2013 Schedule

SESSION I: June 23–June 29, 2013
SESSION II: July 7–July 13, 2013

Each lecture described below is given on a single morning. After a break for refreshments, participants may join a further discussion of the main lecture or choose a second faculty presentation.
PROFESSOR LINDA LANKEWICZ, MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
EXPERIENCING INDIA IN THE SEWANEE CLASSROOM: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
To succeed in our rapidly changing world of global interdependence, our students need to be adept at using the latest technological innovations and have experiences that allow them to develop an understanding of other cultures. In Sewanee’s Instructional Technology course, Sewanee’s future teachers work with students in India to use technology to develop learning tools for students. The college students in Chennai, India, teach children in a rural village while Sewanee students develop a teaching unit for a Marion County school. Working together and sharing their experiences online, they become aware of the educational systems in each place and the emerging opportunities for enhancing education.

PROFESSOR CHRIS MCDONOUGH, CLASSICAL LANGUAGES
A LUNATIC WITH TRANQUIL EYES
A few years ago, I was poking around in our university archives, when I happened to spot a small classical statue with a lovely green patina in a glass case by the back wall. “What’s that?” I asked, and was told it was a 19th-century replica of an ancient original, and that it once belonged to Tennessee Williams. Though I didn’t realize it, this marked the beginning of an investigation that led along a roundabout path to some unexpected discoveries about Williams’ work and life.

PROFESSOR JENNIFER MICHAEL, ENGLISH
CARPE NOCTEM: THE TURN TO DARKNESS IN 18TH-CENTURY LITERATURE
The Enlightenment suggests, by its very name, an emergence from the “dark ages” of superstition into the daylight of reason and empiricism. By the mid-18th century, however, a number of English writers began to turn away from this dazzling glare in favor of the crepuscular beauties of twilight and even deep midnight. In the process, they found themselves exploring the inner landscape of the mind: a place of contemplation, imagination, and sometimes, sublime terror. We’ll consider this turn toward darkness in such poets as Anne Finch, Thomas Gray, William Collins, and the Warton brothers, as well as some examples of the Gothic novel.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN MILLER, MUSIC
“CHANGE IS GONNA COME”: DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION OF THE ALBUM
“A Change is Gonna Come,” sang the velvety voiced Sam Cooke in 1964, and indeed change was already evident on all sides in the music world. That same year the Beatles had their American break out, and new recording techniques left no doubt that what happened at the mixing console was an artistic force akin to what happened on stage. At the same time LPs were grabbing a larger share of the market. Long-play records — albums — proved to be the mass medium of choice for creative musicians. In classical music this was obvious as full works like Beethoven symphonies, Strauss tone-poems, or Schubert song cycles finally fit on a single, easily handled recording. But a similar thing was happening for other music too. Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis, Sam Cooke himself, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Frank Zappa were impossible to understand apart from their long-play disks. But if all those developments around 1964 were consequential, what’s happened to music in the 21st century is nothing short of revolutionary. Indeed, these changes are the most profound since Thomas Edison sang “Mary had a little lamb” into his phonograph almost 140 years ago. Such developments include plummeting music sales, the surge of music streaming, and the ascendancy of the mp3 format — the very antithesis of the LP and its analogue sound ideal. Yet, ironically, the vinyl album, whose death knell was prematurely sounded by the CD back in the ’80s, is now resurgent.
PROFESSOR JOHN WILLIS, HISTORY
TWO DAYS IN JULY, 1863: GETTYSBURG, VICKSBURG, AND SEWANEE
On the third and fourth days of July 1863, Union forces won two major victories and a third minor skirmish. Of the three engagements, the Union triumph at Gettysburg is best known, and many regard it as a turning point in the war. We will examine how these three campaigns were won by the Union, what they signified to contemporaries, and why popular writers and historians are so curiously divided about the lasting importance of one of the three events.
SECOND LECTURES
Faculty members will offer a second lecture in addition to their main talk. Professor Lankewicz will present Hackers and Intrusions: Computer System Vulnerabilities, Professor McDonough Here and There, Now and Then, Professor Michaels Poetry, Nature, and Contemplation, Professor Miller LPs vs. CDs: A Drop-the-Needle Test in the Ralston Room, and Professor Willis Finding the Domain’s History in Plain Sight.
AFTERNOON TOURS AND EXTRAS
Sewanee’s Computer Center
Golf Course Archeological Site
The New Sewanee Inn Construction
EVENING EXTRAS
Thursday — 5–7 p.m. — Wine and Cheese Reception at Chen Hall, hosted by Bonnie and John McCardell, 16th vice-chancellor.