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find out about a travel destination or find other EUEC members who would like to travel with you, send an email to:
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This issue of our newsletter is sent to members and friends of the Emory University Emeritus College (EUEC). I hope the newsletter will help keep you informed about our activities and help you feel connected with our members throughout the U.S. On the left are links to our website and links to contact either me or the EUEC office.
With best wishes,
Gray
Gray F. Crouse Director, EUEC
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 Message from the Director
If you read nothing else in this issue, I hope you will read the article on the need for a new representative to the University Senate and Faculty Council. Holly York has done a great job as our representative for the past three years, but her term is up and we now need to elect a new representative. Don't hesitate to nominate yourself if you are interested.
We have continued to have a full house for our Lunch Colloquiums; our last one of the summer is next Monday and promises to be just as interesting as the previous ones. For those of you unable to hear Larry Taulbee, thanks to Holly York you can read about his talk, and the video should be on our website by the time you read this newsletter.
It seems like the fall Interdisciplinary Seminar gets more popular every year, and there has already been a lot of interest expressed in the one John Bugge is planning for this fall. You can read his article, below. Do let him know soon if you are interested in participating. Because of the popularity of this seminar, one issue we may have to face in the future is what the maximum number of participants should be for what is billed as a seminar. I want to emphasize that there is no reason we cannot have more than one seminar during a semester or cannot have one in the spring. All it would take is for one of you to volunteer to be the organizer. If you would be interested in proposing an Interdisciplinary Seminar, let either John or me know.
Finally, I want to say how great it is to have the many new members join that we have seen in the past few months. Be sure to welcome those you know. Speaking of new members, I want to particularly thank Ann Hartle who has volunteered to help with the editing and proofing of this newsletter. It is very much appreciated!
I am very grateful to John Bugge, Gretchen Schulz, and Ann Hartle for help with editing and proofing.
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Lunch Colloquium--July 23
Developing Faculties: The Power of Contemplative Pedagogy
The Luce Center Room 130 11:30-1:00
Patti Owen-Smith, Professor of Psychology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oxford College
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Lunch Colloquium--Tuesday, July 10
Kein Geld, Kein Schweizer
Larry Taulbee, Associate Professor of Political Science Emeritus Click here to read more about this Lunch Colloquium
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University Senate and Faculty Council Representative
One indication of the integration of the Emeritus College with the rest of the University is that we have a voting representative to the University Senate and Faculty Council. Holly York has very ably represented us for the past three years, but her term is ending and we need a new representative. This is a very important position because our representative keeps us visible to the leaders of the University, both faculty and administrators. If you would be willing to serve or would like to nominate someone else, please send an email to Gray Crouse. To understand more about this position, please read Holly's statement:
Upcoming: Election of a new University Senate/ University Faculty Council representative for EUEC
Since I am approaching the end of my three-year term, I would encourage other members to consider serving as our University Senate/ University Faculty Council representative. This is a great opportunity to serve as a vital communication link between our members and the University. It is interesting and rewarding to keep up with what's going on, and it uniquely positions one to enhance the visibility of the Emeritus College while promoting our interests.
The time commitment is not onerous. Each body meets once a month during the academic year in the Jones Room of Woodruff Library: Faculty Council from 3:15 to 5:00 the third Tuesday of the month and the Senate from 3:15 to 5:00 on the fourth Tuesday. Occasionally one might be asked to make a presentation about some aspect of his or her group. Last year a main topic of study for Faculty Council was communication structure within and among the various schools. Following my brief presentation on that specific topic, I was invited to return at a later date, and I then gave a more detailed introduction to other aspects of the Emeritus College.
If you have questions about volunteering for this position, please don't hesitate to ask me.
hyork@emory.edu
--Holly York
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New Members
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2018 Emeritus College Interdisciplinary Seminar: "The South"
In the spring of 2014 the Emeritus College inaugurated its first two interdisciplinary seminars, one on the topic of "The Nature of Evidence," the other on a similarly expansive theme, "Individual and Community." Each attracted about a half-dozen participants from fields as diverse as philosophy and radiology, German studies and biochemistry. Each seminar member was asked to propose a set of readings appropriate to the topic from his or her disciplinary perspective, and then to take responsibility for presenting those readings in one of the seminar meetings in a manner that would display their relevance to the general topic.
In subsequent years there's been just one seminar each year, in the fall semester, with as many as sixteen active participants and a handful of auditors as well. Last year attention focused on the 2017 bestseller Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, by Stanford's Robert Sapolsky, an 800-page tour de force on how to understand human behavior; it addressed the intellectual concerns of every member of the seminar, no matter his or her discipline.
This year the subject of the Interdisciplinary Seminar will be similarly broad: the culture of the American South. In one sense or another, whether by birth or adaptation, we are all Southerners, so it's hoped that this seminar topic will enable participants to examine rigorously the aspects of Southern culture that make our region distinctive, and to single out for commentary those which have helped shape American culture as a whole.
The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture gives a hint of the richness available in such an enterprise, listing, in addition to the obvious Race, 23 additional aspects of Southern culture, including, among others, Geography, Religion, Language, Foodways, Literature, Sports & Recreation, Violence, Folklife, and Music. Each topic is covered in an individual volume of the Encyclopedia, and each volume is available online through the Emory Library at https://bit.ly/2KMkfBD.
At this point seminar meetings are scheduled to begin on Thursday, October 11, 2018, and continue each Thursday (excluding Thanksgiving) until the week before the Christmas holidays.
The purpose of these seminars is to foster intellectual stimulation and continued growth of the life of the mind in a truly collegial atmosphere. If you are interested in taking part, please email the organizer, John Bugge, at engjmb@emory.edu.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
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Lunch Colloquium--July 23
Developing Faculties: The Power of Contemplative Pedagogy
Patti Owen-Smith, Professor of Psychology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oxford College As long-since confirmed by Emory's Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching (and other such awards, as well), Dr. Owen-Smith is a top-notch teacher, but, more to the point for her presentation to us, she is also a top-notch scholar of teaching and a national leader in the field called the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (or SoTL). It was SoTL work that led to her being named a Carnegie Scholar in 2001, and ever since much of her research has focused on affective development in college students as it intersects with learning. In the last decade Dr. Owen-Smith has become an active participant in the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, devoting much of her scholarly work and research to the integration of contemplative pedagogies into the college classroom. Today, she'll share insights from her most recent book, The Contemplative Mind in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, speaking specifically to the introduction of contemplative practices in the secular university and the challenges inherent in what many would consider a radical pedagogical approach. About Patti Owen-Smith Professor of Psychology Patricia Owen-Smith earned an AB degree in English and an MA in Psychology from the University of Georgia in 1969 and 1970 respectively and her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Georgia State University in 1985. Prior to coming to Oxford in 1986, she directed a large domestic violence program in the city of Atlanta while also maintaining a private practice in child, adolescent, and family therapy. She established Oxford College's Women's Studies Program and has been an active contributor to Emory University's Women's Studies Program, Emory Women's Center, and numerous women's organizations in the larger community. Dr. Owen-Smith also developed and is faculty director of Oxford's Theory-Practice Service Learning Program. Dr. Owen-Smith does research in the area of poverty and women, specifically the effect of poverty on the development of adolescent females. Her qualitative analysis of "Resiliency in Homeless Women" has earned her several grants and the 1996 Research of the Year Award from the Georgia Psychological Association. She is also the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including Emory University's most prestigious teaching award, the Emory Williams Teaching Award. Additionally, she was the recipient of the Phi Theta Kappa and Mizel Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Emory University's Faculty Appreciation Award for Innovative Teaching. Dr. Owen-Smith was a member of the first delegation of Women's Studies Scholars to Belarus and Russia. In 2001 she was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Foundation's Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She directed a Carnegie Foundation national initiative on Cognitive-Affective Learning.
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Lunch Colloquium--Tuesday, July 10
Kein Geld, Kein Schweizer: No Money, No Swiss
Larry Taulbee, Associate Professor of Political Science Emeritus
Kein Geld, Kein Schweizer No Money, No Swiss (Pas d'argent, pas de Suisse) While there is a certain romantic swashbuckling image of a soldier of fortune going off to fight for the cause of another country, there is at the same time a pejorative connotation of the noun "mercenary." As an adjective, it points to one who puts financial gain above ethics. The phrase "No money, no Swiss" has been used to express this disdain in three different cultures. The Swiss are traditionally known for their ferocity as both fighters and businessmen, though today Swiss guards are most visible in their colorful regalia patrolling the Vatican. Armies have included mercenaries throughout history; in fact, there were periods when all soldiers were mercenaries. The different bases for military organization include warrior, slave, mercenary, militia, and regular/conscript. Conditions that might induce a government to consider hiring mercenary forces are (1) an idea of warfare as an organized and consistent activity, (2) resources sufficient to compensate those hired, and (3) a decision to employ outsiders rather than relying solely upon ad hoc volunteers, a militia, or conscripts. The motivation to serve as a mercenary might come from poverty, desperation, or a quest for adventure, and includes the need for an opportunity to improve one's situation. This population normally requires expenditure on the part of the hiring government in the form of training and weapons. Over the years many have decried the violence and disloyalty of mercenary troops, though these traits may have surfaced especially in instances when they were not paid for their service. They often used destructive pillaging as a means of obtaining what remuneration they considered their right. And yet, we shouldn't forget that the U.S. victory in the Revolutionary War owes much to foreign officers, including Lafayette, Rochambeau, Kosciuszko, Pulaski, von Steuben, and de Kalb. On the other side, the British employed 30,000 Hessian troops, which earned about thirteen years' tax revenue for their home state of Hesse-Cassel but bought no victory for the British. It wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that the idea of a citizen army took hold, the concept of citizen itself having been born from the French Revolution of 1789. Still, the French Foreign Legion was established after the revolution of 1830 out of a sense of fear, opportunity, and pragmatism. Commanded by the French Regular Army, the Legion then accepted and still accepts recruits from any country, including France itself and, unlike the U.S. regular army, includes a path to French citizenship for those who serve honorably. Mercenaries have had a presence in popular culture in many films, including Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars and Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War, and in TV series such as Edward Woodworth's The Equalizer. Magazines include Soldier of Fortune, published until 2017, where readers could learn, among other things, where to find a mercenary training camp in the U.S. Of the many books on the subject, two that stand out are Warrior Dreams by James William Gibson and Paul Balor's Manual of the Mercenary Soldier: A Guide to Mercenary War, Money, and Adventure. Considerations that might encourage a government to opt for mercenary forces are the facts that (1) standing armies are expensive and dangerous; (2) money can buy allegiance or at least acceptable performance; (3) it is better that foreign "others" should die in lieu of citizens. Also, a government might be hesitant to arm citizens and to deprive the economy of productive people. In order to ensure a continued access to this supply of fighters, governments must, of course, honor their bargains to train and arm and pay them. Arguments against mercenaries were set out by Machiavelli, among others. He pronounced them "useless and dangerous." In fact, there have been only two successful coups by mercenary forces in the past 200 years, involving Bob Denard's "seven guys and a dog" assaults in the Comoros Islands in 1978 and 1980. In those actions, Denard and his associates forcibly removed, then forcibly reinstalled, the president of the Comoros. If we look back at the ancient world, Carthage offers an example of the use of a mercenary army. Colonized by the Greeks in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE, it was a vital link in essential trade routes. Possessing no standing army, Carthage recruited mercenaries from surrounding tribes. After three Punic Wars, (264-146 BCE), it was finally destroyed at the hands of Rome. [Ed. note: Larry added the following text to clarify the above point] Carthage actually is a case of the successful use of mercenaries over time, but an example of what happens when you make bad political choices that mean that you do not honor your bargains. Up to the end of the First Punic War, mercenary armies had been a good choice for Carthage. In fact, the war was lost at sea, not on land. At the end of the First war, "things fell apart." But, it was not because of the mercenaries. It was because of a refusal to pay for services rendered. After all, this was an economic transaction and if you fail to honor your end of a bargain, it will have consequences, particularly if the other party is "armed" and more than a little "dangerous." During the second war, when the authorities at Carthage snubbed the Numidians, the Romans took advantage. The Romans moved quickly to sign a formal "treaty" with them. This included paying them a subsidy, but the Romans characterized them as "allies." Those troops were the decisive factor in the final battle of the second war, and fought with Rome during the third because the Romans honored their bargain. Carthage perished, not because they used mercenaries, but because in the end, they had too few. Bad political decisions meant not honoring contracts. These decisions weakened and eventually ended the ability to recruit. Carthage was reduced to defending itself with its own citizen resources. In this case, to use a phrase, the consequences meant that those who formerly fought for Carthage, were instrumental participants in the ultimate "foreclosure." Those formerly employed by Carthage, did not abandon Carthage because they sold out to a higher bid. Carthage, in effect, abandoned them. Not an unusual occurrence in history. Today, the U.S. government continues to make use of contractors, claiming that this practice saves money. This may or may not be the case. The savings cannot be verified because the supporting documents are unobtainable. The use of hired contractors combined with the fact that the U.S. military is all-volunteer may have the effect of prolonging U.S. involvement in areas of combat. Because there is no forced conscription, public outcry is less intense, true to the old saying that "nobody cries over a dead legionnaire." --Holly York Click here to return to top
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New Members
New members are the lifeblood of any organization. Please make a special effort to welcome them to EUEC!
Oded Borowski, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Archaeology and Hebrew
Originally, I am from Israel where, before coming to the U.S., I was a kibbutz member. The economy of my kibbutz was agriculturally based and my main occupation was the cultivation of field crops. Although I studied in Israel, my academic degrees are all from American institutions: BHL (Midrasha-College of Jewish Studies, Detroit); BA (Wayne State University, history and anthropology); MA/PhD (University of Michigan, ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies). I have been engaged in archaeology in Israel since the early 1970's excavating at sites such Gezer, Dan, Beth Shemesh, Ashkelon. Since 1976, I have been associated with the Lahav Research Project excavating at Tell Halif; I was a member of the senior staff, co-director, and director since 2007.
I came to Emory in 1977 to establish a Hebrew Program. The efforts resulted in what is today the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies. The department is home to the Program in Mediterranean Archaeology of which I have been director since its inception to my retirement.
Doyt LaDean Conn, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine
Jennifer W. Foster, PhD, MPH, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, Clinical Professor Emerita of Nursing
John Anthony Lennon, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Music
Judith Lupo Wold, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, Clinical Professor Emerita of Nursing
Dr. Judith Lupo Wold is the Distinguished Professor for Educational Leadership at Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. Born and raised in Atlanta, she has been a nurse for over 40 years and a nurse educator in a university setting for over 30 years. An alumna of Emory's Masters in Community Health Nursing program (1981), her primary teaching focus has been on Public Health Nursing that includes Maternal Child Health, family, and community care. A fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the NLN educators' academy, she has held administrative positions as well, including directing Georgia State University's school of nursing, which awards BS, MS, and PhD degrees in nursing.
For the past 20+ years she has been involved in the international arena conducting research, continuing education programs for practicing nurses and other health professionals, and clinical education for student nurses. She has worked with the Carter Presidential Center on a Public Health Training Initiative in Sudan and headed a CDC cooperative agreement in Zimbabwe to improve the Human Resources information systems in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, with a focus on the nursing profession. She also implemented a USAID grant to improve the quality of nursing practice in the country of Georgia. Additionally, as a Fellow of the Lillian Carter Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility, she was instrumental in the founding of the Center and in implementing the three Global Chief Nurse Conferences that brought together Chief Nursing and other health professions officers from around the world to engage in a week-long meeting in Atlanta at the Carter Presidential Library. Since 2001 she has directed the Lillian Carter Center's Farmworker Family Health Program, which has delivered care to over 15,000 migrant farmworkers and their families.
She and her husband of 53 years have two children, two grandchildren, and a spoiled Border terrier named Skylar.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
Was anyone seeing red on our last walk? Red is the color you see most in the control room at the observatory in the Department of Physics. My visit to that room occurred during the last lunar eclipse. It was then I discovered the wonders of the observatory, which is located in the Math and Science Buildling on Dowman Drive. The observatory includes a huge telescope on top of the building, a planetarium, and of course, the control room! During the lunar eclipse, most of the inside area at the top of the building was bathed in red light. It was such a fun and special opportunity for me. I urge you to go whenever they offer access to that area again.
Summer is officially here, and the newsletter may not be a frequent as usual. So instead of having you guess the next photo location, how about I give you a look at a couple of the visitors we have at the Luce Center (especially at this time of year).
Stay cool and safe until next time!
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Emory University Emeritus College The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206 Atlanta, GA 30329 |
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