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Start: 12:00 am
End: 7:00 pm
A Road Scholar Program by Sarah S. Marcus
Join historian Sarah Marcus and view the history of Chicago through television and film, noting how producers of popular culture have depicted the city and its residents. Start: 12:30 pm
End: 1:30 pm
 As the economy weakens and universities make painful budget cuts, liberal arts and humanities programs are increasingly under threat. These programs of study-which generally include the arts, history, philosophy, religion, gender and cultural studies, languages, and visual and performing arts-are not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation, many argue. Instead, these subjects provide a framework for developing key ideas and concepts that enable us to understand and make meaning of the ways in which people and societies have organized their world under particular conditions. Essentially, the humanities provide essential soft skills necessary for almost any career.
But in an economy where getting and having a job is becoming more difficult than ever, some critics who have long derided the humanities usefulness in preparing students for practical, useful work are reigniting the debate. In an article headlined, "In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," The New York Times recently reported that scholars are already seeing troubling signs in colleges and universities such as hiring freezes and unfilled faculty positions in humanities departments. Start: 5:15 pm
Discussion of An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, by Kay Redfield Jamison
Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature. Start: 6:00 pm
Discussion of "My Sister's Keeper," by Jodi Picoult
Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Healthcare is a discussion-based program that brings hospital staff together monthly to reflect on the larger mission of medicine through facilitated conversations about literature. Start: 6:00 pm
End: 8:00 pm
Access to valuable natural resources has often generated conflict between nations, regions, communities, individuals, and corporations. What can we learn about how tensions over oil and water have been handled in the past? How are communities pitted against each other when it comes to access and control of these resources? How can we address current and prevent future disagreements? In All's Fair in Oil and Water, we will use the story of the Great Lakes Compact, current clashes over oil in Nigeria, and the documentary Water Pressures, which tells the story of a collaborative water management model in India, to examine conflict over oil and water. Panelists: | ||
