Professor Brozek leads the charge

Tag: Professor Brozek leads the charge

Another Solid ENST Talk

Via Prof. Brozek for those of you interested in knitting &/or ice.

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Science, Journalism and Knitting on Ice: My Six-week Adventure in the Bering Sea

Helen Fields

Steitz 202, Thursday

April 26, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Helen Fields has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Science, and other publications. In 2009, she spent a month and a half aboard a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker off Alaska, following scientists around while they did research on the ecosystem of the Bering Sea as part of a massive multi-year collaborative project. Her essay about the experience, along with Chris Linder’s photography, was recently published in Linder’s new book, Science on Ice: Four Polar Expeditions (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

 

Sustainable China Initiative

Speaking of web interviews, check out Professor Finkler talking about the Henry Luce Foundation grant for the Sustainable China initiative.  A fluid speaker, indeed.

You can get the full story on the Lawrence homepage.  The initiative includes this fall term’s Econ 209, Water, Politics, and Economic Development, which includes a trek to China in December.

Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

Cheap is the title of the “community read” that dozens of students and over a dozen faculty members will be discussing weekly during the first half of next term. Here is the semi-official course advertisement:

A 'Cheap' Shot

Registration is open for the 2011 Community Read! This year we’ll be reading Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, by Ellen Ruppel Shell.  It’s a deep look at the environmental, social, political, economic and human costs of consumerism in the US.  There are nine different sections available, each led by two faculty members from different departments.  The sections are listed as Environmental Studies (ENST) 320 – SEM: CHEAP, which is a 1-unit S/U-only course that will meet for the first half of Spring term.  These are discussion sections, so there are no exams or writing assignments – only lively conversation!***

Professor Gerard is partnering with Professor Maryuri Roca (Chemistry) for a section at 2:30 on Thursdays, and I (Galambos) am co-leading a section at 8:30 on Fridays with Professor Beth De Stasio (Biology). We’d love to have you in our sections.

Based on some book reviews (here’s one), I will have a lot to say about this book, but I promise I’ll try to shut up most of the time. I know one chapter beats up on IKEA pretty badly, and I’m just not sure how I will handle that… Let me just say that other than a couple of chairs, perhaps, all our furniture comes from that wonderful, CHEAP, tastefully Northern European design paradise.

***An earlier version of this post said the book would be available at the Gift Shop.   It turns out that this is not true.  We sincerely apologize for the mix-up.

The Extraordinary Influence of Freshman Studies

One of my more clever colleagues was telling me how impressed he was with the noticeable effects of our Freshman Studies curriculum, even extending well beyond affecting just Lawrence students and faculty.

How can he be so sure?

Just check out the similarities between this year’s Freshman Studies reading list and the frequently bought together books at Amazon.com.

So, how do you like that?  Some guy camped out in the mountains looking to pick up a copy of The Republic is suddenly prompted to buy a copy of Martin Guerre?

We should have negotiated a lower price.

Coincidence?

Prof. Brozek Screens Forbidden Planet, Tues at 9:30

Is there a bigger champion of the educational movie on campus than Professor Brozek?  I think the answer is decidedly not.   In the spirit (sort of) of last year’s international film series, this term he brings us Forbidden Planet to entertain and enlighten us in ways that only sci-fi movies from the 1950s can.

The movie screens Tuesday, September 21 at 9:30 p.m. in Warch Cinema.  Everyone in Freshman Studies (and beyond?) is invited.

For those of you who had a reasonably normal childhood, here’s the basic storyline:

 

Forbidden Planet is an adaptation of The Tempest set on the planet Altair IV in the year 2257 – Shakespeare in space suits, essentially. The parallels between the movie and the play are numerous – Dr. Morbius and his daughter, Altaira, are the only human inhabitants of the planet, although they have a faithful servant in Robby the Robot. When a mission from Earth comes to rescue Dr. Morbius, they discover threats (a machine that creates monsters in the crew’s subconscious) as well as romance (Altaira and a young Leslie Nielson as Commander Adams).

Part of the fun of Forbidden Planet – especially in the context of Freshman Studies – is picking out the parallels between the film and the play. It’s also interesting, though, to look at the spots where they diverge – SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT I CAN’T BELIEVE HE SENT ME ALL THESE SPOILERS

If you’d like to read more, check out “Shakespeare in Outer Space: Forbidden Planet as Adaptation of The Tempest,” by Miguel Angel Gonzalez Campos at the University of Malaga.

The target audience is Freshman Studies students, but I don’t think we’re quite that picky.  See you there.

The Nature of the (Urban) Farm

From our pals over in Environmental Studies:

Does meeting with fellow students and faculty to talk about running a farm in the ghettos of Oakland, dumpster diving to feed pigs, and corralling runaway turkeys in downtown Oakland sound like fun?

During the Spring term  Green Roots and the Environmental Studies program will be sponsoring a for credit campus read program.  The book is Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter.  Her work covers topics including sustainable agriculture, urban communities, and healthful eating.  As a special treat, the author will be in the Fox Cities in mid-April, just before Earth Day!

Contact Andrew Knudsen knudsena@lawrence.edu or Jason Brozek jason.brozek@lawrence.edu for more information.