Description
On this episode of CUNY Laureates, we profile another three Guggenheim Fellows who graduated from the City University of New York.
Felice Frankel (Guggenheim Fellow, 1995) did not develop an interest in the visual world until later in life. Although she took some chemistry classes at Brooklyn College, she did not excel in science. But as she moved through life, she became a photographer, first working with landscapes and architecture, and then, through a stroke of good fortune, becoming a science photographer. She became one of the prominent – and one of the first – science photographers out there, working at both Harvard and MIT and helping to explain complex scientific papers and concepts to the general public through the use of creative and aesthetically beautiful images. Felice was interviewed in August of 2026.
After studying history and sociology at City College, Robert Eisner (Guggenheim Fellow, 1959) shifted to economics in graduate school, where he embraced the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes argued for government spending in order to increase demand and create jobs, a position backed up by Robert’s early research into the factors that encourage business investment. Robert maintained his support for Keynesian economics, even after many other academics started to doubt its efficacy in the face of inflation and unemployment in the 1970s. He wrote a number of books in defense of government spending and federal debt, promoting ideas that are still controversial but being reconsidered today.
Bright Sheng (Guggenheim Fellow, 1990) is a Chinese and American composer, conductor, and pianist who draws from the musical worlds of East and West, weaving their distinct traditions into a language of his own. A graduate of Queens College, CUNY, he earned a Master of Arts degree in music composition in 1984. In addition to his Guggenheim Fellowship, he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. Sheng continues to make important contributions to modern classical music, exploring how music can transcend cultural boundaries and bring diverse traditions into harmony.
00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Felice Frankel
09:44 – Robert Eisner
17:42 – Bright Sheng
Additional credits:
BOUNCING BALLS - variation.wav by Bee09
https://freesound.org/s/326559/
License: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 Unported:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
Graphene honeycomb structure image by AlexanderAlUS
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graphen.jpg
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 by Vincent DiMartino
https://musopen.org/music/3499-brandenburg-concerto-no-2-in-f-major-bwv-1047/#google_vignette
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Guest List:
Felice Frankel, Robert Eisner, and Bright Sheng
Air date: 11-02-26
CUNY Laureates is a documentary series about the lives and achievements of CUNY graduates who went on to win major awards in their respective fields. By reintroducing these exceptional minds to younger audiences, we hope to emphasize the value of a high-quality public education and demonstrate how it can transcend all social and political boundaries, even to this day.
Watch more at https://tv.cuny.edu/show/cunylaureates
Subscribe to the Series Playlist: https://bit.ly/cunylaureates
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