The Leading Edge

Events

Monday, Oct. 3

American Umpire a documentary film screening and discussion with panelists Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs and Dr. Christopher McKnight Nichols — Cobbs grants us a sneak preview of her forthcoming PBS documentary film, which is based on her acclaimed history book of the same name. The film recounts America’s post-World War II role as the world’s policemen and explores whether the United States can, and should, continue to play that role in the future. 7 p.m., Oregon Historical Society, Portland.

Tuesday, Oct. 4

The university community and friends are invited to a reception to celebrate the service of long-time theatre faculty Charlotte Headrick, George Caldwell and Barbara Mason, who have retired from Oregon State University. Please join us on from 4-6  p.m. in the University Black Box Theatre in Withycombe Hall for cake and refreshments.

Race in America, Past and Present: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Burden of History — Race in America: Past and Present is a series of conversations about the complex historic legacy of anti-Black Racism in the U.S. Through facilitated discussions of short readings and viewings, participants will develop a strong foundation for understanding the causes and consequences of racial inequality in the contemporary U.S. and reflect on the relationships between past and present and between personal and political. Conversations will take place 5-7 p.m. on Tuesdays during fall term at the Lonnie B. harris Black Cultural Center.

Adaptations: Storytelling in Novels and Film — Scientist, futurist and science fiction author David Brin’s lecture will focus in part on The Postman, his 1985 novel set largely in Oregon, Corvallis and OSU. Selections of the 1997 film The Postman, with Kevin Costner, will be shown, accompanied by readings by Brin. This event is part of SPARK: Arts+Science@OSU. 6-8 p.m., C&E Auditorium, The LaSells Stewart Center.

Star Trek and Black Lives Matter: As part of its celebration of the 50th anniversary of the TV series Star Trek, the Anarres Project presents a viewing and discussion of Deep Space Nine’s “Far Beyond the Stars”. This award winning episode is a powerful and emotional examination of racial oppression and police brutality, as well as the power of the radical imagination to envision alternative futures, that is as poignant now as it was when it first aired almost 20 years ago. Free pizza will be provided to help our conversation along. 6 p.m. in Milam Hall 318.

Thursday, Oct. 6

Elena Del Río will lecture on “Nymph()maniac: Cruel Polyphony of Nature” at 4 p.m. in LINC 210. This talk will focus on three moments in Lars von Trier’s film that are key to understanding the connection between a seemingly affirmative model of Nature and a much darker vision of cruelty. The film discussed features graphic depictions of sex and violence and may not be suitable for all audiences. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Horning Lecture Series – The Body Material — From Watchful Grasshoppers to Rat Basketball: Practices of Live Animal Display in Twentieth-Century Science Museums. Dr. Karen Rader studies the intellectual, cultural, and social history of the modern life sciences in the U.S. She is currently Director of the Science, Technology and Society Program and professor in the History department at Virginia Commonwealth University. 4 p.m., MU: La Raza room 208.

Friday, Oct. 7

OSU Disability Network — George Estreich will present, “An Open Letter to Medical Students: Down Syndrome, Paradox, and Medicine” 12-1 p.m., Milam Hall 301. Join a group of OSU community members interested in discussing Disability Studies teaching and research, in general, and the development of a DS curriculum at OSU, in particular.  

Recurring Events

Sept. 19-Nov. 4 — The Little Gallery is pleased to present Eileen Hinckle: Drawn to Murals.  Ms. Hinckle, a past student of OSU’s  Arts and Communication’s JumpStart program,  undertook murals as an inspiring and dynamic form of public art that can interact and intertwine with architecture and environment.  As she traveled from Lima throughout Peru, and subsequently throughout Bolivia,  Chile and Argentina, the Hinkle  used art to connect her experiences to her surroundings and to engage in meaningful exchange with people she met along the way. Reception: Thursday, Sept. 29, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., The Little Gallery, 210 Kidder Hall.

Oct. 3 – Nov. 2 — Oregon State University’s Fairbanks Gallery will feature new work by art faculty Julia Bradshaw and Anna Fidler in an exhibition titled “Shapes and Séances.” Bradshaw, a photographic artist and Fidler, a painter, share an interest in using photographs as source material, in the fantastical landscape and in early abstract work by pioneering women artists. For more information: http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/school-arts-and-communication/art/fairbanks-gallery-art/upcoming-exhibit.

Oct. 3 – 4 —  Auditions for Oregon State University Theatre’s fall 2016 production of Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” will be held at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3 and 4 in the Withycombe Hall Main Stage theatre. The classic tale is told by James and the insect characters – Miss Spider, Old-Green-Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybird and Earthworm. The play begins at the end of the story, when James and his friends are living in the giant peach stone in Central Park, New York.

Upcoming Events

Porcelain Stories: Chinese Blue-and-White Around the World—From its origins to the end of the 18th century, Chinese porcelain acted as an unlikely barometer of human affairs, registering the impact of international trade, artistic conventions, ceremonial rites, and cultural contact. Dr. Robert Finlay, courtesy history faculty, OSU School of History, Philosophy, and Religion, and author of The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History, will discuss how porcelain and its imitations yield the earliest and most extensive material evidence for cultural contact on a global scale in the opening guest lecture at the Center for the Humanities, Monday, Oct. 10, at 4 p.m. Autzen House, 811 SW Jefferson Avenue. The lecture will be followed by a reception from 5-7 p.m.

News

Charlene Martinez, SLCS and Julie Green, Art, will be featured panelists at the Oregon Arts Summit, which takes place at The LaSells Stewart Center Thurs., Oct. 6 and Fri., Oct. 7.

Associate Professor Christopher Nichols appeared on OPB’s Think Out Loud News Roundtable on Friday, Sept. 30, on the election, the presidential debate, politics, Portland policing, Portlandia, and more: https://soundcloud.com/thinkoutloudopb/news-roundtable-september-30.

Current Research, Publications and Creative Activity

Joshua Reeves, faculty member of New Media Communications and Speech Communication, co-edited a special issue of Surveillance & Society entitled “Surveillance and Performance.” The issue, co-edited with Rachel Hall (Syracuse) and Torin Monahan (UNC-Chapel Hill), also includes an introduction coauthored by the editors. 

School of Writing, Literature, and Film Assistant Professor Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder has recently published Communicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation through Routledge’s book series Routledge Studies in Technical Communication, Rhetoric, and Culture: https://www.routledge.com/Communicating-Mobility-and-Technology-A-Material-Rhetoric-for-Persuasive/Pflugfelder/p/book/9781315572901.

Professor Lei Xue, Art, was invited to give a lecture entitled “Poetry and Picture, In and Out” at Fudan University on September 21, 2016.

Assistant Professor of English Elizabeth Sheehan recently published an article entitled “This Great Work of the Creation of Beauty’: Imagining Internationalism in W.E.B. Du Bois’s Dark Princess and Black Beauty Culture” in Modern Fiction Studies 62.3 (Fall 2016): 412-443.