Penn students and community members had the opportunity to question an expert over Cuban food at the inauguration of a new lecture series in the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Wednesday night.
Assistant Sociology professor David Gibson discussed “Conversational Syntax, Turn-Taking, and the Fate of the World During the Cuban Missile Crisis,” speaking about his research involving tapes of the historical conversation between President John Kennedy and the Executive Committee of the National Security.
About 40 people — a mix of students, alumni and local residents — came out for the new series.
“I though it was very good and interesting,” said Bob Myers, a 1977 College and 1981 School of Medicine graduate. “It was a great intersection of sociology, negotiation and history.”
This event was the first installment of the Lightbulb Café, a three-part series that will feature Penn faculty experts in the arts, humanities and social sciences speaking about their research in their respective fields.
“We are thrilled with how tonight’s inaugural series turned out. We emailed the event to members of Penn and the Philadelphia community and more than twice the amount of people who responded to the email showed up, a phenomenal turn out,” said Jacquie Posey, news officer for University Communications and one of the coordinators of the series.
1977 College graduate Brad Miller came because the email sounded intriguing. Of Gibson’s lecture, he felt that “it was very interesting but it would have been more interesting if it included the Bay of Pigs tapes, too.”
The Lightbulb Café is a sister series following on the heels of the Penn Science Café, which features experts from the life and physical sciences.
“Like the Science Cafés, the Lightbulb Café series is an opportunity for people to ask questions of experts in an informal environment with food, beverages and no grades,” said Evan Lerner, science news officer for University Communications and another coordinator of the series. “It is easily approachable, provides outreach to the community and makes use of Penn’s tremendous resources.”
“It allows experts to ‘shed light on’ and reflect these disciplines,” Posey added.
Gibson was the series’ social sciences expert and the following parts of the series will feature the arts and humanities experts respectively. Speakers will include History of Art professor Michael Meister and Religious Studies professor Anthea Butler.
This article has been modified from its original version to reflect that the food served at the event was not free.
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