WHAT'S COMING UP
Gifts of the Second Half of Life
Susan Stewart, Psychology, bears gifts and tips in her talk "Gifts of the Second Half of Life", from noon to 1 p.m. on Oct. 25, Stevenson 2011, at this week's Tuesday Brown Bag event by the School of Social Sciences. "The Gifts of the Second Half of Life" is an outgrowth of Stewart's work on the grandmother / crone and is based on an invited workshop she facilitated for the Occidental Center for the Arts in August 2005. She has found remarkable overlap between little-known folktales from around the world and current studies in psychology, gerontology, human development, and medicine. Both current research and these ancient stories suggest that the second half of life has the potential to be the most fulfilling of all. The potential gifts of age, as well as "tips" for cultivating them, will be discussed.
Mayan Archaeologist in Oct. 28 Lecture
David Freidel, well known Mayan archeologist at Southern Methodist University, comes to SSU to speak at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Cooperage. The talk is sponsored by the Anthropology and Geography Clubs. Freidel is the co-author of "A Forest of Kings" and "Maya Cosmos" and has been the subject of several news articles in the past few months. He has also appeared on National Geographic programs on TV recently, regarding his discoveries at the ancient city of Waka' (El Peru) in northern Guatemala. The title of the talk is "Royal Sacrifice and Sacrifice of Royalty in the Early Classic Period." The Early Classic period witnessed not only the emergence of ascendent kings and queens in portraiture, in texts, and in tombs; but also vanquished royalty killed to advance the power and legitimacy of ambitious conquerors. Freidel reviews Early Classic royal tomb excavations discovered in projects he has directed at Yaxuna, Yucatan, and at El Peru-Waka', Peten, and the evidence at Tikal and Uaxactun suggest the sacrifice of royal family members by conquering enemies.
Kay Trimburger and "The New Single Woman"
Women's and Gender Studies and the School of Social Sciences hosts a reading/reception/booksigning for Kay Trimberger and her new book, 'The New Single Woman,' from 4:30-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26 in Schulz 3001. A radical and engaging exploration of how single women over thirty-five are creating fulfilling lives has been developed by Trimberger who is a professor emerita of women’s and gender studies at SSU and is a visiting scholar at the Intitute for the Study of Social Change at UC, Berkeley.
Drawing on stories from diverse long-term single women, including herself, Trimberger explodes the idea that fulfillment comes only through coupling with a soul mate. Instead, she presents an exciting new identity possible for women in the twenty-first century: the new single womana woman who is content with her single life. These personal accounts of how single women’s lives evolve over time, combined with Trimberger’s incisive analysis, blend to provide a much-needed cultural roadmap for every single woman who is striving to create a satisfying and meaningful life.