MALS Newsletter Fall 2013

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MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430 mals@ramapo.edu 201.684.7709

MALS Newsletter Fall 2013

MALS Faculty Profile: Lisa Cassidy

Society and Culture, as well as American Labor History and the Cultural History of Technology in America.

SSAIS Welcomes Dean Stephen Rice As of July 1, 2013 the Salameno School of American and International Studies has a new Dean, Stephen P. Rice. Rice received his B.A. in Philosophy and English from Gonzaga University, a M.A. in History and M. Phil from Yale, and a Ph.D. in American Studies, also from Yale. His expertise is in 19th Century American

A Professor of American Studies at Ramapo since 1996, and graduate MALS Professor since 2004, Dean Rice comes to this job at a time when exciting things are happening in SSAIS. The refurbishment and reconfiguration of the A-wing of the School has been completed, and further work will begin next summer on both floors of the B-Wing. The newly finished A-Wing space will include professors’ and administrative offices, classrooms and seminar rooms, an Honors Suite and offices, Student Lounge, Computer Lab and Conference Rooms. There will also be an Office of British Studies, MALS Graduate Program Office and Adjunct Faculty Office. We welcome Dean Rice to SSAIS and look forward to working with him.

Lisa Cassidy’s quick intelligence, bright smile, outgoing manner, and respected scholarship have been an asset to SSAIS classrooms for the 11 years she has taught at the College. An Associate Professor of Philosophy, she has been on the MALS faculty since 2008. Lisa co-taught the MALS core course “Search for Meaning” and teaches the elective “Jealousy, Envy, Revenge and Forgiveness.” She also serves on the MALS Academic Committee. She and her husband Mark are the parents of a 20 month-old-son, Mark, known to all as Marky.

MALS Faculty Dr. Anthony Padovano, Director

Karl Johnson

Lisa Cassidy

Jennefer Mazza

Erick Castellanos

James Morley

Rosetta D’Angelo

Hassan Nejad

Ellen Dolgin

Stephen Rice

Martha Ecker

Ellen Ross

Donald Fucci

Bernard Roy

Shalom Gorewitz

Edward Saiff

Howard Horowitz

Jeremy Teigen

MALS Academic Committee Dr. Anthony T. Padovano Dr. Lisa Cassidy Dr. Donald Fucci

We asked her to respond to some questions for this profile: What experiences or academic study made you decide to be a philosopher? I began college thinking that I would become a lawyer and work in politics. As a teenager I was interested in politics so I headed off to attend university in Washington D.C. to major in Political Science. I was profoundly disillusioned. Naïve as I was, I thought Washington politics was about ‘big ideas:’ justice, freedom, truth. However, the students and professors focused on the gamesmanship of winning and losing. So I decided to transfer to a school with a bigger Philosophy program. I announced to my parents (who assumed I was headed for a Law degree) that I was going to be a philosopher. They were then, and have always remained, incredibly supportive. Most Philosophy majors will probably not earn a living as philosophers or Philosophy professors. What qualities and skills does the study of Philosophy give students that will help them in their varied careers? One story I like to tell is about Don Shula,

the famous NFL coach. Shula actually has credited his experience taking Philosophy courses as an undergraduate to his success as one of the all-time best coaches in football. It might seem like a long way from Plato’s cave to the football field. Yet thinking about important questions (Why are we here? What is real? How should I treat others?), and reading established philosophical reflections on them, sharpens the mind. I think we all have a basic curiosity about these ‘big questions.’ Studying Philosophy in a formal setting allows us to nurture this curiosity. A happy accident is that employers need exactly what Philosophy students are good at: communicating persuasively and clearly amidst confusion, and solving seemingly- impossible problems. These skills can be used by anyone – from professors, to NFL coaches, to businesspeople (including former Philosophy majors and business magnates Carly Fiorina and George Soros.) Does being a philosopher affect your parenting style? Like every parent, I am focused on my child’s well-being. As a philosopher, I try to understand well-being, what a good life for my son would be, and how he might make the world better. For example, our good-night routine includes me putting the day’s highs and lows into perspective,

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sometimes by expressing appreciation for someone to whom I was grateful that day, or voicing something I would like to do better tomorrow. I do get a bit carried away and slip some Nietzsche quotes to him in between “Goodnight Moon” and “Spot Bakes a Cake.” I’m pretty sure he is the only nineteen month old on our street who gets a Nietzsche recitation at bedtime. (Poor thing!) Tell us a little about your MALS course, “Jealousy, Envy, Revenge, and Forgiveness”; how have students responded to this popular course? The wonderful thing about this class is that we all get to read, talk about, and write about these four emotions and their place in our lives. Students report that simply spending fifteen weeks mediating on these topics is transformative -- it will change who you are. We read Philosophy articles, short stories, novels, Social Science articles and popular journalism on the four topics, and view some really unique films. The last time this class was offered we had two excellent Master’s theses projects grow out of papers written for class: Greg Fenkart’s work analyzed why we enjoy fear in the context of entertainment and Carolyn Cardaci-Miron’s argued that any offense can be forgiven. What other course or courses would you like to develop for MALS? Right now I am interested in the role of technology in our lives. I am thinking about technology --social, medical, military-- who has access to technology, and who is denied access. Human beings are the same as we have been for the past hundred thousand years, but now an ordinary individual can instantly communicate with millions of strangers, can employ a woman on another continent to bear a pregnancy to term, can drop a bomb on a car thousands of miles away with the click of a mouse. What ethical dilemmas do these new technologies give us? Can the classic philosophers, novelists, and artists help us understand it all? I could call the course “The Ethics and Arts of Technology.”


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