humanities

Tag: humanities

Exceptional student research showcased in annual Harrison Symposium

Nearly 50 students will make research presentations on topics in the humanities and social sciences Saturday, May 19 during Lawrence University’s 21th annual Richard A. Harrison Symposium.

Showcasing exceptional student research, the symposium presentations begin at 9:15 a.m. in various locations throughout Main Hall. A complete schedule of all presentations can be found here. All sessions are free and open to the public.2018 Harrison Symposium Logo

The symposium features 20-minute presentations arranged by topic or field. Each series is moderated by a Lawrence faculty member and includes a 10-minute question-and-answer session following the presentations. Symposium participants present their work in the format used for professional meetings of humanities and social sciences scholars.

Among the 48 scheduled presentations are: “Julius Caesar, Last Republican Man or First Emperor?”; “Creativity and Mental Illness in Vincente Minnelli’s ‘Lust for Life’; “Jackie Kennedy: A Reflection of the 1960’s Changes in Women’s Societal Roles through Fashion”; “Do Minority Women Elicit Benevolent Sexism Differently Than White Women?”; “Understanding Zika Virus in Rural Costa Rica”; and “The Sects Talk: How Religious Differences Shape Political Conflict Between Iran and Saudi Arabia.”

First conducted in 1996, the symposium honors former Lawrence Dean of the Faculty Richard Harrison, who died unexpectedly the following year. The symposium was renamed in his honor to recognize his vision of highlighting excellent student 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 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.

 

Lawrence receives $500,000 grant to improve inclusive, individualized teaching and active learning

As the composition of college classrooms have become more culturally and cognitively diverse, the way professors teach needs to change to remain as effective as possible for all learners.

Supported by a $500,000 grant from the New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Lawrence University begins a program this fall focused on inclusive, integrative and project-based pedagogy across the humanities and humanistic social science disciplines.

Professor David Burrows
David Burrows

David Burrows, who spent 12 years as Lawrence’s provost and dean of the faculty before returning to his teaching roots this summer as a member of the psychology department, will direct a Task Force on Pedagogy that will be charged with implementing the activities funded by the grant over the next four years.

“There is greater diversity in the student body because of the life experiences that are critical to their preparation” said Burrows. “It’s that some students come with a one set of background experiences and other students come with a different set of experiences. We need to create a college experience that is sensitive to these differences.”

As a result of those individual learning differences, more individualized teaching and learning programs are necessary says Burrows.

“If we talk about inclusive pedagogy as part of an inclusive institution, we have to have a pedagogy that works for every student at Lawrence so she or he can learn what they need in order to graduate,” said Burrows. “Inclusive pedagogy really means increasing the individuality of the teaching experience so that every student can be successful. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

At the heart of Lawrence’s inclusive pedagogy initiative will be three main components: technology to devise learning programs specific for each student, “active learning” practices and using ideas about best practices from outside experts.

“Using digital resources will enable students to start at the place where they come in and work their way up at their own pace,” said Burrows. “That’s an individual mastery system as opposed to assuming everyone is starting at the same place.Students with Professor Jake Fredrick

“We’ll put a priority on ‘active learning’ in which students engage with each other, discussing implications, applications and the meaning of course materials as opposed to being passively talked at. This enables them to incorporate new learning into previously established ideas and concepts.”

According to Burrows, active learning features more group discussion and more student-initiated activity. A substantial amount of the basic learning may take place outside of the classroom with class time spent discussing the implications of things. In conjunction, classrooms will be redesigned to better facilitate group discussions.

The grant also will allow Lawrence to bring in outside experts who can share their ideas and practices.

“We want to have people who know about the science of learning and some new things that have been tried speak to us and conduct workshops so that we can become experts in these things,” said Burrows.

The inclusive teaching initiative lends itself easier to some disciplines than others and will initially focus on Lawrence’s signature program, Freshman Studies, and what Burrows calls “gateway” courses, those that are lower level or introductory courses. He pointed to psychology, anthropology, history, English and some economics courses as those “well suited” to this approach, but said it also can be effective in a piano or other music performance classes.


“Inclusive pedagogy really means increasing the individuality of the teaching experience so that every student can be successful.”

                   — David Burrows, director, Task Force on Pedagogy

 

Freshman Studies and the gateway courses were chosen for their institutional-wide impact, with a large portion of the faculty exploring ad adapting inclusive teaching approaches.

Burrows sees the teaching transition presenting challenges for both students and faculty.

“These kinds of active learning strategies are more effective with students, but it also means they’re working harder,” said Burrows. “They’re doing a lot of the basic acquisition work outside of class time, using digital technology to understand the basic principles of the material and then spending class time talking about it.

“I think it will present some interesting challenges for the faculty,” Burrows added. “These things are heavily dependent upon uses of technology and today’s students come already used to group discussions, sitting around looking at a monitor, they’re used to gaming and digital technology. Faculty are less used to that, although the faculty who are early in their career will likely be more comfortable with these sorts of things.”

While the adaptation of various forms of active learning is gaining momentum nationally, Burrows said Lawrence is excited about carving its own niche in the field.

“We’re not alone, but we will be among the early adopters for schools like us. Liberal arts colleges tend to have smaller classes and rely on more standard kinds of instruction. I think we are distinctive in the sense that not that many schools have jumped on this particular wave.”

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.

Annual Harrison Symposium showcases exceptional student research

Student research presentations on topics ranging from French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette to an examination of Netflix’s operations will be addressed Saturday, May 20 during Lawrence University’s 20th annual Richard A. Harrison Symposium.

The symposium highlights exceptional student research in the humanities and social sciences. Presentations begin at 9:15 a.m. in various locations throughout Main Hall. A complete schedule of presentations, times and locations can be found here. All sessions are free and open to the public.Graphic of the Harrison Symposium logo

The symposium features a series of  20-minute presentations arranged by topic or field. Each session is moderated by a Lawrence faculty member and includes a 10-minute question-and-answer session following the presentation. Symposium participants present their work in the format used for professional meetings of humanities and social sciences scholars.

Among the scheduled presentations are: “New Orleans: A Creole City,” “The Disappearance of Romantic Comedies: Where Did They Go and Why?,” “The Return to Mother Russia: An Analysis of the Authoritative Discourse of Soviet Female Veterans after the Great Patriotic War,” and “Following the Records: A Case Study: The Outagamie County Insane Asylum and Its Lack of Patient Records.”

First conducted in 1996, the symposium honors former Lawrence Dean of the Faculty Richard Harrison, who died unexpectedly the following year. The symposium was renamed in his honor to recognize his vision of highlighting excellent student 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 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.

 

Annual Harrison Symposium highlights student research in the humanities, social sciences

Twenty-eight presentations on topics ranging from the performance of Indonesian shadow puppetry to the role of churches in the lives of North Korean refugees will be addressed Saturday, May 14 during Lawrence University’s 19th annual Richard A. Harrison Symposium.Harrison Symposium 2016_newsblog

The symposium highlights exceptional student research in the humanities and social sciences, beginning at 9:15 a.m. in various locations throughout Main Hall. A complete schedule of presentations, times and locations can be found here.

The symposium features series of 20-minute presentations arranged by topic or field. Each series is moderated by a Lawrence faculty member and includes a 10-minute question-and-answer session following the presentations. Symposium participants present their work in the format used for professional meetings of humanities and social sciences scholars.

First conducted in 1996, the symposium honors former Lawrence Dean of the Faculty Richard Harrison, who died unexpectedly the following year. The symposium was renamed in his honor to recognize his vision of highlighting excellent student 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 book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. 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.

Annual Harrison Symposium Showcases Student Research in the Humanities, Social Sciences

Exceptional student research and achievement in the humanities and social sciences will be showcased Saturday, May 18 during Lawrence University’s 16th annual Richard A. Harrison Symposium.

Twenty-nine presentations on topics ranging from classical music in video games to the disenchantment of youth in Colombian cinema to a power analysis of Somali piracy in the modern world will be delivered beginning at 1:30 p.m. in various locations in Main Hall.

A complete schedule of presentations, times and locations can be found here.

The presentations are arranged into panels by topic or field and are moderated by a Lawrence faculty member. Faculty nominate and invite students to submit an abstract of their research. Symposium participants are then selected based on the abstracts and present their work in the format used for professional meetings of humanities and social sciences scholars.

Each presentation lasts approximately 20 minutes and is followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session.

The symposium honors former Lawrence Dean of the Faculty Richard A. Harrison, who organized the first program in 1996. Harrison died unexpectedly the following year and the symposium was renamed after him to recognize his vision of highlighting excellent student 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.

Annual Harrison Symposium Showcases Student Research in the Humanities, Social Sciences

Exceptional student research in the humanities and social sciences on topics as diverse as the history of Waldorf education and women’s changing roles in modern Chinese fiction  will be showcased Saturday, May 19 beginning at 9:15 a.m. in Main Hall during Lawrence University’s 15th annual Richard A. Harrison Symposium.

Thirty-four students will deliver presentations during two sessions arranged into panels by topic or field that are moderated by a Lawrence faculty member. Presenters are nominated by faculty and invited to submit abstracts of their research. Students are selected for the symposium based on the abstracts and present their work in the format used for professional meetings of scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

Each presentation lasts approximately 20 minutes and is followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session. Among the topics that will be explored in this year’s symposium are the condition of education in rural Ecuador, the detrimental effects of the loss of a parent in childhood, the politics of music in Sierra Leone and the work of the late painter Thomas Kinkade.

The symposium honors former Lawrence Dean of the Faculty Richard A. Harrison, who organized the first program in 1996. Harrison died unexpectedly the following year and the symposium was renamed after him to recognize his vision of highlighting excellent student scholarship.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Ranked among America’s best colleges by Forbes, it was selected for inclusion in 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 1,445 students from 44 states and 35 countries. Follow us on Facebook.

Lawrence Awarded NEH Challenge Grant to Establish Humanities Institute

A new $2.7 million Lawrence University initiative designed to foster the professional development of faculty members in the humanities and attract recent Ph.D. recipients in the humanities for the Lawrence Fellows Program has received a $425,000 boost from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Lawrence was awarded a highly competitive NEH Challenge Grant to support the creation of the Lawrence Humanities Institute and two new positions at Lawrence through a permanent endowment for two Fellows exclusively in the humanities.

To receive the NEH Challenge Grant and fully fund the project, Lawrence will need to raise $2.275 million in matching funds toward the $2.7 million project goal by the end of 2016. The college already has received a lead gift of $1 million for the program from Tom and Julie Hurvis of Glenview, Ill., 1960 and 1961 Lawrence graduates, respectively.

The Lawrence Humanities Institute is an innovative twist on the successful Lawrence Fellows program that will leverage the expertise of talented post-doctoral fellows to create opportunities for sustained professional development for Lawrence faculty. By fostering greater curricular diversity, team teaching, interdisciplinary research collaborations, and incorporation of new ideas and techniques into research programs, the Lawrence Humanities Institute will help keep all participants at the forefront of their fields as scholars and teachers.

Conceived by humanities faculty, the Lawrence Humanities Institute will actively engage five faculty members and two NEH Fellows in the Humanities in year-long, graduate-style seminars on an emerging, rapidly evolving or other timely area of humanistic study under a two-year theme selected by the Institute’s director and advisory board. The goal of the seminars is to foster both an individual inquiry into the topic’s relevance to a faculty member’s scholarship as well as create a shared exploration of the larger implications for humanities teaching and learning in a liberal arts context.

“The activities of the endowed NEH Fellows in the Humanities and the Humanities Institute will advance the college’s mission of transformative liberal arts education,” said President Jill Beck. “Those activities also will support several key objectives in the college’s new 10-year strategic plan, including deepening and broadening the curriculum, enhancing faculty professional development programming and promoting cross-fertilization among disciplines.

“The NEH Humanities Institute will invigorate humanist discourse at Lawrence and stimulate greater integration of recent advances in the humanities into the scholarship and teaching of Lawrence’s excellent tenure-line faculty,” Beck added.

Established in 2005, the Lawrence Fellows program brings recent Ph.D. recipients to campus for two-year post-doctoral appointments. Each Fellow is mentored by a tenured faculty member, teaches a reduced course load and devotes significant time to developing their teaching and scholarly work. In any given year, Lawrence hosts 6-12 Fellows at a time across varied departments and interdisciplinary programs.

The Fellows program provides a successful transition from graduate school to life as a teacher-scholar in a liberal arts setting. Although doctoral candidates at major universities receive some teaching experience, relatively few graduate programs offer strong training in course development or pedagogical skills suited for small college environments. Unlike teaching assistantships where course materials and procedures may already be set, new liberal arts faculty bear full responsibility for all aspects of the several courses they teach each year.

“Lawrence is an ideal environment for Fellows to develop as teacher-scholars,” said Beck. “The focus on individualized learning that characterizes Lawrence’s approach to educating students translates naturally to nurturing Fellows’ individual development. Small classes, a highly engaged intellectual climate, and a campus ethos that values collaboration over competition, combine to help Fellows hone pedagogical skills quite different from those typically called for at research universities.”

This is the third time Lawrence has been awarded an NEH Challenge Grant, which are highly coveted and extremely competitive. Just 22 Challenge Grants were awarded in 2011 out of 108 proposals from leading colleges, universities and museums of all sizes.

Lawrence successfully completed a Challenge Grant in the mid-1970s to renovate Main Hall and received a $500,000 NEH Challenge Grant in 2001 to endow Freshman Studies, meeting the $2 million matching obligation more than six months ahead of schedule.

Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Ranked among America’s best colleges, it was selected for inclusion in 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 1,445 students from 44 states and 35 countries.

Harrison Symposium Showcases Student Research

With subjects ranging from capitalism in contemporary China, to red-haired women featured in the paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, to building a better oarsman, the Harrison Symposium recognizes the outstanding research done by Lawrence students in the humanities and social sciences.  The 13th annual Harrison symposium will be held Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Lawrence University’s Main Hall.  Presenters are nominated by faculty and invited to submit abstracts of their research papers.  Based on the abstracts, students are selected to present their work at the symposium in the format used for professional meetings of scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

Welcome Reception
8:45  Light Refreshments – Strange Commons in Main Hall
9:00  Welcome by Provost and Dean of the Faculty, David Burrows

Session One: Panel A, Main Hall 201
Moderator: Professor Barrett
9:15   Kelsey Platt: “Space for the Individual”
9:45   Melody Moberg: “Radically Subversive Domesticity: The True Implications of Rachel Halliday’s Kitchen”
10:15  Alicia Bones: “Aunt Jemima and Aunt Chloe: Moving Within and Outside of the Mammy Myth”

Session One: Panel B, Main Hall 211
Moderator:  Professor Tsomu
9:15   Lindsey Ahlen: “The Impact of Local Media on West African Political Systems and Figures”
9:45   Carolyn Schultz: “Managing Crises: The Arab-Israeli Conflict from the Perspectives of the Johnson and Nixon Administrations”
10:15  Jihyun Shin: “Capitalism in Contemporary China”

Session One: Panel C, Main Hall 216
Moderator:  Professor Carlson
9:15   Marie Straquadine: “Objects of Desire: Women with Red Hair in Rossetti’s Paintings”
9:45   Sarah Young: “Shamanism or “Stubborn Rationality”: Joseph Beuys and the Dilemma of Post-War German Masculinity”
10:15  Dani Simandl: “Girls Gone Wild, String Instrument-Style: Performing Instrumental Music for a Popular Culture”

Session One: Panel D, Main Hall 401
Moderator:  Professor Frederick
9:15   Elizabeth Nerland: “No Middle Ground: The Rise and Fall of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee”
9:45   Caitlin Williamson: “Ojibwe and Canis lupus: cultural, historical, and political influences on contemporary wolf management in the Great Lakes region”
10:15  Gustavo Guimaraes: “Latin American Ethnicity; Not So “Black and White”

Session One: Panel E, Main Hall 404
Moderator:  Professor Williams
9:15   Nicholas Miller: “Building a Better Oarsman: Conceptual Integration and Motor Learning in Rowing Instruction”
9:45   Madeline Herdeman: “Cognitive Models and the Partisan Divide: A Study of the Debate over Health Care Reform”
10:15  Alex Macartney: “A Democratic Purge?: The United States and the Denazification of Austria, 1945 – 1950”

Session Two: Panel A, Main Hall 201
Moderator:  Professor Thomas
11:00  Nicolas Watt: “Ethics in Dostoevsky: A Narrative Analysis of The Idiot”
11:30  John Bettridge: “Tabari, Ghazali and Qutb: The Development of Modern Qur’anic Exegesis”
12:00  Christopher McGeorge: “Subverting Morality: Idealization in Victorian  Art and Literature” ~ 2009 Harrison Award Winner

Session Two: Panel B, Main Hall 211
Moderator:  Professor Vilches
11:00  Jennifer Gabriele: “Federico García Lorca: La obra escrita y plástica de Poeta en Nueva York y la autorrepresentación polifacética”
11:30  Elizabeth Hoffman: “La maternidad, el espacio público y feminismo: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo”
12:00  Matthew Ingram: “La Construcción del Género: La Lucha Lingüística entre la Biología y la Identidad Social”

Session Two: Panel C, Main Hall 216
Moderator:  Professor Jenike
11:00  Rebecca Hayes: “Misconstruing Misogyny: Reworking the Witchcraft Trials of Early Modern Europe Beyond the Limits of Second Wave Feminism”
11:30  Harjinder Bedi: “Social Poetry of Adzogbo: Context and Meaning of a West African War Dance”
12:00  Michael Korcek: “Drag Kinging in Amsterdam: Queer identity politics, subcultural spaces, and transformative potentials”

Session Two: Panel D, Main Hall 401
Moderator:  Professor Rico
11:00 Katie Van Marter-Sanders: “The Various Reinterpretations of the Sultana Tragedy”
11:30  Jennifer Roesch: “The Hindenburg: A Disaster Waiting to Happen”
12:00  Kaye Herranen: “Artists’ Responses to the Firebombing of Dresden”