Social Studies Colloquium

A series of presentations designed to help high school teachers earn Continuing Education Credits, and to provide content that they may use in their classrooms. These sessions can be viewed live or click on the links below to watch them at your leisure, or use these as a resource for your students.

If you have difficulties in accessing the audio or video, please contact Russ Crawford at r-crawford.2@onu.edu.

Session 01: The Electoral College and Faithless Electors

September 22, 2010 Dr. Alexander spoke with the assembled teachers and students about the Electoral College, the institution that selects the President of the United States. He argued that while this system has advantages such as legitimizing the winners in presidential elections, and promoting a two-party system, it also violates the value of counting all votes equally. Winner take all states give all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state, regardless of whether the winner has one million more votes or one. It also gives disproportionate voting power to small states, but also due to the pressure to focus campaign efforts, means that these states rarely see a presidential candidate or campaign commercials.

Session 02: Jury Nullification and the Legal System

October 6, 2010 Dr. Jo Ann Scott spoke to a good crowd that included teachers and several students from Lima Senior High School. She began by outlining the importance of the jury system in American jurisprudence. There is a long history stretching back to before the Magna Carta in Britain, flowing through the colonial period, and continuing through the centuries since the American Revolution. Juries are integral to our system of justice, despite some critics who claim judges could make more equitable decisions. Scott told the audience that over the course of that history, we as a nation have determined that whenever a defendent is threatened with incarceration, they have the right to a trial by jury of their peers.

Session 03: Only 90 Miles Away: The Cuban Missile Crisis

October 20, 2010 Dr. Robert Waters began by providing some background to the crisis, including the Cuban Revolution, the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administration's attempts to overthrow the Castro regime, and superpower relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. He told the audience of a few of the Kennedy Administration's efforts to get rid of the communist regime in Cuba, which sometimes degenerated into the bizarre, such as plans to make Castro's beard fall out, denying him of his charisma, and a proposal to put explosives in a seashell so that when the dictator picked it up, it would blow his head off.

Session 04: The Sociology of Crowds: Celebration Riots in North American Sports

November 3, 2010 Ripped from the days headlines - San Francisco Giants fans staged a celebratory riot the night before - Dr. Carrothers explored the elements that must be present before sports fans in North America will riot. Carrothers took the audience trough sociological theory, particularly that of Emile Durkheim, who argued that a crowd often takes on a life of its own and forms "currents" that sweep fans along, allowing or causing them to perform acts that they would never do normally.

Session 05: Myth in History: Or, How Myth Defines Reality

November 10, 2010 Dr. John Lomax explored the difference between a mythological construction of the world and a philosophical construction, arguing that while philosophy explores the world that exists in nature, myth exists outside of nature. He argued that myth was a powerful tool for early societies to define reality. The Philosophical Revolution of the Enlightenment gave us a new way of looking at reality that often pushed myth to the sidelines. He posited a divide between myth and philosophy that saw myth as subjective causality - someone caused an event, and philosophy as presenting an objective causality, or things happening because of their nature.

Session 06: How Stress Affects Memory and Psychopathology

December 8, 2010 Dr. Phillip Zoladz used research from a few of his studies, including some held on ONU's campus this year and last year to show the correlation between stress and learning. Zoladz experimented on both rats and humans to see how stress affected their learning curves and maintenance of the material they learned. Zoladz was attempting to determine why some forms of stress improve memory and learning (such as flash bulb memories like 9/11) and some stressors actually cause us to forget what we have learned.

Session 07: Dr. David Smith- Water and Conflict in Central Asia?

January 12th, 2011 Dr. David Smith's presentation "Water and Conflict in Central Asia?" was an extremely intriguing geographical perspective considering water conflicts and tensions in several countries in central Asia. Based upon his extensive travels to Tajikistan and other areas, Dr. Smith has had some first-hand experience with these areas of conflict. Dr. Smith explained that throughout his career, he has tried to come to a conclusion as to whether water was a source of tension, or a resource used for uniting countries.

Session 08: Desktop Documentaries

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 Dr. James Schul presented a lecture on a new field of interest in education: Desktop Documentaries. Essentially what Desktop Documentaries are student-made compilations that present a topic of interest to the rest of the class. Using Ken Burns methods of juxtaposition, students can create documentaries that are expository or poetic.

Session 09: Adam Smith & Capitalism

February 9, 2011 Dr. McClough presented a fairly entertaining, albeit historically inaccurate discussion concerning Adam Smith and his economic principles. Dr. McClough structured his talk to mirror the interests of people involved in the social sciences. By providing historical context like the intellectual, political, and economic climates surrounding Adam Smith, McClough showed how Smith came to the economic conclusions for which he is famous. Mcclough also presented Adam Smith as a controversial figure, and he attempted to determine whether Smith was an extreme radical, or a conservative. Dr. McClough allowed historians to see into the life of Smith: his biographical information, contributions to humanity, and his legacy.

Session 10: Rwanda & Sierra Leone, Case for Robust Peacekeeping

March 16th, 2011 Dr. Kofi Nsia-Pepra began his argument for robust peacekeeping on Wednesday, March 26th, by explaining his personal experiences in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Before Nsia-Pepra became a professor, he spent some time serving as a United Nations peacekeeper. He described his missions in Rwanda and Sierra Leone and the atrocities he witnessed in both places. He also described his frustration at being unable to help the citizens suffering around him due to UN traditional peacekeeping training and restrictions.