Topic List -- 2019 Great Conversation

2019 Topics and Conversationalists

Join the conversation.

Political Humor — Nick Anderson and Bill Kelly

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist for the Washington Post Writers Group. He has most recently drawn cartoons for the Houston Chronicle and is syndicated in more than 100 newspapers. His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, News Week, The Washington Post, and USA Today. In addition to winning his Pulitzer Prize in 2007, Anderson has also earned a Sigma Delta Chi Award, the National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award, and the John Fischetti Award from Columbia College Chicago.

Bill Kelly (’03) is the director of government relations at the mayor’s office for the city of Houston. An Honors alumnus, Kelly earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Houston in 2003. Since earning his degree, he has worked in the field of public policy and governmental relations.

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SCENT: THE FORGOTTEN SENSE — RICHARD ARMSTRONG

Like color, scent has a history. This table will explore some of the most famous scents from the ancient world which are still known to many by name—frankincense, myrrh, nard, styrax, cassia—but not by smell. We’ll talk about the historical significance of these scents in religion, medicine, and society, then expand the conversation to consider the fascination that scent holds for us today.

The fragrance market, from perfume to toiletries, is worth an estimated $75 billion globally, and expected to hit $90 billion by 2024. A recent German TV series, Parfum, inspired by the Patrick Süskind novel, focuses on scents worth killing for. The sense of smell is also closely linked with memory. We’ll ask each table participant to bring a scent that means something to them. What psychological associations adhere to particular scents? What are the dominant, memorable scents of your lifetime?

Richard H. Armstrong has a dual appointment as associate professor of classical studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and in the Honors College. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and completed his master's and doctorate from Yale University. He is also the coordinator of International Programs for the Honors College, including both study abroad opportunities and competitive scholarships (Fulbright, Critical Language Scholarship, Boren Awards). He writes about the reception of ancient culture in later times, translation studies, and the history of psychoanalysis. He is author of A Compulsion for Antiquity: Freud and the Ancient World (Cornell UP, 2006), and forthcoming books on Freud as well as the translation of classical epic. He is also a frequent contributor to KUHF’s Engines of Our Ingenuity program. Besides the Human Situation, Armstrong teaches courses like The Roman Republic and Political Thought, Law and Society in Ancient Rome, and Roman, Jew, and Christian.

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GAMBLING: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY — KIJOON BACK

The topic is gambling: truths and fallacies, addictions, and gambling responsibly. KiJoon Back will share some fun facts about casino games and discuss the dynamic development of the integrated resort industry. The table will further explore how gambling has affected society, both positively and negatively.

KiJoon Back holds a B.S./ M.S. in hotel administration from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Ph.D. in hotel, restaurant, and institution management from The Pennsylvania State University. He is a co-guest editor of the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing–Gambling Issue and Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes–Gambling Themes. He has industry experience in casinos in Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Perth, and Seoul. Back is a three-time recipient of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education's Best Paper Awards, as well as a recipient of numerous research and teaching awards.
Endowed Chair.

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TROJAN HORSES AND SIREN SONGS: WHY WE LOVE GREEK MYTH — Michael Barnes

Casual references to an Achilles’ heel or Helen of Troy; the storylines for multi-million-dollar movies, video games, and, in 2018, a BBC series on Netflix; inspiration for writers and artists across the globe—it’s no exaggeration to say that Greek myths are everywhere, and their presence in the cultural marketplace shows no sign of diminishing. But five minutes’ wandering in a museum will tell you that this has almost always been the case. So what accounts for the enduring popularity of the traditional stories of ancient Greek gods and heroes? We’ll tell some Greek myths, probably dispel a few illusions about them, and consider why we can’t let these particular stories go.

Michael Barnes ('95) earned his B.A. in classical studies and English from the University of Houston, where he was also a student in the Honors College. Before joining the Honors College faculty in 2018, Barnes was part of University of Missouri’s Department of Classical Studies, from which he received an M.A. in classical studies as well as a Ph.D. in classical languages and literature. Barnes’s areas of interests are Greek and Roman epic poetry, Hellenistic literature and culture, and reception studies. In 2010, Barnes was awarded the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching. His teaching experiences include multiple graduate and undergraduate courses in Greek and Latin, undergraduate culture courses in classical humanities, and the Human Situation sequence.

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A Matter of Public Record: How Will the Presidential Tweets Be Archived and Remembered? — Michelle Belco

This table will look at tweets from presidents and discuss how archivists and presidential scholars and historians are deciding to catalogue and preserve them. We will read and consider 20 tweets and social media messages and discuss how they have been incorporated into academic research, libraries, Obama’s presidential library, and the Public Papers of the President.

Michelle Belco is an attorney and political science lecturer in the Honors College at the University of Houston. Her research explores the president's use of executive orders, proclamations, memoranda, and regulatory policy. Belco’s work illustrates how the president's power is checked and balanced both within the executive branch and by Congress. Presidents have the power to act first, but in turn, presidents must rely on Congress to enact their policy and the bureaucracy to implement it.

Belco’s research has been published in political science journals and a book coauthored with Brandon Rottinghaus, The Dual Executive: Unilateral Orders in a Separated and Shared Power System (Stanford University Press). She holds a doctorate from the University of Houston and J.D. from South Texas College of Law. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she practiced environmental and administrative law and specialized in working with governments, negotiated agreements, and regulation.

Healthcare Fit for Heroes: The Role of the Veterans Health Administration in Serving Those Who Serve — Ruth Bush and Helen Valier

The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,250 health care facilities across the nation to over 9 million U.S. veterans per year. Despite its size and reach, this critical part of our healthcare infrastructure receives very little public attention beyond press reporting on occasional “bad news” stories, whether about red-tape bureaucrats or long wait-times for hospital appointments. Is this really all there is to the VA? What’s the real story behind those media stories? How are we doing, as a nation, in meeting the needs of our returning heroes and their families? Join us as we discuss the intriguing historical journey and present realities of the VA medical system, and consider what its future might hold.

Dr. Ruth Bush, MD, JD, MPH, serves as the associate dean for medical education and professor at the University of Houston College of Medicine. She has been a medical educator for almost 20 years including serving as a tenured professor at both Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M College of Medicine where she was also vice dean for academic affairs. Dr. Bush is actively involved in the development of the medical education program at the new University of Houston College of Medicine in addition to her duties as associate dean. She continues a vascular surgical practice and teaching of residents and medical students at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, TX a with 15+ years dedicated to the care of veteran patients.

Dr. Helen Valier, MA (Cantab), MSc, PhD serves as the director of the Medicine & Society Program at the University of Houston and teaches classes in the medical humanities and the history and philosophy of medicine for the Honors College. She is currently working on a book about the history of the Veterans Health Administration, from its origins up to the present day, and has previously worked to increase the profile and understanding of the work of the VA for scholarly and lay audiences including in her most recent book, Cancer, Men, and Medicine (Palgrave, 2016) winner of the 2018 McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication, American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), SouthwestChapter.

EYESIGHT/INSIGHT: HOW PAINTING AND THE SCIENCE OF SEEING AFFECT CHANGE — KRISTEN CLIBURN

Hosted by Lise Liddell

Kristen Cliburn’s immaculately executed canvases are visual distillations of the natural world. Cliburn views the work as allusions to the physical world through the “subtle isolation of color and light.” Their deceptively minimal appearance quickly gives way to an intense depth of presence, followed by an unanticipated sensory experience. Requiring the act of “slow seeing,” Cliburn’s paintings can be positively transformative.

Kristen Cliburn received her BFA in painting at the University of Texas, Austin, and her MFA in painting from the University of Houston. She has exhibited widely for over 20 years and has participated in over 50 group and solo exhibitions, including several juried shows. Selected jurors include Rock Hushka (Curator of Contemporary & Northwest Art – Tacoma Art Museum), Irene Hofmann (Director & Chief Curator – SITE Santa Fe), Dave Hickey (Independent Art Critic), Larissa Harris (Curator – Queens Museum of Art), and Miranda Lash (Curator of Contemporary & Modern Art – New Orleans Museum of Art). Cliburn’s work is included in Texas Abstract Contemporary + Modern by Michael Paglia and Jim Edwards, 2014. Her work is in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, and throughout the U.S. She is currently represented in Dallas, Texas by Cris Worley Fine Arts and in Houston, Texas by Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art.

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The Business of Beer — Aaron Corsi

Aaron Corsi is a faculty member in the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. His expertise and research interests include brewing science, viticulture, enology, and distillation science. Corsi is co-founder and master brewer of 8th Wonder Brewery. He has restaurant experience in both the United States and Europe, including positions as a general manager for Food Maker, Inc. and managing partner of Café Metro in Copenhagen, Denmark. Corsi is a member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists and the American Chemical Society, and he is pursuing a Ph.D. in molecular and environmental plant science at Texas A&M University.

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THE NEW STORYTELLING: THE MOTH AND OUR RETURN TO THE ORAL TRADITION — ROBERT CREMINS

Storytelling has always been central to the identity of the Honors College, so it’s only proper that we consider the renaissance of nonfiction narrative that has occurred in this country over the past twenty years. It began, arguably, with the radio program This American Life, and gathered pace with the “true stories told live” model of The Moth shows. Why are stories delivered the old-fashioned way, through the human voice, in such demand? We’ll consider the modern popularity of such an ancient practice, and maybe tell some stories ourselves.

Robert Cremins is a novelist and essayist who has taught in the Human Situation sequence in the Honors College since 2010. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the creative writing program at the University of East Anglia. Cremins moved to Houston in 1993 and has since led Honors College study abroad trips back to his native Ireland. He wisely married a Texan, and they have two sons. He has published two novels: A Sort of Homecoming and Send in the Devils. A Sort of Homecoming was translated into French and highlighted as an L.A. Times notable novel of the year.

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THE 1960s: THE YEARS THAT CHANGED AMERICA? — LAWRENCE CURRY

Lawrence Curry, professor emeritus at the University of Houston, received his B.S. and M.A. degrees in history from the University of South Carolina in 1957 and 1959. He joined the University of Houston Department of History in 1968 and received a Ph.D. in history from Duke University in 1971. He officially retired in 2001 but continues to teach at least one course in American history each semester. He received awards for teaching excellence in 1978, 1997, and 2000, the Honors College Distinguished Service Award in 1996, the Houston Alumni Organization's Outstanding Faculty Award in 1999, the Magner Award for Excellence in Academic Advising in 2000, and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Distinguished Service Award in 2001. This is his twenty-second year to lead a Great Conversation table.

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VAULTING PAST THE GATEKEEPERS: HOW SELF-PUBLISHING HAS CHANGED THE ARTISTIC LANDSCAPE — EILISH DEJAGER

The rise of the internet and online platforms has changed the artistic landscape in positive and negative ways, but has it changed art itself? Does the ability to reach audiences directly and the birth of crowd-funding change the art that is made? And has this phenomenon given fresh voices and diverse perspectives a new way to rise above the crowd?

Eilish DeJager (’99), an Honors alumna publishing under the name Elizabeth Hunter, is a USA Today and international best-selling author of romance, contemporary fantasy, and paranormal mystery. Based in central California, she travels extensively to write fantasy fiction exploring world mythologies, history, and the universal bonds of love, friendship, and family. She has published over thirty works of fiction and sold over a million books worldwide. She is the author of Love Stories on 7th and Main, the Elemental Legacy series, the Irin Chronicles, the Cambio Springs Mysteries, and other works of fiction.

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TRUST, FACTS, AND DEMOCRACY: NAVIGATING INFORMATION IN THE MODERN ERA — MICHAEL DIMOCK

Michael Dimock (’90) is president of Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America and the world. Through public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research, the Center generates a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue and supports sound decision-making.

Dimock became associate director for research in 2004 and director of the Center’s political polling unit in 2012. In 2015, Dimock was named president and has since been instrumental in guiding the Center’s research and development efforts to strengthen the practice of survey research and test new methods in data collection and analysis. Dimock has been a frequent commentator on public opinion and politics for major media organizations and has appeared as a guest analyst on numerous television and radio programs. Dimock received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California-San Diego and his B.A. in political science from the University of Houston. Before joining Pew Research Center, he was a political science professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

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Renaissance Florence and the Birth of the Modern World: How a Small City State Played a Big Role in the Rise of the Modern World — Douglas Erwing

We will discuss the dynamism of 15th century Florence and how it played an outsized role, in part through its artists and architects, in bringing us the modern world. From modern ideas of governance, to cutting-edge financial tools, and finally emergent trading and economic activities, Florence was one of the most dynamic centers in the world in 1500. We will cross paths with Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael, who helped to inspire a culture in which they hoped to reinvigorate faith through a deeper understanding of the natural world. Their curiosity and determination to document, know, build, and depict helped to bring about a world driven by data and truth-seeking. We will also consider our own travel experiences: where have you been, and what did you learn?

Dr. Erwing is an Honors College professor of history who, when he isn't teaching about American history, can be found in Florence exploring his favorite city and showing people its notable and hidden treasures on walking tours. Along the way he was awarded a Mellow Fellowship, he was a management consultant, and he practiced real estate law and was corporate counsel for a number of start-ups. He taught as a visiting professor of law and history at a university in Beijing for a year before coming to the Honors College. He serves on a number of boards, including the Midtown Redevelopment Board, focusing on urban development in Houston.

TAKE TIME FOR PARADISE: AMERICANS AND THEIR GAMES — TED ESTESS AND WILLIAM MONROE

For thirty-one years, Ted Estess was the leader of Honors education at the University of Houston, first as director of the Honors Program, and then, in 1993, as founding dean of the Honors College. He is a proud recipient of the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award. Though he left the deanship in August of 2008, Estess remains a member of the Honors College faculty and a professor in the Department of English at the University of Houston. In Honors, he also holds the Jane Morin Cizik Chair. He has published a book on Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust writer Elie Wiesel and a number of articles on various writers and topics. Most recently, he has been writing and publishing non-fiction life stories—his collections The Cream Pitcher: Mississippi Stories and Be Well: Reflections on Graduating from College. Ted Estess’ teaching of Honors classes has concentrated in the humanities, especially in a yearlong, ten-hour, team-taught course required of all Honors students at the University of Houston entitled The Human Situation. He also has taught upper-level English Honors seminars dealing with contemporary American fiction. (Ph.D., Syracuse University)

William Monroe is professor of English and dean of the Honors College at the University of Houston. His book Power to Hurt: The Virtues of Alienation was selected as an outstanding academic book of the year by Choice magazine and nominated for the Phi Beta Kappa/Christian Gauss Award. His other publications include the play Primary Care, which deals with personhood issues related to Alzheimer’s Disease, and articles on T.S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, and Willa Cather. He also publishes in the interdisciplinary field of literature and medicine and contributes to the scholarship of teaching, including a forthcoming essay on the “old school” methods of Wayne Booth, his mentor at Chicago. He teaches honors courses in literature and medicine and contemporary American fiction, and in 2004 the University of Houston awarded him its Teaching Excellence Award. He directs The Common Ground Teachers Institute and founded the Medicine & Society Program at Houston. He is currently at work on The Vocation of Affliction: Flannery O’Connor and American Mastery.

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POPCORN PSYCHOLOGY: HOW THE MOVIES TEACH US ABOUT HUMAN NATURE — SEAN FITZPATRICK

Sean Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., LPC, is the executive director of the Jung Center. Fitzpatrick holds master’s degrees in religious studies (Rice University) and clinical psychology (University of Houston – Clear Lake) and received his doctorate in psychology through Saybrook University’s program in Jungian studies. He is a psychotherapist in private practice and has been employed at The Jung Center since 1997. His research interests include the intersection of psychology and spirituality, ethics and the imagination, and vicarious trauma and the self-care needs of helping professionals and social service providers. He is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum and serves on the boards of the Houston Museum District Association and the Network of Behavioral Health Providers.

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REBEL, REBEL: WOMEN'S FASHION ACROSS THE DECADES — IRENE GUENTHER

“Clothes change our view of the world and the world’s view of us,” wrote British author Virginia Woolf in 1928 on the far-reaching effects of what we wear. More recently, the cutting-edge Italian fashion designer, Prada, asserted, “What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.”

From the now ubiquitous little black dress, with which Coco Chanel revolutionized the 1920s fashion world, to Christian Dior’s cinch-waisted, full-skirted “New Look” dress, which set the post-World War II fashion world on fire, to the 1960s mini skirt, the 1977 “Saturday Night Fever” look, and the non-gendered fashions that crisscross today’s runways, our table aims to visibly illustrate designer Tom Ford’s statement, “Real fashion change comes from real changes in real life.” As Honors College students model several examples of past fashion revolutions, we’ll have a conversation together about what “real changes in real life” might have caused those revolutions to occur. We’ll also ask everyone at the table to participate in putting together our final fashion model for the evening, one that best captures the current cultural moment. While we will have various items to choose from as we “fashion” our last model, we encourage you to bring with you a clothing item that we can use as we create our final fashion statement that best reflects 2019. After all, as the French designer Azzedine Alaïa noted, “Clothes, like architecture and art, reflect an era.” What fashion statement can we collaboratively design that would best illuminate our contemporary era? Join us!

Table is co-led by Dr. Irene Guenther and Lorena Lopez; fashions modeled by Honors College students.

Irene Guenther is a history professor with specializations in modern American and European history. She received her doctorate in history from the University of Texas in 2001. Her teaching interests include genocide and human rights, comparative European home fronts during the Second World War, and U.S. history from the Civil War to the present. She has published on the Nazi takeover of the German-Jewish fashion industry; the hotly contested politics of women’s clothing in the four occupied zones of Germany after World War II; Magical Realism from 1920s German art to 1940s Latin American literature; and the anti-war art of the second-generation German Expressionists. Her first book, Nazi ‘Chic’? Fashioning Women in the Third Reich, won the Costume Society of America’s Millia Davenport Award for ‘best fashion history book’ of the year and the Sierra Prize, given by the Western Association of Women Historians. Her newest publication, Postcards from the Trenches: A German Soldier’s Testimony of the Great War, was published in November 2018. She has received the Ross Lence Teaching Award, the Wong Student Engagement Award, and the UH Provost’s Teaching Excellence Award.

Lorena Lopez, Honors College business manager, will be co-hosting.

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Blue Eyes and Whiskey Rivers: The Music and Legend of Willie Nelson — Andrew Hamilton

No one—not even Bob Wills—casts a longer shadow on Texas music than Willie Nelson. This conversation will circle around his songs, of course, but perhaps also on the development and richness of the Texas music scene. Texas music has unique flavor, partly because of Nelson’s song writing, production, and influence on music venues. It’s likely that we will also talk about some of the other stars in the Nelson constellation: Michael Martin Murphy, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Earl Keene, Guy Clark, and Billy Joe Shaver. We’ll also put on headphones and listen briefly to some of Nelson's best work, including some that even fans might not know well.

Andrew Hamilton is associate dean for student success in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UH. He is also the Founding Director of the Bonner Leader Program in Honors. He has published widely on evolutionary theory and biological classification, as well as effective teaching. His most recent work in these areas can be found in The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics (University of California Press) and in Student Engagement: A Multidimensional Perspective (forthcoming from Wiley), as well as in a recent op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. Hamilton has been playing guitar seriously since the mid-1980s, and has been a devotee of Texas music since seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn perform magic on his ‘In Step’ tour in the summer of 1989. For almost 30 years, Hamilton been enjoying new and old Texas song writers, musicians, and bands. Since 2015, Hamilton has played guitar well and sung badly in Post-Tenure Revue, an all-faculty blues rock band. This will be his sixth Great Conversation as a table host.

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Propriety in the Civil Rights Era: “Ladies" and "Gentlemen” Working for Radical Change — DEBBIE HARWELL

Images of sit-ins, marches, and policy brutality have come to symbolize the civil rights struggle. But quietly, even clandestinely, proper ladies and gentlemen worked quietly behind the scenes, using propriety as their strategy to achieve the same ends. How does social change occur, who drives it, and by what means? Could we use these tactics today?

Debbie Harwell received her doctorate in U.S. History from the University of Houston. Since 2009, she has served as the managing editor, and now editor, of Houston History magazine, published by the UH Center for Public History. A native Houstonian, she incorporates personal knowledge with historical research writing for the magazine and training the staff. Since 2012, Harwell has taught a Houston history class in the Honors College that has her students conducting oral histories, creating short films, and writing articles. Over 75 student articles have been published as of 2018. Additionally, she teaches U.S. History Since 1877 and a new Voices from the Storm class where students study Houston’s history of flooding and conduct interviews documenting Hurricane Harvey.

Harwell has published her research on women’s activism during the civil rights movement in The Journal of Southern History and her book Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964, which won the 2015 Julia Cherry Spruill Prize for the best book in southern women’s history. She currently serves on the board of the Houston History Alliance.

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MEDICAL ETHICS: MAKING GOOD DECISIONS WHEN PRINCIPLES COLLIDE — MARK HOLDEN

Medical ethics and professionalism traditionally focus on autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, integrity, empathy, altruism, and compassion. These are relatively straightforward, but what happens when they conflict? How can the physician find a way forward when the family of an older gentleman insists that the medical team not reveal his terminal cancer diagnosis? Can too much altruism diminish beneficence in clinical care? There are plenty of opportunities to discuss these challenges in healthcare.

Mark Holden (’82), MD, is a native Houstonian. He attended the UH Honors Program from 1978-1981 before completing his MD at the UT Medical Branch in Galveston. He has practiced and taught internal medicine at UTMB for 30 years. He is a member of UTMB’s Academy of Master Teachers, an emeritus scholar in the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine, and recipient of a UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2015. His other interests include travel, photography, and cooking.

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IT'S MY PARTY AND I’LL CRY IF I WANT TO — CHRISTINE LEVEAUX-HALEY

Christine LeVeaux-Haley is a political science professor in the Honors College at the University of Houston. She received her B.A. from Spelman College in Atlanta and her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Her teaching and research interests include legislative politics, black politics, and political behavior. LeVeaux-Haley has fused these research areas together, focusing much of her attention on minority representation in Congress and black electoral politics. She is also a political commentator for local and national news outlets, including CNN. Her work appears in the Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, and an edited volume titled Eye of the Storm: The South in an Era of Change.

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WOLF TO WOOF: THE HISTORY OF DOGS — STUART LONG

According to a long-standing myth, dogs came into existence when humans adopted wolf pups and raised them in captivity, and over many years these animals were gradually converted into dogs as we know them today. In reality, this is extremely unlikely. Clues to a more likely scenario come from a 1950s Soviet project in Siberia where Dmitri K. Belyaev, a Russian scientist, was given the task by the state to improve the efficiency of Soviet fox farms in producing pelts for fur clothing. Armed with Balyaev’s results, today’s scientists believe that dogs came into being about 14,000 years ago, but opposed to typical evolution, these changes occurred over a very short period of time.

Over the last 150 years man has intervened in dog breeding much more directly. There are now over 400 recognized breeds with more variation in size, color, structure, and shape than any other mammal in the world, but all come from the same source 14,000 years ago.

Stuart Long is the associate dean of the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Honors College and is the academic advisor for all Honors students majoring in electrical and computer engineering. Additionally, Dr. Long regularly teaches the Honors section of the undergraduate introductory course in applied electromagnetic waves. He has been a research mentor to over 90 undergraduate students during his 44-year career at the University of Houston. He holds a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University, and his research involves antenna design, wireless communications, and applied electromagnetics.

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Does Evil Exist? — David Mikics

David Mikics is a Moores professor in the English Department and Honors College. His most recent book on Saul Bellow, Bellow’s People, was published by Norton in 2015. Slow Reading in a Hurried Age, came out from Harvard/Belknap in 2013 and was featured on NPR and in the New York Times. Other recent books are The Annotated Emerson and (with Stephen Burt) The Art of the Sonnet, both also published by Harvard/Belknap; and Who Was Jacques Derrida? and A New Handbook of Literary Terms, both from Yale. Mikics is a columnist for Tablet magazine, where he writes regularly on subjects of Jewish interest, from politics and culture to literature. He has also written for the New Republic, the Forward, the New York Times, the New Statesman, the Huffington Post, and other publications. Mikics has won the University Teaching Excellence Award, its highest teaching honor.

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IS TRUMP TURNING TEXAS BLUE? — RICHARD MURRAY

The Democrats had their best election in Texas in twenty years on November 2018. Gains included two congressional and two state senate districts and a dozen seats in the Texas House of Representatives. Congressman Beto O’Rourke came within 2.6% of upsetting U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and other statewide Democratic candidates narrowed the Republican incumbents’ margins of victory. Nevertheless, all statewide elective offices remained Republican and the GOP still has 23 of 36 congressional seats, 19 of 31 state senate districts, and 83 of 150 state house districts.

A close examination of the 2018 results reveals a sharp contrast between Texans who live in rural areas and smaller cities and metropolitan Texans. The Trump presidency is still very popular outside the big cities and their suburbs, excepting heavily Hispanic counties in South Texas. However, this recent voting pattern offers some hope for the Democrats heading into the 2020 election cycle because the areas they did well in last year are growing much faster than the parts of Texas that voted heavily Republican. Will that be enough to break their 25-year losing streak in state elections, now the longest by far of any American state?

That, of course, will greatly depend on what happens between now and November 2020. Will President Trump survive growing legal and political challenges and keep his strong support among Republican voters? And can the Democrats find a presidential nominee that can hold their increasingly diverse voter base together nationally and in Texas? We will discuss these and other issues in a highly polarized Texas.

Richard Murray is a political science professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. The Richard Murray Endowed Scholarship was established in 2008, honoring his service to the Houston community and his 40 years of teaching and research at UH. Murray’s research interests include political parties and elections, political interest groups, urban politics, and state and local electoral politics. He has worked on several redistricting projects for local governments, and has been an election analyst for KTRK-TV Houston 13. He is frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national publications.

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CUT! CUT! CUT! DECIPHERING TAX REFORM — MICHAEL NEWMAN

Michael Newman (’77) has a BBA, an MBA, an MS in Accountancy, and a PhD in Accounting from the University of Houston. Before embarking on his career in academia, Newman started and sold two companies before age 30. Since 2002 he has been conducting research and teaching graduate and undergraduate accounting courses at the University of Houston. Newman was born in Canada and raised in South America (Bolivia, Chile, Peru) and Central America (Trinidad & Tobago) by American parents. He has been married to his wife, Peggy, for over 30 years, and has two daughters and four granddaughters.

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Conscious Consumerism: Fad or Fabulous? — Wendy Paris

Reading the news can make anyone feel overwhelmed and discouraged, believing there's nothing we can do to make a difference. But we can absolutely improve people’s lives through our behavior as consumers, by tweaking what we buy and who we buy it from. The idea of "conscious consumerism"—voting with our dollars—can generate a lot of snark (and has served as fodder for plot lines on TV shows like Portlandia). But as UH Honors College graduate and author Wendy Paris discovered, paying attention to who made our goods can have a real and immediate impact on artisans, farmers, and others here and around the world.

Join Wendy for a conversation about conscious consumerism, supply chain transparency, and why we all should eat more (ethically sourced) chocolate. Wendy will share what she learned traveling to the highlands of Guatemala and the Dominican Republic as research for Buy the Change You Want to See: Use Your Purchasing Power to Make the World a Better Place (Penguin Putnam, January 2019), which she co-wrote with Houston native Jane Mosbacher Morris, and which shares Mosbacher Morris's journey from working on counter-terrorism and anti-human trafficking in the U.S. State Department to starting a retail fashion company to market artisan-made goods here.

Your ticket includes a copy of Buy the Change You Want to See and an opportunity to sample some of the best craft chocolate available today.

Wendy Paris (’89) is the author of Splitopia: Dispatches from Today’s Good Divorce and How to Part Well (Simon & Schuster/Atria Books, 2016). Splitopia has been written about or excerpted in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, Real Simple, Marie Claire, the Houston Chronicle, Salon.com, Kveller.com, PsychCentral.com and Family Law Review, among other publications, and featured on podcasts, television and radio shows nationwide.

Wendy is also the founder and editor of Splitopia.com, the nation’s first divorce wellness website. She has worked as a journalist and editor for more than two decades, contributing articles and essays to news outlets including The New York Times, Psychology Today, The New York Observer, The Guardian, Washington Post, Quartz, Salon.com and Marketplace Radio, service magazines such as Self, Glamour, Family Circle, Fitness, Brides and theknot.com, and special interest publications including ArtNEWS, Wine Spectator, Jewish Week and The Forward. She has served as a senior editor at Psychology Today magazine, an art columnist for the Houston Press, and a television producer for WNBC-TV in New York City. She currently blogs at Psychologytoday.com, Huffingtonpost.com and Splitopia.com.

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OUR ONCE AND FUTURE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OVERLORDS (ANTIGONE AND ARTIFICIAL MINDS) — DAN PRICE AND TANYA FAZAL

Do the humanities have anything to add to our new thinking about artificial intelligence? Can an ancient play about freedom, duty, and hubris help us negotiate a world of big data, surveillance, and computation?

“Do not believe that you alone can be right.
The man who thinks that,
The man who maintains that only he has the power
To reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul—
A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.” ― Sophocles, Antigone

Dan Price is a faculty member in the Honors College at the University of Houston. He is the author of Touching Difficulty: Sacred Form from Plato to Derrida, as well as many others. His Ph.D. is in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, and he directs a number of interdisciplinary projects on community health and data. Continuing projects involve air quality and asthma, and a new initiative for creating a network of community health workers who can sustain a data-driven culture of health in communities.

Tanya Fazal ('03) is co-presenting with Dan Price, her former teacher. Fazal is a proud alumna of the University of Houston Honors College and a life-long fan of the Human Situation course. She holds an M.B.A. from NYU Stern and currently works in New York as a marketing director at American Express (no, she can't get you a black card). Fazal’s true passion lies in the theater. She recently played her dream role of Medea in Euripides' Medea in New York. It was a true honor to be asked to bring the show to the Honors College, where she performed Medea again in November 2017. Other favorite roles include Maryamma in Miss Witherspoon, Thetis in Andromache, Trisha in Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Lady Macduff in Macbeth, and Jeanette in Last of the Red Hot Lovers. Fazal has trained at Stella Adler and HB Studios, and her television credits include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

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THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! RUSSIA AND OUR MOVIES — DAVID RAINBOW

Rocky. Red Dawn. From Russia with Love. In the 20^th century, Russia-themed movies made in the US and Europe were wildly popular. It seems that the very real anxieties of the Cold War were exorcised—or enflamed—on screen. The trend has continued since the fall of the Soviet Union with, for instance, the television show, The Americans, the satirical film, The Death of Stalin, and many others. What explains our fascination with depicting Russians in our popular culture? Is it just political competition and propaganda? Or is there a deeper explanation? Reminisce about your favorite Russia-themed movies, or simply join us to try to make sense of our long-standing attraction to Russia in popular culture.

David Rainbow is a professor at the Honors College, where he teaches Russian history and “The Human Situation.” Before coming to Houston in 2015, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and a writer-in-residence at New York University's Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. He holds a Ph.D. in modern European history from New York University (2013). Before becoming a historian, Dr. Rainbow worked aboard a ship on the Pacific and on a cattle ranch in Western North Dakota. He has also lived in Russia and Siberia several times.

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THE TRAVELER’S VIEWFINDER — JESSE RAINBOW

This table will investigate what we do—and what we think we are doing—when we take photographs as tourists. We will compare examples of 19th century and recent travel photographs, including photographs from recent Honors College overseas trips. Participants are invited to bring duplicate prints (no irreplaceable heirlooms) of two or three of their own travel photographs to pass around the table. Please bring at least one photograph that you think spectacularly captures a travel experience and be prepared to talk about why. If you have a photo that failed spectacularly, we'd like to see it, too!

Jesse Rainbow is an alumnus of the Honors College and has been a member of its faculty since 2012. A scholar of the ancient Near East, he teaches in the Human Situation and in the Honors College's Medicine & Society minor. He has led several student trips to Israel, Russia, Italy, Greece, and Turkey and will lead a third trip to Egypt in January 2020.

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BIRD BOX AT WORK: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE BLIND TO CHANGING LANDSCAPES — BRENDA RHODEN

Brenda Rhoden is the director of the Leadership Studies minor and assistant dean for student success in the Honors College. Dr. Rhoden oversees the student lifecycle in Honors, from recruitment and admissions to advising and leadership development to graduation. She works closely with a variety of academic and co-curricular cohorts, including but not limited to Terry Scholars, Houston Premedical Academy, Club Theater, Honors Ambassadors, Honors Leadership Council, and the Honors Biomedical Sciences program. In her twenty years with the University of Houston, Dr. Rhoden has established many initiatives to ensure student success, including the Faculty Advising Network and the Honors Mentorship Program. Dr. Rhoden is a proud graduate of the Honors College with B.A. in History and B.S. in Psychology; her research interests include leadership, student retention and persistence, mentoring, and engagement. (Ed.D., University of Houston)

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REALITY—WHAT A CONCEPT! — DAVE SHATTUCK

Listen as engineers talk about how they define reality, and how they decide whether something exists. Then, tear their arguments to bits, reducing their simplistic thinking to shreds of incoherence!

"If something exists, you can measure it. If you cannot measure it, it does not exist." -- Famous Engineering Adage

Dave Shattuck (aka Dr. Dave), Ph.D., Duke Univ., was born at a very young age in upstate New York. Based on his research in medical ultrasonic imaging, and on his assists/game average, he was hired by the University of Houston in 1982. He has since earned 20 separate teaching awards, culminating in the UH Career Teaching Award in 2013. He is the reigning faculty slide-rule champion and the faculty 3-point shooting champion. In other achievements, he hit .097 in Little League, earning a trophy for “Conspicuous Ineptitude”. His goal is to win the lifetime teaching award, twice.

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DOES SHAKESPEARE MATTER IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY? — ROB SHIMKO

Rob Shimko is the director of the UH School of Theatre & Dance and the executive director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival. He also heads the B.F.A. degree in Playwriting/Dramaturgy and the M.A. degree in Theatre Studies. His teaching areas include theatre history, dramaturgy, playwriting, theatre theory, and dramatic structure. In 2012 he received the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award, one of UH’s highest faulty honors. He received his Ph.D. in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota in 2006.

Dr. Shimko’s research interests include seventeenth-century theatre historiography, political drama in the English Civil War and Restoration periods, dramaturgical theory, and, most recently, the representation of seduction in Western drama. He is the co-editor, with Dr. Sara Freeman, of a book of essays connecting theatre history with public sphere theory titled Public Theatres and Theatre Publics (Cambridge Scholars, 2012). Since 2013 he has served as the book review editor for the journal Theatre History Studies. He also serves on the research committee of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru). Dr. Shimko regularly presents papers at national and international academic conferences and has been an invited guest lecturer at Louisiana State University, Hamline University, Houston Grand Opera, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Rienzi Museum, and the Texas Educational Theatre Association.

In addition to his role as the executive director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, Dr. Shimko also serves as the festival’s literary director. He is also the company dramaturg for The Catastrophic Theatre, Houston’s leading avant-garde theatre company. Additional professional dramaturgy credits include productions at The Alley Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Harlem Stage, Classical Theatre Company, Stark Naked Theatre, and Stages Repertory Theatre, among others.

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Napa vs. Sonoma – Let the Battle Begin — Kevin Simon

Wine brings people together, distinguishes cultures, and highlights civilizations. It expresses the land, the production practices, and the grape itself. Under the expert guidance of a faculty member from the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, spend an evening enjoying a beautiful selection of wines that will delight and educate your palate.

Kevin Simon is the director of undergraduate studies and director of the Fred Parks Wine Outreach Program in the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He has been involved in the hospitality industry for more than 35 years. He has also worked in the wine industry as a sales representative for several wholesale wine and liquor distributors, helping to create, develop, service, and sustain wine and beverage programs for hotels, restaurants, country clubs and other organizations. He has experience as a sommelier, captain, general manager, and director of operations in a variety of hotels, restaurants, catering operations, and wine and beverage companies. He received a first-level certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers; has been inducted into Who's Who Among America's Teachers; conducts wine seminars for a variety of organizations, businesses, and individuals; is a committee member of the Sugar Land Wine & Food Affair in Fort Bend County; and is a board member of the Food & Beverage Managers Association of Houston. He is proud to be known as "the wine guy."

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IS MY AVOCADO TOAST OKAY? COOKING AND EATING IN A CHANGING CLIMATE — RITA SIRRIEH

Rita Sirrieh ('10) is an academic adviser and biology teacher in The Honors College. In addition to general academic advising, she advises specifically for two Honors minors: Leadership Studies and Energy & Sustainability. Dr. Sirrieh is the coordinator for the Honors Mentorship Program and the annual freshman retreat. She works with the Student Governing Board and is a member of the Faculty Advisory Network (FAN). Dr. Sirrieh also lectures in the Honors Introductory Biology sequence. Dr. Sirrieh is a graduate of The Honors College at the University of Houston with a bachelor's in Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences. She received her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston.

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NEWS? DOES THE TRUTH MATTER ANYMORE? Part II — STEVE SMITH

Steve Smith is a former Houston news anchor who began his career at KPRC-TV, Channel Two, during the '60s, at the height of the evening news heyday, and he spent the next several decades on the Houston news scene. During his 30 years at KPRC-TV and KHOU-TV, Smith anchored two, sometimes three daily newscasts. He also covered most of the important local and national news events of the era. Smith reported on several hurricanes, including the devastating Hurricane Alicia in 1983, as well as the moon landings and the Challenger explosion. He was the only Houston anchorman to report live from Berlin when the infamous wall was breached in 1989. Coverage of news events have taken Smith to widespread points of the globe, including the North Sea, the British Isles, Japan, Singapore, Cairo, Israel, Kuwait, Paris, and Vienna. For 10 years, Smith also wrote and hosted a Sunday morning public affairs program, Steve Smith’s Sunday. He retired from nightly television in 1999 and formed a media consultancy, Anchor Communications. He remains active in the community, contributing his time and talents to numerous charitable and arts groups in the Houston-Galveston area, including the Honors College.

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PODCASTS: WHY WE'RE GETTING SMARTER — TAMLER SOMMERS

Tamler Sommers is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Houston with a joint appointment in the Honors College. He received his PhD at Duke University. Tamler is the author of several books, including Why Honor Matters (Basic Books 2018). Along with David Pizarro (psychology Cornell) he is the host of the popular Very Bad Wizards podcast on issues in science and ethics. The podcast averages over 200,000 downloads per episode and has featured guests such as Paul Bloom, Laurie Santos, Robert Wright, and Sam Harris.

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WHY JOHNNY AND JANE CAN'T WRITE — MARINA TRNINIC

“If your children are attending college, the chances are that when they graduate they will be unable to write ordinary, expository English with any real degree of structure and lucidity.” So begins a Newsweek article titled “Why Johnny Can’t Write” published in 1975. English professor Gerald Graff used a version of this title—“Why Johnny’s Can’t Argue”—for a chapter of his 2004 Clueless in Academe. Even more recently, in 2013 NBC News published “Why Johnny Can’t Write and Why Employers are Mad,” showing how businesses are sorely disappointed with their employees’ lack of oral and written communication skills. The perception of this deficiency seems perennial. Is it the fault of technology? Is it the failure of the public school system at all levels? What are the causes and what can we do to make writing a priority for our students?

Marina Trninic (’03) received her master's and doctoral degrees in English from Texas A&M University for her work on antebellum American literature, including questions of race and politics in literary representation. She specializes in nineteenth-century American literature and is interested in its relationship to identity, belonging, and violence. Her interests also include early American literature, American modernism, modern rhetorical theory, and writing and literature pedagogy. Since 2005, she has taught courses in American literature and the humanities as well as composition and technical writing. She has held several positions in academic publishing, including acquisitions and editing, and she currently teaches Human Situation and other courses in the Honors College.

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