Knoxville Torch Club

The Torch Club is an international association of local clubs in which respected persons practicing recognized professions enjoy the cultural interchange of knowledge. Established in 1924, Torch Club now operates in 75 locations in the United States and Canada. Each has a monthly meeting that is highlighted by the presentation of a paper by a member or guest on a topic of concern to modern society. Following the presentation, the members discuss the subject. It is through this sharing of knowledge and points of view that Torch becomes a unique and beneficial experience.
To learn about membership in the Knoxville Torch Club, please contact David Coffey by e-mail (coffeyd@utk.edu) or by phone (865-974-8829).

OUR NEXT MEETING

September 18, 2008
Otis H. Stephens, Ph.D.
Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science
and Resident Scholar of Constitutional Law "Subpoena power of Congress regarding Elected Officals of the Executive Branch"

MEETING LOCATION:
The Orangery, located at 5412 Kingston Pike (click here for map), is where we hold our monthly meetings. Lunch will be ordered from the luncheon menu. There is no meeting charge except for annual dues.
Meetings begin at noon and there is ample parking at the rear of the restaurant.

Meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month. Each meeting begins with your choice of lunch followed by our guest speaker.		12:00 p.m.: Meet, talk, and order meal. Meal may be ordered by phone in advance (865-588-5499). See menu. 12:30 p.m.: Lunch served and presentation given. 1:00 p.m.: Meeting over	To see the the Knoxville Torch Club brochure, please click here.
			President: Treasurer/Secretary:	Stephen Levy David Coffey

Below is a listing of the presentations from 1998 to present.

(Presentations for the years 2004-2006 can be found at this link.)
(Presentations for the years 2001-2003 can be found at this link.)
(Presentations for the years 1998-2000 can be found at this link.)

2008

January 17, 2008 David F. Goslee, Ph. D. Professor and Associate Head Department of English University of Tennessee	"Evolution: A Victorian Idea" While not trying to discredit Darwin's originality, I would like to show how the culture of Victorian England shaped the pieces of his puzzle and so arranged them that he could fit them together. The talk will touch briefly on several of these pieces: the conception of time, the notion of progress, the interactions of humans within an economic system, the relation between humans and animals, the nature of causality, the classifications within the animal kingdom. Each of these areas, when Darwin would have encountered it, had reached a configuration that helped determine the questions he could ask and the answers he could accept.
February 21, 2008 Daniel M. Feller, Ph. D. Professor of History Editor/Director of The Papers of Andrew Jackson Department of History University of Tennessee	"The Papers of Andrew Jackson" The Papers of Andrew Jackson is a University of Tennessee project to collect and publish the seventh president's public and private papers in a 16-volume series. The project has unearthed material that casts Jackson and his presidency in a new and sometimes startling light. It has also solved mysteries, exposed forgeries, and helped to catch thieves. In this presentation Daniel Feller, UT professor of history and director of the project, highlights some of its recent work.
March 20, 2008 John Nolt, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy President-Elect, Faculty Senate University of Tennessee	“What is our moral obligations to future generations?” Such long-term problems as national debt and global climate change raise the perplexing issue of duties to future generations. Distant future people are unknown to us, yet our decisions may affect their number and even their identities. They have, moreover, done nothing for us. Why should we, then, feel obligated to act on their behalf? How, moreover, could we do so if we don’t even know what they will want? This talk aims to provide rational answers to those questions. In an effort to answer the question “What’s in it for us?,” I’ll conclude with some reflections on how caring about the future makes sustainable, realistic hope possible.
April 17, 2008 Elaine Evans, Curator McClung Museum University of Tennessee	"THE GRAND TOUR: Postcards and Travelers in Egypt" This paper will describe and analyze an early postcard collection in the McClung Museum. The printed memorials trace the travels of a little known Knoxville, Tennessee couple in Egypt in 1912-1913. In the Golden Age of postcards, collecting them was a major craze and essential to the memory file. Contributing data is provided about early baggage labels, shipping documents, etc. Also covered is international postal regulations, publishers, photographers, artists and other relevant material reflected in the postcards The scarcity of documentation about postcards of Egypt prompted this focus and a not-to-be missed stop on The Grand Tour. A universal story is told, one woven into the fabric of travel of the time.
May 15, 2008 David Habercom, Photographer	“Street Talk – A Study of the Humanity of the Homeless” WUOT news director Matt Shafer Powell conducted interviews with the homeless in an eight-week series, complemented by a collection of studio portraits of the homeless taken by Knoxville photographer David Habercom. Occasionally someone asks why I photographed “these people.” I have three reasons: personal, social, and political. First, I am drawn to that which I fear. The more I know a thing that scares me, the less paralyzed I am in its presence. This is a fundamental human impulse related to survival. We go into the wilderness to face our devil. These are our neighbors, though we turn away when we see them, and lock our doors, and try not to breathe. We need to see these faces more clearly. They are part of us. Finally, these faces represent the deepest embarrassment this rich country suffers, because they reveal the fate of those who fall away from the rest of us. So, I have tried to transform these faces into objects of beauty, burnished and suspended in light, in the hope that we will cup them in our hands and grieve.”
June, 2008	No meetings over the summer
July, 2008	No meetings over the summer
August, 2008	No meetings over the summer
September 18, 2008 Otis H. Stephens, Ph.D. Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and Resident Scholar of Constitutional Law	"Subpoena power of Congress regarding Elected Officals of the Executive Branch"
October 16, 2008	To be annnounced
November 20, 2008 Daniel M. Feller, Ph. D. Professor of History Editor/Director of The Papers of Andrew Jackson Department of History University of Tennessee	"The Papers of Andrew Jackson" This will be part 2 of Professor Feller’s talk on Andrew Jackson, which will center on some of the most recent findings that have not made the history books at this point. Professor Feller will talk about some of facts on Andrew Jackson’s life that have been uncovered in the collection of his papers. (Part 1 was given on February 21, 2008. See above.)
December, 2008	No meeting

2007

January 15, 2007	No meeting
February 15, 2007 Robert S. Freeland, Ph.D., P.E. Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science University of Tennessee (Knoxville)	“Finding What is Buried Beneath our Feet - Surface Penetrating Radar and Electromagnetic Induction Sensing” Professor Freeland has been involved in numerous external consulting projects that involve near-surface mapping and environmental exploration. These projects include the mapping of the subsurface lateral movement of water; an Archaic-period burial site of a 5000-year old village located in Hermitage, Tennessee; subsurface mapping of slave quarters site on the Ames Plantation, Fayette County TN; and mapping unmarked graves within the historic Mount Olive African-American Cemetery.
March 15, 2007 Mr. Sam McInturff Ochard owner, Blount County, TN Senior member, American Chestnut Tree Foundation (TACF), Asheville, NC 28801	"The Second Coming of the American Chestnut Tree" Sam McInturff has an orchard located in Greenback, Blount County, near the base of the Chilhowie Mountain containing more than 250 advanced backcross hybrids and 77 pure American seedlings. A priority of the TN Chapter will be to find and record information pertaining to surviving American Chestnut Trees in Tennessee, particularly those that may be bearing nuts. Locating these mother trees will be critical to ensuring that genes of TN American Chestnut trees are included in the national breeding program for reintroduction in TN. Breeding activities will involve pollination of American Chestnut Trees in TN using pollen from blight-resistant hybrids according to the breeding program of TACF.
April 19, 2007	No meeting
May 17, 2007 Mr. Bob Whitten Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)	"Computational Sciences"
September 20, 2007 Kimberly Davis, P.E. Director of Programs & Outreach, UT Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment	"The Public Support for Sustaining Our Urban Forest" Kimberly Davis, an environmental engineer will present results from a recent UT survey of 976 Knox County residents. This study was designed to understand the level of public support for stronger tree protection policies. She will present the results of the study, as well as an overview of local efforts to slow the rate of tree canopy depletion in our area.
October 18, 2007 Robert J. Sklenar, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, UT Department of Classics
November 15, 2007 Andrew Kramer, Ph. D., Professor & Head, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville	"Human Origins and the Fate of the Neandertals" Where did we come from? One of the fundamental questions of our existence will be addressed in Dr. Andrew Kramer’s presentation discussing the origins of modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals. Were these ice age humans simply an extinct side-branch that had nothing to do with our own evolution, or did they contribute directly to our origins? Using fossil and genetic data, Dr. Kramer will present the evidence and provide some provocative, perhaps even surprising, conclusions.
December 20, 2007	No Meeting

For more information on the Torch Club, go to:
International Association of TORCH Clubs

Arnold Sprague
Head Web Head

OUR NEXT MEETING
September 18, 2008 Otis H. Stephens, Ph.D. Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and Resident Scholar of Constitutional Law	"Subpoena power of Congress regarding Elected Officals of the Executive Branch"