Writing program's sophomores get rare chance to interact with a giant of physics

By Lissa Harris

Last month, Cornell students in a new sophomore writing seminar program had the rare fortune to be lectured about his life and work by Hans Bethe, Nobel laureate and one of the giants of 20th century physics, whose career has spanned seven decades.

About 30 Cornell sophomores listened with rapt attention as Bethe, who at 95 is still actively publishing papers in astrophysics, talked about the development of theories on how heavy elements are produced in supernovae. The talk was a rare bonus for students enrolled in the new John S. Knight Sophomore Writing Seminar series.

From left, arts and sciences sophomore David Choi and professors Martha Haynes and Dan Schwarz listen to a discussion in a sophomore writing seminar class in the Space Sciences Building, Nov. 6. Robert Barker/University Photography

"I think you could have heard a pin drop in the room. The students were mesmerized," said Martha Haynes, professor of astronomy and director of undergraduate studies in Cornell's Department of Astronomy. "It was just a stunning occasion, a wonderful learning opportunity," said Dan Schwarz, English professor and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell.

Bethe, Cornell's John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics Emeritus, gave his talk to a collaborative gathering of two disciplines that, at face value, could not be more different. For the event, students from Haynes' seminar on dark matter in the universe, which she teaches with her husband, astronomy Professor Riccardo Giovanelli, joined students from Schwarz's seminar on Imagining the Holocaust, illustrated by works ranging from Elie Wiesel's Night to Art Spiegelman's MAUS. The two courses are the first to be taught in the sophomore seminar program, which is in its first semester.

The value of bringing arts and sciences together in one seminar? "Even the students who didn't understand all the technical details nonetheless saw an amazing 95-year-old scientist tell the story of his life, which is science," said Haynes. Added Schwarz, "The students really had an experience they couldn't have had anywhere else."

Fostering such collaborations between disciplines is one of the goals of the sophomore seminar series, according to Knight Institute Director Jonathan Monroe. "I think faculty would welcome the opportunity to teach collaboratively more often than they're generally able to," he said. "The way faculty time is allocated, there's not really an opportunity to have that time to work closely with faculty outside their departments. ... This program provides the financial incentive for both the individual faculty and departments and frees up faculty time to be able to do this."

Last year the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded $5 million to Cornell's Knight Writing Program to strengthen, broaden and extend the outreach of the program. Of this, $3 million was used to endow the sophomore writing seminar program, beginning with five seminars, each with a limit of 15 students, in 2001-02. Three seminars will be taught in the spring: on poetry, on pets in literature and on war in the ancient world.

In 2002-03, the seminars will be increased to 10, and in 2003-04, to 13. In addition, Cornell will support an additional 17 seminars a year beginning in 2004-05, for a continuing total of 30 sophomore seminars a year beginning in 2006.

The series was created, said Monroe, to give sophomores -- who typically have fewer opportunities to work closely with faculty than do students at other points in their education -- a way to do intensive writing and to interact with senior faculty in their disciplines. He noted that the seminars also allow students to explore their interests in a possible major through close faculty mentoring.

"[The seminars] are designed to make possible earlier mentoring experiences for undergraduates in the majors than would otherwise be available to them," he said.

Because classes are limited to 15 students, faculty can devote individual attention to students and give them extensive feedback on their writing.

The Knight Institute also runs a series of writing seminars for freshmen and a 30-course Writing in the Majors series for more advanced students. In August, Stephen Donatelli, a senior lecturer in comparative literature, was appointed by the Knight Institute to coordinate the new sophomore series.