One Day University With 3 Professors (February Event)
February 25,2012

CLASSES AND PROFESSORS

 

1. Obama and Congress: What Happens Next?

This class will focus on the politics of governing under divided party control.It will cover the battles of 2011 and discuss the chances that House and Senate leaders decide that compromise is the only means to electoral success on issues like the payroll tax, unemployment extensions, corporate tax overhaul, and job growth initiatives. 

The class will also cover the complex web of electoral pressures and incentives working on the House, Senate, and presidency, and will address the likelihood of cross chamber coordination. The Senate Republicans are poised to take electoral control of the Senate but will that require them to cut their ties with the more radical members of the House GOP? And conversely, is it likely that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reaches out to House Minority Leader Pelosi to try and coordinate their respective goals and pressure President Obama into incorporating them into his campaign?  And will the House Republicans fall in line to support the GOP presidential nominee’s platform? 

Wendy Schiller is a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University. She is an expert in the field of the U.S. Congress and political representation, and the recent recipient of a $212,000 National Science Foundation grant to study party conflict and factionalism in the U.S. Senate. Professor Schiller has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a six-time recipient of the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award at Brown. She is an editorial board member at the Journal of Politics, and has published widely on the topic of congress, including her book Contemporary Congress, which she co-authored with Burdett Loomis.

 

2. The Happiness of Pursuit: New Insights Into Human Nature

Do our personalities constrain our capacity for well-being?  Is it unfair to expect neurotic individuals to be happy, or introverts to flourish?  Are our characters “set like plaster” by the age of thirty?  Such questions are consequential for how we craft our lives and how we relate to others.

 

This lecture will propose a unique alternative that raises new questions and some provisional answers about human personality and the quality of lives. It explores the personal projects to which we commit in our lives.   Such projects can provide meaning, manageability and a sense of community.  They also reflect a distinctively human capacity to move beyond our fixed traits and constraining contexts. Although the pursuit of happiness may be elusive, the happiness of pursuit can be transformative.

Brian Little is a professor in in the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology at Cambridge University. He is one of the pioneers in personality and motivational psychology and has received numerous awards for his teaching and research.  For three consecutive years he was voted a Favorite Professor at Harvard University where his students described him as a cross between Robin Williams and Einstein. He believes the only similarity between the three is their height. 

 

 

3.  Three Paintings (In New York) that Every Art Lover Should See

Any attempt to identify the “best” paintings -the works any art lover should know – inevitably depends upon the criteria being used. While it may  be interesting to know which are the most expensive, the most famous, or  the most historically significant works, such lists rarely bring us to a  greater understanding of what art is really all about. This fascinating  class will look at three exemplary works created by three giants of  Modernism: Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, and Jasper Johns.  All three of their greatest (and most overlooked) works are in in New York museums.  Together, we will explore the history of modern art through searing  analyses of three paintings. We will touch on Impressionism, Pointillism,  Cubism, Abstraction, Dada and Pop. And we’ll conclude with their legacies for contemporary artists.

 

The goal is not to fill your head with information; but rather to lend you new eyes with which to see the world—not least the world of  modern  art brimming at your New York doorstep.

 

Noam M. Elcott is a Professor of Modern Art at Columbia University specializes in the history of modern art and media in Europe and North America, with  an  emphasis on interwar art, photography, and film. He also writes and  teaches on contemporary art, and he is the recipient of Fulbright, Mellon, DAAD, and other fellowships. He has lectured widely to scholarly and lay audiences, including One Day University students (“What’s so Great About Picasso?”).

Graduate Center - 365 Fifth Avenue - NYC
365 Fifth Avenue NYC
(35th and Fifth)
New York, NY 10016
February 25,2012
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM