Upcoming Events--
All on Zoom
Lunch Colloquium Stacy Bell
August 17, 2020
Lunch Colloquium Bill Wuest
August 24, 2020
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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
This newsletter comes during a short break. Beginning March 30 we have had a Lunch Colloquium every week and will do so again beginning August 17. They have been amazing, and amazingly varied, as can be seen just from the last three reported on below: performing Hamlet, Food Justice, and Notre-Dame of Paris. Thanks to Don O'Shea and to Stacey Jones, who maintains our website, the videos of our Lunch Colloquiums are up to date on our website. Don is doing a great job in getting our videos ready for the web. For Hamlet, for example, the title slides and audience applause are thanks to him! We should note though, that because of speaker preferences, not all videos are publicly accessible.
We continue to welcome new members; this has been a great season for EUEC, and I hope you will continue to reach out to make new members welcome.
Last, but by no means least, Emory welcomes a new President this week. Gregory Fenves sent an email to the Emory Community today and you can read about him on the Emory President webpage. He has been attending various Emory meetings already and I have heard many positive comments from those who have interacted with him. It is certainly a very challenging time to begin a new presidency!
I am very grateful to Gretchen Schulz, Ann Hartle, and Marge Crouse for help with editing and proofing.
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, August 17, 2020
"Teaching in the Oddhouse: What the Prison Classroom Has Taught Me about Compassionate Pedagogy"
Location: Zoom Meeting
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Stacy Bell, Professor of Pedagogy in English, Oxford College
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Lunch Colloquium--Monday, August 24, 2020
"When Bugs Outsmart Drugs: The Effects of America's
Antibiotic Obsession"
Location: Zoom Meeting
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Bill Wuest, GRA Distinguished Investigator & Associate Professor,
Department of Chemistry
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, July 13
"'Speak the Speech': Performing Hamlet"
Sarah Higinbotham, Assistant Professor of English, Oxford College of Emory University
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, July 20
"Food Justice: A Sociological Perspective"
Deric Shannon, Associate Professor of Sociology, Oxford College of Emory University
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Lunch Colloquium Report--Monday, July 27
"Notre-Dame of Paris: One Year Later"
Elizabeth Pastan, Professor of Art History
Click here to read more below about this Lunch Colloquium Report
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New Members
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday, August 17
"Teaching in the Oddhouse: What the Prison Classroom Has Taught Me about Compassionate Pedagogy"
Stacy Bell, Professor of Pedagogy in English, Oxford College Former student Stacy Bell returned to Oxford College in 1994 as a specialist in English for speakers of other languages, her primary role teaching First-Year Writing and advising other faculty on handling non-native English speakers. Since 2010, she has been teaching a Special Topics course in Memoir in which she has been taking Oxford students into a collaborative classroom with students incarcerated in Arrendale State Prison for women in Alto, Georgia. In today's presentation, Stacy will first provide some general information about higher education in prison programs like the Chillon Project at Allendale, an initiative of Life University where Stacy serves as adjunct faculty. Then she will discuss how her activism has enriched her practices in productive ways, explaining how her experience in the prison classroom has shaped both her scholarship and her teaching, inspiring her research into antiracist pedagogies and transforming her approaches to students on the free-world campus of Oxford. She will conclude by providing resources for those who might also want to support prison education--perhaps even doing some teaching in that context themselves.
Ms. Bell was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. After attending Oxford College, she received a BA in English from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, and an MS in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University.
After completing her masters, Ms. Bell taught English to adult refugees and immigrants in Atlanta before joining the faculty at Oxford, in 1994, as the specialist in English for speakers of other languages. She is the Director of Multilingual Writing and English Placement. She advises faculty in best practices and inclusive pedagogies for non-native English speakers. She teaches a special topics theory-practice course each spring on reading and writing personal narrative, that meets throughout the semester in a maximum security women's prison. She serves on the advisory board to the Chillon Project, an Associate of Arts program at Arrendale State Prison, administered under the aegis of the Center for Compassion, Integrity, and Secular Ethics at Life University. She is an active and passionate advocate for prison reform, and several of her courses address the problems of mass incarceration from multiple perspectives. She also has long been an active and passionate advocate for reforms of many other kinds, including efforts to address gender inequities, and last year, Emory's Center for Women recognized her work in this area with the 2019 Award for Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogy, citing in particular her "willingness to bring gender issues into the classroom in creative and inspiring ways."
Oxford College has been lucky to have Stacy Bell as yet another instance of a special college circumstance--the fact that a significant number of alumni/ae have returned to the campus to assume positions on the faculty and staff, a number that at the moment includes Ken Carter in Psychology, Katie Bailey Vigilante in Political Science, and Jill Petersen Adams in Experiential Learning as well as Ms. Bell (who is, by the way, also Mrs. Michael McQuaide, and who often accompanied and assisted Mike, now retired in Sociology, when he took students on his yearly travel/study course to Ecuador).
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Lunch Colloquium - Monday, August 24
"When Bugs Outsmart Drugs: The Effects of America's Antibiotic Obsession"
Bacteria are everywhere. By sheer numbers, their cells outnumber human cells 2 to 1. The good news is that most bacteria are helpful; for instance, they allow us to digest delicious foods. But hype about a few disease-causing bacteria has fueled mass "germaphobia," leading us to overuse antibacterial disinfectants to the point that some are failing. Is bacterial resistance a slippery slope? Just how effective is Lysol? What is the future of our relationship with bacteria? At this Emeritus College Lunch Colloquium, Emory University Chemistry professor Bill Wuest will discuss potential chemical and biological solutions, many inspired by Mother Nature, for both combating and better understanding Earth's most numerous living organisms. He will also let us know whether we should drink Clorox . . . or not.
Bill was born in Centereach, NY, in 1981. He received his BS magna cum laude in Chemistry/Business from the University of Notre Dame in 2003. As an undergraduate, he investigated intramolecular hydroamination reactions under the tutelage of Professor Paul Helquist. Bill then moved to Philadelphia, PA, to begin his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania working with Professor Amos B. Smith, III. His graduate work focused on both the total synthesis of peloruside A and the development of Anion Relay Chemistry (ARC) culminating with a PhD in 2008. Bill then traveled to Harvard Medical School as a Ruth Kirschstein-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Christopher T. Walsh, where he investigated unusual enzymatic transformations in the construction of non-ribosomal peptide natural products.
In July of 2011, Bill began his independent career as an Assistant Professor at Temple University and in 2016 was named the Daniel Swern Early Career Professor of Chemistry. In 2017, he then moved to Emory University where he is currently a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator and Associate Professor of Chemistry. His research focuses on the modification of natural products through total synthesis in an effort to develop innovative, pathogen-specific therapeutics. Bill is the recipient of a number of awards including the NIH ESI Maximizing Investigators Research Award (MIRA), the NSF CAREER Award, the 2017 ACS Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award, the 2020 David W. Robertson Award from the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry, the New Investigator Award from the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation, the Thieme Journal of Chemistry Award, the Young Investigator Award from the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University, and the Italia-Eire Foundation Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award from the College of Science and Technology at Temple University. He has also been selected as a Leshner Fellow by the AAAS and a Scialog Fellow by the RCSA.
Bill is also very entrepreneurial in spirit and strongly believes that scientific research should have some translational benefit. As evidence of this viewpoint, he founded the startup company NovaLyse Biosolutions focusing on developing next generation antiseptics while at Temple University and is also the holder of a number of patents on antibiotic scaffolds. Since arriving at Emory he has also founded the Emory Biotech Consulting Club, which partners with the Office of Technology Transfer to engage graduate students in early stage consulting experiences with startup companies at the university. Most recently, he has been involved with a number of innovation initiatives around campus and at the medical school.
Bill is an avid sports fan, with allegiances to the NY Yankees, the NY Giants, and his alma mater, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Outside the lab he enjoys spending time with his wife, Liesl, and sons, Max and Simon.
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Lunch Colloquium Report - Monday, July 13
"'Speak the Speech': Performing Hamlet"
Sarah Higinbotham, Assistant Professor of English, Oxford College of Emory University
Thirteen members of Emory's Emeritus College read the first act of Hamlet on Monday, July 13, to an audience of the wider college, family, and friends. Their performance brought new life to the 400-year-old play. They mined their own rich lives to play their characters, and inspired me with their humor, their self-discipline, their study of the play, and their willingness to master Zoom, as well as their warm hospitality to me, a first-year Assistant Professor of Shakespeare at Oxford College. It was a highlight of my summer. Also, it was just a lot of fun!
Patricia Owen-Smith, Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women's Studies at Oxford College, was in the audience:
As I followed my Emeritus College colleagues reading Hamlet, I was moved by their presence. Each of these colleagues personalized the play for me -- made the Ghost touchable, nuanced the personality of Hamlet, raised up the poignancy of Ophelia. Hamlet came alive. Why was that? Perhaps it was my colleagues' depth born in the second chapter of our lives that imbued the reading and deepened my willingness to engage the play with a new lens. They brought a lived experience in their interpretations of their respective characters, and I am grateful beyond measure.
The cast was comprised of people who have made significant contributions to the fields of French, New Testament, Medicine, Theater, Sociology, American Church History, Nursing, Surgery, Dermatology, and English during their careers. Each brought their intellects and their souls to the reading. And somehow, The Tragedy of Hamlet took on added depth as I listened to the nuanced meaning they infused in every line.
The cast, in order of appearance:
Gretchen Schulz, Barnardo
Kaaren Nowicki, Francisco and Horatio
Marilynne McKay, Horatio and Claudius
Spencer King, Marcellus
Sean Kilpatrick, Ghost
Collin Weber, Claudius
Holly York, Gertrude
Vernon Robbins, Polonius
Liza Davis, Laertes
Clark Lemons, Hamlet
John Boli, Horatio
Susan Shapiro, Ophelia
Brooks Holifield, Hamlet
How do you coordinate thirteen actors on Zoom, synchronizing all the details seamlessly? With Gray Crouse and Dianne Becht handling all the technology and Gretchen Schulz - my predecessor at Oxford College -- guiding me throughout. Gray was our Prospero, meticulously orchestrating every element of the two rehearsals and the production with calm, professional savvy. Not that there weren't tense moments: At three minutes to showtime, Horatio's Zoom camera settings froze, King Claudius's computer couldn't connect to the webinar, and the Ghost was experiencing some technical difficulties with his camera. We are all growing used to trying to function within Zoom's constraints and sudden glitches, including me and all of my Oxford College undergraduates during our remote classes. But Gray miraculously solved every problem.
In this isolating period of our lives, as the pandemic limits our contact with each other, the play fostered a surprising sense of real proximity. Brooks Holifield said "It was a delight to collaborate with other faculty members." Susan Shapiro noted that "I approached it without any clear idea of what it meant to 'read Ophelia,' and came away having had a truly eye-opening experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat." Vernon Robbins said reading the character of Polonius helped him reflect on his own life as a father.
Bhagirath Majmudar observed that while the actors could only express themselves through their voices - constrained by Zoom - they all "circumvented their restriction and gave a wonderful performance." Dr. Majmudar conjectured that such a production would be deeply beneficial to medical and psychiatry students, who could gain new insights through Shakespeare's tragedy.
During the Q & A that followed, many people shared the hundreds of versions of Hamlet they have seen in their lifetimes: from Richard Burton's 1964 production to Benedict Cumberbatch's in 2019, from small college productions to the Royal Shakespeare Company's, from an all-female cast in Little Five Points to a Danish version at Elsinore, as described by John Boli:
I had the good fortune to see a performance of Hamlet in the castle at Elsinore, in Danish. I was living in Helsingborg, Sweden, at the time; Helsingborg lies just three kilometers across the sound from Elsinore (Helsingør). I knew Swedish well at the time but it doesn't help much in understanding Danish! The production was in the evening -- one of those never-ending Scandinavian summer evenings -- and it took place outside, in the courtyard and on the ramparts of the castle. A visually striking and most enjoyable event.
And Susan Shapiro shared another memory:
The most memorable production of Hamlet I ever saw was also the first. I grew up on Long Island, and in our senior year (1967-1968) we were taken to a Papp production in NYC starring, of all people, the late Cleavon Little. I don't recall many of the details; what I do recall was being absolutely transported by the staging (it was staged as if Denmark was an African country), and in my memory, Hamlet entered at some point (first time? later? it was a long time ago) sitting upright in a coffin!
Brooks saw his son perform the character of Horatio at Duke University and Spencer King saw his granddaughter as Polonius in Hendersonville, NC. In a play about how families can hurt each other, I was especially moved by how the emeritus faculty talked openly about their children and grandchildren as well as their evident friendship with each other; they brought such a bond of cohesion, somehow expressed even through our little Zoom boxes.
The Emory Emeritus College vision statement indicates that it seeks to "advance the intellectual and creative interests of its members" and to "maintain their social connections with university colleagues." I saw that vision lived out and count myself fortunate to have joined them.
--Sarah Higinbotham, Assistant Professor of Shakespeare, Oxford College
Addendum: Some Further Discussion of Hamlet
Gretchen Schulz, Professor of English Emerita, Oxford College
Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is [not] the question."
At least, it is not the question that most dominates the play and any and all discussions of the play. That question is the first of the many questions in a play that is famously full of them, the question that actually constitutes the first line of the play, a line Gretchen Schulz has described as "the best first line in all of world drama." And it's the line she got to speak herself (!!!) in the EUEC readers' performance of Hamlet when she emerged from the midnight dark, the black screen representing the ramparts of Elsinore, speaking as Barnardo, a sentinel, challenging a figure she could barely see. He/she asked, "Who's there?" And you may remember that that figure (Kaaren Nowicki, as it happened, playing Francisco, also a sentinel) answered that question with a question: "Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself." In other words, "I am the one who needs an answer. Who are you?"
Now I, the aforesaid Gretchen, am far from the first to argue that there could be no better opening for this play in which questions of just this sort do dominate the lives of everyone living through it (or not living through it, as the case may be). And, of course, questions of just this sort dominate the audience experience of the play, as well. Hamlet isn't the only one seeking answers about all those with whom he interacts. We're doing the same. We, too, are trying to determine the truth about the Ghost, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (or Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, pace Tom Stoppard). And like them, all of them, we, too, are trying to determine the truth about Hamlet. Who's there? At the start, in the middle, at the end? Do the truths he discovers-or thinks he discovers--in answer to questions about the others in fact affect his sanity? Or is he only acting crazy, "put[ting] on" an "antic disposition," as he tells Horatio he intends to do? These questions about Hamlet's state(s) of mind have issued in centuries of such furious disagreement that one scholar has asked a question of his own: "Are Hamlet's critics mad-or only pretending to be so?"
In 2007, ACTC, the Association for Core Texts and Courses, announced that the theme of its 2008 conference would be "Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts." Like others on the Oxford campus--and some on Emory's Atlanta campus equally interested in promoting Great Books programming--I'd been involved with the Association and presenting at their conferences for years. I knew they were, as usual, looking for papers of no more than five pages (really!), that brevity allowing what is all too unusual in most conferences I attend, namely lengthy discussion of the views presented in a session's papers. Given the statement of the theme on this occasion, I could not resist submitting a proposal for a paper on Hamlet--a paper inspired by the first line of the play that I'm making such a fuss of here and, as you'll see, a paper that would also address how much teaching Hamlet and other core texts has taught me about teaching itself. Here is what I wrote:
Conference Theme:
Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts
Proposal Title:
Hamlet, Core Texts, and the Interrogative Mode
Proposal Abstract:
Hamlet is not the only core text that raises more questions than it answers, though it's the one I'll use as an example as I argue that indeed the greatness of the Great Books rather resides in their refusal to answer questions than in their insistence on doing so. As we attempt to "pluck out the heart of [their] mystery," they rather offer possibilities than assert certainties, open minds than close them. At least, that's been my experience in teaching such texts--especially since I learned to transform my teaching from the declarative to the interrogative mode--so much more suitable to the complexities of the texts and the simplicities of too many reader responses to them. As my pedagogy has shifted from lecture to discussion to student-facilitated discussion (that is, from me both asking and answering questions to me asking and students answering questions to students both asking and answering questions) I and my students have come increasingly to appreciate the way the best texts do themselves ask questions, not least by providing answers to those questions that are decidedly questionable.
This is certainly true of Hamlet, whose opening line, the question "Who's there?" serves as the perfect introduction to a play full of characters whose essential identities cannot be determined--once and for all--however obvious they may seem at first to those not used to interrogating either texts or themselves. Work with such a play and other texts of comparable complexity is surely an excellent means to the end of that capacity for critical thinking--thinking in the interrogative mode--that is the primary end of liberal arts education--thinking that involves (that must involve) "old, new, and timeless" questions before it can ever yield the "old, new, and timeless answers" referred to in the statement of the conference theme.
Thinking it possible that some of you--especially those of you who have also championed curriculum that will enable our students to study core texts--might be interested in taking a look at this paper, I have asked Gray's permission to include a link to my ACTC paper here. If you "go" there, you who were fans of Prairie Home Companion will appreciate my intro to the portion of the paper focused on Hamlet where I
turn to . . . duh, duh, dummmmm . . . a dark night in a castle that knows how to keep its secrets where one man is still trying to (say it with me) find the answers to life's persistent questions. I'm talking about Hamlet, of course. The guy who was noir centuries before Garrison Keillor was even a twinkle in his daddy's eye. The play begins with one of the most persistent questions of all--for Hamlet, for everyone else in the world of the play, and for us, as well--"Who's there?
Others of you might want to take a look at the seminal article by one of the great Shakespearean scholar/teachers of the 20th century, Maynard Mack, who wrote brilliantly about "The World of Hamlet" and the questions that characterize the play in an article published in The Yale Review in 1952. Reading it when I was doing research for my senior thesis at Wellesley (a thesis on you-can-guess-whom) played a big part in persuading me to seek an English PhD and become the Shakespearean scholar/teacher I myself became--and am becoming still--thanks to the new insights I'm always gaining from every production of the plays I see, including our readers' performance of Hamlet.
"The World of Hamlet" by Maynard Mack. From The Yale Review, XLI (1952),. 502-23. Copyright 1952 by Yale University Press.
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Lunch Colloquium Report - Monday, July 20
"Food Justice: A Sociological Perspective"
Deric Shannon, Associate Professor of Sociology, Oxford College of Emory University Let me begin this report on the Zoom Colloquium that Deric Shannon offered emeriti (and assorted others in the sizable group of attendees) on Monday, July 20, with some telling information about the man himself that one comes across on the book jacket of his edited volume, The End of the World As We Know It (2014): Deric Shannon is a former line cook, convenience store clerk, and rubber roofer, now an Associate Professor of Sociology at Oxford College of Emory University. I think you would agree that such a statement isn't typical of the summative descriptions of careers that one finds when browsing the book jacket biographies of most academics. Indeed, you might wonder why in the world he has thus included info about jobs he presumably worked to help pay for school in his various profiles. But after hearing Deric speak on Monday, I don't wonder about that anymore. What became apparent as Deric addressed the subject of his talk, food justice, is that the jobs he worked early in his life did a whole lot more than help pay for school. Those early life experiences sweating (oh so literally) side by side with so many of those marginalized in our world filled him with the passion for confronting the inequities such people suffer, the passion he developed further as he pursued his studies--and pursued the activism he discovered through some of his fellow workers, as well. Then, as he explained Monday, when he did get to school, his classes gave him ways to think about--and talk about--the causes he had already made his own. Psychology! Political Science! And especially Sociology!!! In college, and in grad school, and in his many years of teaching when, like all good teachers, he has continued learning, he has come to a scholarly understanding of the issues he first understood in a visceral way, without losing the urge to care and the urge to act they still inspire in him--and help him to inspire in others, too. I think it's no wonder that a friend who was "there" on Monday wrote me right afterward to say What an incredible human being Deric is. I was surprised and pleased to see such a thoughtful radical exists in our very difficult climate. To think how far he has come, yet his growing up influenced him in important ways. Oxford students are so lucky. I am jealous. Now, as for what Deric actually had to say, I'm going to share the notes for his talk that Deric has so kindly shared with me. And along the way, I'm going to use brackets to interpolate a little more information about readings he recommended and concepts he referenced than he does in the notes themselves. - Food justice can be thought of sociologically. That means looking at food as a social construct, how we make sense and meaning out of food, and examining relations of inequality tied to food.
- Food justice is a discourse emerging from social justice, so it requires thinking about justice projects in a way that situates them in larger conversations about race, class, and gender.
- This leads to using intersectionality as an analytical tool for thinking about food justice. [The term "intersectionality" was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 in an article in the Stanford Law Review to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics that may invite injustice often "intersect' with one another and overlap.]
- I point out intersections of race and class in food deserts [and in food swamps, such "oases" as one may find in food deserts where the food available is nothing but junk food].
- I cite Marjorie DeVault's Feeding the Family [1991] to talk about the intersections of race, class, and gender in care work and [food-related] labor in the home [that "can become oppressive for women, drawing them into social relations that construct and maintain their subordinate position in household life"--I'm quoting the publisher's blurb. And Deric also cited The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home, by Arlie Russell Hochschild and Amme Machung, a book first published in 1989 and reissued with updated data in 2012 that argues working women often work as hard inside the home as out: surprise, surprise].
- [In discussing ways to ensure food justice for all, I may reference the role of] bureaucratic power and the state; [here, Deric mentioned the work of James C. Scott in Seeing Like A State [1999] and related empirical work done on Hmong farm workers in California that address the problems of top-down social planning].
- We might also unpack the intuitive "truths"" of predominantly white middle class food movements; [here Deric cited Greg Sharzer's book No Local [2012] that "takes a critical look at localism, an ideology that says small businesses, ethical shopping and community initiatives like gardens and farmers' markets can stop corporate globalization" and improve food justice (quoting Amazon)].
- I provide a definition of food justice, arguing that we could see it as a political polyculture that stresses resistance to structured forms of inequality as well as support for projects rooted in cooperative practices and mutual aid.
- I cite a couple of related discourses, including "food sovereignty" that I take from the social movement, La Via Campesina. [Founded in 1993, "La Via Campesina is an international movement bringing together millions of peasants, small and medium size farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. Built on a strong sense of unity, solidarity between these groups, it defends peasant agriculture for food sovereignty as a way to promote social justice and dignity and strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture that destroys social relations and nature." I quote from their website.]
- And then I highlight "sustainability," which [subject] I largely learned [about] from my participation in Emory's Piedmont Project with Peggy Barlett, [a wonderfully enlightening and productive pleasure that many of us in Deric's audience Monday have had, as well].
- Finally, I talk about David Orr's notion in "Four Challenges of Sustainability" [2002] that we might need "something akin to a spiritual renewal" in order to begin thinking about living systems as part of an embedded human experience, rather than instruments simply for use or profit (i.e resource extraction). [And Deric noted that the literature of ecofeminism has helped him think about sustainability in a new way, too--a way that takes "the transcendent" into account along with the decidedly earthbound.]
As you might imagine, the Q & A period that followed the conclusion of Deric's talk was a very lively one, indeed. Given our limitations of space here in the newsletter, all I'll say about that is "you really had to be there." And "how wonderful that so many of you (of us) were." --Gretchen Schulz
P.S. Should any of you wish to take a look at material Deric has written on food justice, here is information on book chapters and articles he has published in the last half a dozen years:
Shannon, Deric. (2017). "Teaching on the Farm: Farm as Place in the Sociology of
Food and Sustainability." In Deric Shannon & Jeffery Galle (Eds.), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Pedagogy and Place-Based Education: From the Abstract to the Quotidian. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan Shannon, Deric. (2016). "Intersectionality, Ecology, Food: Conflict Theory's Missing
Lens." In Phoebe Godfrey & Denise Torres (Eds.), Emergent Possibilities for Global Sustainability: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Routledge.
Shannon, Deric. (2016). "Food Justice, Direct Action, and the Human Rights Enterprise." Critical Sociology, 42(6): 799-814.
Shannon, Deric. (2014). "Operationalizing Food Justice and
Sustainability." Theory in Action, 7(4): 1-11.
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Lunch Colloquium Report - Monday, July 27
"Notre-Dame of Paris: One Year Later"
Elizabeth Pastan, Professor of Art History As background to her discussion of the 2019 fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at the Zoom Colloquium of July 27, Elizabeth Pastan presented a historical introduction to the church from its founding in the 4th century to the construction, from the mid-12th century, of the Gothic cathedral on an unprecedented scale, and then through the French Revolution and the 19th century when it underwent significant damage at the hands of zealous partisans and further modification through misguided restoration efforts. In a series of "snapshots in time" seen through a modern lens she highlighted several concerns that have echoes in our current condition: issues of security that sited the church on the Ile-de-la-Cité with the river serving as a natural moat; criticism in its day of the folly of its scale and the exorbitant expenditure, especially for the abundance of stained glass; the tearing down of sculptures believed to be symbolic of hierarchical oppression; and a revival of interest in the symbolic value of the church spurred on by the publication of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. From this introduction, Elizabeth moved on to address the fire and the Gothic structure that was able, for the most part, to withstand it. In doing so she hoped to dispel the notion that was expressed at the time of the fire that the cathedral was "an accident just waiting to happen." The exact cause of the fire is still not known, but it was probably due to accidental negligence related to restoration work on the central spire. Elizabeth took us through an hour by hour account of the disaster, from the first sparks that ignited the large oak trusses of the attic space, to the delayed calling of the fire department one hour later, to the collapse of the spire--a 19th century addition, to the eventual taming of the flames six hours later when the fire was finally extinguished. She noted how the island location with limited access made it difficult for the firemen to get close to the site and how the large metal scaffolding in place for the restoration work further complicated their task. As if by miracle, the stained glass windows--both medieval and modern--and the 19th century organ emerged unscathed. The Gothic structure withstood and contained the fire well. To explain this Elizabeth discussed the construction of the medieval building, showing us plans and sections, focusing on the stone vaults which were meant to insulate the wooden roof beams from candle fire in the church below. She characterized the structure as a "dynamic system composed of interdependent parts," taller than all other churches of its day by nearly 30 feet. Deep foundations and a pyramidal structure reinforced by the graceful flying buttresses contributed to the 13th century building's sturdiness and integrity. Unfortunately, Viollet-le-Duc's 19th century addition, the 315 foot high spire weighing 750 tons, put great strain on the masterful support system. Elizabeth concluded her presentation with an extensive discussion of the three medieval rose windows of Notre-Dame, the only original glass extant in the cathedral today. ( At least 200 other medieval windows, darkened and decomposed over time, were destroyed in the 17th and 18th centuries in order to allow more light into the church interior.) Illustrating her points with a series of luminescent slides, she explained the iconography of the windows and their relationship to their location and adjacent stone sculptures. The western rose, the earliest, is dedicated to Mary (Notre-Dame) and her Son with virtues and vices echoed in the bas-reliefs below. The north and south windows, dating from the mid-13th century elongation of the transept arms, represent the Virgin's role in Old Testament genealogy and the New Testament glorification of Christ respectively. These windows are considerably larger than the western rose and their scale, luminosity, and sheer number of parts were intended to "astonish, disconcert, and enchant." While the subjects of the glass cannot be read from below, its preciousness and brilliance reinforced the belief that light was the substance closest to God.
Lastly, Elizabeth emphasized that Gothic cathedrals were expressions of faith, never completed within a single generation. They were technologically sophisticated and built so well they've been able to withstand centuries of neglect, modern embellishments, and even fire. She showed several slides of the current work underway to the dictates of a recent poll in which 70% of the French p eople expressed the desire to rebuild Notre-Dame exactly as it was before the fire. She ended with a slide of the first mass held after the fire attended by a number of priests in hard hats. The lively discussion that has become the usual in our Lunch Colloquiums followed among the many attendees (more than 80, which we might note is many more than we've had attend a Zoom session before). --Judith Rohrer
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New Members
New members are the lifeblood of any organization. Please make a special effort to welcome them to EUEC!
Robert Jensen, EdD, Associate Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Education
Professor Jensen received his EdD from the University of Georgia in 1984. He was appointed to the Emory faculty in 1984 as Assistant Professor of Educational Studies. Professor Jensen's research was informed by the twelve years he taught middle and high school students, and is broadly in the area of the teaching and learning of mathematics with a particular emphasis on non-routine problems. Professor Jensen received one of the most prestigious honors granted to Emory College faculty, the George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring. From Professor Jensen: I'll keep my advice brief: "Be here now." I originally read this mantra as a book title in the late 60's. Reflecting on its meaning has positively influenced my life and it still strikes me as appropriate advice to live by.
Bradd Shore, PhD, Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Professor Shore received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1977. He was appointed to the Emory faculty in 1982 as Associate Professor of Anthropology. Professor Shore's research focuses on Samoan culture and society, cognitive anthropology, cultural models theory, and the relevance of Shakespeare for social theory. Professor Shore received the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for Psychological Anthropology.
From Professor Shore: It has been an honor and a pleasure to work at Emory over the past 38 years, and to watch the university and the Anthropology Department grow in size and stature. I have been blessed with wonderful colleagues, many of whom have become treasured friends. Though I am retiring at a difficult time for our community, I have no doubt that Emory will weather the storm successfully and emerge from the current crisis with a sense of pride in the intelligence and resilience of its distinguished faculty, staff and administration.
Affiliate Members
Patricia Del Rey, EdD, Professor Emerita, University of Georgia and adjunct professor, Oxford College 2007-2020.
I finished my graduate work in motor learning and control at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1970. This field focuses on the biomechanical and neural bases of the acquisition and performance of functional movement skills. Immediately, I began my career at Queens College, City University of New York, directing a laboratory in the exercise science department. The next year (1971) I submitted a new course proposal, Sport and the American Woman. I was told that no one would enroll in a course with "woman" in the title. It took 2 years to get the course approved. This developed my persistence and as a feminist, I continued to be involved in the development of the field of women's studies nationally and at individual universities. When I accepted a position at UGA in 1978 to direct a PhD program in motor learning and control, I was also very involved in the development at UGA of the Institute for Women's Studies. I became the first director in 1987 and was given a substantial budget to hire faculty members and office staff. (A dean there also told me that no one would take a course with "woman" in the title.) I feel honored that UGA has named a seminar room after me for my work in building the program.
I retired from UGA in 2001 and worked in Costa Rica for 3 years. I developed a study abroad program in women's studies for UGA since the University of Costa Rica offers a master's degree program in women's studies.
In 2007 I was fortunate enough to be offered an adjunct position in women's, gender and sexuality studies at Oxford College and retired from there in January 2020 after 50 years of university work.
Tina Stern, PhD, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Perimeter College of Georgia State University
I received my PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Georgia in 1982. Following this, I worked in Munich, Germany, for the University of Maryland for three years as the Director of the Counseling Center and lecturer on their Munich Campus. I returned to the US in 1986 for a re-entry year at the University of Maryland in College Park, and beginning in 1987, I worked as the Director of Counseling Services at Oxford College of Emory University for two years. In 1989, I began working at (what is now) Perimeter College of Georgia State University and worked there until my retirement as full professor (now emerita) in 2017. While teaching full-time, I continued my involvement in clinical work and maintained a small private practice. Though teaching was my focus, participating in the clinical practice of my discipline provided a satisfying balance, with each element enriching the other. I continue to have a small private practice. I experienced great gratification in teaching, enjoyed my students, respected their dedication and motivation, and my efforts in this area were recognized with multiple teaching awards.
In addition to my overseas work in Germany, I continued my interest in international psychology and international education (and, of course, international travel). I was invited to be a visiting professor for a semester at the University of Northumbria in Carlisle, U.K., and I completed research for a University System of Georgia grant related to psychology and the European Union while on sabbatical in Bologna, Italy. I have been committed to studying Italian since my undergraduate years when I first lived in Italy as a study abroad student. Other professional interests and publications include multiple book chapters on the psychology of women, ancillaries for a widely-used Introduction to Psychology text book, and research on the use and efficacy of self-help books in psychology, group psychotherapy, and depression through a literary lens.
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Faculty Activities
Ron Gould Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
Ron Gould has two new papers published or accepted:
On independent triples and vertex-disjoint chorded cycles in graphs, with K. Hirohata and A. Keller. Australasian J. Combin. 77(3), 355-372 (2020). (Figure 3 is shown above) On degree sums conditions and vertex-disjoint chorded cycles, with B. Elliott and K. Hirohata. to appear in Graphs & Combinatorics.
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Walking the Campus with Dianne
Our last walk...or should I say hike!...took us to a remote spot on campus. The structure pictured is an old spring house that was part of the Houston Mill.
Harry J. Carr bought Washington Jackson Houston's land in the 1920s and constructed a fieldstone and iron home now known as the Houston Mill House. On the grounds, by the old Houston Mill, stand a spring house, two large cisterns (also pictured below), and other dilapidated structures that can be discovered throughout Hahn Woods and Lullwater Preserve near Houston Mill Road.
The spring house can be accessed via somewhat hidden trails either from the Luce Center or the back side of the Houston Mill House, as well as a small uphill trail, just off the main path from Hahn Woods into Lullwater Preserve.
For our next walk, how about we take a look at something that's much easier to find. It's large and as I'm sure there are others on campus, this one is quite visible and hard to miss.
Where will you find this on the Emory Campus?
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Emory University Emeritus College The Luce Center
825 Houston Mill Road NE #206 Atlanta, GA 30329 |
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