

Linda Benbow, Sociology Department
The Paradoxes of Diversity: Race Relations in Federal Bureaucracy (Fall 2007)

Michael Vargas, History Department
Bad-Boy Friars and Cranky Reformers: Tales of Disorder and Corporate Inertia in the Fourteenth Century Dominican Order (Fall 2007)

Tom Nolen, Biology Department
Model Behavior: Neuronal Pacemaker Interactions in Swimming Jellyfish (Fall 2007)