#ResilienceTraining, Frankenstein, and Cryptography

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News about CAL's Busy Faculty

Nancy Nowacek 

Prove the power of community (and your arm strength) by joining Nowacek for #ResilienceTraining at Socrates Sculpture Park on Saturday, November 3 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Here, you’ll work on Maneuver, her 10-ton sculpture inspired by the political, environmental and housing crises that affect New Yorkers on a regular basis. Everyone will work together to change its current state—a diversionary wall made of 400 sandbags—into a more inclusive form. All are welcome, so bring a friend! 

Robin Hammerman, Susan Levin, and Anthony Pennino

Two hundred years ago, a teenage girl shocked the world with Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus, a haunting tale of a young medical student who plays god and then pays for his transgression. To celebrate the bicentennial of Mary Shelley’s extraordinary novel, Hammerman, Levin and Pennino are participating in a marathon reading at Princeton University, on October 31 thru November 2 from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Free and open to everyone, the event includes a screening of Thomas Edison’s silent film “Frankenstein” (1910). 

Speaking of Pennino, his book Staging the Past in the Age of Thatcher: "The History We Haven't Had" has officially been published! It details the challenges the British theatrical community faced in presenting an alternative narrative of the country's heritage culture, one at odds with the Thatcher and Major Governments in the 1980s and early 1990s. 

Susan Schept

Schept also published recently! Her book The Voice of Sarah: Feminist Ethics in Jewish Sacred Text challenges the perception of an angry and hostile God within Jewish Sacred Text. She instead lands on the conclusion that Jewish people are called upon to be interdependent and holy, upholding the values of justice and compassion. 

John Horgan

For the Wall Street Journal, Horgan reviewed new books by British physicists Stephen Hawking and Martin Rees, debating whether their arguments solve the "riddle of existence."

In addition, spirituality mogul Deepak Chopra invited Horgan onto his popular YouTube channel, where the two discussed Horgan's new online book Mind-Body Problems. The work features nine experts who contemplate the relationship between our mental and physical existences through their our academic perspectives and anecdotal experiences.  

Rob Harari

Recently, Harari and his students headed to the AES convention, the largest gathering of audio professionals in the world. Here, Harari also presented on his work with Nokia Bell Labs and the Experiments in Art & Technology showcase of "The Shannon Effect." This 2016 performance featured the Human Digital Orchestra, "an ensemble where the movement of humans in digital space creates a multimedia sensory artist experience."

Carlos Alomar

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Alomar served as the featured speaker at the "Excellence in All We Do" event, organized by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders. His speech discussed his life's history with music and the influence of the Latin community on popular music.

Even more recently, Alomar participated in a performance of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. 

Upcoming Events

Cryptography and Sabotage: Rethinking the Past and Future of the Encrypted Information Society

Speaker: Bradley Fidler
October 31, 2018 — 2:45 p.m. — Richardson Room (Morton 324)
Stevens Event Page — Facebook Event Page — Twitter Event Listing

For decades, humanists, social scientists and pundits promised that the internet would decentralize society, creating limitless connections between people. In their predictions, this web of communication would act a solvent on centralized political, economic and cultural structures. Yet, they forgot the role of cryptography, a tool that could be used to re-centralize control of distributed networks. In his Humanities Forum talk, Fidler will examine the role cryptography will play in the future of encrypted information society.  

Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis

Speakers: Lindsey Cormack, Jeremy Teigen, Don Lombardi
November 7, 2018 —  4:30 to 6 p.m. — Kidde 228
Stevens Event Page — Facebook Event Page — Twitter Event Listing

Republicans are often viewed as the party of veterans, and this presumption is supported by public opinion and voting data. Yet more often than not, Democrats in Congress are the ones working to enhance veteran benefits. In her new book, Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis, Lindsey Cormack explores this curiosity, and on November 7, she’ll be joined in conversation with Dr. Jeremy Teigen of Ramapo College and Stevens own Dr. Don Lombardi to further explore veteran politics.