2016 – 2017 Personally Speaking Series

From trauma to dolphins, from urban migration to British recycling, our 2016-2017 Personally Speaking series led audiences to some unusual and unexpected paths of thought and provided for fascinating community conversations.

The 2016-2017 Series Included:

Lawrence G. Calhoun and Richard G. Tedeschi: Posttraumatic Growth in Clinical Practice (Routledge) September 27, 2016
Coauthors Calhoun and Tedeschi identified a concept they call Posttraumatic Growth, used to characterize “positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or a traumatic event.” They tell us what research has shown about the phenomenon of arising from tragedy and how to respond to those experiencing that growth.

Alan Rauch: Dolphin (Reaktion Books) November 1, 2016
Rauch draws on zoological research he conducted as a graduate student as well as on recent work in animal studies to explore the dolphin’s long relationship with people from the time of ancient Greeks through modern day.

Julia Marie Robinson: Race Religion, and the Pulpit – Rev. Robert L. Bradby and the Making of Urban Detroit (Wayne State University Press) January 24, 2017
During the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North and West, the local black church was essential in making and reshaping urban areas. Robinson, an ordained Presbyterian (USA) minister, focuses on one church and its minister as a lens for understanding this relationship.

Peter J. Thorsheim, Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War (Cambridge University Press) March 21, 2017
While necessary, Britain’s wartime recycling campaign consumed items that would never have been destroyed under normal circumstances, including items of cultural heritage. Thorsheim examines the relationship among armaments production, civil liberties, cultural preservation and diplomacy.