MiniCollege Program
Please refer to final program on arrival. Locations subject to change.
Session I:
Saturday, October 17, 10:45 – 11:45 a.m.
Is There A Problem? Trying to Speak Truthfully (Can We Talk?) In A Culture Committed to
Correctness
Bolton Hall, Room 280
Bob Boyers, Editor, Salmagundi; Professor, English
The session will range over several issues currently much debated in political and academic
circles, from the new puritanism to sensitivity training, from speech protocols to the conflict
between liberal skepticism and a commitment to evidence- or fact-based discourse. Examples
provided.
Stories that Matter: Documentary Studies at Skidmore College
Scribner Library, Room 113
Jordana Dym, Professor, History & Interim Director, John B. Moore Documentary Studies
Collaborative
Skidmore’s John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS) launched last fall as
an interdisciplinary initiative to incubate visual, audio, and word-based documentary projects
through academic-year courses, workshops, lectures, in addition to intensive summer
programming for students, faculty, professionals, and the local community. MDOCS' engaged
and hands-on liberal learning will be rooted in two signature initiatives, the Skidmore-Saratoga
Memory Project and the summer Storytellers’ Institute, bringing documentary professionals into
conversation with each other, students, faculty, and the local community. Come see our new
Documentary and Visual Forum Lab, and learn how documentary tools can enhance students’
critical and creative engagement with their majors and deepen partnerships.
Skidmore’s Center for Integrated Sciences
Bolton Hall, Emerson Auditorium
Kim Frederick, Professor & Chair, Chemistry
Over 10 years ago, faculty started talking about what a uniquely Skidmore building would be
like that could bring all 9 Physical and Life Science departments under one roof. Through hard
work and the creativity that embodies the Skidmore spirit, we have designed the Center for
Integrated Sciences which promises to be a transformative project for all of campus. Come
learn about the unique and innovative features of this building and how it will encourage
engagement and creativity for every Skidmore student.
The Ides of March: Role-Playing as Pedagogy
Ladd Hall, Room 307
Michael Arnush, Associate Professor & Chair, Classics
“Et tu, Brute?” For us in this interactive role-playing game, it is the day after the infamous Ides
of March. Julius Caesar’s bloody corpse is lying at the feet of the statue of Pompey the Great,
having been assassinated on the 15th of March, 44 BCE. You are either one of the coMiniCollege for Web v5 | October 5
conspirators who killed the dictator, one of his supporters, or you are uncertain what you think
about the murder. As with the students in HI205 Rise of Rome this semester, you will participate
in a role-playing session, staged in the Roman Senate. Each of you will receive a brief biography
of one of the key figures in Roman life. You will then caucus in political blocs, and then re-create
some of the debates that ensued in the wake of the assassination. You will deliberate on what
to do with the assassins, what to do with Caesar’s remains, and whether to grant Mark Antony
ultimate power to quell riots in the city and restore public order. You will be searched for any
hidden daggers at the door!
The Entrepreneurial Artist Initiative
Filene Hall, Room 119
Elizabeth Dubben, Entrepreneurial Artist Initiative Coordinator & Lecturer
Today’s business climate presents many challenges to artists of all disciplines. Artists find
themselves needing to combine their creative abilities with strong business practices and
entrepreneurial skills. The Entrepreneurial Artist Initiative, under Skidmore’s Arts
Administration Program, aims to prepare studio art students who are interested in forming a
business or career around their art practice. Through interactive classes, workshops and
experiences in the field, students become familiar with the tools & resources they need to be
successful. Connecting with and learning from practicing alumni artists, business
professionals, and arts entrepreneurs is an essential component of the program. Join us to
learn more about this exciting initiative!
Jane Austen Then and Now
Bolton Hall, Room 281
Catherine Golden, Professor, English
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s books about life in Regency England
are not in “want” of twenty-first century readers. Film adaptations of her six novels have
increased her fan base and sparked a multi-million dollar industry. Beginning with biography,
we will explore how Austen’s work is ideologically situated both in her cultural moment and our
own. The presentation will illuminate Austen’s literary sensibility and the business sense that
surrounds her today.
Thoroughbreds meet Mustangs: the dilemma of wild horses in the American west
Bolton Hall, Room 282
Elaine Larsen, Senior Teaching Associate, Biology
This year thousands of wild horses will be removed from public lands by the U.S. government.
Why is this happening? This seminar will describe a travel seminar from spring 2015, when 11
Skidmore students studied mustangs in the American west. We will end with a discussion of
different options for the future of the American mustang.
What Does the Uber Economy Mean for you, and your children?
Palamountain Hall, Room 202
Christine Kopec, Visiting Assistant Professor, Management & Business
If you were a passenger in a car driven by its owner but hired through Uber and you were
seriously injured in an accident, who would compensate you? Is the “sharing service”
responsible, or is the poor guy trying to make ends meet about to go bankrupt paying your
bills? Many questions of this nature are being raised as the “sharing economy”, with its often
disruptive business models, grows and it becomes clear that these models do not neatly fit
within our existing legal and regulatory systems. Likewise, is it ethical for you to rent out your
apartment each weekend using Airbnb, when you know many of your “guests” plan to party
which annoys the neighbors who did not sign up to live next to a bunch of short-term tenants?
Finally, what does this sharing economy, with its lack of full-time employees and its demands
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that all workers become entrepreneurs, mean for the world of work that your children will
soon (we all hope!) be entering?
"In the Shadow of Sembrich" Exploring the song recitals of famous soprano, Marcella
Sembrich
Zankel Music Center, ELM, Room 117
Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins, Artist in Residence in Voice & Carol Ann Elze, pianist
As a founder of both the vocal departments at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, Sembrich was
one of the first famous opera singers to bring the European Art Song tradition to the United
States. This lecture-recital will include live performances of many of the most famous
composers of art song including Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Beach and many more.
Session II:
Saturday, October 17, 2 – 3 p.m.
A Republican and a Democrat walk into a 17th-century French bar…
Bolton Hall, Room 281
Timothy M. Freiermuth, Lecturer, French
Abortion, gun control, global warming, evolution, taxation, homosexuality, racism, animal
rights, immigration, separation of church and state, censorship, imperialism, elitism and
populism…Sound familiar? These are the familiar issues that define the contemporary
American culture wars. Most of our identity, our sense of who we are and what we stand for, is
derived from these crude litmus tests. Moreover, we sense that these defining issues are
somehow unique to us, urgent, definitive, anchored in the here and now. In short, we
profoundly believe that these issues represent milestones on our march toward “progress.”
Our very future, it seems, hangs on their outcome. But what if it simply isn’t true? What if there
really is nothing new under the sun? What if all that you believed that defined you and your
generation, your very notion of progress, might in fact just be the latest rehash of a centuriesold debate? Join me for a quick journey back in time to 17th-century France, one of the richest,
most dynamic periods in the history of French culture, to discover some of the earliest
formulations of our “modern” culture wars. We will explore a handful of the numerous
“quarrels” that divided French society and, in important ways, set the agenda of the modern
world.
Sing We Alle: The Medieval English Lyric
Bolton Hall, Room 282
Kate Greenspan, Associate Professor & Director of the Periclean Honors Forum Program,
English
This session will introduce five Middle English poems dating from the 13th through the 15th
centuries. We will read the poems in the original language, both to delight our ears and to
sharpen our understanding of the subtleties of which this very short form was capable. We will
consider manuscript production, performance, and literacy, as well as the rich visual culture
that complemented these verbal treasures.
Student-Led Discussion of Class of 2019 Summer Reading
Palamountain Hall, Bolton 280
Rachel Roe-Dale (Mathematics) & Natalie Taylor (Government), Members of the Summer
Reading Selection Committee
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First-year students will lead a discussion of the summer reading—Alan Lightman's Einstein's
Dreams—for parents who have read the book or who just want to learn more about it.
Einstein's Dreams was a national bestseller when it was first published in 1992, and is now
considered a modern classic; it imagines Albert Einstein's ruminations on time and human
responses to it in the year that he was also formulating his influential theory of special
relativity. A deeply philosophical novel, Einstein's Dreams invites us to consider not only how
time operates—or might operate in alternative worlds—but also how science extends our
understanding of the human experience.
Curing Cancer with Computers
Palamountain Hall, Room 202
Kelly Thayer, Visiting Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Mutations to the p53 tumor suppressor protein are responsible for 50% of all human
cancers. Come learn about this important protein and the research being conducted in the
Thayer Lab, which uses high performance computers to ascertain the dynamic structure of
p53, its interactions with DNA, and changes that occur when cancerous mutations
emerge. Results are unravelling the mysteries of the p53 protein and suggesting the design of
novel cancer drugs.
Is That You? How the Brain Recognizes Faces
Palamountain Hall, Room 201
Chris Vecsey, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Program
Most people take it for granted that they are instantly able to recognize faces in the crowd. But
this depends on incredibly complicated processes occurring in your eyes and brain. In this
presentation, we will examine recent research on how patterns of light and dark are analyzed
by the brain to create a unified perception of a face.
Introduction to Indian Classical Music & Sitar Table Performance
Zankel Hall, ELM, Room 117
Veena Chandra, Private Music Instructor, Music
Professor Chandra will offer an introduction to Northern Indian Classical Music instruments with special reference
to the Sitar and Rag-Tal system. Participants will learn some composition as well as Tal-Rhythms and the
essentials of Rag –Terminology: vadi, samvadi, jati, Thaat, Aroh, avroh, pakad- with alap, bandish ,and taans.
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