Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Sports Studies Symposium — call for abstracts

My colleagues Shawn Klein and Michael Perry have issued a Call for Abstracts for the First Annual Rockford College Sports Studies Symposium, an interdisciplinary conference on the study of sport to be held on April 28, 2012 at Rockford College.

From the CFA:

Whether one is a participant, a casual spectator, a die-hard fan, or a critic, sport, in all its varieties and forms, play a significant role in the lives of most people through out the world. Sports and competitions have long been a part of human civilization and raise a wide range of important philosophical and ethical issues.

This symposium will bring together a panel of scholars to discuss philosophical themes or issues arising in the study of Sport. The focus of the panel will depend, in part, on the submitted abstracts. Each presenter on a panel will have 20 minutes for their presentation. This will be followed by 10-15 minutes for panelists to respond to each other and then 15 minutes or more for audience Q&A. There will also be a panel on the Rhetoric of Sport.

Abstract Submission:
Submissions are welcome on any philosophical theme or issue arising in the study of Sport. Abstract should be 300-500 words. Send via email (as PDF) to sklein_at_rockford_dot_edu.

Deadline: January 6th, 2012
Notification of Acceptance: February 1st, 2012

If you have any questions, please contact Shawn Klein (Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department) at 815-226-4115 or sklein_at_rockford_dot_edu or Michael Perry (Assistant Professor, English Department) at 815-226-4098 or mperry_at_rockford_dot_edu.

Fall 2011 philosophy courses

Here’s the line up of courses being offered by the Department of Philosophy, Rockford College, for the Fall 2011 semester. Click the image to see the flyer with the full listing.

My colleagues Matt Flamm and Shawn Klein and I will be offering a total of eight different courses.

The flyer was designed by Chris Vaughan.

Interview with Professor Al Gini

In my role as CEE’s Executive Director, I interviewed guest speaker Professor Al Gini on leadership, after his talk on that theme at Rockford College. Dr. Gini is also the co-founder and Associate Editor of Business Ethics Quarterly.

For more from Dr. Gini, check out his many books, which include My Job My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual (Routledge, 2000); The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure and Vacations (Routledge, 2003); Why It’s Hard to Be Good (Routledge, 2006);and Seeking The Truth of Things (ACTA, 2010).

Philosophy courses for the Spring 2011 semester

Here is the line-up of the ten different courses [pdf], including those of my Rockford College Philosophy Department colleagues, Matt Flamm and Shawn Klein, and a cross-listed course by Professor Krazek of the French Department.

Worth special mention is a new course from Professor Klein on Symbolic Logic [pdf].

Philosophy department brochure

Check it out (pdf).

It’s a trifold design, with panels featuring my colleagues Matt Flamm, Shawn Klein, and me, the courses we teach, a list of famous philosophy majors in college, and more.

Designed by Christopher Vaughan.

(I want to live that library. Right now.)

Interview with Nimish Adhia on Bollywood and the new India

For much of the twentieth century, poverty and stagnation characterized India’s economic life, yet India has transformed itself and prospects for its 1.1 billion people have improved dramatically.

Economics professor Nimish Adhia recently spoke at Rockford College on how Bollywood films both signaled and contributed to the cultural shift necessary for India’s economic liberalization to occur.

My follow-up interview with Dr. Adhia is below, including excerpts from two representative films: the unintentionally hilarious Upkar (1967) and the seriously excellent Guru (2006):

The interview with Professor Adhia can also be viewed at Youtube and CEE’s site.

William Kline and Liberty Studies

Check out Liberty Studies, an initiative headed by Professor William Kline of the University of Illinois, Springfield. From the center’s statement of purpose:

“The Center’s mission is to advance and develop Liberty Studies in the undergraduate curriculum. To meet this challenge, the Center:

* Provides resources to help teachers and students integrate liberty studies into their classroom.
* Holds academic conference sessions to advance this field of inquiry
* Publishes the first refereed journal in this area, The Journal of Liberty Studies”

Here is Liberty Studies’ high-powered Advisory Board and information about its online Master’s Degree program in Liberal Studies.

[Dr. Kline visited Rockford College in the Spring 2010 semester and gave two talks. My follow-up interviews with him about his talks are available at YouTube and the CEE site.]

Kaizen 13 — The Robert Bradley interview

The latest issue of Kaizen [pdf] features my interview with Robert L. Bradley, founder of the Institute for Energy Research. Dr. Bradley was a speechwriter and researcher for Ken Lay, the late CEO of the late Enron. The theme of the interview is Enron and Political Entrepreneurship: we explore Dr. Bradley’s insider perspective on the distinction between market and political entrepreneurship, Enron’s political business strategy, and the key decisions and events that led to Enron’s downfall.

Also featured in Kaizen are the spring semester’s student essay contest winners — Brandon McNames and Matthew Weber — a report on guest speaker Jeffrey Orduno, and other news from the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

My full interview with Dr. Bradley will be posted at the CEE site next month.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford [dot] edu.

More Kaizen interviews with leading entrepreneurs are at my site here or CEE’s site here.