Yale University

Class News

Bill Morse ’64, our YAA Delegate, reports on YAA Fall Assembly

January 11, 2021

Bill Morse, our Class YAA Delegate, participated in the Zoom virtual YAA Fall Assembly, “The Arts and the Humanities.” This is his report.

The YAA Assembly in the fall of 2020 was a virtual event, with Zoom presentations, exchanges, and meetings. We met and heard from the president, various deans, and a variety of faculty, alumni, and student leaders.

I have written two reports as our Class representative, one on the artist Genevieve Gaignard, the other summarizing the Yale trustees’ presentation of their roles and responsibilities. Tony Lavely and Sam Francis have included my reports in recent Class Notes and Class News.

I particularly liked the “Authors in Conversation” series, which included interviews of a half-dozen Yale-affiliated writers.

  • Sleep in Art: How Artists Portrayed Sleep and Dreams in the Last 7000 Years, Dr. Meir Kryger (Yale Medical School faculty). Google Drive. Kryger’s interviewer, Linda Friedlaender.
  • Enhancing Observational Skills, Yale Center for British Art. Fascinating.
  • The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began, Valerie Hansen, Woodward Professor of History. NY Times review by Christine Bird, April 2020.
  • Union: A Democrat, a Republican, and a Search for a Common Bond, Christopher Haugh, Jordan Blashek, Yale Law ’18, interviewed by Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken.
  • The Undocumented Americans, Karla Corneija Villavicencio, Harvard ‘11, now Yale Ph.D. candidate, National Book Award finalist.
  • The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw, ’93, short stories. National Book Award finalist. Go to Amazon and “LOOK INSIDE!”

In short, Yale’s Fall Assembly makes a compelling case for the Arts and Humanities, for their relevance to our lives, our values, our contributions, and our impact on the world.