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 this 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
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 coconspirators 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!
MiniCollege for Web v1 | September 15, 2015
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
Blinded by the Golden Rule
Palamountain Hall, Room 201
Cathy Silber, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese
We might assume that when everybody's speaking English, we share the same goals for the
conversation, the same assumption about the main point, the same ideas of rude and polite.
But differing assumptions about communication derail business, diplomacy, dates ... all kinds
of interactions, all the time. We'll explore how, why and what we might do about it, in this
introduction to Intercultural Communication.
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
MiniCollege for Web v1 | September 15, 2015
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.
Sing We Alle: The Medieval English Lyric
Bolton Hall, Room 282
Kate Greenspan, Associate Professor & Director of the Percilean 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, Emerson Auditorium
Rachel Roe-Dale (Mathematics) & Natalie Taylor (Government), Members of the Summer
Reading Selection Committee
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.
MiniCollege for Web v1 | September 15, 2015
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.
MiniCollege for Web v1 | September 15, 2015