2007-2008 Scott Center Events

Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration

Sunday, May 4, 2008

7:00 p.m.

Mead Chapel



Followed by 8:00 screening of “Shop on Main Street” at Dana Auditorium.


 

Theatrical production:

“Jumpers,” by Tom Stoppard

May 1-3, 2008

Thursday-Saturday 8:00 p.m.each evening and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday

Wright Theatre



In a comedy that includes the moon landings, a team of gymnastic philosophers, Zeno’s paradox, a detective who might have stepped from the pages of Agatha Christie (not to mention a hare called Thumper and a tortoise called Pat), Stoppard combines effervescent burlesque with moral urgency.



“I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I’m the kind of person who embarks on an endless leapfrog down the great moral issues. I put a position, rebut it, refute it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation. Forever. Endlessly.” — Tom Stoppard from an interview with Mel Gussow in the New York Times , 26 April 1972.



Directed by Cheryl Faraone with Alex Draper as George Moore. Sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Dance with support from Pathways to Flourishing: a Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College.



Sponsored by Metanexus, the Department of Theater, the Department of Religion, Ross Commons, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the Academic Enrichment Fund.  A featured event in “Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College.”


 

Lecture:  “Jews, Christians, and The Passion”

Professor Jeremy Cohen, Tel Aviv University

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

4:30 p.m.

Robert A Jones Conference Room



Part of the 2008 Scott Symposium, “Engaging Passions: The Death of Jesus and Its Legacies.”



Please contact Charlene Barrett, Religion Department Academic Coordinator, at 443-5289.


 

Lecture: “The Stem Cell Debate: Why the Embryo is Not the Chief Moral Issue”

Suzanne Holland, Ph.D.

Monday, April 21, 2008

4:30 p.m.

McCardell Bicentennial Hall, room 220





Dr. Holland is chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, and is Associate Professor of Ethics.  She teaches in the area of religious ethics and values, including bioethics, science and technology, religion, and gender studies.  Her research interests range from the ethics of human genetics and stem cell research, biotechnology and commodification, to broader issues in religion, culture and public policy.   She is co-editor of The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Science, Ethics & Public Policy (MIT Press, 2001).



A featured event in “Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College. ” Sponsored by Metanexus, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Ross Commons, the Academic Enrichment Fund, and the Department of Religion.


 

15th Annual Living with Grief Teleconference —

“Living with Grief: Children and Adolescents”

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

1:30-4:00 p.m.

Dana Auditorium





Hospice Foundations of America’s 15th Annual National Bereavement Teleconference, “Living With Grief®: Children and Adolescents,” will be moderated by Frank Sesno, Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University and Special Correspondent with CNN. This program will be broadcast on Wednesday, April 16, from 1:30-4:30pm. HFA’s 2008 teleconference will focus on the experience of grieving children and adolescents and the ways that all hospice professionals, educators and counselors, parents, social workers, physicians, grief counselors, funeral directors, and clergy can best support these populations as they cope with loss and grief.



Continuing Education credits are available for a wide range of professions. To learn more about this satellite and webcast teleconference visit the Hospice Foundation of America web site at www.hospicefoundation.org. For more local information about the teleconference in your community, contact Hospice Volunteer Services at 388-4111 or log onto our website at www.hospicevs.org.



Co-sponsored by Hospice Volunteer Services of Vermont and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.


 

Panel Discussion:  “Queerness and Religion”

Monday, April 14, 2008

7:00 p.m.

Mead Chapel



Christian and Jewish religious leaders, both gay and straight, discuss homosexuality and religion. Questions will range in topic from acceptance in various religious communities, the notion of same-sex marriage, what constitutes sinful behavior, and interpretations of controversial verses of the Bible. The event is open to everyone, whether a member of the Middlebury College community or not.



Hosted by the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance; co-sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious LIfe.


 

Lecture: “You Must Pay the Sandman: Impacts of Sleep Deprivation on Health and Performance and What You Can Do About It”

by Dr. Hrayr Attarian, MD

Monday, April 14, 2008

4:30 p.m.

216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall





What can research tell us about the essential role sleep plays in helping us achieve our full learning potential? Study after study has shown that our brain performs crucial tasks of reviewing, organizing, and prioritizing while we sleep, consolidating what we have learned or practiced during the day. So the maximum benefit from studying or learning any sort of new skill takes place only after a good night’s sleep.



Dr. Attarian is Director of the Vermont Regional Sleep Center, and Assoc. Professor of Neurology and Medicine at the University of Vermont School of Medicine.



The College Convocation Series seeks to bring together all members of the college community to reflect upon topics of broad intellectual and cultural importance.



Sponsored by the Samuel S. Stratton Fund, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Campus Stress, departments of Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, and Religion, and the Center for Counseling and Human Relations.


 

Twenty-First Annual Hannah A. Quint Lecture in Jewish Studies

“Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Guidelines for a

New Administration”

Professor William Quandt, University of Virginia

Sunday, April 13, 2008

7:30 p.m.

McCardell Bicentennial Hall, room 216



Sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Program in Jewish Studies.  Please contact Charlene Barrett, Religion Department Academic Coordinator, at 443-5289.


 

Lecture:  “Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on America’s Tradition of Religious Equality”

Martha Nussbaum, Ph.D.

Friday, April 11, 2008

4:30 p.m.

Mead Memorial Chapel





Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Sponsored by the Foreign Language Enrichment Fund and the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs.


 

College Convocation Series:  Dr. Robert Sapolsky

“Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Stress, Disease, and Coping”

Thursday, April 10, 2008

7:30 p.m.

Mead Chapel



One of the nation’s finest science writers will speak on stress and stress-related disorders on April 10 at 7:30 in Mead Chapel. Robert Sapolsky is the recipient of the MacArthur (“Genius”) Fellowship, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. He is the author of several bestselling books including “A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons,” “The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament,” and “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.”  He is known for his animated lecture and writing style, which helps communicate intricate scientific information in a humorous and accessible way.





The College Convocation Series seeks to bring together all members of the college community to reflect upon topics of broad intellectual and cultural importance.



Sponsored by the Samuel S. Stratton Fund, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Campus Stress, departments of Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, and Religion, and the Center for Counseling and Human Relations.


 

Film Screening:  “Birdsong and Coffee: A Wake-Up Call”

Monday, April 7, 2008

8:00 p.m.

216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall



Part of the International Student Organization’s Development Series, April 1-9. 



Coffee drinkers will be astonished to learn that they hold in their hands the fate of farm families, farming communities and entire ecosystems in coffee-growing regions like Costa Rica. In this film we hear from experts and students, from coffee lovers and bird lovers, and - most importantly - from coffee farmers themselves. We learn how their lives and ours are inextricably linked, economically and environmentally.



Co-sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.


 



“Environmental Sustainability and Reconciliation between Jews and Arabs”

Rabbi Michael Cohen

Thursday, April 24, 2008

4:30 p.m.

216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall



Rabbi Cohen is Director of Special Projects at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.  The Arava Institute is the premier environmental teaching and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges.



Sponsored by Hillel, The Islamic Society, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life.


 

Lecture: “Embryo Research: Why Not?”

Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

4:30 p.m.

McCardell Bicentennial Hall,

room 220





Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D. is Richard & Phyllis Duesenberg Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. Professor Meilaender is an associate editor for the Journal of Religious Ethics. He has taken a special interest in bioethics and is a Fellow of the Hastings Center. His books include Bioethics: A Primer for Christians (1996, 2005), Body, Soul, and Bioethics (1995). He has recently edited (together with William Werpehowski) The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics.



A featured event in “Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College. ” Sponsored by Metanexus, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Ross Commons, the Academic Enrichment Fund, and the Department of Religion.


 

Lecture: “Tower of Babel, or God’s Partner in Creation? A Jewish Perspective on Biotechnology”

Elliott Dorff, Ph.D.

Monday, March 17, 2008

4:30 p.m.

McCardell Bicentennial Hall,

room 220



Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University, Rabbi Dorff is the author of Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics and Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader.  In the spring of 1993, Rabbi Dorff served on the ethics committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, and in March 1997 and May 1999 he testified on behalf of the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the president’s National Bioethics Advisory Committee.



A featured event in “Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College. ” Sponsored by Metanexus, the Saltz Judaica Fund, the Department of Religion, and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life at Middlebury College.


 

Excellence without a Soul:  Does Liberal Education Have a Future?”

Professor Harry Lewis, former Dean of Harvard College

Thursday, November 29, 2007

4:15 p.m.

216 McCardell Bicentennial Hall



America’s great research universities are the envy of the world—and none more so than Harvard. Never before has the competition for excellence been fiercer. But while striving to be unsurpassed in the quality of its faculty and students, universities have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to turn young people into adults who will take responsibility for society. In Excellence Without a Soul, Harry Lewis, a Harvard professor for more than thirty years and Dean of Harvard College for eight, draws from his experience to explain how our great universities have abandoned their mission. Harvard is unique; it is the richest, oldest, most powerful university in America, and so it has set many standards, for better or worse. Lewis evaluates the failures of this grand institution—from the hot button issue of grade inflation to the recent controversy over Harvard’s handling of date rape cases—and makes an impassioned argument for change. The loss of purpose in America’s great colleges is not inconsequential. Harvard, Yale, Stanford—these places drive American education, on which so much of our future depends. It is time to ask whether they are doing the job we want them to do.



Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Harvard College professor, has been on the Harvard faculty for thirty-two years. He was Dean of Harvard College between 1995 and 2003 and chaired the College’s student disciplinary and athletic policy committees. He has been a member of the undergraduate admissions and scholarship committee for more than three decades. Lewis lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.


 

Brainerd Commons Chaplain’s Forum

“Personal Spiritual Practices in an Academic Community”

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

7:00 p.m.

Brainerd Commons House, Blinn Lane

The Chaplain’s Forums are an opportunity for informal conversation among students, faculty and staff about questions that matter in our lives. We hope you will join us. Desserts are served.

 


 

Staged Reading: “A Number”

by Caryl Churchill

Sunday, November 4, 2007

7:30 p.m.

Center for the Arts Room 232





Who are you when you discover one day there are 20 or more of you — a number — with the same DNA?  The story of a parent and his children.  A staged reading directed by Professor Cheryl Faraone, with Alex Draper and Alec Strum.



Sponsored by Metanexus, the Department of Theater, the Department of Religion, Ross Commons, The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the Academic Enrichment Fund.  A featured event in “Pathways to Flourishing: A Dialogue of Science, Religion and Politics at Middlebury College.”


 

Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life
46 South Street
Middlebury, VT 05753