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Upcoming Meetings and Topics
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Next Meeting
Philosophy, Consciousness, Neuroscience
Speaker:
Dr. Bernard W. Kobes
September 12th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale |
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Dr. Bernard W. Kobes has been an Associate Professor of Philosophy at ASU since 1992. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from UCLA. He has written numerous professional articles for publication. In addition, he holds lifetime memberships in the American Association for Artificial Intelligence; the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, and the U.S. Chess Federation.
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Orientalism, by Edward W. Said
Event:
Book Club
September 25th, 2010 10:30 am
Location: Mesa Main Library, 64 E. 1st St., Mesa |
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The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)
From Amazon.com:
"The theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and transmitted... Orientalism is the example Mr. Said uses, and by it he means something precise. The scholar who studies the Orient (and specifically the Muslim Orient), the imaginitive writer who takes it as his subject, and the institutions which have been concerned with teaching it, settling it, ruling it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being other than the Occident, mysterious, unchanging and ultimately inferior." --Albert Hourani, New York Review of Books
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In Religion, Sin is Spelled S-E-X
Speaker:
John Compere
September 26th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale |
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Dr. John Compere, a member of HSGP, is a retired Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Professional Speaker who moved back to Arizona with his wife, Joyce, two years ago after twelve years in Oregon. He received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He subsequently taught psychology at Wake Forest University and Medical School in Winston-Salem, NC, as well as having a private practice as a clinician. He was a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. He also was one of the initial consultants at the Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC, and from that association began speaking to corporate and professional conferences on "Psychology You Can USE." He became a full-time professional speaker in 1989 and has spoken in 48 of the 50 states in the USA. He was a member of the National Speakers Association, which is headquartered in Tempe, and served as the President of the Carolinas Speakers Association while living in North Carolina.
Prior to going back to graduate school in psychology, John was a Southern Baptist minister, having been ordained at age 18, the fifth generation in his family of Baptist ministers to do so. His great, great grandfather came to America as a missionary from the London Missionary Society, working with Native Americans. John also served as a student missionary to Alaska on two different occasions during his teens, living and building a church there in the small Eskimo village of Selawick.
John's doubts and concerns about the authenticity of the tenets of the faith he had inherited began in college and finally culminated in his leaving the ministry at age 32, when he returned to graduate school.
John's presentation, "In Religion, Sex is Spelled S-E-X," is from an upcoming book he has written about outgrowing religion. Tentatively titled Towards the Light, it will be published by Writers Cramp Publishers, a company owned and run by Chuck Lesher, also a member of HSGP.
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Feminist Ethics and Genetic Patents
Speaker:
Dr. Maureen Sander-Staudt
October 10th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale |
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Dr. Sander-Staudt returns for her fourth talk to HSGP! She holds a BA in English Literature from Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI and an MA from the Univ. of WI-Milwaukee. Dr. Sander-Staudt completed her Ph.D.at the Univ. of Colorado-Boulder where she specialized in gender theory and feminist ethics. Her dissertation work was on the topic of the political implications of the ethics of care, and in it she develops the beginnings of a political philosophy of care. During this time, she received several fellowships and served as a teaching mentor to her department.
Her current scholarly interests continue to be in the area of care ethics, as well as applied ethics, particularly bioethics, reproductive technologies, and moral education. Her most recent work examines the impact of women’s responsibilities as care-givers on their political understandings and activism. Dr. Sander-Staudt has also written an essay using feminist ethics to assess the development and use of artificial womb technology. She has continued an interest in philosophy and popular culture, Eastern philosophy, and the applications of gender and sexuality to reproductive technology, criminal justice, and spirituality. Future projects include a paper on the role of bodily perception in moral experience, an analysis of the human genome project and stem cell research from the perspective of Care Ethics, and an application of Care Ethics to the comparative status of fetuses in abortion and crimes against pregnant women.
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The Post American World, by Fareed Zakaria
Event:
Book Club
October 23rd, 2010 10:30 am
Location: Mesa Main Library, 64 E. 1st St., Mesa |
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The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)
From Amazon.com:
"'This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.' So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination."
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October 24th, 2010 9:00 am To Be Announced
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An Analysis of the Election
Speaker:
Dr. Bruce Merrill
November 07th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale |
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Dr. Bruce Merrill last spoke to us in November, 2008, and we are pleased to welcome him back! He is Research Director for Walter Cronkite Media Research Center at Arizona State University. His undergraduate major was mathematics and his master’s is in political science. His doctorate in political behavior is from the University of Michigan, where he trained at the Institute for Social Research.
When the journalism-telecommunication faculty was expanded in 1988, Dr. Merrill -- an ASU faculty member since 1971 -- was sought out because of his reputation as a researcher in the areas of political behavior and political media communications.
Professor Merrill’s first major assignment in fall 1988 was to establish a Media Research Program in the Cronkite School. Under his direction the School launched the Cactus State Poll in conjunction with KAET-TV in 1990. The Media Research Program is used to conduct public opinion polls and to train students in the design and interpretation of the polls.
Dr. Merrill has overseen more than 500 surveys during the past decade and has served as a consultant to scores of newspapers, television stations and corporations. The surveys have focused on a variety of issues as well as marketing and advertising strategies. Results have been disseminated widely by major national and international newspapers and electronic media outlets.
Dr. Merrill teaches courses in public opinion, political communication and quantitative research methodology with an emphasis on survey research. He also has interests in marketing and advertising strategy.
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Hadji Murad, by Leo Tolstoy
Event:
Book Club
November 20th, 2010 10:00 am
Location: Mesa Main Library, 64 E. 1st St., Mesa |
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The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)
From Amazon.com:
"A simmering feud between Russians and residents of Chechnya boils over into a bitter, bloody war. Sound familiar? In this case, the tumultuous events took place more than a century ago. Tolstoy's little known but critically acclaimed novella draws upon the legends surrounding the Avar warrior chieftain known as Hadji Murád."
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The Emergence of Human Uniqueness: Characters Underlying Behavioral Modernity
Speaker:
Dr. Kim Hill
November 21st, 2010 9:00 am
Location: HomeTown Buffet, 1312 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale |
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Professor Kim Hill received his B.S. degree from the Univ. of Utah in 1975 and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from there in 1983. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on aspects of human evolution at Arizona State University. Prior to his arrival at ASU, he was a professor at the Univ. of New Mexico. He has additional teaching experience at the Univ. of Michigan, Emory University, and the Univ. of Utah.
Dr. Hill's theoretical interests are human evolutionary ecology, including focal areas such as foraging theory, time allocation, food sharing, life history evolution, parental investment, cooperation, culture and cognition, the emergence and spread of Homo sapiens and unique characteristics of our species. His field experience involves hunter-gatherers and natives of the Neotropics. He has nearly 30 years of fieldwork with Ache (Paraguay), Hiwi (Venezuela), Mashco-Piro, Matsiguenga and Yora (Peru) and has conducted extensive travels to indigenous communities in Latin America.
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Gay & Straight-Ally Sorority, Gamma Rho Lambda (GRL)
Speaker:
Zina Alam and Members of Gamma Rho Lambda National Sorority
December 05th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: TBA |
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Gamma Rho Lambda (GRL) National Sorority is dedicated to providing a social support system for young college students. GRL has been referred to as the first national lesbian sorority; however they strive to be inclusive of all members, whether they identify as lesbian, bisexual, ally, transgender, questioning, straight, or with no label.
GRL was founded at ASU in 2003. It has since grown into 5 chapters and numerous colonies across the US. For more info, see the national website: http://www.gammarholambda.org.
Zina Alam is Vice President of Communications for
Gamma Rho Lambda National Sorority. She and a panel of other sorority members will join us for what promises to be an interesting morning!
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The Age of Wonder, by Richard Holmes
Event:
Book Club
December 18th, 2010 10:30 am
Location: Mesa Main Library, 64 E. 1st St., Mesa |
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The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)
From Publishers Weekly:
"The Romantic imagination was inspired, not alienated, by scientific advances, argues this captivating history. Holmes, author of a much-admired biography of Coleridge, focuses on prominent British scientists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including the astronomer William Herschel and his accomplished assistant and sister, Caroline; Humphrey Davy, a leading chemist and amateur poet; and Joseph Banks, whose journal of a youthful voyage to Tahiti was a study in sexual libertinism. Holmes's biographical approach makes his obsessive protagonists (Davy's self-experimenting with laughing gas is an epic in itself) the prototypes of the Romantic genius absorbed in a Promethean quest for knowledge. Their discoveries, he argues, helped establish a new paradigm of Romantic science that saw the universe as vast, dynamic and full of marvels and celebrated mankind's power to not just describe but transform Nature. Holmes's treatment is sketchy on the actual science and heavy on the cultural impact, with wide-ranging discussions of the 1780s ballooning craze, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and scientific metaphors in Romantic poetry. It's an engrossing portrait of scientists as passionate adventurers, boldly laying claim to the intellectual leadership of society."
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Annual Auction and Solstice/HumanLight Party!
Event:
Annual Auction and Solstice/HumanLight Party!
December 19th, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Humanist Community Center (HCC), 627 W. 8th Street, Mesa |
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Roy Speckhardt and Maggie Ardiente, from AHA headquarters in Washington, D.C., will join us for our annual HumanLight celebration, auction and much, much more!
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