Hutton Honors College

James Capshew Fireside Chat

Wednesday, April 25

Students and staff joined biographer James Capshew for a fireside chat and enjoyed light refreshments as he answers questions and read portions of his book about the man who did so much to make Indiana University what it is today. James Capshew is an associate professor in the IU Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

Paint Out Your Stress!

Wednesday, April 25

Students came and went during the 4 o'clock hour to join in the finger painting fun and listen to harp and clarinet music. Light refreshments and blank canvases were provided for students to unwind and enjoy some time off during dead week.

Discussion Supper with Building Tomorrow in Uganda Country Director Joseph Kaliisa

Thursday, April 19

Joseph Kaliisa Bagambaki believes that education, both formal and non-formal, is a right and a means to eliminate social, economic and political injustices. He has a passion to work on behalf of vulnerable women and children. He is a human rights activist and has amassed significant experience developing and working in sustainable grassroots programs. Fluent in eight languages, including English, Luganda and Swahili, Mr. Kaliisa is the Country Director for Building Tomorrow in Uganda, where he oversees the organization's entire school-building operation. Students learned about the need for education facilities in Uganda and enjoyed listening to Mr. Kaliisa talk about his culture.

Discussion Supper with Nigerian Journalist Kunle Ajibade

Wednesday, April 18

Nigerian journalist Kunle Ajibade has lived a life described by many as one of courage and calm. He was summarily sentenced to life in prison in 1995 by a tribunal acting under the authority of General Sani Abacha, then the supreme military ruler of Nigeria, for an article published in TheNews, a magazine he served as editor. He has described a time of fear, arrests and exile of prominent writers and leaders of civil rights organizations, and the deaths and the hanging of some-experiences mirrored in other countries at other times.

Sexual Assault Awareness and Bystander Intervention Workshop

Tuesday, April 10

The Hutton Honors College was among the groups contributing to IU's first "Culture of Care Week" (April 9-14), six days of events focused on promoting education on bystander intervention, sexual assault, mental health, and drug and alcohol-related emergencies. The student organizers aimed to foster a culture of care on campus in accordance with the newly passed Hoosier P.A.C.T., in which the goal is to promote an "act now; save a life" mentality. Representatives from Middle Way House and the Office of Women's Affairs with expertise in prevention, crisis intervention, and on-scene advocacy, examined rape culture and the 3 D's of bystander intervention (Direct, Distract, Delegate).

Symmetry in Action

Wednesday, April 4

Which is more "symmetrical" - math or art? Which is more "creative"? Are you certain? Students explored these ideas at the IU Art Museum in an effort to consider what math and art have in common. The tour was created and led by Art Museum docent John Brown, a senior in the Hutton Honors College majoring in math and English. John's note about the program: "We often approach both math and art as static entities: algorithms set down in textbooks and old paintings hanging in museums. But art and mathematics are living bodies of work, enacted by humans trying to discover and create." Through an interactive tour of selected works from the Indiana University Art Museum, students explored these ideas, experienced the spirit of discovery as they were encouraged to pay special attention to symmetry, a natural point of intersection between the two disciplines.

Undergraduate Lunch with Award-winning Poet, Translator, and Teacher Carolyne Wright

Wednesday, April 4

Carolyne Wright has been called a "scholar gypsy." She has traveled in a sometimes dangerous world but describes herself as open to the discovery of beauty and unexpected connections with people and places. Join her for a discussion of her life as a writer and translator, her times in Chile, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the world. Join her for a conversation about writing, yours as well as hers. Her areas of focus include the risks of free speech, the poetry of love and of travel, writing about the land through poetry, the translation of poetry, moving from poetry to prose, and the circumstances of women; and she has translated the work of writers from Latin America, South Asia, and the Middle East. She is on the faculty of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts' Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program. Students learned about the power of words over lunch and a good conversation.

Supper with Harvard Professor Peter Galison

Monday, April 2

Peter Galison's work ranges from physics to philosophy to photography, from objectivity in science and art to military secrecy to the impact of technology on the reformulation of the self. He is a public intellectual of international reputation and one of the most highly respected contemporary historians of science. His books include Objectivity (co-authored); Picturing Science, Producing Art (co-edited); and Einstein for the 21st Century: His Legacy in Science, Art, and Modern Culture. He has also created documentaries for public television and cinema, including The Ultimate Weapon: The H-Bomb Dilemma, Secrecy (about military secrecy and government classification), and Nuclear Underground (about the questions the burial of nuclear waste raises about our relation to the land, energy, and the future). His many awards include the MacArthur Fellowship (often called the "genius" award) and the Max Planck Research Award. He holds doctorates in physics and the history of science and is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. Students met at Harlos House and discussed the bridge between science and philosophy over a pizza dinner.

Supper with geologist Walter Alvarez

Wednesday, March 28

World-renowned geologist Walter Alvarez is perhaps best known for his important discovery of a layer rich in the element iridium at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary epochs. This discovery, made in collaboration with his father (Luis Alvarez, who won the 1968 Nobel Prize in physics), convinced scientists that the most recent major extinction event 65 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs, was due to the impact of a giant asteroid. Walter Alvarez documents their work in T. rex and the Crater of Doom. His interests also include Big History, the emerging interdisciplinary field that aims to tie everything in our planet's past-its cosmic ancestry, its geological and paleontological evolution, and the pageant of human societies-into a coherent understanding of the grand sweep and character of history. Students enjoyed a Bloomingfoods dinner while discussing the concept of Big History with Walter Alvarez and other guest speakers, Nick Toth and Kathy Schick.

Supper with former diplomat Charles Hill

Thursday, March 8

Since 1992, Charles Hill has taught a year-long "Grand Strategy" seminar at Yale University in which the study of classic texts and international relations are combined with internships in international agencies on geopolitical topics. Along with publishing numerous articles and books, Hill has received awards for his outstanding public service, including the Superior Honor Award of the Department of State (1973, 1981), the Presidential Meritorious Service Award (1986), and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award (1987, 1989). Students joined together to learn more about his governmental and international experiences and received some great life advise from Charles Hill.

A Rose By (Some) Other Name

Saturday, March 3

The makers of the recent movie Anonymous are only the latest to suggest that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon did not in fact write the plays and poems attributed to him. Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin, and Malcolm X all argued that the evidence we have-and the evidence we lack-point to a different author. At the heart of the debate are vital issues of evidence: What sort of evidence is needed to answer a question posed? How do we find or acquire it? How do we judge the accuracy of information and the reliability of sources? What assumptions and inferences are valid-or not-when there are gaps in the data? These issues don't just lie at the heart of the Shakespeare authorship controversy-they lie at the heart of all critical thinking and thoughtful, well-informed decision making. They are as important to someone casting a vote in this year's presidential election as they are to moviemakers and citizens pondering who wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream. SPEA Professor Beth Cate led the discussion with the help of Gavin Cameron-Webb, the director of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Tom Shafer, the dramaturge for the performance.

Networks of the Brain

Thursday, March 1

Olaf Sporns, IU professor of psychological and brain sciences, first proposed the idea of a complete map of the human brain network in 1995. Through the NIH's $40 million Human Connectome Project, this ambitious endeavor, in which 1,200 adult brains will be exhaustively mapped, is being undertaken by neuroscientists at several of the world's most prestigious universities; and its potential effects on our understanding of how the human brain develops, functions, and becomes dysfunctional are limitless. In his book, Networks of the Brain, Professor Sporns shows how the fields of computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, cognitive science, and even philosophy are all critical for our understanding of the human brain. Students had some Aver's pizza and Baked! cookies while listening to Professor Olaf explain his work on mapping the human brain.

The Coal Truth

Wednesday, Feb. 29

Students started their journey towards understanding their energy-consumption impact with a tour of the IU Central Heating Plant. The IU Central Heating plant is noted for its work in researching ways to remove carbon dioxide from flue gas, or exhaust emitted in the combustion of coal. The current focus of the project is to select superior strains of algae that will best remediate flue gas, which can then be converted into methane gas and biocrude oil. Mark Menefee, assistant director of utilities for the plant, led the tour and a follow up discussion to answer student questions.

HHart: Arts Showcase and Gala

Thursday, Feb. 23

Students from the Hutton Honors College, the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program and the Reads Performing Arts community in a stellar committee under the leadership of Nicole Silvernell-Barrios, an Extracurricular Programs Committee member, planned the second annual HHC/HHSP Arts Showcase and Gala. The showcase and gala were planned to feature undergraduate student artwork, regardless of the student's major or the medium used, in a "fabulous evening filled with panache and style." Open to biology majors who love to paint, history majors who write poetry, business majors who compose music, arts and music majors, and art creators and lovers of all kinds the event gave students a chance to present their work and celebrate the arts and talk about what the arts teach. Painting, dancing, pottery, photography, poetry, video, music, and other art forms-and the approximate 250 guests who attended-filled the HHC "with panache and style." The editorial leadership of Labyrinth contributed to the project and distributed copies of the literary magazine. Support was also provided by HHSAC (the Hudson and Holland Scholars Advisory Council) and the event was co-sponsored by Canvas Creative Arts Magazine and the Read Performing Arts Community.

How to Protect Your Financial Future

Tuesday, Feb. 7

At this HHC fireside event, Christopher Wilson, spoke and responded to questions about identity theft. He represents the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, the state entity that investigates ID theft, scams and fraud. As part of its mission, the division seeks to educate the public on how to avoid becoming victims. The AG is also the attorney acting in the interests of the state as a whole, including the interests of Hoosier consumers. Students and other guests left with valuable resources and more knowledge on how to protect themselves from scams, fraud, and identity theft.

Cyber Threats and Cyber War

Thursday, Feb. 2

Cyberspace is the new battleground for state and non-state actors to gather information, interrupt communication flows, target vulnerable resources, and wage war. These activities, which are real and expanding, are especially threatening for many reasons, including the fact that they occur outside of longstanding legal rules that regulate the conduct of war in the physical world. Professor Cate and students discussed issues on how nations should respond to these situations, if there is a need for a Geneva Convention for cyber warfare, and what citizens should be doing now in response to these attacks.

From R&D to Return on Investment: The Business of Life Sciences Research

Friday, Jan. 27

Students joined Professor Richard DiMarchi, the Standiford H. Cox Professor of Chemistry and the Linda & Jack Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences at Indiana University, for a discussion of the process by which innovative scientific research becomes a business and eventually is incorporated into clinical practice. As the co-founder of biopharmaceutical companies Ambrx, Inc. and Marcadia Biotech and the co-inventor of more than 90 patents, Professor DiMarchi shared his insights on the relationships between academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical company research, with particular attention to financial return on investment and the impact on the practice of medicine.

Musical Arts Center Tour

Thursday, Jan. 26

The MAC tour was led by MAC house manager Tridib Pal and provided the opportunity for students to look at the facility from various angles, from the public spaces and to the stage where musical stars and stars of the future perform to behind-the-scenes shops where sets and costumes are designed and built on site. One of the grandest performance venues in the United States, the Musical Arts Center seats 1,460 and features acoustical design and technical capabilities that are among the best in the United States.

Waging (and Financing) Modern Warfare: From Smart Phones to Smuggling to ...

Tuesday, Jan. 25

Anthropologist Carolyn Nordstrom has seen the changes in how war can be waged and financed and by whom. We live in a time when major attacks can be launched by non-governmental groups and individuals can use new technologies to shut down the electric grid and hack cyber sites or to call others to the streets and squares. She has researched the shadowy worlds of diamond, drug, and arms smuggling; war profiteering; piracy; and other transnational crimes. "I have studied the ways in which people gain the necessities to wage war and create peace, and how people pay for these services," she has said. "Drugs, precious gems, human labor and sex are routinely used in international black markets to purchase everything from guns and computer-based weapons systems to antibiotics and food." Students enjoyed the discussion supper at Harlos House and stayed after to ask questions and learn from Professor Nordstrom.

HHC Information Session on the IU Summer Internship Program in Sustainability

Tuesday, Jan. 24

Students gathered in the Great Room to learn about: 1. Sustainability 101: Office of Sustainability's mission on campus and the critical role student interns play in its success. 2. Internship Projects: Sustainability interns take big ideas and work with campus and community stakeholders to make them a reality. Students learned about summer projects such as planning for the Big Red Eats Green Fall Festival, a celebration of restaurants and market venders who supply us with delicious local food, or the Bicycle Friendly Campus Initiative, a new steering committee aimed at making biking easier and safer for our community. 3. A Day in the Life of an Intern: Former and current interns were on hand to discuss their experiences in the program.