2009-10 University Colloquium Series
Arcadia University’s College of Graduate Studies offers this 2009-10 series of colloquia, open to undergraduate and graduate students, educators, and interested members of the community. The purpose of the lectures is to bring interested learners in touch with the leaders and scholars of various disciplines.
Counseling
Are You Smarter Than a Fourth Grader?
Understanding Culture and Learning in the Classroom
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
This presentation will offer an overview of current research on cultural diversity. It will address the teacher’s ability to interpret the cultural actions of a student and modify a classroom curriculum or techniques to match the student’s cognitive style. The speaker will stimulate discussion on a cross-cultural understanding of educational practices through controversial vignettes. The purpose of this presentation is to increase cultural awareness so that participants better understand the role that cross-cultural communication plays in the psychology of education. Topics will be addressed through lecture, video presentations and simulations.
Yuma I. Tomes, Ph.D., ABA, is an Associate Professor and Director of the School Psychology master’s program at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The author of several publications, book chapters, and reviews focusing on learning and acceptance in diverse populations, Dr. Tomes currently is working on a cross-cultural text for school and mental health practitioners.
Education
Planting Justice: What a Human Rights Trip Teaches
About Being Human, Being Jewish, and Being American
Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010
Over 10 days in Israel/Palestine in November 2008, four Jews from Philadelphia joined an interfaith group of 40 to plant olive trees for Palestinian farmers whose trees had been uprooted by Israeli settlers. They walked along Al Shahuda Street in Hebron—deemed sterile by soldiers because Palestinians are forbidden to walk there. They saw children caged like birds to protect them from settler children and adults who might assault them. They confronted the separation wall, which is called the apartheid wall by the Palestinians held hostage within it. They stood at checkpoints and heard dramatic stories of lives endangered and lost there. They were inspired by Jewish Israelis who live out the teachings of the prophets as they stand for justice and for making peace—as well as Palestinians who are struggling for their rights using nonviolence and are determined to stay in their land. Standing in the rubble of a home in East Jerusalem that had been demolished by Israeli soldiers, they were forced to reckon with American complicity in this untenable situation. And that was before Gaza.
Abby Ruder, Ellen Tichenor, Lance Laver and Carol Towarnicky are four members of Mishkan Shalom Synagogue in Philadelphia who participated in a Rabbi's for Human Rights "Planting Justice" trip to Israel/Palestine.
English/Humanities
Bard On Broadway: Shakespeare and the American Musical
Thursday, March 25, 2010
This presentation examines the influence of Shakespeare on American musical theater through analysis of five important productions from 1938 through 1971—The Boys from Syracuse (The Comedy of Errors), Kiss Me Kate (The Taming of the Shrew), West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet), Your Own Thing (Twelfth Night), and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Exploring the adaptations of Shakespeare and how they were instrumental in the alteration of the musical theater formula from the stock plots and song forms of the 1930s musical comedy to the more organic “integrated musical,” where songs and dance sequences were used to advance the plot rather than break the action. Bringing together these well-known works offers a fresh look at the development of the American musical theater and a new understanding of Shakespeare in the modern American context.
Irene G. Dash ’43, Adjunct Professor Emeritus, Hunter College, CUNY and author of the award winning Women’s World’s in Shakespeare’s Plays; and Wooing, Wedding, and Power: Women in Shakespeare’s Plays. An Arcadia University alumni, her book on Shakespeare and the American Musical is published by Indiana University Press.
Slamming Open the Door
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010
Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno’s heartrending autobiographic collection of poems inspires both compassion for and awe of the human spirit. Of all the losses we may be asked to bear, the murder of one’s child must be the most terrible. These poems evoke that keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.
“Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno creates a poetic sequence like no other,” says Robin Becker. “She is our Everywoman, holding church, family, and law to the light. Idiomatic, monumental, these poems grieve and range and stun. Can poetry matter? With her debut collection, Bonnano establishes, for lyric poetry, a new place in postmodern America. Brilliant. Humane. Enduring.”
Kathleen Sheeder Bonnano is a contributing editor of The American Poetry Review and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for two poems from Slamming Open the Door. She currently teaches English and Creative Writing in Pennslyania.
Health/Sciences
Family History and Improving Health:
Genetic Testing for Genetic Disease
Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010
The hope of the 21st century is the prevention and/ or early treatment of common diseases by utilizing personalized medicine. Many common diseases have genetic, environmental and lifestyle causes that family members share. For this reason, many health care providers rely on obtaining family history information to assess how genetics may contribute to an individual’s risk for developing diseases such as diabetes, cancer or heart diseases Family history also is critical to determining who will benefit from genetic testing for both common and rare conditions and can facilitate interpretation of genetic test results. The combination of these attributes makes the collection of family history an important first step in personalized medicine. However, only one in four Americans who are offered online personal health records agree to participate. Why are so many Americans reluctant to embrace a closer look into their family histories? This presentation will explore the newer approaches to personalized medicine and whether we are ready to embrace this newer approach to health care.
Kathleen D. Valverde, Assistant Professor and Director of Genetic Counseling at Arcadia University
Mathematics
The Mystery of the Known: The Joy, Angst, and Poetry of Math
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
“Math poetry” can take many forms: poetry that uses images from math, poetry that uses math for its rhythms and appearance on the page, poetry celebrating mathematicians, and so on. Marion Cohen's “math poetry” is poetry about the experience of mathematics, coming out of passion for the subject. Math research, coupled with the way it affects and is affected by the rest of life, serves as metaphor for all striving and yearning—and vice versa. This colloquium will be a poetry reading, with comments in between about math poetry in general. Math areas touched upon include graph theory, Fourier series, and the Cantor middle-third set. Life-areas include childhood and adolescent memories, spousal illness, Handel, and kids and cats. These poems have been appreciated by mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike. (And don't worry—Marion will explain what a lemma is ...)
Marion Deutsche Cohen, Adjunct Professor in the Arcadia University Computer Science and Mathematics Department; author of 19 books, including Crossing the Equal Sign (Plain View Press, Texas) about poetry about the experience of mathematics, and the forthcoming Chronic Progressive. She also has been internationally known in certain communities for her books on spousal care giving and pregnancy loss.
About the Series
- All colloquia will be held in the Rose and Mirror Rooms of Grey Towers Castle. Directions & Map.
- All colloquia are free and open to the public. Pre-registration for colloquia is not required.
- Time schedule for all colloquia:
- 7–7:30 p.m. Coffee Reception
- 7:30–8:30 p.m. Presentation
- 8:30–9 p.m. Question and Answer Session
- If you wish to be placed on a mailing/e-mailing list for special notices, you may sign the register at any colloquium you attend or call the College of Graduate Studies, 215-572-2877, e-mail mcnulty@arcadia.edu or visit our Web site, www.arcadia.edu/arts.
- Attendance provides one hour of Act 48 professional development credit. Forms are available at each colloquium.
- Arcadia University is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Arcadia University maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Total CE credits earned for counseling programs: 1.5 contact hours.
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