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Climate Change Challenge Examined May 20 in Honors Convocation

Vermont State Senator Robert Hartwell closes Lawrence University’s 2009-10 convocation series Thursday, May 20 with the address “America at the Crossroads: Accepting the Climate Change Challenge.”

The presentation, at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, will be followed by a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema. Both events are free and open to the public.

A 1969 graduate of Lawrence, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government, Hartwell enjoyed a successful career as a labor attorney before turning his attention to interests in community service and real estate.

His pursued his passion for environmental protection and land stewardship through trustee positions with the Vermont Land Trust and the Vermont River Conservancy. He also is a former director of the organization Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

In 2006, he sought public office, running for and earning a seat in the Vermont state senate. As a legislator, Hartwell has served on the senate’s committee on natural resources and energy and was instrumental in the passage of the state’s most comprehensive energy legislation in 2008.

Hartwell also co-sponsored a bill that placed Vermont’s groundwater in the public trust and regulated large-scale water withdrawals, such as those by water bottling companies.

He has been an advocate for a national “Green” New Deal that focuses on a new energy ethic modeled after President Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of the 1930s. Hartwell’s Green New Deal would place greater reliance on renewable resources, favor tax incentives to create a national car fleet 50 percent more fuel efficient than at present and support a national passenger rail system based on successful models in Europe.

Anthropologist Carla Daughtry Awarded Fulbright Fellowship

Lawrence University cultural anthropologist Carla N. Daughtry has been named a recipient of a 2010 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award.

Daughtry will spend the 2010-11 academic year at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) at American University in Cairo, Egypt.

During her nine-month fellowship appointment, which begins in mid-August, Daughtry will teach courses on American perspectives on race, ethnicity, diaspora and globalization. She also will support student and faculty research activities through CASAR.

Carla-Daughtry_web
Carla Daughtry

“This is a wonderful opportunity to re-immerse myself in Cairo and Egyptian culture and enhance my own teaching and scholarship,” said Daughtry, who previously spent a year at American University in Cairo as an undergraduate student in the late 1980s. “My Fulbright year in Cairo will strengthen ties between Lawrence University and Egypt, where Lawrence students have enrolled for a term or year abroad at American University in Cairo. My experiences also should help deepen the richness of Arabic and Middle Eastern studies for students here at Lawrence.”

This is the second time Daughtry has been recognized by the Fulbright Scholars Program. While in graduate school at the University of Michigan, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1992 that also took her to Egypt, where she studied Arabic at Cairo’s Center for Arabic Studies Abroad.

She also spent two years (1998-2000) in Cairo as a research fellow at American University working with displaced Sudanese refugees who fled Sudan’s civil war as part of her doctoral dissertation field work.

Daughtry , who joined the Lawrence faculty in 2000, focuses her scholarship on Middle East and North Africa cultures, transnational and urban refugee communities and ethnic and gender issues.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in international relations at Mount Holyoke College, Daughtry earned two master’s degrees — one in Middle East and North African Studies and one in cultural anthropology — and her doctorate in cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan.

Established in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Scholar Program is the federal government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. It provides grants in a variety of disciplines for teaching and research positions in more than 120 countries.

Irish Restoration Comedy “The School for Scandal” Staged May 13-15

Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy “The School for Scandal” comes to the  Stansbury Theatre stage in four performances by the Lawrence University Theatre Department.

The play will be performed Thursday-Saturday, May 13-15 at 8 p.m., with a 3 p.m. matinee Saturday, May 15. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

A Restoration comedy of morals and manners, “The School for Scandal” was originally produced in London in May, 1777.  Filled with disguises, misconceptions and scandals caused by constant, vivid gossip, the comedy is considered Sheridan’s defining work.

Widely popular during its original run of 65 performances over two seasons, the comedy explores the gossip-filled world of Lady Teazle and Lady Sneerwell. Young, newly-married Lady Teazle carries on an affair with Joseph Surface, just to be in fashion, while Lady Sneerwell plots with her allies to destroy the budding romance of Joseph’s brother, Charles, and Maria. The result is a comedic story of lives and relationships entwined by false accusations and misunderstandings.

Senior Caroline Mandler portrays  Lady Sneerwell and junior Alison Thompson is  Lady Teazle. Sophomores Amanda Martinez and Sasha Johnston are cross-cast as the Surface brothers, Joseph and Charles.

The production, directed by visiting theatre arts professor George Grant, a 1988 Lawrence graduate, features costume design by 2006 Lawrence graduate Katrina Schuster.

Grammy-Winning Bassist Christian McBride Closes Lawrence Jazz Series May 14

Two-time Grammy Award-winner Christian McBride and his acoustic jazz quintet Inside Straight performs Friday, May 14 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel in the final concert of Lawrence University’s 2009-2010 Jazz Series.

Tickets, at $20-22 for adults, $17-19 for seniors and $15-17 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

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Christian McBride

Hailed as “perhaps the most exciting jazz bass player since Ray Brown” by All About Jazz, McBride has appeared on more than 250 albums, including five of his own releases. Playing both acoustic and electric bass, McBride has accompanied scores of jazz luminaries, among them Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Diana Krall.

Over the past two decades, McBride has been one of the most requested sidemen in the music business, touring with such renowned jazz musicians and their bands as Roy Hargrove and Pat Metheney.

Assistant Professor of Music Mark Urness, who teaches bass in the Lawrence conservatory of music, said McBride has been at the forefront of jazz bass playing for nearly two decades.

“His stunning virtuosity is combined with an intense rhythmic feel and a rare melodic gift,” said Urness. “He epitomizes the modern jazz artist by combining tradition with innovation.”

Named “Hot Jazz Artist” of 1992 by Rolling Stone magazine, McBride won Grammy Awards in 2009 and 2006 in the best jazz instrumental album, individual or group category. He was named co-director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem in 2005 and recently finished a four-year appointment as creative chair for jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  As a composer, McBride created “Bluesin’ in Alphabet City,” a commissioned work performed by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Inside Straight, McBride’s new quintet, recently released its debut album “Kind of Brown,” a collection of hard swing-to-bluesy groove tunes. The international cultural criticism magazine Pop Matters praised Inside Straight for creating “delicious music” and described the album as “hot. It puts a little jump in your step.”

“Inside Straight is a traditional acoustic jazz ensemble with innovative compositions and improvisations,” said Urness. “The band draws influence not only from classic jazz, but also from modern funk and hip-hop artists.”

Inside Straight features Eric Scott Reed on piano, Steve Wilson on saxophone, Warren Wolf, Jr. on vibraphone and Carl Allen on drums.

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”

Season Subscriptions on Sale for 2010-2011 Artist and Jazz Performing Arts Series

The critically acclaimed Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under the baton of musical director Edo de Waart and the first-ever all-Latin Jazz Celebration Weekend highlight Lawrence University’s eight-concert 2010-2011 Artist and Jazz Series.

Season subscriptions are currently on sale, with discounts available to senior citizens and students. Reserve tickets can be ordered for the Artist, Jazz or a “Favorite 4” series that allows subscribers to select any combination of four concerts from either series. Single-concert tickets go on sale Sept. 16. For additional ticket information, contact the Lawrence Box Office at 920-832-6749.

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Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

Recognized as a pioneer in the world of new music among American orchestras, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s 88 full-time professional musicians take the Lawrence Memorial Chapel stage Friday, April 1, 2011. Founded in 1959, the MSO conducts nearly 150 concerts a year and has performed on tour in Europe, Japan and Cuba, as well as Carnegie Hall and other venues throughout the United States.

Joining the MSO on the Artist Series schedule are the six-member Rhythm and Brass, which opens the series Saturday, Sept. 25; soprano Measha Brueggergosman performs Wednesday Feb. 9, 2011; and The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet closes the series Friday, April 16, 2011.

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Luciana Souza

For the first time in its 30-year history, Jazz Celebration Weekend goes all Latin, with Brazil’s Grammy-winning jazz singer Louciana Souza and her quartet opening the weekend Nov. 5. Raised in a family of bossa nova innovators, Souza has emerged as one of jazz’s leading singers and interpreters, creating a body of work with sophisticated lineage in world music that transcends traditional boundaries.

Trombonist Conrad Herwig performs Nov. 6 on the second night of Jazz Celebration Weekend along with the Lawrence Jazz Trio and the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble. With series of “Latin Side” CDs, including tributes to John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Herwig has created a highly identifiable niche in contemporary jazz.

The remaining Jazz Series includes Donny McCaslin, who brings his sonorous tenor sax to the Lawrence Chapel stage Feb. 25, where he’ll be joined by The Lawrence Brass. The two-time Grammy Award-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra closes the series May 6.

Rhythm & Brass incorporates influences as divergent as Josquin Des Prez, Pink Floyd and Johann Sebastian Bach in creating musical presentations that cross time, geographic and cultural boundaries.

Canadian soprano Brueggergosman, one of today’s most vibrant performers, has earned international critical acclaim for her innate musicianship, voluptuous voice and supreme stage presence beyond her years.

The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, a 2005 Grammy Award winner, brings a special energy to the concert stage with its eclectic programs and dynamic musical interplay. The quartet continues to break new ground with fresh interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms.

McCaslin’s incisive twists and purposeful turns of his emotionally charged solos have wowed audiences and critics alike for the past decade. While he has recorded seven albums, his solo work with large ensembles has turned heads, resulting in a Best Jazz Instrumental Solo Grammy nomination in 2004.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra features some of world’s finest musicians, most of whom lead their own bands when not performing with the orchestra. Co-founded by legendary trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis, the ensemble still plays virtually every Monday night at the renowned jazz club Vanguard Village, New York City’s most famous basement, where it got its start in 1966.

Environmental Efforts Earn Lawrence University Inclusion on National “Green” Guide

Lawrence University is one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges according to The Princeton Review.

The national education services company selected Lawrence for its new resource for college applicants, “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges.”

Developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, the “Guide to 286 Green Colleges” is a comprehensive guidebook focused solely on institutions of higher education that have demonstrated an above average commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities and initiatives.

The guide profiles the nation’s most environmentally-responsible campuses and highlights each institution’s ecological commitment based on several criteria, including the USGBC’s LEED green building certification program, use of renewable energy resources, formal sustainability committees and recycling and conservation programs.

Lawrence was cited in the guide for its Green Roots program, a two-year-long environmental initiative launched in 2008 designed to establish a framework to develop institutional policies and procedures to promote environmental awareness on the campus.

Other factors in Lawrence’s inclusion in the Green Guide included the Warch Campus Center’s LEED Gold certification, the student-run sustainable garden that provides fresh produce to the dining hall, the composting of all food prep waste and the college’s vibrant environmental studies program that draws faculty from 11 different departments and focuses on research projects that lead to solutions for real world environmental problems.

More recently, Lawrence installed its first solar panel and placed ninth nationally among 346 colleges in the 2010 Recyclemania competition’s per capita recycling category.

“Over the past two years, Lawrence has made great strides in its efforts to improve our sustainability and instill environmentally sound practices, from reducing our water and natural gas consumption to dramatically cutting our paper usage” said Jeff Clark, associate professor of geology and faculty associate to the president for the Green Roots initiative. “It’s gratifying to have those efforts recognized.”

The 286 schools included in the guide were selected on the basis of their 2009 “Green Rating” scores in The Princeton Review’s annual college guidebook. The “Green Rating” is a numerical score from 60–99 based on several data points developed in conjunction with the USGBC. Lawrence’s green rating was 83.

According to a recent survey conducted by The Princeton Review, 64 percent of college applicants and their parents indicated information about a school’s commitment to the environment would impact their decision to apply to or attend it.

“Students and their parents are becoming more and more interested in learning about and attending colleges and universities that practice, teach and support environmental responsibility,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president and publisher of The Princeton Review. “We created this guide to help them evaluate how institutions focus on environmental responsibility so that they can make informed decisions as they move through the college assessment and application process.”

Ryan Christopher Broderick, 1989-2010

Broderick, Ryan Christopher

We are sad to share the heartbreaking news that Ryan Broderick ’11, a student on leave from Lawrence University this term, was killed in a hiking accident Friday, April 30, 2010, three days before his 21st birthday.  The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department says Ryan was with five friends who had climbed up the slope called Briceburg Grade, near Yosemite National Park. He slipped on the surface and fell down the cliff. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The Lawrence community is deeply saddened by Ryan’s death, and our prayers and thoughts of sympathy go out to his family and friends,” said Lawrence University President Jill Beck.

Ryan came to Lawrence in 2007 after graduating from El Segundo High School in El Segundo, California.  He was a member of the Lawrence University Writer’s Club, the Philosophy Club and PAWs (People for Animal Welfare).  Ryan traveled many places and touched many lives. He was known for his open-hearted spirit, enthusiastic zest for life and generous nature. His contagious smile and bright eyes will always be in our hearts.

Ryan was born May 3, 1989 in Santa Monica, California. He is survived by his loving parents, Chris and Lisa Broderick, El Segundo, California; and his sisters, Cathy and Nikki.  The funeral service will be Saturday afternoon at El Segundo United Methodist Church. To honor Ryan’s memory, the family asks that any donations be made to Ryan’s Place, c/o Three Springs Community, 59810 Road 225, North Fork, CA 93643, or Food Not Bombs, Donation LA, 2140 E. 7th Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90021.  You are invited to sign the guestbook.

Documentary “The Life Over There,” Director Dan Ollman Featured in Visiting Artist Lecture Series

The latest work of Milwaukee-based independent filmmaker Dan Ollman, “The Life Over There,” will be screened Monday, May 3 as part of the 2009-10 Lawrence University Visiting Artist Lecture Series. The film will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema followed by a question-and-answer session and reception with Ollman. The event is free and open to the public.

The 2009 film examines three different lives from the part of America’s inner cities known simply as “the hood.” Providing rare glimpses into the street life of “the black neighborhood,” Ollman’s movie offers images that are shocking, disheartening and yet still provide a collective hope for a better tomorrow. “The Life Over There” was one of six feature films showcased last fall at the Milwaukee Film Festival.

Ollman also has directed the 2004 documentary “The Yes Men,” which won the Audience Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival and 2006’s “Suffering and Smilling,” a documentary focused on the legendary African singer and activist Fela Kuti, his son Femi, and the impact of their politically charged music.

Ollman’s visit is sponsored by Lawrence University department of art and art history.

Visiting Scarff Professor Featured April 29 in Livestream Interview

George Wyeth, who is spending Term III as Lawrence University’s Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor in the government department, will be the featured guest of The Post-Crescent’s weekly “Newsmaker” livestream interview Thursday, April 29 at 1 p.m. You can watch it here.

A 1973 Lawrence graduate, Wyeth is director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Policy and Program Change Division. He will be discussing his Scarff appointment as well as his work with the EPA, where he tests and promotes innovative approaches to environmental protection as the county transitions to a “green economy.”

Wyeth has played a lead role in overseeing the use of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma strategies to achieve environmental improvement, streamlined EPA’s administrative processes and developed agency strategies to promote the use of sustainable products.