PLEASE NOTE

Remember to keep Zoom updated for optimum performance

The most recent, as of this writing, is 5.13.10

If you have any problems getting the update, please contact Dianne at dianne.becht@emory.edu for more information.





Lunch Colloquium -- Tuesday, March 14, 2023

“Artificial Intelligence and How it Shapes Our Lives"

Paul Root Wolpe

Director, Emory Center for Ethics,

Raymond F. Schinazi Distiguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics

How does the growth of artificial intelligence affect our lives, our families and communities, our work, our futures? What are the ethical implications of new technologies based on artificial intelligence, and how are we responding to them? In this lecture, Dr. Paul Root Wolpe who directs the Emory Center for Ethics will present for the Emeritus College new insights that we can use to help understand and navigate the ethics of artificial intelligence. He also will help us recognize the challenges—some of them unforeseen—faced by those engaged in designing and managing artificial intelligence systems, including universities. Among questions he will address related to the academic community, Dr. Wolpe will explore with us how artificial intelligence is helpfully complementing, or in some cases competing with, skilled professionals working in certain fields, not only in the sciences but also in the arts and humanities. 



About Paul Root Wolpe:

Dr. Paul Root Wolpe is the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics; a professor in the departments of medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, neuroscience and biological behavior, and sociology; and the director of the Center for Ethics. 

His publications span the fields of sociology, medicine, and bioethics, and he has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias on bioethical issues. A futurist interested in social dynamics, Dr. Wolpe focuses on the social, religious, ethical, and ideological impact of medicine and technology on the human condition. Considered one of the founders of the field of neuroethics, which examines the ethical implications of neuroscience, he also writes about other emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence.

A dynamic and popular speaker internationally, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by the Teaching Company as a "Superstar Teacher of America," and his courses are distributed internationally on audio and videotape. He has won the World Technology Network Award in Ethics, has been featured in a TED talk, and was profiled in Atlantic Magazine as a "Brave Thinker of 2011." Dr. Wolpe is a contributor to broadcast and print media, as well as having been featured on 60 Minutes and profiled in the Science Times of the New York Times. 



Lunch Colloquium -- Monday, March 27, 2023

“Microbusinesses Creating Social Vitality in

Atlanta’s Underserved Communities”

Peter Roberts and Erin Igleheart

This presentation will speak to the oversized impact of microbusinesses in community economic and social vitality. Dr. Peter Roberts, Professor of Organization and Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, will describe the pronounced microbusiness gaps observed in marginalized neighborhoods across the US, as well as the likely causes and effects of those gaps. Then, Erin Igleheart, Director of the Start:ME program at Goizueta, will describe how the program works within several Atlanta communities by engaging participating program mentors and entrepreneurs. 

Founded in 2013, the Start MicroEnterprise Accelerator Program (Start:ME) strengthens underserved communities in metro Atlanta by empowering entrepreneurs within them to start and grow resilient microbusinesses. When local microbusinesses thrive--generating income, creating jobs, occupying spaces, and providing role models--their neighborhoods thrive as well. While entrepreneurial potential is uniformly distributed, access to knowledge, networks, and capital is not. Start:ME operates 3-month, place-based programs providing business training, mentorship, and grant investment capital. To date, the program has served 351 microbusinesses around Atlanta--62% led by individuals from low-to-moderate income households, 71% led by women, and 81% led by people of color. We have also invested $322,000 in peer-selected capital. Collectively, Start:ME alumni companies support 566 jobs and $14.7 million in annual revenue.

To support Start:ME’s success, Goizueta Business School partners with trusted, nonprofit quarterbacks operating in and serving communities, including Friends of Refugees in Clarkston, East Lake Foundation in East Lake, and Focused Community Strategies and Purpose Built Schools Atlanta in Atlanta’s Southside. Alongside these community partners, coalitions of business associations, civic officials, housing providers, neighborhood associations, nonprofits, and schools ensure that Start:ME programs are truly local and embedded. This allows us to build ecosystems, while supporting businesses that enhance communities.

About Peter Roberts:

Peter is Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University and was the founding Academic Director of Social Enterprise @ Goizueta. He also serves as Academic Director of Specialty Coffee Programs for Goizueta's Business & Society Institute.

His research interests relate to how the behavior and performance of organizations evolve over time. Currently, he directs his interests in entrepreneurship and organizational performance toward topics in the field of social enterprise. His current projects focus on social entrepreneurs and accelerators, on microbusiness development, and on the global specialty coffee industry.

For the past several years, he has been cultivating several programs which focus on making markets work for more people, in more places, in more ways. This led to the establishment of the global Entrepreneurship Database Program, the Start:ME accelerator program, and the Transparent Trade Coffee and Grounds for Empowerment programs.

Peter's PhD is from the University of Alberta. Before taking up his current position at Emory University, Peter served on the faculties of Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Australian Graduate School of Management.

About Erin Igleheart:

Erin Igleheart is the Director of the Start:ME Accelerator, which strengthens Atlanta area communities through micro-entrepreneur development. Start:ME is a program of Goizueta’s Business & Society Institute. Prior to joining Goizueta, Erin worked in finance and consulting. She has a Masters in International Policy from Stanford University and a Bachelors in Commerce and Spanish from the University of Virginia.

Deadline Approaching - Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards

The Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards are named in honor of Eugene Bianchi, Professor Emeritus of Religion (1930-2022) and John Bugge, Professor Emeritus of English (1941-2018), co-founders of the Emory University Emeritus College.

Applicants may request non-renewable, twelve-month grants up to $2,000 to cover expenses incurred in pursuit of a broad range of activities, including, among others, research and writing, lecturing, training, development of teaching materials, and presentations at academic conferences, as well as presentations at public and related events in the community.

Applications, which are due March 28, 2023, are open to all retired members of the Emory University Emeritus College. Recipients of the award, selected from among the applicants, will be made by the Emeritus College Honors and Awards Committee.

Among criteria for selection, special consideration, to the extent possible, will be given to proposals describing projects exemplifying Gene Bianchi’s dedication to human endeavors that “promote the public good,” a sentiment shared and encouraged equally by his longtime colleague John Bugge. To promote the public good, as a practical matter, Bianchi believed in our seeking work, professional and personal, that can help aid society in overcoming its sometime “negative tendencies” and lead “toward personal and collective peace,” shaped by commitment to caring, compassion, empathy, and selflessness.

Applicants should submit the following:

1) A letter of application (limited to two pages) that describes in some detail the project to be undertaken - its purpose, the means of achieving that purpose, and its relevance to the applicant's own personal and professional development

2) a simple budget (1 page) that estimates costs and explains how requested funding would be employed; and

3) an up-to-date curriculum vitae (limited to two pages) that specifically highlights activities undertaken since retirement. 

The criteria for selection will include:

• The potential the project shows for promoting the public good
• The relationship of the proposed project to the applicant's demonstrated qualifications
• The projected value of the project to the applicant's field or discipline
• The feasibility of completing the project within the term of the Award
• The pertinence of the project to resources readily available to the applicant

Grant recipients will be asked to agree to the following conditions: 

• Submission of a written report to the Awards and Honors Committee after completing the term of the Award, but no later than September 30^th of the year following the award
• Formal acknowledgment of the Bianchi-Bugge Award and the Emory University Emeritus College in any published work that results

Preference will be given to those who have not been previous recipients of the award.

Applications should be mailed to The Awards and Honors Committee of the Emory University Emeritus College at The Luce Center, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, or sent by email to emeriti@emory.edu. As noted above, applications must be received by March 28, 2023.





Survey Results -- Part 1

As promised in the last newsletter, here are some of the results from the 2023 Member Survey.

Zoom meetings, which became routine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago, remain very important to Emeritus College members. For example, the majority of those responding to the survey preferred to attend Lunch Colloquiums (72%), OLLI courses (66%), and Sheth Lectures (58%) remotely. Most members also preferred to participate in Interdisciplinary Seminars (66%), and Women’s Conversations (74%) via Zoom.

We plan to continue offering Lunch Colloquiums, the Sheth Lecture, the Awards Luncheon, and Women’s Conversation in a hybrid format. The Women’s Conversation group will remain online until decided otherwise. Those interested in taking OLLI courses online need to communicate that preference to OLLI staff members.

Since respondents asked that the newsletter include announcements about campus and community events that might be of interest to members, we have added a new section to the newsletter that will include information about upcoming events.



Member Activities

Ann E. Rogers

Professor, Nell Hodgson

Woodruff School of Nursing and

Director of the Emory

University Emeritus College

Ann was recently interviewed about the adverse effects of sleep deprivation for the weekly podcast entitled "Eat, Move, Think" broadcast by Medcan in Toronto, Canada. The podcast will go live on April 3, 2023.

In Memoriam

Theodore R. Weber

Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics

Ted Weber, an active member of the Emeritus College and recipient of an EUEC Distinguished Faculty award (2009) passed away on February 25, 2023.

To view his obituary please click here.



Upcoming Events of Interest at Emory

mEmory Monologues

Friday, March 10, 2023, 7 – 9pm EST

Location: Emory Performing Arts Studio, 1804 N Decatur Rd, Atlanta, GA

A Special Event from the School of Medicine

Open To All (Public)

Cost: Free

Registration / R.S.V.P. link: www.eventbrite.com…

Contact Name: jessica.reed@emory.edu

In our day-to-day lives, we are drawn to stories, whether they’re funny, emotional, contemplative, joyful or sad. Our minds are constantly full of rich and unique thoughts - complex ranges of all of the above - and we rarely take the time to pause and reflect in a meaningful way. We forget that there are underlying themes that are shared among all of us, and that there is power in recognizing the similarities and differences we share with each other.

Through the mEmory Monologues, we are creating a space to share our unique stories. By synthesizing storytelling and service, we hope to catalyze community, compassion and conversation about our shared experiences throughout medical school and beyond.

Emory medical students have submitted anonymous monologues and a separate group of students will perform these monologues. Come to support your fellow community members and maybe find a little bit of yourself in each story!

Conversations in Creativity with Science Gallery Atlanta

Schwartz Center for Performing Arts: Theater Lab | 1700 N Decatur Rd

Sunday, March 12, 2023, 1 – 3pm EDT

We’re bringing the sold-out event back for another year of the Atlanta Science Festival! Come join us at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Theater Lab to explore the endless possibilities that arise when you blur the boundaries of art and science.

Art and science are often unfairly placed at opposite ends of the spectrum. The overlaps between the two abound with art inspiring science, science inspiring art, and, above all, creativity guiding both. Join Science Gallery, an arts x science venue in Atlanta, for a conversation about creativity and how artists and scientists leverage the intersection of art and science to provoke dialogue and solutions for shared global challenges.

This year’s Conversations in Creativity panel is honored to be joined by local artist Jane Foley and Emory School of Medicine Professor Dr. Madeline Hackney.

Jane Foley (b. 1985, New Orleans) is a sculpture, sound, and new media artist living in Atlanta. They have created sound sculptures for the Architecture Triennale in Lisbon, Portugal and La Friche Belle de Mai in Marseille, France with Zurich-based Sound Development City, as well as produced a sound composition that played in taxicabs throughout the 5th Marrakech Biennale in Morocco. In Atlanta, they have created public works for the High Museum, Dashboard Co-op, The Atlanta Contemporary, and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, among others. Foley currently teaches art at Emory University after having recently completed an MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Dr. Madeleine E. Hackney is an Associate Professor in the Emory School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology and a Research Scientist with the Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation at the Atlanta VA. She graduated from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and completed pre-medical curriculum at Hunter College, City University of New York. She received her PhD in Movement Science at Washington University in St. Louis and then completed post-doctoral work at Emory University and the Atlanta VA in geriatric sensorimotor rehabilitation. Before graduate school, Dr. Hackney was a professional contemporary and ballroom dancer with international performance credits, including the movies, Mona Lisa Smile, and Mad Hot Ballroom, the musical, Evita, and The Today Show. Since 2000, she has been certified as an American Council on Exercise (ACE) personal trainer and is an instructor of ballroom dance, yoga and Pilates. Her Pilates mentor, Kathy Grant, was a direct protege of J. Pilates.

From Fishburne Parking Deck, enter from the North Lobby Entrance across from the Goizueta Business School to enter the Theater Lab.

For registration and additional information please click here.

Reading James Baldwin: Race, Love, and Humanism Great Works Seminar

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry

Emory University

1635 N. Decatur Rd

Thursday, March 16, 2023, 6:30 – 8pm EDT



It is accurate to say that James Baldwin is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His writings passionately engage themes of race, identity, sexuality, freedom, integration, equality, and love. For many, love conjures up feelings of deep romance, flights of fancy, pristine happiness. Infused in Baldwin’s work, however, is a conception of love that “takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” There is nothing infantile in such a construal of love. Rather, love is a site of “quest and daring and growth,” as Baldwin says. We will discuss a few works by Baldwin (essays and works of fiction) through Baldwin’s courageous love. Hence, through the lens of Baldwinian love we will address: what is Baldwin’s understanding of whiteness? How does he understand what it means to be racialized as Black? How does Baldwin understand the American democratic experiment? My hope is that we will come to appreciate how painfully relevant Baldwin’s voice is in our contemporary moment. Works to be read include, The Fire Next Time, “Sonny’s Blues,” “Going to Meet the Man,” and others.

This seminar will be moderated by 2021-2022 Fox Center Senior Fellow George Yancy and will meet from 6:30-8:00pm on the following Thursday evenings: March 16, 23, 30 and April 6, at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, 1635 N. Decatur Rd. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions. Everyone from the Atlanta community is welcome and invited to join us for this free seminar. Complimentary copies of the above titles will be available for a no-contact pickup at the Fox Center. Participation is limited, and reservations are required. For further information and to reserve a spot on a “first-come basis,” email the Fox Center at foxcenter@emory.edu.

Lawrence Brownlee, Tenor: 'Rising'

Schwartz Center for Performing Arts: Emerson Concert Hall | 1700 N. Decatur Road

Friday, March 17, 2023, 8pm EDT

2022–2023 Schwartz Artist-in-Residence Program

$50 | Emory Students $10

Tickets Available Here

With the premiere of this new song cycle, Brownlee and pianist Kevin J. Miller will perform texts by Black authors and poets of the Harlem Renaissance, set to music by leading composers such as Shawn Okpebholo, Damien Sneed, Emory alumnus Joel Thompson, and others.

Details on signing up to observe the Thursday, March 16, Master Class with Lawrence Brownlee are HERE.

Details on attending the Thursday, March 16, Conversation with Lawrence Brownlee and Composer Joel Thompson are HERE.

Recommended Concert Parking: Fishburne Parking Deck or Lowergate South Parking Deck

Atlanta Master Chorale: Magnificat

Friday, March 10, 8 p.m. – Saturday, March 11, 2023, 8 p.m.2022–2023 Atlanta Master Chorale

$38 | All Students $10 -- TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Location: Schwartz Center for Performing Arts: Emerson Concert Hall | 1700 North Decatur Rd

Box Office Contact Phone: 404.727.5050

Bach, Byrd, Rachmaninoff, Stanford, Howells, and Pärt

Alongside the Magnificat—an ancient liturgical text that is both a hymn of praise and a prayer for justice—AMC presents a varied selection of other Magnificat settings from the Renaissance to the present day.

Recommended parking: Fishburne Parking Deck or Lowergate South Parking Deck

AI (Squared): Academic Integrity, Artificial Intelligence, and the Rise of Chat GPT

Webinar, Friday, March 24, 12:00-1:30PM

Session II: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Higher Education. This presentation with faculty experts will focus on the medium-and long-term impact of artificial intelligence for pedagogy and higher education.

To view flyer please click here. 

To register please click here.

Details and other information, as well as additional campus events can be found on the Emory Events Calendar.

If you'd like to share an event/program of interest before the next newsletter (March 22, 2023), please contact Dianne Becht Dianne.becht@emory.edu

Did you figure out where the interesting lights were located on campus? If not, I'll illuminate you....sorry, I couldn't resist.

• Top left - These very modern light fixtures can be found along the sidewalks leading up to various doors of the Student Center in the heart of main campus
• Top right - There are quite a few of these nautical-looking lights along both sides of the pedestrian bridge that connects public health to the rest of the campus
• Bottom left - This staircase of lights can be found between the entrances of the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building and the Woodruff Health Science Center Library entrance of the 1462 Building. Before construction of the new Public Health R Randall Rollins Building, there was a bike ramp on this staircase....I hope they re-install that ramp in the near future!
• Bottom right - This beautiful and intricate light fixture has a twin! The two of them flank the entrance to Lullwater Preserve on Clifton Road

Let's continue with the illumination theme. The lights below are only visible at night and are the only ones of this sort on campus (that I'm aware of)....and they are active all year long, not just during the Christmas holiday, as you might expect!



Where will you find these on the Emory campus?