JU’s Drs. Ray Oldakowski, Erich Freiberger selected for prestigious duPont Summer Seminar Series

Jacksonville University’s Dr. Ray Oldakowski, Geography, and Dr. Erich Freiberger, Philosophy, have been selected as visiting scholars in this year’s duPont Summer Seminar Series at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

This is especially noteworthy because the two were chosen to participate in an “off year” for JU, i.e., there were no guaranteed openings for JU facult, said College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Douglas Hazzard. The seminar, titled “Globalization and the Varieties of Modern Capitalism,” will be led by Dr. Edward Balleisen, Associate Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.

The summer seminars are sponsored by the Jesse Ball duPont Fund. The fund supports 42 colleges, universities and military academies, located primarily in the South. Each places a strong emphasis on teaching. Through years of collaboration with these schools, the fund has come to know the special rewards that faculty derive from working closely with students. It has also come to know the challenges that such effort entails. Heavy teaching loads and administrative duties often leave little time for the intellectual renewal essential for effective performance in the classroom.

To help address this problem, the fund in 1991 inaugurated, in conjunction with the National Humanities Center, a series of summer seminars for faculty from duPont Fund-eligible institutions. These three-week residential programs are designed to give faculty the opportunity for intellectual renewal by exploring with leading scholars significant topics of interest to teachers in a variety of disciplines.

While at the National Humanities Center this June, Drs. Oldakowski and Freiberger will have the opportunity to develop teaching units on Globalization and World Capitalism that they will then be able to incorporate into their curriculum at JU.

Previous JU participants in the duPont Summer Seminar Series include Dean Hazzard, Dr. Julie Brannon, Dr. Steve Baker, Dr. Scott Kimbrough, Dr. Joana Owens, Dr. Therese O’Connell, Dr. Nathan Rousseau, Dr. Janet Haavisto and Dr. John Buck.