Student Seminars & Essays
Find your seminar below!
Please Note: You will be assigned one of these seminars and will be asked to read preparatory materials before attending. Be sure to follow the timeline for seminar placements and only attend the seminar to which you are assigned.
Seminar assignments and required readings are available below.
Dr. Kathryn McClymond, President
The Bhagavad Gita, written between ~400 BCE and 400 CE, is the most famous piece of Indian literature, capturing a conversation between the deity Krishna and the warrior Arjuna on the eve of a great battle. On the surface, the story seems to argue that Arjuna is morally compelled to go to war against his own family members. Yet this very same text has been used by Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to argue for nonviolent resistance. How is this possible? In this seminar, we will read sections of the Gita (in translation), seeing how this ancient story, set in the context of a feud between extended clans, discusses mortality, family ties, personal responsibility, the impact of our actions on this earth, and divine nature. Students will explore the story’s timeless themes, try to understand vastly different interpretations of the text, and imagine how it might speak to us today.
Dr. Brian Patterson, Mathematics and Computer Science
In Johann Hari’s new book, Stolen Focus, he discusses how social media applications are designed to attract our attention without any concern for longer term effects. With a philosophy of “move fast and break things,” these apps have been successful in making billions of dollars while charging the user no money to use. So what is the cost to users if it is not money? Our readings will discuss some specific strategies these apps use to get our attention and possible solutions to the issue of stolen focus.
Pete Stobie, Chief Financial Officer
Innovation is a key component to an institution’s success. Creative thinking is a key component to innovation. Without innovation, businesses can struggle to stay relevant, for example, Blockbuster, Eastman Kodak, and Borders Books. Leonardo da Vinci, best known as a painter, had a major impact in architecture, science, music, math, engineering, and was ultimately a master of innovation. Using some of the principals of da Vinci, this seminar will explore ways to become a creative thinker specifically as it relates to innovation and business.
Dr. Jeffrey Collins, Art History & Anthropology
This seminar will discuss the meaning of the 21st century as a transitional period in human civilization. Students will discuss topics such as new energy sources, AI, the genomic revolution, space exploration, nanotechnology, fusion of humans and machines, singularity, and transhumanism. The reading will assume basic scientific literacy but no level of expertise in these fields, and an anthropological interest in such questions as: What is a human, really? Where do we wish to go? What will be our future values? How do we move beyond our present problems? Who will benefit from what technologies?
Dr. Charlie Baube, Biology
Dr. Neil Shubin, of the University of Chicago and Field Museum, argues in his highly entertaining and informative book Your Inner Fish that the evidence of our evolutionary past as humans is within us, if you just know where and how to look. Using a brief review of the thesis of his book published in the University of Chicago Magazine, we will explore Dr. Shubin’s thoughts on our own “inner fish”. A close look at our anatomy, genes and behavior reveals the vestiges of our tetrapod and, deeper still, aquatic ancestry. With vivid, readable and entertaining accounts of phenomena such as hernias, the hiccups and torn ACLs, Shubin provides compelling evidence that the evidence of our ancestry buried in our own bodies. As a first-rate scientist, with expertise in Paleontology, Anatomy and Genetics, the reading is entertaining and informative as Dr. Shubin leads us on a tour of the “3.5-Bbillion year history of the human body.”
Dr. Meredith Raimondo, Sociology
If bacteria and viruses do not discriminate, why are there so many inequalities related to health in the United States? We will explore several historical and contemporary case studies, from yellow fever to HIV/AIDS, to understand how health has become a major site of inequality and what can be done to create greater health justice. Through these examples, we will explore the relationship between the promise of health as a human right and a robust and thriving democracy.
Instructions:
To prepare for Dr. Raimondo’s seminar, please watch the video below and read the two linked articles.
Watch:
- Black Health Disparities Go Back To Slavery | Discovered Truth: Full Documentary
- 205 – Racism As a Public Health Crisis: Environmental Injustice
Read:
Eli Arnold ’06, University Librarian
Within the past few years, there has been a growing focus on uncovering hard truths about our nation–especially when it comes to its history and how we remember. In this seminar, we will discuss times when we learned that history as told to us wasn’t necessarily accurate or the whole story. When did you realize that you weren’t told the complete truth about a situation? What harm is done when history is changed? Who benefits? How do we agree on what historical truth is? While our discussion will begin with Yamacraw leader Tomochichi and the narratives around his relationship with General James Edward Oglethorpe in the early Georgia colony, we will also put this discussion in conversation with other local, national, and personal histories. This conversation will go beyond getting certain facts straight and move toward discussions about bias, unheard voices, and how history is told and remembered.
Dr. Karen Schmeichel, Biology
The term “Public Health” immediately evokes thoughts of infectious outbreaks of COVID, Smallpox, Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious agents that can yield rampant global morbidity and mortality. But what about the ill-health effects of gun violence? Aren’t they a part of this equation as well? In this seminar, we will focus on emerging discussions about how the science of infectious disease prevention, epitomized by the recent Covid pandemic is being used to address our country’s policy on gun violence.
Instructions:
Watch the video and read the three short readings below:
Watch: How the public health approach can solve gun violence | Megan Ranney | TEDxProvidence
Dr. Wynter Parks, French
How do we think outside of the box towards new knowledge if the conceptual tools we use to think with are themselves products of the box? This is the conundrum Sylvia Wynter wishes us to see and work through as scholars and producers of knowledge. In this seminar we will work in intellectual disobedience alongside Wynter engaging with her contribution to the critique of modern thought. Wynter’s “genre of Man” analysis examines two moves of naturalization that took place in Renaissance and post-Enlightenment eras. Those two moves are 1: the secularization of rationality and 2: the representation of the human through the workings of natural selection, and they would position (Western) “Man” in such a way as to disavow other, coexisting modes of being human. Wynter’s intellectual disobedience is to break away from root metaphors of thought in Western and colonial knowledge systems, and in so doing, reveal the link between racial, gendered, and sexual belonging, differential ways of knowing and imagining the world, and the overarching governing codes that have created, maintained, and normalized practices of exclusion. Breaking out of the box can contribute to creating (thinking anew) critical projects that address pressing political matters in our global present. Come, ye future knowledge producer rebels, let’s disobey together.
Instagram:
Readings:
Dr. Linda deCamp, Mathematics
Dr. deCamp discusses the varied and sometimes hidden ways mathematics shapes our views of equity, truth and societal structures. The lecture both explores and invites a critical examination of the often overlooked influence of mathematics in our lives, urging the participants to reflect on the interplay between numerical concepts and our perceptions of reality and justice.
Dr. Emily Bailey, Psychology
How has societal change contributed to the increase in mental illness over the years? In what way does the current culture impact children, teenagers, and adults’ ability to develop resilience? How do we strike a balance between being supportive in therapeutic settings and fostering resilience and antifragility in the face of challenges? In this seminar, we will explore the idea that adversity can benefit us. We will investigate how reframing challenges as chances to evolve can transform us and be a catalyst for strength and self-improvement. In doing so, we will examine implications of exposure therapy in relation to promotion of resiliency, antifragility, and ultimately effective management of negative emotions, with an emphasis on anxiety.
Ronald A. Burgess, Film & Media
Students will begin by reading a selection from Eddie Muller’s “The Lost World of Film Noir.” We will have a brief overview of what Film Noir is, and then go into its themes and aesthetics. Following, we will have an interactive exercise that will emulate the black and white cinematography and low-key lighting of film noir, and we will get to see its effect.
Dr. Melany Chambers, Communications
During this session, we will explore how communication theories can give insight into everyday interpersonal communication situations.
Randy Hill, Film & Media Studies
It could be argued that documentary gave birth to, and has since been eclipsed by, reality television. In 1973, the documentary TV series, An American Family, aired on PBS. It is today recognized as the first reality TV show, and since then reality television’s growth has been explosive. Some posit reality TV is its own distinct genre, separate from documentary because of its often manufactured, sometimes exploitative nature. But is it really so different from documentary? We will explore the rise of reality TV, its relationship to the documentary and how documentary has reacted to the reality TV genre.
Dr. Chris C. Martin, Psychology
“The Overspent American” by sociologist Juliet B. Schor belongs to the canon of works about the search for happiness. It focuses on money, how we spend it, and why we aim to earn so much of it. You’ll read “The Downshifter next Door,” a chapter from Schor’s book. It is a study of Americans who have downshifted: they decided to deliberately earn less money to live a simpler, saner life.
Dr. Mariel Meier, Physics
From Wordle to Starfield, Mariokart to World of Warcraft, video game play is a part of life for more than 200 million Americans. Gaming takes a multitude of forms but is often discussed as a monolith, with little consideration given to the nuances of gaming and the cultures it creates. This seminar aims to provide participants with a platform to critically examine both the positive and negative aspects of video games on society. Attendees will explore the cognitive benefits, social interactions, and community-building aspects of video gaming, as well as delve into the potential drawbacks such as addiction and the impact of violent content on behavior. In this seminar you will have the opportunity to consider the broader social implications of video games and foster a nuanced understanding of their multifaceted effects on individuals and communities.
Dr. John Orme, Politics
Influential books were written in the 1990s by Francis Fukuyama, John Mearsheimer and Samuel Huntington. These authors analyzed and explained the trajectory of world politics, or to put it differently, the course of history. Time has passed, and we can look back to assess the validity of their explanations and predictions. Who was right? Why?
Dr. Allison Roessler, Chemistry
There’s a reason why the recipes that we use work the way that they do – the answers are rooted in the fundamentals of chemistry! If you can figure out for yourself why recipes work, you will be both empowered with skills to improve your own cooking and also gain an appreciation for the scientific method – all while learning some chemistry! Why do we cook chocolate chip cookies for 10 minutes and not 20 minutes? Why does steak taste differently cooked at different temperatures? Why do we knead bread?
Dr. Andrew Walden, Chemistry
Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is a necessary part of combating global climate change. Alternative energy sources that are currently being utilized or have been proposed often require improvements in efficiency and modifications of our current energy infrastructure in order to become viable alternatives to fossil fuels. In this seminar we will explore the chemistry behind current technologies and the potential of proposed energy sources allowing for a fuller understanding of how the ways we generate, store, transport, and utilize energy will change in the future.
Professor Christina Price Washington, Studio Art & Photography
This seminar will consider Art in The Space of The Internet. A new adaptation of John Berger’s 1972 Ways of Seeing represents aesthetically diverse interpretations of Berger’s ideas on looking at art after the introduction of digital media and the internet.
In addition to reading Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing by John Berger, please watch the first episode of the BBC drama Ways of Seeing based on the book.
Dr. Graham Wyatt, Biology
This scientific question has been popularized recently by meme culture. But what does it really mean? And more importantly, what can it tell us about macroevolutionary patterns in other groups of organisms, perhaps even our own species? We will examine these questions and others in our discussion of “carcinization” – becoming a crab.