The Leading Edge

Events

Tuesday, Jan. 26

Award-winning playwright Elaine Romero’s play “Wetback” will have a public reading on  7:30 p.m. in the Withycombe Lab Theatre. Wetback tells the story of a hate crime against a Mexican immigrant and implicates the Latina, Amalia, who fails to protect him. The case is comprised of OSU students and community members as well as Olga Sachez of the Milagro Theatre. Elaine Romero will also speak in Charlotte Headrick’s Class TA 368 on Tuesday, at 12:30 p.m. in the Lab Theatre.  All are welcome.  

Wednesday, Jan. 27

The Paris Climate Agreement: Now What? —  At the latest Conference of Parties (COP-21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, December 2015, nearly 200 nations agreed to work to together to limit global temperature increases. We have gathered four scholars to comment on the meaning of the climate agreement, each from a different perspective: Amy Below (Political Science), Gregg Walker (Speech Communication), Andreas Schmittner (Climate Science), and Allen Thompson (Environmental Philosophy). Please join us for light snacks and panel discussion on from 3-5 p.m., MU213: Pan-Afrikan Sankofa.

Resisting Dementia: A Walk into Caring Community — This lecture describes a poignant conversation between Dr. Thomas Cole and theologian Walter Wink, as Wink was suffering in the late stages of dementia. Cole is the McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities and Director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). 7 p.m., MU208: La Raza Room.

Thursday, Jan. 28

Artemio Rodriguez, an award-winning artist, author and printmaker, is visiting Oregon State University as an artist in residence Jan. 26-29, as part of the School of Arts & Communication’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series. A public lecture will be given at 6 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 13 (Multi-purpose room). Free.

Friday, Jan. 29

School of Public Policy Brownbag Seminar Series — Assistant Professor of Political Science Alison Johnston presents “Taming Capital in an Age of Global Finance: Labor Politics and Housing Bubbles.” The brownbag will be held in Fairbanks 304 from noon-1 p.m. The event is free and open to the OSU community.

Anthropology Tan Sack Series — Professor of Communication Studies at Western Oregon University, Dana Schowalter, will give a lecture on the Nike Foundation’s Girl Effect campaign. It was launched in 2008 to help organizations market an array of girl-centered non-profit activities that encourage consumers in the Global North to feel good about using consumption-oriented activities to “save” girls in the Global South. The talk, entitled “The Girl Effect: The Branded Marketplace of Philanthropic Governance,” will be in 201 Waldo Hall at noon.

Elizabeth Root, Associate Professor of Speech Communication, will present “Cultural Adjustment from the Other Side: Korean Students’ Experiences with their Sojourner-Teachers” from 4 – 5 p.m. in Shepard Hall 106. The results of this case study highlight the need to expand research on cultural adjustment beyond the traditional model of the sojourner’s experience in a foreign country.

News

The College of Liberal Arts scholarship applications for 2016-17 are now available. We appreciate your assistance in promoting these scholarships. Each scholarship has unique qualifications and GPA is not necessarily a determining factor in the decisions of the scholarship committee.

The Bush Barn Art Center in Salem recently hosted an opening reception for art professor Yuji Hiratsuka’s solo show. His show titled “38 Years” was curated OSU Art Alumna Kathryn Cellerini Moore. Hiratsuka’s comprehensive work of intaglio print art spans nearly four decades. The exhibit continues through February 27.  http://salemart.org/programs/bush-barn-art-center/exhibitions/.

Todd Kesterson’s  (NMC) data visualization students have been selected as one of the 11 finalists in the AI & Robotics for Good competition in the United Arab Emirates. The project was a collaboration between NMC and the College of Engineering. The more votes the video gets, the more chance the collaborative idea — a self-driving wheelchair for people with motor disabilities — can come to fruition. http://www.roboticsforgood.ae/finals/self-driving-wheelchair-people-severe-motor-disabilities.

Awards and Honors

Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies Natchee Barnd is the 2016 recipient of Oregon State’s Frances Dancy Hooks Award, which recognizes OSU students, staff or faculty who exemplify Frances Dancy Hooks’ work: building bridges across cultures, showing courage in promoting diversity.

Current Research, Publications and Creative Activity

Distinguished Professor of Film Studies Jon Lewis’ latest book, “Producing” has recently been released by Rutgers University Press. This book is the 6th volume in the “Behind the Silver Screen,  a history of motion picture crafts such as screenwriting, cinematography and acting, of which Lewis is the series editor. http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/product/Producing,5621.aspx. The book also received a starred review from the Library Journal.

Assistant professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Qwo-Li Driskill’s essay, “Insurrections: Indigenous Sexualities, Genders and Decolonial Resistance, “ was just published in the Journal of Global Indigeneity: http://ro.uow.edu.au/jgi/.

Associate Professor of History Amy Koehlinger was recently interviewed by the Marginalia Review of books about her manuscript on Catholic boxing: http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/directions-in-the-study-of-religion-boxing-masculinity-american-catholicism/.

Assistant Professor of History Christopher Nichols was featured on OPB’s Think Out Loud on Jan. 15, 2016, discussing President Obama’s State of the Union speech, as well as the occupation in Harney County: http://www.opb.org/radio/programs/thinkoutloud/segment/news-roundtable-jan-15-2016-once-they-were-hats/.

Patti Watkins of the School of Psychological Science and her undergraduate research assistant in the Women, Weight, and Body Image Lab, Madison Gerber, have just published the following article: Watkins, P. L., & Gerber, M. R. (2016). Weight-centrism in psychology: Implications and new directions from the field of fat studies. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, 5, 57-72.

On January 23, Dr. Sean Paul Mills (Music) will be served as an adjudicator for the Salem Youth Symphony Concerto Competition. The winner(s) of the competition will perform as soloist with the Salem Youth Symphony later in the season. Additionally, Mills attended the the College Orchestra Directors Association Conference hosted by the University of Utah School of Music January 13 – 17.

Athletic Bands director Dana Biggs was recently the guest conductor of the Northern Iowa Athletic Conference Honor Band in Waverly, Iowa. Biggs stayed an extra day and ran rehearsals for the bands at Waverly-Shellrock High School as well.

Dr. Chris Chapman was the guest conductor for the Mona Shores High School Band Clinic in Grand Ledge, Michigan last weekend. Each year, the high school invites a distinguished conductor to serve as clinician for the two day event. The Mona Shores High School Band (Jason Boyden, conductor) is annually one of the finest high school ensembles in the state of Michigan and the midwest. This high school commissioned Dr. Chapman to compose a work for their premiere wind ensemble two years ago. That work was premiered at Carnegie Hall and has been performed by numerous ensembles across the country.

Michael Boonstra, Yuji Hiratsuka and Shelley Jordon (Art) were all part of the Connective Conversations program run through The University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts and the Ford Foundation. A book was just published that highlights the studios and work of the 70 Oregon artists included in the publication. https://aaa.uoregon.edu/connective-conversations.

In November music instructor and Director of Jazz Ensembles Ryan Biesack traveled to Hong Kong, Hong Kong with the Improvised Jazz Electro Acoustic trio “Willamette Underground” to be a part of the Hong Kong Peoples Fringe Festival (http://www.pplsfringe.com/index.php/en/events/m). Performing two concerts as a part of the festival, the trio composed of colleagues from Willamette University in Salem (Dr. James Miley & Dr. Mike Nord), also taught workshops and masterclasses on free improvisation at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Upon return, the trio recorded it’s first record, which is slated for release on Leo records in 2017.

In December 2015 Gregg Walker (Speech Communication) participated in COP 21 – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Paris, France.  He led the delegations of two Observer Organizations (NGOs): Mediators Beyond Borders International and the International Environmental Communication Association and served on the Steering Committee of RINGO – the Research and Independent Non Government Organizations Constituency of the UNFCCC. Walker has also participated in the following:

• Publication — Walker (Speech Communication), with co-authors Steve Daniels of Utah State University and Jens Emborg of the University of Copenhagen has published “Public Participation in Environmental Policy Decision Making: Insights from Twenty Years of Collaborative Learning Fieldwork,” in The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication, Anders Hansen and Robert Cox, editors, Routledge Press, 2015.
• Paper Presentation — Walker, with co-authors Steve Daniels of Utah State University and Jens Emborg of the University of Copenhagen, presented the paper, “Working with Trust in Natural Resource and Environmental Management Decision Situations:  A Framework for Analysis,” at the National Communication Association Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2015.