Spring 2004 Semester Report

PHL 231, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy is being offered for the first time. Tom Bowen taught this class and a second new on American Political Thought for the Political Science Department.

Dennis Polkow successfully taught a new class on World Music for the first time.

A new tandem combining African –American literature and Contemporary Culture and the Arts was taught by Madhuri Deshmukh and Marian Staats.

A new tandem class combining Introduction to Film and English 102 was taught by Susan Doll and Debbie Albano.

Holly Graff and Tom Bowen taught a semester-long professional development class on Ethics in Higher Education.

We have conducted a special assessment program to evaluate what our students have learned about Islam in HUM 120 and PHL 205.

The Philosophy Department sponsored a public forum on Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ. Douglas Berger, Ingrid Torinus, and Dennis Polkow were the speakers. 175 students and community members attended.

During Culture’s Week, Holly Graff and Richard Stacewicz gave presentations on the ethical debates over the occupation of Iraq. 100 students and community members attended.

Jim Boley spoke on The Devil in the White City as part of Oakton’s National Library Week activities.

Peter Hudis edited (with Kevin Anderson) The Rosa Luxemburg Reader that was just published by Monthly Review Press. Peter also just gave a presentation entitled “Marx Among the Moslems” at the Socialist Scholars Conference in New York.

Douglas Berger published "'The Poorest Form of Theism:' Schopenhauer, Islam and the Perils of Comparative Hermeneutics." In the Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relation. He also gave two presentations. One was "Gautama's World: A Look at Life in North India During the Time of the Historical Buddha" at the Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association and the second was "The Unlikely Commentator: Dara Shukoh's Reception of Advaita Vedantic Thought” at the National Conference of the Association for Asian Studies in San Diego.

Joyce Mullen have a paper on “Emigration and Patriotism in Rousseau” at the Midwest Political Science Association and commented on a paper on the Just war tradition in Hindu, Islamic, and Christian thought.

Asad Ahmed presented a paper entitle “The Haqiq-Majaz Dichotomy in Classical and Scholastic Arabic Poetics” at the Middle East History and Theory Conference held at the University of Chicago. He also delivered a paper entitled “Kalam and Arabic Poetics” at the American Oriental Society.

Susan Doll contributed the entry on "The History of Film" for the soon-to-be-published New York Times Desk Reference.

Paul Bryant presented “Sensation and Sensibility: Deleuze’s Aesthetic Metaphysics” at a conference in Canada.

Holly Graff and Maxine Morphis participated in an American Philosophical Association session on environmental ethics in which Holly was the commentator and Maxine was the chair.

Vince Samar gave an invited talk on “Privacy and the Debate over Same-sex Marriage versus Unions” at the DePaul Law Review Symposium

Dennis Polkow continued as faculty advisor for the OCCurrence. Eight students working for the OCCurrence won wards at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association.

Students in Holly Graff and Richard Stacewicz’s Ethics/Globalization tandem put on public forums on the foreign policy positions of the Presidential candidates and on the global AIDS crisis. Other students did a two-hour radio show on the Kyoto Protocols for Youth Talk on 1590 AM.

Creative Women Showcase Online features work from Maxine’s Morphis’ Women and Creativity students.

A number of Susan Doll’s students have written reviews on the Facets Multimedia website.

We continue to expand our focus on non-Western culture in World Religions, Non-Western Philosophy, Non-Western Humanities, and World Music.

Tom Bowen attended the Crossroad Anti-Racism Training and continued to work with the anti-racism subgroup of ACCORD.

Amy Zumfelde coordinated Cultures Week . and gave a presentation there on “Representations of Women in German Lieder.”

For Cultures Week, Karen Petersen performed classical Persian music and Poetry with Kamran Aghtaee.

Karol Verson gave a presentation on “Biro-Bidjan: Art as Theatrical Inspiration”

Holly Graff and Richard Stacewicz attended the Leadership and Core Values Conference of the Illinois Community College Board in Springfield with six of their students – Alexis Contreas, Danielle Chiero, Jake Harris, Diane Doyle, Machael Martinez-Mann, and Alison Howard.. They and their students presented two sessions – one on students as public intellectuals and one on Oakton’s commitment to fair trade coffee. Peg Lee also spoke at this conference.

Students from Holly Graff and Richard Stacewicz’s Ethics and Globalization tandem conducted a drive to secure donations for Ripples International, an AIDS clinic in Kenya. As a result, students have been invited to visit this clinic in Africa.

Participants in the faculty seminar on ethics in Higher Education produced projects that dealt with practicing Oakton’s values in their teaching and their activities as librarians. These faculty members included Bridget Archer, Douglas Berger, Anna Cuomo, Barbara Dayton, John Kuijper, Maxine Morphis, Rose Novil, Beverly Offen, Linda Peters, Katherine Schuster, John Stryker, and Terry Trobec.

Holly Graff and Lynn Woodbury chaired a committee that produced a faculty vision statement that emphasizes the ethical core of our teaching mission.

Douglas Berger taught the World Religions in the Fast Track Program for the first time.

Linda Peters continues to develop a relationship with the Des Plaines Historical Society for which her students are doing research on local culture and history.

Dennis Polkow interviewed Welz Kauffman, president and CEO of the Ravinia, Festival for Cultures Week.

Maxine Morphis spoke about Oakton at the New Trier parents Association forum on post-high school alternatives

Two new online classes were offered for the first time. Tom Bowen taught online logic, and Amy Zumfelde taught Western Culture and the Arts online.

Maxine Morphis continued to expand the department’s website to provide additional resources for students and faculty including a new feature for making book orders.

Copyright © 2001 Oakton Community College. Last update 1/28/2006.

If you have questions about the Department web pages, please contact Hollace Graff.
Please direct questions or comments about the web site to the Ananda Satya Spike.