The Harbinger

July 12, 2005

 

Hiram Co-Hosts National Symposium on Human Enhancement Technologies


The Center for Literature, Medicine and the Health Care Professions at Hiram College, in collaboration with Cleveland State University and the Bioethics Network of Ohio, will sponsor a symposium on ethical issues related to human enhancement technologies July 14-17 at the Joseph E. Cole Center on the campus of Cleveland State University.

The symposium, “Human Enhancement Technologies: Through the Looking Glass of Drama,” will bring to Northeast Ohio some of the country’s most respected bioethicists, authors, and physicians. Participants will examine – through presentations, papers, panels, and drama – the ethics of attempting to improve one’s self, one’s children, or one’s species through human enhancement technologies. Issues such as cloning and extending human life will be explored through four plays, several short stories, and excerpts from classic works.

Sessions will focus on questions such as:

    * How far beyond good health should we go in our attempt to improve the human body and its functioning?
    * What are the personal and social repercussions of our attempt to normalize the way we look and act?
    * What happens to the nature of competition when enhancement short cuts are available for some but not for all?

Speakers include Carl Elliott from the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota (pictured above); Eric Juengst, Director of the Case Western Reserve University Center for Genetic Research; Jeff Nisker, OBGYN and Coordinator of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the Schulich School of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario; Roxanne Mykitiuk, Associate Professor of Law at the Osgoode Law School, York University; Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford; and Harvey Pekar, graphic novelist and jazz critic featured in American Splendor.

“Our summer symposium is unique because of our approach of examining major biomedical issues through drama, fiction, and poetry,” said Hiram College President Thomas V. Chema. “It is an interdisciplinary approach to some of the most complex and rapidly changing issues facing our world today. Our participants are an eclectic mix of health care professionals, bioethicists, literary scholars, educators, actors and writers.”

The Center for Literature, Medicine and the Health Care Professions was created in 1990 as a collaborative project of Hiram College and the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM). Co-Directors of the Center are Carol Donley, Professor of English and the Andrews Professor of Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College, and Martin Kohn, retired Director of the Human Values in Medicine Program and Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences at NEOUCOM. For more information on the Center, visit http://litmed.hiram.edu/index.html.

Coordinated with the symposium is a three-day workshop for high school and middle school teachers of science, health, and language arts to be held on the campus of Hiram College July 11-13. The workshop will explore issues of biotechnologies and enhancement and offers three graduate credit hours from Hiram College for attendance at the workshop and symposium. For information, contact mais@hiram.edu or call 330-569-6161. Continuing education credits are also available through the Division of Continuing Education at Cleveland State University. Call 216-687-2144 for more information.

Mushroom Society Meets at Field Station


The Hiram College Field Station will be hosting the Ohio Mushroom Society summer foray this weekend, July 15-17. 

The Ohio Mushroom Society is an organization of all volunteers who share an intense interest in mushrooms and related activities: learning identification, cultivation, cooking, photography to name a few.  Membership spans all over Ohio and some in neighboring states. The Mushroom Log is published bi-monthly and is available on line at www.ohiomushroom.org. Each year there are two major forays:  one in summer and one in fall.  Other opportunities are mini-forays planned at various locations around the state, many in the state parks. 

The featured speaker will be Ernst Both, Curator Emeritus of Mycology at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Dr. Both is the author of The Boletes of North America: A Compendium. His expertise on boletes helps us all learn. The topic of his talk will be "New Light on Bolete Relationships".

Ohio Mushroom Society Summer Foray
July 16-17, 2005
J.H. Barrow Biological Field Station

Friday, July 15: 6:30 pm to approx. 9:30 pm Social Gathering
Old Mill Ice Cream Shop and Brew Pub, Garrettsville, Ohio

Saturday, July 16: Observation Bldg.at the Field Station, Wheeler Road.
9-9:30 am Hospitality and Sign-in
9:30 am Announcements for our foray & Welcome from Matt Sorrick, Director
The Center for Science Education at Hiram College
10:00-11:45 am Foray I
NOON Lunch at Observation Bldg. Potluck donations gladly accepted
(Classroom Bldg open for visitation to see Natural History displays)
1-- 1:25 pm Matt Bartolotta program on "Amanitaceae and A. Muscaria"
1:30-3:15 pm Foray II
3:45-4:45 pm Dr. Ernst Both, Featured Speaker "New Light on Bolete Relationships"
5-5:45 pm Table Walk and I.D. Discussion
6:15/6:30 dinner at Sean’s Pub & Eatery/Slim & Jumbo’s in Garrettsville.
on left side of Main St. with parking behind restaurant

Sunday, July 17: Observation Bldg
9-9:30 am Hospitality/ share and download digital photos
9:45-11 am Foray III or Matt Sorrick led hike
NOON clean-up and depart

All members of the community are welcome to attend any or all of the weekend activities.  For questions, please contact Matt Sorrick at 6003.

Celtic Music Group to Perform Saturday


 

Music professor Tina Dreisbach will be leading the Top O’ the Hill Celtic music group Saturday at the Geauga County Historical Society’s Brigadoon Celtic Festival.  The group will be performing at the Burton Century Village from 3 - 4:30 p.m.

Dreisbach will be playing the Irish flute.  She will be joined in the group by her husband Paul, who will be playing the Uilleann Pipes (Irish bagpipes) as well as whistle.  Other performers include Hiram alum Ellen Eckhouse on the Celtic Harp and Dale Lacan on guitar.  The performance is free and open to the public.



Don't forget this week's Tyst performance: Jussi Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s

Let Tyst take you on a ride to Granny’s house in July.


Tyst, a Cleveland-based performing arts organization specializing in modern Scandinavian performances, is presenting Jussi Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s through July 17 as part of a summer-long partnership with Hiram College.

Performances will be held in Bates Hall’s Hayden Auditorium on the Hiram College campus at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Ticket prices range between $15 and $20. To order, call 216-771-9118 for individual sales and 330-569-5900 for group sales.

The second of four plays in the partnership between Tyst and Hiram College, Wahlgren’s Dead and Gone to Granny’s is a macabre tragi-comedy from Finland about Patrick, a depressed businessman and aspiring violinist who has lost all his money and his wife and kids. When he attempts to film his suicide for his brother Freddie’s TV show, things go awry. Patrick returns as an angel to play violin and discuss with Freddie their bitter past.

Additional Information