The First Meeting

Posted on September 9, 2010 by moderator

8.30 PM (PhSt), Friday 10 September, 2010 | 4th floor College Hall

Come to the First Meeting of the 519th Session of the Philomathean Society! As well as introducing guests and prospective members to the Society, the Society will be serenaded by a Literary Exercise delivered by Mr. Sam Bieler and Ms. Emily Kern on the subject of How to Defend Your Dorm from the Zombie Apocalypse. Are YOU safe from the oncoming zombie hordes? Find out at the First Meeting!

Refreshments, as always, will be provided.

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Keep Calm and Carry On? The Fate of Graduate Education in the Humanities

Posted on September 8, 2010 by moderator

6.00 PM, Wednesday 15 September, 2010 | Philomathean Halls, 4th Floor College Hall

Wednesday, September 15th, 6pm | Philo Halls, 4th Floor College Hall

Featuring:

Ralph M. Rosen, Graduate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Classics

Peter Conn, Professor of English and Education

Monica R. Miller, Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Center for Africana Studies

Delicious refreshments.

Moderated by Felicity Paxton, Adjunct Professor of Communication and Director of the Penn Women’s Center

In the aftermath of the global economic collapse, university endowments are shrinking, grant and program funding are declining, and hiring has been frozen. Throughout the United States, many graduate programs have drastically decreased the number of spots for new graduate students. What will be the impact of these changes on the next generation of humanities scholars, and what are the implications of the economic collapse for the future of American higher education?

Join the Philomathean Society and our distinguished panelists for a frank discussion of the future of graduate education in the humanities.

All guests are encouraged to read some of the background literature on this debate – Dr. Conn’s article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2010, entitled “We Need to Acknowledge the Realities of Employment in the Humanities”; Thomas Benton’s article for the Chronicle, entitled “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go”; Anthony Grafton’s attack on the British graduate programs in the humanities, entitled “Britain: the Disgrace of the Universities”; and Anthony Grafton’s “Humanities and Inhumanities” in The New Republic.

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Afternoon Tea with Paul Cobb

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Cristopher J. W.

4.00 PM, Friday 10 September, 2010 | Philomathean Halls, 4th Floor College Hall

Join the Philomathean Society and Paul Cobb, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, for an afternoon discussion on topics of intellectual and personal interest. Come to relax, learn, reflect or simply to enjoy a cup of Earl Grey.

Paul M. Cobb is a social and cultural historian of the pre-modern Islamic world. His areas of interest include the history of memory, historiography, Islamic relations with the West, and travel and exploration. He is, in particular, a recognized authority on the history of the medieval Levant and of the Crusades in their Islamic context. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including White Banners: Contention in ‘Abbasid Syria, 750-880 (SUNY Press, 2001); Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet of the Age of Crusades (Oneworld, 2005); and The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades, a translation of the “memoirs” and other works of Usama ibn Munqidh (Penguin Classics, 2008). He is also the co-editor (with Wout van Bekkum) of Strategies of Medieval Communal Identity: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Peeters, 2003) and (with Antoine Borrut) of Umayyad Legacies: History and Memory from Syria to Spain (E. J. Brill, 2010). His next book, Enemies of God: An Islamic History of the Crusades, is forthcoming from Oxford in 2011.

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Lecture: The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Mississippi Delta

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Cristopher J. W.

6.00 PM, Tuesday 14 September, 2010 | Philomathean Halls, 4th Floor College Hall

The Gulf Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina are just the latest blows to a delta that has been dying a slow death from decades of mismanagement and neglect. In this talk, Dr. Douglas J. Jerolmack will discuss the origin of the Mississippi Delta, the causes and consequences of modern wetland loss in coastal Louisiana, and possible scientific solutions for the long-term sustainability of the Delta. He will also consider how Katrina and the BP spill may actually benefit the Delta in the long term by helping to catalyze the formulation of a federal management plan.

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Visit us at the Fall Activities Fair!

Posted on September 4, 2010 by moderator

10.00 AM, 6 September, 2010 | Locust Walk

Come visit us on Locust Walk at the Student Activities Fair this Monday!

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A Revolutionary Evening: Mayhem, Cheese, and Gentle Madness with Philo

Posted on August 21, 2010 by moderator

10.30 PM, 3 September, 2010 | 4th floor College Hall

Join the members of the Philomathean Society and assorted guests for an evening of conviviality, conversation, and casual revolution. Light refreshments and an informal debate to follow, along with the subsequent summary execution of a member in good standing. There will, of course, be cake!

This is a wonderful occasion to find out about the Society, its activities, and membership. All currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students are welcome!

For more details, contact the First Censor.

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Welcome to the new Philomathean Website!

Posted on July 18, 2010 by moderator

Welcome to the new website of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania! This website represents a comprehensive upgrade from our old MediaWiki platform to spanking-new WordPress 3.0. Bringing together the Society’s blog and more informative sites, removing extraneous content, and enriching our historical pages, this website is the heart of a new publicity infrastructure for Philo that will be fully launched in the coming fall semester.

In the meantime, please take a look around Philo’s new home on the internet. We have uploaded descriptions of past events to flesh out the new blog categories, not to mention some fabulous historical tidbits. If you have any concerns or questions concerning website content, please let me know!

My sincere thanks, and the thanks of the Society, go to Mr. Miller (Recorder), Ms. Kern (First Censor), Mr. Robert Hass (Technojoy), Ms. Savoy-Knitter, and Mr. Kincaid for working immensely hard to bring this website to fruition. Especial thanks are due to Ms. Yilu Zhang, who while not being a member of the Society nonetheless spent a huge amount of her free time helping us with the design of the new website.

Sic itur ad astra,

Alec Webley
Moderator of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania

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Past Event: XXY: This Is Not Pornography

Posted on July 18, 2010 by firstcensor

3 – 18 December, 2009 | 4th floor, College Hall

The Philomathean Art Gallery presents…

XXY: This Is Not Pornography
Featuring the work of FNAR-283: The Body and Photography,
Kalina Isato, and Professor Gabriel Martinez (Design)

Opening Reception
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
4:30 PM

Prof. Gabriel Martinez and the students of FNAR-283 present a photographic exploration of the human body, with a performance by Kalina Isato.
Refreshments will be provided.

XXY: This Is Not Pornography will be on display in the Philomathean Society Art Gallery until 18 December, 2009.

To learn more, check out the DP article: Photography Show Goes from ‘Mild to Wild.’

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Past Event: Happy Birthday: the Art Gallery presents Artie Vierkant

Posted on July 18, 2010 by firstcensor

9 September – 7 October, 2008 | 4th floor, College Hall

The Philomathean Art Gallery presents

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
A solo exhibition featuring the work of Artie Vierkant

Opening Reception
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
7:30 PM

Come celebrate the opening of this aptly-titled exhibition with a reception on the artist’s birthday. Refreshments will be provided.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY will be on display in the Philomathean Society Art Gallery until 7 October, 2008.

For more on the artist, visit www.artievierkant.com

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List of Past Philomathean Authors

Posted on July 18, 2010 by moderator

What follows is a list of some past Philomathean authors (not counting our honorary members, of course), with links to their books if we can find them (and they are in the public domain).

Hilary Putnam (Chairman of Philosophy at Harvard University)

  • Representation and Reality
  • The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays
  • Reason Truth and History
  • Renewing Philosophy
  • Pragmatism, an Open Question
  • Words and Life
  • The Many Faces of Realism
  • The Threefold Cord

Robert Spiller

  • Late Harvest
  • Essays and Adresses in American Literature and Culture
  • The American in England During the First Half Century of Independence

Edward Sculley Bradley

  • Walt Whitman: Poet of the Present War
  • Walt Whitman on Timber Creek
  • Walt Whitman and the Postwar World

William Pepper C’1862

  • “The Morphological Changes of the Blood in Malarial Fever.”
  • A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Children
  • A system of Practical Medicine
  • Higher Medical Education, the True Interest of the Public and the Profession

Henry Dilworth Gilpin C’1819

  • A Memrial of Sudry Citizens of Pennsylvania, Relative to the Treatment and Removal of the Indians
  • Report of Cases Adjudged in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1828-1836
  • The Papers of James Madison Volumes 1-3
  • Opinions of the Attorneys-General of the United States

William Hypolitus Keating C’1816

  • Considerations Upon the Art of Mining… and Advantages of this Art into the United States
  • Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter’s River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, Etc. Volumes 1 and 2

William Montgomery Meigs C’1872

  • 1887: Life of Josiah Meigs
  • 1897: The Life of Charles Jarde Ingersoll
  • 1900: The Growth of the Constitution in the Federal Convention of 1787
  • 1917: The Life of Thomas Hart Benton 1904. The life of John Caldwell Calhoun
  • 1924: The Constitution and the Courts

Michael Bamberger C’1982

  • The Green Road Home
  • A Caddie’s Journal of Life on the Pro Gold Tour

Alfred Bester C’1935

  • The Demolished Man
  • Starlight.
  • The Computer Connection
  • The Light Fantastic, Short Stories, Volume 1
  • Star Light, Star Bright, Short Stories, Volume 2

Edward Sculley Bradley C’1897

  • The American Tradition of Literature.
  • George Henry Boker, Poet and Patriot

Alfred Harbage C’1924

  • A Theatre for Shakespeare
  • A Reader’s Guide to William Shakespeare
  • As They Liked It, A Study of Shakespeare’s Moral Artistry
  • Shakespeare’s Audience
  • Shakespeare Without Words & Other Essays

John Frederick Lewis C’1920

  • The History of the Apprentice’s Library
  • Thomas Spry, Lawyer and Physician

William Augustus Muhlenberg C’1815

  • The Woman and Her Accusers

Roy F. Nichols W’1958

  • A Historian’s Progress
  • Advance Agents of American Destiny
  • The Stake of Power, 1845-1877

George Wharton Pepper C’1887

  • Philadelphia Lawyer
  • In The Senate

Arthur Hobson Quinn

  • Representative American Plays

Felix E. Schelling C’1881

  • A Book of 17th Century Lyrics
  • A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics
  • Pedagogically Speaking
  • Elizabethan Drama 1558-1642 Volumes 1 & 2
  • Felix E. Schelling Memorial Papers

George Sharswood C’1828

  • Sharswood’s Blackstone’s Commentaries Volumes 1 & 2

Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr C’1892

  • Philosophical Essays in Honor of Edgar Arthur Singer, Jr. edited by Clarke & Nahm

Robert E. Spiller C’1917

  • The Oblique Light, Studies in American Literary History and Biography
  • Literary History of the United States, Volumes 1-3
  • The Roots of National Culture to 1830
  • The American Literary Review 1783-1837

Cornelius Weygandt C’1891

  • The Edge of Evening
  • The Wissahickon Hills

George Parker Winship

  • Bibiolographic Essay, A tribute to Wilberforce Eames

Daniel Hoffman

Robert Sebastian

Gary Alan Fine

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