McKenzie Salon Series
McKenzie Salon Series
The COLA McKenzie Salon Series fosters discussions of research and current events among faculty, students, and staff. Events are free and open to the public.
2022-2023
- Michael Brown, Joel Hunt, Christine Keiner, and Jessica Lieberman: “Salons as Conversation Spaces.” (Panel)
- Steven Galbraith, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel, Shani Avni (Cary), Karen van Meenen, Kari Cameron, Corinna Schlombs (COLA): “Mixing it Up: Enhanced Liberal Arts Education and Research with the Cary Collection.” (Panel/Mixer)
- John McCluskey: “Video Data Analysis: The Use Case of Police Body Camera Footage and Systematic Social Observation.” with Adrian Martin (RPD) and Gino Fanelli (CITY Magazine and WXXI Public Media). (Respondents)
- Yunn-Shan Ma and Kehbuma Langmia (Howard University): “International Education and Research.” (Panel)
- Nickesia Gordon and Jonathan Schroeder: “Folk and Fantasy: Colonial Imaginations of Caribbean Culture in Mid-Century Calypso Album Cover Art.” Co-hosted with Division of Diversity and Inclusion in celebration of Black Heritage Month with Kehbuma Langmia (Howard University). (Respondent)
- Kehbuma Langmia (Howard University): “Decolonizing Communication Research.” Co-hosted with students in COMM 306 Rhetoric of Race Relations and Visual Arts, Culture and Media Lecture Series.
- Justin Murphy (Democrat & Chronicle): “Thinking about School Segregation in Rochester and its Effects.” Co-hosted with Fram Chair for Applied Critical Thinking.
- Larry Torcello, Matthew Houdek, and Elizabeth Reeves O’Connor: “How I Teach this Text: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Co-hosted with Teagle Cornerstone.
2021-2022
- Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, University of Washington and KenSci: “Irresponsible AI: Why Artificial Intelligence is Broken and how Liberal Arts can Help Fix it.”
- Yuhan Huang, Anthony Jimenez, and Wenjie Liao: “Migration, Immigration, Displacement, and Diaspora.”
- Amit Batabyal, Corinna Schlombs, and Kaitlin Stack Whitney: “AI, Democracy, and Ethics.”
- Lauren Hall, Jessica Hardin, and Kristoffer Whitney: “Environment, Health, and Cultural and Social Sustainability.”
2020-2021
- Ruha Benjamin (Princeton University): “Beyond Buzzwords: Reimagining the Default Settings of Technology & Society."
2019-2020
- Clive Thompson (Technology and Science Journalist): “The Cult of Efficiency.”
2018-2019
- Cissi Ovesdotter, Ammina Kothari, Irina Mikhalevich, and Josephine Wolff: “Liberal Arts and Artificial Intelligence.”
- Michael Brown, Jessica Pardee, and Larry Torcello: “Democracy and Its Discontents.”
2017-2018
- Jonathan Schroeder: "Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America.”
- Cecilia O. Alm, Reynold Bailey, Caroline DeLong, and Tina Sutton: “Strategies for Successful Undergraduate Research."
- Corinna Schlombs: “Productivity Promise or Peril? Technology and American Economic Values in US-German Relations.”
- Brian Barry: "Bringing About the Most Good With Our Money: A Humanist Analysis.”
- Charles (Sandy) Baldwin and Robert Glick: "Haunting and Invisibility: Alternative Transmedias in 'Zalgo' and 'The Paradox of Wonder Woman’s Airplane’."
- Lauren Hall: “The Politics of Birth, Death, and Medicalization."
2016-2017
- Katie Terezakis: “Everyone’s an Idealist.”
- Christine Keiner and Kristoffer Whitney: "Cold War, Hot Canal: Environmental Diplomacy, Peaceful Nuclear Explosions, and the Panama Canal/Optimizing Ecosystems? Adaptive Resource Management and the Value(s) of Wildlife.”
- Benjamin Banta: "Preventive War and Jus Post Bellum: A Final Nail in the Coffin of the Idea of Just Preventive War?”
- Rebecca DeRoo: “Melancholy and Merchandise at the Cartier Museum: Agnes Varda’s “Island” Exhibition.”
2015-2016
- Hinda Mandell, Kelly Martin, Jonathan Schroeder, and Meredith Davenport: “Interdisciplinary Looks at Troubling Images.”
- Sarah Burns: “Montesquieu and Capitalist Peace Theory.”
- Elena Sommers: “Cold War to the Rescue? Anti-American Sentiment in Putin's Political Discourse.”
- Tamar Carroll: "Going Public: Mobilizing Historical Research for a General Audience.”
2014-15
- Peter Ferran: “Bertolt Brecht, 20th Century Dramatic Mythographer.”
- Trent Hergenrader: “Living and Learning in the Ludic Century."
- Caroline DeLong: “Object Recognition in Bottlenose Dolphins, Humans, and Artificial Neural Networks.”
- Berndt Clavier: "Art and Governmentality: The Europeanization of Artistic Practice."
2013-14
- Jessica Lieberman: “traumatic images.”
- Eric Hittinger: “Is Energy Storage the ‘Holy Grail' of Renewable Electricity?”
- Sung Young Kim, Carl Atkins, and Michael Ruhling: "Music with a Virtual Auditorium."
- Andrea Hickerson and Vic Perotti: "Are Disciplines too Specialized: an Experimental Collaboration between Journalism and Business.”
Unless otherwise noted, faculty presenters listed here are RIT or RIT College of Liberal Arts faculty.
About Stanley McKenzie, Ph.D.
The COLA McKenzie Salon Series is endowed through a generous donation by Dr. Stanley Mckenzie, who served RIT with distinction for 41 years as a faculty member teaching literature, primarily Shakespeare, and in various administrative roles, including as Provost and Chief Academic Officer for 14 years.
Dr. McKenzie earned the respect and admiration of his colleagues for his knowledge of the university as a whole, collaborative nature, fairness and ethical nature, and as a principled advocate for students and faculty alike. His unfailing humor and hearty laugh enabled him to find moments of lightness even in challenging situations.
