The 2007-2008 academic year was

September 13: David Prescott, “Exxon Valdez Lessons and Legacy - A Review of the Immediate and Long Term Impact of an Oil Spill” 

October 4: Homay King, Assistant Professor, History of Art, “The Shanghai Gesture: How the Hays Office Made a Brawdy House into a Casino”

November 1: Leslie Rescorla, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center, "Multicultural Epidemiology: International Research on Children's Behavioral and Emotional Problems"   

December 6: Catherine Lafarge, "Sun and Shadows over the Garden: The King and His Minister" (Vaux-le-Vicomte)

February 7: Annual lunch and discussion of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Assault on Reason"

March 6: Julia Gaisser, "The Fortunes of Apuleius' Golden Ass: A Survival Story"

April 3: Enrique Sacerio-Gari, Dorothy Nepper Marshall Professor of Hispanic and Hispanic-American Studies, "Cuba Beyond the Headlines"

May 8: Spring Trip: Tour of American Philosophical Society given by Mary Patterson McPherson  

The schedule for the 2006-07 academic year was:

• September 7: Al Albano, "Teaching Science in Singapore"
• October 5: Alexa Robertson, Political Science, Stockholm University, Visiting Fellow at Bryn Mawr, "Reporting Islam: European Media and the Case of the Mohammed Cartoons"
• November 2: Barbara Lane, "Some 'Dream Houses' of the 1950s." Barbara Lane's research on this topic was supported by an Emeritus Fellowship awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Click here to read her final report to the Foundation.
• December 7: Dianna Xu, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, "History of Computing"
• February 1: Annual lunch and discussion on Good Books (e.g., The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan)
• March 1: Deborah Harrold, "The Curse of Oil: The Consequences of Oil for Domestic Politics and International Relations"
• April 5: Joseph Kramer, "Where Shakespeare Takes Us"
• May 11: Field trip to The Barnes Foundation

The schedule for the 2005-06 academic year was:

• September 8: Arlo Weil, Assistant Professor, Geology, “Paleomagnetism: A Look at Ancient Earth Geography Using a Primordial Compass”
• October 6: Phyllis Lachs, “My Life as a Clerk”
• November 3: Rick McCauley, "Muslim Terrorists: Do They Hate Us for Our Values or Our Policies?"
• December 1: Bill Vosburgh, “The 47 Loyal Retainers: An Amateur’s Appreciation”
• February 2: Annual lunch and discussion of "Things We Never Anticipated 40 Years Ago"
• March 16: Nancy Dorian, "Using a Private-Sphere Language for a Public-Sphere Purpose: Some Hard Lessons from Making a TV Documentary in a Dying Gaelic Dialect"
• April 6: Harris Wofford, "Life after Bryn Mawr" Click for a picture.
• May 4: Annual field trip. Catherine Lafarge and David Kenosian led a bird-watching trip to Valley Forge and reported:

  The forecast had predicted rain for Thursday morning, but it turned out to be a perfect spring day—sunny and not too cold. Our group gathered in the parking lot next to the Artillery Park and, after an invigorating cup of coffee, admired a male and a female Eastern Bluebird. They were flying low in the immediate vicinity. Since Bluebirds come down on the ground they are easy to spot. We heard Ovenbirds, Wood Thrushes, Red-Eyed Vireos, Black-Throated Blue Warblers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Yellow Warblers, and American Redstarts, but never saw them. Our next sightings were a Palm Warbler recognizable at the way it bobs its tail, and a male Scarlet Tanager—always a thrilling moment in the spring when this spectacular bird first appears. We had a nice but not totally unobstructed view of him as he fluttered and no doubt looked for food at the top of a tree. We then proceeded to Mount Joy and noticed a male Black-and-White Warbler running along a branch low enough to be seen without binoculars. Further up the hill we saw tiny (3 and a half inches) Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers busily collecting insects. On the edge of the field we first heard and then spotted a male Rufous-Sided Towhee who flew back in the woods when he heard us coming. High on a nearby tulip tree a male Baltimore Oriole was singing while in another tree females were fighting. We looked for their nest but could not find it because the foliage was already too thick.

  If this outing was not remarkable by the number of species we saw, it certainly stood out because of the colorful birds we were able to observe. In our latitude when Eastern Bluebirds, Baltimore Orioles and Scarlet Tanagers share the same habitat it is a welcome sight for birders who never tire of admiring the brightness of their plumages and rejoice in the official arrival of spring!

The schedule for the 2004-05 academic year was:

• September 9: Arthur Dudden, "Evangeline," Longfellow's North American Tragedy
• October 7: Carol Bernstein, "Cultural Memory: A Report from the Field"
• November 4: Carola Hein, "Post WWII Reconstruction in Japan"
• December 2: Pat McPherson, "Report from the Mellon Patch." Link to the Mellon initiative on retiree health insurance funding
• February 2: Annual lunch and Lucien Platt speaking on "Everyone Needs Globalization"
• March 3: Helen Hunter, "An Economist Looks at Social Security"
• April 7: Jane Kronick, "Reliving Your Life"
• May 12: Field trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge led by Bill Crawford. Click for pictures.

The schedule for the 2003-04 academic year was:

• September 11: Greta Zybon, "World War II: A German Civilian's Experience"
• October 2: Philip Lichtenberg, "Managing Oppression: Not for Women Only"
• November 6: Dick Ellis, "Getting the Goodies: Imperialism and Archaeology in the Middle East"
• December 4: Tom Jackson, "The Dialectical Muse"
• February 5: Lucian Platt, "The Oil Business: Some Facts and Some Fictions"
• March 4: Noel Farley, "Can War Be Morally Justified?"
• April 1: Peter Magee, "Camels, Deserts & Arabia Felix: New archaeological data from Bryn Mawr College's archaeological excavation in southeastern Arabia"
• May 6: Bill Crawford's third annual spring trip. Destination: Sites along the Delaware River from Lambertville to the Delaware Water Gap. For photos of this trip, see the linked page.

• September 12: Frederic (Ty) Cunningham, "Stretching the Number Line"
• October 3: Arthur Dudden and Alice and Howard Hoffman, "Memory of World War Two"
• November 7: Helen Hunter, "The Demise of the Gold Standard"
• December 5: George Kline, "The Rise and Fall of Soviet 'Orthographic Atheism'" cancelled due to snow
• February 6: Annual luncheon, following a discussion with Provost Ralph W. Kuncl
• March 6: Mabel Lang, "Faculty Shows"
• April 3: George Kline, "The Rise and Fall of Soviet 'Orthographic Atheism'"
• May 15: Bill Crawford's second annual spring trip. Destination: Centralia, PA. For more on this trip, read the report and photos.

The schedule for the 2001-02 academic year was:

• September 13: Reflections on September 11
• October 4: Dick Gonzalez, "Experimental and Comparative Psychology: how they began; what they've become; how they have been represented at BMC"
• November 1: Bruni Ridgway, "The Laocoon"
• December 6: Pat McPherson, "Life after Bryn Mawr"
• February 7: Annual luncheon
• March 7: Sandra Berwind, "My Semester in the Yakima Valley"
• April 4: Charles Brand, "The Caucasus: Europe's Farthest Fringe"
• May 9: Geology field trip to Valley Forge, led by Bill Crawford.

The schedule for the 2000-01 academic year was:

• September 7: William Crawford, "Asbestos and Health"
• October 5: George Kline, "My Research behind the Iron Curtain"
• November 2: Robert Dostal, "The State of the College"
• December 7: Mabel Lang, "Taylor Hall in the Beginning"
• February 1: Luncheon and general discussion of "First Thursday" format and content.
• March 1: John Salmon, "The Historian as Novelist"
• April 5: Mario Maurin, "Henri Peyre and French Studies in America"
• May 3: Barbara Lane, "Memory, Myth, and Ideas of Community: National Romanticism in German and Scandinavian Architecture, 1890-1965"

The schedule for the 1999-2000 academic year was:

• September 9: Lucian Platt, Illustrated talk on "Global Warming"
• October 7: Jerry Berenson, Marty Mastascusa, "Retirement Benefits for Faculty," followed by a discussion led by Lenard Kaye on issues of retirement
• November 4: George Zimmerman, "The Problems of Explaining One's Own Research"
• December 2: Helen Hunter, "A Stock Market Economy?"
• February 2: Millennial Lunch and a presentation by Phyllis Bober and Adrianne Onderdonk Dudden, "Why? Art, Culture and Cuisine"
• March 2: Richard DuBoff, "A Social Security Crisis-True or False?"
• April 6: Phil Lichtenberg, "Dealing with Bigots"
• April 13: Janet Briaud, certified financial planner, workshop on Financial Planning for Retirees
• May 4: Jane Kronick, "The Shock of Doing Research in Eastern Europe"

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Last updated October 2007 within the Office of the Provost.