Faculty Explorations

Wednesday, January 17: Why Your Brain Needs Music
7:00 - 8:00 pm Jenkins Hall Music Room

Did you know that more of the brain is involved in playing a musical instrument than in any other activity?  It has been known for decades that music uniquely affects the brain.  Listening to a song can make us dance, evoke a feeling, or transport us through space and time to a forgotten memory.  People suffering from memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer’s respond to music from their past.  But did you know that music also can increase your mental capacity?  From better memory to increased IQ, the power of music is amazing!  In this session, participants will be able to experience the power of music by playing a tune using simple instruments – no experience is necessary!  (Musicians welcome, too!)

Instructor: David Elliott
David has been directing school bands for over 40 years in four states.  Besides being a band director and professional musician, he is also a carpenter (built 16 houses), boat captain (lived on a boat for 13 years), sound and light designer/technician (100+ stage productions and concerts), and he knows how to fix things!  When working on his Master’s Degree, he did a research project comparing 100 students through 12 grades of school – half were instrumentalists and half were not.  He saw that the instrumentalists showed increasing IQ scores over the years while the others had IQ scores that remained the same.  This inspired him to find out why.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday, January 24: "I-amb' Shakespeare
7:00 - 8:30 pm Pape Hall Room 207 Even if it now resides somewhere in the deep recesses only to be used as a Jeopardy! answer, almost everyone who was in an English classroom during their teen years knows the term ‘iambic pentameter’. Nevertheless, when it was first learned way back when, chances are this poetic form was not fully appreciated - or even understood - by the younger you. While William Shakespeare is famously known as the master of iambic pentameter, approximately only half of the lines in his 38 plays were written in this rhythmic convention. Still, what he wrote and how he wrote in this style remains one of literature’s greatest accomplishments, which is why he and his work are still studied and marveled over more than four centuries later. Though iambic pentameter seems both archaic and still somewhat arcane, it can be understood, appreciated, and also replicated by modern writers: that means you. In this course, you will time-travel back to 16th-century England and will revisit what has been the most popular metrical form used by English poets and playwrights since Chaucer, hopefully regaining an appreciation of what Will and his mates penned and of why we still love and learn from his work. In sooth, thy rhythms own thou will be forced to write.

Instructor: Neil Gabbey
Neil has been teaching English for 32 years, the last eight in SCDS’s Middle School. In his EN70 classroom, he is himself a middle schooler who has never really grown up, a teacher who takes great pride in helping students become better writers and who loves reading stories in silly accents. Neil is a native Western New Yorker who escaped annual feet of snow to attend The College of William and Mary before landing his first teaching post at Antilles School on St. Thomas, USVI. After twenty years at Gilman School in Baltimore, he and his wife, Aileen, relocated to Savannah and have loved 95-and-muggy, live oaks, their bikes, and shorts in January. For the last five-plus years, Neil has freelanced as a food columnist for The Savannah Morning News and CONNECT, enjoying every minute of getting to know the chefs and restaurateurs who make the Hostess City’s food scene so special. At home, he bakes and cooks, does the NYT Crossword, and lives and dies with Fulham Football Club. He and Aileen met in middle school, started dating in high school, stayed together through four years at different universities, and are about to celebrate their 30th anniversary. By Number 35, they hope to be living in a small village near Apt, France.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday, January 31: Propaganda or Persuasion: The Problem of Democracy
7:00 - 8:30 pm Minis Hall Room 10  Why does the word "propaganda" have negative connotations that cause a listener to recoil, but the word "persuasion" does not? In this lecture, we will explore this question through two case studies: the ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the father of public relations, Edward Bernays. Although two thousand years apart, they both are concerned about the violent consequences of a democracy that devolves into mob rule. We will learn how each proposes to solve this democratic issue with propaganda, and why one is considered enlightened and the other malicious.

Instructor: Laura Santander
Laura is in her second year teaching Latin at SCDS. She is originally from Spain, but grew up primarily in Canada and Charlotte, NC before attending the University of Pennsylvania. She studied classical languages, art, and literature with a focus on Homer and Euripides. Afterwards, she received her PhD in Classics from New York University in 2023. What had begun as an interest in how suspense is created in a literary narrative, transformed into a research project on the role of propaganda and manipulation in leadership. Her dissertation was titled "The Art of Propaganda: political and social manipulation in Plato's Republic and Edward Bernays' public relations." Prior to SCDS, she taught Latin at Sarah Lawrence College as guest faculty and Classical Mythology courses at NYU. Besides the ancient world, Laura also enjoys science fiction.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday, February 7: The Stories We Tell
7:00 - 8:30pm Mingledorff Hall Room 212

The stories we tell ourselves have a profound impact on our emotional experience, our response to others, and our understanding of self. In difficult times, sharing our stories can empower us and foster a deeper connection with others. In this session, we’ll discuss the power of stories through two lenses: a psychological lens, and a writing process lens. We’ll dig into research in the realm of social psychology that offers insight into how and why we create stories about ourselves and others, and we’ll discuss the creation and telling of stories in the writing and publication process.

Instructor: Meg Haston
Meg is a licensed therapist and the author of four novels for young adults, including Paperweight, The End of Our Story, How to Rock Best Friends and Frenemies, and How to Rock Braces and Glasses, which was the basis for the Nickelodeon sitcom How to Rock. She has ghostwritten three additional titles, including one New York Times bestselling novel. She has worked in independent schools for twelve years. For the last six years, she served as the Director of Counseling at SCDS. She is currently serving as the Assistant Head of Upper School for Student Life, where she strives to support students in creating an empowering and fulfilling story in this chapter of their lives.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS SEMINAR, CLICK HERE.