2010

Year: 2010

Green Roots Sponsoring “Community Read” Spring Term

Farm City BookTaking a page from Freshman Studies, Green Roots is sponsoring a special 1-unit course for Term III under the umbrella of Topics in Environmental Studies that will feature a campus community read of the 2009 book “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.” The book’s author, Novella Carpenter, will visit campus in April in conjunction with Earth Day and the Fox Cities Book Festival.

The book chronicles Carpenter’s efforts to operate a sustainable farm 10 blocks from the ghetto of downtown Oakland, Calif., utilizing a vacant lot to grow pumpkins and artichokes and the scraps in dumpsters to feed her collection of chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits and pigs.

Registration for the one-hour-per-week, five-week-long class is currently open to all students and will feature 16 faculty from across the curriculum team-teaching the course with a colleague.

“I am thrilled to see such a positive campus-wide response to this initiative,” said Associate Professor of Geology Andrew Knudsen, who spearheaded the community read course with Jason Brozek, assistant professor of government and Stephen Edward Scarff Professor of International Affairs. “We have students and instructors from all across the university signed up to participate in this program. It will be very exciting to be a part of a campus-wide discussion of this book. If you can run a farm on a vacant lot in Oakland, it seems like the possibilities are limitless.”

Lawrence University Delegation Recognized at Model United Nations Conference

Lawrence University students Angela Ting and Angela Wang earned the “Best Delegation” award as members of Lawrence’s Model United Nations team at the recent 50th annual Midwest Model United Nations Conference in St. Louis, Mo.

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Angela Wang (l.) and Angela Ting

Lawrence’s eight-member delegation represented El Salvador in the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. Ting, a junior from Malaysia, and Wang, a sophomore from Forest Hills, N.Y., represented the General Assembly Third Committee. They were awarded Best Delegation honors for their work debating the provision of humanitarian assistance to refugees and internally-displaced persons in conflict situations.

During the four-day conference, the Lawrence delegation also participated in debates regarding the role of the United Nations in promoting development in the context of globalization and interdependence, the impact of drugs on development and the U.N.’s role in combating transnational organized crime. The regional conference drew more than 900 students from nearly 80 colleges and universities throughout the Midwest.

Also representing Lawrence were sophomore Carrie Brown, Chicago, Ill., sophomore Gi’selle Jones, Kingston, Jamaica, sophomore Amanda Popp, Palmyra, junior Tasmia Rahman, Dhaka, Bangladesh, sophomore Ranga Wimalasuriya, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, and freshman Mingxia Zhu, Guangzhou, China.

Founded in 1960, the Midwest Model United Nations is a collegiate organization devoted to broadening students’ awareness of world politics by promoting an interest and understanding of other nations in the world. At the conference, student delegations representing various nations work on pressing international issues to gain perspective on the world and the United Nations’ role in world politics.

Service Learning Efforts Earn Lawrence University National Honor Roll Recognition

For the fourth consecutive year, Lawrence University has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

Lawrence is one of only four Wisconsin institutions named to the Community Service Honor Roll every year since the program was launched in 2006. This year’s honor roll, announced by the Corporation for National and Community Service, recognized more than 700 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice in 2009.

“Preparing students for lives of responsible citizenship is a tenet of a Lawrence education and I am gratified that the dedicated efforts of our students here in our community and elsewhere once again have earned national recognition,” said Lawrence President Jill Beck. “I commend the students on their efforts to impact the greater community in a positive manner during their time here, as well as our Pieper Professor of Servant Leadership and the other faculty and staff members who assist them in those efforts.”

Honorees for the 2010 President’s Community Service Honor Roll were chosen on a series of factors, including scope and innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

In the past year, more than 600 Lawrence students contributed more than 12,000 service hours to service-learning and volunteer programs. Among the initiatives for which Lawrence was recognized was the establishment of a partnership with the Pragati Foundation in Bangalore, India, for summer teaching opportunities with underprivileged middle school students; the Confidence and Determination in Youth (CADY) student organization which provides younger students an inspirational, college-like experience in learning; and the Lawrence Assistance Reaching Youth (LARY) Buddies, a mentoring program for at-risk elementary students.

“Our students are contributing literally thousands of hours of volunteer service on behalf of others in both our own Fox Valley community as well on the global stage, all within the confines of a rigorous academic program,” said Alan Parks, Lawrence’s Pieper Family Professor of Servant Leadership and director of the college’s Office for Engaged Learning. “We’re seeing annual increases in service hours by our students which makes it all the more gratifying that those efforts are being recognized nationally through the President’s Community Service Honor Roll.”

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency, 3.16 million students performed more than 300 million hours of service in 2009. The Corporation’s Learn and Serve America program supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations.

The President’s Community Service Honor Roll is compiled by the Corporation for National and Community Service in collaboration with the Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education.

Bernstein Classic “Candide” Makes Lawrence University Debut

Leonard’s Bernstein’s popular operetta “Candide” will be performed March 4-7 at Lawrence University for the first time.

Based on Voltaire’s 1759 satirical novel of the same name, “Candide” will be staged March 4-6 at 8 p.m. and March 7 at 3 p.m. in Stansbury Theatre, 420 E. College Ave. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Like Voltaire’s novella, Bernstein’s operetta is a bitter critique of optimism and the idea that “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” The story follows Candide, the young illegitimate cousin of a noble family who grows up in a castle. He learns from his mentor, Pangloss, that everything in life happens for a reason and all is for the best.

But Candide’s ideas of optimism are painfully tempered by life’s hardships: his love, Cunegonde, is killed in an attack by the Bulgarian army; he sees the population of Lisbon wiped out by an earthquake; and Pangloss is hanged for heresy. Ultimately, Candide realizes “we must cultivate our garden” and make the best of what we are given in life.

“‘Candide’ is a show that has perennial appeal,” said Bonnie Koestner, associate professor of music and vocal coach for the production. “Leonard Bernstein has created a happy marriage between Broadway and opera. His score bubbles with fun and frivolity, yet the piece deals with some of life’s most serious questions, all wrapped up in a non-stop adventure story.”

Ben Krywosz, artistic director of Nautilus Music-Theater in St. Paul, Minn., is serving as guest stage director for the production. He is confident audiences will be surprised at how both funny and moving “Candide” can be.

“For all his musical sophistication, Bernstein was a populist at heart,” said Krywosz. “Both those qualities are evident in ‘Candide,’ wonderful toe-tapping tunes combined with a sumptuous operatic sweep.

“We’re taking a slightly unusual approach with this production, which is already a wild and crazy story,” Krywocz added. “The student performers have all been enthusiastic partners in bringing this score to life.”

First performed in 1956, Bernstein’s “Candide” presents a challenge to directors and performers, because it has been published in so many different forms, including a one-act Broadway revival and later a two-act “opera house version” first performed in New York City in 1982. Lawrence’s production will be an updated version by Krywosz in which the main characters address the audience directly, explaining Voltaire’s intentions and relating his ideas to modern life and current events as the plot unfolds.

The production features a double cast of 40 performers. Seniors Alex Gmeinder (Thursday-Saturday) and Justin Berkowitz (Friday-Sunday) portray the title role while seniors Lara Wasserman (Thursday-Saturday) and Taylor Jacobson (Friday-Sunday) play Candide’s love interest, Cunegonde. Pangloss is portrayed by senior Derrell Acon (Thursday-Saturday) and sophomore Brian Acker (Friday-Sunday).

Professor of Music David Becker will conduct the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra for the performances. Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Richmond Frielund served as set designer for the production.

Award-winning Author Jill McCorkle Conducts Fiction Reading

Fiction writer Jill McCorkle shares short stories from her 2009 collection “Going Away Shoes” Thursday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center. The reading is free and open to the public.

Jill-McCorkle_webHer first short story collection in eight years, “Going Away Shoes” features stories of “women looking love in the face without flinching.” A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, McCorkle’s Southern heritage often influences her story ideas.

The Lee Smith Professor in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University, McCorkle has written five novels and four collections of short stories. Five of her works have been selected as New York Times Notable Books. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications, including two in the “Best American Short Stories.” Her story “Intervention” is included in latest edition of the “Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.”

She has been recognized with the New England Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature and the North Carolina Award for Literature. In 1984, at the age of 26, McCorkle made literary history by having her first two novels, “The Cheer Leader” and “July 7th,” published simultaneously.

McCorkle’s characters have come to life with the recent production of “Good ‘Ol Girls,” a musical based on her work and the writing of Lee Smith, McCorkle’s former teacher. The musical was originally staged in 2000, premiered on television in 2009 and came to New York City in February of this year for its off-Broadway premiere.

Underground Comix Examined in Visiting Artist Series Lecture

The evolution of underground comix into a popular art form will be the focus of the latest Lawrence University visiting artists series lecture.

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James Danky, who teaches in the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication, presents “Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix” Thursday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

The presentation is based on Danky’s 2009 book of the same name. The book, co-written with Denis Kitchen, explores the work of generations of cartoonists, the impact of American underground comix on the economics of mainstream comic book publishing and their influence on modern culture.

Underground comix — small press or self-published, socially relevant or satirical comic books — gained popularity in the late 1960s and early ’70s in the United States and Great Britain. They often include content forbidden by the Comics Code Authority. Danky’s new book is the first serious survey of this often overlooked art form.

Danky is the founder and director of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at UW-Madison. He spent 35 years as newspapers and periodicals librarian for the Wisconsin Historical Society, developing a nationally recognized collection in the field of American History, before retiring in 2007. He has written or edited dozens of books on topics ranging from African American newspapers to women’s publications to the Native American press.

His appearance is supported by the department of art and art history.

LSO Concert Features World Premiere of Asha Srinivasan’s “Doubt”

The world premiere of composer Asha Srinivasan’s “Doubt” highlights the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 520 E. College Ave., Appleton. The concert is free and open to the public.

Under the direction of conductor David Becker, the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra also will perform Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major, op. 25” and Beethoven’s famous “Eroica” symphony.

Provost and Dean of the Faculty David Burrows will serve as guest narrator for “Doubt,” which was originally written as Srinivasan’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Maryland. The text and the music reflect Srinivasan’s deeply personal thoughts on capital punishment.

An assistant professor of music at Lawrence, Srinivasan draws from both her Western musical training and her Indian heritage in creating her compositions. Raised with Carnatic music, the classical music of Southern India, Srinivasan integrates aspects of the Carnatic style into the Western music idiom.

The concert also will feature Seong-Kyung Graham as guest conductor. Graham currently serves as director of the Green Bay Civic Symphony. She was appointed conductor and artistic director of the symphony in 2005

The concert will be webcast beginning at 7:30 p.m. with a pre-concert program.

Choral Concert Features Tribute to Late Lawrence Faculty Member Jennifer Fitzgerald

The American premiere of Associate Professor of Music Joanne Metcalf’s “O Shining Light,” a musical tribute to her former colleague and friend, Jennifer Fitzgerald, highlights the Lawrence University choral concert Friday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 520 E. College Ave., Appleton. The concert is free and open to the public.

Cantala women’s choir, under the direction of conductor Phillip Swan, will perform the U.S. debut of Metcalf’s composition, which honors Fitzgerald, who taught at Lawrence first as postdoctoral fellow and then as an instructor of music before dying of cancer at the age of 32 in 2007. While at Lawrence, Fitzgerald was active in exploring new, interdisciplinary forms of composition.

“O Shining Light,” written for four women’s voices, was commissioned by the Scottish ensemble Canty. The group performed its world premiere last October at St. Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen and will release it on CD later this year.

In composing the tribute to Fitzgerald, Metcalf said she tried to create the impression “of a profoundly beautiful outer light, such as that of the stars, that reflects back the beauty of one’s inner light.”

The Lawrence Concert Choir and Viking Chorale, both under the direction of Paul Nesheim, also will perform. The concert choir will sing the traditional spiritual “Hold On,” William Mathias’ “Let the People Praise Thee, O God,” which was commissioned for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, as well as works by Claude Debussy and Eric Whitacre.

The Viking chorale’s program includes Aaron Copland’s “Stomp Your Foot” from his opera “The Tender Land” and the rousing chorus “Let Their Celestial Concerts All Unite” from George Handel’s “Samson.”

The concert will be webcast beginning with a pre-concert program at 7:30 p.m..

LU Alum Discusses Pediatric Respiratory Diseases in Two Presentations

Lawrence University graduate Kurt Albertine ’75 returns to campus to discusses his work with pediatric respiratory diseases in a pair of science hall presentations.

Kurt-Albertine_web Albertine professor of pediatrics and adjunct professor of medicine, neurobiology & anatomy at the University of Utah, delivers the Science Hall Colloquium “From Here to There:  An Alumnus’ Trip from Plants to Pediatrics” Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m. in Thomas Steitz Science Hall 102.

Albertine will trace his academic training and the professional journey he took from his student days at Lawrence to a research career focused on acute respiratory distress syndrome and neonatal chronic lung disease.

Beginning with World War II, Albertine will discuss some of the medical advances made in regards to acute respiratory distress syndrome and neonatal chronic lung disease, including inventions and discoveries that provided opportunities and tools to better understand respiratory support of humans, both adult and preterm infants.

In a Recent Advances in Biology series address on Friday, Feb. 26 at 3:10 p.m. in Thomas Steitz Science Hall 102, Albertine presents “A New View about the Pathogenesis of the Second Most Common Pediatric Health Problem in the U.S.”

The address will examine the growing problem of neonatal chronic lung disease, which occurs in preterm infants who require assisted conventional mechanical ventilation.  Approximately 10,000 new cases of neonatal CLD are reported each year in the United States.

Albertine will discuss his research using a large-animal model (lambs) to investigate fundamental questions regarding the underlying molecular changes that contribute to neonatal CLD.

After graduating from Lawrence with a major in biology, Albertine earned his Ph.D. in anatomy at Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1993, he held research and teaching positions at the University of California, San Francisco, the University of South Florida, the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Former Lawrence University Scientist Assumes Leadership of National Physics Association

Former Lawrence University Professor of Physics David Cook has assumed the role of president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the country’s premier national organization and authority on physics and physical science education with more than 10,000 members in 30 countries.

David-Cook_webCook, who retired as Philetus E. Sawyer Professor of Science in 2008 after 43 years of teaching in the Lawrence physics department, will serve as AAPT’s president in 2010 and past president in 2011. First elected to the association’s executive board in 2007, Cook is the first Lawrence faculty member ever to serve as AAPT president and the first from any Wisconsin college or university since 1955.

The AAPT, says Cook, faces challenges in keeping the United States competitive in an increasingly global marketplace.

“Both the future of the United States as a leader in science and technology and the strength of the U.S. economy are at risk because too few of our most able young people are preparing for careers in science and engineering,” said Cook.  “The AAPT is already playing an important role in addressing this growing crisis.  The current efforts, however, need to be expanded in both intensity and scope.

“We need to assess whether the current AAPT structure and content of our offerings for prospective scientists are as strong as they can be in preparing students for productive 50-year careers in the 21st century and whether they are as appealing as they must be to compete successfully with the students’ alternatives.”

During his four-plus-decades career at Lawrence, Cook has taught nearly every undergraduate physics course while leading the development and incorporation of computers into the physics curriculum.  Beginning in 1985, he built Lawrence’s computational physics laboratory with the support of more than $1 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, the W. M. Keck Foundation and other sources.

Cook is the author of two textbooks, “The Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” one of the first to introduce computer-based numerical approaches alongside traditional approaches and “Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics.”  He was the recipient of Lawrence’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1990.

Founded in 1930, the AAPT is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Md.