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Academic Festival > Classroom Team Teaching:  Session I and II  - A Walk Down Memory Lane

Remember what it was like sitting in a classroom listening to your favorite teacher?  Re-live these experiences as retired faculty and current faculty team up to share their wisdom on some of the most engaging social, political, economic and cultural issues of this millennium.

Featured Faculty

Franz Schulze (Emeritus Professor of Art) and Arthur Miller (College Archivist/Librarian for Special Collections) and Sara Woodbury ’08
Campus Architecture in Light of Chicago, London, and Florence
Durand Institute 208
Abstract:  The campus architecture, carefully reviewed in the last two years in a campus preservation planning project, will be discussed in light of its debts to Chicago developments, and, in turn, to historical examples in Florence and London, seen last Spring by Ms. Sarah Woodbury, who will be participating.  The campus landscape design, especially picturesque, is derived from classic and British origins.  Schulze will also relate the links between modernism, especially in the Chicago of Mies van der Rohe and the post World War II campus developments.

Rosemary Cowler (Emeritus Professor of English) and Richard Mallette (Professor of English)
Shakespeare’s Sonnets:  Two Approaches
Young Hall 313
Abstract:  Generations of readers have been drawn magnetically to the Sonnets, not only for their beautiful complexity, but also because they seem to open a window on Shakespeare’s biography.  This session will demonstrate two major critical approaches to the Sonnets.  One examines them from a now firmly established formalist perspective, which concentrates on the patterns of figurative language and the intricacies of their linguistic resources.  The second approach will illustrate recent renewed attention to the Sonnets as a product of Shakespeare’s personal life:  What exactly are the varied erotic entanglements hinted at so teasingly throughout the sequence?  By examining several of the crucial poems that have exercised different and often contradictory responses, this class will have to have a go at vexing questions arising from the most commented-upon and mysterious poems in English.

William Martin (Professor of Chemistry) and Dawn Wiser (Associate Professor of Chemistry)
Advances in Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation with Stereochemical Control
Johnson 300
Abstract:  Classical methods of carbon-carbon bond formation are well known to sophomore chemistry students.  These reactions are specifically represented by Grignard and cyanation reactions, to name just two.  The 1980’s saw a rapid growth in the use of organometallic compounds as catalysts for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds.  During the period between 1980 and the present, the use of organometallic reactions such as the Heck, Suzuki, Sonogashira, and metallocene catalyzed olefin polymerization have become commonplace.  The current emphasis of organometallic catalysis is in applying the catalysts to achieve stereochemical control.  This session will present a broad overview of organometallic carbon-carbon bond formation reactions and the use of organometallic catalysts in stereochemical control.

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William Martin (Professor of Chemistry)

 

 

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Robert Baade (Professor of Economics)

 

 

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Carolyn Tuttle (Professor of Economics)

Dan LeMahieu (Professor of History) and Anna Trumbore Jones (Assistant Professor of History)
New Learning a Thousand Years Ago and Today
Young Hall 423
Abstract:  Learning and scholarship constantly adapts to new discoveries; our class will explore two key moments in the history of Western learning.  During the Middle Ages scholars energized by the rediscovered Aristotelian corpus attempted to use human reason to prove doctrines of Christian faith.  This method, known as scholasticism, would dominate the emerging institution of the university.  Other churchmen argued, conversely, that revelation was the sole possible source of enlightenment.  In the modern era, the revolution in communications challenges scholars to go beyond linear and traditionally logical ways of thinking to understand both past and present.  Film, television and the internet require new ways of analysis to comprehend the historical record.  These postmodern methodologies often unsettle more traditional scholars.

Robert Baade (Professor of Economics) and Carolyn Tuttle (Professor of Economics)
Show Me the Money:  Are Star Athletes Underpaid?
Young Hall 320
Abstract:  Many fans feel that professional sports has become more of a business than a source of recreation and entertainment.  With star baseball salaries breaking the 12 million mark and 30-second commercials during the Super Bowl costing $2.6 million, it appears that players and team owners alike have lost sight of the game in search of the almighty dollar.  As multi-million dollar salaries are signed, both players and owners cry “foul play.”  The players argue they are underpaid and that owners collude to keep star salaries low while team owners claim they are bankrupt and that players are too greedy.  Given the power of team owners over the labor market, economists can show that star players are often underpaid! 

Edward Packel (Professor of Mathematics) and David Yuen (Professor of Mathematics)
Probability and Game Theory:  A Mathematical Survival Reality Game Show
Young Hall 111
Abstract:  Come join us for an audience participation refresher course in probability theory with some applications to game theory thrown in.  No experience is necessary and the only prerequisite is enthusiasm.  Attendees will be invited to break up into teams of three to five players.  After various mathematical ideas are presented, questions based on them will be posed with points awarded (on the honor system) to successful teams.  Additional points will be awarded based on random events.  Topics to be discussed include basic probability, expected value, applications to standard gambling devices, the St. Petersburg paradox, games against nature, two-person games, Nash equilibria and the prisoner's dilemma.  Prizes will be awarded to members of the most successful team(s) at the end of the session. [This class runs from 9:00 -10:30 am and will not be repeated]