FACULTY INTELLECTUAL FEASTS
A unique opportunity for colleagues to join together, twice each semester, to discuss core texts and ideas.
The Great Questions Faculty Feasts are a unique opportunity for faculty and staff to join together to discuss core texts and ideas. Our goal is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion while engaging ACC colleagues with challenging texts meant to open intellectual horizons, reinvigorate teaching and encourage collaboration across the college in the shared pursuit of truth.
Please consider joining us for the next installment of the Great Questions Faculty Intellectual Feasts, a core text focused Faculty Learning Community!
Please contact Prof. Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr. for more information.
The Great Questions Faculty Intellectual Feasts
Dostoevsky
The concept is simple: gather faculty from a variety of disciplines, have them read exceptional transformative texts, share a meal and great discussion. Doing this, we break down academic silos, explore questions that are important to us human beings and take a refreshed spirit of inquiry back with us to our classrooms.
Join us this year for the Ninth Annual Great Questions Faculty Feasts, focused on two novels of Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov and Demons. Faculty and staff are welcome to attend.
ACC Faculty and Staff: see the meeting schedule and sign up for the 2023/2024 Faculty Feasts HERE.
A look back at
Past Intellectual Feasts
2022/2023 Feast
Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
Measure for Measure
Troilus and Cressida
The Winter’s Tale
We read and discussed these four plays by William Shakespeare.
2022-2023 Participants
Michelle Atkinson
TLED
Jack Austin
Composition and Literary Studies
Heather Barfield
Drama
Sherry Blum
Philosophy, Religion & Humanities
Jeffrey Chan
Composition and Literary Studies
Linda Cox
Philosophy
Samantha Creek
El Centro
Stephanie Crugnola
LAHC
Kristine Elderkin
Campus Police
Maddison Fleetwood
Drama
Ysella Fulton Slavin
Composition & Literary Studies
Nicole Furneisen
Drama
Victoria Garza
OCRM
Zachary Goldberg
Philosophy, Religion & Humanities
Carl Gregory
Computer Science
Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr,
Government / Humanities
Melissa (Lisa) Holton
Composition and Literary Studies (English)
Michael Hydak
FoLa (Foreign Languages)
Michelle Iskra
Composition and Literary Studies
Frank Kavanaugh
Student Services
Nabeel Khan
CIT
Lindsey Lane
AEG
Estela Lara
Chemistry
Aaron Lawhon
Composition & Literary Studies
Paul Lehman
Amber Luttig-Buonodono
Composition and Literary Studies
Linda Mackey
Philosophy, Religion & Humanities
Melissa Markham
Philosophy, Religion & Humanities
Susan Meigs
Composition and Literary Studies
Kate Meyers
History
Cassandra Olivo
Human Resources
Ann Palmer
Composition & Literary Studies/Integrated Reading & Writing
Enrique Parada
Computer Science and Information Technology
Katie Poe
College & High School Relations
Alejandra Polcik
Student Affairs
Kathleen Reeves
Humanities
Liliana Saldivar
Adult Education
Ben Santana
Allied Health Sciences
Rosalba Schramm
Continuing Education/Engineering technology
Sara Schulz
Academic Technology/TLED
Tami Shetron
TLED
Alina Waguespack
Foreign Language
Victoria Wren
Business and Community Testing
2021/2022 Feast
Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
We studied these two texts which explore the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements and the experience of living within them.
2021-2022 Participants
Grant Potts
Philosophy
Jon Luckstead
Library Services
Lillian Huerta
Humanities and Student Development
Melissa Markman
Humanities
Sarah Jesser
Honors Program and ESOL
Aimee Finney
Communications
Ann Palmer
Composition and Literary Studies
Carl Gregory
Computer Science
Dwayne Bandy
Jewelry
Paul Lehman
Archaeology
James Daniels
Emergency Management
Rosalba Schramm
Engineering Technology
Sherry Blum
Philosophy
Tamara Shetron
Teaching and Learning Excellence Division
Arun John
Composition and Literary Studies
Deb Hoag
Government
Franz Schubert
Philosophy
Laura Brown
Composition and Literary Studies
Paul Thayer
Computer Information Technology
Ted Hadzi-Antich
Government
2020/2021 Feast
Epic World Epics
The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Epic of Sundiata and Ramayana
This year we read three epics ranging from ancient Mesopotamia, the medieval Mali Empire and ancient India. Colleagues met over zoom in two cohorts twice each semester to discuss these works. We embraced our mortality with Gilgamesh, accepted our fate with Sundiata and tested ourselves in the fire with Sita.
2020-2021 Participants
Kerri Pope
Humanities
Arun John
English
Jean Lauer
Humanities
Joe Bullock
Philosophy
Sarah Bowman
Humanities
Grant Potts
Philosophy
Nabeel Khan
Computer Information Technology
Rosalba Schramm
Engineering Technology & Continuing Education
Carl Gregory
Computer Science
Shyamal Mitra
Physics/Astronomy
Sherry Blum
Philosophy/Humanities
Kasina Entzi
Foreign Languages
Katherine Meyers
History
Christina McCourt
Library Services
Kristina Elizondo
Art
Dana Gutierrez
Building Construction Technology
Michael Finney
Business, Government, and Technical Communications
Zach Goldberg
Philosophy
Shellee O’Brien
Government
Paul Lehman
AEG
Anaka Rivera
Government
Jeffrey Chan
English
Ted Hadzi-Antich
Government
2019/2020 Feast
The Decameron
The Decameron
This year we read Giovanni Boccaccio’s classic, The Decameron, which is a collection of novellas by this 14th-century Italian author. Towards the end of our year-long study of these 100 stories told by a group of young people fleeing a plague, we were confronted with the pandemic of our time and moved our sessions online.
We hosted two simultaneous feasts this year. One at ACC South Austin Campus (Dinner) and the other at a Central Austin location (Lunch).
2019-2020 Participants
Samantha Ackers
Liberal Arts
Arun John
English
Sherry Blum
Philosophy/Liberal Arts
Sarah Bowman
Humanities
Jeffrey Chan
English/Communication
Wayne Coffey
Humanities
Patrick Collins
English
Azzurra Crispino
Philosophy
Jessamine Dana
Cultural Anthropology
Aimee Finney
Communication Studies
Melissa Foote
Philosophy
Carl Gregory
Computer Science
Dana Gutierrez
Building Construction/DMCAT
Ted Hadzi-Antich
Government
David Haney
History
Joe Hoppe
English/Creative Writing
David Humphreys
Communication Studies
Michael Hydak
Foreign Languages (French and Spanish)
Lei Ji
Economics
Nabeel Khan
Computer Information Technology
Barbara Lane
History
Debbie Lee
Humanities
Linda Mackey
Philosophy, Religion, Humanities
Alexander Misthos
Philosophy
Shyamal Mitra
Physics/Astronomy
Shellee O’Brien
Government
Elizabeth Pintar
Anthropology
Grant Potts
Philosophy
Anaka Rivera
Government
Rosalba Schramm
Engineering Technology and Workforce Programs, Co-ordinator
Howard Sharp
Student Affairs-Counseling
Julie Wauchope
Reading & Writing
2018/2019 Feast
Eastern and Islamic Classics
FALL SEMESTER 2018
A Journey to The West (Monkey)
Journey to the West is a classic Chinese mythological novel. It was written during the Ming Dynasty based on traditional folktales. Consisting of 100 chapters, this fantasy relates the adventures of a Tang Dynasty (618-907) priest Sanzang and his three disciples, Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, as they travel west in search of Buddhist Sutra. We will read the (much) abridged translation of Arthur Waley
SPRING SEMESTER 2019
Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan
The Arabic philosophical fable Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is a classic of medieval Islamic philosophy. Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185), the Andalusian philosopher, tells of a child raised by a doe on an equatorial island who grows up to discover the truth about the world and his own place in it, unaided—but also unimpeded—by society, language, or tradition. Hayy’s discoveries about God, nature, and man challenge the values of the culture in which the tale was written as well as those of every contemporary society.
2018-2019 Participants
Amy Finney
Communications
Russel Gardner
Government
Carl Gregory
Computer Science
Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr.
Government
Barbara Lane
History
Linda Mackey
Philosophy
Shyamal Mitra
Physics
Courtney Mlinar
Library Science
Kerri Pope
Humanities
Grant Potts
Philosophy
Bryan Register
Philosophy
Celeste Rios
Government
Rosalba Schramm
Electronics & Advanced Technologies
Suzane Stambaugh
Psychology
Julie Wauchope
INRW
2017/2018 Feast
Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein
2017/2018 Feast
Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein
This year, faculty read Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein, a book that captures the incredible process of human beings’ engagement with and discoveries of the natural world. Exploring the amazing discoveries of Aristotle, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and Einstein, this book claims to tell “the most remarkable story in all secular history.” Far from being just a simple recounting of the scientific details, this book explains why the culmination of these men’s work is”the greatest single intellectual success which mankind has achieved.”
We explored how “their discoveries changed the character of man’s habitual mental operations even in the conduct of the non-material sciences while transforming the whole diagram of the physical universe and the very texture of human life itself.” Through the reading and discussion of this work, faculty fostered cross-disciplinary connections and gained a renewed excitement for the incredible development of thought and scholarship, of which we are all a part.
2017-2018 Participants
Angele Smith
History
Amy Finneyr
Communications Studies
Ann Orsinger
Philosophy/Government
Laurie Dillon
Nursing
Shelley Mitchel
Nursing
Samantha Ackers
Education English
Matt Watkins
Philosophy
Linda Macky
Philosophy
Wolfgang Frey
Physics
Danielle Whites
Communications
Bryan Register
Philosophy
2016/2017 Feast
The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne:
Human Experience, Understanding and Cannibals
2016/2017 Feast
Thursday, October 20:
Book 1, Essays 1-45
Thursday, December 8:
Book 1, Essays 46-57 and Book 2, Essays 1-12
Thursday, March 9:
Book 2, Essays 13-37
Thursday, May 4:
Book 3, Essays 1-13
2016-2017 Participants
Cameron Addis
History
Edward Blanchard
English
Sherry Blum
Philosophy
Jackie Childress
Communications
Theodore Hadzi-Antich Jr.
Government
Michael Hydak
Foreign Languages
Bryan Register
Philosophy
Margaret Reid
Chemistry
Jane Thorne
English
Zoe Irene VanSendt
History
Matt Watkins
Philosophy
Wanda Wilson
Government
2015/2016 Feast
Because Arthur Schopenhauer Told Me So:
The 4 greatest novels ever written, according to Arthur Schopenhauer
SCHEDULE
Tuesday, October 20: Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship by Goethe
Tuesday, December 1: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Stern
Tuesday, March 8: Julie, or The New Heloise by Rousseau
Tuesday, May 3: Don Quixote by Cervantes
2015-2016 Participants
Toyya Cisneros
Library Services
William (Joe) Hoppe
English & Creative Writing
Gretchen Harries
Speech Communication
Bill Martin
Developmental Writing
Melissa (Milly) Bonafont
History
Joyce Daniels
Associate Degree Nursing
Katherine Viek
Associate Degree Nursing
Rennison Lalgee
Sociology
Nina Almasy
Health Sciences-Vocational Nursing
Juan Molina
Mathematics
Theodore Hadzi-Antich Jr.
Government