2010

Year: 2010

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.

Spoerl Environmental Series Focuses on the “Greening” of Higher Education

A scholar on the integration of environmental studies and sustainability programs in higher education opens Lawrence University’s 2010 Spoerl Lectures in Science and Society series. The theme for this year’s three-part series is “The Greening of Higher Education.”

Nan Jenks-Jay, dean of environmental affairs at Vermont’s Middlebury College, presents “Sustainability and the Liberal Arts,” Wednesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. in Thomas Steitz Science Hall Room 102. The presentation is free and open to the public.

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Nan Jenks-Jay

As dean of environmental affairs, Jenks-Jay had been instrumental in raising Middlebury’s nationally recognized environmental academic program to new heights and integration. She will examine Middlebury’s success in integrating sustainability as a visible aspect of the culture of the college, present examples on how sustainability is integrated into the academic program and discuss the importance of empowering students.

For nearly three decades, Jenks-Jay has been involved in environmentally related work as an administrator, educator, ecologist and consultant. She has been associated with the two oldest undergraduate environmental studies programs in the country, spending 15 years at Williams College and the past 14 at Middlebury. She also has developed new undergraduate and graduate environmental programs for the University of Redlands in California.

Her extensive experience has earned Jenks-Jay invitations to chair external review committees for more than a dozen college and university environmental programs. She has served on several international and national committees, state governmental boards and numerous commissions and lectures frequently on topics related to the environment, sustainability and transformational change within higher education.

Other presentations on this year’s series include:

• May 18, “The Role of the Arts in Sustainable Community Development,” Amara Geffen, professor of art and director of the Center for Economic and Environmental Development, Allegheny College.

• May 19, “Education in Action for a Sustainable Future,” Debra Rowe, president, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and professor, sustainable energies and behavioral sciences, Oakland Community College.

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.

Science Hall Colloquium Features Documentary Film on Wolf/Moose Interactions

Chicago independent filmmaker George Desort’s documentary film “Fortunate Wilderness,” based on a half-century study of predator/prey interactions, will be screened Tuesday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center cinema as part of a Science Hall Colloquium. The event is free and open to the public.

Desort will introduce the film and conduct a question-and-answer session following the film.

In making the film, Desort spent four years with wolf biologists Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich in Upper Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park, a collection of islands covering 206 square miles in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. The two researchers have been examining the relationship between wolves and moose for 50 years, making their work the longest continuous study of predator/prey interactions ever conducted in the country.

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.”

GWU Law Dean Offers Legal Perspective on Environmental Challenges in Povolny Lecture Series Presentation

Lee Paddock, associate dean for environmental law studies at The George Washington University Law School, examines the major domestic and international environmental challenges of the 21st century and the mechanisms that can drive environmental behavior in the final address of Lawrence University’s 2010 Povolny Lecture Series in International Studies “The Climate for Climate Change.”

Paddock presents “Environmental Change: A Legal Perspective,” Monday, May 10 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

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Lee Paddock

Focusing on how environmental governance needs to evolve to support long-term environmental sustainability, Paddock will discuss the roles regulation, economics and societal values play in influencing environmental behavior, arguing an integrated approach is necessary to move toward sustainable outcomes.

Paddocks’s work at The George Washington University Law School focuses on environmental compliance and enforcement, environmental governance and environmental management in the context of emerging nanotechnologies.

A senior consultant to the National Academy of Public Administration on environmental issues, Paddock also serves on The George Washington University sustainability implementation team.

Prior to joining The George Washington University, Paddock directed the environmental law programs at Pace University School of Law and spent 20 years in the Minnesota attorney general’s office, including 13 years as the state’s director of environmental policy.

“The Climate for Climate Change” 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.

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.

Sara Wallsworth Named Fulbright Scholar, Will Teach English in Germany

Before graduating from high school, Sara Wallsworth twice traveled to Stuttgart, Germany to visit relatives serving there in the U.S. Air Force.

But for the Lawrence University senior from Waukesha, it was the things she didn’t experience on those visits more than what she did that actually sparked her interest in all things German.

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Sara Wallsworth

“Living on the military base, my cousins really weren’t exposed to the German culture and it made me think how interesting it would be to learn the language, experience the culture and come back at some point by myself,” said Wallwsorth, a German and linguistics major at Lawrence.

Beginning this fall, Wallsworth will realize that opportunity after being named a 2010 Fulbright Scholar. She was awarded a fellowship for a nine-month appointment to teach English in Germany. She is the 14th Lawrence student since 2001 named a Fulbright Scholar.

Wallsworth will spend September through June 2010 as an English language assistant in Baden-Wüttemberg, a southwest state bordering France and Switzerland at either a middle or secondary school still to be determined.

Wallsworth serves as both a writing tutor and an ELS (English as a Second Language) tutor in Lawrence’s Center for Teaching and Learning. She also assists as a tutor in both her German and linguistics courses.

It was during a 16-week study abroad program in Freiburg, Germany in the fall of 2008 that convinced her to apply for the Fulbright Fellowship.

“I fell in love with Germany and wanted to figure out a way to go back,” said Wallsworth of her time in Freiburg. “I thought a Fulbright appointment would be great way to bridge my life from Lawrence to the next step in my education.”

While serving as an unofficial ambassador for her home country, Wallsworth is approaching her upcoming appointment as a personal growth opportunity.

“This is going to allow me to get a better grasp of the language, but I’m also looking forward to living independently in a different country and immersing myself in a different culture,” said Wallsworth. “It’s about living and traveling in Europe and experiencing that lifestyle. I certainly want to gain a more international perspective on the world while I’m there.”

Created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s premier scholarship program. Since its founding, it has supported opportunities for nearly 300,000 American students, scholars and other professionals in more than 150 countries.

Forty Fulbright alumni have earned Nobel Prizes while others have gone on to become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, university presidents, professors and teachers.

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.