2013 DIV IV weekend celebrates Culture, Mind, and Body

Hampshire College's annual Div IV weekend took place June 7-9. This year's theme, Culture, Mind, and Body, celebrated the College's 43 years of interdisciplinary explorations across the College, as well as 10 years of the Culture, Brain, and Development program.

The goal of Div IV is to bring together the Hampshire community to explore ideas and learn from one another. It is also a chance for alums to revisit their student experiences, as well as delve into the critical academic inquiry and intellectual excitement of their years studying at Hampshire.

Among highlights of the three-day Div IV schedule:

• Reunions for the classes of 1973, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003.

• A talk by Jaak Panksepp, professor and Baily Endowed Chair of Animal and Well-Being Science at Washington State University, on the emerging understanding of how emotional feelings are created in human brains. Panksepp is the author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions and well known for his research on laughter in non-human animals.

• Bodies, Pleasures, and Disruptions: Sexuality in U.S. Society, a panel on how to think and talk about our sexualities in a complex, sometimes confusing culture and how to create action and activism around key issues as we move deeper into the 21st century. Speakers will be The Doula Project co-creator Lauren Mitchell 03F; professor and author of Sexualities in Context: A Social Perspective Rebecca Plante 86F; and sexologist and spiritual medium Rom Weber 87F.

• The Future of the Brain, a lecture on what neuroscience research will mean for medicine, artificial intelligence, and understanding human nature. Speakers are International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Executive Director Sean Hill 87F; bestselling author of Guitar Zero Gary Marcus 86F; and Hampshire faculty members Lee Spector and Neil Stillings.

• A rough cut screening of Robert Lemelson 79F's new film Bitter Honey, a documentary work in progress shot over four years that focuses on the plight of Balinese women in three polygamous marriages.

• Flash sessions that provide alums seven minutes each to share what they've been working on since their time at Hampshire through lectures, slideshows, videos, performances, and other media.

• A movement session led by dancer and educator Laurie Masterton Tuchman 74F and introduced by dance professor Becky Nordstrom.

For more information about the Div IV weekend, contact Hampshire College Alumni and Family Relations at alumni@hampshire.edu or call 413.559.6638.