The Leading Edge

Events

Tuesday, May 24

Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra — The orchestra presents: Mahler Symphony No. 7 “Song of the Night.” 7:30 p.m., The LaSells Stewart Center. Tickets: $22-32, in advance online at cosusymphony.org, at Grass Roots Books & Music and Gracewinds Music. OSU students free with ID.

Wednesday, May 25

The Spirit, the Earth and Human Earthlings: Multi-Religious Thought, Feeling and Action in Response to the Climate Crisis — Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman, leaders of the movement for Jewish renewal and well-known authors, teachers and activists, will speak, teach, tell stories, and weave  conversations in support of strengthening our local inter-faith and community efforts to address climate change. 6:30-8:30 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Blvd.

Thursday, May 26

Environmental Arts & Humanities Graduate Conference — Mark Carey, Associate Professor History and Associate Dean, Robert D. Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, will give the keynote address, “Variola Vanquished? The Complex History and Legacy of Smallpox Eradication,” from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the MU Journey Room. Later, Bob H. Reinhardt, Executive Director, Willamette Heritage Center, will speak on his book, Taming Manhattan, from 5-6:15 p.m. in the MU Journey Room. The conference will be held there, as well, from 8 a.m.-6:15 p.m.

We would like invite you all to an event, entitled, Talanoa Mai, (meaning let’s talk) a panel discussion formed to address Pacific Islander needs in higher education as well as build community and support for our Pacific Islander students here at Oregon State. This panel features contribution and direction from Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, a Tongan/Pacific Islander activist and scholar with invited panelists, Lani Teves of University of Oregon, Patricia Fifita of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Toeutu Faaleava of Portland State University. 1:30-3 p.m., Asian & Pacific Cultural Center. Please RSVP to Robin Fifita if you plan on attending.

CAPITALISM: A documentary in six parts by Ilan Ziv  — Blending interviews with some of the world’s great historians, economists, anthropologists and social critics with on-the-ground footage shot in 22 countries, CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years. Snacks will be provided. 6-8 p.m., Milam Hall, Room 301.

Spring Sing!  Bella Voce — Directed by Dr. Sandra Babb and OSU Meistersingers, directed by Russell Christensen. 7:30 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1165 NW Monroe Avenue, Corvallis. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door. Youth and OSU students free with ID. Advance tickets available online only at tickettomato.com.

Friday, May 27

Britannia, Rule the Rails: Legality, Land, and the Sierra Leone Railway, 1896-1910  — Trina Hogg will discuss the British Empire’s 20th-century construction of railways in West Africa. This paper presents new research on how British desire to export produce cheaply from the interior compelled colonial administrators to use extra-legal measures to obtain land from local leaders by describing the railway as  “pioneer of civilization” to both the British and African public. Noon, Milam 301.

Music à la Carte — OSU Campus Band. Noon, MU Outdoor Plaza, Free.

Anthropology Tan Sack Series — Associate Professor of Geography Hannah Gosnell will attempt to put the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in context by reviewing the history of federal land ownership and governance in the U.S. West and juxtaposing longstanding sagebrush rebellion tendencies with the more recent emergence of collaborative community based conservation and a growing interest in “the radical center.” Her lecture, entitled “Making Sense of the Malheur,” will be in 201 Waldo Hall at noon.

Native American Flute Circle — Hundreds of former and present students of the Native American flute class at Oregon State University gather on campus to set an annual record for the largest Native American-style flute circle. 1 p.m., MU Outdoor Plaza, Free.

Environmental writer and photographer Elizabeth Rush will give a free public reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Valley Library rotunda. A question-and-answer session will follow. Rush is the author of many books including the recently released “Still Lifes from a Vanishing City: Essays and Photographs from Yangon, Myanmar.” Her work chronicles communities being irrevocably changed by late capitalist industrialization and has appeared in Granta, Orion, The New Republic, Le Monde Diplomatique, Frieze and other publications.

Upcoming Events

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio will deliver the annual Gov. Tom McCall Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, June 1, at Oregon State University. His lecture, “The Future of Our Representative Democracy,” will discuss the challenges facing U.S. democracy from a variety of negative factors, including gerrymandering; special interest money; partisan polarization; voter apathy; and voter disenfranchisement. He will also discuss ways in which citizens can take action to safeguard the democracy and strengthen political institutions. The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Construction and Engineering Hall in the LaSells Stewart Center,

Recurring Events

Art faculty Anna Fidler will exhibit her work at Artworks CEI this month with an opening during the Corvallis Art Walk. The title of her exhibit is Telepathy Quilt and Two Stars, and runs from May 19 – June 10 at 408 SW Monroe Avenue|161, Corvallis.

Yuji Hiratsuka exhibit “Conversation Pieces,” The Little Gallery, 210 Kidder Hall.  The artist, Yuji Hiratsuka is a professor of  printmaking at Oregon State University. The reception will take place from 3-5 p.m.  The show will run April 25-June 10.  Gallery hours:  M-F, 8-5 (closed during the lunch hour).

Fairbanks Gallery is featuring the work of OSU alumnus Ben Buswell May 2-25. Buswell is a sculptor whose work spans a variety of media, from ceramics to incised photographs, using processes such as doubling and repetitive mark-making to highlight the temporal nature of the work. His work appears in numerous public and private collections and has been supported by grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation.Buswell holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a BFA from Oregon State University.

Awards and Honors

College of Liberal Arts adviser Robin Fifita was selected as a recipient of the 2016 Women of Achievement Award.  Your selection was based upon your extraordinary contribution to work that has positively impacted the lives of women and our greater OSU community. Fifita and other awardees were honored at a May 23 luncheon, and selected by the OSU Women’s Center and the Women of Achievement Awards Committee.

Ron Mize, associate professor in the School of Language, Culture and Society was recently awarded a Fulbright to teach in Mexico City next fall. He will serve as the Fulbright-Robles Chair in U.S. Studies at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

Current Research, Publications and Creative Activity

Stacey L. Smith Associate Professor of History Stacey Smith presented a paper on African Americans and U.S. empire in the Pacific at a symposium at St. Louis University. The symposium featured academic panels, community events, and workshops for K-12 teachers, all focused on the history of African Americans in the nineteenth-century U.S. West. For more information, see: http://libraries.slu.edu/pages/aawest/.

Associate Professor of Psychology David Kerr was an invited speaker at the “Triple i” Suicidology Conference in Piran, Slovenia where he presented a lecture entitled “Long term perspective on suicide risk: Illustrations from a 30 year prospective study of American boys” to researchers from Norway, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Greece, and Slovenia. Kerr and his colleagues also had an article accepted for publication in the journal Suicide and Life-threatening Behavior entitled “Belongingness and Burdensomeness in Adolescents: Slovene Translation and Validation of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire.”

Assistant Professor of Political Science Alison Johnston’s book on the Euro crisis, From Convergence to Crisis: Labor Markets and the Instability of the Euro, was recently published by Cornell University Press: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100347570.

Joshua Reeves, Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Communication, published the article “Automatic for the People: The Automation of Communicative Labor,” in the journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 13.2 (2016): 150-165.

Colin Hesse, Speech Communication, has published “The relationship between family communication patterns and child vaccination intentions” in Communication Research Reports, 33, 61-67 with E.A. Rauscher. The study examined the role of family communication patterns in assessing the intentions of individuals to vaccinate their children.

Ann Grabe, Instructor of Cello at OSU and principal cellist of the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra performed on Sunday, May 22 with “Cellophoria” in Eugene, Oregon. The cello-quartet also includes Dale Bradley, Dave Chinburg and Anne Ridlington.

OSU Visiting Professor of Opera Marc Callahan will visiting London over the coming weeks to act as revival director of renowned British composer Harrison Birtwistle’s “The Corridor” and “The Cure.” A co-production with the Royal Opera House and the Aldeburgh Festival, this production was nominated as best world premiere at the International Opera Awards and will  be performed this summer at the Holland Festival.

OSU Instructor of Audio Production Mike Gamble will be appearing with “Catfish” at Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon. Presented by Portland’s Creative Music Guild, the program also features the Peter Brotzmann Quartet, a legendary free jazz ensemble.

Faculty and students from Art, Music, and Theater took part in the second and final stage of the Creative Coast project May 21-22 at Cape Perpetua. Building upon the experiences and inspiration from a trip to the area last month, the students used the coast as both inspiration and studio in the creation of on-site artworks. Students took part in classes taught by Michael Boonstra, Julia Bradshaw, Anna Fidler, Elizabeth Helman, Andrew Myers, Dana Reason, and Charles Robinson. Video from a similar project last year – the Creative Forest – can be found here: https://vimeo.com/146518978.