Northeast Regional Honors Council

Annual Conference 2008

Revolutions: Morristown, New Jersey

April 3 to April 6, 2008

Held at the Hyatt Hotel - Morristown, New Jersey

Regular Registration Deadline – February 29, 2008.

Conference Registration Page and Form

City-as-Text© Information and Registration Form

Hotel Information Page

Preliminary Conference Program

Conference Strands

Conference Theme Statement

Conference Contacts Page

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Conference Statement

Morristown, New Jersey, was the military capital of the American Revolution. Washington located his headquarters in Morristown and the continental army encamped nearby at crucial points in the war from 1777-1780. In 1780 the Marquis de Lafayette brought the news here of aid from France.

Morristown has been revolutionary through the ages. Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail built the first telegraph at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown and sent the first public message, the first step toward the information age we enjoy today. The idea for constructing the Morris Canal, used for a century to transport goods, is credited to Morristown Businessman George P. McCullough. The Seeing Eye guide dog school was founded in Morristown; the international United States Equestrian Team was established here as well. Many innovators have called Morristown home; including poets Dorothy Parker and Joyce Kilmer, who taught at Morristown High School; and Thomas Nast, caricaturist and editorial cartoonist.

Morristown with its rich history, the site of the 2008 Northeast Regional Honors Council’s Conference, beckons us to explore the nature of revolution. What motivates people to deviate from the norm? How do they go about changing the existing order of society politically, culturally, aesthetically, scientifically and so on? What difficulties do they encounter and how do they overcome these stumbling blocks? What are the costs and benefits of revolutionary practices to those who propose them, to those who follow them and to those who oppose them?

Conference Theme Strands
We invite members to examine revolutionary ideas and practices through the following conference strands:

Arts and Humanities
Education

Design and Technology

Industry and Commerce
Natural and Applied Sciences

Social Sciences

Paper Presentations:

Short formal presentations by one or more presenters which touch on conference themes. Papers should be planned for 10-12 minute presentations to allow time for discussion. Papers should not be read, but summarized to highlight the key issues the paper examines.

Arts and Humanities

This strand seeks proposals focusing on the idea of revolution as examined by the multidisciplinary approaches of the Arts and Humanities. Proposers may wish to consider the tension between established traditions and writers and artists who pursue radical departures from such traditions.

The following questions suggest some of the issues proposers might consider under this strand:

In what ways do political revolutions compel artistic revolutions; or, alternatively, have revolutions in art, philosophy, music or literature so challenged social norms that political revolutions have followed?
What causes, in terms of social or artistic concerns, produce revolutions in artistic styles or content?
How have the arts and humanities responded to political revolutions? Can we argue, for example, that great art emerged from the American Revolution, the Civil War or other national or international crises? Do such social revolutions encourage artists and writers to reevaluate their understanding of the world?
How have radical works (or events) shaken the more traditional disciplinary approaches?
Evaluate a revolutionary figure in the arts and humanities: what revolution did he/she cause; what influences encouraged the figure’s break with tradition; what long-terms effects followed from the revolutionary course the figure took?
What, if anything, have we learned from revolutions? How do revolutions in one region of the world inform or impact other areas of the globe?

The above questions are intended to suggest a range of issues, themes and subjects that students may explore. The examples, however, are not exhaustive – presenters should feel free to propose other definitions and traditions of revolutions in the arts and humanities.

Send proposal forms to:

Education

Theories of and approaches to education have changed dramatically through the course of human history. Many of these changes have been revolutionary. Anything that creates change in society inevitably alters educational systems. Wars, technology, civil rights movements, to name just a few, have radically altered how society educates.

Proposers should offer papers which address the various ways that all levels of educational systems adapt to the surrounding world. What have been the revolutionary ways that education has changed? What changes (revolutions) might happen in the future?

Send proposal forms to:

Dr. Portia K. Weston

Honors Director

Point Park University

201 Wood Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Phone: (412) 392-8105

Fax: (412) 392-8056

PKWeston@pointpark.edu

Social Sciences

This strand seeks proposals focusing on the idea of revolution as examined by the interdisciplinary approaches of the Social Sciences.

The following questions suggest some of the issues proposers might consider under this strand.

What is a revolution, and how are revolutionary and evolutionary change different?
Many nations tend to reflect with nostalgia on their revolutionary pasts, consider the United States and France, but act differently when revolutions play out on the current political stage? Why might this be the case? When are revolutions good or bad, and how much of this distinction is in the eye of the beholder?
Consider social revolutions and in what ways they are revolutionary. Do people know when they are living through social revolutions?
Economic change, including expansion and contraction, is always happening. When do the changes become revolutionary?
How might social scientists analyze the success of a revolution? How can the costs and benefits of radical change be evaluated?

These questions are intended to suggest a range of issues, themes and subjects that students may explore. Presenters should feel free to propose other definitions and traditions of revolutions in the arts and humanities.

Send proposal forms to:

Roundtables: Roundtables are designed to provide students working at different schools and in different disciplines an opportunity to discuss shared topics and concerns. Students submitting round table presentations should be aware of the following guidelines:

Students should expect to present a short (5 minute) summary of their own work and then spend most of the time at the table in discussion.
No more than two students should submit the same proposal. (If students have worked in larger groups and all wish to submit, they should submit separate proposals emphasizing different aspects of their joint work. These smaller groups will then be placed at different tables.)
Moderators will run discussion at each table. Students should be prepared to respond flexibly to the moderator’s questions and to share discussion time with other students at the table.

Posters: This is a great place to showcase student research in all disciplines. Posters should be prepared on a trifold board, or a similar self-supporting framework that can rest on the tables that will be provided by the hotel. Posters will be presented on Sunday morning.

Send proposal forms for Posters and Roundtables to: