College Connections: Inside the College: THE COLLEGE: Indiana University Bloomington

College Connections

The “Food for Thought” series connects arts and sciences alumni with faculty experts.

By Raymond Fleischmann | November 2023

At Indiana University’s freshman convocation in 1953, IU’s legendary president Herman B Wells reflected in part on the connections alumni often maintain with their alma mater long after graduating.

“They grow to love and respect the university,” Wells said, “because they find that she offers them a first-rate intellectual opportunity; that the members of the faculty are leaders in their respective fields; that her course work has integrity and presents truth unwarped by pressures or prejudice … [and] that there is a friendly, warm interest in the individual, a realization that the growth and development of the individual is the sole objective of the educational process.”

Seventy years later, the College of Arts and Sciences is still delivering that educational process not only to students but to alumni, as well, with a variety of alumni-focused activities taking place throughout the year.

Perhaps most notably as of late, the College has reconnected with thousands of alumni throughout the past four years via its “Food for Thought” program — a livestream series that features arts and sciences faculty members presenting on a range of topics. Introduced in 2019, the series initially revolved around in-person presentations, typically held either in Bloomington or Indianapolis.

“We would schedule the presentations around lunchtime and host them in a central part of campus or a busy office building,” says Vanessa Cloe, the College’s director of alumni relations. “That’s where the ‘Food for Thought’ name comes from, actually: We originally envisioned these presentations as a way for alumni to hear from faculty members during their lunch break.”

But when the pandemic started in 2020 and businesses worldwide began quarantining, Cloe and her team quickly pivoted and moved the presentations online. The livestream iteration of the series has thrived ever since. The program is marketed primarily toward alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences, but the livestreams are free and open to anyone who registers, widening the program’s appeal.

“We focus on topics specific to the arts and sciences, but we want our series to be as accessible and widely appealing as possible,” Cloe says. “We’re just happy to spotlight the incredible work of our faculty members and offer this lifelong-learning opportunity to anyone who would like to attend.”

A screenshot from Professor Sarah Phillips' presentation, "Kurt Vonnegut in/and the Soviet Union."

Since moving online in 2020, Cloe and her team have organized about two dozen distinct presentations from College of Arts and Sciences faculty members. The hourlong presentations include an audience Q&A and have focused on a wide range of topics, from “The Trials of Joan of Arc” and “The Rise of American Political Polarization” to “The ABCs of Costume Design” and “Rivers in the Sky: Extreme Weather and Climate Change.”

“Sometimes our speakers present on what’s happening locally, nationally, and globally, and sometimes they present on topics with more general, perennial interest,” Cloe says. “[Professor of Anthropology] Sarah Phillips’ recently had a presentation about Kurt Vonnegut, who’s always been such a popular author in Indiana and Bloomington, but then we’ll have faculty members like [Distinguished Professor of Astronomy] Caty Pilachowski, who gave a wonderful presentation about the photos coming from the James Webb telescope. So, the focus of our series really varies, which I think speaks to the depth and breadth of the College of Arts and Sciences itself.”

And that diversity of programming has been a hit with alumni. More than 2,000 viewers have attended the presentations since 2020, with thousands more watching the presentations’ recordings on YouTube. One graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences felt so inspired by the series that they decided to support it philanthropically, as well, gifting financial support for the program and other alumni-focused efforts like it in the College.

Cloe says that the funds will provide alumni with additional opportunities to connect with the College and support their alma mater, expanding the College’s scope of alumni-engagement activities.

“We’re deeply humbled by the support and profoundly thankful for it,” Cloe says. “It will allow us to do more of what we already know is effective, and it’ll help us to expand and diversify the type of content we provide, as well.”

“The gift in support of our alumni-engagement efforts is a wonderful testament to the importance of programs like Food for Thought,” says College of Arts and Sciences Executive Dean Rick Van Kooten, “and even more, it’s an incredible demonstration of the generosity of our donors. We’re so thankful for the support and all the ways in which it will allow our alumni to engage with faculty members, reconnect with the College, and explore new topics of interest.”

A screenshot from Distinguished Professor Ellen Ketterson's presentation, "Conserving Birds and Biodiversity: Research, Education, and Outreach."

Making connections

But alumni aren’t the only ones exploring new topics through the series. For some faculty members, the program has proved to be a kind of testing ground for new ideas and areas of research.

Professor Sarah Phillips, for instance, is a cultural anthropologist whose research studies medical anthropology, post-socialist transformations, gender and women’s studies, and a range of topics related to the former Soviet Union and Ukraine. Through a project organized by the College Arts and Humanities Institute, Phillips became particularly interested in the work of Kurt Vonnegut and the author’s surprising popularity within the Soviet Union.

“It’s almost like a Cold War mystery that I’ve been investigating these past few years,” Phillips says. “You know, ‘Why was Vonnegut so popular in the Soviet Union?’ How was he allowed to be so popular and to have his books translated in Russian?”

Phillips recently brought that topic — “Kurt Vonnegut in/and the Soviet Union” — to the Food for Thought series, which offered an easy outlet to discuss this new academic interest of hers.

“I’ve been working on this project for a while,” Phillips says, “and I’m at the point where I almost have a book draft, and I knew that if I were to present this to an audience, it would help me crystalize some of my arguments and help me along the path to completion.”

The presentation was attended widely and enthusiastically by alumni from all over the world, including family members of late alumnus Donald Fiene (M.A. ’67, Ph.D. ’74, Slavic Languages and Literature), a renowned scholar and friend of Vonnegut who helped set in motion the eventual translation of the author’s work into Russian.

“That kind of connection isn’t entirely coincidental, I think,” Van Kooten says. “It really speaks to the community of the IU College of Arts and Sciences and its alumni, and how they often come together through a shared love of learning and academic curiosity. Our Food for Thought program is so much more than just an educational series. It’s a way for alumni and faculty to reconnect with each other, and with Indiana University.”

Phillips echoes a similar sentiment.

“There were some great questions from the audience,” she says, “and the follow-ups I had with alumni were fantastic, too. I heard from family members of Dr. Fiene, thanks to that IU connection, and I heard from so many others with great questions and ideas and sources for other stories. It was just wonderful to have that kind of engagement with alumni even after the talk was over.”

Our Food for Thought program is so much more than just an educational series. It’s a way for alumni and faculty to reconnect with each other, and with Indiana University.
Executive Dean Rick Van Kooten

Looking forward

As the university’s fall semester comes to a close, Cloe is already at work planning the spring semester’s slate of Food for Thought lectures.

“We’ll be announcing our 2024 season soon,” she says. “We’ve already planned for presentations from Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Richard DiMarchi and Distinguished Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido, and we’ll also be hosting a limited series in collaboration with campus partners on the 2024 total solar eclipse.”

Cloe says that she and her team are also exploring new types of online programming to include avenues for alumni to share their own scholarly research and academic expertise.

“Our faculty members are world-renowned for their research, but of course our alumni base includes an amazing number of researchers, teachers, and academic leaders, as well,” says Van Kooten. “I think that’s another reason why our alumni programming has been so successful over the years. Our alumni truly are lifelong learners, and it’s been so rewarding to engage with those thinkers and leaders and keep them connected to the life of the College.”

If you’d like to support to the College’s alumni-engagement activities, visit this page

A Life of Persistent Curiosity
The Art of Science
Early Bloomers

Raymond Fleischmann

Raymond Fleischmann is director of advancement communications for the College of Arts and Sciences and serves as the primary editor for The College magazine. He holds a B.A. in English and the Individualized Major Program from Indiana University, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Ohio State University. His first novel, How Quickly She Disappears, was published by Penguin Random House in January 2020, and his short fiction has been published in The Iowa Review, Cimarron Review, The Pinch, River Styx, and Los Angeles Review, among many others. Reach him at rfleisch@indiana.edu or through his website raymondfleischmann.com.