Lawrence University News

Contemporary paintings, photography featured in new Wriston Art Center exhibition

In conjunction with his show “Aureole” in the Kohler Gallery, Patrick Earl Hammie delivers the opening talk for Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center Galleries’ latest exhibition Friday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m.

A reception follows Hammie’s remarks. Both are free and open to the public. The new exhibition runs through November 17.

Painting "Case" by James Earl Hammie — “Case” by James Earl Hammie

A native of New Haven, Conn., Hammie is known for his large-scale portrait and figurative paintings, through which he examines topics such as cultural identity, social equity and aspects of gender and race. With interests in the history of painting, he applies historic conventions in a contemporary context to create fresh ideals of bodies of color and women. “Aureole” is featured in the Kohler Gallery.

An associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hammie has been recognized as an “Artist to Watch” by the International Review of African American Art. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad, and is included in several prominent collections including the J.P. Morgan Chase Art Collection, John Michael Kohler Art Center and the William Benton Museum of Art in Connecticut.

The Hoffmaster Gallery hosts “Our Trans Family,” an exhibition of photography and text reflecting the worth and dignity of transgender people. The project is a partnership between Cream City Foundation and “For Good” Photography, which worked with several organizations throughout Wisconsin to capture a broad range of transgender people in an effort to show them as they express themselves and with the support of their natural or chosen families of support.

Line drawing "Handstand (Acrobat)" by Erich Heckel — “Handstand (Acrobat),” Erich Heckel, 1916, from Lawrence’s La Vera Pohl Collection of German Expressionism.

Curated by 2017 graduate Kali Steinberg, “Mirth & Melancholy: The Circus in Modern Art” will be shown in the Leech Gallery. Works in the exhibition are drawn primarily from Lawrence’s La Vera Pohl Collection of German Expressionism and includes works by Marc Chagall, Otto Mueller and Erich Heckel. The featured prints and paintings reflect artists’ fascination with the circus, both the entertaining side and the sad, often revealing their own contradictory feelings about the rapidly changing world.

The Wriston Art Center is open Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday noon – 4 p.m.; closed Mondays. Free and open to the public.

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 book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lasting impact of 19th-century women poets examined in Lawrence presentation

Alexandra Socarides, associate professor of English at the University of Missouri, discusses how women poets of the 1800s left their mark on American culture in a Lawrence University address.

Socarides presents “Their Words are Marching On: Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Poetry in the Twenty-First Century” Friday, Sept. 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall 201. The event is free and open to the public.

While Emily Dickinson has made it into the literary canon and the university classroom, Socarides posits many poems from the era surround us every day, among them “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “America the Beautiful” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The general public often is unaware of who these poets are, says Socarides, but they have impacted society’s thinking regarding issues as diverse as childhood, war, nationalism and religion.

Part of her presentation will examine contemporary poets who rewrote Emma Lazarus’ “The New Collosus” in the wake of President Trump’s position on immigration.

Socarides is the author of “Dickinson Unbound: Paper, Process, Poetics” and the recently published “Everywhere and Nowhere: Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Poetry and the Problem of Literary History.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Bates College, a master of fine arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

Her appearance is sponsored by the Marguerite Schumann Memorial Lectureship Fund, the gender studies program, and the English department.

“Bike battles” examined in guest lecture

Scholar and author James Longhurst returns to Lawrence University for a talk about his favorite topic: bicycles.

Longhurst’s address. “Victory Bike Battles in World War II: New History, Lessons for Today,” Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. in Thomas Steitz Hall of Science Room 102, is free and open to the public.

The author of “Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road,” Longhurst will discuss recent research on the history of the Victory Bike program in World War II and its implications for current transportation battles. He refers to the resistance of reintroducing bicycles to American cities as “bikelash.”

He is also the author of the 2010 book “Citizen Environmentalist.”

Longhurst, who previously spoke at Lawrence in January, 2016, is an associate professor of history at UW-La Crosse, specializing in urban and environmental policy. His inspiration to study bicycle history began in 2008 when he started commuting by bicycle to work every day.

His appearance is sponsored by the Barbara Gray Spoerl Lectures in Science and Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

History of the ACLU focus of government department presentation

Historian Judy Kutulas offers a historical perspective to help explain why Americans tend to confuse the American Civil Liberty Union’s apolitical intention with a partisan point of view in a Lawrence University government colloquium.

Kutulas presents “The American Civil Liberties Union and Free Speech: A Brief History” Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

A professor of history at St. Olaf College, Kutulas is the author of three books, including 2006’s The American Civil Liberties Union and the Transformation of American Liberalism, in which she traces the history of the ACLU from 1930 to 1960 and examines how it evolved from a fringe organization into American society’s liberal mainstream.

She also has written The Long War: The Intellectual People’s Front and Anti-Stalinism, 1930-1940 and explored popular culture in After Aquarius Dawned, which was published earlier this year.

A California native, Kutulas earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s and doctorate degree in history from UCLA.

Kutulas’ presentation is jointly sponsored by the Lawrence government department and the UW-Stout Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation

Choral director Stephen Sieck addresses inclusive instruction in new book

Some challenging, and eye-opening, conversations with students two years ago led Lawrence University choral director Stephen Sieck to some more introspection regarding his approach to teaching and concert program selections.

That self-reflection resulted in a recently released book, “Teaching with Respect: Inclusive Pedagogy for Choral Directors” (Hal Leonard, 2017), which examines deep questions about the language we use, systems of power and our heritage and inheritance.

“This book comes out of a lifetime of well-intentioned but harmful experiences that singers have had in my and other peoples’ choirs,” said Sieck, who joined the Lawrence conservatory of music faculty in 2010. “The specific spark for my personal change in pedagogical approach was a series of difficult conversations in the fall of 2015. Students raised concerns we had not previously thought much about, such as the role of the African-American slave spiritual as a form of concert entertainment. Once I began looking at the kinds of repertoire and pedagogical techniques I had learned and lived as a choral director from my students’ eyes, I saw the need for a conversation to start in our field.”

In “Teaching with Respect,” Sieck looks closely at teaching strategies and how everything from instruction to repertoire choices intersect with singers’ identities, their learning abilities, gender, sexuality, religion, ethnicity and race. He advocates an ethical approach to teaching choral music that is centered on respecting the singers each singer as a human with a distinct set of experiences.

With some form found in every culture in the world, Sieck calls choral singing “the most natural way to build community and share an artistic or spiritual experience in any culture around the world,” which underscores the importance of how it is taught.

“When students find a negative or harmful experience in choir, we have to see that we have strayed very far from such communal power,” said Sieck. “This book asks us to consider the ways in which our teaching either builds that community or fractures it.”

Despite its subtitle, Sieck says the book’s lessons apply broadly to all educators.

“Choral music provides a very specific set of challenges, especially around texts and religions, but the principles discussed in the book are universal,” said Sieck, who was honored with Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award in 2014. “Treat other people the way you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes. Learn to acknowledge the tilt of the playing field and work to make it level. Don’t treat someone who is not part of the ‘majority’ identity as a marked ‘other’ category. These principles would be just as appropriate in a calculus class. It’s just that in choir we have so many of these challenges woven into long-held traditions like programming a Christmas concert in a public school.”

Sieck is co-director of Lawrence’s Concert Choir and Cantala women’s choir, both of which performed at the 2014 American Choral Director’s Association North Central convention. He also directs the Viking Chorale, which performed at the 2015 Wisconsin Choral Director’s Association convention.

A former professional singer in Los Angeles, Sieck earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Chicago. He also holds a master’s degree and doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois.

He recently finished a second, yet-unpublished, book that profiles eight of the best university choral programs in America. Through case studies, he examines what makes them so consistently successful and offers applications for teachers everywhere.

Self-care focus of opening 2017-18 cultural competency lecture issues

A lecture series examining issues related to cultural competency launched last year by Lawrence University returns Thursday, Sept. 21 with the opening program of the 2017-18 academic year.

Erin Buenzli, Lawrence’s director of wellness and recreation, presents “A Community of Self-Care” at 11:30 a.m. in the Esch-Hurvis Room of the Warch Campus Center. The program is free and open to the public.

Underscoring the importance of taking care of ourselves as well as others for the betterment of the campus community and society, Buenzli, will discuss campus resources available for creating an inclusive wellness culture where each person’s unique needs are recognized and nurtured in their individual pursuit of wellness.

She also will examine ways each members of the Lawrence community can take part in the shared responsibility of creating a culture of compassion, empathy and self-care.

The cultural competency lecture series is sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Welsh band Calan opens 2017-18 World Music Series

The five-member band Calan opens Lawrence University’s 2017-18 World Music Series Monday, Sept 18 with its vibrant version of traditional Welsh music.

The concert is at 8 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre of the Music-Drama Center. Tickets, at $10 for adults, $5 for seniors/students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749, or online.

Eye-catching clothes and a presentation to match reinforce Calan’s vision of itself as a new generation of Welsh musical ambassadors. Blending fiddles, guitar, accordion, harp and a traditional pibgorn into sparkling melodies and spirited performances of Welsh step dancing, Calan blasts its way through old favorite reels, jigs and hornpipes with fast-paced, uplifting arrangements.

Frank Hennessy told BBC Radio Wales, “Calan have it all. Energy, attitude, freshness, a sense of fun and above all, real talent.”

Calan released its debut album “Bling” in 2008 to critical acclaim. It generated large audiences and rave reviews at concerts and festivals throughout Britain and Europe, including the coveted Cambridge Festival. They were honored with the Best Group Award at the 2008 Festival Interceltique de Lorient in France.

Since “Bling,” Calan has released three more albums, including 2017’s “Solomon,” a 12-track record that mixes traditional acoustic folk with bumping beats and pounding rhythms.

Accordion player Bethan Rhiannon, who sings in both English and Welsh, is a national clog dancing competition champion who often displays her award-winning step-dancing.

Rhiannon is joined by Patrick Rimes, a former three-time junior Celtic Welsh fiddle champion who counts the Welsh bagpipes among the multiple instruments he plays; fiddle player Angharad Jenkins, daughter of noted Welsh poet Nigel Jenkins; guitarist Sam Humphreys, a converted rock and electronic music performer; and harpist Alice French who specializes in traditional harp methods used by the Romani Gypsies of Wales.

New crosswalk cameras on College Ave. designed to improve campus pedestrian safety

In an effort to improve personal safety, Lawrence University, in collaboration with the city of Appleton, is acquiring and installing high-definition cameras on the two crosswalks on College Ave. in the middle of campus.

The high-definition cameras will be mounted in the median behind the pedestrian crossing signs and will be able to capture a higher level of detail at the crossings to assist the Appleton Police Department in an investigation should an incident arise.

Captured video information will be stored for 72 hours – the same as all other traffic cameras within the city – and is only reviewed if needed for evidence in an accident or harassment incident.

Lawrence is covering the purchase cost of the cameras while the city will oversee the cameras installation. The city also will manage maintenance of the cameras and all data captured by them.

“The mid-College Ave. crosswalks have seen a number of pedestrian-vehicle incidents over the years,” said Jon Meyer, Lawrence’s director of campus safety and director of campus services. “The safety and well-being of members of the Lawrence community is our highest priority and these new cameras will help us identify vehicles involved in crosswalk accidents as well as verbal harassment.”

In Oct. 2013, Lawrence student Shannon Grant sustained serious injuries in a hit-and-run incident while crossing the westbound lane of College Ave. in the crosswalk in front of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. She suffered a broken leg and a fractured pelvis, among other injuries, which kept her out of school for several months. The case has never been solved.

“The university approached the city about installing these cameras and we are happy to work with them to make these enhancements at the crosswalk,” said Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna. “Lawrence University is an important partner with the city and we want all students to feel safe in our community.”

Lawrence hosting community forum on status of DACA

In the wake of President Trump’s announcement rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Lawrence University will host a community forum to address questions and concerns regarding that decision.

Madison-based immigration attorney Mónica Santa María will lead the program “Rescission of DACA: Understanding the Current Immigration Environment” Thursday, Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema, 711 E. Boldt Way. The event is free and open to the public.

During her presentation, Santa María will provide background on the DACA program, including the status of various active lawsuits filed both against the program and against its rescission. She’ll also discuss the differences between the benefits provided by DACA (prosecutorial discretion) and legal status and action steps for DACA beneficiaries and their family members. A question-and-answer session will conclude the program.

Following her presentation, Santa María will be available to Lawrence community members for 20-minute one-on-one conversations related to DACA/undocumented topics until 8 p.m. Anyone interesting in speaking with her can sign up by contacting the Diversity Center, 920-832-7051 or diversitycenter@lawrence.edu.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Santa María opened her own law firm earlier this year. She began her law career in 2008 with the Madison office of Godfrey & Kahn, where she worked with the firm’s labor and employment group, focusing on immigration law. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a Spanish-English medical interpreter in various clinics and hospitals in the Madison area.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree from MIT.

President Burstein opens 2017-18 academic year, convocation series with annual matriculation address

President Mark Burstein officially opens Lawrence University’s 169th academic year and the university’s 2017-18 convocation series Thursday, Sept. 14 with his annual matriculation address.

At a time of national conflict and divisiveness, Burstein shares his thoughts on enduring values that could provide a community framework in the address “What Do We Stand For,” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public. It also will be available via a live webcast.

Now in his fifth year as Lawrence’s 16^th president, Burstein has focused on creating learning communities in which all members can reach their full potential during a career in higher education spanning nearly 25 years.

Prior to Lawrence, he spent nine years as executive vice president at Princeton University and 10 years at Columbia University as a vice president working in human resources, student services and facilities management.

Joining Burstein as convocation series speakers will be:

• Oct. 31 Award-winning journalist, educator and long-time peace activist, Colman McCarthy presents “Is Peace Possible?” The director of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C., which he founded in 1985, McCarthy spent nearly 30 years as a columnist for the Washington Post. Since 1999, he has written a weekly column for The National Catholic Reporter.

As an educator who believes if we don’t teach children peace, someone else will teach them violence, McCarthy has taught courses on nonviolence and peace literature for more than 30 years.

He is the author of 14 books, including 2002’s “I’d Rather Teach Peace” in which he chronicles his experiences introducing the theory and practice of creative peacemaking to classrooms ranging from a suburban Washington, D.C. high school to a prison for juveniles to Georgetown University Law Center.

• Feb. 1, 2018 Jad Abumrad, the creator and host of public radio’s popular “Radiolab” program, explores what it means to “innovate” and how it feels to create something new in the address “Gut Churn.”

Abumrad was named a MacArthur Fellow, an honor commonly known as a “genius grant,” in 2011 and “Radiolab” show has been recognized twice—2010 and 2015—with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award.

In 2016, he premiered a spinoff of “Radiolab” entitled “More Perfect,” which explores untold stories about the Supreme Court.

• April 3, 2018. Author and science “evangelist Ainissa Ramirez, who spreads her “gospel” through books, TED Talks, online videos and the podcast “Science Underground,” presents “Technology’s Unexpected Consequences.”

Named one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review for her contributions to transforming technology, Ramirez spent eight years teaching mechanical engineering & materials science at Yale University and also has been a visiting professor at MIT.

She has written or co-written three books, including 2013’s “Newton’s Football: The Science Behind America’s Game,” an entertaining and enlightening look at the big ideas underlying the science of football.

• May 22, 2018 Voice teacher Kenneth Bozeman, the Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music at Lawrence, presents “Voice, the Muscle of the Soul: Finding Yourself Through Finding Your Voice” at Lawrence’s annual Honors Convocation.

A member of the conservatory of music faculty since 1977, Bozeman is the author of the 2017 book “Practical Vocal Acoustics: Pedagogic Applications for Teachers and Singers.” He is frequently invited to speak at seminars and master classes on acoustic pedagogy at universities and interdisciplinary conferences.

Bozeman is one of only 11 faculty members in the history of the university to be recognized with both Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award (1980) and Excellence in Teaching Award (1996). He also was honored by the Voice Foundation with its Van Lawrence Fellowship in 1994 for his interest in voice science and pedagogy.

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Lawrence University News

Contemporary paintings, photography featured in new Wriston Art Center exhibition

Lasting impact of 19th-century women poets examined in Lawrence presentation

“Bike battles” examined in guest lecture

History of the ACLU focus of government department presentation

Choral director Stephen Sieck addresses inclusive instruction in new book

Self-care focus of opening 2017-18 cultural competency lecture issues

Welsh band Calan opens 2017-18 World Music Series

New crosswalk cameras on College Ave. designed to improve campus pedestrian safety

Lawrence hosting community forum on status of DACA

President Burstein opens 2017-18 academic year, convocation series with annual matriculation address

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