Spring Newsletter 2013

Seven members of the department’s Cadet Fine Arts Film Forum, accompanied by MAJ Erin Hadlock, attended the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, from 23-27 January. 

On 13 January, Dr. Marc Napolitano and MAJ Erin Hadlock chaperoned an Opera Forum trip section to see the new film Les Miserables. Recently nominated for eight Academy Awards and five Golden Globes, the film is a cinematic adaptation of Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil’s landmark musical, which is in turn an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s epic novel of the same name.

On November 26th, sixty cadets from the Philosophy Forum met to debate whether or not government is obligated to abide by natural law principles.  Judge Andrew Napolitano, FOXNEWS Senior Judicial Analyst, facilitated the discussion which took the form of a town-hall meeting.

EN101 Composition faculty concluded an nine lesson sequence in which they focused on energy-related issues.  The sequence, titled "The Energy Block," participated in the Core Interdisciplinary Team project whereby cadets in core courses studied energy as an interdisciplinary subject with scientific, mathematical, cultural, political, economic, military, and historical dimensions.

Last week, the APL majors in COL Mike Stoneham’s EP433 Senior Seminar presented a wide variety of creative capstone projects synthesizing what they learned about the human-machine interface, the subject of the seminar. 

On Monday, 19 November, the Opera Forum held its final meeting of the semester.  To conclude the group’s discussion of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold, OIC Dr. Marc Napolitano lectured on Wagner’s legacy in the fantasy genre, noting his narrative influence on writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. 

On 1 December, seven cadets from the Elsie Sannes-Pinnell Art Appreciation Forum traveled to NYC’s Museum of Modern Art. Highlights from the visit included Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. The trip concluded with a nighttime view of the NYC skyline from the Rockefeller Center observation deck.

On 1 December, the USMA Ethics Bowl team competed in the New England Ethics Bowl competition, held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Eighteen teams from fifteen colleges and universities throughout the northeast participated. Overall, the event was an excellent opportunity to exchange arguments with peers on important moral issues pertaining to public policy and business ethics.

Professor Marc Napolitano performed his annual rendition of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol for the Department of English and Philosophy circle of faculty, family, and friends on Sunday, 9 December, in the Haig Room, Jefferson Library. 

On 13 November, cadets in EN102 (Literature) were visited by Bill and Vicky Stewart, collectors of limited edition, handmade artist's books, for a presentation and exhibition. Cadets had an opportunity to handle books that directly challenged their notion of the book as a physical object, with many books requiring their active participation.

On 14 and 15 November, cadets enrolled in the philosophy track of the EP487 Senior Thesis course made formal presentations on their senior thesis topics to the philosophy doctoral faculty and an audience of instructors and fellow cadets.  

Anne Marie Schoonhoven explains one of Storm King Art Center’s outdoor sculptures to EP433 students

The Native American Heritage Forum, in conjunction with the USMA Equal Opportunity Office and the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, sponsored the 2012 Native American Indian Heritage Month Observance in the West Point Ballroom on 16 November.

Dr. Marc Napolitano attended the Midwest Modern Language Association conference in Cincinnati, OH, (11/08-11/11).  His paper assessed Charles Dickens’s “debts” to illustrator George Cruikshank regarding the theatrical and cinematic afterlives of “Oliver Twist.”

On 25 October, Professor Stephen Coleman met with PY201 (Philosophy) faculty to discuss teaching military ethics and his new book, which is titled Military Ethics: An Introduction with Case Studies. 

On 29 and 30 October, Dr. Patrick Query lectured on the art of bullfighting to two Spanish Civilization classes taught by Dr. Laura Vidler of DFL. Dr. Query has long been an aficionado of the bullfight and has written and spoken widely on the subject.

On 1 November, Dr. Terri Sabatos led thirty-four cadets on a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, enriching their educational experience by viewing the art and cultural artifacts they had studied in class. 

Eight cadets from the Elsie Sannes-Pinnell Art Appreciation Forum, an element of the Cadet Fine Arts Forum, traveled to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on 20 October 2012.

On 23 October 2012, the Opera Forum held a concert in the Haig Room of Jefferson Library featuring USMA graduate and trained opera singer Lorna Case (Class of 1999), Russian mezzo-soprano Viktoriya Bright, and pianist Dr. Barbara Bacik Case.

On 16 October, the Department of English and Philosophy hosted a mixer for cadets enrolled in the Art, Philosophy, and Literature major.  In addition to welcoming the sixteen new APL majors from the Class of 2015, cadets and faculty enjoyed the opportunity to mix and mingle over lunch in Cullum Hall.

On 20 October, the Department of English and Philosophy hosted its Fall Family Festival at West Point’s Victor Constant Ski Lodge.  The purpose of the evening was to allow faculty and family members to socialize, relax, and enjoy each other’s company in the midst of a busy semester.

On 12 October, Dr. Marc Napolitano presented his paper, “Guidance from the (m)other side: deceased mothers as moral guides in Dickens and Rowling,” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association/Midwest American Culture Association conference in Columbus, Ohio.

EN101 Composition and EN302 Advanced Composition faculty traveled to Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York to attend the annual William Starr Lecture on freshman writing.

Poets sought not only to evaluate their personal experiences, but also their roles as officers and leaders in an evolving, unstable world. 

On September 10th and 24th, forty cadets in the USMA Opera Forum met to watch the first two acts of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold,” the first opera in Wagner’s epic tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

On Thursday, 27 September, EN101 Composition faculty hosted a visit by Dr. Kurt Spellmeyer, Writing Program Director at Rutgers University. Dr. Spellmeyer is one of the co-editors of the EN101 course text, The New Humanities Reader, as well as the author of several books of his own that address composition course practice and the general state of academia.

On 29 August 2012, Dr. Terri Sabatos, Department of English and Philosophy, accompanied ten cadets to New York City to visit the International Museum of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art.  Cadets viewed some of the images they are studying in EP371, History of Photography.  They also toured two special exhibitions: “President in Petticoats! Civil War Propaganda in Photographs,” and “Weegee: Murder is my Business.”

On 24 August, faculty who teach PY201 (Philosophy) met with Dr. Barry Lam (Vassar College), Dr. Jamie Kelly (Vassar College), and Dr. James Snyder (Marist College) during the Seminar on Designing and Teaching Introduction to Philosophy Courses.  Seminar participants exchanged ideas about how to improve student learning in introduction to philosophy courses, with a focus on teaching critical thinking, course assignments and texts, and common challenges faced when teaching introduction to philosophy courses.  Participants also established plans for future collaboration regarding these and other issues related to teaching philosophy at the undergraduate level.

LTC Peter Molin presented a paper on antebellum working-class periodicals at the American Literary Association conference, held 24-27 May 2012 in San Francisco.  The title of LTC Molin’s paper was “Missed Opportunity or Misunderstood?  The Case of the Baltimore Young Men’s Paper.”  The title of LTC Molin’s panel was Periodicals and Working-Class Culture:  the 19th Century.

As part of our outreach to the Army and continued collaboration with the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE), Department of English and Philosophy faculty members provided input and feedback to two Army publications which are expected to be released to the Army in 2013.  LTC Brian Imiola provided input to Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP) 1-0 which will augment ADP, 1, The Army.  ADRP 1-0 is designed to define and doctrinally describe the Army Profession and Ethic and to provide the foundation for Army training and education on the Army Profession, its Ethic, and the character development of its members.  Dr. Melissa Bergeron provided feedback on TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-7, United States Army Human Dimension Concept.  This pamphlet describes and provides a guide for how the Army will use the human dimension as a common framework for adapting and preparing for future operational environments.  Collaboration with CAPE continues to be a focus for the department’s outreach to the Army and as a developmental opportunity for our faculty. 

On 19 July 2012, Colonel John Nelson spoke to an audience at the Cornwall Public Library, Cornwall-on-Hudson, about Iranian cinema and the Iranian film director Majid Majidi.  He then showed Majidi's 1997 film Children of Heaven.

From 26 to 29 July, LTC Chris Mayer attended the American Association of Philosophy Teachers conference at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.  At the conference, LTC Mayer, who is the course director for PY201 (Philosophy), led a workshop titled “Developing Goals for and Assessing Learning in an Introduction to Philosophy Course.”  Workshop participants learned how to align the goals of an introduction to philosophy course with institutional learning goals; they also examined assessment data and discussed what it meant in terms of how well students were achieving the course’s learning goals.  After their review of the course goals and assessment data, participants discussed ways to improve learning in both introductory philosophy courses and PY201. 

From 10-12 July 2012, LTC Chris Mayer attended a Teagle Assessment Scholar workshop at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire.  At the workshop, faculty members and administrators from around the country presented ideas and research on improving student learning.  LTC Mayer led a session on assessing one of the West Point Leader Development System outcomes.  Session participants examined assessment results collected by various programs and organizations at West Point and then offered their thoughts on how well cadets were achieving the selected outcome, how to improve this achievement, and how to improve the assessment process itself.  LTC Mayer is a member of the 2011 cohort of the Teagle Assessment Scholar Development Program; participation in this program requires attendance at workshops such as the one at Franklin Pierce University and service as a member of teams that visit other institutions. 

On 19 April, fifteen Art, Philosophy and Literature and Social Sciences majors participated in a one-day visit to Vassar College as part of the Mellon Civilian-Military Initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  The initiative’s purpose is to encourage collaboration between service academies and other institutions of higher education.  The day’s events included lunch with Vassar students and faculty, campus tours, class visits, and attendance at a reading by Benjamin Busch, a Vassar graduate and United States Marine Corps veteran of Iraq who has just published a book of memoirs entitled Dust to Dust.  Also participating in the visit were Department of English and Philosophy Deputy Head COL Scott Krawczyk, LTC Peter Molin, also of the Department of English and Philosophy, and COL Suzanne Nielsen, Department of Social Sciences.  The representatives from USMA were joined by COL Kathleen Harrington, the Head of the Department of English at the United States Air Force Academy, and LTC Martha Fontain, formerly of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering at West Point and now stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  The military faculty participated in a roundtable discussion with Vassar faculty and met separately with Vassar President Dr. Catherine Bond Hill and Vassar’s Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Jon Chenette.

On 3 May, the Department of English and Philosophy hosted the opening exhibition and ceremony of the Creative Arts Project on Projects Day in Cullum Hall’s Pershing Room.  The purpose of the Creative Arts Project is to connect West Point cadets and faculty with wounded warriors, veterans, and the civilian community in the collaborative pursuit of artistic creativity.  It builds on USMA’s longstanding commitment to provide cadets resources and opportunities to pursue their interests and talents in the arts.  Through this initiative, the Department seeks to develop in cadets understanding of the creative energies that infuse the profession of arms and ability to comprehend ambiguity and differing perspectives.  The exhibition featured artwork by sculptor Ken Hruby (USMA 61); painter and veteran Michael Figueroa; multi-media artist and veteran Erin Byers; and photographer-veterans Benjamin Busch, Bill Putnam, and MAJ Alan Brown.  The exhibit also included artwork by current and former cadets.  An exhibit on the History of Art at West Point was also on display.  The ceremony featured remarks by Ken Hruby; a reading by poet and veteran Paul Wasserman; music by SPC Zac Short; and performances by cadets Kelley Duke, Lamar Hawkins, and Alan Boesen.

On Friday, 13 April, the Department of English and Philosophy and the Cadet Fine Arts Forum hosted Night of the Arts 2012, the forum’s culminating event for the year.  With approximately 60 cadets, 20 faculty members, and 20 members of the larger West Point community attending, Dr. Vivian Shipley, Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and editor of the Connecticut Review, opened the evening with remarks about her life as a poet and professor. COL James R. Kerin, Jr., then presented awards to 18 cadets in six categories:  Poetry, Prose, Studio Art, Photography, Film, and Spoken Word.  The audience was also treated to the musical talents of two cadet singers.  Cadet Kelley Duke sang the Italian aria “Caro Mio Ben” accompanied on piano by Cadet Alyssa Sohn, and Cadet Daniel Trainor sang “Why God Why,” a song from Miss Saigon, accompanied by Cadet Elliot Hughes.

COL John Nelson co-authored an interdisciplinary paper entitled “Confronting Automated Law Enforcement.” Collaborating with Professor Woodrow Hartzog of Samford University and COL Lisa Shay, COL Greg Conti, and MAJ Dominic Larkin of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, COL Nelson authored the section of the paper on the social cost of automated law enforcement.  The paper was presented on 21 April at “We Robot,” a “conference on legal and policy issues relating to robotics” sponsored by the University of Miami School of Law. 

Professor Elizabeth D. Samet has been named a 2012 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in the area of Creative Arts, General Nonfiction.  Her fellowship will support the research and writing of “Crimes of Odysseus:  Imagining Postwar America,” a book about mythologies of the war veteran in American culture, specifically in Hollywood cinema.  This year the Foundation “awarded Fellowships to a diverse group of 181 scholars, artists, and scientists in its eighty-eighth annual competition for the United States and Canada.  Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants” (http://www.gf.org/news-events).  Past winners include John Updike, Frances FitzGerald, Martha Graham, Linus Pauling, and Henry Kissinger.

On April 5 & 6, Professor Richard Schoonhoven attended the Pacific Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association in Seattle, Washington, where he commented on papers by David Rodin (University of Oxford), Richard Miller (Cornell University), and Helen Frowe (University of Kent) in a symposium on Ethics and War. 

MAJ Maurice Wilson was the guest speaker during the Blue and Gold Banquet for local Cub Scout packs and their families on Friday, 13 April, at the Cortlandt Colonial in Westchester County.  The annual event is a chance for the scout packs to celebrate their year’s activities, recognize individual achievements, and thank pack leaders.  MAJ Wilson, speaking to an audience of forty scouts and their families, remarked on living a life rooted in strong values, being a good citizen and leader, the value of a West Point education, serving the country with pride and courage, and—in his capacity as a proud Army aviator—flying planes and helicopters.

Philosophy instructor MAJ Alex Weis and USMA Band member SFC Sam Kaestner, in conjunction with the West Point Woodwind Quintet plus piano, collaborated on the “Evolution of Beauty” evening lecture on 5 April in Jefferson Hall’s Haig Room.  Encouraging cadets to think associatively and innovatively, the event illustrated how art and music from Neoclassical, Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism traditions can facilitate and complement the exploration of larger philosophical ideas.

On 19 March, LTC Peter Molin was the featured speaker at the West Point Ladies Reading Club’s 118th Birthday Luncheon.  LTC Molin’s subject was “Fact, Fiction, or Somewhere in Between?:  Historical Fiction and the Old South.”  His talk complemented the club’s reading of Sally Hemings: A Novel, by Barbara Chase-Ribaud, which vividly reimagines the story of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his slave mistress.

On 31 March, Dr. Marc Napolitano, whose scholarly specialty is the work of Charles Dickens, participated in the kickoff weekend of a seven-month series of events called “Dickens in Lowell” in Lowell, Massachusetts—all in commemoration of the Dickens Bicentennial, which is a matter of significant international interest.  Dr. Napolitano, who complements his scholarly endeavors with performances of Dickens’s work, gave two dramatic presentations: one for children (using puppets), and the other for adults, in which he presented a speech written by Dickens during the author's 1842 trip to Lowell.  Dr. Napolitano also spoke at the Whistler House Museum, discussing the lives and careers of George Washington Whistler (a West Point graduate and distinguished Army engineer) and his son, the great artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who attended West Point but did not graduate.

On 3 April, Professor Elizabeth Samet talked about her book Soldier's Heart at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, New York.  Her talk was part of the university's Writers Project Spring Lecture Series.  The event was cosponsored by the Military Club of SUNY Adirondack.

On 26 March, Professor Jeff McMahan, Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, led a faculty development session for the faculty of PY201 (Philosophy) and addressed the Cadet Fine Art Forum’s Philosophy Forum.  His faculty development session focused on the permissibility of going to war to defend against instances of lesser aggression.  His evening talk to the Philosophy Forum focused on whether terrorists should be treated as combatants or criminals.  As part of his visit, he also attended an APL elective class as well as a PY201 class.

Dr. Elizabeth Samet represented West Point at the WP Society of Heidelberg's Founder's Day dinner on 10 March 2012. She had the pleasure of speaking to many active-duty officers, among them several graduates of the Art, Philosophy, and Literature program: CPT Lorin Veigas (Class of 2005), 1LT Zack Willey (Class of 2009), and 2LT Mandi Rowell (Class of 2011).

Cadets in EN102, the Department of English and Philosophy's plebe literature course, had the extraordinary opportunity to work with professional actors from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in a series of acting workshops conducted 6 & 7 March in various venues around post. 

Cadets in EN102, the Department of English and Philosophy's plebe literature course, had the extraordinary opportunity to work with professional actors from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in a series of acting workshops conducted 6 & 7 March in various venues around post.

MAJ Maurice Wilson served as guest reader and speaker for the “Readers Are Leaders Day” at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Yorktown Heights, NY, on 2 March.  Students dressed as Dr. Seuss characters to commemorate the author’s birthday, which coincides with the national Read Across America day celebration.