The Leading Edge

Events

Monday, Oct. 20

The Extraordinary Action of Beings without Bodies   —  Thomas J. Csordas, Professor and Chair of Anthropology at UCSD,  drawing from comparative ethnographic work in the United States and Italy, will explore the contemporary practice of exorcism in the Roman Catholic Church understood as a form of healing through prayer to relieve affliction attributed to the extraordinary action of non-corporeal demonic spirits. 7 p.m., Memorial Union Journey Room.

Tuesday, Oct. 21

You are invited to a reception for Carnets De Bretagne, a selection of sketches/illustrations from Brittany by Marie Le Glatin – in The Little Gallery, 3:30-5:30 p.m. 210 Kidder Hall. This event is sponsored by the School of Language, Culture & Society.  Please contact Helen Wilhelm (541) 737-2146 for any questions

Children and Other Wild Animals —  Author Brian Doyle will read from his new essay collection “Children and Other Wild Animals: Notes on badgers, otters, sons, hawks, daughters, dogs, bears, air, bobcats, fishers, mascots, Charles Darwin, newts, sturgeon, roasting squirrels, parrots, elk, foxes, tigers and various other zoological matters.”  Sponsored by OSU Press and the Spring Creek Project. 7:30 p.m., Valley Library Rotunda.

Wednesday, Oct. 22

Latina American Artists at OSU — Art can be a powerful vehicle for social change.  Artists and student affairs professionals Claudia Ramirez Islas and Juliana Recio share their artwork and discuss issues of disability, immigration, self-expression, and inspirational intersections with Frida Kahlo in this interactive afternoon workshop. 2-3:50 p.m., Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez. Spaces are limited, and supplies will be provided. RSVP to charlene.martinez@oregonstate.edu.

An Empire for Freedom: African American Civil Rights and Chinese Immigration in the Nineteenth-Century American West —   As they fought for their own citizenship rights, Pacific black activists debated whether they should welcome Chinese immigrants into the fold of the U.S.’s expanding continental empire or support the movement for Chinese exclusion. This talk explores the complexities of African American civil rights politics on the Pacific Rim and black activists’ views of their own role in U.S. imperial expansion.  The first American Conversation’s Lecture of 2014 will be given by history professor Stacey Smith at 4 p.m. in the Memorial Union 208, La Raza Room.

What is a citizen? How have conceptions of citizenship changed over time and in moments of crisis? The New Citizenship and Crisis program is using the 100th anniversary of WWI as a springboard to inform a wide range of events addressing these and related questions this year. Upcoming events include: An Empire for Freedom: African American Civil Rights and Chinese Immigration in the Nineteenth-Century American West, a presentation by Stacey Smith of SHPR, 4 p.m., Memorial Union 208; Film Screening of All Quiet on the Western Front, introduced by Joseph Orosco with commentary by Christopher Nichols (both SHPR), Darkside Cinema, 7 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 23

Pray the Devil Back to Hell — See war through the eyes of women. This award winning film is the story of the Liberian women who took on violent warlords and a corrupt regime to win peace for their country. This screening will be followed by a group discussion.  Sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom and the School of History, Philosphy and Religion. 4 p.m.,  Milam 319.

Friday, Oct. 24

OSU Disability Network Meeting — Join OSU community members interested in discussing Disability Studies teaching and research, as well as the development of a DS curriculum. 2 p.m., Milam 306.  The group will read Rosemary Garland-Thomson’s Staring: How We Look.  Contact Stephanie Jenkins for more information and for a copy of the paper.

Saturday, Oct. 25

White Box at the University of Oregon in Portland presents (Lost) In the Woods, a solo exhibition of work by visual artist and professor of art Shelley Jordon and sound by musician/composer Kurt Rohde. The opening reception takes place at 24 NW 1st, Portland, from 4-7 p.m. (Lost) In the Woods is on display at White Box UO from October 25th ­ December 6th, 2014.

Upcoming Events

October 28 — British photographer and artist John Hilliard will speak about his photography “A Catalogue of Errors” at the LaSells Stewart Center at 7 p.m.  Since the sixties, John Hilliard, has been making photographs that explore the limitations of photographic representation. His appearance is part of the Visual Artists and Scholars lecture series. All are welcome.

October 29 — The College of Liberal Arts, in partnership with Humanitarian Engineering program, the Division of Outreach & Engagement, the Corvallis Sister Cities Association, and other parts of the campus community, welcomes Joni Kabana to campus. A photographer and visual storyteller, she is the first of 3 visitors to OSU this fall as part of the Voices from the Field series, which focuses on perspectives, methods, and stories related to doing work in cross-cultural and low-resource environments. Joni will join us for many activities, including a colloquium with faculty and students on issues of representation on from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Asian-Pacific Room of the MU (206). She will also deliver a public lecture from 7-8 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center (free reception starting at 6:15pm). For more information, contact 541-737-5589 or http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/heatosu/joni-kabana-oct-2014/

News

Religious studies professor Courtney Campbell was just elected to serve on the Fellows Council for The Hastings Center, a nonpartisan institution dedicated to bioethics and the public interest. Professor Campbell has recently facilitated community conversations all over the state for the Oregon Humanities Council.  He will give an outreach talk at the Tualatin Public Library on October 28 at 7 p.m.  His program, “Grave Matters:  Reflections on Life and Death Across Cultures and Traditions,” considers different traditions—such as Buddhism, indigenous customs, and Mexico’s Día de los Muertos—in a conversation about the various understandings and metaphors of death and their meaning for life.

Current Research, Publications and Creative Activity

Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Associate Professor Nana Osei-Kofi recently published a chapter: Methodological Freedom: A Journey. In R. Brown, R. Carducci & C. Kuby (Eds.), Disrupting qualitative inquiry: Tensions and Possibilities in Educational Research (pp. 261-272). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Elizabeth Root, Associate Professor in Speech Communication, will present “Identity Awareness for Interculturalists: Sharing Ways We Present and Preserve our Identities” at the SIETAR Conference (Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research) in Portland on October 23.

Associate Professor of English Evan Gottlieb will travel this week to Aspen Grove, Utah, to participate in an invitation-only series of academic workshops, hosted by Brigham Young University, for regionally based Romanticists. His  pre-circulated working paper which the group will discuss during its sessions is entitled “The Truth About Byron: A Badouian Reading of The Giaour,” and is drawn from his current book project, Romantic Realities: Speculative Realism and British Romanticism, under contract with Edinburgh University Press.

Theatre professor Professor Charlotte Headrick was recently appointed to the board of the Corrib Theatre in Portland. Corrib specializes in producing contemporary Irish drama.

School of History, Philosophy and Religion instructor Tom Bahde’s new book, “The Life and Death of Gus Reed:  A Story of Race and Justice in Illinois during the Civil War and Reconstruction” was just released by Ohio University Press. Gus Reed’s story connects the political and legal cultures of white supremacy, black migration and black communities, the Midwest’s experience with the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the resurgence of nationwide opposition to African American civil rights in the late nineteenth century.

Horning Professor in the Humanities Anita Guerrini will present “The Whiteness of Bones: Techniques and Aesthetics of the Skeleton, 1500-1800” as part of the Max Planck Research Group Colloquium Series: Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe this Monday at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science n Berlin.

Director of the Center for Latino/a Studies and Engagement Ron Mize recently published a piece, “Border Crisis?: I’m Going to Get to That” on the University of Toronto Press publishing blog. The piece is an update to his 201o book, Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to Nafta.

World Languages and Cultures professors Nabil Boudra and Kayla S. Garcia recently translated and published the Mouloud Mammeri story, ‘Le Zèbre’/‘Zebra’, in the International Journal of Francophone Studies.