▪
▪
▪
Past Turning Points Faculty Speaker Series
Presentations
▪ ▪
2007-2008
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
November 14 - 07 ▪
George "Pinky" Nelson
▪Dir., Science Math & Technology
Ed.
"Sputnik
plus 50 years – The Enduring Impact"
Pinky
Nelson, Science, Math & Tech. Ed. Dir. & Physics/Astronomy professor
has been at WWU since
2002, & was a NASA astronaut/mission specialist aboard 3 space shuttle flights from 1978-89.
“In Oct. 1957, as a 7 year-old boy, along with
millions of other Americans, I watched a faint ‘star’
move rapidly from west to east across the evening sky. I
will never forget how excited it made me feel about the
future, and how nervously the grownups reacted,” said
Nelson. “In '89, after three trips into orbit, I was
among the first westerners to visit Kazakhstan to stand
on the launch pad where the Space Age started.”
50 years have passed since Sputnik was launched, but
Nelson said its impact is still being felt in gov., military, schools, media,
the scientific
community and in our culture. He believes Sputnik was a
turning point-the day we first left the planet to begin
our expansion into the solar system and beyond.
Nelson was Project 2061 director & senior staff
member of American Assoc. for Adv. of Science. Project 2061 focuses on
science, math, & tech. ed. reform
at all levels–creating a system where all high school
graduates are literate in science, math & technology.
Nelson’s missions included:1st
on-orbit satellite repair in '84; pilot for 1st
operational flight of manned maneuvering unit &
primary extravehicular crewman; crew on Discovery-Sept. '89, immediately following Challenger. Nelson has advised NASA as chair of the
Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions
External Independent Readiness Review Team.
January
16 - 08
▪
Kathy Knutzen
▪
Assoc.
Dean, College of Humanities & Social Sciences
&
Physical Ecucation
Professor
-
"Active Living for Health"
Knutzen is director of WWU’s Center for
Healthy Living and has taught at WWU since 1978.“Active
Living for Health” reviewed health risks associated
with physical inactivity and physical
activity/inactivity trends across age groups. She examined the health benefits of physical activity
demonstrating strong support for inclusion of regular
physical activity for overall health. Different types of
exercise ws examined pointing out benefits related
to cardiovascular or strength exercise. Transportation, environment
& lifestyle were
explored from the role they play in influencing overall
physical activity participation.
A Professor in the PEHR Department & Associate Dean of the College
of Humanities & Social Sciences, Knutzen has taught
courses in Kinesiology & Biomechanics since 1979 and has
directed the Mature Adult Training Program since 1995 -
introducing hundreds of older adults to strength &
physical activity for maintenance/improvement of
function in aging.
Knutzen coordinates the Center for Healthy Living
activities, a center comprised of faculty from 7
departments who promote health in the community. Her
research interests include older adult function and
exercise equipment evaluation. She recently completed
the 3rd edition of a biomechanics/kinesiology textbook
and she maintains an active publication/research
presentation schedule. She is a Fellow in the American
College of Sports Medicine and the Research Consortium
of AAHPERD. She was
recently inducted into the American Academy of
Kinesiology, a prestigious organization with 150 active
members who have made significant contributions to the
fields of kinesiology & physical education.
February
13
▪
Marsha Riddle Buly
▪
Elementary Education
"Demystifying Bilingual Education"
Marsha Riddle Buly
received the 2005-06 Excellence in Teaching Award and
was the Spring 2006
commencement speaker.
In her talk, she explored why
bilingual education in the U.S. is misunderstood. She
noted that “countries throughout the world offer
students opportunities to study at least two languages
in elementary school. In Finland & Spain,
students regularly study/speak three languages, not
just two.” In the U.S., bilingual education in
elementary schools is less common.
Riddle Buly described the difference between additive &
subtractive approaches to bilingual education. Additive
or enrichment bilingual education uses two or more languages where
students fluently speak, read, write, & comprehend all
languages of instruction.
In subtractive or remedial bilingual education
the goal is to replace whatever language a student
speaks with only English.
She provided
benefits of additive bilingual
education for both English Language Learners and native
U.S. English speakers.
She joined Western's faculty in 1999. For 20 years she has worked in K-12 schools as a teacher,
language & reading specialist, & mentor
teacher in Spain, California, and WA. Her focus is on literacy assessment/instruction with an emphasis on marginalized
K-12 students. Her interest in
student achievement led to 2nd focus: how
teachers can effectively work with all students.
Current work: Bilingual Ed. focuses on how English
Language Learners & native.
March 5
▪
Midori Takagi
▪
Fairhaven College
"There are no Katos Here, Everyone is the Hornet: The
Asian Hero in American Action Films"
Midori Takagi
teaches Interdisciplinary Studies
including
U.S. history, African American history and
comparative racial & ethnic studies.
This lecture discussed the history of cinema heroes
& the Asian American experience and why Hollywood
won’t allow Asian men to “beat the bad guy, get the girl
and ride into the sunset.”
The popularity of Asian stars in American movies has
been growing for the past 30 years. Since the 1970s,
beginning with Bruce Lee, Asian actors have become more
visible and have moved beyond a cult following.
Examples of recent popular Asian action stars include
Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Chow Yun Fat, and Jet Li, all
of whom have been thrilling western moviegoers with
feats of physical agility and power. With each of their
box office successes, Asian actors in general are
finding greater opportunities to play leading roles.
They are no longer limited to being the side-kick or
chauffer-in the vein of Kato - to a crime-fighting hero
such as the Green Hornet. They now can play the
Hornet himself. While many critics, and many fans,
readily honor Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, and Jet Li to
be American action heroes, their crowns do not fit well.
Because in spite of these actors’ impact on Hollywood,
they have not redefined the American action tradition to
truly accept an Asian hero.
April 16
▪
Bruce Beasley
▪
English-
"Poetry and the Pleasures of the
Strange"
To celebrate National Poetry Month,
Bruce Beasley, award-winning poet & English Professor, examined the
ways ancient and contemporary poetry can comfort
and terrify us through its extremity—emotional,
linguistic, , spiritual, intellectual extremities
that make poetry sometimes off-putting/strange in
its intensities and its differences from ordinary
speech.
Beasley has taught at Western since 1992.
He is
the author of six books of poetry, including The
Corpse Flower: New and Selected Poems, published
last year. He won
the 1993 Ohio State University Press Award for his book
The Creation; the 1996 Colorado Prize in Poetry
for Summer Mystagogia;
and the 2005 Univ. of Georgia Press Contemporary
Poetry Series for Lord Brain, a poetic meditation
on neuroscience, cosmology, and theology. He has won
fellowships from the NEA and
Artist Trust of Washington. His work has won three
poetry Pushcart Prizes and was selected for inclusion in
The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from the
First Thirty Years of the Pushcart Prize.
Through
a reading & discussion of his own poems and work by
Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Theodore
Roethke, Harryette Mullen, and other poets, Beasley toured ways in which poetry draws on chant,
paradox, prayer, parable, metaphor, and ambiguity, as
well as storytelling and the music of words. “This
was a Poet—It is That--/Distills amazing sense/From
ordinary Meanings--,” Emily Dickinson wrote. Beasley
will discuss ways in which poetry brings sense out of
the intensities of our senses and “ordinary meanings”
out of the mazes of language. He read from his
book-in-progress Paradoxography, conceived as a
21st-century parallel to ancient Greek
paradoxographies, which were literary collections of
wonders: the strange, the inexplicable, the revelatory,
and the marvelous.
Oct. 1, 2006 - Mary Janell Metzger
-
English -
"Teaching and
Learning in an Age of Fear and Corruption"
The
author of Shakespeare Without Fear: Teaching for Understanding,
English professor Mary Janell Metzger explored the connections between student
fear, corruption or what is more commonly known as
“cheating,” and the nature of teaching and learning
today. Through her experience as a teacher of the
anxiety producing Bard, Metzger examined the nature of
today’s students’ fear of failure, the relationship
between such fear, contemporary education debates, the
culture of moral corruption advanced by global
capitalism, and the work of teaching/learning. She argued that teachers
& students must
risk failure i to engage the work of writers like
Shakespeare, writers that challenge us to think as
clearly, and reasonably as we can about who
they invite us to be as their readers — individually,
historically, socially, politically – and what such an
experience means for living in this world – in and
outside the classroom.
A DVD of Metzger's presentation
is available in Western's Library & can be checked out.
Jan. 1, 2007 - Zite Hutton
- Accounting
"The IRS: Myths and
Reality"
Award-winning professor Marguerite "Zite" Hutton,
a former IRS Agent and a CPA, discussed common "myths" related to the IRS
and taxes, and countered those myths based on
her own experience and observation and current research. Hutton stated that "no
one likes to pay taxes, even though tax revenue pays for
the many services that are provided by our communities,
states and country." "There are so many myths
-such as tax refunds
are only delivered on Tuesdays" - and everyone hears
horror stories, such as "do you know what the IRS did to
a friend of a friend of a friend?" Hutton is
the CBE Distinguished
Teaching Fellow for 2006-09. She is also the
recipient of: WA
Society of CPA's "2005 Outstanding
Accounting Educator for WA State;" WWU's
Excellence in Teaching Award; Chase Franklin Excellence in Teaching Award;
& the American Taxation Association/Arthur Anderson
Teaching Innovation Award.
A
DVD of Hutton's ' talk is available in Western's
library - Special Collections. M-F- 11 am-4
pm, or by appt.@ @ 650-3193. The tape is archival only,
& cannot be checked out.
FEB. 21, 2007 -
Steve Globerman
-
Economics -
"Competing for Highly Educated People: Is the U.S.
Economy in Trouble?"
Globerman, Kaiser
Professor of International Business & Dir. of the
Center for International Business, contended that highly educated workers are
a major resource for innovation and economic growth.
Traditionally, the U.S. has been a magnet for students
seeking advanced degrees, and for highly educated
and trained professionals. The inward migration of
highly educated people has been a
prominent reason for the prosperity the U.S. has enjoyed over the past decades.
Researchers are increasingly
concerned that the U.S. is becoming
less attractive as a migration destination
for highly educated people, including those who already
hold U.S. citizenship. The presentation focused on the
issues of whether and why the U.S. is becoming a less
attractive location for highly educated people to live/work.
Possible
policy responses on the part of U.S. government
officials was also discussed.
Globerman has
published articles, and books on
international business topics. He is listed in
Who’s Who in Economics; Who’s Who in International
Business and Who’s Who in Business Education. His
personal/professional interest in international
migration issues was honed by his own experience
as a migrant who lived and worked in Canada.
March 7 - Gregory Pulver
-Theatre Arts
Chair -
"Feminism and
Costume History"
Pulver's lecture was not just
about clothing, - it was also about cultural
influences and why women in power wore what they wore. He presented an overview of costume
& fashion history
spanning over 4,000 years, focusing on women in roles of
leadership. Nefertiti, Queen Elizabeth, Amelia Bloomer,
early women's rights activist, and other strong women
were discussed as ground-breakers of fashion and
history. He also explored women's silhouette
and how it has changed throughout history from Queen
Elizabeth's time to the present.
Pulver teaches courses in costume design and history and
specialty classes in puppetry, millinery, mask making,
and movement for actors.
A DVD of Pulver's presentation is available in
Western's Library and can be checked out.
April
11
-
Ray Wolpow-Chair,
Secondary Education
"Through
the Dead of Night: Lessons in Resiliency and
Hope from Survivors of the Holocaust"
Wolpow, Director of
the Northwest Center for Holocaust, Genocide &
Ethnocide Education,
stated that many K-12
students have backgrounds that include pervasive
familial/societal violence. Students who live in families that mistreat
them, in dangerous neighborhoods, who attend school with hostile
and delinquent peers, cannot choose
to leave. This lack of choice over people/environments increases juveniles’ vulnerability to
intimate victimization and participation
in related high-risk behaviors. Consequences: low self-esteem,
depression, attachment, personality & sexual
disorders, and dramatic decreases in academic
performance.
Holocaust survivors know abuse, gang violence, murder and betrayal. Many
who are familiar with pain of loss have constructed meaningful lives. Survivors who affirmed value of life in face of death and chose recovery in the face
of despair, do more than inspire
us. Sharing stories of how survivors restored their lives by helping others and
the creation a new genre of
“testimonial” literature, he showed
how their messages, taught with a pedagogy that fosters
resiliency, can be comforting to K-12 students struggling to recover
from their own traumas.
October 19
-
Wendy Walker
-
Environmental Studies
"Disaster is in the
Eye of the Beholder: An Alligator’s View of Hurricane
Katrina"
Walker
explored whether
Hurricane Katrina and other sudden natural events like
tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, while so devastating to
humans, could actually benefit other species. She
suggested that humans tend to view these events in the
context of their own lives as “disasters,” though the
events have varying impacts, both positive and negative,
on diverse species – and may actually be a necessary and
natural part of the Earth’s complex environmental
systems.
“It’s possible that what is good for an
alligator in the long run might even aid the human
species in the long run,” added Walker. To quote
naturalist John Muir, “when we try to pick out anything
by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the
Universe.”
a DVD of walker's ' lecture is available in
western's library - special collections. m-f
- 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the tape is
archival only, and cannot be checked out.
November 16 - Dawn Prince
Hughes -
Anthropology
-
"The Curious
Incident of the Gorilla
in the Meantime: My Unusual Path
to Academe"
Dawn
Prince-Hughes explored her unique path to academic
success. Undiagnosed with Autism until age 36 she had a very
difficult time in school. Eventually, she quit
school in her third year of high school and left home,
becoming homeless for several years. A
chance meeting with a group of captive gorillas afforded
her an opportunity to learn how to
understand human social behavior, how to regulate
sensory stress and resulting anxiety, and eventually led
to her rediscovering my enthusiasm for learning. As a
result, Prince-Hughes obtained a
Ph.D. in interdisciplinary anthropology through Universitat Herisau, in Switzerland, with primate
studies as a focus. Dawn focused on how autistic/highly sensitive students can either
excel or fail in the academic world, what strategies
work and do not work for students and the need for "neurodiversity"
within the university community.
an
audio tape of Price-Hughes presentation is available in
western's library and can be checked out. consult
the on-line catalog for availability.
January 18
-
Peter Haug
-
Decision Sciences
- "Outsourcing in India and its Effect on the United
States"
Haug
addressed American offshore outsourcing of information
technology, technical and customer support services, and
business processes to India. He contends that
outsourcing will increase dramatically during the next
several years. By 2008, a National Association of
Software and Service Companies
survey estimates that Indian employment in IT
outsourcing service providers will increase from 650,000
to over 1 million people. Based upon the authors’
experiences in teaching about and observing outsourcing
activities in India, this presentation discussed recent
trends in offshore outsourcing to India and the benefits
and challenges of outsourcing for the United States.
a DVD of Haug's presentation is available in
western's library
and can be checked out.
consult on-line catalog
for availability.
February 15
-
Sandra Mottner
-
Finance & Marketing
"Nonprofit Marketing: A Different Kind of Shareholder
Wealth"
Mottner, addressed a relatively new
area of study: the growing use of business tools and
theories to help nonprofit organizations achieve their
goals and work with their constituencies. According to Mottner, nonprofit marketing involves
using marketing strategy and tools to “do good,” rather
than just making a profit. She said nonprofit
organizations are often understaffed, under-funded and
dependent on volunteers who are not skilled in marketing
or fundraising, so they could clearly benefit from
strategic, traditionally profit-driven marketing
strategies. Mottner presented samples of nonprofit marketing for museums.
a DVD of
Mottner's presentation is available in western's library
and can be checked out.
consult the on-line catalog
for availability.
April
12
-
Fallou Ngom
-
Modern & Classical Languages
"Language
Analysis in Asylum Cases: Recent Development in Forensic Linguistics"
Ngom discussed how
many Western governments now use language analysis to
determine the national origin of asylum seekers. Due to wars, poverty, population displacements and
migration, the number of asylum seekers to Western
countries to grow. "While many people apply for asylum for genuine reasons, some use
the asylum system to immigrate to the West by claiming
that they come from a country whose citizens are
normally granted asylum," said Ngom. And, in cases
where immigration officials doubt the asylum applicant's
claims, the socio-linguistic features in the applicant's
speech are analyzed to verify whether they are
consistent with those found in the communities they
claim to be from.
a DVD of
Ngom's presentation is available in western's library
and can be checked out.
consult the on-line catalog
for availability.
November 17 -
Arunas
Oslapas -
Industrial
Design - "Zero Waste"
Arunas Oslapas,
Associate Professor & Industrial Design Program
Coordinator in the Engineering Technology department
spoke about an ongoing industrial design project that
focuses on intercepting industrial waste/scrap and
incorporating it into innovative products that address
the triple bottom line of economics, social equity and
the environment. He described experiments and
showed visuals,
and showed failures and successes as his students have embarked on
their adventures to "turn trash into cash."
Oslapas stressed that “In order for our Earth to be a
fully sustainable system, we must reach a point of zero
waste. In nature, the perfect model, there is no waste;
all ‘products’ produced in natural systems are food or
raw materials for another level in the cycle,” said
Oslapas. “Understanding the cyclical
characteristics of nature can aid us in the man-made
world as we mimic nature and pattern our systems after
her.”
an audio tape of Oslapas'
lecture is available in western's
library - special collections. M-F - 11 am-4 pm, or by
appointment
@ 650-3193. the
tape is archival only, & cannot be checked out.
January 19 -
Gigi Berardi & Lynne Robbins -
Environmental Studies
"Academic Tribes & Territories: Promoting
Diversity"
In addition to working together at Huxley, where
Berardi in Environmental Studies Chair, Robbins and
Berardi co-developed the Tribal Environmental and
Natural Resources Management program which is used at
Northwest Indian College. The program
combines the different social, cultural and academic
principles distinct to Western and Native American
approaches to science learning, to build a core learning
community. "How groups and individuals perceive and
communicate with one another within their concepts of
time and space, and interaction, or how they establish
modes of learning are very important parts of
culture," Berardi said. Some cultures favor
"high-content" learning, using multiple-streams of
information surrounding an event. Communication is
within the context itself, not within the actual message
delivered. For "low-context learners, the pattern
is the opposite: filtering out conditions surrounding an
event to focus as much as possible on the words
and objective facts.
an audio tape of Berardi/Robbins lecture is available in
western's library - special collections. m-f
- 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the tape is archival only, &
cannot be checked out.
March 9 -
Kristi Lemm
- Psychology
- "How Well Do You
Know How You Feel?"
Lemm, has done extensive research on implicit, or
unconscious, beliefs and attitudes, particularly
implicit prejudice. Her current work focuses on
implicit bias related to race, obesity, gender and
sexual orientation. To show how such implicit
beliefs are measured, Lemm allowed audience members to
take the Implicit Association Test. "In recent
years, researchers have realized that people are not
always willing to reveal their attitudes, particularly
regarding socially sensitive topics such as prejudice.
In addition, people may have attitudes they don't even
realize they possess", Lemm said. She
also described studies that she and her colleagues and
student have conducted at Western to assess implicit
attitudes, with a particular focus on her ongoing
research about attitudes toward gay men.
an audio tape of Lemm's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections - m-f - 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @
650-3193. the tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
April 13
-
Bruce Larson
-
Secondary Education & Social
Studies - "Using Face-to-Face & Electronic Discussions to
Examine Controversial Issues, Develop Citizenship &
Promote Thinking"
Bruce Larson, the 2003 recipient of the
Excellence in Teaching Award, credits his 11 years
of secondary teaching experience to leading him to the
realization that classroom discussion is a critical
teaching tool. Larson believes that electronic formats
may serve to reduce the teacher's authority, and allow
students to assume more authority during the
discussion. This could serve to make the discourse more
egalitarian and less focused on student attributes such
as status, power, ethnicity, or culture. Such
discussion boards could allow typically unheard
student to have a "voice."
October
23
-
Brian Bingham
-
Huxley College
- "Immersion
Experiences & Intensive
Mentoring"
Brian Bingham discussed his
experiences promoting diversity in marine science
education as keys to academic success. Bingham is
director of Western's Minorities in Marine Science
Undergraduate Program which annually enrolls students
from around the country for two quarters of course work,
research, participation in K-8 classroom outreach and
presentations at professional meetings. Brian has
directed MIMSUP since its inception 13 years ago. He won the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence,
administered by the National Science Foundation, and a
Management Excellence Award from the National Oceanic
& Atmospheric Administration. Bingham also
received Western's 2002/03 Diversity Achievement Award.
an
audio tape of Bingham's' lecture is available in
western's library - special collections . m-f -11
am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the tape is
archival only, and cannot be checked out.
November 20
- Millie Johnson -
Mathematics
"Using
Mathematics to Understand What Bees are Buzzing About"
"Mathematics isn't
just about computation anymore," says Johnson, an
award-winning teacher with 31 years experience. Johnson notes that the defense department is currently
training bees to sniff out explosives. Their sense
of smell is better than dogs and they can easily fly to
their target undetected. She stated that bees can not
only detect the mines without requiring a walk through
the explosives, they can also revitalize agriculture via
pollination. Johnson received the
Distinguished Teaching Award from the Mathematical
Association of America's Pacific NW Chapter.
An audio tape of
Johnson's lecture is available in
Western's Library - Special Collections department. Mon-Fri. 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @
650-3193. The tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
February 12
- Charles Sylvester -
PEHR
- "Leisure & Liberal
Education"
Charles Sylvester, a
2002/03 Excellence in Teaching recipient, earned the
2001 Excellence in Teaching Award from the National
Society of Park and Recreation Educators and the 1991
Member of the Year Award from the National Therapeutic
Recreation Society. In his presentation, Sylvester
explored the classical relation between leisure and
liberal education. He also described several of
the historical forces that transformed leisure, causing
it to be associated in the modern mind with emptiness,
shopping, and entertainment rather than education and
excellence. Finally, he considered the possibility of
restoring leisure and liberal education in a way
suitable for modern democracy.
audio tape of Sylvester's' lecture is available in
western's library - special collections m-f
- 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the
tape is archival only, & cannot be checked out.
March 4
- Alan Gallay
-
History
-
"Slavery and Race in
Early America"
Allan Gallay was honored in 2003 with the
prestigious Bancroft Prize for his book, The Indian
slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the
South, 1670-1717. His the first historian to focus
on Native American slavery, a project that took 13 years
of research. He was the 2002/2003 recipient of the
Olscamp Research Award. "Most American assume that
slavery and race were inseparable and unchangeable in
American history. Yet concepts of race evolved as
American slavery altered over time, said Gallay,who
also examined how the ideology of freedom for some and
enslavement for others occurred in the revolutionary and
antebellum period.
An audio tape of
Gallay's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections. m-f - 11 am-4 pm, or by
appointment
@
650-3193. the tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
April 15
-
Carol Janson
-
Art History - "Common Ground:
Partnerships in Art & Community"
Carol Janson was one of
four Center for
Instructional Innovation 2002/03 "showcase" faculty to
utilize her senior seminar "as a bridge to students'
futures." She devised a service-learning project in
which students created paintings for Whatcom Transit
Authority bus shelters. Through a power-point
presentation, Janson proved that an opportunity to
combine students' artistic talents with critical
thinking and problem solving was useful to them and an
enhancement to their community.
An audio tape of
Janson's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections - m-f - 11 am - 4 pm, or by
appointment @
650-3193. the tape is archival only, & cannot be
checked out.
October 24
- Suzanne Paola
- English
- "Afterwards: A Reading"
In her presentation,
Suzanne Paola wove together
evolutionary science and personal material. She read
from "Body Toxic" - her first work of non-fiction. Paola
is an award-winning author and poet who was
awarded a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant for creative writing and
earned the esteemed Brittingham Prize for her poetry.
Written under the name Susanne Antonetta, her
environmental memoir,
"Body Toxic" was also named a 2001 New York Times Notable Book
and an American Book Award winner.
An audio tape of Paola's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections.
m-f - 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the
tape is archival only, and cannot be checked out.
November 21 -
Karen Hoelscher
-
Education
&
Joe Garcia
-
Management - "Diversity
Flashpoints"
Professors Hoelscher and Garcia, both winners of the Diversity
Achievement Award, discussed their national study of
potentially explosive interpersonal situations bourn out
of identity differences. Their objective is to
enable educators to become more effective in managing
these challenging incidents. Based on interviews
with colleagues from universities across the U.S., this
presentation provided insights into their research
methods, and found implications for practice.
audio tape of lecture is available in
western's library - Special Collections. m-f - 11-4 pm, or by
appointmentt @ 650-3193. the tape is archival only, and
cannot be checked out.
January 30
- Sara Weir
- Political Science
"Women Care Givers &
Intergenerational Relationships"
Weir's talk focused on women caring for women; the
importance of intergenerational relationships with
non-family members, and kindness and humor as strategies
for acceptance of aging. She has expertise in the
topic, particularly the social, political and
interpersonal implications of aging, and co-chaired
Western's
interdisciplinary gerontology certificate
program. She makes care giving decisions for her
mother and aunt who have significant memory loss.
An
audio tape of Weir's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections. m-f
- 11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @ 650-3193. the tape is
archival only, and cannot be checked out.
February 20
-
David Nelson
- Economics "From Plan to Market Economic Educ.
in the former Soviet Union"
David Nelson discussed
efforts underway in the former Soviet Union to teach
young people about how a market economy functions. During his tour of the former Soviet Union in 2001,
Nelson observed students learning lessons in economics,
which he developed for U.S. students, which are now
being used throughout the former Soviet Union and
beyond. Nelson asked his audience to consider: "Will the
seeds that are being planted today among students in the
Ukraine, in Belarus, and in many other countries of the
former Soviet Bloc, bear fruit in the years to come
as a new generation of young people assumes leadership
responsibilities in these countries?"
An audio tape of
Nelson's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections. M-F
-
11 am-4 pm, or by appointment
@
650-3193. the tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
March 13 -
George Nelson
-
Science Education
"Goofy Goals & Hidden Agendas:
Recapturing the Vision of Education Reform"
George Nelson, a
former astronaut who has logged more than 400 hours of
space travel, including voyages on the STS-41C
Challenger and the STS-26 Discovery is the new director of the Science, Math &
Technology Education program. He arrived at Western in
January 2002, to continue his lifelong pursuit of
education reform to ensure that all Americans are
literate in science, math and technology. Before coming
to WWU he served for 5 years with the American
Association of the Advancement of Science as the
Director of Project 2061, a national initiative to
reform K-12 science, math, and technology education in
the U.S.
April 24
- Dana Jack
- Fairhaven College
"Mapping the Valleys in the
Minds of Nepal:
A First Study of Depression in the Hindu
Kingdom"
Winner of the 2002
Paul Olscamp Research Award, Dana Jack traveled to Nepal in 2001 to research
how gender issues relate to depression and play out in
other cultural contexts. While she was there, she taught
courses in women's studies and helped develop a
graduate-level gender studies curriculum at Tribbhuvan
University in Katmandu. Author of "Silencing the
Self" a ground-breaking study of depression in American
women, Jack engages in internationally recognized
research.
Her latest book, "Behind the Mask:
Destruction & Creativity in Women's Aggression"
explores the origins, meanings and forms of women's
aggression.
audio tape of Jack's Talk is available
in western's library - special collections - m-f -
11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @
650-3193. the tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
October 16 - David Patrick
-
Chemistry -
"Nanoscience?"
Nanoscience studies the world at the size
scale of atoms and molecules. Though the subject matter
is very small, the scope and technological impacts of
this new field of science are potentially very large. No
other discipline in the natural sciences is receiving as
much attention and is the subject of as much hype as
nanoscience. Optimistic futurists predict nanoscience will produce cures for disease, save the
environment and solve the problem of the social security
deficit, among other things. Others, such as Bill
Joy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, worry about a future filed
with nanorobots run amuck, plotting to make humans
obsolete. Amid the promise and hyperbole, one
certainty is that funding for nanoscience research has
increased dramatically at a time when support for
non-health related basic research has been constant or
declining. Will nanoscience deliver on its
promises? Do we have something to fear?
An audio tape of
Patrick's lecture is available in
western's library - special collections - m-f
11 am-4 pm, or by appointment @
650-3193. the tape is archival only, and cannot be
checked out.
November 13
- David Sattler
- Psychology
- "New National Study shows American Resiliency After
Sept. 11"
Sattler, an expert on psychological
responses to disasters, presented results of a new
national study indicating that a strong majority of
college students have reprioritized their lives and are
exhibiting positive signs of coping and resiliency since
Sept. 11. Two weeks after the September 11 attacks,
Sattler and two Western Graduate students interviewed
1,282 college students. Respondents were in New York
city ; Boulder, CO; Charleston, SC and at Western.
Regardless of proximity to the tragedy, Sattler's team
found attitudes of the college students survey were
surprisingly similar.
An audio tape of Sattler's lecture is available in