Events

Annapolis, Formal Lecture Series 2007-2008

Lectures are held most Fridays at 8:15 p.m. in Francis Scott Key Auditorium. They are free and open to the public. For more information on the lecture series, please call (410) 626-2539.

2007-2008 Lecture Schedule
Updated 4/2/2008

August 24 - "Rhetoric and Philosophy"
by Dean Michael Dink
Read Mr. Dink's lecture

August 31 - "The Questions of Lear and Cordelia"
by Louis Petrich, Annapolis tutor
Read Mr. Petrich's lecture (PDF)

September 7 - "Agonizing Over a Decision: What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Relationship Between Thought and Emotion?"
by Professor Julie Fiez, University of Pittsburgh

September 14 - "The Costs of Civilization"
by Michael Grenke, Annapolis tutor

September 18 - "Affirmative Action Today: Race, Class, Immigration, and the Constitution"
Professor Deborah Malamud, New York University School of Law.
(Note: This lecture will take place on a Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.)
Professor Malamud will use recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action (2003) and desegregation (2007) to discuss a set of abiding questions about variation and change in constitutional meaning and practice. To what extent should (and does) constitutional doctrine change with changing perceptions of the crises facing the nation? What role should (and does) social science play in constitutional doctrine? How should (and does) the Court deal with the gap between popular and technical conceptions of the Constitution when measuring the likely effects of its decisions? These questions are in play throughout constitutional law, but are especially clear in issues of race and the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education.

Professor Malamud will also be available to meet with students interested in law school and a career in law on Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. in the Hodson Room.

September 21 - All College Seminar
College community only.

September 28 - "Knowledge, Ignorance and Imitation in Book 10 of Plato's Republic
by Professor David McNeill, University of Essex

October 5 - Long Weekend
No lecture.

October 12 - "Cartesian Certainty, or Awakening from the Dreams of a Slave"
by Janet Dougherty, Santa Fe tutor

October 19 - Lecture: "To Be or Not to Be: Tracing the Role of a Gene in Life and Death "
by Professor Angela DiBennedetto, Villanova University
"Apoptosis is a mechanism of cell suicide that is initiated in response to relevant biological signals, and is intimately tied in with the processes of cell proliferation and differentiation. Aberrant control of apoptosis underlies diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration."

In our study of the regulation of apoptosis in neurons, we have uncovered a set of genes newly expressed in cells triggered to die. These genes have been named "muds 1-8", for "messages upregulated in death 1-8". Based on the identity of these co-regulated genes, we propose a hypothesis about cell death initiation in neurons, which we continue to test in the laboratory. Since we expect muds genes to have other, non-cell death roles, we also have studied more closely the potential functions of particular muds genes in other contexts, hoping to tease apart when and where a given gene plays one role or the other, and so to piece together a more complete "gene profile".

We and others have shown that the mud6/brd2 gene is involved in the control of both cell death and cell proliferation, and may sit at the regulatory crossroads of these processes. We have recently experimentally blocked the expression of this gene in zebrafish vertebrate embryos. The mutant phenotype obtained implies that the mud6/brd2 gene is important for normal development and morphogenesis of the central nervous system in vertebrates, and that it effects its role, at least in part, by modulating the extent of naturally occurring cell death in the embryo. The results also imply something about causality in complex systems, but I will leave that discussion for the question period."

Please join us for the lecture and question period.

Please note:
Professor DiBenedetto will also host a Career Forum on graduate study and careers in biology at 4 p.m. Friday in the Hodson Room.

October 26 - "Logos and Power in Book One of Herodotus' History"
by Claudia Honeywell, Santa Fe tutor.
"This lecture focuses on the emergence of political language in Herodotus' first book. The relationship between language and power is a prevalent theme throughout this book, and emerges in surprising ways. Croesus and his famous misinterpretation of his oracle illustrate the tension between human and divine logos. Cyrus uses both creative and deceptive language to emerge from obscurity and claim his foreordained power. The Greek races (Spartans, Ionians and Athenians) exhibit an emerging awareness of language as the power that shapes history and politics. In all of these examples, there are deep questions about the limits of political logos and the origins of its association with reason and truth. Herodotus marvels at the uniquely human phenomenon of historical and political language and strives to demonstrate the power of logos in his own writing. The result is a complex and sophisticated commentary on the nature of public speech."

Please join us for lecture and question period.

There will also be a pre-lecture seminar on Herodotus' History in the Conversation Room at 7 o'clock. The reading is paragraphs 26-92 and 107-130 from Book I of the History. The Student Committee on Instruction invites everyone to participate.

November 9 - "The Golden Ratio"
by Professor Mario Livio, Senior Astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
What do sunflowers, Salvador Dali's painting "Sacrament of the Last Supper", and quasicrystals all have in common? These very disparate elements share a certain number commonly known as the GOLDEN RATIO, expressed by the Greek letter PHI. In a journey through mathematics and astrophysics, botany and zoology, art and architecture, taking in fractals and psychology on the way, this extraordinary number, that has captured the imagination for millennia, will be explored. This will also be a story of obsession-of Phi-fixated individuals who have devoted their lives to discovering the properties of this number. This tale begins with the ancient Egyptian and Greek mathematicians, continues with the scientists and artists of the Renaissance, and takes us right to such scientists and masters of the modern world as Penrose, Debussy, and Le Corbusier.

November 16 - The Steiner Lecture: "Race in America Today"
given by Ambassador Andrew Young.
Young, former ambassador to the United Nations, former two-term mayor of Atlanta, and a noted civil rights leader will speak on race in America.

November 30 - "Leibniz's New Geometry"
by Brendon Lasell, Santa Fe tutor.
Leibniz sees his differential calculus as a new geometry moving beyond the boundaries of both ancient and modern geometry. This lecture will discuss how this geometry is new, and how it is still geometry.

December 7 - King William Players Production

January 11 - "The Idea of America in European Political Thought: 1492 - 9/11"
by Dr. Alan Levine, American University
The lecture will analyze how America was perceived by the political thinkers of Europe from Columbus through today, arguing that it was treated as a symbol. It will argue that their battle over America was a proxy war over liberalism, the Enlightenment, European civilization, and modernity itself - the same battles raging around the globe today. By tracing the origins and evolution of these views, the lecture will show the discontinuities and a surprising unity of European thinkers' views of America.

Please join us for lecture and question period.

The lectures on Flannery O'Connor and Albert Einstein that were previously scheduled for this date have been cancelled.

January 18 - "From Ancient Agony to Contemporary Ecstasy: The Gospel at Colonus."
Professor Thee Smith of Emory University.
Professor Smith offers the following account of his lecture:

This remarkable work of art emerged from director-composer Lee Breuer's nitial inspiration to adapt Sophocles' ancient play for the contemporary stage using black music styles. The Gospel at Colonus presents Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus in parable-like sermons set in an African-American Pentecostal church. The congregation performs the invocation ("Live Where You Can") and as the ministers narrate, portions of the story come to life. The Gospel at Colonus provides the viewer or listener a tour de force of 'striking parallels' between African American Pentecostal church services and Greek drama. Discovering the cascading parallels between ancient Greek tragedy and black religious expression was a happy outcome of that artistic process. The lecture will identify, display, and commend for future projects, the distinctive elements of past and present that produced such a happy outcome in the contemporary theatre.

There will be a showing of a DVD recording of a performance of The Gospel at Colonus in the Hodson Room at 6:30 p.m. on Friday evening prior to the lecture. Please join us for the lecture and question period.

January 25 - "Capturing the Sophist in the Space of Non-Being"
by Professor Corrine Painter, Washtenaw Community College.
Painter will argue that in Plato's Sophist we are presented with a brilliant attempt to establish the paradoxical conclusion not only that non-being has being, but, more importantly, that non-being and being are inextrincably linked with one another through mimesis, such that together they make possible not just the sophist but the philosopher as well.

February 15 - "You are That!"
by Robert Druecker, Annapolis tutor.
Mr. Druecker gives the following account of his lecture.

"The lecture is in two parts. Part One develops an analogy between the way of experiencing that the Upanishads is talking about and a way of experiencing that figures prominently in Homer and Aristotle. Part Two, most of which will be delivered on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 19th, in the Conversation Room, elucidates directly the way of experiencing presented in the Upanishads."

In this lecture on the Upanishads, a prominent character named Yajñavalkya frequently appears in conversation with the lecturer. For any who might be curious about where he is 'coming from,' click here for one page of quotations of comments he made in dialogues in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad.

February 22 - All College Seminar
College community only.

March 21 - On Plato
by Professor Mitchell Miller of Vassar College.

April 1 - Dred Scott
by William Braithwaite, Annapolis tutor.
Note: this lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 1 at 2:30 p.m. in the Conversation Room

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) is probably the most famous Supreme Court case in American history. It is certainly the most important decision the Court has ever made on race relations (and also the worst, with respect to its moral conclusions and political consequences). The Court decided (1) that a descendant of slaves could not be a citizen either of the United States or of any State; (2) that a slave remained a slave when taken by his master into a State that prohibited slavery; and (3) that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in U.S. territories not yet admitted to Statehood. After the Civil War, Congress "over-ruled" the Court on each of these points.

The lecture will address the first issue, citizenship for free Negroes, contrasting the opinions of Mr. Chief Justice Taney, who spoke for the majority, and Mr. Justice Curtis, one of the two dissenters. Their different opinions will be used to explore the question of how to read political documents, including court opinions, in particular. Among the larger, background questions to be raised are: how should our understanding of the divine, of nature, and of history bear upon our reading of political texts? How can a people divided over what justice is come to have a politically workable understanding of what the law is? What is law, for us, as Americans?

April 4 - On Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
by Adam Schulman, Annapolis tutor.

Mr. Schulman gives the following account of the topic of the lecture.
"I believe, and hope to show, that Pride and Prejudice is a profoundly philosophical novel that offers a far-reaching critique of our opinions about love, friendship, morality, and human happiness. My lecture will look closely at Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy and their opinions on the most important questions; these prove to be surprisingly far apart, but that does not mean that the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy will not 'teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really is.'"

Please join us for lecture and question period.

April 11- On Maxwell
by Chester Burke, Annapolis tutor.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist known for his work in electromagnetism; he unified numerous theories, including a set of equations in electricity, magnetism and inductance, known as Maxwell's equations.

"By his own description, in order to understand the science of electricity and magnetism, Maxwell had to translate both the ideas he found in Michael Faraday's "Experimental Researches" and those he found in the works of mathematicians such as Joseph-Louis Lagrange," says Burke. "Maxwell cultivated these findings in another big idea, the electromagnetic field. From this he harvested not only his famous equations but also the idea that light is an electromagnetic wave."

Burke's lecture explores the genuine causes of force and motion in the electromagnetic field through these translations as well as parts of Maxwell's "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism."

April 18 - "Kant on Evil and Human Nature"
by Matt Caswell, Annapolis tutor.

In his lecture, Caswell will take up Kant's question, "What is Man?" "The lecture examines Kant's answer to this question by locating our particularly human nature within a taxonomy of possible rational beings," says Caswell. "Our own distinguishing feature, Kant argues, is that we are evil by nature." Caswell's lecture will explore Kant's deduction of our fallen condition. "In other words," he says, "We will figure out if we are indeed evil."