Telluride House The Cornell Branch of Telluride Association

This year’s 3-day Telluride Association Winter Program expanded our academic horizons toward a whole new dimension: that of hyperbolic space.

 Hyperbolic planes make for beautiful hats…

  …..scarves…..

  ….or um, shoulder thingies…

 Yet, what professor Daina Taimina showed us through such seemingly innocent figures was actually a philosophical revolution.

Euclid’s laws of geometry – for centuries taken as absolute truths — claim that if you draw a straight line crossing another straight line diagonally, it will necessarily also cross any parallel lines. Indeed, how could it be otherwise?

Until we drew such lines on crocheted hyperbolic planes ourselves, none of us could really imagine how it could be otherwise. But then, there it was: the refutation of Euclidian truth, the tangible experience of hyperbolic space… 

Posted under Events

All full-time Cornell students are invited to:

The Telluride Open House

Tuesday, September 15
5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

and

Saturday, September 19
2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

217 West Avenue and Campus Road,
the orange house across the Willard Straight parking lot (see map)

Telluride House is a diverse self-governing community of undergrad and grad students that offers full room and board scholarships to all of its residents, in order to foster an atmosphere of intellectual engagement, self-government, and community living.

We have a number of activities planned, including tours, informal conversations with faculty guests, and live music. Refershments and snacks will be served.

For questions and more information, e-mail outreach@telluridehouse.org.

Posted under Events

This spring, Telluride is hosting two faculty panel discussions and two small concert performances. Check out these upcoming events, free and open to the public! All four events are held in the intimate and beautiful living room at the Telluride House on Cornell’s West Campus. Click on “contact” above for directions, or e-mail outreach@telluridehouse.org with questions.

Wednesday, April 15, 7-8:30 pm: Power Relations and the Unintended Health Consequences of Colonial Legacies (A Telluride House Faculty Panel)

With Professors Alaka Basu (Development Sociology), Johanna Crane (Science & Technology Studies), and TJ Hinrichs (History)

This interdisciplinary discussion will approach the question of health and colonialism from several perspectives, and we hope to create an environment welcoming to audience perspectives and participation. Our panel guests are Professor Basu, who will discuss the impact of colonialism on women’s health, birthing practices, and the self-perceptions of the colonized; Professor Crane, who will discuss colonial legacies in AIDS treatment
science; and Professor Hinrichs, who studies 10th-13th century state health policies in southern China, and who will facilitate our discussion. We invite you to bring your own thoughts and questions as well!

Thursday, April 16, 5-6 pm: Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Ravel (A Telluride House Concert)

With Guan Chang-xin (Piano), John Haines-Eitzen (Cello), and Joseph Lin (Violin)

Pianist Guan Chang-xin, a faculty member at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing and an artist in residence at Cornell, will perform works for solo piano by Handel, Mendelssohn, and Wang Jian-zhong. Mr. Guan will be joined by Cornell faculty members Joseph Lin and John Haines-Eitzen for Ravel’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello.

Thursday, April 23, 7-8:30 pm: Neoliberalism and the University (A Telluride House Faculty Panel)

With Professors Davydd Greenwood (Anthropology) and Pamela Tolbert (Industrial and Labor Relations)

What are the consequences of the neoliberal shift in university organization and governance? What does it mean for students to consider themselves consumers of education, for researchers to be sub-contractors in delivering knowledge to the private and public sectors, and for universities to increasingly fund their activities by selling knowledge and obtaining patents? What other models exist for universities? How can these organizations be held accountable to serving the public good without restraining the quality and freedom of academic research?

Davydd J. Greenwood is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University where he has served as a faculty member since 1970. His work centers on action research, political economy, ethnic conflict, community and regional development, the Spanish Basque Country, Spain’s La Mancha region, and the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. He is at work, with his long-time co-author Morten Levin, on a book on the reinvention of the public research university through Action Research.

Pamela  Tolbert is Professor and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior. She is broadly interested in processes of organizational change, the role of organizations in social stratification, and the impact of occupations on organizational structures.  Her current research includes studies of the use of tenure systems by higher education organizations, the effects of organizational and occupational demography on career patterns, and the effects of earnings differences within dual-career couples on spousal relationships.

Saturday, May 2, 5-6 pm: Bach, Barker, Vaughan Williams, and Weir (A Telluride House Concert)

With Joseph Lin (Violin), Judith Kellock (Soprano), and John Rowehl (Piano)

Cornell Music Department members Judith Kellock, Joseph Lin, and John Rowehl perform songs by Samuel Barber and Ralph Vaughan-Williams, unaccompanied violin music by J. S. Bach, and Judith Weir’s King Harald’s Saga, a 10-minute opera in 3 acts, for solo soprano playing 8 roles (and a regiment of the Norwegian army).

Posted under Announcements, Events

Robert Hockett, Associate Professor at Cornell’s Law School, recently came to us to talk about “Bailouts, Buy-Ins, and Ballyhoo”: the causes, historical antecedents, and possible solutions to our current financial crisis. The title really did not to justice to this talk, which was exemplary in its clarity and lucidity. Talking entirely without notes, Professor Hockett — who has training in philosophy, economics, and law — addressed analytical, historical, and normative dimensions of the crisis while steering clear of the jargon that has come to plague us in the halls of the academy. I wish that Treasury Secretary Paulson had been here, as I’m confident he would have profited Hockett’s talk and from the ensuing discussion. Academic events like this one are only one of the many privileges of living here.

Posted under Events, Musings

Here are a couple of pictures from our Halloween formal dinner, though I can’t seem to find pictures from the actual dinner itself. I guess people were hungry or tipsy from cocktail hour beforehand. Here’s a picture of Jim and Julie posing in front of the coffin:

and here are some people dancing afterward, including me in the foreground and our faculty fellow Suman in the background:

Posted under Events, Pictures

Hi, I’m Daniel, a dissertating PhD candidate in Government. I’ve had the privilege of living here at Telluride House for quite some time, and by now, it’s hard for me to think back on my grad school experience at Cornell without also thinking of Telluride. Living here can be intense, and it requires some commitment — but it’s more than worth it, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Anyway, I’m co-responsible for organizing the upcoming Open House (on Tuesday, September 16th from 5:00-6:30pm), and I’d like to encourage you to stop by if you think you may be interested in living here. If you can’t make it, or find out about us after the Open House, you can still access the application on this website. Of course, feel free to ask us if you have any questions.

Posted under Events, Introduction, Musings

All full-time Cornell students are invited to:

The Telluride Open House

Wednesday, September 10
5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

217 West Avenue and Campus Road,
the orange house across the Willard Straight parking lot (see map)

Telluride House is a diverse self-governing community of undergrad and grad students that offers full room and board scholarships to all of its residents, in order to foster an atmosphere of intellectual engagement, self-government, and community living.

Come to the Telluride Open House and see what we’re about, have good conversation, enjoy refreshments, and find out how you can join us.

For questions and more information, e-mail Meredith: mrt34@cornell.edu.

Posted under Events