The Brown-Lupton University Union will be divided into five classrooms Thursday, but the students won’t have backpacks.
Dr. Andrew Schoolmaster, dean of the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, described “Back to Class” as AddRan College’s initiative to showcase the high quality of its faculty while raising money for the college and TCU veterans.
The “Back to Class” lecture series will be made up of five different lectures, taking place concurrently. Guests will be able to attend two of the 25 minute TED style lectures, taking a 10-minute break in between.
The first round of lectures will start at 7 p.m. following the reception and welcome speeches from Schoolmaster and Chancellor Victor Boschini.
Economics professor Dr. Kiril Tochkov will give a lecture on “Borders, Globalization and Economic Integration.”
Dr. Michael Bachmann, associate professor in the criminal justice department, said he thinks there’s little awareness outside of IT of the fundamental changes that are ahead of us when it comes to the Internet.
“There are some estimates that say that in the year 2020, there will be 50 billion devices all equipped with sensors that record data and some kind of networking chip that transmits this data about us,” Bachmann said.
His lecture, entitled “Honey I’m Home: Hacking the Internet of Things,” will describe the intersection between technology and crime.
Political science professor Dr. Ralph Carter will give a lecture called “Is a New Cold War Inevitable? The Cure of Mutual Misperception.” He said his topic is timely, considering the relations the United States has with Russia.
Carter added that as a professor of contemporary U.S. foreign policy, he understands people that don’t study political science may have misconceptions about the situation the U.S. has with Russia.
Political science assistant professor Dr. Molly Scudder and English assistant professor Dr. Stacie McCormick are both new to TCU. They will host a lecture entitled “Feeling Another’s Pain: Rethinking Our Practices of Empathy.” They met at an event hosted by Chancellor Boschini and discussed their thoughts on empathy over lunch.
Scudder said their goal is to “challenge some of the assumptions we hold about empathy and show both its limits and the ways in which empathy can redirect our attention from listening to one another.”
Religion associate professor Dr. Mark Dennis’ “What is Freedom?” lecture will discuss freedom in liberal arts. He said he decided to apply because his colleague, political science associate professor Carrie Currier, said she had enjoyed her experience when she participated.
Each professor went through a brief application process, in which they submitted a 500-word description of their presentation.
Matt Bethea, director of development for AddRan College, said this year there were 15 proposals from interested faculty members.
“The idea is that people help support TCU veterans but also bring people to see what’s going on here at TCU,” Bethea said.
Bethea said this year’s goal is $70,000. Dean Schoolmaster said, as of Wednesday, the event had raised about $55,000.