March 6, 2017
EPIC News and Events

From the President's Desk

I’m beginning to feel like a broken record: I need to report, yet again, that we were presented with an impressive monthly Thursday talk by a young scholar! Psychologist Dr. Natalie Brito, who is completing her post-doc at the CUMC Sackler Institute Parent-Infant Project and soon to become an assistant professor at NYU, gave a fascinating presentation on learning abilities and childhood bilingualism. Having been raised in a multilingual home, I had always felt it to be an advantage to think and understand in more than one language but the advantages do not appear to be equal across the social spectrum. Not surprisingly, in general, the more impoverished one is, the poorer one fares. We also learned the rather stunning fact that many school boards across the nation label bilingualism a learning disability – surely a bit more nuance ought to be applied to that generalization, and perhaps a glance given to underlying alternative explanations?

Once again we EPIC members demonstrated what a challenge it is to deliver a seminar to us. Dr. Brito did an excellent job of responding to our many questions, comments and interruptions, while still managing to get through most of her prepared presentation with grace and good humor. Brava!

Really looking forward to this Tuesday’s Talk, when EPIC’s good friend and sponsor, Dick Pierson, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine will lead a guest panel: "Staying Connected: Opportunities to Participate in the Life of the University in the Retirement Years."  Do come and think about staying for lunch at Faculty House at the reduced EPIC rate.

Have a good day! 

Jeanne Mager Stellman, President, EPIC
Professor Emerita & Special Lecturer
Mailman School of Public Health
Tuesday, March 7
"Staying Connected in the Retirement Years"
Dr. Richard Pierson, Professor Jo Shepherd, and Ms. Alice Newton will lead us in conversation about staying connected in retirement, with a focus on the intellectual, social, and service opportunities available at Columbia and through EPIC. 

Dr. Pierson, a longtime member of EPIC, will discuss EPIC's significance, especially as it earned acceptance and support from university leadership, and as lifespans have increased and retirees increasingly seek to extend loyalty beyond the salaried years.

Professor Shepherd will introduce a new opportunity for EPIC members to engage with Columbia neighbors. Professor Shepherd and Professor Jeanne Stellman are developing the Morningside Gardens Speaker Series in collaboration with Mr. George Calderaro, Director of Community Relations at Columbia's School of Professional Studies, and Mr. Ron Bruno, Director of Morningside Retirement and Health Services. In the inaugural season, this March through June, five EPIC members will present academic talks to a generalist audience of residents at the Morningside Gardens Cooperative Housing complex.

Ms. Alice Newton, Deputy Director of the  University Seminars, will introduce opportunities for engagement with the Seminars, which bring scholars and other experts together five to ten times each year to consider a subject or an issue of practical or theoretical importance. The
University Seminars were established to transcend and enrich the departmental discipline on which all great universities thrive. They also provide a flexible way to concentrate the intellectual energies of Columbia and its neighbors on subjects that may not find a suitable place in an academic department.

Tuesday Talks address topics across the academic spectrum as well as issues of particular importance to the retired academic community.  Attendees can continue their discussions in the Faculty Club, at a special EPIC reduced rate.

To join the meeting online, click here: https://columbia.adobeconnect.com/epic .
 
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Faculty House, Seminar Room 2
Guests welcome!


Join EPIC Yoga Fridays at 10:00 a.m.
Virginia Papaioannou, Professor of Genetics and Development and a registered yoga instructor, is offering yoga training to EPIC members in Faculty House (see signs in lobby for exact room location). The first class will be complimentary. After the first class, the fee will be $40 for four classes, one per week, through May 26, 2017 .  Please click here for more information about the classes, what to wear, and what to bring. 
Save the Date!
Annual Reception May 9, 2017
Save the date for the annual reception for retired faculty hosted by Provost John Coatsworth and EPIC. The reception will be held in Faculty House from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
On EPIC's Horizon
Tuesday Talks
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Faculty House

March 21: Michael Susi, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, "The Postcard History of Columbia University and the Upper West Side"

April 25: Julia Doe, Assistant Professor of Historical Musicology: "The Pastoral Patronage of Marie Antoinette.”

First Thursday Graduate Student Talks
12:15 - 2:00 p.m., 602 Lewisohn Hall

April 6: Maeve Sterbenz, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Music: "The Effect of Music-Movement Interactions on the Perception of Ballet--The Case of the "Rose Adagio" in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.
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