Dean’s Weekly Department of English and Philosophy

28 August 2013

Past Events

1. EN102 STAP

On 12 June 2013, MAJ Nicholas Utzig led his EN102 STAP cadets to New York to examine the influence of setting on poetic creation. They began at the home of Langston Hughes on 127th Street in Harlem where CDT Tanner Plomb gave a brief overview of the neighborhood and a close reading of Hughes’ “Juke Box Love Song.” From the Hughes house, the class travelled south, past Marcus Garvey Park and the Martin Luther King Jr. housing development, and entered Central Park-North. After a short walk through the Park, the section continued along 5th Avenue to the Guggenheim Museum (89th Street). After a short visit to the museum, they travelled to Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. The cadets walked through Greenwich Village to the Stonewall Inn and Washington Square Park. Moving east, the section travelled to the East Village, then to Lower East Side, where CDT Saruul Batdorj led a discussion on the immigrant experience in NYC. The cadets then continued through Little Italy & Chinatown. Following a momentary stop at 1 Police Plaza, the group walked through City Hall and into the Financial District. The STAP section stopped by Zuccotti Park, Wall Street, and the cemetery at Trinity Church before finishing the walk in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan—after walking a total of 11 miles.

2. PY201 STAP: The Ethics Block

In PY201, SFC Mark Tonelli and the USMA Jazz Knights led a workshop for cadets focused on helping them understand how jazz improvisation works and how it might serve as a metaphor for the way we think about ethics. The idea for the workshop was inspired by a 1997 Military Review article by former Chief of Staff of the Army GEN (Ret.) Gordon Sullivan entitled, “Leadership, Versatility, and All That Jazz.” General Sullivan kindly provided a brief recorded video introduction to the workshop, which he produced at the request of SFC Tonelli. To illustrate the versatility of jazz improvisation, the Jazz Knights then used a piece by Sonny Rollins entitled “Doxy,” after which cadets mixed and matched items on a performance variables matrix. Back in the classroom, cadets discussed the possible similarities between jazz improvisation and the way we might take a set of basic ethical principles and apply them in an “improvisational” manner to a wide variety of situations with different sets of constraints.

Also, in PY201, cadets participated in an integrative thinking workshop focused on Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP). By the end of the exercise, cadets had produced a stakeholder map, attempting to identify all of those impacted by SHARP.

Next, as part of the critical thinking block of PY201 STAP, David Haygood, Partner at the world-renowned design firm IDEO, led an integrative thinking workshop for cadets focused on helping them develop and exercise their creative thinking muscles. Mr. Haygood dedicated the last portion of the workshop to helping cadets apply their new skills to the difficult problems surrounding SHARP issues. Cadets then visited Mr. Haygood’s IDEO New York office, where they participated in a roundtable discussion with Tom Eich, Partner and Head, focused on creativity and leadership. Mr. Eich shared with cadets IDEO’s commitment to “screening for values” in their hiring process, highlighting “curiosity, empathy, and ego-less-ness.” Mr. Eich also noted that IDEO emphasizes leadership at every level, which had a particular resonance for the cadets in attendance.

Cadets pictured here with Tom Eich, partner and head of IDEO’s New York office.

3. Cadet Summer Training 2013: Land Navigation

Eight members of DEP, augmented by five newly commissioned Lieutenants, conducted advanced land navigation training and leadership development for the classes of 2014 and 2015 and oversaw the training for the class of 2016. The two-day training event consisted of site orientation and initial training, a confidence course, a short night course, and a long day course. Between June and July, the DEP Land Navigation Committee trained over 1450 cadets from the classes of 2014-2016 with outstanding results. Not only were the cadet cadre and trainees successful during the event; they were also safety conscious throughout. Despite Heat Category V temperatures for five consecutive days, there was not a single heat-related injury on the course.

Cadets from the class of 2015 conduct initial after-action reviews with cadets from the class of 2016. Upon completing the courses, trainees met with their squad leaders to map out the routes they believed they took to get to their points. Immediately after reviewing their perceived route with their squad leaders, trainees had an opportunity to see their actual route based on data uploaded from an issued GPS tracker.

Members of the Land Navigation Committee pose for a photo opportunity. From left to right: MAJ Hadlock, CPT Daley, 2LT Leslie, LTC Bauer, MAJ Miller, 2LT Smith, CPT Ward, 2LT Murphy. Front: MAJ Crouse

Cadets scan their electronic punch cards to start the Day 2 Long Course. Cadets scanned their e-punch cards when they found their points on the courses. Cadets were also issued a GPS and SMS tracker that allowed cadre and trainers to monitor their movement in real-time and facilitate after action reviews following the event.

4. Philosophy AIAD

Seven cadets completed two interdisciplinary AIADs on morality and law in war. A June AIAD at Rutgers University focused on jus ad bellum (justice of war), while a July AIAD at Georgetown University focused on jus in bello (justice in war). Throughout the AIADs, cadets learned about humanitarian intervention, preventive war, combatancy status, targeted killing, torture, and civilian immunity from the world's foremost scholars, lawyers, policy makers, and practitioners. Participants included a former White House legal counsel for targeted killings, a chief architect of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine (R2P), lawyers for the US detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a US defense attaché to Iraq, a former Pentagon targeting analyst, and an unmanned aerial vehicle pilot. During the AIADs, each cadet wrote a 15 page paper proposal for further development over his or her cadet career. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbOmongLddI

5. Literature, Nature, and Culture AIAD

MAJ Charlie Markley and CPT Barrett Ward led five cadets to multiple locations on an AIAD that explored the various ways that cultures interact with nature through the arts. They began their journey in Walden Woods of Concord, Massachusetts, and then explored the wilds of the Pacific Northwest to their final destination of Denali National Park, Alaska. The trip focused on wilderness regions as they relate to literary works by authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Alexie, and Krakauer, but also examined indigenous arts of both eastern and western Native Americans. Cadets were able to refine their own understanding of the way civilizations interact with the natural world. This experience will prepare these cadets to critically engage and respond to the distinction between knowledge (through the natural sciences) and understanding (through the humanities).

6. Faculty Presentations & Engagement. On 5 June, Dr. Graham Parsons presented a paper titled "The Absurdity of Public War for Human Rights" at a symposium on Oppression, Resistance, and Rights sponsored by the Canadian Jacques Maritain Association in conjunction with the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Victoria, Canada. The symposium included many talks related to political and global justice as well as war and peace. Dr. Parsons' talk was followed by a lively discussion. In July, The Journal of Military Ethics published a response to Dr. Graham Parsons' article "Public War and the Moral Equality of Combatants," which will be followed by Parsons’ own response in October. This

further demonstrates our faculty's ability to produce research of the highest quality and to participate in debates with leading scholars on issues of international interest. From 5-7 July, at the University of Leicester (UK), Dr. Patrick Query attended the initial Colloquium for editors of the 42-volume Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh, published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Query is a member of the edition's Advisory Board and is editing A Tourist in Africa (1960), Waugh's final travel book. The edition's Executive Editor is Waugh's grandson, Alexander Waugh, and the General Editors are Martin Stannard of the University of Leicester and David Bradshaw of Oxford. Individual volumes will begin appearing in 2016, the 50th anniversary of Waugh's death, until 2022 when the project is completed. On July 24, Patrick Query gave a presentation and led a discussion on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go (2005) for the Pageturners Book Club of the Coeur d'Alene (ID) Public Library. Dr. Richard Johnston received his PhD in English from Harvard University on May 30, 2013. In June, he presented a paper at the Melville Society annual conference, and in August, he presented a paper at the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism annual conference. LTC Chris Mayer saw the publication of "Minimizing Harm to Combatants: Nonlethal Weapons, Combatants' Rights, and State Responsibility." It is a chapter featured in the Routledge Handbook of Ethics and War: Just War Theory in the 21st Century. Fritz Allhoff, Nicholas G. Evans, Adam Henschke (editors). New York: Routledge, 2013.

On 7 August, MAJ Ian Fishback hosted a Carnegie New Leaders (CNL) event as part of USMA's outreach to NYC. The foci of the event were ethical leadership and contemporary civil-military relations. MAJ Fishback provided the CNL participants with a tour of West Point followed by a dinner discussion at MacArthur's in Hotel Thayer. CNL is run by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The members of CNL are a diverse and dynamic group of accomplished individuals, aged 40 and under, from the business, government, academic, and nonprofit sectors in NYC. On Tuesday, 13 August, DEP’s Philosophy faculty hosted Prof. Robert Audi, O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and a longtime supporter of Philosophy at West Point. Prof. Audi’s talk asked the question, “Why be moral?” His answer revealed the deep relationship between being moral and being reasonable, between morality and rationality itself. He gave his talk over lunch at the West Point Club in the Benny Havens Room, hosted by Prof. Tully. It was a lively presentation matched by spirited discussion, and in the eyes of all who attended a great success – and not a bad lunch!

Prof. Robert Audi and CPT Phonexphova in discussion.