CAS Music faculty form The Collective for Jazz at the Davis Center during Reunion weekend
The Collective is comprised of the entire UVM Jazz Music faculty representing a wide-range of styles from classic jazz to jazz funk, American jazz to Latin jazz and this event will mark the first time they combine their talents together on the same stage. Members include Paul Asbell and Joe Capps, guitar; Tom Cleary, piano; Rick Davies, trombone; Emily Day and Amber de Laurentis, vocals; Steve Ferraris, conga, djembe; Fred Haas, saxophone; Patricia Julien, flute; John Rivers, bass; Jeff Salisbury, drums; Alex Stewart, tenor sax; and Ray Vega (pictured), trumpet. Performance is from
8:00 - 10:00 p.m. in the Davis Center Grand Maple Ballroom. Ticket price includes light hors d'oeuvres. Additional refreshments will be available for purchase at the Davis Center Marketplace. For more information, please call 802-656-2010.
The Honors College is pleased to announce that a Political Science major in the College of Arts and Sciences at UVM is a winner of the Boren Scholarship. Madeline "Maddy" Frances Murphy-Hall, a Vermonter from Windsor, has won an award to study Arabic at the Qasid Institute in Amman, Jordan, from June to December. Maddy is an Honors College junior and the first UVM recipient of this scholarship. The Boren Scholarships "focus on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad." Winners commit to at least one year of post-graduate service relevant to U.S. national security interests. English professor Lisa Schnell and her colleagues have been working with Maddy and another Boren applicant, who was wait-listed for study in Russian.
Economics faculty member Elaine McCrate is this year's recipient of the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award. Elaine McCrate (pictured) began her tenure at The University of Vermont in 1985. She is a member of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty with a joint appointment in Economics and Women's and Gender Studies, and she has been a highly-respected teacher and researcher in both departments, and she is a respected advisor. She has also taught in the Integrated Social Science Program and has served as its interim director on several occasions. She has been devoting much of her teaching time to medium-sized courses that are writing-intensive, because she believes that students can best sort through difficult issues by writing about them, dissecting and digesting the various arguments. Many students have underscored the importance of the emphasis she placed on writing for their learning and career success. She also has been willing to conduct independent studies, and she has been committed to working with students on their independent studies and honors theses.
The Kidder Award has come to represent effectiveness in motivating and stimulating students in their academic pursuits as well as commitment to advising students and inspiring them to pursue high goals in their education.
A native of Johnson, Vt., George Kidder followed his father's footsteps and attended the University of Vermont. George studied classics at UVM and was selected for a Rhodes Scholarship, the last UVM graduate to have been selected for this honor. He joined the UVM faculty after completing his PhD at the University of Chicago. He remained on the faculty until he was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1948, a position he held until 1967. He is still fondly referred to as "Dean Kidder" by many alumni.
In 1985, Dean Kidder was presented with the Ira Allen Award, an honor of which he was most proud. One of his prized possessions was the statue of Ira Allen bestowed on him for "A Lifetime of Service to UVM."
Dr. Wolfgang Mieder, Professor of German, has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. Dr. Mieder received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1970 and his M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1967. He came to UVM in 1971 where he teaches in the areas of German and international folklore, the history of the German language, the Middle Ages, and especially the study of proverbs. Since 1984 he has been the editor of Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, an annual book that is published by the University of Vermont with subscriptions from around the world, which celebrates its 25th anniversary with volume 25, summer of 2008. He is also editor of the Supplement Series to Proverbium. While he has written several books on German literary matters as well as fairy tales and folk songs, he is an internationally recognized scholar of over one hundred books on proverbs, among them Sprichwort - Wahrwort (1992), Proverbs Are Never Out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age (1993), Proverbs: A Handbook (2004), and "Proverbs Speak Louder than Words": Folk Wisdom in Art, Culture, Folklore, History, Literature, and Mass Media (2008). In addition, Wolfgang Mieder is the author of more than three hundred articles on proverbs. He has also been guest professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany and at Berkeley.
Assistant Professor of Art, Nancy Dwyer will have work featured in "The Pictures Generation 1974-1984," the upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984
April 21, 2009-August 2, 2009
Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography and Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor
According to the Met: "This will be the first major museum exhibition to focus solely on "The Pictures Generation." Born into the media culture of postwar America, this loosely knit group of New York artists created the most seminal photographs of the late 20th century. Their overarching subject was how pictures of all kinds not only depict but shape reality. Highly seductive photographs by Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman revealed the ways in which images from B movies and magazine advertisements determine much of our sense of who we are. Louise Lawler and Sherrie Levine examined how the myths and legends of modern art are inextricably tied to the institutions of the museum and art history. Also included are photographs by Laurie Simmons, James Casebere, James Welling, and Allan McCollum, and works in other media by Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, and Dara Birnbaum, among others."
The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc.
The Dean's Lecture Series Committee (Eugene Delay, Ignacio Lopez-Vicuna, Thomas Macias, and Patricia Riley), has announced the recipients of the 2009-10 Dean's Lecture Awards.
William Geiger, Professor of Chemistry, will present the Fall 2009 Dean's Lecture in Memorial Lounge on October 28 at 5 p.m.
The Spring 2010 Dean's Lecture will be given by Tina Escaja, Professor of Romance Languages. Details of these lectures will be forthcoming.
The Dean's Lecture honors faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences who have consistently demonstrated the ability to translate their professional knowledge and skill into exciting classroom experiences for their students; faculty who meet the challenge of being both excellent teachers and highly respected professionals in their own disciplines. Faculty, staff, and students are all invited to attend.
Prof. Edward Walker has recently been selected to be a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan. This fellowship is one of the most selective in the social sciences. The program selects twelve promising recent doctoral recipients in Sociology, Political Science, and Economics out of a pool of over 100 competitive candidates. During the fellowship, Prof. Walker will extend his research on professional grassroots lobbying by examining stakeholder mobilization on health policy issues. His recent article on grassroots lobbying appeared in the American Sociological Review, and related research is underway with funding from the National Science Foundation.
www.uvm.edu/~soceval/?Page=bios/walkerbio.html
35th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA) a Big Success
English Department Chair Dr. Lokangaka Losambe received the following after the closing of the 35th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association:
Resolution: Thanking Dr. Lokangaka Losambe WHEREAS he has brought us to Burlington, Vermont for the 35th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA); and
WHEREAS he chose as the theme of this year's conference a topic which caused us to re-imagine ourselves and reflect on our representation in various ways; and
WHEREAS he brought us a mighty egwugwu, a son of Africa and our very own big brother, the first African Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka as the keynote speaker, who reminded us that globalization is ancient and talked to us about African Literature in the age of globalism; and
WHEREAS Dr. Losambe also brought to us other big egwugwus, artists, and scholars, including the wonderfully creative Magdalene Odundo, Shailja Patel, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael Echeruo, Akachi Ezeigbo, and V.Y. Mudimbe, all of whom have contributed to the success of this conference and enriched our intellectual lives; and
WHEREAS he provided us space to nurture our minds and spirits and a comfortable environment to engage in a few days of intellectual and creative exchange; and
WHEREAS he also remembered to nourish our bodies with healthy meals and our spirits with the healing music of Papa Suso who took us back to Africa; and
WHEREAS this conference has been one of the best conferences of the ALA;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED on this day, Saturday, April 18, 2009 that THE AFRICAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION at its Annual Business meeting formally thanks Dr. Lokangaka Losambe, the Conference Committee, the University of Vermont, President Fogel, Provost Hughes, Dean Miller, Mayor Kiss, and the City of Burlington for providing us with an intellectual home and a comfortable environment for the past few days and for hosting a very successful African Literature Association conference.
Maureen N. Eke, President
African Literature Association
