Announcements
Convocation - Charleston Mayor Joe Riley
Thursday, September 24, 2009
11:30 AM ~~ Centennial Hall
Do you care about the kinds of cities in which you will live? 250 million Americans now live in cities. An additional 100 million people are expected to live in cities by 2050, the forty years of your careers! A major challenge for our society is to find ways to make our cities livable places. ALL citizens need to be involved.
Such an effort draws upon the wide range of perspectives and skills developed through a liberal education: social sciences, natural sciences, the arts, business, humanities, history, communications, writing, etc. Thus, often the people who can become leaders of this effort as local officials, business leaders and citizen activists are people with a liberal arts education -- such as you, the current students.
Joseph Riley has been mayor of Charleston, South Carolina for 32 years. During that time he has shown an ability to balance needs for economic development, historic perspectives and artistic expression in that city. Because of his skills and his intense passion for high quality urban life, he is a nationally renown speaker at urban planning conferences and convocations. One consistent theme in his presentations is that EVERYONE has a stake in the future of our cities and needs to be involved.....and that includes YOU.
Please come to the convocation on Thursday, September 24 at 10:30 in Centennial Hall.
Michalangelo Revealed
PBS documentary showing
Thursday, September 24, 2009
7:00 PM in Olin Auditorium
Augustana will host a special screening of the PBS documentary "Michelangelo Revealed" on September 24 at 7 p.m. in the Franklin W. Olin Center for Education Technology auditorium (773 35th St.). The showing highlights the work of Augustana's Dr. Thomas Mayer, history professor and consultant to the film. The event is free and open to the public.
"Michelangelo Revealed" is part of PBS's Secrets of the Dead series, which uses new scientific and historical evidence to shed light on historical mysteries. The episode, which premiered last spring, attempts to explain Michelangelo's mysterious burial in Florence, Italy, without a grand funeral performed by the Catholic Church. Art historian Antonio Forcellino theorizes that although Michelangelo was commissioned by the Church to create some of their most important projects, he may have secretly opposed the corrupt clergy and promoted his own Protestant beliefs in his work.
Mayer was asked to consult on the film because of his extensive research on one of Michelangelo's most important spiritual advisors, Cardinal Reginald Pole. Mayer was completing a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome at the time the film was made, which allowed him to serve as an on-site advisor. As the historical consultant, Mayer recommended people to be used as on-camera experts and selected texts to be read as part of the film.
Making the documentary required Mayer to bring historical information to an audience beyond his usual history students and colleagues. "Since a film is all done in sound bites, it is impossible to make an argument or critically assess evidence, as academicians are trained to do," he said.
Mayer emphasizes that Forcellino's theory about Michelangelo's relationship with the Catholic Church is a theory, not necessarily the truth. Although much of the script was written before he was involved, Mayer expressed his reservations to the screenwriters, reminding them that Forcellino's theory is not a proven fact. "I find Forcellino's reading of Michelangelo to be interesting, but I do not accept all of his argument," Mayer said. He hopes the film will spur viewers' interest in Michelangelo's works and help them think critically about the debatable issues surrounding his life and death.
The Celebration of Faculty Scholarship and Teaching
October 12-16, 2009
Please submit your scholarship and teaching statements to Rita Griffin, Library Secretary, x7266, by Monday, September 28th
The library needs your scholarship published or performed from April 30, 2008 through August 30, 2009-including books, journal articles, grants, SoTL articles, music compositions, plays, photos of works of art, papers or presentations at conferences. If you wish, you are welcome to "catch up" by sending us anything you've done since 1-1-2002 (the starting date of our collection), but this year's celebration will focus on work published or performed 4-30-2008 through 8-30-2009. Scholarship published or performed after August 30, 2009, will be included in the next year's celebration.
We also need narratives about your teaching innovations. The topic for the Fall, 2009, celebration will be "Responding to Student Writing." Faculty are invited to submit narratives on approaches to this topic. (e.g., In what ways do you respond to student writing? How do you phrase critical remarks so as not to discourage? Do you use an effective grading rubric to respond to student writing? What is a timely response to student writing assignments?)
Please use our handy online forms at http://www.augustana.edu/library/Services/facultyachievement.html to submit your information. Work previously submitted to the library will be included-you need not send it again.
Questions? Please contact Rita Griffin, Library Secretary, x7266, or Carla Tracy.
"LunchBytes @ the Library" 
Tuesday, Sept. 29
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
2nd floor north, Library
Click It! Student Response Systems in Classroom Instruction
We've all been there: You ask a question and your students sit there, blinking. With a remote answering device, students can log their responses -- anonymously -- with the click of a button. Come hear how librarian Amanda Makula uses the system to teach and review library skills, and how you can utilize the technology in your own classes with help from Shawn Beattie in ITS. Pizza provided; please bring your own beverage.
"LunchBytes" is a joint program of Tredway Library and ITS exploring teaching resources and issues in higher education.
The River Readings at Augustana
Thursday, October 1, 2009
7:00 PM ~ Wallenberg Hall, Denkmann Building
Nationally acclaimed poet, prose writer, and novelist James Galvin reads from his work in The River Readings at Augustana on Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. in Wallenberg Hall. A native of Wyoming, where he ranches half of the year, Galvin is a permanent member of the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has published seven books of poems most recently As Is (Copper Canyon, 2009). His new and collected poems, Resurrection Update (Copper Canyon Press, 1997), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and the Poet's Prize. His second book was a National Poetry Series winner. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed prose book, The Meadow (Henry Holt, 1992), and a novel, Fencing the Sky (Henry Holt, 1999). His honors include a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation Award, a Lannan Literary Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Samples of Galvin's poetry is on Moodle under Library/River Readings.