Lawrence University

Tag: Lawrence University

“Axis of Evil” Focus of Opening Address in Lawrence University International Studies Lecture Series

While the country focuses on the continuing struggle to bring democracy to Iraq, Geoffrey Kemp, director of regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C., will examine the potential dangers posed by Iran, Syria and Libya in the opening address of Lawrence University’s three-part international studies lecture series “Pariah States and Policy Responses.”

Kemp presents “The Axis of Evil: The Current Membership” Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium, 613 E. College Ave., Appleton. The event is free and open to the public.

Kemp will discuss the rationale used by the Bush administration to place Iraq, Iran and North Korea on an “axis of evil” while ignoring other possible candidates such as Syria and Libya. He also will contrast Iran with Libya, a country that has basically received a clean pass by renouncing its weapons of mass destruction program, outline the dilemma the United States and the European Union face in challenging Iran and explain why this is a potentially dangerous confrontation.

Iran has recently drawn the ire of the international community by threatening to block inspections of its nuclear facilities, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — described by Wisconsin U.S. Senator Russ Feingold as “one of the scariest persons in the world” — insist are solely for the production of nuclear energy.

On Jan. 13, Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that if his country was confronted by the United Nations Security Council, it would stop cooperating with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has been voluntarily allowing short-notice IAEA inspections since 2003.

A native of Great Britain, Kemp began his career as a research associate for the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London before moving to the United States 1967. He worked in the U.S. Defense Department’s Policy Planning and Program Analysis and Evaluation offices in the 1970s, contributing to studies on U.S. security policy and options for Southwest Asia. In 1981, he joined the first Reagan administration, serving in the White House as a special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff.

Prior to joining the Nixon Center in 1995, Kemp was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he served as director of the Middle East Arms Control Project.

He is the author of numerous articles on foreign policy challenges, particularly those in the Middle East, including “Forever Enemies? American Policy and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” “Europe, Iraq and the War on Terrorism,” and “Stopping the Iranian Bomb” which appeared in The National Interest in 2003.

Kemp earned his bachelor and master’s degrees from Oxford University and holds a Ph.D. In political science from M.I.T.

Other scheduled speakers in this year’s lecture series include:

• February 21— Lee Feinstein, deputy director of studies and senior fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and International Law, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C, “A Duty to Prevent.”

• March 1 — Jack DuVall, president and founding director of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, Washington, D.C., “The Right to Rise Up: People Power and the Virtues of Civic Disruption.”

The “Pariah States and Policy Responses” lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of long-time Lawrence government professor Mojmir Povolny, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

Olympic Games — Then and Now — Examined in Archaeological Institute of America Lecture

With the XXth Winter Olympics set to begin in Turin, Italy in less than a month, Lawrence University Hiram A. Jones Professor of Classics Daniel Taylor offers a historic perspective on the celebrated games and explain why the Olympics are “not just another sporting event” in an Archaeological Institute of America lecture at Lawrence University.

Taylor presents “The Olympic Games 776 B.C. — 2006 A.D.” Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public and includes a reception with the speaker following the address.

Taylor’s slide-illustrated presentation will tour the ancient Olympic stadium as well as the first modern one, introduce gods and goddesses and provide a glimpse of ancient Greek athletes in action as well as the exploits of modern Olympic heroes. He also will compare and contrast the ancient and modern games and offer philosophical reflections on the nature of athletic competition.

Considered one of the world’s leading scholars on Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), ancient Rome’s most prolific and authoritative language scientist, Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree in classics from Lawrence and his Ph.D. in classics from the University of Washington before joining the Lawrence faculty in 1974.

He has been the recipient of two research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and been cited by the American Philological Association with its National Award for Excellence in Teaching the Classics.

Lawrence University Environmental Studies Lecture Series Examines “Green” Architecture

The emerging field of “green building,” with its emphasis on resource-efficient methods of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance and even demolition will be the focus of a three-part Lawrence University environmental studies lecture series.

Nathan Engstrom, program director of Madison-based Green Built Home, opens the series Thursday, Jan. 19 with the address “Better Building..Better Living…Better World!” The presentation, at 7:30 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus, is free and open to the public.

Engstrom will discuss the concept of green building and why it is becoming increasingly important. He also will provide an overview of Green Built Home and Green Built Remodeled Home programs and discuss ways individuals and developers can incorporate green building into their future projects.

Green Built Home is a partnership program with the Madison Area Builders Association. It promotes green building practices by certifying new homes and remodeling projects that meet sustainable building and energy standards. It encourages sustainable community development by promoting building practices and products that reduce the ecological footprint of new home construction.

While it is estimated a green building typically costs 2% to 3% more initially than one built with conventional construction methods, those costs are eventually recovered because green buildings are less expensive to operate, saving money on energy and water consumption. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, since then President Clinton announced plans in 1993 to make the White House a model of efficiency and waste reduction, the “greening of the White House” has created $300,000 in annual savings and led to similar efforts in other government buildings.

Engstrom has directed the Green Built Home program since 2003. He previously served as an energy services advisor fot he Wisconsin Energy Initiative 2 program and was is the co-author of a chapter in the book “Sustainable Architectures.” He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and environmental studies from Northland College and a master’s degree in sustainable design from the University of Texas.

Other talks scheduled in the series include:

• Feb. 2 — John Weyenberg, director of the Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity, “The ReStore Recycled Building Materials Project.”

• March 2 — Judy Corbett, co-founder of Village Homes, Davis, Calif., “Beyond Green Buildings: Planning for Sustainable Neighborhoods and Regions.”

The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in 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.

Sculpture and Prints Featured in Exhibition Opening Jan. 20 at Wriston Art Center Galleries

Humorous sculpture, unsolicited suggestions for public art and whimsical prints will be featured in the latest exhibition at Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center galleries. The three-gallery exhibition opens Jan. 20 and runs through March 12.

Lawrence Assistant Professor of Art Rob Neilson presents “A Face in Time” in the Kohler Gallery and “Unrequested Proposals” in the Hoffmaster Gallery. Neilson will open the exhibition with a discussion of his work as a sculptor and public installation artist on Friday, Jan. 20 at 6 p.m. The address is free and open to the public with a reception to follow.

“A Face in Time” will include a series of sculptural self portraits which express a humorous commentary on otherwise familiar childhood and historical faces and characters, including Ernie from “Sesame Street,” John F. Kennedy and an “Irish” Buddha.
In “Unrequested Proposals,” Neilson showcases models and computer generated images of public art monuments he has proposed — tongue-in-cheek — such as a replacement for the Washington Monument, an artistic addition to Mao Tse-tung’s tomb in Tiananmen Square and an addition for St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

A native of Detroit, Neilson joined the Lawrence art department in 2003. He works with a variety of materials in composing sculpture and public art, including rubber, plastics and other exotic materials. His work has been exhibited in galleries and installations around the country. Last year Neilson installed a six-foot-tall, two-headed rubber ducky in front of Chicago’s Navy Pier.

In addition, he has received numerous public art commissions, among them works for the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Metro Transit Authority and the Long Beach Transit Authority, for which will he construct a steel sculpture of a figurative male stepping onto a bus while holding an armload of books. The sculpture will be erected at the transportation station in front of the Mark Twain branch of the Long Beach Public Library. Later this year, Neilson will spend five months as an artist-in-residence at the Kohler Company in Kohler.

He studied art at the College for Creative Studies and earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of North Carolina.
The Leech Gallery will host “The History of Printmaking: A Series of Prints by Warrington Colescott.” Featuring brilliant color and fantastical composition, each whimsical print in the 11-set series depicts an important event in the history of printmaking, beginning with the 15th century.

Colescott, a California transplant who taught art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for nearly 40 years, began the “History of Printmaking” series in the late 1970s and continued to work on it through the early 1980s. The 11 prints in the exhibit are part of the Wriston Art Gallery Permanent Collection and were donated by Dr. Robert A. Dickens, ‘63.

Wriston Art Center hours are Tuesday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Saturday-Sunday from noon -4:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays. For more information, call 920-832-6621 or visit http://www.lawrence.edu/news/wriston/.

Dance Marathon Craze Revisited in Wild Space Dance Company Performance at Lawrence University

The dance marathon craze of the 1930s will be recreated when Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company performs “Physical Evidence” Friday, Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Stansbury Theatre.

Tickets for the performance, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, can be purchased at the Lawrence University Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749.

Described as a “high-energy tribute to a bygone era” in a review by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Physical Evidence” follows determined dance contestants and their quest for fame and fortune. Derby races, juggling and endurance stunts create a vibrant backdrop for Wild Space’s inventive choreography.

This will be only the second performance of an updated version of “Physical Evidence,” following its revival show last November in Milwaukee. The biggest hit ever staged in Wild Space’s history, a slightly different version of “Physical Evidence” originally premiered in the spring of 2004.

“Our performance is inspired by the frenzy and challenge of the dance marathons and what drove people to test the endurance of their body, minds and souls,” said Debra Lowen, artistic director of Wild Space, which began a company-in-residence appointment at Lawrence in 2000. “Characters are drawn from real-life contestants in a 1931 Milwaukee marathon, with each company member adding personal touches.”

In telling the contestants’ story, “Physical Evidence” goes back in time — literally and figuratively. The 10-dancer performance begins at the end of the marathon, when the winner is selected and the remaining contestants go home. An emcee connects the retrograde narrative with a running commentary, much like the original marathon hosts. The emcee also engages the audience, which becomes the spectators for the fictional marathon.

Popular during the Depression, dance marathons attracted participants who physically fit, eager to win and willing to adapt their life story to the entertainment the promoters were selling. The marathons offered the spectacle of weary dancers pushed to their limit, rivalry and romance — both real and concocted — and the survival of the fittest. Sprinkled throughout the long dancing sessions were vaudeville comics, specialty acts and weddings that happened over and over again from town to town.

But it was the contestants’ struggle to survive that captivated audiences for more than a decade. Dance marathon participants, to a certain degree, were the forerunners of today’s reality entertainment “stars” on such programs as ”Survivor,” “The Amazing Race,” “American Idol” and even professional wrestling. In dance marathons, everyday life became celebrity and celebrity shaped the reality of the participants.

Wild Space’s appearance also will feature a bonus performance of excerpts from company member Katie Sopoci’s recent graduate concert. Spirited along by several of Meryn Cadell’s ingenious vocal poems, this quirky, physical romp follows one woman and her many encounters through a life interrupted by musings, misfortunes and mischief. One piece, “I wish I was a cat,” highlights the best of Spoci’s unique, rigorously physical choreography, liquid phrasing and her animalistic to meticulous movements. Sopoci is a master of fine arts candidate at UW-Milwaukee.

Hailed as “richly imaginative and witty” by the New York Times, Wild Space Dance Company was founded in 1986. Known for site-specific works and artistic collaborations, Wild Space merges contemporary dance with music, unusual environments and visual art in its innovative performances. In addition to Lawrence, it is a company-in-residence at Milwaukee’s Lincoln Center Middle School of the Arts.

“Chaos or Commuity?” Theme of Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Lawrence University

“Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” will be the theme of the 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Monday, January 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel. The celebration, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by Toward Community: Unity in Diversity and Lawrence University.

“The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration is an opportunity for both the Lawrence and surrounding communities to honor the work of Dr. King and to collectively share in the understanding of the challenges we face today,” said Rod Bradley, assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs. “The celebration highlights the importance of awareness, commitment and diversity as we strive to help improve human rights and civic engagement.”

Eugene Kane, a long-time columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, will deliver the celebration’s keynote address. A native of Philadelphia, Kane is a graduate of Temple University and a former John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. His thrice-a-week column has been recognized with several national and local journalism awards, including the National Headliner Award, the Sigma Delta Chi Award and the National Association of Black Journalists Award.

In addition to Kane’s address, singer Ken Daniel, a 1991 Lawrence graduate, will perform during the celebration. Daniel, who has toured nationally and performed locally numerous times, directs a music ministry in the Milwaukee area that administers through heartfelt songs of worship, praise and thanksgiving.

Toward Community will present its annual Jane LaChapelle McCarty Unity in Diversity Award to an area individual who has made great strides in bringing different people in the community together.

The celebration also will include winning essays written and read by area youth who reflected on Dr. King’s dream and the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the African American national anthem, will be sung. The celebration will conclude with a reception for all in attendance.

In keeping with the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, members of the Lawrence community will be participating in a variety of volunteer opportunities in the area, including Pioneer Village, a retirement living facility, the Salvation Army and the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley, Inc..

WLFM Showcases New Studio in Community Open House

The public is invited to a community open house of the new studios of WLFM, Lawrence University’s campus radio, Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. WLFM staff members will offer tours of the remodeled facility and give demonstrations of some of the newly installed equipment. WLFM converted from an over-the-air FM signal to an all web-based broadcast format last fall. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the station’s founding.

As part of the open house, a concert featuring the Lawrence student band 8bitbEtty, the Chicago-based band Piglet and the three-member group El Oso from Milwaukee will perform in Cloak Theatre beginning at 9 p.m. The WLFM studios are located on the lower level of the south end of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave.

“Language of Angels” Production Selected for Regional Theatre Competition

With a stage production, five individual actors and two designers, the Lawrence University theatre arts department will be exceptionally well represented at the upcoming regional competition of the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival Jan. 10-15, 2006 at Illinois State University in Bloomington, Ill.

Lawrence’s Term I production of Naomi Iizuka’s “Language of Angels,” under the direction of Kathy Privatt, associate professor of theatre arts, was one of 12 plays selected for performances from among 58 entries in the five-state Region III, which includes colleges and universities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

“Language of Angels” is the second Lawrence production in six years to be selected for a ACTF regional performance, joining “Translations” in 2000. The eight member cast will perform the play three times at the festival — all on the same day: Friday, Jan. 13 at 12 noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Nearly 75 productions from colleges and universities nationwide will participate as finalists in eight regional competitions in January. Four regional competition winners will be invited to the national finals in April and perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“This invitation to perform at the festival is really an honor, particularly since I chose this show as an artistic stretch with opportunities for collaboration,” said Privatt. “It’s the first production I’ve directed that could be chosen for the festival, so to receive an invitation the first time around is certainly gratifying.”

The ACTF program was founded in 1969 to encourage, recognize and celebrate the finest and most exciting work produced in college and university theatre programs and provide opportunities for participants to develop their theatre skills.

Nearly 1,000 productions and 20,000 students nationwide annually participate in the competition, which doesn’t differentiate by school size or institutional type, which means Lawrence’s production was selected over some from much larger universities, including some with graduate theatre departments.

“Competing successfully against schools with MFA’s certainly gives credit to the training and artistic work we undertake here at Lawrence,” said Privatt. “Honors like this one also suggest that we have a solid sense of who we are and what we do well as artists. An invitation to perform at the festival is certainly an affirmation of the truly magical theatre that happens when Lawrence faculty, staff and students work together.”

Last year’s ACTF Region III competition attracted a record crowd of 1,646, the most of any region in the 38-year history of the festival. That record could be eclipsed this year, with attendance projected to top 1,700.
In addition to the production as a whole, seven Lawrence students have been invited to participate in individual categories at the ACTF regional competition.

Three members of the “Language of Angels” cast — seniors Zach Johnson (Racine) and Julie Silver (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and sophomore Asher Perlman (Madison) — along with seniors Siri Hellerman and Melissa Law, who performed in last spring’s production of “First Lady,” were selected for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Competition.

They will be among more than 300 student actors who will perform individual scenes of their choosing before a panel of judges. Two regional winners each will receive $500 scholarships and advance to the national finals in Washington, D.C. where two national winners will be chosen and awarded $2,500 scholarships. The Irene Ryan Scholarship was established in the will of the late actor, best known for her role as Granny on the TV hit show “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Also from the “Language of Angels” production, senior Brian Teoh (Katy, Texas) was one of 19 students chosen for the sound design competition while sophomore Jes Vittitoe (Missouri Valley, Iowa) will be among 13 students participating in the make-up design competition.

“The whole festival is an educational candy store for faculty and students alike,” Privatt said. “It offers opportunities to connect with other colleagues, see their best performances and learn from them in workshops in a focused setting. It’s truly an exceptional experience.”

First performed in 2000 in San Francisco, “Language of Angels” follows a group of working-class friends who are haunted by the disappearance of a young girl in a backwoods cave in North Carolina. The small-town tragedy provides a vehicle for a chilling mystery of fate and redemption.

Other productions invited to the regional competition include: “Side by Side by Sondheim,” Valparaiso University; “Homebody/Kabul,” University of Toledo; “Phenomenon of Decline,”Kalamazoo College; “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” Central Michigan University; “Crumbs from the Table of Joy,” University of Wisconsin – Madison; “Red Herring,” University of Wisconsin – Green Bay; “Leavesakes,” Indiana State University; “Urinetown,” Oakland University; “Life Sentence,” University of Wisconsin – Whitewater; “Anatomy of Gray,” University of Evansville; “Proof,” Ashland University.

Lawrence University Musicians Finish 1-2 at State Chamber Orchestra Competition

A pair of Lawrence University musicians claimed the top two places at the 20th annual Concord Chamber Orchestra’s concerto competition Dec. 17 in Glendale.

Soprano saxophonist Sara Kind, a 2005 Lawrence University graduate and current student of Steven Jordheim in the Lawrence Academy of Music, was named the competition’s winner, while senior pianist Alvina Tan was named runner-up. Tan studies in the piano studio of Anthony Padilla.

This year’s competition featured 15 string, woodwind, brass and percussion players. It is open to musicians 25 years of age or younger who are residents of Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin high school, college or university.

A 2001 graduate of Oshkosh West High School, Kind received $500 for her winning audition and will perform “Fantasy for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra” by Hector Villa-Lobos in concert with the Concord Chamber Orchestra Wednesday, March 8 and Saturday, March 11.

Kind is the fourth Lawrence student in the past five years to win the CCO competition. Burcu Goker was last year’s winner, while Julien Poncet and Charlotte Maclet won the competition in 2002 and 2001, respectively. Leslie Boulin-Raulet was the CCO’s competition’s runner up in 2003.

Based in Wauwatosa, the Concord Chamber Orchestra features volunteer adult players from various professions and age groups. It was founded in 1975 and performs under the direction of conductor Jamin Hoffman.

Lawrence University Awarded $100,000 Grant for Study of its Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Lawrence University has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the New York City-based Teagle Foundation to support an assessment study of its new postdoctoral fellows teaching program.

Lawrence was one of five institutions nationally the Teagle Foundation recognized with a grant through its Working Groups in Liberal Education Program, which supports projects designed to generate fresh thinking about how to strengthen liberal education.

Announced in June, the Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program provides recent Ph.D. recipients with mentoring relationships, teaching opportunities and research collaborations to better prepare them for professorial careers at selective liberal arts colleges.

The program also seeks to enrich student learning, more quickly introduce the newest research techniques being pursued at distinguished graduate programs to the Lawrence curriculum and its student research programs and further enhance Lawrence’s extensive offerings of one-on-one learning experiences for students.

The $100,000 Teagle Grant will support a working group of faculty, staff, students and administrators who, over the course of the next 20 months, will study the fellows program and assess the degree to which it is achieving its intended goals.

The group will analyze data gathered through a variety of methods, including self-assessment of teaching and scholarship, video and in-class observations, course evaluations, surveys and other reports. The results, when compiled, will be widely disseminated through a variety of means, including a webpage dedicated to the project as well as a conference that Lawrence will host.

“The results of this study are expected to provide beneficial information not only on the Lawrence Fellows program, but be helpful to postdoctoral fellowship programs conducted at other institutions as well,” said Bill Skinner, Lawrence’s director of research administration, who will oversee the study. “The impact of postdoctoral programs has rarely been assessed and this study will place Lawrence in a unique position to demonstrate the role liberal arts colleges can play in preparing the future professoriate of higher education.”

Eight fellows were selected as the program’s first appointments and joined the Lawrence faculty in September for the start of the 2005-06 academic year. They were chosen from a pool of more than 240 applicants, who pursued their doctorate or terminal degree at top-ranked research institutions in the United States, as well as Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Lawrence fellows are appointed for two years, during which time they teach courses, offer individualized instruction opportunities to students and continue their professional activities as scholars and or performers. A goal of the program is to have up to 20 fellows on campus in any given year.

“Liberal education should provide students with the intellectual tools they need as they struggle with life’s big questions about themselves, their morals and values and their place in society,” said W. Robert Connor, president of the Teagle Foundation, in announcing the five Working Groups in Liberal Education Program grants. “We hope the ideas that emerge from these projects will help strengthen liberal education not only on these campuses but at other institutions as well, so that all students in the liberal arts get the help they need in answering these big questions.”

The Teagle Foundation ( www.teaglefoundation.org) was established in 1944 by the late Walter C. Teagle, longtime president and later chairman of the board of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), now the Exxon Mobil Corporation. The foundation supports intellectual and financial resources to ensure that today’s students have access to challenging, wide-ranging and enriching college educations through broad and intellectually stimulating curricula that engage students in active learning, explore questions of deep social and personal significance, set clear goals and systematically measure progress toward them.