A letter from Professor Adam Davis, Director of the Lisska Center for Scholarly Engagement
Dear Colleagues,
I hope this note finds you well. I wanted to provide some important updates about the work of the Lisska Center as we begin the fall semester.
Staff Changes: In May, we were delighted to welcome Dr. Suzanne Shoger into our new position of Administrative Director of the Lisska Center. Suzanne comes to us from The Ohio State University, where, most recently, she was a director in the Office of Student Academic Success. She is working closely with students applying for national fellowships (along with Diana Mafe and myself) as well as helping to oversee the Summer Scholars Program and coordinating various administrative components of the Lisska Center. We are very fortunate to have Suzanne at Denison and I encourage you to get to know her; you can read more about her here. Last winter, you may have had a chance to meet our new Program Assistant, Ashley Vogelmeier ‘98, who is thrilled to be back at Denison and has already been a great addition to our Lisska Center team.
Summer Scholars: We had a busy summer at the Lisska Center. In a typical summer, only a handful of our Summer Scholars do research off-campus, but of course this summer our entire program was remote, so we sought to find ways, thanks to the technological wonders of Zoom, to build a sense of intellectual community among our students who were spread out across multiple continents. Immense thanks to all the faculty mentors who, with little notice, found creative ways to work remotely with their Summer Scholars. Instead of our usual fall poster symposium and performances, we will distribute a YouTube video link on Thursday, September 10 featuring short presentations by this year’s Summer Scholars sharing their research and creative projects.
Summer Accelerator Courses: We sensed that students were hungering for intellectual engagement this summer, with so many internships, jobs, and programs being canceled, and so the Lisska Center offered a dozen not-for-credit mini-courses, some of which were taught by students, on topics ranging from “Economic Justice” to “Political Ideologies.” How affirming it was to see over 300 Denison students enroll in these summer courses purely for the love of learning!
Fulbright Applicants: We have also been busy this summer working with a group of over 30 rising seniors applying for Fulbright awards. These students will soon be reaching out to faculty for help in writing recommendations, and we will be contacting some of you to ask for your assistance in serving on (virtual) Fulbright interview committees. As always, we’re deeply grateful for your help. We simply couldn’t do this work without you!
Election Roundtables: The Lisska Center is launching an exciting new initiative this fall that was originally scheduled for last March. We will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions (12 students and 2 moderators, representing diverse perspectives) on specific issues at stake in the upcoming election, such as: why vote?; universal basic income; police reform; immigration; and “cancel culture.” Last spring, faculty shared the names of students who would enjoy and make positive contributions to this kind of civic dialogue; if you have additional names of students, please send them to lisskacenter@denison.edu asap.
Fall Programming: Due to the pandemic, we’ve had to make some adjustments to our fall programming, including temporarily pausing the Tuesday faculty lunch series as well as the Monomoy research dinners. However, we have an exciting lineup of programs in the coming weeks that we hope you (and your students) will Zoom into.
Monday, August 31 at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom - Jack Shuler (English and Journalism) kicks off our Monday Musings series in a conversational Q&A entitled, “This is Ohio: Reporting from Between the Coasts.” Jack will discuss his recent book, This Is Ohio: The Overdose Crisis and the Front Lines of a New America, along with his eye-opening piece in The New Republic on the Black Lives Matter movement in rural Ohio. Thursday, September 17 (time TBD) via Zoom - To mark Constitution Day, we have rescheduled our spring symposium with Sue Halpern (The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books) on “Technology and the Future of Democracy.” You won’t want to miss this timely conversation which will take place in the heat of the election campaign. Monday, October 5 at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom - In our second Monday Musings (rescheduled from last spring), Fred Porcheddu (English) will interview Adam Davis (History, Lisska Center) about his new book, The Medieval Economy of Salvation: Charity, Commerce and the Rise of the Hospital. All of these events are open to faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Stay tuned for additional program details, calendar postings, and Zoom links.
Wishing everyone a healthy start to the new academic year.
Warmly,
Adam Davis
Professor of History
Director of The Lisska Center for Scholarly Engagement