Place: 4274 Chamberlin (refreshments will be served)
Speaker: Marjorie Senechal, Mathematics and History of Science and Technology, Smith College
Abstract: When C. P. Snow decried the "two cultures" in 1959, he not only named a problem, he created one. For better or worse, the humanities and sciences have been cast through his prism ever since. But, in the immortal words of Poul Anderson, "I have yet to see a problem, no matter how complicated, that if you look at it in the right way, does not become still more complicated." In that spirit, we will look at the legendary, every-more-celebrated crucible of the arts, Black Mountain College, through the stories of several scientists who taught there. And through the eyes of someone (me) who grew up in a curiously similar milieu, in that era.<br>