[TaxRelief]

Below is a list of optional seminars recently presented at GS-West.

WEEK ONE

1. Strange Little Short Stories
2. Aesthetics of Choreography
3. Relativity
4. This is Not a Pipe: Magritte and How We Interpret Art
5. Love Lace
6. Discussion of Love Lace
7. Ecstasy and the Brain: A Neurological Perspective on Contemporary Drugs
8. Deconstructing Scrabble: Synthesizing a Killer Word
9. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
10. African-American Film Series
11. Yoga
12. Reading Circles
13. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time
14. The Topology of 20th Century Theater: A Hands-on Approach
15. The Art & Science of Flying: From Bernoulli to Paragliding

WEEK TWO

16. The Art of Montage: Two Films by Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho & Vertigo
17. Suzuki Open Class
18. Activism and Protest Culture
19. Film: Twilight
20. GSW Movie Series Preview: Film's Unique Vocabulary
21. General Relativity for Dummies
22. The Tropicalization of Latin America: Disney's Three Caballeros
23. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
24. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (repeat)
25. Yoga
26. Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone: Declining Social Capital in America
27. Two Poets and a Guy with a Story
28. Roussel, the Oulipo, and the Constraint in Literature

WEEK THREE

29. Mythos and Modernity in Japanese Cinema (Or East Meets West(erns)): Akira Kurasawa's Seven Samurai
30. Gazing into the Abyss: An Introduction to Existentialism
31. Nuestra Comunidad: Latinos in North Carolina
32. Mean Genes and the Biology of Pleasure
33. An Introduction to the Poetry of Natasha Trethewey
34. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
35. Yoga

WEEK FOUR

36. Four Poets
37. The Merchants of Cool: How Corporate America is Defining What You Think is Cool
38. Ask the TACs Anything (About College)
39. The Bioethics of Genetic Testing and Stem Cells
40. The Use of Force: An Idea in Art and Science
41. This is What Democracy Looks Like – The 1999 Seattle Protest
42. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
43. Yoga
44. Reading Circles
45. African American Film Series: Slam
46. Appalachian Documentary: American Hollow
47. Life & Debt – Global Economic Policy at Work in Jamaica
48. Topology & Order Parameters in Physics
49. Discussion of Globalization Films
50. Area II Cloning Debate
51. How Do Poems Mean?
52. Ways of Knowing and Those @#$% Environmentalists
53. Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining – How Cheap is Your Electricity
54. Exploring the Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
55. Phase Shifting: The Early Compositions of Steve Reich
56. Writing for Fun and Insight
57. Sudden Fiction & Contemporary Lif
58. Critics' Choice: Exploring Literary Theories

WEEK FIVE

59. The New French Wave: Jean-Luc Godard – Breathless, Le Mepris (Contempt)
60. Individuality, Conformity, and Society
61. Suburbia and the New American Home
62. Song Writing Workshop
63. Meet Your Meat, Part I
64. Famine Relief for Mauritania
65. Industrial Areas Foundation: A Proven Approach to Community Action
66. Film Screening: Zoot Suit
67. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
68. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy
69. Funny Dirty Little War: Peronism and Argentina's Dirty War
70. Lingua Comica: Comics, Art, and Visual Communication
71. Yoga
72. The Mathematics of Music or the Music of Mathematics
73. Can We Think Our Way to Belief? Philosophical Arguments For/ Against God's Existence
74. Holden Thorp's DNA: The Secret of Life
75. African-American Film Series: Scankofa

WEEK SIX

76. The Transcendental Cinema of Michelangelo Antonioni: Blow Up & L'Avventura
77. Sociology of Capitalism
78. Follow Your Bliss
79. New Music Improvised and Not
80. Capital Punishment: A Lawyer's Perspective
81. African American Film Series: Sankofa, Part II
82. Presumed Guilty: A Performance of “The Exoneratedâ€Ãƒƒ‚�
83. Dead Man Walking
84. Are We There Yet? - Women in Science
85. Word Play: Experiments in Poetry
86. The Real Scoop About College
87. Yoga
88. Meet Your Meat, Part II
    

 

---

The secret homosexual seminar took place on the second last day of the sixth week. They are still keeping it secret from this year's potential recruits.

[TaxRelief]

Each year, each campus of Governor's Indoctrination School invites "distinguished academics and artists" to speak to the student body. These speakers represent the most current work and debates in their arena of ideas. Governor's School wants to challenge its students and provoke thoughtful conversation within the Governor's School community.

Here are sample speakers from Governor's School East's "Convocations" series in recent years. Several of these speakers have also presented at Governor's School West's Speakers Series.

• Svi Shapiro, Director of the PhD. Program in Curriculum and Teaching, University of North Carolina, Greensboro - "Elitism in Public Education"
  Dr. Shapiro challenged the students to rethink the role of public schools. Are public schools really about academic excellence or are they more concerned with promoting ruthless competition, smugness, and conformism?
  
  
• Stanley Hauerwas, Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School - "A Pacifist Response"
  Self-described as a "Christian Contrarian," Dr. Hauerwas generated a great deal of discussion among GSE students concerning the relationship between Christianity, Pacifism and the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
  
  
• Carol Quinn, Assistant Professor, Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina, Charlotte - "Race, Class, and Environmental Justice"
  Dr. Quinn highlighted issues concerning environmental racism and its impact on the United States of America.
  
  
• James Wilson-Quayle, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University
  "The American Economy and Liberty"
  Professor Wilson-Quayle weaved together an intricate argument that questioned the ability of the United States to continue its impressive economic growth. What will the United States do to maintain its growth, turn to the forces of Globalization? Institute procedures to redistribute wealth? Simplify our lifestyles?
  
  
• Tom Regan, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, North Carolina State University - "A Case for Animal Rights"
  Professor Regan posed the question, "Do animals have rights?" From this starting point, he expanded the student's understanding of the issue by logically laying out the possible basis for animal rights.
  
  
• Charles Kimball, Department of Religion, Professor and Chair, Wake Forest University - "When Religion Becomes Evil"
  Professor Kimball focused the attention of the GSE students on the question of why people commit evil acts in the name of religion. He introduced what he saw as warning signs that a religion was becoming evil and encouraged the students to apply his test to the current state of the world.
  
  
• Patrick Dougherty, Installation Artist - "Primitive Ways in an Accelerated World"
  Mr. Dougherty explored the relationship between the artist and the public. His presentation challenged students to think about the function of public space.
  
  
• Ceasar Alvarez, Performer/Musician - "Hyper-Reality"
  Mr. Alvarez offered the GSE student body an alternate view of music and art than that presented by the conventional media outlets. He juxtaposed his visual presentation with live and recorded music to create a true "hyper-reality" experience.
  
  
• Paul Anderson, Associate Professor of Physics, Wake Forest University - "Exploring the Cosmos"
  Dr. Anderson expanded the GSE students' view of the world by asking them to imagine the entire cosmos. His presentation covered such questions as, How was the universe created? Is the universe expanding? How does it expand?
  
  
• Mike Despines, Regional Director for International Rescue Committee - "The American Dream - The World's Nightmare"
  Mr. Despines awed the student body with staggering statistics, figures, and questions about the future of our environment and the role humans (especially Americans) in contributing to its decline. He emphasized the impact of exponential growth in population and consumption.

[Aquinasfan]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy

How about St. Thomas and Philosophy? < /rimshot>

This list reads like the creme de la crappe.

[little jeremiah]

Ameila - please read this whole thread.

[ArGee]

Follow Your Bliss

Follow your bliss???

Words fail me. What in the world is a College Campus doing presenting anything with a name like that?

How about "Do Your Duty." THAT'S what we need to be teaching.

Follow your bliss, indeed!

Shalom.