Episode Details

On this episode of CUNY Laureates, we profile another three Guggenheim Fellows who graduated from the City University of New York.

Alex Rosenberg (Guggenheim Fellow, 1981) is the R. Taylor Cole Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. After spending nearly twenty years writing about the philosophy of economics, he pivoted to the philosophy of biology, after which he ultimately committed himself to the school of thought sometimes called “scientism” – the idea that all questions about truth and reality can ultimately be answered by science. He has written several books on the subject, most notably his 2011 book The Atheist’s Guide to Reality. He has also written pieces for publications such as the New York Times, and appeared on programs to discuss his ideas, including Closer to Truth on PBS. Recently Alex has written several novels of historical fiction, including The Girl from Krakow in 2015 and Thurlow’s War in 2025. In addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship, Alex was awarded the Lakatos Award in 1993 for work in the philosophy of science.

Before attending Hunter College, Ruby Cohn (Guggenheim Fellow, 1965) grew up in Brooklyn, but then when World War II arrived, she trained to be one of the WAVES – a Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. After training at Hunter College and serving in WWII helping install radar, she later moved to Paris. It was in Paris where her life took a new direction after seeing the very first production of the play “En Attendant Godot,” also known as “Waiting For Godot,” Samuel Beckett’s iconic theater work. She dedicated much of her life to the academic study of Beckett’s work, publishing late in life “The Beckett Canon,” an overview of all of Beckett’s output.

What happens when fragments of the past are pieced together to tell a new story? Hunter College graduate Selena Kimball (Guggenheim Fellow, 2025) uses the art of collage to transform memory, history, and emotion into striking visual narratives. By cutting into the past and reconstructing it through layered imagery, her work challenges the way we see both personal and collective experiences. Each composition becomes a conversation between what was, what remains, and what we choose to remember. Step into a world where art reshapes the past to make sense of the present.

00:00 – Intro
00:43 – Alex Rosenberg
10:18 – Ruby Cohn
16:40 – Selena Kimball

Procreation by Little Glass Men is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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