LCC: University Academics

lecture series

Spring 2007

Dr. Leonidas Donskis Identity and Uncertainty: Do We Need an Enemy to Have an Existence? Thursday, April 19, 17:00 Kaminskienė Hall
Leonidas Donskis is a philosopher, historian of ideas, political commentator, and critic. He was born on August 13, 1962, in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Donskis graduated from Lithuanian State Conservatoire (now Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater), majoring in philology and theater, and then pursued his graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. Having received his first doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vilnius, he later earned his second doctorate in social and moral philosophy from the University of Helsinki, Finland. (read more) (read more) His main scholarly interests lie in philosophy of history, philosophy of culture, philosophy of literature, philosophy of the social sciences, civilization theory, political theory, history of ideas, and studies in Central and East European thought. A wandering scholar, he has researched and lectured in the USA, Great Britain, and Europe. Donskis has been an IREX-International Research and Exchanges Board Fellow, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, USA; a Swedish Institute Guest Researcher at the University of Gothenburg and a Guest Professor of East European Studies at the University of Uppsala, Sweden; a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Bradford, Great Britain; Paschal P. Vacca Chair (Distinguished Visiting Professor) of Liberal Arts at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, USA; and a Fellow at the Collegium Budapest/Institute for Advanced Study, Hungary. Currently, Donskis serves as Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, and Director of the Political Science and Diplomacy School at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. In addition, he acts as Foreign Docent of Social and Moral Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. Donskis has been published widely in journals, and is the author of nine books, including Loyalty, Dissent, and Betrayal: Modern Lithuania and East-Central European Moral Imagination (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2005), Forms of Hatred: The Troubled Imagination in Modern Philosophy and Literature (Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2003; VIBS-Value Inquiry Book Series Nomination for the 2003 Best Book in Social Philosophy in North America; VIBS 2003 Best Book Award), Identity and Freedom: Mapping Nationalism and Social Criticism in Twentieth-Century Lithuania (London & New York: Routledge, 2002), and The End of Ideology and Utopia? Moral Imagination and Cultural Criticism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Peter Lang, 2000). Donskis’s works originally written in Lithuanian and English have been translated into Danish, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Ukrainian. He edits the book series, “On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics,” for Editions Rodopi, B. V. In 2004, Donskis has been awarded by the European Commission the title of the Ambassador for Tolerance and Diversity in Lithuania. Since 2002, a Lithuanian representative to the European Cultural Parliament. Since 2005, a Member of the Standing Committee for the Humanities (SCH) in the European Science Foundation (ESF).
Dr. Simona Mačiukaitė Children's Linguistic Creativity in Lithuanian Relative Clauses Monday, April 16, 17:30 Kaminskienė Hall
Dr. JD Mininger Dignified Chatter: Lessons in the Poetics of Paradox from Paul Celan's "Conversation in the Mountains" Monday, April 2, 17:30 Kaminskienė Hall
In the face of such ignominious human acts as genocide, how can literature best heed the ethical call to bear witness to such reprehensible events? Paul Celan poured all the ink of his literary efforts (mostly poetry) into a poetic landscape circumscribed by the horizon of this question. His prose-poem "Conversation in the Mountains"--a story about a Jewish man who wanders into the mountains and encounters a cousin of his--provides an excellent example of an iteration of this landscape.
Dr. Dorin Coita Applications of Marketing in Non-Profit Organizations Monday, March 5, 17:30 Kaminskienė Hall
Society can be divided into three sectors: public (governmental), business, and nonprofit. Nonprofit organizations, like LCC, rely on voluntary work, and they have neither governmental authority nor many of the resources business organizations have. Dr. Coita identifies the reasons nonprofit organizations need marketing. He presents the strategic directions for nonprofit marketing first for the entire sector and second for specific organizations. Competition is identified as the best-hidden public in the nonprofit context. Recognizing the existence of nonprofit competition is a clue that a nonprofit organization has adopted a strategic marketing perspective. In this context, Dr. Coita will share the original contribution of his research: a ten-element marketing mix for nonprofit activities and organizations. For more than a decade, Dr. Dorin Coita, has been teaching for the Department of Management and Marketing in the Faculty of Economics at University of Oradea in Romania. He earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from the prestigious Academy of Economic Science in Bucharest. His Bachelors and Masters specialties were Tourism and Services then Economics and Management of Services. Among his publications are textbooks in Services Marketing, Tourism Marketing, and Management of Nonprofit Organizations. Beyond writing about non-profits, Dr. Coita also has founded and managed several, including a democratic political party. Currently, Dr. Coita teaches marketing online for LCC, and this summer he plans to teach Services Marketing on our campus.
Dr. Dmitri Medvedovski Fathers, Families, and Economic Behavior Monday, January 15, 17:30 Kaminskienė Hall
This research evaluates the determinants of paternal-child time allocation impacts on household behavior. It evaluates a father’s time allocation for interaction with his children while engaging in non-market and market activities. The findings have successfully demonstrated that the father’s allocation of interactive time with his children is correlated with his market activities such as income expectation and working hours. Results also demonstrated that demographic variables had a significant influence on the time spent interacting with children by fathers. Dr. Dmitri Medvedovski, teaches finance and economics at Bethel University. He earned his PhD in Applied Economics from Clemson University in South Carolina. Prior to coming to the United States from Russia in 1995, Dmitri earned an MBA from the Russian State Academy of Management, and BS degrees in Economics and Aerospace Operations in Moscow. Dr.Medvedovski is visiting LCC in January and teaching a 2-credit intensive course covering topics in Financial Economics.

Fall 2006

Dr. Chuck Romig Community Engagement Research as Mission: A Lithuanian-North American Collaboration Monday, November 27, 17:30

Dr. Dail Fields Servant Leadership Across Cultures Monday, October 16 17:30 Kaminskiene Hall
The session will describe some ongoing research into the problems of measuring servant leadership within and across cultures. In particular, Dr. Fields will present a) the results of a study that compared the levels and effects of servant leadership experienced by two samples in Ghana and the USA and b) the first stage results and design of a study striving for a reliable and parsimonious measurement of servant leadership. Dr. Fields is a Fulbright Scholar at LCC for the 2006-2007 academic year. Following this year, he will return to his role as professor in the School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia in the USA.
Dr. Kevin A. Wilson From Horeb to Shechem: Deuteronomy and Joshua as a Combined Document Monday, September 18 17:30 Kaminskiene Hall
Since the mid-20th century, the study of the composition of Joshua has been pulled in two direction. One direction, following the ideas of von Rad, sees Joshua as the end of the Hexateuch. Other scholars, picking up on the work of Noth, see it as part of an extended Deuteronomistic History. This paper examines the earliest stage of the composition of Joshua and concludes that neither theory is fully satisfactory. Instead, it argues that Joshua 2-11 and parts of 23-24 were composed at the same time and by the same hand as the material in Deuteronomy 5-11 and 27-28. Deuteronomy and Joshua were originally two volumes of the same work and circulated as a combined document. Only later was this work incorporated into the larger Hexateuch by the work of the Yahwist. Dr. Kevin Wilson has a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He recently published a book entitled Conversations With Scripture: The Law (Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars Study Series). Dr. Wilson is in his third year as a faculty member in the Theology Department at LCC.

Fall 2005 - spring 2006
Dr. Peter Sturm
Pension Reform: How to respond to population aging
October 13, 2005

Dr. David Skeen
Environmental Psychology: Can environmental psychologists aid in the solutions to our environmental concerns?
February 6, 2006

Dr. Elmer Thiessen
Teaching for committed openness in the university context
February 27, 2006

Dr. Mark Hoelterhoff
The issue of trauma and recovery in the Baltics
March 27, 2006

Dr. Simona Maiukaitė
The differences and similarities in the acquisition of prepositions by adult and children learners of Lithuanian
April 10, 2006