Saturday, April 4, 2020
Return to class (without the tests!)
As the Holy Cross Alumni Association celebrates its 150th anniversary, you're invited to this year's 38th annual spring Continuing Education Day. All alumni, parents & friends are most welcome!
Participants may choose to attend any of the engaging lectures and workshops offered during the day's three sessions. Visit the course description brochure (pdf) for more information.
The program cost is $40 per person
includes breakfast and lunch
With concerns about the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus),
we have decided to CANCEL this event.
Questions?
Contact the Office of Alumni Relations at either:
alumni@holycross.edu | 508-793-2418
SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY
CHECK-IN & CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST (9:00 - 9:30 a.m.)
Hogan Campus Center, 3rd Floor
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SESSION 1 (9:30 - 10:45 a.m.)
Robert Bertin | Biology
Climate Change: The Environmental Issue of Our Time
Zack Fitzsimmons | Computer Science
Voting and Computation
Ke Ren | History
150 Years of China and America: Cultural and Intellectual Encounters
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SESSION 2 (11:00 - 12:15 p.m.)
Nadine Knight | English
Toni Morrison's Dangerous Women
Michelle Mondoux | Biology
Understanding and Combating Aging
Olga Partan | Modern Languages and Literatures
The Intelligentsia in Russia: Myth, Mission, Metamorphosis
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LUNCH (12:15 - 1:30 p.m.)
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SESSION 3 (1:30 - 2:45 p.m.)
Peter Fritz | Religious Studies
Christianity: Six Centuries in 75 Minutes
Andre Isaacs '05 | Chemistry
The Chemistry of Wine
Ed Isser | Theatre and Dance
Words, Words, Words: Reciting Shakespeare for Any Occasion
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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SESSION 1
Robert Bertin | Biology
Climate Change: The Environmental Issue of Our Time
Each
month brings important new findings about human-caused climate change and its
likely consequences. This talk will summarize the most recent findings on
climate change, explore various ways in which continued changes are likely to
affect our lives and those of our children, and discuss the roles of
individuals and institutions in minimizing these changes.
Zack Fitzsimmons | Computer Science
Voting and Computation
Voting in an election is the most commonly used way for a group to reach a decision when presented with a set of choices, whether the group consists of citizens of a country or agents in a computational setting. A landmark result from social choice theory shows that there is no perfect election system. There are always trade-offs between different desirable properties. We will give an overview of several important election systems, their tradeoffs, and how they can be studied computationally. An important aspect of an election system is its resistance to agents attempting to manipulate the outcome. Every reasonable election system is manipulable, but determining if such a manipulation exists may be computationally infeasible, making it resistant to such an attack in practice. We will show how different methods for manipulating the outcome of an election, such as strategic voting and gerrymandering are modeled as computational problems, and discuss the computational difficulty of these actions for important election systems.
Ke Ren | History
150 Years of China and America: Cultural and Intellectual Encounters
Today, media headlines about trade wars and fraught relations dominate stories of U.S.-China relations on both sides of the Pacific, a dynamic that will inevitably shape the world order in the twenty-first century. However, the relationship between China and America has never been solely about material interests or national security, but also a story of mutual curiosity and cultural engagement. Each country has loomed large in the other’s global imagination, leading to both deep exchanges as well as periodic misunderstandings. Since 1868, when the two countries signed China’s first equal treaty with a Western power, generations of students and scholars, artists and thinkers, as well as diplomats and travelers have contributed to a rich and complex history of transpacific connections. In this class, we will revisit some key moments in Sino-American encounters in the past 150 years and explore possibilities this legacy presents for a more nuanced understanding between China and America.
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SESSION 2
Nadine Knight | English
Toni Morrison's Dangerous Women
Dangerous women are at the heart of Toni Morrison’s novels. Sometimes these women are dangerous because of the shockingly violent acts they commit, as in the case of Beloved’s Sethe. Often, however, these women are dangerous because they upend notions of patriarchal control or middle-class respectability, as seen with the Convent’s inhabitants in Paradise. Most significantly, these women are often defiantly unapologetic about their dangerous choices. Through the violent acts committed by these women, Morrison challenges us to find empathy for “bad” women, even if forgiveness is not possible. This class will offer an overview of Morrison’s collected body of work and pay particular attention to the dangerous women of Sula and Paradise in our discussion. Further readings will be suggested.
Michelle Mondoux | Biology
Understanding and Combating Aging
We think of aging as inevitable—and yet we spend over $250 billion dollars a year on “anti-aging” products and services and eagerly read about the best ways to stave off dementia or live to 100. But how and why do we age, and what can we do about it? Why would we evolve to age (or did we...)? Is anti-aging research a good use of scientific resources? In this class, we will explore the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to aging and the diseases of age, as well as some of the evolutionary and molecular theories of aging. We will discuss how scientists study aging and learn how to “think like a scientist” when analyzing the latest media reports of scientific discoveries.
**This course will take place in Smith Labs, part of the College's Integrated Science Complex, a short walk from the Hogan Campus Center.
Olga Partan | Modern Languages and Literatures
The Intelligentsia in Russia: Myth, Mission, Metamorphosis
The Intelligentsia in Russia has been both scorned and admired as a societal group, alternately blamed for Russia’s tragic fate and cherished for its cultural uniqueness. While the Russian intelligentsia was traditionally defined as a well-educated social class engaged in complex intellectual labor, the concept of the intelligentsia and its role in Russian society has changed over time. This session will first define the essential elements of the myth of the Russian intelligentsia as both a distinctive social group and a spiritual formation claiming high moral standards and expectations for the self and for society. Second, we will explore how leading representatives of the intelligentsia have seen their mission on various historical stages. Finally, we will address the metamorphosis of the intelligentsia through different historical eras, how socio-political factors have shaped its persistence and perpetual transformation. We will also examine how technological advances and the Internet have affected the intelligentsia with new forms and methods of communication, and how recent political events (especially the annexation of Crimea) have split representatives of the intelligentsia in Russia.
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SESSION 3
Peter Fritz | Religious Studies
Christianity: Six Centuries in 75 Minutes
This session will articulate selected aspects of the complicated story of Christianity over the past six centuries. Rather than a forced chronological march through history, the lecture will examine key thematic contrasts with recurring significance for “modern” churches: Christianity’s claim to universality, yet its local roots and expressions; Christianity’s preaching of the human person’s God-given dignity, yet its participation in structures of interhuman domination; and Christianity’s teaching that the world is God’s creation, yet its participation in structures that dominate “nature.” By the end of this lecture, “students” should grasp that Christianity is a bewilderingly complex historical construction, but, with hope, they will also recognize how Christianity is also, somehow, more than this.
Andre Isaacs '05 | Chemistry
The Chemistry of Wine
Wine
has played, and continues to play, a significant role in religious, cultural
and social traditions. Every bottle of wine is 97 percent water and ethanol.
With over 9000 quantifiable compounds, the other 3 percent of wine contributes
to its unique flavor profile. Modern chemistry has allowed us to unlock the
complexity of its taste, smell and look through the understanding of the
different classes of compounds found in wine, the chemical processes that lead
to their formation and the taste profile they create. In this course we will
discuss the biochemistry of wine fermentation, wine components and their
contribution to the flavor profile.
**This course will take place in Smith Labs, part of the College's Integrated Science Complex, a short walk from the Hogan Campus Center.
Ed Isser | Theatre and Dance
Words, Words, Words: Reciting Shakespeare for Any Occasion
This session will introduce participants to the rudiments of Shakespearean oration, focusing on how to read and recite a Sonnet. Holy Cross students performing in Richard II will assist Professor Isser in modeling the requisite skill sets to deliver the perfect wedding toast or tell that special someone how you feel about them. The session promises to be enlightening, fun and useful. Come ready to play!