In Front of the Class
Presentation: A Celebration of Sylvia Plath
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Featured Speaker: Richard J. Larschan, Professor, English Department
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Sunset Room
Professor Larschan has conducted subject workshops with secondary school English teachers. His publications include a critical introduction to Gulliver’s Travels and The Diagnosis is Cancer, a handbook for cancer patients, their families and helping professionals. Dr. Larschan has also edited over a dozen books on major literary figures from Shakespeare and Dickens to Sylvia Plath and Jose Saramago, and has lectured on Public Television as well as produced two educational videos: “Sylvia Plath and the Myth of the Monstrous Mother” and Sylvia Plath and the Omnipresent/Absent Father.”
Presentation: Changing Lives Through Literature
Monday, September 25, 2006
Featured Speaker: Robert P. Waxler, Professor, English Department
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Chestnut Hall Multipurpose Room
Putting into action his belief that “literature is the greatest tool we have in our culture to humanize society,” Waxler cofounded Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL) in 1991. This innovative sentencing program for criminal offenders, focuses on a series of literature seminars facilitated by a professor. The program was recently awarded a $180,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make it universally accessible through a website and CD-ROM.
Waxler co-founded and co-directed the UMass Dartmouth Center for Jewish Culture. And, has served as Dean of the Division of Continuing Education, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and chairperson of the English Department.
Presentation: Jazz For Success
Monday, October 30, 2006
Featured Speaker: Norman L. Barber, Director, Residential Educational Programs and Assessment, Office of Housing & Residential Life
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Chestnut Hall Multipurpose Room
In 2004, Barber created and produced Jazz for Success. This innovative faculty-driven compact disc (CD) provides important strategies, timely information, and creative ideas that challenge first–year students in using self-awareness and critical thinking to examine the values, dreams, and expectations they bring to college.
Jazz for Success also features the music of professor Royal Hartigan from his 1993 CD “Blood Drum Spirit”. The smooth jazz format that characterizes Hartigan’s music helps to create an atmosphere in which students can relax, learn strategies to manage negative emotions, and explore campus resources. In 2005, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) named Jazz for Success “Program of the Year” for both the state of Massachusetts and New England. Currently, Barber is working on Jazz for Success II. This second CD will feature outstanding student leaders who will share strategies for success– in the classroom, in the residence halls, and in life.
Presentation: Scholarship, Research, and Teaching
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Featured Speaker: Susan LeClair, Professor, Medical Laboratory Science
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Chestnut Hall Multipurpose Room
Professor LeClair has taught at UMass Dartmouth for 21 years. Her courses include clinical hematology, genetics, bioethics, and a non-science major offering. Before joining the faculty at UMass Dartmouth, LeClair taught hematology at Brown University. She is especially enthusiastic about UMass Dartmouth’s curriculum, which she calls “ground breaking” and the “model” for other institutions to adopt.
Last Updated On: 10/26/06
