College for a Day 2022
Virtual Lecture Series
Please join us for virtual College for a Day lecture series in January 2022. Lectures will be January 10, January 17 and January 28 at 10am MST.
January 10: Lisa Powell, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Agriculture, Sweet Briar College: "Applying Systems Thinking to Food and Agriculture Sustainability Challenges"
January 17: Gary Felder, Professor of Physics, Smith College: "Black Holes: Peering Behind the Curtain of One of Nature's Greatesgt Mysteries"
January 28: Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art, Connecticut College: "Reading the Wrack Lines"
Registration is $20 for all three lectures. After you register by clicking on the 'REGISTER NOW' button below, you will be directed to PayPal to pay. After you register, you will be emailed the link to each lecture the day before the event.
Further information on the lecture series:
Monday, January 10 at 10 am MST
“Applying Systems Thinking to Food and Agriculture Sustainability Challenges” by Dr. Lisa Powell, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Agriculture at Sweet Briar College
Session attendees will explore the complexities contained within seemingly simple things that surround us every day, including common foods. We will consider questions and challenges around making these foods more “sustainable.” Through our discussion of these intertwined environmental, social, and economic challenges, we will explore strategies for approaching complex problems, focusing on systems thinking.
Dr. Lisa Powell is Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Agriculture at Sweet Briar College, where she is also the Director of the Center for Human and Environmental Sustainability. She teaches a range of courses, including environmental policy, natural resources management, and sustainable agriculture and food systems, as well as hands-on courses in greenhouse and outdoor vegetable production. Her research and publications focus on strengthening regional food systems, land use policy, adoption of new technologies in the agri-food sector, and food literacy education. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Harvard University, an M.S. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University, an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in American Studies and Sustainability from the University of Texas at Austin.
MONDAY, JANUARY 17 at 10 am MST
“Black Holes: Peering Behind the Curtain of One of Nature’s Greatest Mysteries” by Professor Gary Felder at Smith College
Curious about some of the most mysterious things in our known universe? Are you a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson? Zoom in for this event exploring black holes.
A black hole is an object so dense that nothing, not even light itself, can escape from its gravity. While we can’t see inside a black hole, we still have so much to learn by observing matter as it falls in towards them, and by using the laws of physics to predict what happens inside. Are black holes singularities of infinite density? Are they wormholes to other regions of time and space? What would you experience if you fell into a black hole?
Join us as we discuss what we know, and don’t know, about all these questions. We will also explore two recent groundbreaking observations: the 2015 measurement of gravity waves from two colliding black holes, and the 2017 first-ever photograph of a black hole.
Professor Gary Felder grew up in North Carolina. He studied physics at Oberlin College, took off three years to backpack around Europe, Israel and Central America, and then returned to school to get a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University. His thesis work was with Andrei Linde on the early universe, which has been his main research focus ever since. After getting his doctorate, Felder did a two-year postdoc at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto. He is married to Rosemary McNaughton and has two kids, James and Cecelia Felder.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 28 at 10 am MST
"Reading the Wrack Lines" by Professor Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art at Connecticut College, will give a presentation whose title and abstract will be published later.
Andrea Wollensak is an artist, designer and educator. Her work spans multi-media from traditional and digital fabrication to generative-interactive systems and includes collaborations with community partners, computer programmers, musicians, poets, and scientists. Themes in her work explore place-based narratives on environment and community. She joined Connecticut College in 1993 after Receiving a F.F.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.F. A from Yale University.
Her specializations include social design and collaborative community ventures, mapping and visualizing data, digital poetics, locative media, interactive and site-specific installation works. Dr.Wollensak has created projects