Welcome
Welcome to Arts and Humanities Update, an electronic newsletter published during the academic year by the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University.
Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to share news of current research projects, publications, conference presentations, teaching innovations, outreach connections, events, and awards. Call (517) 355-5633 or send a message to the editor.
Orhan Pamuk to Deliver College of Arts and Letters Signature Lecture
Monday, October 1,
7:30 p.m.
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Tickets: $20 (FREE to MSU faculty, staff, and students with ID at box office only, limit two); call 1 (800) WHARTON or visit www.whartoncenter.com. Click here for a PDF copy of the flyer.
Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk will present the College of Arts and Letters Signature Lecture on Monday, Oct. 1, as part of a series of events celebrating MSU’s Year of Arts and Culture. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts.
Pamuk is one of the most prominent novelists at work in the world today, acclaimed on all sides as a humane writer of unique vision. Among his many highly regarded works are The White Castle (1991), The Black Book (1994), The New Life (1997), My Name is Red (2001), Snow (2004), and Istanbul: Memories and the City (2005). A collection of Pamuk’s literary essays, Other Colors: Essays and a Story, has just been published in the United States by Knopf. A new novel, The Museum of Innocence, will be published next year.
"We selected Mr. Pamuk for our signature event for the MSU Year of Arts and Culture because he illustrates the college’s focus on arts and humanities in a global context," says Karin A. Wurst, dean of the College of Arts and Letters.
"His artistic negotiation between East and West, between different cultures, and between historical and contemporary concerns exemplifies the special place the arts and culture occupy in contemporary life. His life and work mirror the university’s commitment to global engagement and its particular interest in Turkey as a key site for challenging yet important interactions between Islam and the West."
Read more...
Arts and Letters to Host Reception Honoring Excellence in Outreach and Engagement
The College of Arts and Letters will sponsor a reception honoring excellence in outreach and engagement on Tuesday, September 25, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Kellogg Center (Big Ten Room C). The event will feature displays of faculty and student outreach collaborations. All are welcome; please RSVP to (517) 432-2479 or caldwell@msu.edu.
Memorial Service for Professor Emerita of Dance Dixie Durr
A memorial service for professor emerita of dance Dixie Durr will be held on Sunday, October 14, at 2:00 p.m. at River Terrace Church, 1509 River Terrace Drive (off Hagadorn Road, north of Hannah Plaza), East Lansing. Durr died on September 2 after a long illness.
President/Provost Social Hour for Arts and Letters Faculty
President Lou Anna K. Simon and Provost Kim Wilcox host a social hour for faculty on the third Thursday of each month in the LaSalle Bank Club Room in Spartan Stadium. College of Arts and Letters faculty, including non-tenure-stream faculty, are invited to attend this gathering on October 18 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. to meet and reconnect with other A&L faculty and with faculty from other parts of the university. Food, beverages, and a cash bar will be provided. Register online by October 15.
Public Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship Program
The Public Humanities Collaborative, the College of Arts and Letters Office of Outreach and Engagement, and the Office of University Outreach and Engagement are sponsoring a new program to support cultural engagement in arts, humanities, and design at MSU. The Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship Program is designed to establish a new model for faculty professional development that emphasizes outreach and engagement as an important part of research/scholarship, teaching, and professional service. In addition to performing a professional service for a community organization, each Fellow will design research or artwork related to this service or to theorizing public engagement and will plan and teach a course that includes an active learning component. The program provides a stipend for course replacement costs and a modest budget to support professional development. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, October 3. For information, contact Eileen Roraback at (517) 432-3910.
Notables
New book: Sandra Logan (ENG), Text/Events in Early Modern England: Poetics of History (Ashgate, 2007): Engaging with a range of events -- historical moments, theatrical performances, public presentations, and courtly intrigues -- and the texts that record them, this book explores representational practice as a component of Elizabethan political culture. The four primary foci of this investigation - the 1558 coronation entry, the 1575 entertainments at Kenilworth, the 1590s dramatizations of the reign of Richard II, and the Essex trial of 1601 - serve as exempla of four moments in the reign of Elizabeth I that suggest an increasingly complex interaction between events and texts in the last half of the sixteenth century. Logan argues that, in representing England's recent and distant past, a wide range of social subjects engaged in a struggle for intellectual credibility and social viability and in the process generated a contingent public sphere within which history, framed as a coherent narrative shaped by causal relationships, was brought to bear on the concerns of the Elizabethan present and future.
New book: Ken Harrow (ENG): Postcolonial African Cinema: From Political Engagement to Postmodernism (Indiana University Press, 2007): This book offers a new critical approach to African cinema -- one that requires that we revisit the beginnings of African filmmaking and the critical responses to which they gave rise, and that we ask what limitations they might have contained, what price was paid for the approaches then taken, and whether we are still caught in those limitations today. Using Zizek, Badiou, and a range of Lacanian and postmodern-based approaches, Harrow attempts to redefine the possibilities of an African cinematic practice -- one in which fantasy and desire are placed within a more expansive reading of the political and the ideological.
New book: Pero Dagbovie (HST): The Early Black History Movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Greene (University of Illinois Press, 2007): This book examines the lives, work, and contributions of two of the most important figures of the early black history movement, Carter G. Woodson and Lorenzo Johnston Greene. Drawing on the two men's personal papers as well as the materials of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), Dagbovie probes the struggles, sacrifices, and achievements of these black history pioneers. The book offers the first major examination of Greene's life. Equally important, it also addresses a variety of issues pertaining to Woodson that other scholars have either overlooked or ignored, including his image in popular and scholarly writings and memory, the democratic approach of the ASNLH, and the pivotal role of women in the association.
Please send notices of new books to the editor.
Press Releases
September 19: Nobel Laureate and novelist Orhan Pamuk to present arts and letters lecture at MSU: Turkish novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Orhan Pamuk will present the College of Arts and Letters Signature Lecture on Monday, Oct. 1, as part of a series of events celebrating MSU’s Year of Arts and Culture. Read more...
September 17: Pulitzer Prize-winning author donates papers to MSU Libraries: Robert Coles, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his five-volume “Children of Crisis” series, has donated his literary archive to the MSU Library. The archive consists of working drafts and manuscripts of Coles' books, articles, and essays; more than 90,000 pages of correspondence spanning five decades; and the literary and business files of DoubleTake, an award-winning magazine of documentary photography, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. The collection found its way to MSU thanks in part to Coles’ collaborations with David Cooper, director of MSU’s Public Humanities Collaborative. Read more...
August 29: MSU launches Year of Arts and Culture: To recognize the important role that arts and culture play on campus and in the community, MSU will celebrate the Year of Arts and Culture during the 2007-08 academic year. Highlights will include anniversary celebrations of the Wharton Center for Performing Arts, the MSU Museum, and the Department of Theatre; the beginnings of the new Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum; the opening of the new Residential College for the Arts and Humanities; and much more. Read more...
People and Programs in the News
September 20: The Lansing State Journal talks with George Peters, chairperson of the Department of Theatre, about plans for the coming year. "We have some faculty members who are superb teachers and are superb in their areas of theatre expertise. Their excitement and dedication rubs off on the students," he says. Read more...
September 19: The State News describes how MSU Special Collections became the home of the papers of Robert Coles, winner of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his series Children of Crisis. “We have a number of collections with worldwide fame,” says librarian Peter Berg, "but I would have to say that this is right up there, not just because of (Coles’) significance, but because of the size of the collection and how comprehensive it is.” The collection contains correspondence, drafts, manuscripts, and research from more than 50 years of study. Read more...
September 13: The State News talks with students in the Department of Theatre about the current production, Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown. Read more...
September 6: The State News discusses a new exhibition of five designs for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. Models, videos, and posters explain the visions of the international firms who are in the running to design the building. Read more...
September 6: The State News previews an exhibition of rock posters at (SCENE) Metrospace in East Lansing and talks with Kelly Salchow, assistant professor of graphic design, and Chris Van Wyck, adjunct professor of art. "Rock poster art has gone into interesting phases historically, and those posters can be seen as a sign of the times," Salchow says. Read more...
September 5: The Lansing State Journal reports the death of professor emerita Dixie Durr, who influenced generations of students through her work as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. "I found her to be such an inspiring person," says Diane Newman, one of Durr's former students and founder of Happendance, a professional modern dance company based in Lansing. The State News ran an article on September 19 in which her colleagues in the Department of Theatre praised her professionalism and kindness. “She’ll be missed in numerous ways,” says George Peters, chairperson. “First and foremost, as an exceptional human being. People will really miss a true and devoted friend. As a professional in the area of dance, she will be missed not only locally, but regionally and nationally.” Read more...
September 4: The New York Times reports the death of New Orleans sculptor and College of Arts and Letters alum John T. Scott ('65, Art Practice). Scott's vibrantly colored kinetic art filtered the spirit of the African diaspora through a modernist lens. His later work took an increasingly dark view of urban excess and violence. One of Scott's sculptures, a polychromed aluminum piece called Skyfire, hangs from the ceiling on the first floor of the Main Library. Read more...
September 2007: English major Adam Van Lente, the co-founder and manager of East Lansing vintage t-shirt company RetroDuck, is profiled in CapitalGains. Read more...
August 31: The State News reports that studio art senior Brianne Hoffman spent part of her summer as an intern in General Motors' design department. Among her activities: sculpting a new concept car for Chevrolet. "I really didn't know that much about how to sculpt cars, but growing up in the Motor City, looking at the cars and being from the Detroit area definitely helped," says the Lake Orion native. Read more...
August 29: Lansing City Pulse interviews Gabriel Dotto, the new director of the MSU Press. Dotto, 54, formerly of Milan, Italy, is the sixth director in the Press's 60-year history. What persuaded him to come to MSU? "I got an enormous feeling of commitment of energy at all levels of administration and staff," he says. The MSU Press has more than 650 books available on its backlist. One of Dotto’s first goals is to market the books that are published and then expand the number of books published. The press publishes about 30 books each year and he would like to double that number. It also publishes 11 journals. Read more...
Upcoming Events
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
September 18 - 23
The Department of Theatre will present As Bees in Honey Drown by Douglas Carter Beane in the Arena Theatre (lower level, Auditorium Building) on
Thursday, September 20, at 7:30 p.m.;
Friday, September 21, at 8:00 p.m.;
Saturday, September 22, at 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, September 23, at 2:00 p.m. Synopsis: Evan Wyler is a hot new young writer who is snatched up by a mysterious woman, Alexa Vere de Vere, who promises him connections, wealth, and supreme success. As her promises never materialize, the writer investigates Alexa’s past, which holds secrets both dark and hilarious. This satire of fame, art, and trendiness is an excellent introduction to the Year of Arts and Culture. Tickets are available at the Wharton Center Box Office or 1 (800) WHARTON.
September 25
7:00 p.m., A-133 Life Sciences
The Department of History International Film Festival will present Hero (China, 2002). Hosted by Linda Cooke-Johnson. For a complete schedule, visit the Department of History's website.
September 28
4:00 p.m., 303 International Center
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages: “Experiment Mars: Contemporary German Literature, Imaginative Ethnoscapes, and the New Futurism”
Lecture by Leslie A. Adelson, professor of German Studies and director of the Institute for German Cultural Studies at Cornell University. Cultural and ethnic communities are often presumed to cohere in shared remembrances of shared pasts. Yet what would it mean to conceive of ethnoscapes predicated not on tradition and heritage, but on fictional futures instead? How do our many intersecting worlds shift as we turn to the future, and what productive role does the literary imagination play in this process of rupture and renewal? The lecture explores literary landscapes of historical violence, cultural fragmentation, and some surprising approaches to the ties that bind on a fictional place called “Mars.” Click here for the PDF flyer.
Through September 28
MSU Museum
Department of Religious Studies and MSU Museum: "Picturing Faith: Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-1943"
"Picturing Faith" is a unique series of photographs showing the place of religion in American society through the lenses of some of America's most well-known photographers -- Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks. It also presents the work of equally talented but lesser-known photographers -- John Collier, Jr., Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, Jack Delano, and Marjory Collins. Supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the exhibition includes 45 black-and-white photographs gathered from the Library of Congress archives.
October 2
7:00 p.m., A-133 Life Sciences
The Department of History International Film Festival will present Touch of Evil (USA, 1958). Hosted by Jerry Garcia. For a complete schedule, visit the Department of History's website.
Through October 14
Art Museum
The Paper Sculpture Show
The Paper Sculpture Show is an interactive exhibition that brings artists and visitors together by providing a hands-on art making experience. The exhibition consists of works by 20 artists, drawn on flat sheets of paper and stacked in the gallery space. The visitor chooses a project, takes the printed sheet, and cuts out and assembles the three-dimensional sculpture. As the weeks pass, the gallery spaces become filled with art work.
Through October 14
Art Museum
The Future: The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum
The five architectural designs proposed for the future Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum are on display. Unveiled on July 18 before a distinguished jury, these designs represent the ideas of internationally renowned architectural firms Coop Himmelb(l)au, Zaha Hadid Architects, Randall Stout Architects, Inc., Kohn Pederson Fox Architects, PC, and Morphosis. Models, drawings, and CD presentations reveal their range of designs for the museum's future home on Grand River Avenue.
Through October 19
The Department of Philosophy and the Department of English are sponsoring “The Right to Hospitality: Migration, Accommodation, Globalization,” a series of eight films and a symposium on the conditions, dilemmas, and experience of “outsiders” and on our responses to visitors, immigrants, and guest workers. Do we owe hospitality to the outsider? If so, why and what does that involve? Films are running now through Oct. 17; the symposium will take place on October 19 at 3:00 p.m. in 105 S. Kedzie. Click here for the PDF flyer.
October 19
11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
303 International Center
The Feminist Literature and Theory Working Group (FLATwg) in the Department of English will sponsor "Feminist Publics: Mapping Difference, Building Coalitions" with speakers Kathryn Bond Stockton (University of Utah) and Ranjana Khanna (Duke University). As differences proliferate among feminists and the call to respect local variations
within an increasingly transnational context threatens to become a mere convention,
how do feminist communities in fact imagine “community”? How do we build coalitions that do not simply “recognize” differences, but rather rigorously interrogate the social, political, economic, and cultural terrains that produce them? “Feminist
Publics” extends the discussion from our 2007 Spring Symposium, “Projects in Progress:
Feminist Scholarship at MSU” and seeks to engage already existing
feminist publics at MSU and in the Michigan area in these lines of inquiry. Click here for the PDF flyer.
November 7 - 9
The African American and African Studies Program will sponsor its second annual Black Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century conference at the Kellogg Center. Read more...
November 9-11
The College of Arts and Letters will sponsor Gramsci Now: Cultural and Political Theory, An International Symposium at the East Lansing Marriott. The symposium commemorates the 70th anniversary of Gramsci's death and will bring together a number of distinguished scholars in fields throughout the humanities and social sciences. The topics to be discussed will range from the translation into English and editing of the Prison Notebooks; Gramsci’s ongoing importance to postcolonial theory, cultural studies, and economic and political theory; and Gramsci’s relevance to our understanding of the contemporary world, particularly the "new world order" that came into being following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Read more...
Links
College of Arts and Letters website and events calendar
(to have your event included, send information to the editor)
- Year of Arts and Culture
- Department of Art and Art History news and events
- Art Museum news
- MSU Museum news
- Department of Theatre events
- College of Music news and events
- Department of History news and events
- American Indian Studies Program events
- Jewish Studies Program events
- Rhetoric and Writing news
- Center for Gender in Global Context news
- MSU Libraries events and exhibition calendar
- WKAR public broadcasting (radio and television)
- Michigan State University Press
- MSU Today