Calendar Archive

Archive

Past Meetings

Morris Beja, English

March 1, 2017

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

“Fear and Desire in the Films of Stanley Kubrick”

This lecture will span the entire career of one of the most honored—and controversial—directors in the history of film. Of course Kubrick made such films as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut. The talk will center on the relationship between love and death in his movies—what the title of his first almost unknown film calls Fear and Desire. Kubrick connects love—and sex—with death, or at least with the fear of death, and with fear and violence more generally. Clips will be shown from all the movies discussed.

Julia Watson, Comparative Studies

February 1, 2017

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

"Getting a Digital Life: Self-Presentation Online"

Formerly people kept diaries and journals, or wrote—in forms from letters to memoirs—in order to reflect on their lives. How have practices of self-reflection and the presentation of self-changed with the advent of digital media? Shifts in key concepts, such as archives, memory, identity, authenticity, branding, and quantification, make clear that what formerly was called the individual “self” is now a distributed subjectivity across multiple relationships and ideologies. How does the explosion of virtual “I”’s reshape familiar concepts about the self? What issues does the proliferation of online “selves” raise? In what ways do digital environments, which situate subjects as assemblages of surfaces, networks, archives, nodes, and avatars, blur the boundaries of individual lives and “remix” aspects of multiple persons? What consequences of online self-presentation ensue for us as “users”?

Richard Gunther, Political Science

December 7, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

“The Politics of Redistricting Reform: Theory and Practice”

What does the transition to democracy in Spain have to do with gerrymandering in Ohio? Richard Gunther began his research career studying politics in Spain, the centerpiece of which was its successful transition to democracy in the late 1970s. "The Spanish Model" of elite bargaining was subsequently applied by other scholars to their studies of the dynamics of political change in other countries.

Three decades later, Gunther was himself a participant in negotiations over political reform, in this case, efforts to eliminate the gerrymandering of legislative districts in  Ohio. To a striking degree, he found that "The Spanish Model" provided powerful insights into the failure (especially the "near miss" in 2010) and success (the passage of Issue 1 in 2014) of these redistricting reform efforts. In this talk, Gunther will analyze these processes of political change, as well as present an update on the prospects for reform of congressional redistricting currently under consideration (in which he is, again, a participant in negotiations).

Donald Haurin, Economics

November 2, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

“Reverse Mortgages: What, Who, Why, and When”

There are a large number of seniors with substantial home equity, but relatively little income. They could tap their home equity by moving to a rental unit or less expensive dwelling, but many wish to remain in their current home. For some seniors, traditional access to the credit market through refinancing or a home equity loan is unavailable due to lenders’ credit constraints. Financial planners are increasingly suggesting retirement planning strategies where reverse mortgages have a role. This talk summarizes four years of research on the U.S. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. Topics covered include a description of reverse mortgages, who obtains them and the reasons for this decision, and the longer-term outcomes of obtaining a reverse mortgage.

John Hughes, Cancer Biology and Genetics

October 5, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

"Healthcare-Associated Infections: A Personal and Public Healthcare Tragedy"

The bacterial pathogen Clostridium difficile (C. diff.) can be carried by humans and animals. C. diff. infections are often acquired in hospitals and in long-term care facilities. Risk factors associated with C. diff. infections will be addressed in order to enable healthy decision making. If hospitalization and/or long-term care may be in your future, come learn about the risk factors for the number one cause of healthcare infections.

Lois A. Rosow, Music

September 7, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

“Unlocking the Secrets of an Old Music Book”

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), Louis XIV's favorite musician, is credited with several "firsts": he invented French opera, he introduced orchestral discipline, and he was the first in France to publish folio full scores. The first editions of his operas—luxury prints dedicated to the king of France—are generally understood as products of absolute monarchy: displays of magnificence meant to reflect the king's glory. A corollary of this idea is that they were perhaps less practical than other means of disseminating music. A close study of these books as material objects, along with the historical context for their creation, reveals a richer, more nuanced picture of Lully's concerns and those of his printer, Christophe Ballard. This lecture will focus in particular on the edition of Lully's final masterpiece, the opera Armide (1686).

Paul Beck, The Mershon Center

May 4, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

"Partisan Polarization in America, and Beyond"

Partisan polarization is one of the most important characteristics of contemporary American politics. This talk will describe the levels of polarization among both political elites and the voting public – and show how they have changed over time and in comparison with other democracies. It will then focus on explanations for and the consequences of current levels of polarization in the US.

Steve Krakowka, Veterinary Biosciences

April 6, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Suzanne Sharer Room, Third Floor, Ohio Union

"Defying Koch’s Postulates: The Porcine Circovirus Story, or 'Chance Favors the Open Mind'"

For a scientist fascinated by the life-and-death struggle between disease-susceptible hosts and disease-causing pathogens, the "holy grail" is to be among the first to identify, characterize and ultimately contribute to the prevention of a newly emergent, economically significant infectious disease. The porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) story is topical, interesting and contains practical lessons in seeing both the obvious and obscure. In retrospect, we now know that PCV2 infection is the most important infectious disease of swine in the modern era. Three investigators, myself, a Canadian and a Belfast Irishman, got together and solved this problem in the face of almost universal dismissal and active naysaying by all other North American "experts" in swine infectious diseases. This story is a classic example of hubris by the "academic establishment," and a vivid reminder that much of science is driven by the egotism of preconceived ideas that dictate only like-minded group thought processes and research directions. This hubris cost the US pork industry roughly $100 million dollars in lost revenues between 1998 and 2006; the vaccine developed to prevent PCV2 disease has since become the largest selling successful biological in the history of veterinary medicine.

 

Ron Solomon, Mathematics

March 2, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Club

"The School of Athens, and Beyond"

Mathematics was born in the School of Athens, among whose intriguing discoveries were the five (and only five!) Platonic solids. Thus, symmetry and classification were wed in the very cradle of mathematics. I will trace the evolution of these themes from Islamic art to crystal lattices to optimal codes, and finally to the construction and verification of the "Periodic Table of the Finite Simple Groups," in which I have been privileged to participate, emphasizing the historical themes and interesting personalities and touching lightly on the mathematics.

Don Hubin, Director, Center for Ethics and Human Values

February 3, 2016

4 - 5 p.m.

Grand Lounge, Faculty Hall

"'Who's Your Daddy?' Conceptual Engineering Our Way Out of Legal Conundrums"

 

Social and technological changes often force us to rethink our ordinary concepts. Here are two familiar examples. It once made little practical difference whether we defined 'death' as cessation of breathing, heartbeat, or brain function. All three came close enough together. Of course, given the ability to maintain brain functioning in the absence of heart beat and breathing, it is now quite important how we define 'death'. Second, before techniques of artificial reproduction, there was no practical need to separate the concepts of genetic mother and gestational mother. Now there is. Our concepts of death and biological motherhood have had to be re-engineered in light of technological advances in order to work in ways that are morally defensible.

The concept of father is in need of similar re-engineering. There are numerous legal cases in which courts have stumbled badly because they are relying on now obsolete conceptions or fatherhood--conceptions that once worked well enough but now lead to morally indefensible results. I'll illustrate the problems that courts have had in making judgments of paternity, diagnose the source of the problems, and make some steps toward re-engineering the concept of father so that it meets our current needs.