1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

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Central Music Academy moving to Transylvania

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LEXINGTON, Ky.— The Central Music Academy—a non-profit organization that provides free music education for low-income youths—is moving to a house on Transylvania University’s campus. The move to 338 North Upper Street will provide CMA students with a safe, centralized location to receive instruction. The organization strengthens the Lexington community one child at a time by building personal capacity, discipline, self-esteem and musical skills in high-risk youth. Lessons will begin there on Jan. 8. Providing a space for them is one of many ways Transylvania partners with the Lexington community—such as the Unlearn Fear + Hate art project and the university’s Pioneer Pathways program, which includes college and career readiness workshops and mentoring for high school students. The Central Music Academy is the only school in central Kentucky that provides free, weekly, half-hour private music lessons—on any instrument, genre or skill level—to a diverse group of children who qualify for free or reduced school lunches. Since CMA was founded in 2004, it has given more than 30,000 free private lessons to more than 900 children. These students have successfully auditioned into the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras; Lexington’s School for the Performing Arts; and all-district and all-state band, choir and orchestra. “The house will be the perfect spot for CMA, and we are so grateful to the Transylvania University faculty, staff, students and community for allowing us to use the space,” said program director Erin Walker Bliss. Transylvania, located in the heart

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TransyPods – Interview with Professor of History, Dr. Ken Slepyan

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Campus Conversations – Tyler Lega with history professor, Dr. Ken Slepyan Listen to the interview with Dr. Ken Slepyan Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Welcome to another Campus Conversation. Discussions with Transylvania University faculty highlighting their interests, passions, and pursuits. Here is Tyler Lega. TYLER LEGA: This is another Campus Conversation, and I’m your host, Tyler Lega. And with me today is Dr. Ken Slepyan. A little bit of a quick background about Dr. Slepyan. This will be his 22nd year at Transylvania University. He received his bachelor’s at Williams College, his master’s and PhD in history at the University of Michigan. Some of his research deals with the Soviet Union and Russia, modern European history, the Holocaust, and war and society. Some of the awards that Dr. Slepyan has won have been the Bingham Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Charles Revson Fellow from the US Holocaust Museum, and a grant from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. And to get started today, if you can talk about some of the reasons why you were so passionate about your field of study. KEN SLEPYAN: Well, that’s a fairly long story. I’ll try to keep it short. When I was coming of age in the 1980s, the Soviet Union, of course, was the major enemy of the United States in the Cold War. And so I was interested in it from the perspective of trying to know

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Leading Jewish-Muslim authority to speak at Transylvania University

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LEXINGTON, Ky.— Reuven Firestone, who is a leading national authority on Jewish-Muslim relations, will give the Moosnick Lectureship in Judaic Studies at Transylvania University on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Firestone’s talk, “How the Birth-Pangs of Religion Complicate Peacemaking Between Faith Communities,” will begin at 7 p.m. in Carrick Theater. “The selection of professor Firestone as this year’s Moosnick lecturer in Judaic Studies is particularly significant,” said Transylvania religion professor Paul Jones. “Because many of the globe’s hotspots involve religion, it is imperative that we listen and learn from an informed voice who has spent his academic life dedicated to understanding and respecting the religious other.” As part of Firestone’s visit to Lexington, he will speak on Nov. 16 at Ohavay Zion Synagogue. The topic of the 7 p.m. talk will be “Diversity of Religious Expression in Islam.” Both lectures will be free and open to the public. Firestone has received numerous fellowships and authored books including “Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims” and “An Introduction to Islam for Jews.” Born in Northern California, he was educated at Antioch College and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received his M.A. in Hebrew literature and Rabbinic Ordination at Hebrew Union College; and he earned his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from New York University. Firestone’s campus talk and the other endowed lectures at Transylvania this academic year follow the theme of “Unlearn Fear + Hate,” a public art project by

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Transylvania professor receives John William Miller Research Fellowship

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Williamstown, Mass.—Peter S. Fosl, professor of philosophy at Transylvania University, has been selected as the next recipient of the John William Miller Research Fellowship. The John William Miller Fellowship Fund offers financial backing to scholars researching and writing book-length works addressing the philosophy of John William Miller. With the support of the Fellowship Fund, Fosl will explore the place of philosophical skepticism in Miller’s work. In his planned book, he will draw on Miller’s conceptions of the midworld, the act and criticism articulated in Miller’s five books, including “The Paradox of Cause,” and “The Task of Criticism.” “I am deeply honored to be named the next Miller Fellow and have the opportunity to devote a year of scholarly writing and inquiry in order to better understand the distinctive way Miller’s thought illuminates and responds to the challenges of skepticism,” Fosl said. “Miller’s student, Joseph P. Fell, introduced me to Miller’s thinking and set the coordinates of my philosophical life while I was a philosophy student at Bucknell in the early 1980s. Now, after ranging across the history of philosophy for more than 30 years, I am eager to return to the seminal thoughts of Miller and Fell, and consider them afresh.”  The $45,000 award allows worthy scholars the means to devote substantial time to research and writing. “Professor Fosl has proposed a work that will both explore and challenge the premises of Miller’s thought,” said Michael J. McGandy, chair of

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TransyPods – Interview with Professor of Political Science, Dr. Don Dugi

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Tristan Reynolds interviews Dr. Don Dugi about the 2016 presidential election. Listen to the interview with Dr. Don Dugi Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: Welcome to another Campus Conversation– Discussions with Transylvania University Faculty, highlighting their interests, passions, and pursuits. Here is Tristan Reynolds. TRISTAN REYNOLDS: I’m here today, to talk with Dr. Don Dugi, a professor of political science at Transylvania University. And we’re going to talk a little bit about the 2016 election. In the past 72 hours, Hillary Clinton has given a speech on ending deep poverty. Half a dozen women have come out to accuse Donald Trump of various forms of sexual assault. The emails of a senior Hillary Clinton advisor have been released by the organization, WikiLeaks, possibly with the assistance of the Russian Security Bureau. And it’s only 10 o’clock in the morning. So here’s the first question. How many of those things will matter at all, to the end result? DON DUGI: Probably, not much because there’ll be a whole new array of issues tomorrow. Some will follow-up on what you just mentioned, but there probably, will be others, as well. Whether or not the accusations of sexual impropriety on the part of Trump or whatever correspondent’s problems occurred through the emails, it remains to be seen. We’ve been beaten around the head and shoulders with this information now for several weeks so we may be reaching a saturation point on some of. TRISTAN

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