Announcements
DIVISION MEETINGS
Thursday, September 23, 2010
10:30 - 11:30 AM
| Fine & Performing Arts |
Bergendoff 12 |
| Language and Literature | Old Main 125 |
| Natural Science | Hanson Science 102 |
| History, Philosophy and Religion | Old Main 332 |
| Business and Education | Evald 212 |
| Social Sciences | Old Main 122 |
Faculty Forum on Faculty Handbook
Thursday, September 23, 2010
11:30 AM
Hanson Science 102
Our current handbook is available at: http://www.augustana.edu/documents/Handbook.pdf
River Readings at Augustana 2010-11
Simon J. Ortiz
poetry, fiction and essays
(selections on Moodle: Library/River Readings)
Thursday, September 23, 7:00 p.m.
Centennial Hall, reception to follow in Art Museum
A leading figure in the Native American literary renaissance of the 1960s, and an esteemed writer today, Simon J. Ortiz inaugurates Augustana College's 2010-11 River Readings on Thursday, September 23.
A native of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, Simon Ortiz has written more than two dozen volumes of poetry, prose fiction, children's literature, and nonfiction works. Through his love of and expertise with language, Ortiz tells with great sympathy and humanity the story of his people's land, community, and history and their conflicts with Euro-American society.
Among Ortiz's books are the poetry collections From Sand Creek, Out There Somewhere, After and Before the Lightning, and Woven Stone; a short story collection Men on the Moon; and the children's book The Good Rainbow Road.
Ortiz has received recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Mexico Achievement in the Arts Award, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, Lannan Foundation's Artist in Residence, "Returning the Gift" Lifetime Achievement Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western States Arts Federation. Mr. Ortiz teaches at Arizona State University.
Mr. Ortiz will be having lunch in Wilson Center at 11:30 on Thursday. Feel free to stop by.
FRIDAY CONVERSATIONS
3:30 PM refreshments
4:00 PM presentation
- Friday, September 24th (Wilson Center)
David Ellis presents "Reacting to the Past"
Homo Luddens: The Serious Work of Play in Liberal Learning
For the Friday Conversation of Week 5, David Ellis will discuss his use of "Reacting to the Past" pedagogy. In Reacting classes, students are assigned to play, over several class periods, the roles of specific characters associated with contested historical events, such as the French Revolution or the end of apartheid in South Africa, all with an eye toward getting students to engage with central problems of the human condition. Rather than receiving a script, students receive detailed character descriptions and a set of secret goals. To achieve their goals, students pursue the traditional study of primary sources from and scholarly evaluations of the events in question, but usually with significantly heightened motivation. Students strive to achieve their goals by giving formal speeches, publishing written position papers, and engaging in spontaneous interaction -- all in character. In some cases, students may achieve results that differ from the actual historical outcomes, highlighting the role and problem of human agency. In short, students in Reacting classes pursue study, writing, and public speaking practices analogous to those in more traditional classes, but the structure of Reacting games usually boosts motivation, harnesses friendly competition, and leads to a restoration of an invigoratingly liminal learning experience in the classroom for both students and instructors.
Ellis will discuss how the use of Reacting to the Past has impacted his Liberal Studies course, offering data that demonstrate significant gains in liberal learning by his students. The possibility of offering a faculty workshop, in which faculty will be invited to experience Reacting to the Past by "playing" one of the characters in a condensed (two-day) version of the French Revolution, will also be discussed.
Those who wish to read more about Reacting to the Past before the Friday Conversation are encouraged to peruse Barnard's website (http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/) and to consider the Teagle White Paper on Reacting (see the link here http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/about/initiatives_gened.html). A list of other accounts of Reacting, including peer-reviewed assessments, can be found here (http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/newsmedia/list.html).
- Friday, October 1st (Library, 2nd floor, south)
Margi Rogal - Week Seven Seminar (in week 6)
Celebrating its 10th year at Augustana, Week Seven Seminar (W7S) is an informal discussion group by and for faculty. This term, W7S looks at the current state of the environment through the eyes of renowned writer Bill McKibben (who will be presenting a lecture on campus Monday, October 18). The text that will spark discussion is a selection from McKibben's new book Eaarth. Environmental historian Brian Leech, who has been teaching history and LS classes for three years at Augustana, will lead the discussion. Please join your colleagues in a relaxed and lively discussion. Texts by McKibben are on Moodle under Library/Week Seven Seminar.
Child care is available at Friday Conversations in the Brodahl Building.
Please contact Mary Koski by 1:00 PM Friday if you wish to use this service.
SABBATICAL/PRE-TENURE PAID LEAVE PRESENTATIONS:
Monday, September 20, 2010
4:00 p.m.
3:30 p.m. - refreshments
Wilson Center
"Classics Rewritten in Stone: The Art of Anita Huffington"
Presented by Kirsten Day
and
"Descendants of Black Hawk: Generating Identity in Sauk Portraits"
Presented by Jane Simonsen
Kirsten's research looks at the work of internationally-acclaimed sculptor, Anita Huffington, whose work draws heavily on ancient art and mythology, and analyzes how her interest in antiquity relates to her lived experience, a connection which serves to remind us of the power of these myths and the reasons for their persistence.
Jane's research on the photographs that John Henry Hauberg made Sauk people in the early 20th century investigates the multiple meanings that these photographs could generate for different audiences. While much of the research on photographs of Native Americans at this time period highlights the use of these images by white audiences, she focuses on exchanges and collaboration between Hauberg and his subjects. Not only did Hauberg provide photographs for Sauk people to display in their homes, but individuals allowed him to copy photographs from their own family galleries. Hauberg's archive prompts us to think beyond how white photographers used images of "Indians" to construct identity for Euro-Americans and to interrogate how even as the photographs were being made, indigenous people were harnessing the symbolic systems represented by photography-its ability to confer middle-class legitimacy, its power to reference and even construct experience, its function as a tool of remembrance-to generate meanings and histories compatible with their own needs.
Sabbatical/Pre-tenure paid leave presentations:
Monday, September 27, 2010
4:00 p.m.
Wilson Center
"The Muse Reconsidered: A Conversion Story"
Presented by Kelly Daniels
and
"Mountains: their formation, field trips to them, and analysis of them"
Presented by Mike Wolf
The Muse Reconsidered.....For many years it has been fashionable in the teaching of creative writing to downplay the role of inspiration. It is difficult to teach inspiration, and madness is a nuisance in the classroom. All this is quite understandable and proper, but Kelly suggests that we have lost something valuable when we banished the muse. More people than ever are writing, but the quality of our national literature hasn't risen. Writing programs have radically increased the quantity of mediocre writing and this prevalence of mediocrity can in part be blamed on the way creative writing is taught. Kelly suffered the same misconception until he recently spent a two-month residency at the MacDowell Colony, where, half-crazy with snowed-in cabin fever solitude, he was visited by the muse.
Mountains....Earth studies in three movements: 1. Experiments on the role of deep crustal partial melting in the formation of the Sierra Nevada mountains of CA; 2. Summer field course for incoming first-year students to the Rocky Mountains; 3. Acquisition of an X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometer for analysis of rock, mineral, soil and water samples.
Convocation - "Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance and Religion on America's College Campuses"
Thursday, September 30, 2010
10:30 - 11:30 AM
Centennial Hall
Students today are fascinated by religion but are also more sexually active than previous generations. How do these young people reconcile their spiritual longings with sexual freedom on campus? Donna Freitas crisscrossed the country, visiting a range of America's colleges and universities to find out what students had to say about these highly personal subjects.
Freitas has been affiliated with Boston University's Department of Religion and this fall joined the faculty of Hofstra University. In addition to being a member of the Washington Post's online panel forum "On Faith," she has written fiction, nonfiction and frequently writes for many newspapers and webzines.
AUGUSTANA TO HOST "REFORMING REFORMATION"
October 17-29, 2010
http://www.augustana.edu/reformation
Augustana will host the conference "Reforming Reformation" on October 17-19, 2010, organized by Thomas F. Mayer (History). The object is to undertake a fundamental rethinking of all the possible meanings of the term reformation, concept and label. In order to stimulate such thought, the conferees will be divided into four vaguely "national" panels, emphasizing places that either did not have a "real" reformation or had an odd one. This will serve to put in perspective what far too many people still count as the only true reformation, the Protestant one especially in its Lutheran and Calvinist guises. Those four panels will treat Italy, England (emphasizing the Marian interlude since it has almost always been considered a bump on the way to seeing God's will done), the Empire and Spain. Needless to say, the conference will be strongly interdisciplinary, with participants from literature, art history, theology and history.
The conference will be spent mainly in discussion, rather than sitting through papers one after another. Participants will submit their talks at least a month in advance and they will then be circulated to all and sundry. They will also be posted on the Web in such a way that folk at Augustana can get access to them. Sessions will consist of ten-minute summaries followed by discussion and audience interventions. We want to involve students and members of the community as much as possible. The sessions will mix papers up geographically to see what extra comparative sparks that can strike. The conference will open with a plenary session on Sunday evening, mainly to introduce the participants and the themes. The working sessions will be spread through the day on Monday (various history faculty have generously given up their rooms and periods) before we end with one more plenary session, probably at 8:30 on Tuesday morning.
The participants have been urged to think as much as possible about big questions and broader implications. The final versions of their papers will go into a volume to be edited by Mayer and published in his series, "Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700," which will also include a ruminative essay based on the discussions.
List of participants
I. Italy
Daniel Bornstein (history), Washington University
Marcia Hall (art history), Temple University
Abigail Brundin (literature), St Catherine's College, University of Cambridge
II. England
Peter Marshall (history), University of Warwick, England
Anne Overell (history), The Open University, Leeds, England
III. The Empire
John Frymire (history), University of Missouri
Brad Gregory (history), University of Notre Dame
Ronald Thiemann (theology), Harvard Divinity School
IV. Spain
LuAnn Homza (history), College of William and Mary
John Edwards (history), Queen's College, University of Oxford
Jodi Bilnikoff (history), UNC-Greensboro
Names of participants in alphabetical order
Jodi Bilnikoff
Daniel Bornstein
Abigail Brundin
William J. Connell
John Edwards
John Frymire
Brad Gregory
Marcia Hall
LuAnn Homza
Peter Marshall
Anne Overell
Ronald Thiemann
Sponsored by the Office of the President, the Institute for Leadership and Service and the Center for the Study of the Christian Millennium, with the support of the Humanities Fund and the Department of History
Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)
Posters on the Hill Application Announcement
Nothing more effectively demonstrates the value of undergraduate research than the words and stories of the student participants themselves. In the Spring of 2011 the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) will host its 15th annual undergraduate poster session on Capitol Hill. This event will help members of Congress understand the importance of undergraduate research by talking directly with the students whom these programs impact.
CUR is calling for students of member institutions to submit an abstract of their research that represents any of CUR's disciplinary divisions (Arts and Humanities, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Health Sciences, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics/Astronomy, Psychology, and Social Sciences). In order to ensure proper review of applications, the above are the only disciplines that may apply. Should your research be inter-disciplinary, please select the division that most closely describes your research.
Abstract submissions will only be accepted by using our on-line submission form. Prior to submitting the form, students should gather the contact information for all co-authors, advisors and sponsors (if applicable), prepare a short vitae/resume, and poster abstract. A document listing the information required for submission can be found by visiting: http://www.cur.org/pdf/poh%20application%20information.pdf
For more information, and the link to submit an application, please visit: http://www.cur.org/pohcall.html Please note that CUR membership is required to submit an application. Either the student's home institution must have an institutional membership, or the faculty mentor or student must have an individual membership.
We will not review incomplete applications. Please be sure that both portions (the electronic application and the electronic recommendation letter) are submitted by November 15, 2010.
Please encourage your students to submit. This is a highly competitive program, which makes for a very exciting experience for the students and their faculty advisors alike.
For more information about the Posters on the Hill program, please visit http://www.cur.org/postersession.html
MIDWEST FACULTY SEMINAR PRESENTS
ADAM SMITH'S WEALTH OF NATIONS
October 21-23, 2010
Registration forms must be received by Noon on Friday, October 17, 2010. For a description of this seminar please click HERE. Registration form can be found HERE. If you are interested in attending, please contact Ellen Hay.