Lecture series brings class to community
The Whipple Fine Arts Center will open its doors again this month to invite students and the community to class with the 2014-15 Faculty Lecture Series. A handful of UCC faculty members will participate in the series in hopes of sharing some of their knowledge and sparking interest.
The next lectures will run Feb. 18 starting at 12:00 p.m. in the Whipple Fine Arts Center. Sandra Angeli-Gade, associate professor of human services will be the first to take the with a 20 minute presentation, entitled “Sex, Chocolate, and Drugs: The Brain’s Pathway.”
“My talk will be focusing on the neurobiology of the addiction process and the brain’s main reward pathway,” Angeli-Gade said. Her presentation will also discuss how the “reward pathway is fundamental in a person’s ability to survive.”
Gregg Smith, associate professor of humanities, will offer the second lecture at 12:30 p.m. with, “Who Says I’m Dead? Understanding the Influence of the Living Dead in Medieval Norse and Celtic Societies.” He will offer insight into ancient and medieval Ireland and the different aspects of death and fairy folklore. “My little talk will briefly address this and then examine the influence of the dead on the living when they interact, particularly focusing on the “vampirical” qualities of the dead: that is, their ability to change the living into something like themselves, and how society deals with such transformations when they occur,” Smith said.
The Faculty Lecture series, which runs twice per month, will also present Ken Carloni and Charles young on Feb. 19, at 4:30 p.m. in Centerstage Theater.
Ken Carloni, associate professor of biology offers his segment entitled “Honey, Where Are My Bowling Shoes?: The Divergent Evolution of Female and Male Brains” first.
“We’ve known for millennia that men’s and women’s thought processes typically differ, and during the last century we’ve learned a great deal about how anatomy and physiology create those differences. My talk will ask WHY this is true… and what that means for 21st century society,” Carloni said.
Charles Young, Associate Professor of History will then discuss “Five Significant Turning Points in World History” at 5:00 p.m. “I chose these five in part because I believe many people aren’t as aware as they could be of their significance,” Young said. “It is meant to be a whetting of interest that hopefully might lead to further inquiry by those attending.” Young hopes that he will also have time for questions and answers within the 20 minute time frame he is afforded.
The next set of presentations will be available March 18 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. and March 19 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., then on April 22 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. and April 23 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Each lecture is taught by a new professor to speak who shares unique information from their areas of expertise.
The presentations are free to students and community members. For more information on the Faculty Lecture series, visit UCC’s homepage: http://www.umpqua.edu.
| Faculty Lecture Series Schedule | ||
|---|---|---|
| Feburary 19, 2015 | Ken Carloni, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology | Charles Young, MA, Associate Professor of History |
| “Honey, Where are My Bowling Shoes?”: The Divergent Evolution of Female and Male Brains | Five Significant Turning Points in World History | |
| March 19, 2015 | Nancy Nowak, MFA, Associate Professor of English | Helen Laurence, MA, Associate Professor of Humanities |
| Excavating Shrapnel, Revealing Poetry: Reflections on My Sabbatical | A Web of Words: Making Connections Across Spaces | |
| April 23, 2015 | Vladimir Dankiv, PhD, Fulbright Scholar-in-residence from Ukraine, Associate Professor of Finance and Banking | Jason Aase, MS, Dean of Arts and Sciences |
| Open Innovation: from Ideas to Solutions | Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest | |