SAS Dean's Forum pays tribute to scholars

The School of Arts and Sciences honored its Dean's Scholars last week with a forum featuring British theater and opera director Jonathan Miller. The 12th annual Dean's Forum, which took place in the University Museum's Harrison Auditorium, was an "opportunity to celebrate the richness of the arts and sciences," according to Janine Sternlieb, executive assistant to SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens. Miller was chosen because he is "a man that is both artist and scientist, a nice metaphor for the School of Arts and Sciences," Stevens said. Miller spoke on "The After-Life of Plays" -- plays which are being produced years after writers first develop them. He discussed the "very complicated problems" that he and his colleagues have faced in remounting plays and operas that are being performed, often after a "dead period" of many years in which they were not produced. Even works such as sculptures have an after-life, Miller said, because of the "wear and tear" of time and the changed perception between when the works were created and now. He stressed the idea that "perception is an active negotiation," and is important in the "resuscitation" of plays. Miller also noted that these plays are often passed down through a bare script that does not even begin to discuss the many facets of action, body language and attitude. "Don't bother about authenticity or relevance," he said as advice to directors. He invited them to "amuse yourself" and "ransack the past" to find the new art in "the great archeological trash heap." English Department Chairperson Wendy Steiner was integral in bringing Miller to the University for the Dean's Forum, since she knows him personally, according to Sternlieb. "I spent time in London and was introduced to him," Steiner said. The Dean's Scholars include undergraduate and graduate students, along with those from the College of General Studies. In the College of Arts and Sciences, the undergraduate department chairpeople nominate students according to standards of "intellectual promise, academic excellence and breadth and depth in course work," according to Sternlieb. She added that a committee, headed by the College's Director of Advising Services Diane Frey, then selected the recipients of the award, who received a certificate and an anthology that included Miller's work. Sternlieb said the scholars represent the "best of what Arts and Sciences is about." According to Dean's Scholar and College sophomore Vatsal Doshi, Miller was "an interesting man." "I think [his talk] was something to think about," Doshi said. And after the forum, Stevens said Miller gave "a very moving and provocative talk." "It raised a lot of questions about perception and history and the way in which we see the world and experience it," she added.