Town & Gown luncheon series explores topics from looted art to Internet era

Town & Gown’s Lunch at the Forum speaker series returns to campus this fall with special lectures on a variety of current topics, ranging from the problem of looted artworks turning up in top museums to the challenges of teaching in the Internet age.

The voluntary support group for Chapman University invites the community, faculty, staff and alumni to join them in this entertaining and enlightening lecture series.

The series of five Thursday luncheons is available on a subscription basis or individually and includes a complimentary ticket to the annual Sholund Scholarship Concert in May of 2014. 
Lunch at the Forum
begins at 11:30 a.m. in Argyros Forum Room 209 ABC.

The 2013-14 line-up includes:

* Oct. 3
, Justin St. P. Walsh, Ph.D., assistant professor of art history, discusses
Raiders of the Lost Art
. Learn how mysteriously-looted archeological treasures now found in public and private museums and collections are soon to be cataloged in a database developed by Chapman University and the L.A. Times.

*

Nov. 7,
Hesham M. El-Askary, Ph.D., explains
Earth’s Spheres and the Changing Climate
.  Hear about global warming, CO2 emissions and other phenomena are affecting the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and biosphere, our fragile Earth system, and shaping the environment in which we live.

*Feb. 6,
Jeralyn Refeid, adjunct professor of vocal performance, brings her personal and authentic look at Broadway greats, featuring stories and songs by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Kurt Weill and Stephen Sondheim
,
in

Can’t Help Singing
.

 *Mar. 6,
  Travis Knox ‘93
,
producer, adjunct professor in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, explains
The Real Business of the [Entertainment] Business
and share insights into how Dodge College recently completed
Trigger
, its first for-profit feature film.

*
May 1,
William L. Cumiford, Ph.D., associate professor of history, explores how our ideas of “knowledge” and “learning” are being affected in the information age as higher education embraces high-tech culture in
EDUTAINMENT”: Education or Entertainment
.

Additional information and series tickets at $125 each are available from Joanne Jurczyk at 714-997-6563 or by visiting the
Town & Gown website
and selecting
Lunch at the Forum.
 Tickets for individual presentations also are available at $30 each, but parking passes not included.

Town & Gown is a non-profit support group for Chapman University which for 45 years has been fulfilling its mission to integrate the campus into the surrounding community and to underwrite student scholarships and on-campus academic and aesthetic projects.