Next Year’s Lecture Series
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
by john.murnane
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Steal This Podium:
Worcester Academy Alumni Authors
2011-12
At Worcester Academy’s Ross Auditorium, Warner Theater
* * *
At boarding school I was always taught,
Not to reveal what I really thought,
Nor ever once let my eyes betray
the dreadful things that I longed to say
* * *
These are lines from a 1929 song, “I’m in Love,” by Cole Porter, one of Worcester Academy’s most well known alums. Biographer William McBrien claims that Porter chafed under the watchful eye of Headmaster Dr. Daniel Abercrombie–called into his office for risqué performances of “The Bearded Lady” and other spoofs as a member of the WA class of 1909. Porter’s generation may have been taught to keep a tight lip, but this was clearly not the case for subsequent generations of Worcester Academy students. They’ve had plenty to say, from Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book (the best known work by an alum and thus the title of this series) to Richard Wolfson’s acclaimed Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified to a host of others–Rewriting Shakespeare, Rewriting Ourselves by Peter Erickson, Samuel Adams: A Life by Ira Stoll, God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation are Changing America by Naomi Schaefer Riley, to name a few.
Celebrating the many scholarly contributions of Academy graduates and their engagement in the world at large, Open Gates, Alumni House, and the Worcester Academy library welcomed David Muller ’66 to campus on Thursday, October 14th 2010. Mr. Muller, author of China as a Maritime Power, “cut the ribbon” at the official opening of the “Academy Collection of Arts and Letters.” The collection, which is permanently on display in the library at Worcester Academy, is comprised of books and articles published by Worcester Academy alumni and faculty. As a further step, the Open Gates lecture series for 2011-12 will feature alumni authors. Each will discuss the content of their particular publications as well as the craft of writing and publishing. The series will be co-hosted by Dr. John Murnane and Jack Haringa. Dr. Murnane is the Director of Academic Programs at Worcester Academy and has published several articles. Jack M. Haringa is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Shirley Jackson Awards. He is an author and Chair of the English Department at Worcester Academy, as well as co-editor, with S.T. Joshi, of the critical journal Dead Reckonings.
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Rebecca Vaudreuil
Thursday, September 8th/ 7-8 p.m.
Author of Group Music Therapy Intervention: Working In Neurologic Rehabilitation and Music Therapy and the Military: Working with Individual and Group Active Service Members and Veterans (forthcoming), Rebecca is a Worcester Academy alum who earned her Bachelors of Music in music therapy at Berklee College of Music in Boston. A board certified music therapist, she also has her fellowship in Neurologic Music Therapy and is a Neo-Natal music therapy specialist. Rebecca currently resides in San Diego, CA and works throughout San Diego County. She is the Junior Joy Giver Program Director for Resounding Joy and also works at Learning Services, Inc. a center for traumatic brain injury in Escondido, CA; St. Madeline’s Sophie Center, an educational training center for developmentally delayed adults in El Cajon; Rady Children’s Hospital with cardiology patients, and in the San Diego Unified School District with children in special needs classroom settings. Rebecca also has a passion for international music therapy and has traveled to Japan, Africa and Jamaica to engage in and provide music therapy services in schools, orphanages, and infirmaries. She is planning a trip to India in 2012 to work in palliative and hospice care.
Naomi Schaefer Riley
Thursday, October 27th/ 7- 8 p.m.
Formally of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, “Washington, D.C.’s premier institute dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy” and the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Riley is a contributing writer at The American Enterprise and a frequent contributor to the Boston Globe, and National Review. Her articles have also appeared in the Weekly Standard, the New Republic, Commentary, Crisis, the Public Interest, and First Things. Since graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1998, she has worked as assistant editor of Commentary, as well as an editorial intern at the Wall Street Journal editorial page and National Review. She has been the recipient of the Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Journalism Fellowship, the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, and the Charles G. Koch Fellowship. She is the author of God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation are Changing America and The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get The College Education You Pay For.
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