via Email | Jill Conway | Honors College
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below you will find information on six upcoming talks by College of Charleston faculty as part of our inaugural Phi Eta Sigma’s lecture series. Phi Eta Sigma is the nation’s oldest and largest honor society for first-year college students. The mission of Phi Eta Sigma is “to encourage and reward academic excellence among freshmen in institutions of higher learning.” The College of Charleston’s chapter of Phi Eta Sigma was established in 2007.
- “Revisiting Religion Post 9/11” —Zeff Bjerken, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
September 11 (Tuesday), 3:30pm — Honors Center, 10 Greenway
September 11, the war in Iraq, bombing in cities from Bali and Madrid to London — recent years have seen an alarming global increase in religiously motivated violence, often inspired too by nationalism, colonialism, ethnic conflict, and fundamentalism. There has perhaps never before been a time when the study of religion and violence has been so relevant to global society. Attendees should read Mark Juergensmeyer’s, “Is Religion the Problem?” in advance of the talk. This article is available at repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gis and at the Honors Center.
- ”Rome: Uncovering the Ancient City” — Darryl Phillips, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classics
September 26 (Wednesday), 3:30pm — Jewish Studies Center (Arnold Hall)
Rome, once the center of an ancient empire and now a modern European capital, is one of the most familiar ancient cities in the world and yet also one of the most intriguing as our understanding of the ancient city has changed over the centuries. This talk will explore some of the problems faced in reconstructing the ancient city of Rome. Attendees will look at some archaeological discoveries, modern (and not so modern) buildings reusing ancient structures, and unusual sources that will allow them to the ancient city.
- “The American Way of Dying and Death: Issues for the 21st Century” — George Dickinson, Professor of Sociology
October 3 (Wednesday), 3:30pm — Jewish Studies Center (Arnold Hall)
The twenty-first century has seen changes in the way we die. End-of-life issues such as euthanasia and advance directives face the medical profession daily. A few years ago one might have feared going to a hospital because “that is where you go to die,” yet today that might be “where they won’t let you die.” Palliative care is easing the process of dying. Cremation is rapidly replacing the traditional earth burial. What are medical and nursing schools doing to prepare students for dealing with dying and death?
- “Lost in the Beatty Center: Confessions of a Liberal Arts Student” — Michael Cipriano, Director of MS Accountancy Program and Assistant Professor of Accounting
October 22 (Monday), 3:30pm — Jewish Studies Center (Arnold Hall)
On most college campuses in this country, there are significant battle lines drawn between liberal arts and business faculty. Through a variety of freak accidents, I [Professor Cipriano], a card-carrying student of the liberal arts, have become a faculty member in the business school. This means that the battles normally fought by faculty from their respective bunkers on campus are actually fought within my mind on a daily basis. This talk will focus on how business education is useless, and even dangerous, without significant doses of the sensibilities celebrated in the liberal arts curriculum.
- “South Africa—Apartheid and After” — Simon Lewis, Associate Professor of English, Editor, Illuminations, Director, CLAW
November 7 (Wednesday), 3:30pm — Honors Center, 10 Greenway
The set of policies known as apartheid implemented in the Republic of South Africa between 1948 and 1994 was the world’s most comprehensive racial system, becoming what Jacques Derrida famously called “Racism’s last word.” Professor Lewis’s talk will use literary texts to illustrate South Africans’ responses resistance to apartheid, the system’s overthrow in the early 1990s, and subsequent developments in South Africa under black majority rule.
- “In the Company of Men: Fight Club as Symptom and Critique of the Masculinity Crisis” — Robert Westerfelhaus, Associate Professor of Communication
November 27 (Tuesday), 4:30pm movie showing (optional), 7:00pm discussion — Stern Center Small Theatre
David Fincher’s Fight Club has attracted a large and loyal cult following among young men. This talk will examine how Fincher’s controversial and popular film provides its devotees with a mythico-ritual exploration of masculinity that functions as a mediated rite of passage. In particular, we will follow how transitional rite is informed and shaped by Freud’s Oedipal myth, in which young men ritually act out their desire to procure the power of the primal father while simultaneously attempting to protect themselves from it. We will conclude by tying the film’s ritualized expression of the Oedipal myth to contemporary concerns about the current state of masculinity in America. Suggested article to read ahead of the talk is available at http://support.epnet.com/contact/askus.php and at the Honors Center.
For more information contact:
Jill Conway
Assistant Director, Honors College
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
843-953-7654 – phone
843-953-7135 – fax
