Academy for Learning In Retirement

Our Fall 2013 Schedule

 September

Struggling to Create Justice in

the Post-Civil Rights Era

 Presented by Dr. Robert J. Duran,A

Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, NMSU

Dr. Duran is the author of a recent book on gangs, "Gang Life in Two Cities: An Insider's Journey."He will present a series of four lectures on this topic.

1. Overview of crime, violence, inequality, and criminal justice

2. Understanding Gang Violence

3. Addressing Police Violence

4. Empowerment from One Generation to the Next

Dates:

Tuesdays-September 10, 17 , 24 and

Thursday- September 19

October

We Live in an Interconnected World

Presented by Dr. Paul O'Connell

Affiliated Faculty, Economics, NMSU and DACC

From economic, cultural, health, security & political perspectives the world is now interconnected. In the initial session of this series, Dr. O'Connell will review his 11 years with the World Bank- discussing who created it and why, type of loans, how project management works, success and failure over the last 65 years, and his involvement. The second session will discuss implications of trends such as gobalization, improvements in technology, increased inequality, and managing the federal debt. The third session will look at contending economic theories - Capitalist, Marxist and Keynesian- and how they impact today's economic and political divisions. In the final session, Dr. O'Connell will discuss his recent economic development experiences in Afghanistan.

Dates:

Tuesdays and Thursdays

October 15, 17, 22, 24

November

Science and the Secrets of Nature

Presented by Dr. William Eamon

Regents Professor of History

Dean, Honors College, NMSU

The idea that science should, in principle, be public knowledge is imbedded in our understanding of how science should comport itself. Science must be public so that its claims can be tested. Secrecy, most agree, has no place in science. But, curiously, this was not always the case. For centuries "secrets" and secrecy played an important role in science. This program will look at the tensions between secrecy and public knowledge through an examination of the "books of secrets" from the Middle Ages through the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. These strange and esoteric works, containing the accumulated experiments and observations of craftsmen, alchemists, and magicians, fascinated intellectuals because they promised access to "secrets of nature" known only to a few. During the Renaissance, the books of secrets exploded into popularity, generating immense curiosity about how nature worked, not merely how it looked, and offering readers a hands-on, experimental approach that made traditional science seem abstract and sterile.

Beginning in classical antiquity, the program will look at the idea of the "secrets of nature" and how it shaped scientific attitudes; then move on to examine the Arabic "secret sciences" of alchemy, astrology, and magic and their assimilation into medieval natural philosophy; and finally to an exploration of how the tradition of esotericism gave way to the modern idea of science as public knowledge.

Dates:

Mondays and Wednesdays

November 4, 6, 11, 13

December

In the Service of the Institution

 Presented by Martha Shipman Andrews

University Archivist, NMSU Library

Lecture I: New Mexico Aggies at War: 1941-1945: The World War II Correspondence of Dean Daniel B. Jett. Dean Jett carried on a personal correspondence with hundreds of his former students stationed stateside and throughout the world. His energy and enthusiasm boosted morale and created a unique legacy of insight into the lives of young men and women involved in cataclysmic world events. The nearly 5000 letters speak eloquently for themselves, so this lecture will take the form of a reading with commentary and multi-media enhancement.

Lecture II: New Mexico State College's Forgotten Presidents: Luther Foster, Winfred E. Garrison, George E. Ladd, and Austin D. Crile. These four presidents, variously degreed in agriculture, geology and theology, labored to establish a firm foundation of responsible administration for New Mexico's land-grant institution as New Mexico transitioned from Territory to Statehood. One by one, however, they were made to "walk the plank" because their ambitions crashed up against the prevailing-and shifting-political landscape.

Dates:

Monday and Wednesday

December 9, 11