Great Conversations
Roundtable discussions with LAS faculty on topics they teach and research.

“More, more, more” was the theme of the feedback to the first rounds of Great Conversations offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2005.

“Give us more time,” “Do it more often,” “More discussions are needed,” “More of this,” said participants after sessions in Orono and Belfast. Others wrote, “Wonderful ideas.” “Too short.” “Good topics. Good resource people.”

Responding to these and other suggestions collected at the 2005 sessions, Great Conversations 2006 is underway. New topics and leaders as well as repeats are on the programs for May and August.

May 15 from 2-4 p.m., Great Conversations returned to Dirigo Pines in Orono with the Penobscot Valley Senior College as co-sponsor.

August 16 is the date for the second Great Conversations on the Coast in Belfast from 4-6 p.m. at the Frederick Hutchinson Center. Program details will appear on web sites of the sponsoring organizations as they become final.

After launching the program of roundtable discussions led by faculty members during Homecoming Weekend in 2004, the College partnered with the Penobscot Valley Senior College to sponsor a second event at Dirigo Pines in May 2005. In August, the Frederick Hutchinson Center in Belfast was host to the first Great Conversations on the Coast. The fourth round of discussions was held as part of Homecoming 2005 in the Memorial Union on the Orono campus.

In each venue, people from the community gather around tables with members of the CLAS faculty to talk about topics the professors teach and research. In small groups of between three and 10 people interaction is animated and time evaporates.

Topics for the Aug. 16 Great Conversations at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast are:

The 2008 Presidential Election
Richard Powell, Assistant Professor of Political Science

Is the Women’s Movement Dead?
Ann Schonberger, Director of Women in the Curriculum and Women's Studies

Are We Alone in the Universe?
David Batuski, Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy

Leadership in Turbulent Times
John Mahon, Professor of Management

The Forgotten Path of Christian Spirituality: My Research with Healers, Monks, Mystics and Hermits of Eastern Christianity
Kyriacos C. Markides, Professor of Sociology

Mahatma Gandhi’s View of Religion
Douglas Allen, Professor of Philosophy

Poetry and Healing
Tony Brinkley, Associate Professor of English, Interim Director, Franco American Studies

Unearthing History in Gouldsboro
Brian Robinson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change

Before and Beyond Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Laura Cowan, Associate Professor of English

Traveling through Ancient Peru
Louis Fortin, Anthropology major and Climate Change graduate student

To add your name to the mailing list for more information, contact Kathryn Olmstead (kathryn.olmstead@umit.maine.edu) in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 5774 Stevens Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5774. 207-581-3844.

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