On Halloween night, our Origins class took a turn to consider origins in the context of poetry. Professor Stefano Colangelo from the Universita di Bologna spoke on Voice and Verse: At the Origins of Contemporary Poetry by bringing his audience through the verses and styles of many European poets starting in the seventeenth century, his specialty. As an individual who does not have a strong interest in or knowledge of poetry, I found it captivating to listen to the highlights of these poet’s works and the meanings and themes that Professor Colangelo was able to draw from them.
Author: Sarah Taft (Page 2 of 2)
On October 10th, our discussion of origins brought us to Shalini Le Gall, the curator of academic programs at the Colby Museum of Art. We have explored many different origin stories so far this semester from academic to natural realms, but it’s especially interesting to consider origins in the context of art and museums because of the many different ways they define origins. From one end of the spectrum you can consider origins of art as a whole, or you can think more specifically as the origin of art being a story unique to each piece. Ms. Le Gall explained that many would turn to the use of hieroglyphics as the answer to this question, but it’s actually much more difficult to pin down an exact point that art formed from.
In his talk last Tuesday, Colby’s very own Professor Aaron Hanlon discussed both the origin of the Royal Society and the origin of the Novel. Throughout his explanation, Professor Hanlon not only outlined the independent value and influence of these two entities, but he also tied together many connections and overlap these two historical origins have had. He began his talk with a very classic image of Colby’s Miller Library, where he called attention to the functions that the buildings lining the green provide to the campus. On the one side of the green, you have Lovejoy, home to mainly humanities courses and majors: english, languages, history, etc. Then on the other side, you see Mudd, Keyes, Arey, and Olin; home to Colby’s science departments. This physical divide between the two fields was especially interesting to Professor Hanlon’s audience, as many of us are students of Science, Technology, and Society; one of the most interconnected fields of studies here at Colby. Furthermore, we are studying at a liberal arts school, institutions that generally argue for the value of interdisciplinary study at the undergraduate level. While the arts still appear to be the lesser priority of liberal arts institutions like Colby, we still have this broad based of idea of this interdisciplinary nature, despite some contradictory aspects throughout the physical layout of the campus.
On Monday October 2nd, the STS department was joined by Ph.D. Student Felix Frey from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In his presentation, Mr. Frey discussed his work around Industrial Centers in the Arctic, and how he answers the question why soviet planners located cities and industry in hostile environments. The Russian arctic is surprisingly, very densely populated, and a fair amount of research has looked into this question of why. Frey furthers this research by looking into the USSR’s original attempts to tame the hostile environment in addition to other considerations the Soviet Union had for why the north: space, strategic argument, and ideology.
Professor Dave Bercovici of Yale University came to Colby on Tuesday September 26th to discuss origins as it applies to Earth and the evolution of our planet to the point we rest at today. Professor Bercovici took his audience through the rather finite scientific process that guided the formation of Earth, from the big bang, to the collapse and formation of stars, and the formation of planets. What was particularly astounding about the origin of our planet was the necessity of so many, tiny pieces to fall perfectly in order, otherwise we may not have the society we are existing in today.