Emeritus College

Scheduling 24-25 Speakers for Two Programs!

Dr. Cecil Huey Introduces Dean Marks, Emeritus College

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner & Virtual Tours

The Programming Committee of the Emeritus College urges you to consider presenting one of these interesting programs. Our seminars are always hybrid and typically scheduled from 10:00 to 11:30 am, with 45 minutes to one hour for the speaker and the remaining time dedicated to Q&A.

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner Concept and Guidelines: Create a Power Point presentation featuring one or more historical figures. Your “dinner guest” can be famous (or infamous) but should be someone of consequence and importance. One approach is to organize a group of 3 or 4 who each present 15 minutes. Another approach is for you to present alone – creating an in-depth presentation about one person or vignettes on a few people (dinner party). Your final slide should pose questions you would ask your guest if they came to your house for dinner.

Example of Solo Presentation: Nancy Dunlap – “What Do We Really Know About William Shakespeare?” Not much it seems. There are no surviving accounts from colleagues, friends, or family, and he had no known (legitimate) descendants. Who was this man whose works have been taught, quoted, and performed for over four hundred years? Was he, indeed, the GOAT, or was he, as his contemporary and fellow dramatist Robert Greene called him, the “Upstart Crow?”

Example of Multiple Presentations: Dr. Dee Stegelin’s dinner guest is Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and Supreme Commander of the European forces during WWII. He was raised in Abilene, Kansas near Dee’s family dairy farm. Dr. Cecil Huey’s dinner guest is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a 19th century engineer who built ships, railways, bridges and the first tunnel under the Thames. Brunel was voted second greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 national poll, second only to Winston Churchill. Dr. Skip Eisiminger’s dinner guest is Leonardo da Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary public and an unschooled woman who should, but has not, put to rest the import of “good breeding.” The focus will be on da Vinci’s brainstorming drawings (not his famous paintings).

Virtual Tours

Virtual Tour Concept and Directions: Create a Power Point Presentation about a place you have come to know intimately. Perhaps you were born and/or raised in a different country or have traveled there many times with students or have researched an area deeply for your own purposes.

Example: Virtual Tour of Dominica – A True Paradise – with Dr. John Hains. Dominica is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. Columbus encountered this island on his second voyage in 1493. If Columbus returned today, Dominica is the only island that he might say is most unchanged from the 15th Century. This presentation will focus on the natural features of ‘The Nature Island of the Caribbean’ along with two recent eco-tours and several study-abroad trips with Clemson students. Hains hopes you will enjoy this virtual tour of one of the most unspoiled and beautiful places on earth.

Example: Dr. Bill Stringer presents: D-Day Landings, A Virtual Tour. The liberation of German-occupied Europe was a huge triumph of courage, technology, planning and execution. The first segment examines the military problems to be solved, the planning and preparation, and the launch on June 6, 1944.

Example: Another take on this presentation can combine Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with a Virtual Tour. For example, Dr. Steve Wainscott’s dinner guest was the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, who lived and painted in Antwerp, Belgium, a historically important port and one of the world’s great art cities.

Please contact Victoria Musheff at vmushef@clemson.edu