College QuadTalk

In this second talk of "The Good Life" speaker series, Shomu Banerjee, senior lecturer and applied microeconomic theorist in the Department of Economics, talks about living the good life (April 15, 2014). The Good Life Speaker Series seeks to facilitate a meaningful exchange of ideas on how to lead the "good life," based on Socrates' concept of Eudaemonia. We aim to attract speakers whose experiences and knowledge provide distinctive and challenging understandings on how to lead such a life. Our goal in doing so is that an audience, comprised primarily of students, can benefit from their wisdom as they move forward constructing their own personal version of the good life.

William G. Dever, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Lycoming College, and Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, Arizona State University, presents the 2014 Tenenbaum Lecture (February 3, 2014). His illustrated lecture showcases recent archaeological evidence that reveals the differences in beliefs and practices of ordinary people in ancient Israel compared to the elitist, idealist portrait in the Bible, particularly the ongoing veneration of the Canaanite Goddess Asherah.

Ralph Savarese of Grinnell College advances the notion of a much less human-centered empathy by exploring the propensity in autism to attend to objects more than people (February 19, 2014). Focusing on the work of two autistic writers, Dawn Prince and Tito Mukhopadhyay, he investigates the trope of personification, appealing to neuroscientific investigations of the phenomenon in order to distinguish between a categorical and a precategorical engagement with experience. Lyric writing, especially poetry, plays a controlled game with categories, dwelling in the sensory and blurring distinctions through a range of literary devices such as personification and metaphor. For Prince and for Mukhopadhyay, the space of lyric writing appears to welcome autistic difference. Ralph James Savarese is the author of "Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption," which Newsweek called "a real life love story and an urgent manifesto for the rights of people with neurological disabilities," and the co-editor of three collections, including "Autism and the Concept of Neurodiversity," a special issue of Disability Studies Quarterly. The winner of the Herman Melville Society's Hennig Cohen Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation, he spent the academic year 2012/2013 as a neurohumanities fellow at Duke University's Institute for Brain Sciences. He teaches at Grinnell College in Iowa. The Disability Studies Initiative at Emory is a new working group (beginning Fall 2013) generated across departments and schools that is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching by faculty and students. The Initiative is led by a group of faculty and students who are interested in the social, cultural, historical, political, and legal dimensions of disability in our world. http://www.disabilitystudies.emory.edu

Comedian Josh Blue and Jon McCullough of Blaze Sports talk about their experiences as Paralympic athletes and more in this engaging, often humorous conversation held January 31, 2014, at Emory University. They are also joined by Benjamin Reiss, Professor of English and co-chair of the Disability Studies Initiative at Emory. Blue (http://joshblue.com/) was a winner of the Last Comic Standing competition and a disability advocate. Blaze Sports (www.blazesports.org) is a Decatur nonprofit adaptive sports organization. The Disability Studies Initiative at Emory is a new working group (beginning Fall 2013) generated across departments and schools that is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching by faculty and students. The Initiative is led by a group of faculty and students who are interested in the social, cultural, historical, political, and legal dimensions of disability in our world. http://www.disabilitystudies.emory.edu

In this first talk of "The Good Life" speaker series, Corey Keyes, Professor of Sociology, addresses "Positive Psychology and Flourishing" (Feb. 25, 2014).

Dr. Shaun Casey (State Department Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives and Professor of Christian Ethics, Wesley Theological Seminary) gives a talk entitled "Exploring Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Launching the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives" (February 7, 2014). Casey's research interests include the ethics of war and peace, the role of religion in presidential politics, public theology, the role of the Church in fighting global poverty, and the problem of theodicy as it relates to the Red Sox. In 2009 he published "The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon, 1960" (New York: Oxford University Press).

Sponsored by Emory's Disability Studies Initiative, Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and member of the President's National Council on Disability, delivers a talk on "Autism and the Disability Community: The Politics of Neurodiversity, Causation and Cure" (October 29, 2013). The Disability Studies Initiative at Emory is a new working group (beginning Fall 2013) generated across departments and schools that is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching by faculty and students. The Initiative is led by a group of faculty and students who are interested in the social, cultural, historical, political, and legal dimensions of disability in our world. http://www.disabilitystudies.emory.edu

A conversation between Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and member of the President's National Council on Disability, and Maria Town, an Emory alum who currently works at the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (October 28, 2013). The Disability Studies Initiative at Emory is a new working group (beginning Fall 2013) generated across departments and schools that is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching by faculty and students. The Initiative is led by a group of faculty and students who are interested in the social, cultural, historical, political, and legal dimensions of disability in our world. http://www.disabilitystudies.emory.edu

Dr. Robert Pippin, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, gives the keynote talk at the Interdisciplinary Futures Symposium, held in honor of Emory's ILA 60th anniversary celebration on October 24, 2013.

Tibetan scholar Jamyang Norbu talks about his efforts to raise the profile of the Ache Lhamo (Tibetan opera) in exile in Dharamsala, India (April 4, 2013). From 1979 to 1984, he was the director of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), which was one of the first institutes set up by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to preserve Tibetan artistic heritage, especially opera, dance, and music.

A wide-ranging historical and cultural guide to Jewish civilization in its Islamic milieu

A wide-ranging historical and cultural guide to Jewish civilization in its Islamic milieu

Composer and singer Susan Botti performs a concert of her original chamber work "Gates of Silence" with Vanderbilt University's Blakemore Trio (March 23, 2012, at Emory's Dance Studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts).

At the June 2011 meeting of the Emory College Alumni Board, alums took a moment to offer advice to incoming first-year and transfer students.

Anna Leo of the Dance Department and Rosemary Magee, Vice President of Emory University, collaborated on this reading/movement piece inspired by their trip to Dharamsala, India, during the summer of 2010. Video by Hal Jacobs.

President Jimmy Carter talks to an Emory Sociology class about the personal, social and political dimensions of aging (full talk).

President Jimmy Carter talks to an Emory Sociology class about the personal, social and political dimensions of aging (clip).