M. D. Usher, Department Chair and Professor of Classics

Sustainability and the field of complex systems are often presented as new areas of human endeavor.  To the extent that these approaches to understanding and living in the world utilize new technologies and scientific advances, they are indeed new, and important.  The fundamental tenets of both are, however, rooted in ancient Greek thought and culture.  This lecture is the first installment of Professor Usher’s new book project in which he traces the trajectory of modern ideas about sustainability and complexity theory back to the Greeks.

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M. D. Usher is the Chair of the Classics Department. He has taught at UVM since 2000, and is an undergraduate alumnus.  In addition to academic books and articles on Greek and Latin literature, he has published three books for children, original poetry and translations, and two opera libretti.  The impetus for this new project on sustainability and complex systems stems from his training as a Classicist, his appointment as a Sustainability Faculty Fellow for 2010-11, and twelve years of hands-on experience in farming.  (He and his wife built and operate Works & Days Farm, a small, diversified farmstead in Shoreham that produces lamb, poultry, eggs, maple syrup, and honey on 125 acres.)

The Fall out of Redemption, Professor Joseph Acquisto

Event:  The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series

Presenter:  Joseph Acquisto, Professor of Romance Languages and Linguistics

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In the nineteenth century and continuing to our own day, many atheist and agnostic writers have borrowed from a theological framework while refuting tenets of Christianity, especially the existence of a benevolent God and the possibility of redemption.  Mid-nineteenth-century poet Charles Baudelaire goes further than many contemporary thinkers in identifying the consequences of refusing to entertain the possibility of salvation of any kind, whether by art, politics, or divine intervention.  One important consequence is that he is able to create the possibility of a new, antimodern, ethics.

Joseph Acquisto joined the University of Vermont in 2003.  He specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature, with particular emphasis on lyric poetry and the novel.  He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including his most recent, The Fall out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, and Nancy (Bloomsbury, 2015).  His teaching focuses on modern French literature and intermediate and advanced language courses.  He serves as faculty director of the Global Village Residential Learning Community.

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.

Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Professor of Geography

Event:  The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series
Presenter:  Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Professor of Geography

Title:  Climate Justice and Vulnerability:  Learning from Katrina, Irene, and Sandy

Hurricanes Katrina, Irene, and Sandy were historic, not only in leading to billion-dollar disasters across the U.S., but also for the vulnerabilities they revealed both culturally and socioeconomically.  Ten years later, are we better equipped to prepare for and respond to climate hazards, especially in the face of a changing climate?

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Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Professor in the Geography Department, is the Vermont State Climatologist.  She collaborates with state and federal agencies to plan for and adapt to climate change.  Dr. Dupigny-Giroux is an expert in floods, droughts, and severe weather and the ways these affect Vermont’s landscape and people.  She is the lead editor of Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America, the first monograph to deal with the use of documentary records for analyzing climate variability and change.  Her NSF-funded SWAC project works with K-12 teachers and students to bring the use of satellites and understanding climate to all levels of the pre-university curriculum.  She serves on three national committees, including the NOAA Climate Working Group.

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.

Terence Cuneo, Professor of Philosophy

Suppose there were objective moral facts – roughly, facts concerning right and wrong that hold regardless of what conventions hold or what we value. Would they play any explanatory role in the world? Professor Cuneo sketches an account of how moral facts might non-causally explain the performance of speech acts such as asserting, promising, and commanding.

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Professor Cuneo’s research focuses on metaethics and early modern philosophy, especially the work of Thomas Reid. He also has strong interests in philosophy of religion, epistemology, and political philosophy. In addition to numerous essays in ethics, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of religion, he is the author of two books, The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism (Oxford, 2007) and Speech and Morality: On the Metaethical Implications of Speaking (Oxford, 2014) and the editor of several others, including the co-edited books, The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Reid (Cambridge, 2004) and Foundations of Ethics (Blackwell, 2007).

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.

Patrick Neal, Professor of Political Science

When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted, the philosopher Jacques Maritain famously said “Yes, we agree about the rights, but on condition that no one asks us why.” Asking “why” has been a staple of discussion in political theory ever since. This lecture will focus upon the work of two prominent contemporary thinkers, Michael Perry and Nicholas Wolterstorff, who argue that a successful grounding of the idea of human rights must be a religious one.

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Professor Neal began teaching courses in political theory at UVM in 1988. He is the author of Liberalism and its Discontents and numerous articles on subjects including Hobbes, Rawls, theories of justice, and the relation between religion and politics. He is a past winner of the Dean’s Lecture Award for superior teaching and scholarship. He is currently Director of Undergraduate Studies and the Honors Program for the Department of Political Science.

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.

Alexander Stewart, Professor of Music

Who put the “beat” in afrobeat?  An important shift occurred in West African popular music in the late 1960s as many musicians looked less to Europe and its former colonies in the Caribbean, and began to draw inspiration directly from African-American cultures in the US.  This talk explores Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s seemingly paradoxical adoption of American funk grooves in his quest to further “Africanize” his music.

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Professor Stewart has published articles on jazz, popular music, and music of Latin America.  His book, Making the Scene:  Contemporary New York City Big Band Jazz, was published in 2007 by the University of California Press.  During 2006-07 he was a Fulbright Scholar, researching Afro-Mexican music and culture in Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico.  A saxophonist, he has played, recorded, and toured with many leading figures in jazz and popular music.  He currently performs with the Latin Jazz group Salsa Norteña.

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.

Kelly Rohan, Professor of Psychology

Central dogma in the field of winter depression has previously viewed seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as a purely biological subtype of depression.  Professor Rohan’s research suggests that psychological models and treatments for depression are relevant to SAD.  She will explain how thoughts and behaviors play a role in triggering the winter blues and how a form of psychotherapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy can effectively treat and even prevent SAD episodes.  She will also present new data from her clinical trial comparing light therapy to cognitive-behavioral therapy in adults with SAD.

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Kelly Rohan  has been a faculty member at the University of Vermont since 2005.  Her primary research interests are the psychopathology and treatment of adult mood disorders.  She is the director of the clinical psychology graduate program and a licensed psychologist in Vermont.  Her books include Coping with the Seasons:  A Cognitive Behavioral Approach to Seasonal Affective Disorder, Therapist Guide (Oxford University Press, 2008).  She is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters.

The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to give newly promoted faculty an opportunity to share with the university community a single piece of research or overview of research trajectory meant to capture the spark of intellectual excitement that has resulted in their achieving full professor rank.