Academics

Category: Academics

Junior Chelsea Johnson Awarded National Udall Scholarship

Chelsea Johnson has been focused on “making a difference”  since arriving on the Lawrence University campus in the fall of 2010.  Her efforts have not gone unnoticed.

Chelsea Johnson ’14

The Lawrence University junior from Avon, Ind., has been named one of only 50 national recipients representing 43 colleges of a $5,000 Udall Scholarship. Selected from among 488 candidates. Johnson was one of only two scholars chosen from a Wisconsin college or university.

Awarded by the Arizona-based Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, the scholarships are awarded to students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care.

“I’m interested in the connections between people and their environment and how to make that connection healthier,” said Johnson, an environmental studies and English major. “It’s not just about taking care of the planet, but also about taking care of the people who live on it. The environmental movement has to work on both sides of the equation.”

Co-founder of The Magpie

For the past two years, Johnson has served as president of Greenfire, the campus student environmental organization and is also the current student liaison to the campus’ Green Roots committee. She co-founded the Magpie, a once-a-term, student-run thrift store that collects used clothing and books for resale, with the proceeds used to support various national and international environmental groups.

“The idea behind the Magpie is to raise awareness on the clothing consumption industry, which encourages fast fashion at the expense of the environment and human rights,” said Johnson, who spent the 2012 fall term on the Sea Semester program, which included six weeks living on a sail boat in the Caribbean.

As a freshman, she helped organize a group of student volunteers to help out at local cat shelter and has been active as a “buddy” in Lawrence’s LARY tutoring program.

“Chelsea is both a student and steward of the environment,” said Marcia Bjornerud, professor of geology and Walter Shober Professor of Environmental Studies. “She embodies the new generation of environmental leaders — smart, passionate and pragmatic. We are so pleased that her academic work and activism have been recognized at the national level.”

Attending Orientation in Arizona

As a Udall Scholar, Johnson will participate in a four-day Scholar Orientation Aug. 7-11 in Tucson, Ariz., where she will meet with environmental policymakers and community leaders as well as other scholarship winners and program alumni.

“I’ll be around a lot of really smart people, which will be great,” Johnson said of the upcoming orientation.  “It’s really an honor and a blessing to be awarded this scholarship. I’m grateful for all the communities at Lawrence that have supported me in all my various projects. I look forward to giving back to those communities in the future.”

Johnson is Lawrence’s fifth Udall Scholarship recipient in the program’s 17-year history, joining Hava Blair (2012), Stephen Rogness (2003), Gustavo Setrini (2001) and Jacob Brenner (1999).

Founded in 1992, the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation is one of five federal foundations established by Congress. Among the missions of the foundation is to increase awareness of the importance of the nation’s natural resources, foster a greater recognition and understanding of the role of the environment, public lands and resources in the development of the United States and identify critical environmental issues.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

English Professor David McGlynn Honored by Council for Wisconsin Writers with Nonfiction Book Award

Associate Professor of English David McGlynn

Lawrence University Associate Professor of English David McGlynn has been named the recipient of the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ 2012 Kenneth Kingery/August Derleth Nonfiction Book Award for his memoir “A Door in the Ocean.”

The book, published by Counterpoint Press, traces McGlynn’s journey from competitive swimming and family tragedy through radical evangelicalism and adult life.

McGlynn will be recognized and read from his memoir Saturday, May 11 at the CWW’s annual awards banquet at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. One of eight literary category winners, McGlynn will receive a $500 prize and a week-long residency at Shake Rag Alley, an artist’s colony/retreat in Mineral Point.

The CWW award is the second for McGlynn. He was the 2009 recipient of the CWW’s Kay W. Levin Short Nonfiction Award for his essay “Hydrophobia,” which appeared in the Missouri Review.

A member of the Lawrence faculty since 2006, McGlynn received the 2008 Utah Book Award for his first book, “The End of the Straight and Narrow,” a collection of nine short stories that examines the inner lives, passions and desires of the zealous and the ways religious faith is both the compass for navigating daily life and the force that makes ordinary life impossible.

McGlynn, recipient of Lawrence’s Award for Excellence in Creative Activity in 2009, earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from the University of California, Irvine and master and doctorate degrees from the University of Utah.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Senior Daniel Miller Awarded $25,000 Watson Fellowship for Exploration of Natural Soundscapes and High-tech Music

Daniel Miller forged a fascination with the connection between art and the natural world at a very young age.

Inspired by a recording of the children’s story “Mr. Bach Comes to Call,” which dramatized the famed composer’s life and described how the space probe Voyager 1 carried Bach’s music as well as sounds of planet Earth on its deep-space mission, a five-year-old Miller took take his first steps as a composer by imitating the shapes of music notation.

Daniel Miller ’13

“Even as a child, it was an exciting idea that these few pieces of music, along with sounds of the planet itself, were chosen to represent the best of humanity,” said Miller.

Eighteen years later, Miller is an accomplished composition and music theory major at Lawrence University, specializing in computer music and its potential to incorporate the power of natural soundscapes.

Beginning in August, he will spend a year traversing the globe as a 2013 Watson Fellow, seeking out communities of fellow computer-music composers who are working outside the traditional boundaries of classical art music.

A senior from Redmond, Wash., Miller was one of 40 undergraduates nationally awarded a $25,000 fellowship from the Rhode Island-based Thomas J. Watson Foundation for a wanderjahr of independent travel and exploration outside the United States on a topic of the student’s choosing.

His proposal —“Experiencing Nature Through Computer Music”— was selected from 148 finalists representing students from 40 of the nation’s premier private liberal arts colleges and universities. More than 700 students applied for this year’s Watson Fellowship.

“I want to experience some of the most moving natural settings in the world along with the communities and artists who work closely with the environment,” said Miller, who was home schooled by his parents.  “During my Watson year, I want to explore the unusual synthesis of the ancient and the high-tech, the natural and the synthesized in the form of modern computer music.”

First Stop — Japan

To that end, Miller will travel to Japan, Australia, Ecuador and Iceland, immersing himself in the local communities of composers and performers working with computer-assisted concert music to learn how nature and local ecological concerns have influenced them as artists.

“I also want to visit unique environments in each of those countries and explore how I, as a classically trained composer, can channel the experience of nature into my music,” said Miller, who has written about 30 pieces of music to date, including four chamber pieces that were performed by members of the Seattle Symphony and another that was accepted and performed at the 2012 national conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States.

In Japan (Aug.-Oct.), Miller would find himself in one of Asia’s oldest computer music communities.

“I’m eager to see how computer music developed in a place where art and technology frequently draw on ancient and traditional themes,” said Miller, a member of Lawrence musical improvisational group IGLU. “I’ll also hike into the Hida Mountains to reflect on the influence nature has had on Japanese music.”

Miller will spend November through January in Australia, meeting several noted composers and recording sounds of Tasmania’s endemic wildlife, including sub-sea fauna off Australia’s southern coast.

The next three months ending in April will take Miller to Quito, Ecuador. Having visited neighboring Colombia during his sophomore year, Miller is eager to return to the Andean region.

Daniel Miller is the 69th Lawrence senior to be awarded a Watson Fellowship in the program’s 44-year history.

“My project would not be complete without experiencing how computer music has developed in South America,” said Miller, who spent a transformative year studying abroad in 2010-11 at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

He closes his journey in Iceland, which, famous for artists such as Björk and the groups Sigur Rós and múm, is experiencing a musical and computer-music renaissance. He will time his visit to coincide with the Reykjavik Arts Festival as well as the breakup of ice in the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon.

“I plan to hike out into Vatnajökull National Park and camp by the water and record the dramatic sounds of glacial calving.”

A Life-Changing Experience

Brian Pertl, dean of the conservatory of music and Lawrence’s campus liaison to the Watson Foundation said Miller’s Watson year will “most definitely be a life-changing experience ” for him.

“Daniel has created a most unusual and exciting Watson proposal which explores how high-tech electronic music composers interact with, and are inspired, by their natural surroundings,” said Pertl, a 1986 Watson Fellowship winner himself. “This proposal perfectly combines Daniel’s own dual loves of nature and electronic composition. Let the adventure begin.”

As for Miller, he sees possibilities that go far beyond his first tentative forays in computer music.

“It’s not just about recreating a particular sound but creating an environment in the concert hall that gives the listener the experience they would feel in the natural landscape,” said Miller, recipient of Lawrence’s James Ming Scholarship in Composition in 2012. “By exploring how culture and environment shape the lives and music of composers around the world, I know I’ll learn more about how my own life experiences can contribute to who I become as a composer and as a person.”

Miller is the 69th Lawrence student awarded a Watson Fellowship since the program’s inception in 1969. It was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of International Business Machines Corp., and his wife, Jeannette, to honor their parents’ long-standing interest in education and world affairs.

Watson Fellows are selected on the basis of the nominee’s character, academic record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another culture and the personal significance of the project proposal. Since its founding, nearly 2,700 fellowships have been awarded.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

New Wriston Art Galleries Exhibition Opens March 29

Painter Rafael Salas and 2012 Lawrence University graduate Caitee Hoglund share the podium for the opening lecture of the latest Wriston Art Center Galleries exhibition Friday, March 29 at 6 p.m in the Wriston auditorium.

A reception follows the lecture. Both events are free and open to the public. The new exhibition runs through May 5.

Rafael Salas, Untitled (Bridge), 2011, oil on canvas

The Kohler Gallery features Salas’ work entitled “You’re Invisible Now.” The series of paintings and drawings depicts the Wisconsin landscapes and moods the artist has observed and include natural occurrences as well man-made events and architecture which complement and conflict.

An art professor at Ripon College, Salas uses non-representational and still life elements to emphasize the dichotomy between figure and ground, perception and feeling. His artwork communicates an aspiration of nobility, but often a failure of that aspiration.

“Stripped Down: Understanding the Female Nude,” featuring works from the Wriston’s permanent collection, will be shown in the Leech Gallery. Designed by Hoglund, this exhibit explores one of the most ubiquitous subjects in art — the female nude — and analyzes the different types represented in the collection. Through presentation, discussion and interaction, this exhibition offers a new perspective on the female nude and its role in art history and gender politics.

Milwaukee-based artist Sonja Thomsen presents “nexus” in the Hoffmaster Gallery. The installation features shelves of short sequences of images and play with shifting scale. The installation forces the viewer to weave back and forth within the space, triggering visceral awareness in conjunction with cerebral perception. The photographs of vast landscapes, domestic scenes and spectacular phenomena create the skin between the memory, place and the present.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from noon – 4 p.m. The galleries are closed on Mondays.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Legendary Lawrence Professor William Chaney Passes Away at Age 90

Professor Emeritus of History William Chaney has passed away at his home. He was 90 years old.

An iconic figure in the college’s history, he was hired by President Nathan Pusey and joined the history department in 1952. He was appointed the George McKendree Steele Professor of Western Culture in 1966 and was honored in 973 as the first recipient of Lawrence’s Uhrig Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Although he “retired” after 47 years in 1999, he continued to annually teach a class First and Third Terms, including this year. His 61-years of teaching is the second-longest tenure in the college’s history.

One of the college’s most beloved teachers, Bill was a recognized scholar on the Middle Ages and a member of the Royal Society of Arts. A true Anglophile, he knew people throughout England and had many friends in Malta as a result of his annual trips to both places.

His students number in the thousands, many of whom followed in his footsteps to become historians. He was a frequent instructor at Lawrence’s London Center and on tours of England with students, would famously pick out a random date from the 1100s or 1200s and tell them what happened on that specific day.

The “Chaney oak,” grown from an acorn collected in Devonshire, England by a former student, was shipped to campus and planted in 1995 in sight of his Main Hall office as a tribute to him.

A legendary lecturer who captivated his audience, whether in the classroom, a Bjorklunden seminar room or at an alumni event, Bill was known for the “salons” he would host regularly at his home for intellectual discussions with small groups of students, offering sherry to those of legal age, Dr. Pepper for those who weren’t.

He was a Medievalist to the core, refusing to have a computer installed in his office. His fascination with the Middle Ages began in childhood in California, sparked by the poetry of Sir Walter Scott. He charmed many with a droll sense of humor, referring to himself as “a wave of the past.” He loved classical music, but often joked he didn’t like anything written after 1791.

He earned his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees at the University of California-Berkeley and was a Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He was the author of the book “The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England” and contributed dozens of articles and reviews to professional journals.

He was fond of reminding people he first came to Lawrence with the intention of just checking things out and then moving on, but on the eve of his retirement in 1999, remarked, “I can’t imagine a better life than the kind I’ve had here. It’s a way of life after all, not just a job.”

A funeral service will be held Friday, March 22 at 11 a.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church, 100 N. Drew St., Appleton, with a reception following immediately afterward.

Lawrence will celebrate Bill’s life and remarkable achievements with a memorial service on Saturday, May 18.

Senior Thomas Matusiak Awarded Prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to Colombia

A senior honors project will have added significance for Thomas Matusiak beyond his graduation in June after being awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program Scholarship to Colombia.

Matusiak will spend the 2013-14 academic year as an English teacher and unofficial goodwill ambassador at a still-to-be-determined university in Colombia courtesy of the United States’ Fulbright Program.

Thomas Matusiak ’13

The flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Government, the Fulbright Program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.

When applying for the Fulbright, Colombia was Matusiak’s destination of first choice, in part because of research he has been conducting on a genre of Colombian cinema.

“I’ve been working on an honors project entitled ‘No Future: Youth and Disenchantment in Colombian Cinema’ so that was a natural choice,” said Matusiak, a linguistics and Spanish major from Mequon.

His research focuses on a series of films representative of what he calls “cinema of disenchantment.”  Although they’re not true documentaries, the films are shot on location, using non-professional actors and often offer gritty, brutal depictions of city life and urban violence.

“These are non-commercial films that are trying to make a statement about society,” Matusiak explained. “These types of movies began to emerge in Latin American cinema in the 1990s, starting in Colombia.

“As my research progressed, I was looking for an opportunity to go to Colombia and have time to think and write about these movies in context,” added Matusiak, who has previously studied abroad in Spain and Poland, but will be making his first trip to Colombia. “The Fulbright scholarship will be a great opportunity to do just that.”

It also will allow him to pursue one of his passions.

“I’m interested in teaching, especially teaching language, so this award is almost perfect since I’ll be able to do both,” said Matusiak, who has been a tutor in Lawrence’s Center for Teaching and Learning for the past three years, including the past two as head tutor. “I believe in teaching language through culture and using film is a perfect way to give students a visual idea of what culture is like.”

Matusiak, who already had been accepted into Princeton University’s Spanish doctoral program before he received word of his Fulbright award, will now put his graduate studies on hold for year.

“I’m excited and looking forward to spending time in Colombia,” he said.

Professor of Spanish Gustavo Fares described Matusiak as “one of the brightest and most dedicated Spanish majors” Lawrence has had.

“Being awarded the prestigious Fulbright grant is an honor that not only will help him with his research in Latin America, but it is only the beginning of a brilliant academic career,” said Fares.

Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 300,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in government, science, the arts, business, philanthropy, education, and athletics. Forty Fulbright alumni from 11 countries have been awarded the Nobel Prize, and 75 alumni have received Pulitzer Prizes.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Psychologist Peter Glick Presents Research on Gender in the Workplace at Harvard Business School Symposium

Lawrence University psychologist Peter Glick will be one of a select group of scholars to deliver a talk at the Harvard Business School symposium “Gender and Work: Challenging Conventional Wisdom” Feb. 28-March 1 in Boston.

Psychologist Peter Glick

A social psychologist whose scholarship focuses on both the subtle and the overt ways in which prejudices and stereotypes foster social inequality, Glick will deliver the address “BS at Work: How Benevolent Sexism Undermines Women and Justifies Backlash” at the symposium, which will examine cutting-edge research and ideas about gender in organizations.

Glick and his research partner, Susan T. Fiske of Princeton University, Glick introduced the concept of “ambivalent sexism,” which asserts that not just hostile, but patronizing views undermine and sabotage women at work. Benevolent sexism, which asserts women are wonderful but fragile and require men’s protection and assistance, limits women’s opportunities, leads to “soft” and uninformative feedback, undermines women’s performance and justifies backlash toward women who fail to live up to feminine ideals.

Glick is the only presenter from a liberal arts college at the symposium, which features scholars from Harvard Business School, Northwestern University, MIT and Stanford University, among others.

A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1985, Glick earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oberlin College and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Minnesota. He’s been recognized with the 1995 Gordon W. Allport Prize for his research on ambivalent sexism and Lawrence’s 2011 Award for Excellence in Scholarship.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

New Student Playwriting Series Honors Former Theatre Professor

Three original one-act plays will be presented in Lawrence University’s first biennial Fred Gaines Student Playwrights Series Feb. 28-March 2 in the Cloak Theatre of the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave.

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

The series, which honors former theatre professor and department chair Fred Gaines (1977-2000), who passed away in 2010, features the work of juniors Emma Brayndick and Zachary Cooper and 2012 graduate Reena Novotnak, who is participating in a year-long internship at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, in one night of student-written theatre.

Cooper’s “It’s All Happening at the Zoo” takes place during one frustrating rehearsal of Edward Albee’s famous absurdist play “The Zoo Story.” Brayndick’s “Shifts” is a half-hour slice of life that explores relationship dynamics of four characters in a small used bookstore. “While Our Eyes Adjust,” written by Novotnak, examines the emotional lives of three young art students.

Brayndick said her “Shifts” was inspired by a discussion of the dichotomy between a private conversation and a public setting.

“I had a thought for a couple of characters working in a bookstore and it just sort of grew from there,” said Brayndick, who is neither directing or acting in “Shifts.” “The ‘take home’ message, as corny as it might seem, is be yourself and surround yourself with the people who understand and encourage that you, whoever that may be.”

While she enjoyed writing the play, Brayndick said it’s been even more fun watching it come to life in rehearsals.

“As an actress I have always worked with words from the other side, so it has been an interesting challenge to write a play, but very rewarding to find out that it works outside of my head. That actors can take something that was once just a germ of an idea I had and fill it with life is very rewarding.”

Timothy X. Troy, professor of theatre arts and 1985 Lawrence graduate, launched the play-writing series as a tribute to his former teacher and later department colleague.

“My dear hope is that through our biennial Gaines Series, I can pay forward some of the wisdom I learned from Fred by guiding young artists who are making theatre with each other, for each other,” said Troy.

The three plays selected for the inaugural Gaines Student Playwrights Series were culled from works that originated in Troy’s 2012 play writing class.

“Each class member, all the faculty and staff of the theatre arts department voted on a slate of three plays they thought would work best together as an evening of engaging theatre.”

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

Five-Part Film Festival Examines Soviet and Hispanic Cinematic Traditions

Five rarely-screened international films will be presented Feb. 19-27 in Lawrence University’s film festival “КИÑО: Exchanges between Soviet and Hispanic Cinema.”

The festival will explore the cinematographic and thematic exchange between Soviet and Hispanic cinematic traditions.

All films, with English subtitles, will be shown in Main Hall 201 at 4:30 p.m. on their respective dates. Each film will be preceded by a small presentation and an interactive audience discussion will follow the screening. All film showings are free and open to the public.

Organized by Lawrence’s Russian and Spanish departments and the film studies program, the festival showcases films by prominent directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and Luis Bunuel, whose work reflected the political climate of their own countries as well as those experiencing revolution far away.

The film festival schedule includes:

• Tuesday, Feb. 19— “Que Viva Mexico!” 1932, Soviet Union, directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
Shot in 1931-32, “Que Viva Mexico!” originally was intended to be an episodic study of Mexico’s ethnography and symbols against the backdrop of its colonial history up to the early 20th century. But a series of political and economic intrigues prevented legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein from properly editing his film. In 1979, this version of the film was reconstructed by Eisenstein’s assistant director from his former mentor’s notes.

• Wednesday, Feb. 20 — “Maria Candelaria,” 1943, Mexico, directed by Emilio Fernández.
Maria Candelaria, a young woman, is shunned by local townsfolk because her mother once posed naked for an artist and was stoned to death because of the incident. She must consider the consequences while making a similar choice.

• Thursday, Feb. 21 —”Soy Cuba,” 1964, Cuba, Soviet Union, directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.
Set in the final days of the Batista regime in Cuba, the movie uses four distinct short stories, two to illustrate the ills that led to the revolution and two that highlight the call to arms.

• Tuesday, Feb. 26 —“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” 1972, France, Spain, directed by Luis Buñuel.
Luis Buñuel’s Academy-Award-winning film follows a group of well-to-do friends who attempt to gather for a social evening but are thwarted at every turn. Seeming at first to be a simple scheduling mistake, the obstacles become increasingly bizarre.

• Wednesday, Feb. 27 —“Death of a Bureaucrat,”  1966, Cuba, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.
After an inventor dies and is buried with his union card, government red tape prevents his widow from collecting any pension money, so she attempts to rob her husband’s grave. A morbid subject with a humorous treatment, the film mocks Cuba’s bungling bureaucracy.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.

From Blues to Broadway: Six-week Series Explores History of America’s Music

Think of it as that really cool college course on American pop music you never had a chance to take.

Lawrence University opens a six-week program — “America’s Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway” — Thursday, Jan. 31 at 6:30 p.m. featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions of 20th-century American popular music.

Each weekly session will begin with an introduction to the film and musical topic by Lawrence Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Erica Scheinberg. The film screening (approximately 50 minutes) and audience discussion (45 minutes) follows. The series is free and open to the public. All programs will be held in Lawrence’s Warch Campus Center cinema except for the Feb. 28 session, which will be conducted at the Appleton Public Library.

Designed for a general audience, the “America’s Music” series examines six 20th-century American musical topics that are deeply connected to the history, culture and geography of the United States: blues and gospel; jazz; mambo and hip hop; rock n’ roll; bluegrass and country; and Broadway. The series allows participants the opportunity to learn how today’s cultural landscape has been influenced by the development of the popular musical forms through film excerpts and interactive discussion.

“American popular music is a particularly exciting topic for a film and discussion series,” said Scheinberg.  “We’ve all experienced the ways that music moves us, triggers memories, creates a sense of shared experience and community. But music also has a lot to tell us about the particular time and place in which it was created — the social, political and cultural forces that shaped it.

“The America’s Music series welcomes community members of all ages, backgrounds and experiences to watch and discuss music documentaries that portray the sights and sounds of a diverse array of artists and musical styles,” Scheinberg added. “It’s an opportunity to explore American history and to share and reflect upon our own experiences as music listeners.”

The onset of the 20th-century brought pervasive changes to American society. During the early part of the century, these social changes combined with new technologies to create a mass market for popular music that evolved over the next 100 years.

Each weekly screening and discussion session examines a musical topic in the context of key social and historical developments, with events in American music history acting as a catalyst for that examination.

In conjunction with the series and prior to the Feb. 28 program, the five-member Oshkosh-based bluegrass band Dead Horses will perform a free concert on Wednesday, Feb. 27 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Appleton Public Library.

Lawrence was one of 50 sites nationally selected to host the “American Music” program. It is a project of the Tribeca Film Institute in collaboration with the American Library Association, Tribeca Flashpoint and the Society for American Music.

The “American Music” schedule:

•  Jan. 31 — The Blues and Gospel Music, featuring excerpts from the films “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Episode 1, Feel Like Going Home” and “Say Amen, Somebody,” Warch Campus Center cinema, 6:30 p.m.

• Feb. 7 — Swing Jazz, featuring excerpts from the films “The Velocity of Celebration,” by Ken Burns and “International Sweethearts of Rhythm,” Warch Campus Center cinema, 6:30 p.m.

• Feb. 14 — Latin Rhythms from Mambo to Hip-Hop, featuring excerpts from the films “Latin Music USA” and the documentary “From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale,” Warch Campus Center cinema, 6:30 p.m.

• Feb. 21 — Rock, featuring excerpts from the film “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Warch Campus Center cinema, 6:30 p.m.

• Feb. 28 — Country and Bluegrass, featuring excerpts from the documentary “High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music,” Appleton Public Library, 6:30 p.m.

• March 7 — Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, featuring “Syncopated City,” the second episode of the award-winning series “Broadway: The American Musical.”  This program is a prelude to the appearance of five-time Tony Award-winning singer Audra McDonald on the Lawrence University Artists Series, Sunday, March 10.  Warch Campus Center, 6:30 p.m.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.