UCSC Emeriti Lectures

The UCSC Emeriti Group sponsors, with financial support from the UCSC Chancellor, occasional community-wide lectures by one of the distinguished Emeritus/Emeritae Professors from UCSC. Lectures are intended for and attended by all segments of our community – students, faculty, staff, and townspeople. These events are free and open to the public. The lectures are usually given two times during the year (except for the initial year, 2003-2004) in a campus auditorium that is easily accessible to all. The Group’s Chairperson is responsible for coordinating the Emeriti Lectures. The founder of the Emeriti Lecture Series is UCSC Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Joseph F. Bunnett, who proposed, in July 2003, to Chancellor M. R. C. Greenwood that the Series would “make a substantial contribution to the intellectual environment of the campus.”

2003-2004

1. The first lecture was delivered by Elliot Aronson on the evening of Wednesday, February 11, 2004, at the Media Theater on the UCSC campus. It was open to the entire community and was co-sponsored by the Department of Psychology and the Monterey Bay Psychological Association. It was followed by a reception at University Center for members of the Emeriti Group, their companions, Professors of Psychology, and members of the Monterey Bay Psychological Association. Award-winning social psychologist Elliot Aronson’s lecture was entitled “The Elephant in the Parlor: How the Columbine High School Massacre Could Have Been Prevented.”

Aronson, a professor emeritus of psychology at UCSC, is author of the book Nobody Left to Hate: Teaching Compassion After Columbine (2000), in which he suggests that the best way to reduce school violence is to foster greater interdependence among students in classrooms.

2004-2005

2. The second lecture in the Series was given by John Pearse, Professor Emeritus, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, on Tuesday, November 23, 2004. His talk, “Reproduction in Freezing Oceans: Paradigm Shifts in the 20^th Century,” was held in the UCSC Media Theater.

3. The third lecture was presented by Professor Emeritus of Literature, Michael Warren. Free public lecture sponsored by the Emeriti Association entitled “The Life of Shakespeare: A Winter’s Tale or What You Will”. His focus was what we do and do not know about the life of Shakespeare and how some of the many recent biographies construct the narrative of his life and his career as poet, playwright, and businessman. The talk was held on Wednesday May 11, 2005 in Stevenson College, at the UCSC campus.

2005-2006

4. The fourth lecture was given by John Dizikes, Professor Emeritus of American Studies. This lecture, on December 8, 2005, was held in the UCSC Media Theater. The presentation, included opera music. Dizikes' talk, titled "Nation and Homeland in Nineteenth Century Italian Opera," was about the response of Italian opera composers to the rise of nationalism in 19th-century Italy. The major theme of aspiring to create a unified homeland, found throughout Italian history and opera, was his focus.

5. Michael Nauenberg, Professor Emeritus of physics, delivered the fifth Emeriti Lecture on Thursday, April 6, 2006, entitled "The Nature of Science and the Science of Nature: An Historical Perspective." The lecture was held in the Media Theater at UCSC.

Nauenberg's lecture examined some of the fundamental concepts of natural science through the work of Robert Hooke, the most prolific participant in the 17th-century scientific revolution. Shortly after his death, Hooke was almost completely forgotten, partly due to professional intrigues. But recent historical research has restored his earlier towering reputation. Now, half a dozen new books describe his numerous achievements, and he is being hailed as the "Leonardo of London." In 2004, Hooke finally was honored with a memorial in Westminster Abbey, where his lifelong nemesis, Isaac Newton, is buried.

2006-2007

6. The sixth lecture was given on November 2, 2006, by the late Professor Emeritus of Physics Stanley M. Flatté. His topic challenged his audience on the subject of “World Energy and Power: Facts to Inform Your Thinking.” This event was free and open to the public in the Music Center Recital Hall.

7. The seventh lecture was offered on April 9, 2007, by Professor Emeritus Physics Bruce Rosenblum on “Quantum Enigma: Has Physics Encountered Consciousness?” Quantum mechanics is the most battle-tested theory in all of science. One third of our modern economy depends on products designed with quantum mechanics. Cosmological theories such as string theory or that of the Big Bang all start with quantum mechanics. Since its inception eight decades ago, quantum mechanics has mysteriously involved observer-created reality. Describing the archetypal quantum demonstration, Rosenblum displayed the boundary where physics encounters the conscious observer. Media Theater.

2007-2008

8. David Cope gave the eight lecture on November 14, 2007, at the Music Recital Hall. Cope, a Professor Emeritus of Music, spoke on “Why Experiments in Musical Intelligence?” He is the author of five books on computer generated music, and explains why he created his program Experiments in Musical Intelligence, why this program works as it does, and why he used this software to create over 6,000 music compositions. He also discussed why he has turned to quite different but related research and no longer composes using Experiments in Musical Intelligence. The program included a musical Turing test, an on-the-spot computer composition, live performances, and the world premiere of a new work.

Professor Cope's awards include National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, ASCAP standard Panel Awards, Composers' Forum (New York City) award, Houston Composers Symposium Award, and numerous university grants. His over seventy published compositions have received thousands of performances throughout the U.S. and abroad.

9. The ninth lecture on April 9, 2008 was presented by G. William Domhoff, is Research Professor Emeritus, Psychology and Sociology, and served a term as Chair of the UCSC Academic Senate Committee on Emeriti Relations. The subject of his Emeriti Lecture, “The Awesome Lawfulness of our Nightly Dreams.” Fascinated by dreams for nearly 50 years, Domhoff will highlight his work with DreamBank, a search engine and database of 16,000 dreams.

"Dreams are far more lawful, consistent over time, and psychologically meaningful than popular myths and our foggy morning recall allow us to realize--but not in the ways Freud and Jung claimed," said Domhoff, a popular lecturer and the author of three books about dreams: The Mystique of Dreams, Finding Meaning in Dreams, and The Scientific Study of Dreams.

A founding member of the UCSC faculty, Domhoff is also an accomplished sociologist and the author of several books on political power, including Who Rules America?, The Higher Circles, The Powers That Be, and Diversity in the Power Elite.

This Emeriti Faculty Lecture was sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor with support this year from the Division of Social Sciences and the Departments of Psychology and Sociology

2008-2009

10. Research Professor David Deamer, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Department of Biomolecular Engineering presented a lecture on "What is Life? What was Life? What will Life Be?" in the Music Recital Hall, Nov 13, 2008. Click on the lecture title for an abstract and biographical information. To view the lecture click podcast.

11. Research Professor Thomas Pettigrew, Social Psychology, "Post Racism? Putting President Obama's Victory in Perspective" in the Music Recital Hall, 7pm Thur April 9, 2009. Click on title for abstract and biographical information. This Emeriti Faculty Lecture was sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor. During his introduction, Chair Wipke presented to Professor Pettigrew his certificate and a check for the 2009 Constantine Panunzio Prestigous Emeriti Award. This is the third Panunzio award UCSC has received. You may view the lecture through the podcast.

Compiled by Stanley D. Stevens, Sept. 20, 2008, last modified by Todd Wipke, August 21, 2009