Thursday, February 8
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Jeanne Dairaghi, NC Center for Health and Wellness
Jordan Perry, Health and Wellness Department
“Maximize Your Health and Wellness: Health Promotion On and Off Campus”
Are you interested in learning about the best ways to support your health and well-being, as well as wellness resources and events, healthy aging research, and free on- and off-campus options available to you? Come join Jeanne Dairaghi and Jordan Perry on February 8 to learn about the work of the Healthy Aging NC and Healthy Campus initiatives of the NC Center for Health and Wellness and Health & Wellness Department of UNC Asheville.
Thursday, February 15
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Oliver Gloag, Modern Languages and Literatures
"Camus and the Absurd"
Oliver Gloag will present on Camus’ Absurd and how it formed a cycle of works which included a novel (The Stranger), an essay (The Myth of Sisyphus), and a play (Caligula). Each work will be discussed individually and related back to the literary, philosophical and political context in which it was written. Though we will see how each work in the cycle is connected with an intellectual tradition or influence, we will also examine the personal and empirical foundations for his theory.
Thursday, February 22
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Tamie Beldue, Department of Art & Art History
"Reshaping Relationships; Drawings by Tamie Beldue"
Tamie Beldue will focus this discussion on her conceptual motivations for the use of the figure in her contemporary drawings, specifically defining how as of recent the importance of the personal and/or domestic life is playing an influential role.
Thursday, March 8
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Ioan Muntean, Humanities
"Linking evolution and learning in the natural, the social, and the artificial frameworks."
We discuss here a couple of important ideas for the development of a course on learning and intelligence. We reframe these rich concepts in three contexts: the natural, the social, and the artificial. The aim of this argument is to present a unifying conceptual space in which artificial intelligence comes closer to natural and social intelligences: ditto about learning. The ethical decision-making process is also discussed as a cognitive process, strongly related to learning. Although this presentation does not attempt to define intelligence or learning per se, we argue that these two concepts are strongly related to decision theory and the process of optimization of actions based on data and previous experience. We argue for the importance of learning and intelligence in the liberal arts education.
Thursday, March 22
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Gerard Voos, MLAS Program and Office of Graduate Studies, Continuing Education, and Sponsored Programs
"Get to know YOUR Master of Liberal Arts & Sciences Program on its 30th Birthday"
Director Gerard Voos will take us through the history of the MLAS Program and the changes it has undergone during its 30 years on the UNC Asheville campus. The MLAS Program, as an extension of UNC Asheville’s undergraduate liberal arts mission, emphasizes human interactions with our ever-changing and rapidly growing world. Courses range from creative writing (fiction and non-fiction) to US and European history to climate change to sustainable cultures, economics, and energy.
Thursday, March 29
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Melissa Acker, Jackie Hamstead, and Bethany Beliveau, Campus Operations
Feed the Bees: Your Role in Saving our Pollinators
Join Campus Ops Staff members, Jackie Hamstead, Bethany Beliveau and Melissa Acker to learn about creating pollinator gardens and growing your own wild flowers from seed. We will discuss the different pollinator gardens on campus and how the grounds department grows many of the wildflowers planted in these areas. In addition, different methods of seed propagation will be reviewed.
Thursday, April 12
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Aubri Rote, Health and Wellness
“To Teach or Not Teach to the Test: Strategies for Preparing Students to Sit for Certification Exams or College Admission Tests”
Is your class or the material in your class part of preparing students to sit for a certification exam or college admission test? Do you struggle with how to prepare them for this test? Please join Aubri Rote for a conversation on strategies to balance the need to “teach to the test” while also engaging students in other important parts of a course such as open-minded discussion and critical thinking.
Thursday, April 19 - CANCELED - Plans are to reschedule for Fall 2018.
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Brian Butler, Philosophy
"Democracy, Law, and Dred Scott"
Thursday, April 26
12 - 1 PM
Ramsey Library Special Collections
Ann Dunn, Humanities
"The Duchess of Malfi: Humor and Tragedy Make Strange Bedfellows"
The use of humor in early English Renaissance tragedies (e.g. by Marlowe), had a significant connection with the Vice figure from Medieval Mysteries and Moralities. This was a drama in ascent, in invention. This drama, in many ways, takes a long last look backwards at its heritage. In this paper, I will look at the use of humor in the work of the late Renaissance tragedian, John Webster’s, The Duchess of Malfi . This is a drama in decline, almost visibly deconstructing itself. Webster looks grimly forward toward what will come to be called the Age of Enlightenment, specifically at the problems posed for two sorts of individuals (the good, represented by the Duchess, and the intelligent, represented by Bosola). His characters are trapped with a new sense of autonomy and justice in an old hierarchical system – a system that has by now become thoroughly decadent and desperate. Bosola/intelligence looks with despair at the new world; Duchess/goodness looks with hope. While both die in their respective challenges to authority, they do so not before taking out that authority. Cardinal/church and Ferdinand/state die also – at the hands of intelligence in the name of goodness. Only Bosola and the Duchess achieve a kind of dignity in the end, in no small measure through the humor they employ. The creative tension in which humor and tragedy are held has much to tell us today as we cope with some of the unintended consequences of The Age of Enlightenment.