Meet the Professor - Fall, 2018
The Liberal Studies Project presents a monthly lunch & lecture series.
Admission ($15 per person and $10 for students) includes lunch. Reservations are required at least 3 days prior to the event. Please contact Janna Tajibaeva at 852-2247 or janna@louisville.edu.
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Professor Timothy DowlingLatest from the Proximity Orbits of Juno at Jupiter and Cassini at SaturnTimothy Dowling, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, studies planetary atmospheres and specializes in atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics. He is the Principal Investigator on the development of the EPIC Atmospheric model funded by NASA and NSF. He and his students analyze Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and Hubble Space Telescope data of the gas giants. In his presentation he will talk about the two largest planets in the Solar system, show the latest amazing images of giant wind storms and folded jet streams, examine the evidence that Saturn's famous rings formed relatively recently, and get an update on what is going on inside Jupiter. |
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Professor Frances McdonaldCracking Up: Laughter without Humor in 20thCentury Philosophy and LiteratureFrom Aristotle’s assertion that laughter is an “ensouling mechanism” to William Hazlitt’s pithy claim that “man is the only animal that laughs,” there is a long tradition of thinking about laughter as a quintessentially human response to the socio-cultural discourse of humor. In the 20th century, a host of artists and philosophers countered this tradition by emphasizing laughter’s eruptive, irrational, and contagious qualities. In her talk, Frances McDonald, Professor of English, maps out the alternative genealogy of laughter to investigate how laughter created a space for philosophers to imagine new, provisional models of personhood that are based in affective entanglement rather than rational self-containment. |
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Professor Fabian CrespoEpidemics, Pandemics, and now Syndemics! Lessons from Tuberculosis and Leprosy in Medieval EuropeInfectious diseases have played a major role in the evolution of the human species. Now, a syndemic approach recognizes historical contingencies and interactions, allowing us to explore larger bio-ecological environments and social structures that converge to produce disproportionately infected spaces for some, but not all, members of society. Fabian Crespo, Professor of Anthropology, pursues research interests in human and ecological immunology and infectious diseases. He will talk about tuberculosis and leprosy in Medieval Europe as excellent models for exploring complex syndemic approach of disease interaction. |
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Professor Gregory HutchesonSpain's Reconquista: Fact and FictionIn the year 1492, Muslim Granada fell to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, and Spain proclaimed at long last concluded its centuries' long effort to reclaim the Iberian peninsula from Muslim rule. Gregory Hutcheson, Associate Professor of Classical and Modern Languages, revisits the Reconquista (Reconquest) narrative and exposes far more complex realities behind some of its touchstones, including Saint James the Moorslayer (patron saint of the Reconquista) and The Cid (Spain's epic hero). |
