Arts and Sciences

Conceptualized by Jeffrey Peck, dean of the Weissman School, Weissman Talks is a new series of thematically linked dialogues and performances presented by Baruch College’s Weissman School of Arts and Science.

The Fall 2008 program takes as its theme “the Holocaust in Poland.” It launched on October 16, with Dean Peck interviewing Tovah Feldshuh, the Tony Award-winning actress who plays the lead in Irena’s Vow - the Broadway-bound play about one woman’s heroism in Nazi-held Poland. Two additional discussions followed on October 19 and 28.

This vedio is the panel discussion held on October 28, at Engelman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center. Panelists include Professor Cynthia Whittaker, Department of History; Professor Alison Griffiths, Department of Communication Studies; and Professor Terry Berkowitz, Department of Fine and Performing Arts. The discussion is moderated by John Malatesta, Managing Director, Baruch Performing Arts Center. Dean Jeffrey Peck makes the welcoming remarks.

The Fall 2008 Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College features Francine Prose, author of more than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction. Her works include the novels iBlue Angel/i (nominated for a National Book Award) and iA Changed Man/i (winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize), iReading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them/i, a book on gluttony, and another on the life of the painter Caravaggio. She has written books for children and young adults, and contributes to The iNew York Times/i, The iNew York Review of Books/i, The iNew Yorker/i, The iAtlantic/i, and iHarper’s/i, where she is a contributing editor. A film of her novel iHousehold Saints/i was released in 1993. Her latest novel, iGoldengrove/i, was published in September 2008.

The recipient of numerous grants and awards, she has taught at The New School, Harvard, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and as a Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bard College. Prose is currently president of PEN American Center.

Roslyn Bernstein, Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program, makes the opening remarks. Jeffrey M. Peck, Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, makes the welcoming remarks. John Brenkman, Distinguished Professor of English, introduces the speaker.

The event takes place on October 21, 2008, at the Newman Conference Center, 7th floor.

The Spring 2008 Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College features Charles Simic, U.S. Poet Laureate, the author of numerous collections of poems, including iMy Noiseless Entourage; Selected Poems: 1963-2003/i, for which he received the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize; iThe Voice at 3:00 AM: Selected Late and New Poems; The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems/i, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; iClassic Ballroom Dances/i, which won the University of Chicago’s Harriet Monroe Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Di Castagnola Award. His books of prose include iMemory Piano/i, iMetaphysician in the Dark/i, iA Fly in My Soup/i, iOrphan Factory/i, iThe Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs/i, iDime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell/i, as well as several translations of poets from the former Yugoslavia.

br

brSimic has received two PEN Awards for his work as a translator, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He is a frequent contributor to iThe New York Review of Books/i and the poetry editor of iThe Paris Review/i. His new book of poems, iThat Little Something/i, will be published in Spring 2008.

br

brThe event takes place on March 18, 2008, at the Newman Conference Center, 7th floor.

Dr. E. Tory Higgins, the Stanley Schachter Professor of Psychology, Professor of Business, and the Director of the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University, speaks at the Psychology Department Colloquium, Spring 2008.

br

brDr. Higgins presents a new theory of motivation which proposes that along with the experience of pleasure or pain (hedonic value), the strength of engagement one has with an object, individual or situation also contributes to its experienced value by influencing the experience of motivational force -- the intensity of the attraction to or repulsion from the target of value. He supports this theory through evidence from various disciplines showing how engagement strength creates value. A QA session follows.

br

brDr. Higgins is introduced by Jennifer Mangels, Professor at the Department of Psychology, Baruch College. The event starts with a brief introduction by Professor Loren J. Naidoo, Department of Psychology, Baruch College.

br

brThe event takes place on February 4, 2008, at the Baruch College Vertical Campus, Room 8-215.

Award-winning novelist Francisco Goldman talks about his most recent book iThe Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?/i, a nonfiction book that pursues the infamous murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the Guatemalan human rights leader murdered after the release of his multivolume report on the genocidal terror campaign led by the army in the 1980s and 90s. The book casts light into the darkest corners of this tortuous case, the U.S.-supported war in Central America and the continuing legacy of violence and corruption.

Roslyn Bernstein, Professor of the Weissman School of Arts Sciences, Baruch College, introduces the speaker.

The event takes place on November 13, 2007, at the Newman Conference Center, Room 750.

Professor Victoria de Grazia, Department of History, Columbia University, and Professor Susan Strasser, Department of History, University of Delaware speak on the history of American consumer culture at the Annual Robert A. Friedman History Symposium sponsored by the Department of History, Baruch College.

br

brProfessor Katherine Pence, Department of History, Baruch College gives an overview of consumption in history and introduces the speakers.

br

brThe event takes place on March 22, 2007 at the Baruch College Vertical Campus, Room 3-150.

Dollars Sense magazine celebrates its 2007 edition by hosting Arthur Browne, Beverly Weintraub and Heidi Evans, the award-winning editorials from the New York Daily News.

The speakers discuss their chief findings in the groundbreaking series 9/11: The Forgotten Victims, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing. The series documented the growing medical fallout from the World Trade Center attacks, and forced all levels of government to reexamine their initial medical response to the attacks.

The event is moderated by Professor Andrea Gabor, Weissman School of Arts Sciences.

The event takes place on May 15, 2007, at the Newman Conference Center, Room 750.

A conversation between a revolutionary 20th century artist, Judy Chicago and her biographer, Gail Levin, an acclaimed art historian, professor of art history, American studies, and women’s studies at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center takes place at Baruch College, Mason Hall, on March 19, 2007.

br

brAn original and daring artist, Judy Chicago is an icon of both the feminist movement and the postmodern aesthetic. Her book iThe Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation/i is the story of her single most famous and important work—a landmark in the history of 20th century art and feminist consciousness. Levin’s biography iBecoming Judy Chicago /i traces Chicago’s journey from childhood and adolescence to a growing fascination with the nature of what it means to be a woman.

br

brMyrna Chase, Dean of the Weissman School of Arts

brand Sciences makes the welcoming remarks. A QA with the audience follows the conversation between Chicago and Levin.

Professor Joy Fuqua from the Department of Communication Studies, Tulane University gives a speech on consumer-directed prescription drug advertising and its implications. Dr. Fuqua points out that brand name drug logos circulate from all channels of mass communication, from bullets to magazines, to television and Internet. Her presentation focuses on the phenomena from both patients and physicians perspectives, and the point of view of drug companies. She offers a brief historical and ethical contextualization for directed consumer drug advertising, and discusses how some positions are considering the ethical implications of Pharmaceutical gift-giving.

br

brDr. Fuqua is introduced by Susan B. Goldstein, Department of Communication Studies, Baruch College. The event takes place on March 6, 2007 at Baruch College.