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Lawrence University Graduate Wins Houston Opera Competition

Heidi Stober, a 2000 Lawrence University graduate, won the Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Feb. 12 at the Wortham Theater Center. She received the $12,000 Scott F. Heumann Memorial Award for her first-place performance.

A soprano, Stober was one of 17 singers invited to the semifinal auditions last week from among more than 450 singers who applied for the competition from around the world. She was among seven singers selected to compete in the finals.

Stober, 25, earned a bachelor of music degree cum laude in vocal performance from Lawrence, studying in Professor Ken Bozeman’s voice studio. A native of Waukesha, she is currently the apprentice soprano in the Utah Symphony and Opera Ensemble Program in Salt Lake City.

While at Lawrence, Stober performed the roles of Laetitia in “The Old Maid and the Thief” and the countess in “The Marriage of Figaro.” She performed as Lisa in Milwaukee Opera Theater’s “La Sonnambula” in 2001 before leaving for Boston, where she earned a master of music degree from Boston’s New England Conservatory. While there, she received the John Moriarty Presidential Scholarship and performed the roles of the dew fairy in “Hansel and Gretel” and Laurie in “The Tender Land.”

During the 2002-03 season, she portrayed Yvette in “La Rondine” and Sally in “Die Fledermaus” for the Boston Lyric Opera, earning the BLO’s Stephen Shrestinian Award for Excellence. Stober sang as studio artist with Colorado’s Central City Opera in the summers of 2002 and 2003, covering Nellie in “Summer and Smoke” and singing the roles of first wife and first gossip in the world premiere of “Gabriel’s Daughter.”

Stober returns to Lawrence June 4 as a guest soloist for the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra’s and Concert Choir’s performance of Penderecki’s “Credo.”

U.S. Foreign Policy Scholar Opens Four-Part Lawrence University Lecture Series with Road Map for Global Democratization

Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the prestigious Hoover Institution and professor of political science and sociology at Stanford University, discusses the prospects and potential road map for global democratization in the opening address of Lawrence University’s four-part international studies lecture series, “Democracy, Development and Human Rights.”

Diamond presents, “Can the Whole World Become Democratic” Thursday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

With the U.S.-led effort to build a functioning democracy in Iraq — one of the most formidable and unlikely countries in the world in which to achieve such a goal — as a backdrop, Diamond will explore the scenarios for “universal democracy” to emerge in the coming decades. At present, there are more democracies in the world –approximately 120 or 60 percent of all countries — than ever before. Many of those are poor, non-Christian, non-Western, Muslim-majority countries that have defied the typical democratic template, but have managed to maintain democratic institutions for more than a decade now.

For additional global democratization to occur, Diamond asserts the United States and other established democracies need to design aid policies that promote economic development, focusing on combatting corruption and fostering structures of accountability that ensure public resources are used to advance the overall public welfare. In addition, new forms of pressure should be applied on the world’s remaining dictatorships through strategies of international assistance that reward leaders who govern responsibly while denying resources to the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes.

Diamond will argue the ultimate key to increasing democratic reform globally rests on national humility to forge a collective approach and the steadfastness to see it through over a long period of time.

One of the nation’s leading scholars on democratic development, regime change and U.S. foreign policy affecting democracy abroad, Diamond has written or edited more than 20 books, including “Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation,” and “Promoting Democracy in the 1990s: Actors and Instruments, Issues and Imperatives.”

Diamond, who earned his Ph.D. at Stanford, joined the Hoover Institution, a public policy research center devoted to advanced study of politics, economics and international affairs, in 1985.

Other lectures scheduled in the series include:

February 26 — John McCartney, professor of government and law, Lafayette College, “The Struggle for Human Rights in Africa and the Caribbean,” Wriston Art Center auditorium, 7 p.m.

April 14 — Minxin Pei, senior associate and co-director, China Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Democratizing China: Lessons from East Asia,” Wriston Art Center auditorium, 7 p.m.

April 20 — Jonathan Greenwald, senior fellow at the International Crisis Group, “Prospects for Peace in the Middle East,” Wriston Art Center auditorium, 7 p.m.

The “Democracy, Development and Human Rights” lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of Lawrence’s long time professor of government, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

Lawrence University Hosting Forum for Appleton Mayoral Candidates

The Lawrence University College Democrats, in conjunction with the College Republicans, will host a forum with the three Appleton mayoral candidates Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Lawrence senior Kim Dunlap will serve as moderator of the forum featuring incumbent mayor Tim Hanna and challengers Charlie Goff and William Siebers. In addition to addressing issues focusing on the new College Avenue bridge, riverfront development, diversity in Appleton and parking, the candidates will entertain questions from the audience.

A primary election on Feb. 17 will trim the field to two candidates for the spring election on April 6.

Lawrence University Hosting Summit on Fox, Wolf River Water Quality

U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget Lynn Scarlett, former Wisconsin governor Tony Earl and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Tom Skinner are among the guests scheduled to speak Feb. 12-13 at the “Summit on New Tools for Water Quality in the Fox-Wolf River Basin” at Lawrence University.

Organized by the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, the two-day working conference will bring together stakeholders from the government, business, academic, agricultural and nonprofit sectors to explore how to most effectively integrate emerging regulatory and incentive-based innovations into ongoing efforts to limit nutrient loading into the Fox and Wolf river basins. The lower Fox River basin currently has the highest concentration of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) waters of anywhere in the state.

Skinner, a 1983 graduate of Lawrence, opens the summit Thursday, Feb. 12 at 9:15 p.m. in Lawrence’s Science Hall, Room 102 with the keynote address “Regional/Great Lakes Water Quality.” Skinner has served as the EPA’s Region 5 administrator since 2001 and is responsible for implementing federal environmental programs in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. In addition, he serves as EPA Great Lakes National Program Manager and U.S. Chair of the Binational Executive Committee for the Great Lakes, the main forum for U.S.-Canadian discussions on Great Lakes issues.

On Friday, Feb. 13 at 12 noon in Downer Commons, Scarlett presents “The National Water Policy.” Prior to joining the Bush administration in July 2001, Scarlett served as president of the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, a nonprofit current affairs research and communications organization. She spent 15 years as director of the Reason Public Policy Institute, the policy research division of the foundation, where her research interests focused on environmental, land use and natural resources issues.

Earl will close the summit Friday, Feb. 13 at 2:15 p.m. in Downer Commons with the keynote address “Where Do We Go From Here?” Earl, Wisconsin governor from 1983-87, is a partner with the Quarles & Brady law firm in Madison, handling environmental issues. He also serves as the chair of the board of directors of the Center for Clean Air Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that promotes innovative solutions to environmental and energy problems and spent 15 years as a member of the board of directors of the Great Lakes Protection Fund, which supports collaborative actions to improve the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

“This summit is bringing some highly ranked federal and state water quality experts to Lawrence to discuss new strategies to improve water quality in the Fox River, Green Bay and Lake Michigan,” said George Meyer, former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources secretary and current Scarff memorial visiting professor of environmental studies at Lawrence. “This is a wonderful opportunity for the citizens of the Fox Valley and northeast Wisconsin to offer direct input into policies to improve water quality in their area.”

In addition to several technical sessions, the summit will include panels on regulatory framework and market incentives from both rural and urban perspectives.

Based in Appleton, the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is an independent, non profit organization that identifies issues and advocates effective policies and actions to protect, restore and sustain the water resources of Wisconsin’s Fox-Wolf River Basin. To register for the summit or for a complete schedule of events, contact the FWWA at 920-738-7025 or visit www.FWWA.org.

Works of Unheralded Civil War Poets Discussed in Lawrence University Address

Lawrence University scholar Faith Barrett examines the diverse cross-section of American poetry produced during the American Civil War and the role that poetry played in defining new versions of American identity in the aftermath of the war in an address at Lawrence.

Barrett, an assistant professor of English at Lawrence, presents “Drums Off the Phantom Battlement: American Poets and the Civil War,” Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m.in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus.

The address is the third and final in the lecture series held in conjunction with the traveling national exhibition, “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation,” which is on display in the Lawrence library until March 5. Both the lecture and the exhibition are free and open to the public.

While Civil War-era poetry has been largely neglected by most American literature scholars who have traditionally limited their focus to a few select poets such as Walt Whitman or Herman Melville, writers who explicitly addressed the war in some of their work, Barrett argues the Civil War produced an extraordinarily rich and interesting body of poetry, including works by women, African Americans and poets who chose not to publish.

In her address, Barrett will discuss and share works from some of the less well-known writers of that era, including Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, a Kentucky-born poet who moved North at the start of the war, George Moses Horton, an African American poet who published two volumes of poems while he was a slave in North Carolina and Obadiah Ethelbert Baker, who wrote several volumes of journals and poetry while serving in the Second Iowa Cavalry. She will examine both the political differences that divided these writers and the ways in which poetry served as a vital political function of the day.

Barrett, who joined the Lawrence English department in 2003, is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology “To Fight Aloud, Is Very Brave: American Poetry of the Civil War” (University of Massachusetts Press). The author of the 2001 poetry chapbook, “Invisible Axis,” Barrett earned her doctorate in comparative literature at the University of California-Berkeley.

Celebrated! Lawrence University’s Annual Spring Festival Ending

For the first time in nearly 30 years, Lawrence University will not host its annual Celebrate! spring festival of the arts.

Citing a growing student interest in other campus events in the spring along with the increasing difficulty in recruiting Lawrence students to serve as volunteers to plan and work the festival, the student committee charged with organizing Celebrate! has decided to cancel the event. Diminishing attendance in recent years was also a factor in the decision.

“We’re extremely proud of the fact we’ve been able to host a community-wide event of this scope and quality for all these years,” said Paul Shrode, associate dean of students for activities at Lawrence. “But for a variety of reasons, students have gradually shifted their attention away from Celebrate! in recent years and have put their energies and interests into other activities. From its inception, Celebrate! has been a student-initiated and student-organized campus event and we respect their decision to focus on other activities that they believe better serve the current interests of the student body.”

Celebrate! planning committee chair Sandra Marks, a Lawrence junior, observed that while the festival has undergone many changes through its history, “The past few years have been particularly challenging with the advent of the mid-term reading period (an academic period that coincides with Celebrate! designed to allow students concentrated time to focus on their coursework), poor weather, the increase and growth in other campus spring events and competition from other area festivals and fairs.”

“Planning for Celebrate! 2004 began in the fall of 2003, with meetings centered around changing the festival to meet the interests voiced by students through a survey,” added Marks. “Unfortunately, with limited student involvement, lost revenues and in the face of declining community support, it proved difficult if not impossible to continue the event.”

Celebrate! began in 1975 as a successor to the Renaissance Fair, a campus event that featured students dressed in Elizabethan costume. Traditionally held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day each May, Celebrate! offered a variety of live musical entertainment, dozens of arts and crafts booths, activities for children and an assortment of food vendors. At its peak, as many as 25,000 people and more would roam the Lawrence campus during the day-long festival, but in recent years attendance had fallen to about 7,500.

In recent years other student-organized spring events, including the Earth Day festival, which has taken on a broader family-oriented theme, and Shack-a-thon, a fund-raising event that seeks to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless with proceeds going to the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, have grown in scope and student interest.

“While it is regrettable in many ways, Celebrate! is a campus tradition that has simply run its course,” said Shrode. “While Celebrate! is no longer, I want to reassure the Fox Valley community that Lawrence will continue its involvement in other local events that utilize the campus such as Art-off-the-Park and Octoberfest.”

Lawrence University V-Day to perform Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues

V-Day Lawrence University, now in its third year, is pleased to announce that Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues will be performed again this year, on Friday and Saturday, February 13th and 14th, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 15th at 5:30 p.m. in Harper Hall, a theatre in the university’s Music-Drama Center (420 E. College Avenue). Tickets are $5.00 for students, $8.00 for adults and may be purchased in advance through the Lawrence University Box Office (920-832-6749) or at the door. Through the production, V-Day hopes to generate awareness, raise funds to end violence against women, as well as provide a night of entertainment.

Sophomore Alissa Melczer, originally from Evanston, IL, makes her directing debut at Lawrence University with this year’s Vagina Monologues production. “I want to make the show a more universal representation of femininity,” says Melczer. In addition to the work of the actresses, this year’s show will incorporate a variety of pieces of art by members of the Lawrence community.

Proceeds from the production will go to several charities, around the Fox Cities, the United States, and the world. The primary recipient this year will be the Fox Valley Sexual Assault Crisis Center, with additional proceeds going to Men Can Stop Rape and the community of Juarez, Mexico, where over three hundred women have been abducted, abused or murdered over the past few years. “Violence against women is a widespread problem,” Lawrence V-Day President Sadie Weber states. “We hope that our efforts will not only increase awareness among the Lawrence community, but in the Fox Valley area as well.”

Lawrence University Theatre to present Goldini’s Il Campiello

The Lawrence University Theatre Arts Department is pleased to announce its presentation of Carlo Goldini’s 18th Century comedy, Il Campiello. The performances will take place on February 19-21 at 8:00 p.m. and February 22nd at 3:00 p.m. All four performances will take place in Cloak Theatre, a black box theatre in the university’s Music-Drama Center (420 E. College Avenue). Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students and seniors, and may be purchased through the Lawrence University Box Office at 920-832-6749.

Set in Venice, Il Campiello, which may be translated as “little square,” tells the story of three young women along with two of their mothers who wish to marry. The play follows a commedia dell’arte form, using primarily stock characters, and was originally an improvised performance based on an outline of action. Lawrence University Conservatory of Music student Ben Klein, originally from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, composed the music for the production.

Lawrence University Main Hall Forum Discusses Issues of National Identity in Latin America

Lawrence University associate professor of Spanish and Italian Patricia Vilches examines issues of national and cultural identity in a Lawrence Main Hall Forum.

Vilches presents “Is it Your Border or Mine,” Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 201. The event is free and open to the public.

Vilches will discuss examples of modern Latin American cinema and literature that deal with physical as well as metaphysical border issues and the cultural identity issues that can ensue. Included in her discussion will be a look at “borders” that result when people return to a country after many years away, such as Chileans who lived in the United States during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime then returned to Chile after the dictatorship ended. Among the works Vilches will examine are the films “El jardin del Eden” by Maria Novaro and “El Norte” by Gregory Navas and the book “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez.

A specialist in Latin American culture and literature, Vilches joined the Lawrence faculty in 2000. She earned her doctorate in romance languages and literatures at the University of Chicago.

“Keys to Prosperity,” Lawrence University celebrates Black Heritage

Lawrence University commemorates African-American History and Culture with its 3rd Annual program entitled “Keys to Prosperity.” The event, which replaced Lawrence’s celebration of Kwanzaa, will be held on Saturday, February 7, 2004 in the Buchanan Kiewitt Recreation Center on the Lawrence campus. Doors open at 5:00 pm with dinner and the program starting at 5:30. Tickets are available from the Lawrence University Box Office (920-832-6749) for $10 for adults and $4 for children under 12, and $12.00 for adults at the door.

This year’s program will feature a meat or vegetarian entrée and will feature student presentations of dramatic scenes and special guest speaker Mr. James Harris, a motivational and cultural speaker from Milwaukee, WI. Rod Bradley, Assistant Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs and advisor to Lawrence’s Black Organization of Students says, “The program will be based on some of the ‘keys’ that have helped black culture achieve various levels of prosperity.”