Events

Dr. Bernice Rosenzweig will describe how recently developed precipitation datasets can be integrated with municipal open data to better understand climate change, extreme rain and flooding in New York City. She will also discuss the importance of extreme precipitation and flood monitoring for environmental justice.

Bernice Rosenzweig is an earth system scientist and the Osilas Endowed Professor of Environmental Science at Sarah Lawrence College. Her research focuses on climate change, extreme weather and urban water systems, and she is particularly interested in the interactions of global climate change and megacity development. She co-leads the Flooding Working Group of the New York City Panel on Climate Change and is teaching courses on Watersheds and Natural Hazards this semester.

Questions? Contact Professor Jim Marshall at jmarshall@sarahlawrence.edu.  

In nonfiction, a number of factors limit what is recordable. Legal repercussions, for instance, limit characterizations of people that are untrue (lest they result in libel suits) and disclosures of unprosecuted "criminal" acts (lest they result in prosecution). Facing such a problem, responsible non-fiction writers often describe their inability to disclose more information and why they cannot do so, yet fictional narrators rarely do the same. This talk focuses on moments in literature (especially fiction and music) when authors call attention to that which they do not (and sometimes cannot) say. It aims to discuss how authors can take up this practice in their fiction and what there is to gain from doing so.

Elias Rodriques is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature at Sarah Lawrence College and an assistant editor at n+1 magazine. His writing has been published or is forthcoming in such venues as The Guardian, The Nation, Best American Essays, and more.

This event is colloquium credit eligible. 

Melissa Murray, the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, will offer insights into reproductive rights and justice with a focus on the power of historical knowledge and historical thinking in addressing the crises and issues we are facing today. This event will consist of a keynote from Murray followed by a discussion and question & answer period.

Psychology faculty member Maia Pujara will discuss her research in the field of positive psychology to better understand the relationship between happiness and decision-making. Do happier people make better (maximally rewarding) choices? How is the relationship between happiness and decision-making underscored by improvements in emotional intelligence and emotional regulation? She will be discussing the work that her lab has done to address these questions, in addition to describing her course on positive psychology, Finding Happiness and Keeping It: Insights from Psychology and Neuroscience. This and other classes (e.g., FYS: Emotions and Decisions; The Mind-Body Connection: Psychophysiology Research Seminar) have provided fruitful avenues for exploring interdisciplinary ideas and forging rich collaborations within the Sarah Lawrence community, which she will describe in more detail, along with her future plans. 

Novelist Jennifer Egan and writer/musician Jacob Slichter will explore structural parallels between writing and music and their relevance for writers.

Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was recently named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine, and she recently completed a term as President of PEN America. Her new novel, The Candy House, a sibling to A Visit From the Goon Squad, was published in April, 2022.

Jacob Slichter is the author of So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star (Broadway Books, 2004) and the drummer for the band Semisonic. He has written for The New York Times, has been a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition, and currently teaches creative nonfiction at Sarah Lawrence College. He also blogs about connections between music, writing, and other art forms at portablephilosophy.com.