Lectures-Conversations as Enrichment Program Guest Lecturer aboard cruise ships:
Prof. Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn
LECTURE #1
Introduction. A 1654 Voyage from South to North America. A Story of American Exceptionalism.
From Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, South America to New Amsterdam, New York City, North America, 1654.
Pangea and the tectonic plates. The end of the 15th Century and the “ Discovery” of America, the Fourth Part of the World. Spain, Portugal, the Dutch Republic; Brazil, the Jews, the Inquisition; France, England, New England, the Yankees, New Amsterdam, NYC; USA.
A story about “American Exceptionalism”.
LECTURE # 2
Flags of the Caribbean.
European contests and wars in the Caribbean. Spain,the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola-the Dominican Republic. Trinidad and Port of Spain. The Dutch: St. Marteen. The French: St. Martin, St. Barth, Guadeloupe, Martinique. The USA: USVIs. The British Caribbean: BVIs, Jost Van Dyke, St. John’s (Antigua), Barbados, Nevis, Jamaica, Grenada, St. Lucia. The Pirates of the Caribbean and the Skull and Bones. Flags: Spain, France, England, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, USA.Others.
History. Integration efforts. In depth: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Martin, USVIs.
LECTURE # 3
Devil’s Island, French Guiana. The Dreyfus Affair: 1894-1908.
Devil’s Island, Cayenne, French Guiana.
The Dreyfus Affair: 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1902, 1906, 1908. Dreyfus, Picard. Zola.
Antisemitism, Herzl, Zionism, State of Israel.
Papillon: the book and the 1973 movie. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
LECTURES #4 & 5
#4 Brazil and Amazonia I
Biology, geography and history of Amazonia.
Flora and fauna of the rain forest. Wild life. Plants and fruits. Monkeys. Local aborigines.
#5 : Brazil and Amazonia II.
Birds, flowers. Pharmacology of the rain forest in Amazonia.
The rubber Plantations. The Manaus Opera House.
Brazilia, the “new”capital of Brazil.
LECTURE # 6
Von Humboldt‘s and Charles Darwin’s Latin American scientific explorations of the 19th Century.
Latin American scientific explorations of the 19th Century. Explorers-Scientists: Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, The voyage of the Beagle.
The Theory of Evolution. Modern genetics.
LECTURE # 7
Naval warfare in South America in the 20th Century. The British vs Germany.
WWI: Naval battles of Coronel and Falklands (1914), Más a Tierra (1915). (WW II: River Plate, 1939).
LECTURE # 8
The Battle of the River Plate-Punta del Este (1939) .
The pocket battleship Graf Spee. Langsdorff. Uruguay and Argentina. Germany vs Great Britain.
LECTURE # 9
The Southern Cone of the American Continent (I and II).
Patagonia “in my mind”. History and Geography. The Horn. Over the Edge of the World. Magellan. Tierra del Fuego aborigines. Julius Popper. Orelie de Tounens. Drake, Cook, Darwin. Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton. Mendoza, Los Andes, Aconcagua. Bariloche. Lakes. Península Valdés, the Falklands, the Straits, sheep farms, the southern skies, El Calafate, glaciers, Torres del Paine, Fjords, volcanoes.
LECTURE # 10
Machu Picchu and Yale University.
The Lost City of the Incas. Hiram Bingham III, Yale University, The National Geographic. The Inca Empire. The legal fight between Yale and Perú. Modern archeology. Repatriation.
LECTURE # 11
Borders among Nations in South America.
The wars of independence. The War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) or the Paraguayan War. The Chaco War (1932-35). The Wars of the Pacific. The Inca civil war: Atahualpa vs Huascar. Ecuador vs Perú (1857-1860). First War of the Pacific: The Chincha Islands War, the Guano Wars (1864-66). Spain vs. Latin America. Second War of the Pacific: Chile vs Perú and Bolivia, the Saltpeter War or Cent War, 1879-1883.
LECTURE # 12
Malvinas-Falklands Islands Conflict-War, 1982.
The UK vs Argentina. War in the South Atlantic in the 20th Century.
History, geography, biology. Sovereignty vs self-determination. Medicine and warfare.
LECTURE # 13
The Construction of the Panama Canal and the Control of Tropical Illnesses.
History of the Canal. Balboa. Nicaragua vs Panamá. The Failure of the French Company. Lesseps.
Sovereignty -Theodore Roosevelt.The Hay-Bunau-Varila Treaty.Torrijos, Noriega,Carter(’77),Reagan(’89).
American Engineering , canal locks, heavy steam machinery.
Tropical Medicine : Yellow Fever, Dengue, Malaria and mosquitoes. Finlay, Ross, Reed and Gorgas.
2016: Widening of the Canal. The Nicaraguan Canal and China.
LECTURE # 14
Brazil’s African Slave Trade.
Salvador, Bahia. Africa. Slaves. Transport. Sugar Plantations. Coffe. Dances. Music. Black Magic.
LECTURE # 15
Pre-Columbian Cultures, Mesoamerica, the Maya.
México, the Historic District, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
The Olmecs. Teotihuacán. The Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon.
The Mexicas- Aztecs, Tenochtitlán. The Codices.The Mendoza Codex.
The Maya. The Gods, constellations, human sacrifices. The Maya Code. The decoding of the Maya Writing. Yale. Calendars and Astronomy. Palenque, Lord Pakal. Tikal. Yucatán, Chiapas, Guatemala.
LECTURE # 16
The Mexicas- Aztecs and Cortés, the Conquest of Mexico, the Fall of Tenochtitlán, 1521. The US-Mexican War, the Fall of Mexico City, 1847.
The Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlán, Cortés and La Malinche. The Conquest of México, 1519-1521. Moctezuma, Cuauhtémoc. La Noche Triste. The Fall of Tenochtitlán, 1521. New Spain. Viceroyalty.
The Mexican-American War, 1846-48. President Polk. Jackson. Winfield Scott. López de Santa Ana. Lee, Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Beauregard, Longstreet. The Battle of Cerro Gordo. The Battle of Molino del Rey. The Battle of Chapultepec. Los Niños Héroes. Pickett. The occupation of Mexico City. The Hanging of the San Patricios. The US Civil War.
LECTURE # 17
Naval Threats to the British Isles.
The Spanish Armada, 1588, Spain vs England. World War I Naval Warfare: The Battle of Jutland, 1916.
King Philip of Spain. Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Dutch Revolt. Drake, the English Channel, the Battle of Gravelines, the Tilbury speech. The defeat of the Armada,1588.
The Battle of Jutland, 1916. The British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe against the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet under Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, May 31-June 1, 1916. The North Sea. Scheer and Hipper. Jellicoe and Beatty.
LECTURE # 18
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson’s (1758-1805) medical history and the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805.
Nelson’s monuments. The fight against the polar bear, 1773. Sea sickness all his life. Malaria, 1776. Dysentery, yellow fever and food poisoning, 1780. Scurvy, 1782. Wedding, and mistress. A cut in the back, 1794, Bastia Corsica. The loss of right eye vision, 1794, Calvi Corsica. Abdominal wound, 1797, Cape St. Vincent. Loss of the right arm, 1797, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Head injury, 1798, Battle of the Nile. Fatal wound, Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. GSW to Chest, T6-7 paraplegia. Funeral. Honors.
LECTURE # 19
Naval Warfare in the 20th Century.
WWI, the Battle of Jutland, 1916. WWII, the Bismarck, 1941. The Tirpitz, 1944.
The Battle of Jutland, 1916. The British Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe against the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet under Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, May 31-June 1, 1916, North Sea. Scheer and Hipper. Jellicoe and Beatty.
The German Battleship Bismarck. The Prinz Eugen. The Hood and the Prince of Wales, May 27, 1941. Raeder, Lutjens and Lindemann. Tovey, Holland and Kerr. Operation Rheinubung. May 18-27, 1941. Sink the Bismarck! The Bismarck disappears. PBY Catalina. HMS King George V. Force H, Gibraltar. HMS Ark Royal. The Sheffield. The swordfish biplane torpedo bombers. Sinking of the Bismarck, May 27, 1941.
James Cameron expedition. Robert Ballard’s. David Mearns. Bismarck: sunk or scuttled?
German Battleship Tirpitz.
LECTURE # 20
The Arctic, The NE and the NW Pasages.
The Norse and the Vikings. The Vinland Map-Yale University; Scandinavian Minnesota.
The Arctic ports. Norwegian Fjords. Nordkapp, Norway. Murmansk, Solovetsky. Archangel, Russia.
The Viking Sagas.
The exploration of the South and North Poles. Amundsen.
Northabout. The Northwest and the Northeast Passages.
Scandinavia. Norway. History, geography, biology.
The Vikings. Runic inscriptions and sagas. Navigation and explorations. Newfoundland and Leif Erikson.
The Vinland Map and Yale. True or False. , America and the Waldseemuller Map of 1507. Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci.
The Minnesota Vikings. The Fairfield Scandinavian Club.
LECTURE # 21
The South Pacific. Tahiti- Gauguin. Pitcairn-HMS Bounty. Bora-Bora, Raiatea, Moorea, Rangiroa, Fakarava. Hanga Roa-Rapa Nui-Easter Island.
The Pacific theater in WWII.
The South Pacific: the movie and the play. Broadway and Hollywood.
The Bounty and superstorm Sandy, 2012. HMS Bounty, 1789. Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian. The Mutiny and Pitcairn Islands. Movies. Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, 1935. Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris, 1962. Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, 1984.
Gauguin and the French avant-garde post- impressionists.
The mysteries of Easter Island. The Rapa Nui people, the Moais and the Polynesian Triangle. Collapse of Civilization and Jarred Diamond. The Birdmanreligion.
The Kon-Tiki expedition and Thor Heyerdahl. The peopling of South America. Chickens and Polynesians.
LECTURE # 22
Artificial Head Deformations and Skull Trepanations in Ancient Cultures-Civilizations.
The 17th Dynasty: Pharaoh Akhenaton and family, Tel- Amarna, Egypt.
Mesoamerica, the Maya, Palenque and Lord Pakal.
The Peruvian cultures. Inca and Pre-Inca: Chimu, Chan-Chan, and Moche, in the North. Paracas, in the South.
The Ice-Maidens: Juanita and Sarita. Arequipa, Sisti Mountain and Johan Reinhardt.
The Nazca Lines and Human Evolution.
Primitive neurosurgery and psychosurgery. Craniosynostosis.
LECTURE # 23
Eva Perón’s Secret Lobotomy I, psychosurgery in 1952 and in 2016. Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn’s acclaimed research unveiling a top state secret in Argentina.
Yale University and the Mayo Clinic, Nijensohn’s lectures and media articles. Publications. Argentina, South America. Juan and Eva Perón. Evita’s illness and death. Embalming and the travails of Evita’s body.
LECTURE # 24
Eva Perón’s Secret Lobotomy II, psychosurgery in 1952 and in 2016. Dr. Nijensohn’s acclaimed research unveiling a top state secret in Argentina.
History of Psychosurgery. Connecticut and Yale’s contribution. Fulton, Delgado. Moniz, Freeman. New England, Scoville, Poppen. Hollywood movies and modern advances. From DBS to optogenetics. From prefrontal lobotomy to implants and to transhumanity. Apuzzo, Lee and Fried.
Psychosurgical treatment of aggressive behavior disorders.
Evita’s secret lobotomy. Evita’s illness and death. George Udvarhelyi. Luis Savastano. Skull x-ray findings. Manena Riquelme. Dr. James L. Poppen. Sinister political conspiracy. Juan vs Eva. The Right vs the Left.
The Connectome Project. The Brain initiative.
LECTURE # 25
Psychosurgery and Evita’s Secret Prefrontal Lobotomy.
The Beaumont Medical Club Lecture, October 23, 2015.