Eleanor Fapohunda Colloquium

The School of Arts & Sciences Colloquium Series was established in 2004 by the late Dr. Eleanor Fapohunda, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, to enable our faculty to share their scholarly pursuits with their colleagues by giving presentations that are accessible, engaging, and interesting to faculty, staff, and students representing the wide range of academic backgrounds of our School.

This colloquium series, named in Dr. Fapohunda's memory, has continued to provide both junior and senior faculty the opportunity to give such presentations on an impressive array of topics ranging from instability, chaos, and turbulence in the sky to a sociological analysis of Mexican Telenovelas. For junior faculty in particular this has provided an opportunity for an introduction to their colleagues within the School (and to have a presentation to include in their annual reports).

About Eleanor Fapohunda

Dr. Eleanor Fapohunda was deeply committed to the School of Arts & Sciences and its faculty, and fiercely defended the integrity of the Liberal Arts & Sciences. Her own background was in the field of Economics, and she felt strongly that this academic discipline belonged in the School of Arts & Sciences.

Eleanor was extremely innovative as an educator, and endeavored to establish an outreach program with neighboring low-income school districts that would enable high school teachers in those schools to offer Farmingdale courses to their students as a way to make them aware of the accessibility of affordable higher education and to encourage them to pursue the opportunities that could become available by earning a college degree. We have since seen this vision of Eleanor's realized in the University in the High School program.

As Associate Dean, and subsequently as Dean, Eleanor also sought opportunities for her faculty in the School of Arts & Sciences to share their scholarship with outside audiences while enhancing the image of the college by developing the Arts & Sciences Speaker's Program. Many of us had the experience of making presentations to regional high school audiences in our fields of scholarship through this program, as illustrated by the famous group photograph showing us all at an earlier point in time.

Eleanor then established the Arts & Sciences Colloquium series, originally as a "brown bag" event, which gave both junior and senior faculty the opportunity to give scholarly presentations to a broad audience of fellow faculty and students on campus, primarily in the Great Room of Ward Hall. With Eleanor's untimely passing in March 2012 after which the tradition of this Colloquium series has been continued in Eleanor's honor and memory by the Dean's office (usually coordinated by the Assistant Dean or Associate Dean, in whatever capacity they may be serving).