Professorial Lectures
Protecting Our Drinking Water Sources
Sara Gundersen, Ph.D. (Department of Economics)
Recent econometric innovations have enabled economists to show causality, resulting in a widespread shift to small, answerable questions. In this talk, I argue for the return to big questions using…
Read more »
Protecting Our Drinking Water Sources
Zuhdi Aljobeh, Ph.D., P.E. (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Protecting our drinking water sources is a critical component of environmental sustainability and public health. In my presentation, I will focus on the implementation of stormwater best management practices (BMPs),…
Read more »
Underpaid, Overperforming: The Untold Story of Women in Executive Roles
Jiangxia (Renee) Liu, Ph.D. (College of Business)
Women hold a small percentage of top executive roles and earn significantly less than men, yet they often outperform their male counterparts. While part of the pay gap can be…
Read more »
Nuclear and Particle Physics at Colliders
Adam Gibson-Even, Ph.D. (Department of Physics)
For more than 50 years, enormous particle colliders have addressed fundamental questions in particle and nuclear physics: What are the fundamental constituents of matter? What laws govern it? I will…
Read more »
Collaborative Creation: From Commission to Fruition
Stacy Maugans, D.M. (Department of Music)
How does a new work of music come to life? How do performers and composers interact while collaborating on a new musical composition? We will explore the genesis and development…
Read more »
The Nature of Nature: Bridging the Social and Natural Sciences Through Geography
Bharath Ganesh Babu, Ph.D. (Department of Geography & Meteorology)
In 1909, Estonian naturalist Jakob von Uexküll proposed that living beings perceive their surroundings in subjective reference frames that he called “Umwelt.” We pattern-seeking and problem-solving humans, however, have pushed…
Read more »
Straight Outta Camelot: What King Arthur’s Court Teaches Us aboutBlack Masculinity and Friendship
Richard Sévère, Ph.D. (Department of English)
In the Middle Ages, male friendship bonds played an integral role in constructing one’s social and political identity. The Arthurian court, best known as Camelot, is one of the largest…
Read more »
No One is Going to Hear That’: The Art of Meaningful Expression atthe Piano
Joseph Bognar, D.M.A. (Department of Music)
Live music-making is a form of communication between the performer and the listeners. What might performers be trying to convey to an audience, and in what ways might a listener…
Read more »
In Their Own Words: Child Writers and the 19th-Century Press
Sara Danger, Ph.D. (Department of English)
Nineteenth-century children became published authors in record numbers, offering innovative contributions to the new media of their day. As my study shows, with the rise of celebrity authorship, children’s literacy,…
Read more »