College Presents Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: March 6, 2008

CONTACT: Lisa Saunders

(845) 574-4244

SUNY Rockland Community College Presents Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

Suffern NY - The SUNY Rockland Community College Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) presents their Spring ’08 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series. All lectures are in the Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse) on the main campus located on 145 College Road, Suffern. Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments served.

Thursday, March 27, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

"Sincerely, Geo"

Maire Liberace, Professor, Philosophy and Speech, will discuss the previously unknown friendship between an important Abbey Theatre Playwright, George Sheils, and a young nurse. It is based on letters and a personal account of their relationship, which lasted for more than 19 years, from 1930-1948. The presentation is in conjunction with the 60^th anniversary of the death of George Sheils and also to celebrate the premier of a play, April 29, in Belfast, on his life and works.

Contact: mliberac@sunyrockland.edu, 845-574-4276

Thursday, April 3, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

"Joy? Joy?"

Dr. Suzanne Cleary-Langley, Professor, English, asks, "Where is the joy in your classroom?"  This participatory lecture proposes that extra-curricular activities, long associated with student success, also promote teacher success.  A good teacher is a joyful person.  Learn how to find more time and energy for your extra-curricular passion by learning about the creativity workshop, "Living the Poet's Life." Share your tips for pursuing interests in what is dismissively called "spare" time--it is life time, and what you make of it benefits your students as well as you!

Contact: scleary@sunyrockland.edu, 845-574-4771

Tuesday, May 6, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall:  Edith Wharton's Looking-Glass and "the emptiness of renunciation""

Dr. Elaine M. Toia, Associate Professor, English, uses the contextual frame of classical myth and psychology to shed light on the feminine “essential self” in the fiction of American novelist, Edith Wharton.  It examines Wharton's use of mirrors, both real and metaphorical, to create social/psychological portraits of three of her most well-known heroines:  May Welland in The Age of Innocence (1920), Undine Spragg in The Custom of the Country (1913), and Lily Bart in The House of Mirth (1905).  All three women depend for self-definition on what the mirror on the wall tells them, but Wharton’s looking-glass does more than reflect the surface.  It reveals a darker, psychological landscape that threatens the existence of the social self and exposes what Lacan calls “lack of being”—or, according to Wharton’s narrator, “the emptiness of renunciation” (The House of Mirth).

Contact: etoia@sunyrockland.edu, 845-574-4703

For more information, contact Dr. Liya Li, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, at (845) 574- 4733 or lli@sunyrockland.edu. \

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Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate’s degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.