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Study Groups Members sharing an interest in a topic or discipline form study groups for in-depth learning and discussion. Current study groups are: The Literary study group reads and discusses classics, possible future classics, and provocative works of World, American, and English literature. We include fiction, poetry, and drama. In the past few years we’ve studied titles by Robertson Davies, Homer, George Bernard Shaw, Aldus Huxley, Herman Melville, H. G. Wells, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Agee, Anthony Powell, among others. Most recently we’ve explored Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a trio of poems by William Butler Yeats, Mark Twain’s The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Helen Waddell’s Abelard: A Novel, Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, and selected poems by Thomas Hardy. We share responsibilities for choosing books and leading the discussions. Beginning at 10:30 a.m., our lively conversations continue over “brown bag lunch.” The host provides a dessert to share. Contact Harry Boyle at hhboyle28@cox.net. Works-in-Progress has been a resource for many SDIS members. As a member, you can attend these monthly sessions and react to all sorts of interesting projects. Over the years, we have served as “first responders” to poetry and translations, planned lectures and professional papers, book proposals, and works of history ranging from a medievalist’s study of 7th century saints, to an account of a local environmental group, to preliminary drafts of several books, later published, about American culture. Our group wants to help improve the work at hand, but tries not to do so aggressively or hurtfully. The only requirement for presenting your project is to attend at least one meeting, although getting better acquainted with the “regulars” could be helpful. WIP is temporarily chaired by a committee. Please contact Cathy Blecki at cblecki@pacbell.net. During late 1998, the first sentence in Chapter 4 of Longitude by Dana Sobel, "Time is to a clock as the mind is to the brain" stopped my reading as I considered: time is a man-made concept but the clock is organic, physical; the mind is a man-made concept but the brain is organic, physical.; so what is the mind; what is a thought? I engaged several SDIS members in the question and we decided to form a study group. The original group, an eclectic mixture of people trained in psychology, medicine, literature, biology, and history, decided that we would use the literature as a basis of our discussions. Members proposed future books to read which were chosen by consensus. Our adventures in reading have ranged widely: From Brains to Consciousness, edited by Steven Rose; Memory: From Mind to Molecules, by Squire and Kandel; Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama, edited by Houshmand, Livingston and Wallace; to our current reading, Brain-wise, by Patricia Churchland. Our discussions are always interesting, usually far-reaching, as each discussant feels free to bring to the forum professional as well as personal insights applicable to the reading material. We have strayed far afield from our original question and studied some brain anatomy, physiology and pathology to augment our understanding of how the mind and brain function. Group size has limited itself naturally to fewer than 10 participants. Visitors are always welcome. We meet at my apartment every 4-6 weeks depending on the members' schedules. Please contact me for more information at bea.rose@sbcglobal.net or call ( 858) 458-9263. Our newest Study Group is "Colloquy Café." The name suggests the eclectic nature and informal style of meetings at which Scholars share their diverse perspectives and experience on broad concepts such as freedom and liberty, happiness, aging, culture, identity, wisdom, reality, and more. At each meeting the conversation focuses on only one such concept. The dialog creates opportunities for more rounded and nuanced understanding of the subject. This, not consensus, is a goal of the dialog. So too is the pleasure of participating in a lively discussion with other Scholars. Because of the constraints of our hosts' home and the reflective nature of the discussion, meetings are limited to eleven participants. The Colloquy Café meets at the home of Sam Gusman, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., usually on the third Wednesday of the month. For further information contact Sam Gusman at sagus@sbcglobal.net. |
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