Faculty Shop Talks
Tiffany Grobelski, Assistant Professor in Environment Geography and Earth, Peace Studies, and African Studies
"Grassroots-Led Energy Transition: Poland’s Anti-Smog Movement, 2013-2023"
Friday, September 20 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
In this talk, I tell the story of Kraków Smog Alert, a grassroots group based in southern Poland whose members came together around a singular goal: to improve their city’s atrocious air quality. Over the past decade, what began as a local initiative has transformed into an impactful national social movement. The anti-smog movement has been the driving force behind Poland’s ambitious coal heat boiler phaseout program. I show how this movement has furthered energy transition in Poland and prevailed in a context where coal is king.
Yuta Kawarasaki, Associate Professor in Biology
"Population differences in stress tolerance and transcriptomic response to sublethal freezing in the Antarctic midge"
Friday, October 4 at 4 pm in Beck Hall, Room 111
Abstract:
Distributed along the Antarctic Peninsula, the Antarctic midge is the southernmost species of insect. Because adults are short-lived and wingless, gene flow is likely limited, and local adaptations might be evident among distinct populations. In this study, we compared the stress tolerance of the midge larvae collected from three populations. Additionally, we are comparing the molecular-level responses of these larvae from different populations to a sublethal freezing stress. Our results provide insights into the population level differences in the stress tolerance physiology of the midge larvae that are the only species of insect that is endemic to Antarctica.
Kathleen Keller, Professor in History
"A Magnificent Fraud: An African Life in Twentieth Century France”
Friday, October 18 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
Mamadou Alioune Kane was a Senegalese migrant to France in the twentieth century. He was a soldier, taxi driver, and salesman. He called himself a prince, a wizard, and marabout. But was he also a traitor? This talk uses an episode in Kane’s life to explore colonial migration to France in the twentieth century and other key issues in French history.
Samuel Piccolo , Assistant Professor in Political Science
"Faction, War, and Veneration of Traditional Law in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Spartan Politeia"
Friday, November 15 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
This talk will cover two pressing challenges to contemporary liberal democracies, internal faction and external war, by comparing two of-overlooked historical and theoretical regimes: the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and the Spartan politeia, “regime” or “constitution.”
Blake Couey, Professor in Religion and Lisa Heldke, Professor in Philosophy
"Philosophical and Biblical Reflections on Being Made of Meat"
Friday, January 24 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
Although it’s uncomfortable to think about, human bodies are meat. For much of our history, humans were devoured by apex predators like lions or bears, and that threat persists in the few undeveloped areas where humans encounter such animals. In short, we are edible. Throughout our lives, various microorganisms eat parts of our bodies, and, barring chemical funerary interventions, our bodies will be completely consumed after we die. Despite increased attention to embodiment in humanities research, few studies wrestle seriously with the basic fact of our meatiness. In this shop talk, Lisa Heldke and Blake Couey will share their current work on this topic. Lisa will explore the question, “What happens to our conception of personhood if we begin, not with the notion that 'to be is to flourish,' but rather 'to be is to be consumed’?” Blake will examine the use of the Hebrew word basar (“flesh”) in the biblical book of Isaiah. The fact that humans are made of basar both separates them from God and allies them with non-human animals.
Lisa Dembouski and Amy Vizenor, Associate Professors in Education
"Taking Gen Z on Study Away"
Friday, February 7 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
Our qualitative study explores the reasons for participating in study away among Generation Z college students. Using our own experiences with students abroad, as well as survey and interview data, we develop a greater understanding of how Gen Z interfaces with study away experiences, how to connect those experiences across generational differences, and how to better design and market study away opportunities that contribute to greater personal and professional growth for Gen Z learners.
Cathy Harms, Senior Continuing Instructor and George B. Torrey Endowed Chair of Management Marketing in Business and Economics
"Experiential Learning - The Impact on Students and Non-Profits"
Friday, February 21 at 4pm in the Heritage Room
Abstract:
I will share the power of experiential learning and the outcomes for students and non-profits. The presentation will walk through the steps to provide this experience for a class of students. I will share the end result and the impacts.
Sharon Marquart, Professor in Modern Languages, Literature, and Cultures; French; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies; and Peace Studies
Title: "Writing about Care in the Age of Covid"
Friday, March 21 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
Recent trauma and memory studies has coalesced around the idea that we need to make
people feel more implicated and complicit in the traumatic events of the past and the
injustices of the present to abolish the distance we believe we have from them. In this talk, I
will argue that a global disaster like Covid demonstrates that we also need to better
understand how our direct implication and embeddedness in traumas influences our
responses to the people made most vulnerable by them. I will draw from my experiences as
a caregiver for my brother who has cystic fibrosis as well as testimonies from an array of
traumas and disasters to conceptualize both the challenges that our embeddedness causes
and the ethical relations we should seek out with the people made most vulnerable by
catastrophic events.
Severine Bates, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone studies in Modern Languages, Literature, and Cultures; African Studies; Comparative Literature; Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies; and LALACS
"Reflections on Aversive Racism, Colonial Legacy, and Representation of Blackness in Contemporary Francophone Anti-Racist Literature and Film"
Friday, April 11 at 4pm in the Interpretive Center
Abstract:
Claiming to be colorblind, non-racial, or anti-racist doesn’t make one immune to biases, to racial prejudice, stereotyping, or even to racism towards racialized minorities however subtle, covert, and even unconscious they can be. That is exactly what characterizes aversive racism (Samuel L. Gaertnera and John Dovidio) which, I claim, also constitutes one of the pitfalls of some of the anti-racist literature and films produced, in recent years, by non-black authors in France. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how this double bind is a direct symptom of the pervasive nature of France’s colonial legacy which, till today, insidiously continues to feed anti-Blackness in the “Land of the Rights of Man.” Taking the example of a few Francophone novels and films that purport to expose, challenge, and dismantle anti-black racism and other systems of oppression, I will show how those works’ paradoxical reliance on old racist tropes, clichés, and other caricatural and monolithic representations of Blackness undermines their efforts in challenging the current racial status quo, decolonizing the French collective imagination, and also in promoting social change.
Carlos Mejia Suarez, Associate Professor of Spanish; Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies; and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
“Ants at Rest”: Fantasy Creative Writing Inspired by Julio Cortázar’s Fantasy Short Stories
Friday, April 25 at 4pm in the TBA
Abstract:
In this presentation, I will address the definitions of the fantasy genre as exemplified by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, and some of its features that inspire my short story “Ants at Rest”... and also the aspects that, similar to the ants in the short story, rebel against that canon. I will then share the short story, hopefully offering the opportunity to end the Academic Year with an entertaining story.