Library Lecture Series presents William P. Callahan

SUNY Maritime Stephen B. Luce Library

Library Lecture Series. 

Thursday, March 12, 2015 @ 1500

William P. Callahan, Esq.

William P. Callahan served in active duty and active reserve duty in the United States Navy (Air Wing) for eight years.  He has received specialized training from Naval Air specialty schools in addition to training in aviation electronics countermeasures.  He is currently a practicing attorney at Callahan & Robinson Law Firm.  Mr. Callahan specializes in governmental relations and litigation matters including aerial unmanned vehicles aka Drones and related defense matters.

Prior to his current position, he was a former trial lawyer for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Narcotics Section in New York and Washington D.C.  During his tenure with the Department of Justice, he was assigned as the Regional Counsel to the Drug Enforcement Task force.

In 1980, Mr. Callahan entered into private practice acting primarily as Investigative Counsel to the Bar.  Subsequently, in 2005-2010, he was appointed by the Federal District Court to be the Court’s Independent Investigator.  Since 2012, he has directed his attention and energies toward the legal and defense matters in Drone technology.

On March 12, 2015, he will be sharing his thoughts and insights with our Maritime community on two interesting topics of current events and history.  He will be discussing Piracy in the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean, and the Sunken WWII German submarines off the East Coast and scuba diving risks.

 

Ship historian Norman Brouwer lectures on the Steamboats of the Long Island Sound

On February 5th, the Stephen B. Luce Library had the honor of welcoming Norman J. Brouwer, one of the leading U.S. maritime historians and lecturers. Brouwer served as curator of the South Street Seaport Museum for 30 years and is currently affiliated with the Mystic Seaport Museum. He shared with us his expertise on the historic steamboats that once plied the waters of the Long Island Sound.

Drawing largely upon materials researched in his book Steamboats on Long Island Sound – Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2014), Brouwer’s lecture zeroed in on New York City as an epicenter for shipping lines which often ferried passengers to important ports such as Norwalk and New Haven in Connecticut, Narragansett Bay and Providence on Rhode Island, and beyond. Competition among service lines spurred the construction of increasingly elegant steamboats which greatly improved the ability to travel between New York and coastal New England. Early photographs accompanied his research into the ships’ architecture during the 19th and early 20th century, as well as ship’s plans and colorful illustrations of ship designs.

Luce Library and the rest of the college community would like to thank Brouwer for this interesting lecture, which brought to life the past age of steam, now largely replaced by diesel engines and other components of modern ship design. His full lecture can be seen here.

Brouwer’s book Steamboats on Long Island Sound is available as an ebook and in paperback from Amazon.com.

Upcoming Library Lecture Series: Maryellen Keefe, PhD, Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 @ 13:30

Library Lecture Series, Celebrating 140th Anniversary of Maritime College presents:

Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson 

With Author Sister Maryellen Keefe, PhD Associate Professor of English at SUNY Maritime

Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 @ 13:30, Stephen B. Luce Library

Sister Maryellen Keefe entered the classroom as an Ursuline nun, teaching at various East coast academies before ultimately pursuing her doctorate in English Literature at the University of Delaware. A New York City native, Dr. Keefe has never been one to follow a traditional path while fulfilling dual roles as both a sister and faculty member of the Humanities department at SUNY Maritime College. In addition to receiving numerous National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, she is advisor of the Newman Club, a Catholic ministry organization, and serves on the Faculty Senate. Outside of her tireless work in and out of the college, Keefe is a published and highly praised author of both children’s and adult nonfiction titles. 

Dr. Maryellen Keefe’s new book Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson is Casual Affairs: The Life and Fiction of Sally Benson is a critical biography of the New Yorker writer whose stories were retold in the well-known film and musical Meet Me In St. Louis. Keefe’s vivid retelling of Benson’s life traces her feats and successes as she navigated the delicate balance between family life as a wife and mother and her role as a career woman, while indulging in several “quiet little affairs.” Drawing on family papers and interviews with Benson’s family members, Keefe’s meticulously researched biography presents us with a portrait of an honest and masterful storyteller who, like her contemporary, Dorothy Parker, is full of wit in her deprecating portrayals of middle class Americans from the Jazz Age well into the 1940s.

“Finally a biographer capable of bringing the brilliant and outrageous Sally Benson to life! And what a life it was for a woman, who began a long career writing for the New Yorker in 1929 and Hollywood in the forties. Keefe’s vivid account…is also the story of a generation of young women eager to balance work and family.” —Susan Goodman, author of Republic of Words: The Atlantic Monthly and Its Writers, 1857–1925 

Upcoming Library Lecture Series: Robert, McMillan. September 24th, 2014 @ 1500

Library Lecture Series, Celebrating 140^th Anniversary of Maritime College presents:

 Global Passage: Transformation of Panama and the Panama Canal

With Author Robert McMillan, former Panama Canal Commission Chairman

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 @ 15:00, Stephen B. Luce Library

 

Robert McMillan is former chairman of the Panama Canal as well as a widely published author. Since being confirmed to the post of United States Senator in 1989, Mr. McMillan has served as a member of the board of the American Medical Association and Madison National Bank, and has founded the Long Island Housing Partnership to facilitate the development of more choice in affordable housing. He has written widely about news and policy issues, the Panama Canal, and other topics, and is a co-host and political commentator on the PBS show Face Off, as well as news outlets such as The New York Times and Newsday. His latest book “Global Passage: Transformations of Panama and the Panama Canal” profiles the challenges and evolution of democracy in Panama and the future of the Panama Canal with its multibillion dollar expansion plans.

 

 

Robert McMillan’s new book Global Passage: Transformation of Panama and the Panama Canal is a brilliantly researched account of the history of the Panama Canal and its multibillion dollar plans for future expansion. As former Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission, McMillan gives us an insider’s look into the canal’s impact on democracy in Panama, the role of the Chinese on the canal’s development, and the possibility of a brand new competing canal being built in Nicaragua.

“McMillan, an American, takes a personal approach to history in this book about the evolution of the Panama Canal, published in concert with the canal's 2014 centennial. As a member of the canal's board in the late 1980s and as the chairman in the 1990s, McMillan developed a thorough understanding of the canal's role in both the Panamanian politics and in global commerce, which he explains in clear, well-developed prose” – Kirkus Reviews

 

Lincoln Paine Lecture

On Friday April 25, 2014, the Stephen B. Luce Library welcomed Lincoln Paine.  Paine is an author, maritime historian, editor and lecturer.  He has penned 5 books and over 50 articles.  The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World is his 5th book.
Paine presented his ideas on the impact maritime history, notably traffic and trade, had on the expansion of human civilization.  He touched upon topics such as ship building techniques throughout history, and the ways of navigation, among others to illustrate some of his thought-provoking points of view.

The well attended lecture culminated with a book signing.  Paine's lecture was a terrific way to wrap up a very informative and enjoyable Library Lecture Series.

Upcoming Library Lecture Series: Lincoln Paine. Friday April 25, 2014 @ 1300

SUNY Maritime Stephen B. Luce Library

Library Lecture Series: Navigate your course @ Your Library

Lincoln Paine, author of The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

Friday April 25, 2014 @ 1300

About the Author:

Lincoln Paine is an author, maritime historian, editor and lecturer.  He has authored 5 books and over 50 articles and reviews on maritime history.

A native of New Orleans, he has spent a significant portion of his life on the northeastern seaboard (New York and Maine) of the US.  Paine has worked as an editor for many publications for nearly 30 years.  He currently holds the position of editor for Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction.

When not lecturing or writing on various aspects of maritime history, Paine serves on the boards of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and The Telling Room, a non-profit writing center for children and young adults.

The Sea & Civilization: A Maritime History of the World is his 5^th book.

About The Sea and Civilization:

A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human. 
This tremendously readable intellectual adventure shows us the world in a new light, in which the sea reigns supreme. Above all, Paine makes clear how the rise and fall of civilizations can be linked to the sea.  (Alfred A. Knopf Publishers)

Elegantly written and encyclopedic in scope, with an expert grasp of the demands of seamanship in every age, The Sea and Civilization deserves a wide readership. For landlocked historians, it will be a powerful stimulus to dip their toes—and perhaps their pens—in saltwater and for readers a forceful reminder that the urge to "go down to the sea in ships" has shaped civilizations and cultures in every period and in every part of the globe.  —The Wall Street Journal