HonorsCollege

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz has published two chapters in a new book out this month titled, “A Spirit that Impels: Play, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis.” The contributing authors in the book look at creativity through a psychoanalytic lens and analyze great works such as The Scarlet Letter, Mahler’s Eighth and The Miracle Worker, as well as great artists Van Gogh and Lennon/McCartney. The book brings together papers presented by scholars at an annual creativity seminar organized by the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center. The authors explore the central questions of how to understand the creative process, contributions of psychoanalysis to that understanding, and what opens up… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Publishes Chapters in New Book

For National Library Week, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz wrote an essay in City Paper that examines the value of borrowing books, especially children’s books, from the library. “Feeling rebellious over our dizzying speed-mad era of e-books, e-readers, digital and virtual realities, I want to advocate for the practice of borrowing a good old-fashioned book from the library—especially now, during National Library Week. I want to remind everyone of the simple joy of settling down in a cozy nook, turning well-worn pages, and reading aloud to a child,” Spitz writes. She discusses the value of reading children’s books of the past and… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Writes Essay in City Paper for National Library Week

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz recently traveled to Sewanee, Tennessee to the University of the South, where she was invited as a guest lecturer in the pioneering program, “Child, Family and Community Development in Rural Appalachia.” The program is sponsored by the University of the South, The Yale Child Study Center and Scholastic. A major goal of the program is to help children and families in poverty-stricken Appalachia while building community and fostering a rich cultural life. As part of the program, Spitz lectured and read story books to four groups of children ranging from three to six years old and met with… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, Participates in Community Development Program in Appalachia

As Lorrainne Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, opens with Denzel Washington on Broadway, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz is being recognized for her book which devotes an entire chapter to exploring the play’s significance. Excerpt’s from Spitz’s book, Illuminating Childhood, Portraits in Film, Fiction, and Drama, are quoted in a University of Michigan Press blog post about the play. “Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun, was both her first and the first by any playwright of color to astonish Broadway,” Spitz writes in the book. “Crossing boundaries of race, ideology, and class, it puts onstage an unforgettable portrayal… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, in University of Michigan Press Blog

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz is participating in a roundtable discussion at the Helix Center in New York City devoted to the topic of children’s drawing. The program will focus on linguistic, art historical, and psychoanalytic perspectives on drawings by Ethiopian children. The roundtable, titled “From Children’s Sights to Our Insights: Ethiopian Children’s Drawings, Stories and Inner Lives,” is scheduled to take place Saturday, January 25th from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Other panelists include Theodore Shapiro, Professor Emeritus at Weill-Cornell Medical College, and Nathan M. Szajnberg, Wallerstein Research Fellow in Psychoanalysis at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.  You can read more about… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, to Participate in Helix Center Roundtable

Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz has been invited to speak on a panel at McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York City. The New York Review of Books has been republishing time-honored classic books for children for the past decade, and this panel has been convened to celebrate this venture on its tenth anniversary. Edwin Frank, editor of the NYRB’s Children’s Collection, and Betsy Bird, New York Public Library Children’s Librarian, will discuss the changing character of children’s books with Ellen Handler Spitz and other children’s literature experts. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday, November 10th at… Continue Reading Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College, to Participate in New York Review of Books Panel