A Year of Visiting Scholars

Rachel Peltz, Ph.D. and Deborah Melman, Ph.D.

We are pleased to report that the implementation of Visiting Scholars program – one new dimension of the proposal for a revised curriculum – by all accounts, was a huge success. The program this past year included community presentations and candidate seminars with Sue Grand, Hazel Ipp, Patricia Gherovici and Robert Oelsner.

Here are some of the community members’ responses to this years’ program.

Suffice to say at this point that the events were stimulating, thought provoking and enriching!!!

I felt the idea, and the way you and your committee coordinated, and picked scholars and topics was impressive and inspiring. What a lovely forum for all members to come together (in a slightly less formal way) in an intellectually stimulating, and enriching event to grow, to expand, to share as well as to stay connected to other members in our community. God Bless you all for a terrific job. I so appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness that went into it.
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I went to two of the four visiting scholar presentations, and I thoroughly enjoyed both. It’s wonderful for the faculty and the rest of the community to be able to learn from the visiting scholars who come to teach our candidates.
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I attended Robert Oelsner’s intensive seminars this past weekend. I had a very good experience. I found him an excellent teacher. He challenged us to digest quite a bit of material and to be able to work with it. I appreciated the challenge and felt I was able to meet his mind. I learned some and opened to the territory he was teaching.
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I loved the two presentations that I attended, Sue Grand and Hazel Ipp, not only because of the quality of the papers but possibly even more so because of the wonderful discussions that followed and the collegial, open-minded, thoughtful mood that was maintained throughout the discussions. I wondered if the atmosphere was so successful and so conducive to the development of ideas because we limited the participants to PINC members or because of the attitude of those who organized the events and presented the speakers. Of course both played their part and I’m sure there were other contributing factors as well. I hope next year we can continue with these opportunities for PINC candidates and members to come together and share ideas.