Voltaire's Coffees and Voltaire's Cinemas
Voltaire's Cinemas
Like watching good films? Like talking about good films? Like talking with
really great professors? Like free snacks? Wanna take brief break from the
grind of studying? Come down join us for Plan II's film discussion series,
the Voltaire's Cinema.
That's right, we're taking our venerable Voltaire's Coffee and switching texts—from
paper to celluloid. Come join fellow P2ers for screenings of films led by some
of the program's best professors. We'll run the gamut from dramas to documentaries
to comedies, but vow to bring the same exciting texts and enlightening discussions
found at our traditional "book" Voltaire's Coffees.
Voltaire's Coffees
At the beginning of each Fall semester, freshmen and Peer Advisors meet in small, informal book discussions with some of the most acclaimed professors at UT—a part of a Plan II tradition called "Voltaire's Coffee." Due to the outstanding popularity of these events, the Plan II Academic Chairs are offering a second series in the first couple weeks of the Spring semester.Students should read the books for at least two Voltaire's Coffees during the summer/winter break, and are encouraged to sign up for at least one. Plan II students in the P2SA choose the sponsoring professors, who in turn choose the books to discuss. The result is a delightful mix of books, ranging from the sublime to the entertaining, covering all areas of study, and a discussion that promises to be illuminating. If the book listed has a translation, please buy the one specified, as different versions can give different impressions. The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is noted for recommended editions. Where no ISBN is noted, choose among the most readily-available editions.
Be aware that VC's will occur during the first few weeks of classes each semester; a few of them will meet before classes even begin. Please check the dates and times of the coffees and register early--they fill up fast!
See the Plan II on-line calendar for previous year's Voltaire's Coffees.
Winter Voltaire's Coffee Series - Spring 2010
Everyone's favorite Plan II event from their freshman year is now open to ALL Plan II students in our new Winter Voltaire's Coffee Series! Join us for an evening of all your favorite things: interesting books, stimulating discussion, amazing professors, engaging fellow students, and food, of course! All VCs will be held between January 21 and January 29, before the homework really starts piling up. Locations will be on campus for easy access, exact location TBA. All VCs are scheduled for 7 PM so that the fewest number of classes will conflict as possible. Limited spots are available, so registration is required! Students can register by accessing the following link to the registration form beginning at noon on Monday, November 30th. Registration will close on midnight of Friday, December 4th. Registration is limited to one VC per student.
1. Thursday, January 21 - Professor Galbraith - The Fog of War by James G. Blight and Janet M. Lang
About the book:
This session will discuss historical mystery and moral dilemma through the prism of the life and career of Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and architect of the Vietnam War. Students should read the book, The Fog of War, by James G. Blight and janet M. Lang. They should read the EPS Quarterly for October 2009, which is dedicated to McNamara. I would also encourage those who have not done so also to view the 2004 Errol Morris documentary, Fog of War, readily available on DVD.
About the professor:
James K. Galbraith, an economist, holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen, jr Chair in Government/Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He has written extensively on a narrow, hotly disputed historical question, namely: did JFK plan to withdraw US forces from Vietnam?
2. Friday, January 22 - Professor Loehlin - Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
About the book:
Pale Fire (1962) is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a poem titled "Pale Fire" with commentary by a friend of the poet's. Together these elements form a narrative in which both authors are central characters. Pale Fire has spawned a wide variety of interpretations and a large body of written criticism. The Nabokov authority Brian Boyd has called it "Nabokov's most perfect novel".
About the professor:
James Loehlin is Shakespeare at Winedale Regents Professor of English. He is a native Austinite and a Plan II graduate of UT; he also holds degrees from Oxford and Stanford. His scholarship focuses on the history of plays in performance. He has written widely about Shakespeare on stage and film, especially the history plays (he has written books on Henry IV and Henry V and articles on Henry VI and Richard III). He also works with modern drama, in particular the works of Anton Chekhov (his book on The Cherry Orchard was a runner-up for last year's Hamilton Award). As Director of the Shakespeare at Winedale program, he works with performance as a teaching method; he has directed forty productions of Shakespeare’s plays. He has received several awards for teaching, including membership in the UT Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
3. Monday, January 25 - Professor Carter - Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
About the book:
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. But, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers’s riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun’s roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy—an American who converted to Islam—and their children, and the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun became possible. Like What Is the What, Zeitoun was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research—in this case, in the U.S., Spain, and Syria.
About the professor:
Mia Carter is an associate professor in the department of English. She received her Ph.D. in English and Modern Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1992. Her research interests include post-colonial and ethnic studies, modernism, 19th & 20th Century British Literature, Imperial studies, film, and women's studies. She has received multiple awards and honors, including the Texas Excellence Teaching Award, the Chancellor's Teaching Award, and induction into the Academy for Distinguished Teachers.
4. Tuesday, January 26 - Professor Bump - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
About the books:
While teaching in the English Oxford Summer Program Professor Bump became aware of intense student interest in the Alice books and has been teaching them ever since, as a guide to the college experience, ethics, diversity, etc. His students act out “Jabberwocky” and “The Mouse’s Tale” in many languages at the Harry Ransom Center and stage twenty performances of “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” for “Explore U.T.” every year. Suggestions for discussion
About the professor:
Jerome Bump, a Professor of English here for forty years and regular World Lit. professor for Plan II, is the author of Gerard Manley Hopkins and over sixty articles. He has been honored with multiple fellowships and awards. He was also an editor of Texas Studies in Language and Literature.
5. Thursday, January 28 - Professor Woodruff - The Bacchae by Euripides
About the book:
Euripides' Bacchae is the most exciting and disturbing play we have from ancient Greece. A god brings an ecstatic religion to Greece, and a powerful young king--his cousin--tries to put the reliogion down. But soon he changes his testosterone laden role for that of a woman by donning his mother's clothes. In the mountain, where the women dance in ecstasy, they find the young king, tear him to pieces, and play catch with his body parts. Read it in my translation if you can, available on Amazon or elsewhere.
About the professor:
A former Plan II director, Paul Woodruff has written on ancient Greek philosophy, ethics, and on the philosophy of theater. His hobbies include rowing, furniture-making, and music. He is currently Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies.
6. Friday, January 29 - Professor Gleeson - Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou
About the book:
The book is actually a biography of Bertrand Russell but its special emphasis is his work at the interface of logic and philosophy. HIs effort to find truth through logic is told through illustrated media, a comic book. A suitable and perfect companion is the book "Godel's Proof" by Ernest Nagel, James Newman, and Douglas Hofsteter, not a comic book, but a light read for this kind of book.
About the professor:
Professor Gleeson is a theoretic physicist. He has been teaching at The University of Texas since time began and the required Plan IIphysics class since the beginning of recorded history.
Voltaire’s Coffees for Plan II Freshmen, Class of 2013
Fall 2009
Plan II freshmen are initiated into their first semesters with small, informal, professor-guided book talks called Voltaire's Coffees. The professors we ask to sponsor these discussions select an eclectic and broad combination of texts, from history to philosophy, classics to pop culture, that you will read over the summer to discuss in the fall. At the beginning of the semester you will join the professor and a small group of your classmates in one or more Coffees, providing a wonderful opportunity for both a compelling discussion as well as a chance to meet your Plan II peers and some of the University’s best professors.
You should read the book(s) for at least one Voltaire’s Coffee during the summer; however, you are allowed to read several books and to attend as many of the coffees that interest you, as long as space remains available and the VCs are not held on the same evening. You can register for your top choices beginning July 19. Please note that two or more VCs may be scheduled on the same evening. Keep that in mind if you choose more than one book to read.
We schedule Voltaire’s Coffees during the first few weeks of classes; several VC’s will meet as soon as dorms open, in the first few days before classes begin. Most dates are posted below; locations will be posted beforeVC registration commences. Your registration confirmation email will contain the book, professor, meeting date and location for your specific VC(s). Each Coffee typically lasts about 1.5 hours.
For the VC’s that will be held in faculty members’ homes, maps will be available at Plan II office and carpools will be formed. Most will be held in faculty homes.
VC REGISTRATION will begin July 19, 2009.
To register: Please email the number of Coffees you wish to attend (at least one, and no more than eight) your top three choice Coffees (or more, if you want to attend more), your name, and UT EID starting July 19 to Plan II Students Association Academic Chairs Amanda Jones and Elena Dufner a pii.academics@gmail.com. (that email will not be active and your registration request will not be accepted until the date when VC registration begins...July 19.) Do not delay your registration. Many VCs will fill quickly.
Names and titles of the VC books follow.
This list will be updated frequently as Coffees are scheduled and
meeting places are confirmed.
1. Any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels,
led by Dr. Michael Starbird, Professor of Mathematics: Monday, August 31st, 7
PM. This VC will be held at Professor Starbird's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective in fiction. The 56 short stories and four novels present us with a wealth of delight as we follow Holmes' amazing deductions. Some moments in the stories are truly classics such as the exchange in 'Silver Blaze':
Inspector Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish
to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Please read as many of the stories as you wish.
About the professor:
Michael Starbird is Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. degree from Pomona College in 1970 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1974. That same year, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics of The University of Texas at Austin, where he has stayed except for leaves as a Visiting Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego; and a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He also teaches a Plan II mathematics course and regularly serves on the faculty panel for the Plan II Perspectives class in the Spring. Within the Plan II community he is most beloved for his sense of humor, his colorful sweaters, and his infamous Jabberwocky poem.
2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waoby Junot Diaz, led by Dr. Alexandra Wettlaufer, Associate Director of Plan II Honors Program and Associate Professor of French & Italin: Wednesday, September 2nd, 7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor Wettlaufer's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuk-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Daz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss.
About the professor:
Alexandra Wettlaufer is an Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Associate Director of the Plan II Honors Program. She specializes in the relationship between painting and literature in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. She received her BA from Princeton and a PhD from Columbia University. Her publications include Pen vs Paintbrush: Girodet, Balzac and the Myth of Pygmalion (St Martins Press, 2001), In the Minds Eye: The Visual Impulse in Prose (Rodopi, 2003) and articles on Baudelaire, Ruskin, Turner, George Sand, and Flora Tristan. She was awarded the Presidents Fellows Teaching Award in 2000 and the Blunk Professorship in Teaching and Advising in 2007.
3. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow, led by Dr. David Laude, Professor of Natural Science: Monday, August 24th, 7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor Laude's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
This is a relatively breezy introduction to the arbitrariness of the world in which we live, from interesting historical consequences to an array of modern applications across the academic disciplines and into the modern world in which we live. You have to think to follow the book, but it is equation free, and very well written. On a certain level it is perhaps a good book to read for the control-freak in all of us that needs to be reminded that it is better to just let go.
About the professor:
Dr. Laude is a Professor of Chemistry and the Student Dean in Natural Sciences. He is actually nicer than you might think, for a chemist and an administrator, and spends his spare time raising a bunch of kids, coaching youth sports teams, and surfing sports and film message boards.
4. Shakespeare’s King Lear, led by Dr. Alan Friedman, Professor of English: Monday, August 24th, 7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
King Lear is considered one of Shakespeare's greatest works. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman king, who divides his realm between his daughters and offers the largest share to the one who loves him best. Greed, trickery and romance are just a few of the many plot elements that Shakespeare employs to make probing observations on the nature of human suffering and kinship.
About the professor:
A professor of English and one of Plan II's professors for the first-year World Literature class, Dr. Friedman's areas of interest include British and American modernism, the novel, drama (especially Shakespeare), international programs, faculty governance, and academic freedom. He has authored and edited numerous books and articles, and he has won many distinguished teaching awards both from Plan II and the University of Texas as a whole, including the Outstanding UT Professor Award (2003), the Chad Oliver Teaching Award for Plan II (2003), the Thomas Mabry Cranfill Teaching Fellowship in support of Actors from the London Stage (2004), and the titles of Humanities Institute Faculty Fellow (2003) and Parlin Fellow.
5. "They Say": Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race by James West Davidson, led by Dr. Michael Stoff, Director of Plan II Honors and Professor of History: Thursday, August 27th, 7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor Stoff's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
Between 1880 and 1930, Southern mobs hanged, burned, and otherwise tortured
to death at least 3,300 African Americans. And yet the rest of the nation largely
ignored the horror of lynching or took it for granted, until a young schoolteacher
from Tennessee raised her voice. Her name was Ida B. Wells.
In "They Say," historian James West Davidson recounts the first thirty
years of this passionate woman's life--as well as the story of the great struggle
over the meaning of race in post-emancipation America. Davidson captures the
breathtaking, often chaotic changes that swept the South as Wells grew up in
Holly Springs, Mississippi: the spread of education among the free blacks,
the rise of political activism, the bitter struggles for equality in the face
of entrenched social custom. As Wells came of age she moved to bustling Memphis,
eager to worship at the city's many churches (black and white), to take elocution
lessons and perform Shakespeare at evening soirees, to court and spark with
the young men taken by her beauty. But Wells' quest for fulfillment was thwarted
as whites increasingly used race as a barrier separating African Americans
from mainstream America. Davidson traces the crosscurrents of these cultural
conflicts through Ida Wells' forceful personality. When a conductor threw her
off a train for not retreating to the segregated car, she sued the railroad--and
won. When she protested conditions in the segregated Memphis schools, she was
fired--and took up full-time journalism. And in 1892, when an explosive lynching
rocked Memphis, she embarked full-blown on the career for which she is now
remembered, as an outspoken writer and lecturer against lynching.
Richly researched and deftly written, "They Say" offers a gripping
portrait of the young Ida B. Wells, shedding light not only on how one black
American defined her own aspirations and her people's freedom, but also on
the changing meaning of race in America.
About the professor:
On May 17, 2008, at the Plan II Honors Commencement Convocation, President
Bill Powers announced the appointment of Professor Stoff as the director of
Plan II Honors through 2012. Michael Stoff served as the director ad interim
from September 2006 until May 2008. Dr. Stoff is a University Distinguished
Teaching Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of History. He
received his doctorate from Yale University and serves as co-editor of the Oxford
New Narratives in American History. Since 1998, Dr. Stoff has been involved
with the Normandy Scholars program in which students study the Second World
War in class and in Europe.
6. Machiavelli’s The Prince, led by Dr. John Daly from
the School of Communications. Sunday, August 30th,
7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
The Prince is a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political
theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. It examines the acquisition, perpetuation,
and use of political power in the western world. Not intending his writing
to be a scholarly treatise on political theory, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to
prove his proficiency in the art of the state, offering advice on how a prince
might gain and keep power.
About the professor:
Dr. John Daly (Ph.D., Purdue University, 1977) is the Liddell Centennial Professor
of Communication, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, TCB Professor
of Management, and an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacy. He has published more
than one hundred articles and chapters in scholarly publications, and completed
six books. Dr. Daly's interests focus on practical ways of improving the communication
skills of individuals. Thus, he has examined topics such as shyness, personality
difference in communication, communication difficulties people experience in
their personal and professional relationships, and ways people advocate for
their ideas. In recent years, he has worked with the White House on issues
related to customer service and communication. Dr. Daly has been the winner
of every campus-wide undergraduate teaching award. He was named a Fellow of
the International Communication Association in recognition of his scholarly
work. He has taught classes in interpersonal communication, persuasion and
attitude change, and empirical research methods.
7. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman, led
by Matt Valentine, Program Coordinator and Instructor for Plan II Honors: Friday,
August 28th, 7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
"My name is Fabian Vas. I live in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. You will
not have heard of me. Obscurity is not necessarily failure, though; I am a
bird artist, and have more or less made a living at it. Yet I murdered the
lighthouse keeper, Botho August, and that is an equal part of how I think of
myself." This book, Howard Norman's second novel, was a finalist for the
National Book Award. In unadorned prose, Norman renders the landscape and citizenry
of a tiny fishing community, and the extraordinary dramas of life there.
About the professor:
Matt lives in Austin, where he teaches courses in photography and in creative
writing for the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas. He received
an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from New York University, where he was
also a full-time staff member of the Department of Photography and Imaging
at the Tisch School for the Arts. His fiction has recently appeared in The
Greensboro Review and The Madison Review. His interviews with
notable writers appeared in Washington Square, where he was fiction
editor in 2001 and managing editor in 2002. In 2003, he contributed several
music reviews and feature stories to the Pittsburgh alternative newsweekly Pulp.
Matt’s awards include 3rd Place in Playboy’s college fiction
contest, honorable mention in the Greensboro Review’s Literary
Awards, and two nominations for the Pushcart Prize.
8. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, led by Dr. Carol MacKay, Professor
of English: Thursday, August 27th, 7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor MacKay's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
Set on a mythical tropical island named Bougainville, Mister Pip tells
a gripping tale of the power of storytelling in the midst of the chaos of civil
war. The lone white man on the island, Mr. Watts, becomes the self-appointed
teacher of a group school children by reading to them from Charles Dickens's
novel Great Expectations. The surprising interconnections between
the orphaned Pip in Victorian England and Mr. Watts's listeners create a microcosm
of post-colonial literature and a chance for readers to rethink a classic canonical
text. However, it is not necessary to have read Great Expectations to
appreciate Jones's award-winning novel, and one pivotal point for our discussion
will be to make comparisons between the readings of those who are and are not
familiar with Dickens.
About the professor:
With degrees from Stanford University and UCLA, Carol MacKay specializes in
Victorian fiction, auto/biography, and women's and gender studies. Her
most recent book is entitled Creative Negativity: Four Victorian Exemplars
of the Female Quest (2001), and she has just published a critical edition
of Annie Besant's Autobiographical Sketches (out of print since 1885)
for Broadview Press. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards
and is a member of the Distinguished Teaching Academy. She regularly
teaches in Plan II, alternating between freshmen seminars on the autobiographical
impulse in women's writing and junior tutorials on melodrama in nineteenth-century
literature.
9. A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolski, led by Moon Draper,
PhD, Professor of Natural Sciences: Thursday, August 27th, 7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
A Primate’s Memoir documents Sapolsky's years in Kenya studying
baboons as a graduate student. The chapters alternate between describing observations
of a troop of baboons and the wildly different culture in Africa that he is
increasingly cognizant of. The book portrays an unconventional way of studying
neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy.
The book was nominated for the The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2002.
About the professor:
I teach Plan II Biology, and a new TC357 course in the Spring of 2010 that
will look at the efforts to conserve wildlands in Costa Rica. It will
involve both science and public policy, requiring that students consider many
aspects of the issue including economics, sociology, ecotourism, and anthropology. This
will be both a seminar course in the Spring and a 5-week Maymester in the field
in Costa Rica. For the School of Biological Sciences, I teach Advanced
Genetics for the Dean's Scholar's honours students and Molecular Genetics. For
the Section of Neurobiology I teach the gateway course: Vertebrate Neurophysiology. This
is an overview of the nervous system and the entry point for neurobiology majors. There
will be a new course in the Spring of 2010 that covers neuroendocrinology,
the 'other half' of the nervous system.
I grew up in an isolated farming community and left to study languages and
classics at a small liberal arts college in New England. From there I
went to England and earned a degree in engineering (electrical and computer). I
traveled a bit and moved to California and started a small consulting company. Before
coming to Texas, I studied and earned degrees in geology, geography, environmental
sciences, field biology, and medicine from schools in California, Rhode Island,
and Australia. After defending a PhD dissertation in molecular neurobiology,
I left to teach in New Zealand but returned to Austin to teach at UT.
I race sailboats for fun and eat slow running freshman that come too close
to my office door.
10. Flannery O'Connor's collection of stories titled "Everything
That Rises Must Converge," led by Dr. Michael Adams,
Professor of English: Wednesday, August 26th, 7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have been written by no one else. The story centers around Julian and his mother's weekly trip to the downtown YMCA. Their relationship is mired with constant conflict because Julian is far too self-absorbed to appreciate the many sacrifices his mother has made for him.
About the professor:
Michael Adams is Director of the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program, Associate
Director of The James A. Michener Center for Writers, and former director of
the creative-writing program at UT. A teacher of English Literature and Advanced
Expository Writing at The University of Texas at Austin, Professor Adams is
the author of short stories, essays, novels (Blind Man’s Bluff; Anniversaries
in the Blood), and a college textbook, The Writer’s Mind: Making
Writing Make Sense. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards,
including the Liberal Arts Council Teaching Award and the President’s
Associates Teaching Excellence Award, and he has been elected to the Academy
of Distinguished Teachers. A Fulbright Scholar and a former member of
the Texas State Bar Plain-Language Committee, Professor Adams is a columnist
for the Fifth Circuit Reporter, writing on all aspects of language. He
a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
11. On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt, led by
Dr. Paul Woodruff, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Undergraduate Studies:
Tuesday, September 1st, 7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor Woodruff's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
On Bullshit is a brief work by a philosopher on a topic every Plan
II student needs to master.
About the professor:
A former Plan II director, Paul Woodruff has written on ancient Greek philosophy,
ethics, and on the philosophy of theater. His hobbies include rowing,
furniture-making, and music. He is currently Dean of the School of Undergraduate
Studies.
12. Galileo’s Daughterby Dava Sobel,
led by Dr. Wendy Domjan. Senior Lecturer, Psychology and Assistant Director
of Plan II Honors: Monday, August 31st, 7 PM. This VC will be held on campus in the Joynes Suite, Carothers 007.
About the book:
Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving
letters of Galileo's daughter, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has written a biography
unlike any other of the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern
physics- indeed of modern science altogether." Galileo's Daughter also
presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history, described
by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most
tenderly attached to me."
Of Galileo's three illegitimate children, the eldest best mirrored his own
brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became
his confidante. Born Virginia in 1600, she was thirteen when Galileo placed
her in a convent near him in Florence, where she took the most appropriate
name of Suor Maria Celeste. Her loving support, which Galileo repaid in kind,
proved to be her father's greatest source of strength throughout his most productive
and tumultuous years. Her presence, through letters which Sobel has translated
from their original Italian and masterfully woven into the narrative, graces
her father's life now as it did then.
Galileo's Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment
of a mythic figure whose
seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define
the schism between science and religion. Moving between Galileo's grand public
life and Maria Celeste's sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence
of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity's
perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. In that same
time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty
Years' War tipped fortunes across Europe, one man sought to reconcile the Heaven
he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope.
About the professor:
Wendy Domjan has a Ph.D. in psychology from The University of Wisconsin, with
specialties in perception and cognition, and currently has a major focus on
psychology of religion and psychology of religious fundamentalism.
13. The Man Who Loved China by
Simon Winchester, led by Dr. Al Martinich, Professor of Philosophy. Friday, August 28th,
7 PM. This VC will be held at Professor Martinich's home. Address information will be distributed to those registered in the VC.
About the book:
China is the future. But where did it come from and what has it accomplished? The
Man Who Loved China answers these questions through the biography of the
great Joseph Needham, biologist, Christian, nudist, adulterer, Sinologist, adventurer,
and accordion player, whose work, Science and Civilization in China, 24
volumes, is one of the most amazing scholarly feats in the history of mankind.
Winchester’s book is engaging both as biography and cultural history.
About the professor:
Al Martinich, Roy Allison Vaughan Centennial Professor in Philosophy and Professor
of History, Government, and Religious Studies, is the author of many books and
articles, including The Philosophy of Language 5th edition (Oxford University
Press) and Philosophical Writing 3rd edition (Blackwell). His book, Hobbes:
A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 1999), won the Robert Hamilton
Book Award. He received the Chad Oliver Plan II Teaching Award in 2008.
Additional Recommended Reading
The university will host several exciting authors and writers in the next year for lectures, classroom visits, readings, and workshops.
PLEASE NOTE: All Voltaire’s Coffees will be completely handicap-accessible. Although the majority of the Coffees will be held in the Texas Union or at professors’ homes, some coffees will be held in one of the seminar rooms of the Joynes Reading Room.
If you have any concerns or would like to let us know ahead of time to minimize the possibility of difficulties, please feel free to contact us (Amanda Jones and Elena Dufner), the Academic Co-chairs, ahead of time at pii.academics@gmail.com
