LSUS conference to discuss array of topics 10-31-01
Mad scientists, weather, interplanetary excursions and cracks in the cement of the universe will help stretch the imaginations of those attending an enlightening conference on the LSU in Shreveport campus Nov. 9-10.

“Science and the Imagination,” the first Noel Collection Conference privately funded by AEP/SWEPCO and The Noel Foundation, will feature presentations by a distinguished array of national and international scholars. The conference is free and open to the public.

Dr. Robert C. Leitz III, curator of the James Smith Noel Collection at the Noel Memorial Library, who organized the conference along with Kevin L. Cope, an English professor at LSU in Baton Rouge, said the gathering is a special conference on artful and literate expressions of scientific ideas in the Era of European Enlightenment.

“This long-weekend seminar will focus on science and the imagination in early modern times,” Leitz said, “and will serve as the pilot case for a planned series of conferences at the Noel Collection.”

“The Mad Scientist: The Creation of a Literary Stereotype,” presented by Barbara Benedict, a professor and chair of the English Department at Trinity University in Hartford, Conn., will be the plenary lecture at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9.

The conference, Leitz said, “focuses on the 18th Century, but (Benedict’s presentation) covers 400 years of ‘the mad scientist.’”

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 9, in the Noel Library Assembly Room on the third floor of the library, located at the Youree Drive entrance to the comprehensive, regional university. The keynote lecture, “Codes in Enlightenment England: Encipherment and Decipherment,” will be delivered by Paul J. Korshin, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sessions will run until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, with a lunch break from noon to 1:30 p.m. The 7:30 p.m. plenary lecture will follow an extended dinner break. Saturday’s conference schedule begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

Other topics will be presented by Bärbel Czennia, of the University of Goettingen, Germany; James Buickerood, a professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis; Anna Battigelli, a professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh; Peter Fosl, chairman of the Philosophy Department at Transylvania State University, Lexington, Ky.; Paul Johnston, chairman of the English Department at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and Peter Walmsley, a professor at McMaster University of Canada.

For further information about the conference, contact Leitz at 318-798-4161