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Award-winning Author K.C. Frederick Conducts Reading at Lawrence University

APPLETON, WIS. — Author K.C. Frederick, winner of the 2007 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, reads from his latest novel, “Inland,” Monday, May 21 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Main Hall, Room 201. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading. The event is free and open to the public.

Frederick’s fourth novel, “Inland” is set on a small Midwestern state college campus in the fall of 1959. It follows graduate student and freshman English teacher Ted Riley as he navigates love, loss, family and new relationships during the Cold War.

In April, Frederick, a resident of suburban Boston, received the L.L. Winship/ PEN New England Award for fiction for “Inland.” Established by The Boston Globe in 1975 to honor long-time Globe editor Laurence L. Winship, the award is presented annually to a New England author or a book with a New England setting. Previous recipients have included E.B. White, Susan Cheever, Anita Shreve, Stanley Kunitz and Leo Damrosch, among others.

In addition to his other three novels — “Accomplices (2003), “The Fourteenth Day,” (2000) and “Country of Memory,” (1998) — Fredericks has written nearly 50 short stories, several of which have been selected as “distinctive stories” for inclusion in the annual “Best American Short Stories” series. He was included in the “Outstanding Writers” Pushcart Prize in 1986 for “Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart.” His short stories also have appeared in numerous periodicals, including Epoch, Shenandoah, Kansas Quarterly, Ascent and Ohio Review.

The recipient of a 1993 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Frederick has taught creative writing as a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

His appearance is sponsored by the Marguerite Schumann ’44 Lectureship Fund.

Noted Author, Social Commentator Explores Cultural Reaction to 9/11 in Lawrence University Honors Convocation

APPLETON, WIS. — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and social commentator Susan Faludi, whose examinations of modern gender stereotypes earned her national acclaim, explores America’s psychological response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks Tuesday, May 22, in Lawrence University’s annual Honors Day convocation.

Faludi presents “Sexual Politics and the Tragedy of 9/11” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. She also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

Based on her forthcoming book, “The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America,” which is scheduled for release this fall, Faludi’s address will explore the reasons American culture responded to an assault on U.S. global dominance by calling for a return to “traditional manhood, marriage and maternity.” She will share her insights on why she feels Americans reacted as if the hijackers had attacked the family home and nursery, rather than symbols of the country’s commercial and military might.

Faludi rose to national prominence following the release of her first book, 1991’s “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,” which won the National Critic’s Circle Award and spent nearly nine months on the best-seller lists.

From plastic surgery advertisements to male harassment of female co-workers to Hollywood films that often depicted single career women as “desperate and crazed,” “Backlash” examined the societal attacks Faludi observed on feminism and the progress women had made on social, economic and political fronts. The book landed Faludi on the cover of Time magazine, which said her writing “set off firecrackers across the political landscape.”

In 1999, Faludi released a follow-up to “Backlash” that proved to be equally controversial. “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man” explored the cultural forces that were shaping men’s lives and attitudes. According to Faludi, men’s hostile response to feminism was part of a larger social problem within a “consumer-driven, celebrity saturated culture” where civic engagement is undervalued.

A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she was the managing editor of the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, Faludi began her professional career as a copy clerk at the New York Times. She also worked as a reporter at the Miami Herald, Atlanta Constitution, San Jose Mercury News and the Wall Street Journal, earning a reputation as a “superb crusading journalist.”

Her expose on the leveraged buyout of the Safeway supermarkets as an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal earned Faludi a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1991.

A native of Queens, New York, Faludi, whose father was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and her mother a journalist, today makes her home in San Francisco.

Lawrence University’s Felix Awarded Fulbright Grant to Teach English in Germany

APPLETON, WIS. — Monica Felix has never ventured outside the friendly confines of the United States, but she is about to get an extended education on living abroad courtesy of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The Lawrence University senior from Thiensville has been named a 2007-08 Fulbright Scholar and awarded a fellowship that will send her to Germany for 10 months. Beginning this September, Felix will work as an English teaching assistant at a school equivalent to an American high school in the western state of Hessen.

This is the second straight year a Lawrence student has received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Germany. Felix is the sixth Lawrence student named a Fulbright Scholar since 2001.

Felix admits to experiencing a momentary state of “utter disbelief” when she was informed she had been selected for the program.

“I never expected anything like this would happen to me,” said Felix, who will graduate in June with a double major in German and linguistics. “I actually didn’t believe it until I received the second letter of confirmation.”

In addition to honing her language skills, Felix says she is excited about the invaluable opportunity to spread her cultural wings during her time abroad.

“All I’ve known and been exposed to are American customs. I’m really looking forward to discovering the day-to-day differences between German culture and ours,” said Felix.

Felix said she has always found language fascinating. She is fluent in Spanish as well as German and “as a hobby,” taught herself Russian to the point she’s now proficient reading and speaking it. She began dabbling in German as a seventh grader because she wanted to learn something outside the Romance languages.

“After my initial exposure, I discovered I really liked it and just stuck with it.”

This spring, Felix completed an honors project in German on 19th-century author Theodor Fontane, in which she analyzed the speech of characters from six of his novels. Her project examined the way the characters in the novels talked about women and expressed their expectations of women and then compared that to actual historical representations of 19th-century women to see how well they matched.

“While my research for this project has given me a better insight into German literature and cultural norms of the time, I’m looking forward to seeing what present day German culture is like.”

While her immediate plans are focused on coping by herself for the first time in a foreign country, Felix says her long-range goals include graduate school to pursue studies in German literature or possibly linguistics.

“There’s a lot of exciting things being done with discourse analysis,” said Felix.

The Fulbright Program was created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges. Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, who sponsored the legislation, saw it as a step toward building an alternative to armed conflict.

Since its founding, the Fulbright Program has become the U.S. government’s premier scholarship program. Coordinated by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program has supported nearly 280,000 American students, artists and other professionals opportunities for study, research and international competence in more than 150 countries. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, university presidents, professors and teachers. Thirty-six Fulbright alumni have earned Nobel Prizes.

Role of Fear of Mortality Focus of Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium

APPLETON, WIS. — Was it commonality of values or a non-conscious fear aroused by reminders of the events of September 11, 2001 that fueled George W. Bush’s re-election as president in 2004?

Sheldon Solomon, professor of psychology at Skidmore College, discusses the role subtle reminders of death may play in voting patterns in the Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium “Fatal Attraction: Fear of Death and Political Preference” Thursday, May 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, Room 121. The event is free and open to the public.

While many pollsters, pundits and Republican Party officials felt Americans voted for Bush because he shared their moral and traditional values or were comfortable with Bush’s approach to the war on terror, Solomon argues in favor of John Kerry’s assertion that the terrorist attack on 9/11 was the “deciding” issue of the presidential election.

Solomon will present research demonstrating that reminders of death or the events of 9/11 increased Americans’ support for President Bush and his policies in Iraq. The research is based on the idea that reminders of death “increase the need for psychological security and the appeal for leaders who emphasize the greatness of the nation and a heroic victory over evil.”

He also will examine recent studies that document the psychological commonalities between conservative Americans and Islamic fundamentalists and discuss the implications these findings have for democratic political institutions.

Co-author of the 2002 book “In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror,” Solomon was one of three psychologists who developed the Terror Management Theory in the late 1980s, which held that people deal with death through two distinct modes of defense: direct and rational, which reduce an individual’s perception of his or her vulnerability to life-threatening conditions; or symbolic and cultural, which embed an individual as a valuable part of an eternal conception of reality that is bigger, stronger and more enduring than any single individual.

The Courtney and Steven Ross Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies at Skidmore, Solomon earned a bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College and his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.

Lawrence University Receives $2.5 Million Gift to Establish Endowed Professorship in Environmental Studies

APPLETON, WIS. — A $2.5 million gift from a long-time benefactor of Lawrence University to establish an endowed professorship in environmental studies has been announced by Lawrence President Jill Beck. It is the largest gift given toward an endowed professorship in Lawrence’s 160-year history.

Marcia Bjornerud, professor of geology, will be the first holder of the new Walter Schober Professorship in Environmental Studies, effective July 1, according to Beck.

Appointments to endowed professorships are made in recognition of academic distinction through teaching excellence and/or scholarly achievement.

“Professor Bjornerud demonstrates passionate dedication equally to her scholarly discipline and to her students and their intellectual development,” Beck said in announcing the appointment. “The international relevance of her research in earth science and the evidence of global climate change over time is evident through the translation of her published work into several languages.

“Lawrence is extremely fortunate to have Marcia Bjornerud on our faculty and to be able to recognize her contributions through Mr. Schober’s generosity.”

Schober’s motivation in establishing the professorship grew out of his own concern for the future of the planet and the need to educate young people about the importance of environmental stewardship.

“Man cannot continue to exploit the finite resources of this Earth without affecting his own well-being and that of other species on this planet,” said Schober, a retired resident of Pentwater, Mich. “We must respect all forms of life or consider the probability of widespread extinctions.”

Schober, whose only connection to Lawrence is a niece, Amanda Schober, who graduated in 2001, first became interested in Lawrence after a campus visit that left him impressed with the campus community. He made the gift out of admiration for Lawrence’s educational mission as articulated by former and current presidents Richard Warch and Beck.

“The type of undergraduate scholarship practiced at Lawrence is consistent with my concept of a great liberal arts school,” said Schober. “May it always be so!”

The donation for the endowed professorship is the third major gift Schober has made to Lawrence in the past six years. He previously made a gift of $1.3 million in 2001 to renovate the first floor of Seeley G. Mudd Library. Two years later he donated $300,000 for a digital database for the library.

Bjornerud, a structural geologist who studies mountain building processes, joined the Lawrence faculty in 1995 after six years with the geology department at Miami University in Ohio. She has served as the chair of the Lawrence geology department since 1998 and helped establish the college’s environmental studies program as a major in 2000, serving as its director through 2006.

Elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2003, Bjornerud is the author of two books, the science textbook “The Blue Planet: A Laboratory Manual in Earth System Science” and “Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth,” which was published in 2005.

A storyteller’s history of the Earth and the toll human activity is exacting on the planet, “Reading the Rocks” draws upon field research Bjornerud conducted in 2000 as a Fulbright Scholar on exposed rock complexes on the island of Holsnøy in western Norway. The book has since been reprinted in French, Dutch and Japanese, with a Chinese edition for Taiwan slated for publication later this year.

In collaboration with six students, she also recently produced the pamphlet “Building Stones of Downtown Appleton,” an illustrated layman’s guide to the geological and historical context of the rocks used in the construction of a dozen downtown buildings, including the Zuelke Building and the Outagamie County Museum.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in geophysics at the University of Minnesota, Bjornerud earned master’s and doctorate degrees in geology at the University of Wisconsin.

Lawrence University Shack-a-thon: Raising Awareness, Funds to Fight Homelessness

APPLETON, WIS. — Five years after launching a volunteer project to raise awareness about homelessness and support the local Fox Cities chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Lawrence University students will see their original dream realized later this year.

Thanks to Shack-a-thon, an annual event held each May since 2002, Lawrence students finally reached their goal last spring of raising $20,000, the threshold necessary to partner with other area organizations to sponsor the construction of an area Habitat for Humanity home.

But that doesn’t mean the work is finished. Once again nearly 20 teams of Lawrence students representing a cross section of campus organizations will put their creative engineering acumen to the test Saturday, May 12, turning the Main Hall Green into a weekend shantytown for the sixth edition of Shack-a-thon.

“The objective of this year’s Shack-a-thon is to really return to the roots of how it began,” said senior Emily Palmer, events coordinator at the Lawrence Volunteer and Community Service Center and past president of the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

“Shack-a-thon’s original goal was to co-sponsor a local Habitat for Humanity house. Now that we’ve reached our goal, it is time to remember why we set it in the first place. This year’s event focuses on the current local situation in the Fox Cities. Poverty is not some far away problem in some poor country in Africa. It is right here, in our own town and we have the power and resources to do something about it.”

Palmer said organizers of this year’s Shack-a-thon have set a goal of raising $4,000, which will be donated to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity to be used at its discretion wherever the need is most warranted.

Beginning early Saturday (5/12)afternoon, students will construct makeshift shelters out of donated and salvaged materials while competing for the title of “Best Shack.” The shacks will remain up until mid-morning Sunday with at least one member of each team required to remain overnight in the shack. Funds are raised through pledges students collect for participating in the event. A panel of Lawrence faculty will serve as judges to determine the winner of this year’s “best shack” contest.

In keeping with this year’s theme of returning to Shack-a-thon’s roots, John Weyenberg, executive director of the Fox Cites chapter of Habitat for Humanity, will discuss at 4:30 p.m. local Habitat activities, the housing needs facing Appleton and the Fox Cities and how Habitat is working to alleviate those needs.

Live music will be performed throughout the afternoon by several Lawrence student bands and the Will Smith movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” will be shown outside beginning at 9 p.m. In the event of inclement weather, the movie will be shown in Riverview Loung of the Lawrence Memorial Union.

A candlelight vigil will be held on the Main Hall Green following the movie to commemorate all those who are living with inadequate housing.

Lawrence University’s Falletta-Cowden Awarded Field Research Fellowship in Cyprus

APPLETON, WIS. — Ashlan Falletta-Cowden isn’t looking forward to having to take her final exams a week earlier than her Lawrence University classmates. But such is the price for a six-week summer fellowship to conduct field research in Cyprus.

Cowden was one of 10 students nationally recently awarded a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) scholarship to Davidson College’s Archaeology Field School in Cyprus.

The scholarship, worth up to $6,100, will support Falletta-Cowden’s work with the Athienou Archaeological Project, a multidisciplinary project in south-central Cyprus focusing on the site of Athienou-Malloura and the surrounding valley. The site was used for nearly 2,500 years and encompasses the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman periods in the island’s history.

Falletta-Cowden, a sophomore from Petaluma, Calif., pursuing a double major in art history and anthropology, leaves June 2 for Cyprus, where she will assist with an excavation of an ancient temple site in the archaeologically rich Malloura valley. In addition to learning research methods through her fieldwork, Falletta-Cowden will design her own individualized research project as part of the program.

“This will certainly be a unique experience,” said Falletta-Cowden, whose mother is an archaeologist. “Cyprus is such a fascinating, diverse place, with many different influences.”

Working in teams of four or five students with a supervisor, daily field excavations will start at 6:30 in the morning and run until mid-afternoon. Beyond the field exercise, Falletta-Cowden will attend lectures by specialists on such topics as archaeological reconnaissance, topographical surveying and dating methods. The program also includes a comprehensive survey of Cypriote history, art and archaeology from the Neolithic period to the Modern era as well as visits to other archaeological sites and museums.

“This should be such a powerful experience,” Falletta-Cowden said. “It fuses my majors so beautifully. It will be a great way to explore my interests in both art history and archaeology. I’m looking forward to working with the specialists and actually handling artifacts that haven’t been touched since ancient times.”

The Athienou Archaeological Project was established by Davidson College in 1990. Since its founding, more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students as well as specialists or professional archaeologists representing more than 45 North American and European institutions, have participated in the project as trainees or staff members.

Award-winning Poet Elizabeth Robinson Conducts Reading at Lawrence University

APPLETON, WIS. — Poet Elizabeth Robinson, a three-time recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative American Poetry, conducts a reading of her works Tuesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading.

Prior to the reading, Robinson will field questions in an open forum at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Main Hall, Room 104. Both events are free and open to the public.

The author of eight collections of poems, Robinson’s most recent work, “Under That Silky Roof” (2006), explores the interplay of domestic life, focusing on topics such as companionship, its fecundity and its losses. Robinson also ventures into the manifestations of the abstract, what she calls “the brick floor from which the kingdom of God extends or could extend.”

Two of her more recent titles, “Apprehend” (2003) and “Pure Descent” (2003), were recognized with the Fence Modern Poetry Series award and the National Poetry Series award, respectively.

Her works have appeared in the Colorado Review, the Denver Quarterly and New American Quarterly, among others. Her writing also has been featured in numerous anthologies including Writing from the New Coast, Poetes Americains and American Poetry: The Next Generation. In addition to writing, Robinson serves as co-editor of 26, a magazine of poetry and poetics and EtherDome Press, which publishes chapbooks by emerging women poets.

Robinson earned a bachelor’s degree from Bard College, a master’s degree in creative writing from Brown University, a master’s degree in religious studies and a master’s degree in ethics, both from the Pacific School of Religion.

She has taught at the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University and is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Colorado.

Robinson’s appearance is sponsored by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund. Established in 1998, the endowed fund brings distinguished poets to campus for public readings and to work with students on writing poetry and verse.

Role of the World Bank in Fighting Poverty Concludes LU International Lecture Series

APPLETON, WIS. — Drawing upon his extensive experience in regional development throughout the world, a World Bank director examines the agency’s role in reducing poverty in the world’s poorest countries in the final installment of Lawrence University’s Povolny International Studies Lecture Series “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions.”

John Roome, operations director in the South Asia region of the World Bank, presents “The World Bank’s Role in Development” Monday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Roome’s address will focus on the strategies the World Bank has employed in tackling poverty, its achievements and the organization’s future role in an environment of changing patterns of aid and financing. He also will discuss the growing role of China in Africa and the emergence of private funding sources such as the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which was created in January, 2002 by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation jump started the Global Fund with an initial $100 million donation and a pledge of an additional $500 million last year.

Since joining the World Bank in 1989, Roome has worked extensively in Africa, focusing on infrastructure issues, including leading the Bank’s support for large roads programs in Tanzania and post-war Mozambique, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, restructuring of the Southern African airline industry and reforming South Africa’s water pricing and allocation policies.

A native of South Africa, Roome earned a bachelor’s degree in statistics/actuarial science from the University of Cape Town and holds master’s degrees in econometrics and management studies from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

The “Africa Today: Problems and Solutions” 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.

Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir Represents Wisconsin at Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary Celebration

APPLETON, WIS. — Thirty-one members of the Lawrence University Academy of Music Cantabile Girl Choir will lend their voices to one of the country’s biggest musical events of the year — the 400th anniversary celebration May 11-13 of the founding of the Jamestown colony in Virginia.

The Cantabile Choir has the distinction of being Wisconsin’s lone representative for the three-day-long “America’s Anniversary Weekend,” the centerpiece of an 18-month international commemoration of the 400th anniversary observance of the 1607 founding of Jamestown as America’s first permanent English settlement. The Anniversary Weekend will reintroduce the world to Jamestown, helping visitors discover how the settlement made democracy, free enterprise and cultural diversity defining characteristics of American society.

The Girl Choir’s 7th-9th grade singers will be among several dozen choirs representing nearly every state in the union who will combine to form a 1,607-voice choir Sunday, May 13 for a performance in the historic weekend’s grand finale event. The mega-choir will be backed by a 400-member orchestra selected from musicians from orchestras all around the country.

“We are certainly honored to have been selected to join other top-notch children’s, high school and even adult choirs from across the country for an event of this magnitude,” said Karen Bruno, director of the Academy of Music’s Cantabile Choir. “It’s a special thrill to represent the state of Wisconsin in this historic celebration and the girls are taking that honor very seriously.

“It’s always fun to go on tour, see new places, meet other talented musicians and perform for new audiences,” added Bruno, a 1993 Lawrence graduate. “I suspect the audience for this concert will have a few more dignitaries than we’re used to, including perhaps even her majesty the queen.”

Queen Elizabeth II of England is expected to visit Jamestown for part of the anniversary ceremonies.

The Sunday evening concert culminating the weekend celebration will include a live historical interpretative production told with music, dialogue, color and movement that recounts the key historical events of Jamestown in the years 1607-1619. A finale fireworks display timed and choreographed to the 400-member orchestra and the 1,607-voice choir closes the program.

In addition to their participation in the anniversary’s grand finale concert, Cantibile will be featured in a solo performance Friday afternoon (3:50 p.m.) as part of the weekend’s activities on the festival grounds. They will sing their own combination of American music, including Native American, Hawaiian and colonial-era works.

The choir was selected for the Jamestown celebration by audition tapes submitted from performances of the group during the last three years. Previous trips have taken the Cantibile Choir to New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder. The choir also was invited to perform at the 2003 international children’s choir festival in Toronto.

Other anniversary weekend events include a Friday performance of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, both separately and then combined for the first time ever, to premiere several new works written especially for the commemoration. Saturday’s highlights include performances by three-time Grammy winner Bruce Hornsby & The Noise Makers, legendary funk and R&B artist Chaka Khan, and progressive bluegrass master Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.