Senior
Seminar
Students at Rocky Hill School are encouraged to become responsible
world citizens - an integral part of the School's mission and a
crucial task in the 21st century. One way we accomplish this goal
is through our Senior Seminar. Established in 2001, the program
challenges students and teachers to reach beyond the walls of their
classroom, beyond a simple understanding of a complex issue, and
to explore the many dimensions of a critical conflict.
Goals
of the Senior Seminar:
• Promote the
free and open exchange of ideas.
• Encourage media
literacy as a critical component of responsible citizenship.
• Introduce students
to the college seminar and lecture experience.
• Maximize learning
and communications opportunities available through modern technology.
• Engage students
in critical analysis of complex issues of contemporary relevance.
• Promote leadership
that recognizes diversity, promotes alternative views and advocates
peace.
2008 Program
Overview
Mapping
the Nuclear World: The Threat of Nuclear Conflict: Rocky Hill seniors
participate as global citizens and offer policy initiatives.
In
2008 Rocky Hill seniors combined traditional approaches — discussion,
eye-witness accounts, role-playing--with emerging technologies—distance
learning, blogging, podcasting—to examine the threat of nuclear
conflict in the 21 st century.
This
winter, the seniors at Rocky Hill School hosted four panel discussions
to explore and understand the nuclear world – past, present, and
future. Guest speakers provided a broad and balanced variety of
perspectives. The fifth panel celebrated the culmination of the
Senior Seminar. Drawing on their reading and research, along with
the experiences and the expertise of the panel speakers, students
put forth and defended proposals for policy initiatives and choices
before a mock Senate Foreign Relations Committee . One student from
each of the three groups was selected by their peers to serve on
this mock committee.
JANUARY
17 : Christianity and Islam
| Michael
Burch
A former faculty member of Rocky Hill School Michael Burch
is an educator, coach, minister and social activist.
During his time at Rocky Hill School, Mr. Burch founded (along
with other RHS faculty) the Senior Seminar; he also has advocated
on issues related to the Palestinian conflict. From 2003-05
he served as a board member of the Rhode Island -Qalqilya Alliance,
an education and awareness group promoting dialogue between
Palestine and Rhode Island residents. Currently, Mr. Burch is
the assistant wrestling coach |
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at Brown University and
the Minister of Education at The First Baptist Church in America.
He has a BA, MA, and is a PhD candidate [at Brown University ] in
ancient religions and philosophies.
Mr. Burch introduced the
seminar by examining how the two most influential religious traditions
in human history impact nuclear proliferation and conflict in the
21st century.
“Ethnic conflicts persist
all around the globe. At the heart of ethnic identity is often
a specific religious practice that reinforces ethnic solidarity.
Religion can act as a force for social cohesion much like ethnicity
does. By affiliating with the same god as our neighbor, we find
ourselves in a kind of 'kinship,' or shared 'race,' that reinforces
community solidarity. In the current geopolitical reality, the
two largest world religions, Christianity and Islam, are pitted
against each other (with Judaism having a critical political role).”
The following questions
were posed:
• What is the
nature of religion in general?
• How do these
three religions impact this political struggle?
• Is one religion
more politically inclined than another?
• Is one of
these religions more prone to violence than another?
JANUARY
22: “ The Cold War Legacy and the Post-Cold War World
| Professor
Mark Kramer
Professor Mark Kramer is Director of the Harvard
Cold War Studies Program at Harvard University and a senior
fellow at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
He has been on the faculty of Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities
and was formerly an Academy Scholar in Harvard's Academy of
International and Area Studies and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford
University. He has worked extensively in newly opened archives
in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as
well as in the archives of several Western countries. Professor
Kramer is the author of numerous |
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books and more than 200 articles and is the editor of the Journal
of Cold War Studies, published by MIT Press, and of the Harvard
Cold War Studies Book published by
Roman and Littlefield Professor Kramer discussed the controversial
and often misplaced fears and nostalgia of contemporary society
in his presentation, “The Cold War Legacy and the Post-Cold War
World.”
“No
sooner had the Cold War ended than many U.S. scholars and senior
U.S. officials began warning that the post-Cold War world would
pose even greater dangers for the United States . A degree of
nostalgia for the supposed 'predictability' and 'stability' of
the Cold War soon took hold. Contrary to these claims, however,
the reality is that the post-Cold War era has been immeasurably
better and safer for U.S. security and for the world as a whole.
Interstate conflicts, civil wars, human rights violations, and
genocidal slaughter have sharply diminished since 1992, mainly
because of the end of the Cold War. The threat of an all-out nuclear
war involving the United States has essentially disappeared with
the end of the Cold War. Other major threats posed by the Cold
War have also either disappeared or greatly receded. Nearly all
of the major threats of the post-Cold War era already existed--often
in more virulent form--during the Cold War. Hence, any nostalgia
for the Cold War is grossly misplaced.”
JANUARY
29: Nuclear
Terrorism: The Way Ahead
| Professor
Jeffrey Norwitz
Professor Jeffrey
Norwitz is presently a Professor of National
Securities Studies ( teaching National Security Decision Making)
at the United States Naval War College, as well as a Federal
Special Agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Jeffrey H. Norwitz was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He completed
an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice at Eastern Kentucky
University in 1974. After graduation, he was commissioned
a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Military Police
Corps and completed Airborne School before assignment |
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to the 50th Ordnance Company
where his duties involved the security of nuclear weapons. Special
Agent Norwitz joined the civilian ranks of the United States Naval
Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in 1985, and served various
tours of duty, including Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (2003-04).
Numerous awards have included the Department of the Navy's Meritorious
Civilian Service Medal for highly classified national security intelligence
work, and he has repeatedly received the Provost's “summa cum laude”
award for teaching excellence. Special Agent Norwitz has been published
in the prestigious Naval War College Review, Military Review,
Journal of Home land Security, and Officer Review. His
scholarly work appears in Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding
the New Security Environment, amongst others. Special Agent
Norwitz holds the John Nicholas Brown endowed Academic Chair of
Counterterrorism at the Naval War College and is presently working
on a book entitled Armed Groups; Studies in National Security,
Counterterrorism, and Counterinsurgency .
Professor Norwitz led our
third session. His presentation, “Nuclear Terrorism: The Way Ahead”
provided an overview of the different aspects of the threat the
world faces from insecure nuclear weapons and weapons materials.
“The attacks of September
11 demonstrated that the threat from well-organized terrorist
groups with global reach, bent on inflicting mass destruction,
is not hypothetical but real. While the attackers achieved horrifying
destruction with box-cutters, there can be little doubt that if
they had possessed a nuclear bomb, they would have used it. Yet,
according to some reports, tons of potential nuclear bomb materials
are vulnerable to terrorist theft in scores of countries around
the world. This session will provide an overview of the different
aspects of the threat the world faces from insecure nuclear weapons
and weapons materials.”
FEBRUARY
5: The Future
of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime
|
Professor
Nina Tannenwald
Professor Nina
Tannenwald is the Associate Research Professor of
International Relations at the Watson Institute for International
Studies. Professor Tannenwald joined the Watson Institute
in 1997 and is currently director of the International Relations
Program. Her research focuses on the role of international
institutions, norms and ideas in global security issues, and
efforts to control weapons of mass destruction. Tannenwald
is the author of several academic articles, and her book,
The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Nonuse of
Nuclear Weapons Since 1945 , is |
|
forthcoming from Cambridge
University Press. Professor Tannenwald has been a commentator on
local radio and television, and in the op-ed pages, on nuclear weapons
issues, as well as serving as a consultant to the United Nations
Association.
Professor Tannenwald discussed
the future of the nuclear non-proliferation regime beginning with
an overview of its main components followed by an evaluation of
its strengths and weaknesses, and how successful it has been in
stemming proliferation. She also presented the challenges it faces
in the future, such as dealing with Iran. Professor Tannenwald then
offered various policy options for strengthening the existing non-proliferation
status.
FEBRUARY
22: Military
Problem Solving and Decision Making
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Commander
Timothy Maynard
A native of Warwick,
Rhode Island, Commander Timothy J. Maynard is
currently a member of the US Navy, military faculty, Naval
War College in the Joint Military Operations Department. He
served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy as a Strategy
and Tactics Instructor as well as Planetarium Director in
the Department of Professional Development. His academic degrees
include a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy,
Master of Science from Johns Hopkins University, and Master
of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the
U.S.
|
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Naval War College. He was
an Associate Fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies
Group XV.
Commander Maynard discussed
problem solving and decision making. The discussion highlighted
a theory for human problem solving and decision making, and then
described the formalized process of military planning. The discussion
concluded with information concerning the development of the Single
Integrated Operation Plan, the plan that specifies how American
nuclear weapons would be used.
Commander Maynard also officiated
on the Senate Panel for the Mock Senate Hearing.
Senior Seminar Coordinators
: RHS Faculty, Belinda
Snyman and John
Hughes. |
