Campus Events

Category: Campus Events

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: Bruce Machart and Matthew Batt

As part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, Bruce Machart and Matthew Batt will present on the Lawrence University campus on Friday, April 11 at 4pm in the Pusey Room in the Warch Campus Center.

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Bruce Machart is the author of the award-winning novel, The Wake of Forgiveness (2010), and the collection of short stories, Men in the Making (2011), both published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Reviewers have called The Wake of Forgiveness mesmerizing, evocative, and a dazzling tale of retribution, redemption, and morality. The novel won the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Prize for fiction and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association’s Reading the West Prize. It was also named to several “top ten title” lists for 2010.

Both of Machart’s books are available in the Mudd, and more information on the author can be found on his website and the Fox Cities Book Festival author page.

Matthew Batt is the author of Sugarhouse, tumblr_n3f5nrKijx1rhgrsso1_500a nonfiction account of renovating a Salt Lake City crack house and his life along with it. He’s the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation, and his work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and has lately been finishing work on a collection of essays and a novel set in Milwaukee.

Sugarhouse can be found in the Mudd Library, and more information on Batt can be found on the Fox Cities Book festival author page.

 

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: Shawn Sheehy

As part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, Shawn Sheehy will present on the Lawrence University campus on Thursday, April 10 at 4:30 in the Wriston Art Center.
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Shawn Sheehy is a pop-up book artist whose work is a unique blending of image, message, and structure. He combines paper engineering with his interest in biology and cultural evolution to produce limited-edition pop-up books. His artist books are inspired by the dynamic ecologies that operate in both wild and cultured environments. Counting on the Marsh: a Nighttime Book of Numbers, for example, is a book with a marsh environment for its setting, contains intricately constructed pop-ups, and uses the simple text of a counting story — all to create a work of art and science.

Sheehy’s work is featured in 500 Handmade Books Vol. 2, which can be found in the Mudd Library (Call Number: Z246 .A14 2013).

Visit Sheehy’s website and the Fox Cities Book Festival author page to see more images and information about his work!

 

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: David Rhodes

JewelweedThe seventh annual Fox Cities Book Festival will take place in just a few short weeks. This festival celebrates the joy of literature by connecting readers with local, regional, and nationally-known authors. Book festival authors will be speaking at locations all over the Fox Cities during this week-long festival. This year, David Rhodes, Shawn Sheehy, Bruce Machart, and Matthew Batt will be speaking on the Lawrence University campus.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing a bit about these authors and their works.

David Rhodes, author of Jewelweed, will be speaking in the Warch Campus Center Cinema on Monday, April 7th at 6:30 P.M.

David Rhodes has received national acclaim for all of his novels, the most recent of which is Jewelweed (2013). This story centers on the small town of Word, Wisconsin, and a number of characters who are trying to come to grips with their problems and make their way in the community. A Booklist review described the work as a “many-faceted novel of profound dilemmas, survival, and gratitude.” A Chicago Tribune review called it “dazzlingly alive” and noted Rhodes is “a master storyteller of real people who live in our small towns.”

For more information about David Rhodes, take a look at his author page on the Fox Cities Book Festival website.

The Mudd Library owns a number of Rhodes’ works, including Jewelweed. Take a look at our library catalog.

What’s So Great About the Con’s New Steinway Piano?

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Photo courtesy of Liz Boutelle

A generous and unexpected gift of 1958 Lawrence graduate, Kim Hiett Jordan, allowed the Lawrence Conservatory’s keyboard department to purchase a new Steinway D Concert Grand Piano. You may have read about it on the Lawrence blog.

The piano, which has been placed in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is one of the most popular models of Steinway concert pianos. It was carefully chosen by three of the Con’s keyboard department’s members- Catherine Kautsky, Anthony Padilla, and Michael Mizrahi (pictured)- who traveled to New York City to hand-pick precisely the right instrument.

Being one of the most popular piano manufacturers with a reputation for high-quality instruments, Steinway & Sons is not an unfamiliar name.  However, for someone who lacks more specific knowledge regarding musical instruments, the importance of this newly-acquired instrument may not be entirely evident. Luckily, the Mudd has plenty of resources for those wishing to brush up on their Steinway knowledge.  We’ve compiled a few sources to look into and in addition, a brief summary of what makes a Steinway great:

In 1836, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg assembled his first piano in his home in Seesen, Germany, thus beginning the prosperous piano company we know today as Steinway & Sons.  In 1850, he made a bold decision to sell the company and move to America with his family due to the economic recession in Germany; America offered free-enterprise and new and different manufacturing techniques.  The Steinwegs worked for a variety of American piano manufacturers before coming back together in 1853, Americanizing their name, and officially establishing the Steinway & Sons company.

There was a strong emphasis on advertising and marketing for the company, and the construction of Steinway Hall New York City’s Union Square in 1864 allowed for concerts of world-renowned pianists performing on Steinway pianos.  “The Instrument of the Immortals” became the company’s slogan for nearly a century after a young copywriter discovered that Steinways had been used by nearly every great pianist and most of the great composers since Wagner.  However, many consider the pianos manufactured between the two World Wars to be the prime models for the company, and thus, the 1920s and 30s were dubbed Steinway’s “Golden Age.”

As for the Steinway Model D, the piano was originally designed in 1883.  And amazingly, never had a formal blueprint- the specifications for the twelve thousand part piano were handed down from each generation of foremen to the next.  Construction of Steinway Concert Grands takes nearly a year to complete, even today.  But this meticulous craftsmanship has given it a reputation that it certainly lives up to.  Steinway pianos have become famous for their ability to project more sound and project it farther- the “Steinway sound” encapsulates a full, dramatic, powerful bass all the way to a clear, singing treble, making the Model D a prime example of an exquisitely crafted instrument.

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Sources from the Mudd Library:

Dolge, Alfred. Pianos and Their Makers: A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano from the Monochord to the Concert Grand Player Piano. New York: Dover Publications, 1972. Print.  (Call No.: ML652 .D6 1972)

Hafner, Katie. A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano. New York: Bloomsburg, 2008. Print.  (Call No.: ML417 .G68 H28 2008)

Lenehan, Michael. “The Quality of the Instrument.” The Atlantic Aug. 1982: 32-58. Print.

Finals Stress Relief in the Library

We are happy to report that a variety of finals stress relief options will be available for Lawrence students in the library this weekend.

Our friends from around campus will be hosting the following stress relief events on the first floor of the library:

  • Kappa Alpha Theta will be selling cupcakes to raise money for CASA of the Fox Cities:
    Saturday, noon-6pm
  • Asia-A will be encouraging origami as a study break:
    Saturday, 7-10pm
  • The Wellness Committee will be bringing in chair massage and will have healthy snacks:
    Saturday, 1-3pm

We’ve set up a couple of stress relief options ourselves, available during all open library hours over reading period and finals:

  • Cut out a paper snowflake to decorate our tree. We have templates of Anthony Herrera’s awesome Star Wars snowflakes, Doctor Who TARDIS and Cybermen, as well as some more traditional designs. We also have plain paper available for those who’d like to exhibit their own creativity. The paper and tree are located to the right of the circulation desk.
  • Create with LEGO bricks! We’ve set out a collection of LEGO bricks on a table in front of the reference desk for some fun creativity time.

OF course, from group study rooms to individual carrels, the library has whatever type of study space you need.

President Warch Convocation Recordings Available for Streaming

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President Rik Warch’s convocation addresses are well-known for their humor, wit, and poignancy. Professor Mike Hittle has said, “Rik’s words clearly energized Lawrence.” In honor of President Warch, and to make his words more accessible, we have begun making audio recordings of his convocations available to be streamed from Lux, Lawrence’s institutional repository.

President Warch’s convocation speeches are the beginning of a larger collection of Presidential addresses that will be collected and made available in Lux.

Interested in a more extensive collection of President Warch’s convocation addresses? The Mudd Library has multiple copies of his book, A matter of style :reflections on liberal education, Lawrence University Matriculation Convocation Addresses, 1979-2003. This book can also be purchased from the campus store, KK’s Apparel and Gifts, in store and online. A Kindle edition of this books is also available.

The Year of The Beatles at the Mudd Library

Year of The Beatles displayIf you’ve visited the Mudd this past week or so, you may have noticed a semi-permanent exhibit titled “The Year of the Beatles.”  This coming year we will document the 50th anniversary of the rise of the Beatles’ fame in the United States beginning in the fall of 1963 and ending September 4, 1964 with their first and only appearance in Wisconsin.

Artifacts will include reproductions of documents, such as the program from the 1957 garden fete of St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool, the studio log book documenting the Quarrymen’s first professional recording in 1958, as well as contemporary items, including 45s and LPs and Beatles memorabilia and also scrapbooks complied in 1964.  There will also be some groovy events on campus such as speakers, presentations, and maybe even a trivia contest.  Keep watching for updates!

We’ll be documenting each of the library’s exhibits all year long on our Year of the Beatles Flickr photoset. We’ve also created a Beatles Pinterest board, containing images of Beatles-related materials available at the Mudd Library.

New Abraham Lincoln Exhibit at the Mudd Library

Abraham Lincoln exhibitThe Mudd Library is currently hosting a new Lincoln exhibit entitled, Abraham Lincoln: A Man of His Time, A Man for All Times.  This exhibit focuses on the life of President Lincoln, following his path from a self-educated young man, to President of the United States and the challenges he faced while President.

This exhibit came to us from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To learn more about it, see the Gilder Lehrman page– or better yet- come to the second floor of the Mudd Library and see it for yourself! It was installed in the Mudd on October 8th, and will be up through November 5th.

Summer 2013 Coffeehouse Series

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Susan Goeden shares one of her favorites, The Good Earth by Pearl Buck at the 2012 summer reads coffeehouse session.

This Wednesday, July 10, marks the first of our summer 2013 coffeehouse sessions. Join us, and share your favorite summer read. Don’t have a suggestion you’d like share? Come to hear the Mudd Library staff share our favorites! Coffee and delicious refreshments, as well as fun bookmarks, will be available for all attendees. The session will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 10:45 a.m.

Take a look at the other exiting sessions that will be offered throughout the summer:

July 24: Lux!  More Lux!

Lux, a digital repository of scholarly and creative work produced by Lawrence students, staff, and faculty, is now one year old.  Join us as Erin Dix and Colette Lunday Brautigam tell us about recent additions to Lux, including Harrison Symposium papers, archives of The Lawrentian, and faculty publications.  Birthday cake is a distinct possibility.

August 7: Lawrence in the Civil War

At the start of the Civil War, Lawrence University was 14 years old.  Join university archivist Erin Dix to explore the ways in which Lawrence faculty and students participated on the front lines and coped with the effects of the war at home.   This will be a reprise of a presentation given in January – if you missed it then, join us this time around!

August 21: It’s A Visual, Audio, Video World

Your website, publication, blog, or course material would benefit from the addition of some media, but where to begin?  Come and discover sources for legally-acquired sound and images; Antoinette Powell and Colette Lunday Brautigam will lead us.

All coffeehouses will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 10:45 a.m. Coffee and some variety of yummy refreshment will be provided at each session. All Lawrence faculty and staff are welcome to attend.

Visit our coffeehouse guide for more details and to learn about past coffeehouses.

The Mudd Welcomes Martha Nussbaum to Campus

Lawrence University will recognize Martha Nussbaum, one of the world’s pre-eminent scholars, public intellectuals and an award-winning author, with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree Sunday, June 9 at the college’s 164th commencement.

Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, also will serve as the principal commencement speaker.

The full press release can be found here: Lawrence University to Honor Martha Nussbaum.

Interested in doing some preliminary research on Ms. Nussbaum before her arrival on campus? We’ve gathered a few links to help get you started:

For further research assistance regarding the life and work of Martha Nussbaum, or any other topic, please contact our friendly and knowledgeable reference librarians. The Seeley G. Mudd Library will be open during commencement from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.