Thorntons in New York City

LECTURE

One Day University
5,000 Years of History

9:30 AM - 10:45 AM

A Surprising Look at Ancient Egypt: Drama, Spectacle, and Remarkable Characters

Kara Cooney / UCLA

Why is ancient Egypt so compelling to us today? Why do we care so much about the gold, the pyramids, the hieroglyphic script, the mummies, and the extraordinary leaders like Nefertiti, Ramses, and Hatshepsut, people who flourished so many thousands of years ago? As a UCLA Professor and Egyptologist, Kara Cooney has devoted over two decades of her life to the study of this ancient place, and will unravel why we care and what this unending fascination says about us.

This remarkable new class will examine how Egypt is utterly unique on this planet, a protected realm full of riches beyond reckoning and agricultural resources that allowed an unassailable divine kingship to develop. We will examine the spectacle of monumental statuary, of pyramids, of coffins made of hundreds of pounds of solid gold, and of granite and sandstone pillared halls – the supports of a totalitarian regime with a veritable God-King at the helm. We will ask why the ancient Egyptians preserved so many bodies, carefully embalming the wealthy and elite into mummies, while preserving so little of the private information from their minds. Ancient Egypt remains for us a place of mystery, fascination, and contradictions, but if we pierce the carefully woven veil before our eyes, we can also see the humanity of these extraordinary people.

Kara Cooney is an Egyptologist and Professor at UCLA. In 2002, she was Kress Fellow at the National Gallery of Art and worked on the Cairo Museum exhibition "Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt." In 2005, she acted as fellow curator for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the LA County Museum of Art. She also worked on two Discovery Channel documentary series: "Out of Egypt" and "Egypt's Lost Queen."

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

Music as a Mirror of History: 300 Years in 60 Minutes

Robert Greenberg / UC Berkeley / SF Performances

This presentation examines Western music as an artistic phenomenon that mirrors the social, political, spiritual and economic realities of its time. As such, the ongoing changes in musical style evident in Western music during the last millennia are a function of large-scale societal change and are not due to any particular composer's "creative muse." Starting with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the intellectual and spiritual climate of the High Baroque (ca. 1720), this program will observe the changes wrought by Enlightenment society on the music of the Classical Era (ca. 1780) as manifested in the work of Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. This class will observe the impact of the Age of Revolution and Napoleon through a lens provided by the radical and experimental music of Ludwig van Beethoven (ca. 1810).

Other topics to be explored include the nature and conception of "the composer", Beethoven's gastro-intestinal problems (not pretty, but relevant), architecture and landscape design in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the applicability of the concept of "music as a mirror" to American popular music of the 1950s and 1960s.

Robert Greenberg has composed over fifty works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles. He has received numerous honors, including being designated an official "Steinway Artist," three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and three Meet-The-Composer Grants. Notable commissions have been received from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Alexander String Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, San Francisco Performances, and the XTET ensemble. He has served on the faculties of the University of California at Berkeley, California State University East Bay, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he chaired the Department of Music History and Literature and served as the Director of the Adult Extension Division. The Bangor Daily News referred to Greenberg as 'the Elvis of music appreciation.'"

12:15 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch Break

1 hour and 15 minute / Lunch Break

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM

WWII: Surprising Stories You Never Learned in History Class

Robert Watson / Lynn University

World War II is arguably the most tragic episode in human history. The six year war began in Europe but soon spread to all corners of the globe with countless men, women, and children affected by the struggle. Millions were killed on the battlefield, in the air, and on the sea. And as everyone knows, an estimated 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazi's in accordance with Hitler's master plan to exterminate their entire race.

The chronology is well known, but during a war this complex and lengthy, there are many surprising and sometimes shocking incidents that occurred that are less well known - especially during the final chaotic days of the conflict. This lecture will explore the desperate and bizarre actions of the Nazis at the end of the war and the challenges confronting the allies in rescuing Holocaust prisoners, as well as the difficulties historians face in uncovering and making sense of such stories and the role of government in declassifying war documents.

Robert Watson is a Professor of American Studies at Lynn University. A frequent media commentator, he has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, "Time," "USA Today," "The New York Times," and the BBC and others, and has appeared on C-SPAN's "Book TV," "Hardball with Chris Matthews," and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." He has received multiple Professor of the Year awards at Lynn and other universities, published 40 books on topics in history and politics, and his book "America's First Crisis" won the book of the year award in history at the Independent Publishers' awards.

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM

America's New Era: The Rise of Radicalization and the Psychology of Terrorism

James Forest / University of Massachusetts Lowell

Terrorism is a complex, multifaceted human behavior that is influenced by a combination of personal grievances, ideas and surrounding contexts. An individual's perceptions and beliefs about the world are at the core of most terrorist activity, and this leads to the study of radicalization - the ways in which a terrorist group influences people and convinces them to support their strategy and tactics. A person can become radicalized through a variety of dynamic interactions with a terrorist group's ideology, which typically emphasizes a need for changes in policy, regime, territory, religion, and so forth—changes that they believe cannot be achieved without the use of violence.

This course will explore the research on how people are influenced and motivated toward committing (or supporting) acts of terrorism, and the contexts in which radicalization has been most likely. By the end of the course, you will better understand the spectrum of political and revolutionary ideologies that have fueled terrorism in recent decades, the reasons why terrorist ideologies resonate among certain communities or individuals, what psychology has found about personal attributes that contribute to terrorism, the relationship between terrorist radicalization and the media, and implications of this discussion for countering terrorist radicalization in our communities.

James Forest is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He was selected by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy as one of "America's most esteemed terrorism and national security experts." He is also Senior Fellow at U.S. Joint Special Operations University as well as a Visiting Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Professor Forest has published 20 books and dozens of articles on his work, and he has testified before Congressional hearings, served as an expert witness for terrorism-related court cases, and has been interviewed by many television, newspaper, and radio journalists in the U.S. and other countries.

CONCERT

St. Thomas Church
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys
New York Baroque
Daniel Hyde - Conductor

Featured Performers:
Lawrence Jones, Evangelist
Sarah Brailey & Clara Rottsolk, Sopranos
Eric Brenner, Countertenor
Mark Bleeke, Tenor
Daniel Moore, Bass

Haydn - Symphony No 49, 'Passion Symphony'
C. P. E. Bach - Klopstocks Morgengesang Am Schöpfungsfeste (Klopstock's Morning Song of Creation)
C. P. E. Bach - Saint John Passion (1772)

"C.P.E. Bach followed in his father’s footsteps as a prolific composer of vocal and instrumental music. Dating from his years in Hamburg, the St. John Passion sets music not only by C.P.E., but also incorporates some movements from his godfather Telemann and his father’s own setting of the same Gospel narrative. Klopstock’s Morning Song of Creation has resonances with Haydn’s oratorio, not least in its opening sunrise. And in keeping with the season of Passiontide, we open with Haydn’s lesser-known Passion Symphony no. 49."

“Emanuel is known for bridging the gap between the baroque and classical eras, and [St. John Passion] indicates why. It sounds like something his dad might have written, but a mellowed-out version, eschewing knotted lines in favour of elegant simplicity.”