Faculty News
David Arbesú has -finally!- completed the digital edition of the oldest Bible ever written in Spanish (ca. 1220). The Bible is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Old Spanish, and it has been deemed as one of the most important documents to study the history of this language. The project, which can be accessed at www.lafaziendadeultramar.com, was supported by grants from both Augustana College and Spain's Ministry of Education, and is published under the auspices of the University of Salamanca (Spain) and the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (New York). The transcription of the Bible has also been accepted for publication in the Spanish Series of the Hispanic Seminary.
David Crowe of the English Department has had an article accepted by the University of Notre Dame's Journal of Religion and Literature. Titled "Young Man Angstrom: Identity Crisis and Works of Love in Rabbit, Run," the essay will appear this summer or fall in Volume 43, No.1. The article abstract reads as follows:
Throughout the Rabbit tetralogy, but especially in Rabbit, Run, Harry Angstrom suffers an identity crisis with theological overtones, similar to (perhaps even modeled after) Martin Luther's identity crisis as shown in Erik Erikson's Young Man Luther. Rabbit's psychological history shapes his sin, which is expressed as self-obsession: he can imagine a God, but only a doting one that views him as guilt-free. Updike's theological hero Søren Kierkegaard, on the other hand, argues for a God who loves and supports believers even though they are thoroughly guilty. Rabbit must "choose himself" as guilty if he hopes to be healthy and psychologically authentic. Key scenes in the novel-Harry's lovemaking with Ruth, golfing with Eccles, and attending his daughter's funeral-reveal his deep psychological and theological confusion, and hint that he might repent and adopt the only true vocation, according to Kierkegaard, living by conscience before God and enacting "works of love."
In February Randall Hall received an Alumni Award for Professional Achievement from his undergraduate institution, Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. Over spring break he visited the Concervatorio Superior de Música de las Islas Baleares, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, where he gave a concert, saxophone master-class, improvisation workshop and read his paper "Giacinto Scelsi: the Primordial Sound". While in Spain he also visited Concervatorio Superior de Música da Coruña, where he presented a concert, saxophone master-class, and improvisation workshop.
Adam Kaul organized a panel for a small conference in honor of the anthropologist Valene Smith. Smith founded the anthropological study of tourism in 1977 with her pioneering book Hosts & Guests: the Anthropology of Tourism. The conference was held on March 4-5 at California State University at Chico. Adam's panel was on "Tourism and Disasters", and included invited papers on post-Katrina tourism in New Orleans, tourism on the island of Koh Phi Phi in post-tsunami Thailand, and the development of eco-tourism in Belize following a series of hurricanes there. As part of the panel, Adam also presented a paper on the role of tourism leading up to the ongoing economic crash in Ireland.