Life News (Arts & Humanities)

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Head of theater at UIC to appear in Steppenwolf Theatre play

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The UC San Diego Department of Literature’s New Writing Series has introduced hundreds of writers to the greater San Diego community since 1986, and this year’s spring speakers encompass a wide range of up-and-coming and established authors. Poets, novelists, the first campus reading by a new faculty member — plus three alumni returning to the university — this quarter’s New Writing Series is big and diverse, and kicks off April 17.

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Like “Star Wars,” URI Professor Joelle Rollo-Koster has used “GOT” in class to explain aristocratic feuds of 12th and 13th century France and England, including this semester in Western Europe in the High Middle Ages. Simply, she wonders if students’ ability to follow the labyrinth of shifting alliances in “Game of Thrones” can be transferred to following the dynastic intricacies of medieval Europe.

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University of California San Diego Department of Philosophy professor Manuel Vargas and Santiago Amaya of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia have been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to advance understanding of agency, free will and responsibility — three interrelated concepts at the core of everyday life.

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Tulane University anthropology professor William Balée has been named a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to document the historical ecology of the lower Amazon basin.

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DePaul University has been awarded a four-year, $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of a humanities initiative that will bring together faculty, Chicago area community organization leaders and students to address current day societal issues.

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The UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities welcomes international photographer Reza Deghati to campus to discuss his philosophy about bettering humanity. The artist, who simply goes by Reza, will present a public forum and exhibition of his work through April. A renowned Persian photographer now based in Paris, Reza will be on campus as a visiting artist under the Roghieh Chehre-Azad Distinguished Professorship.

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The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will present “In Mid-Sentence,” a selection of photographs from the museum’s collection that, when seen together, showcase the camera’s ability to capture people in dialogue. Featuring more than 25 images of people in the midst of public speeches, intimate confessions, shared jokes, political confrontations and other forms of verbal exchange, the exhibition will explore the power of visual communication.

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South Dakota State University English Professor Christine Stewart received the 2018 Whirling Prize in Poetry from Etchings Press for her book, “Bluewords Greening.”

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West Virginia University professor Jenny Johnson has been named a 2019 National Endowment for Arts Creative Writing Fellow. An assistant professor in the Department of English, she is using the award to write and do research toward her second book of poems.

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Here in the United States, the world of opera is shifting, changing, and finding ways to survive through a decline in ticket sales. Experts have attributed opera’s troubles to high ticket prices, an aging audience, and a failure to modernize. A new, younger generation of opera artists and enthusiasts at Rutgers offer insight into the changing landscape of opera, including through Snapchat and Instagram giveaways. And Eduardo Chama, co-head of Opera Theater Rutgers at Mason Gross and a Grammy winning opera composer says there are effective ways to save opera, but it might mean looking to other countries’ success in order to make a foundational change.

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The NEH awarded the Menokin Foundation a $500,000 Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant, one of 22 such grants. The 3:1 challenge, seeking to leverage federal funds against private investment, requires Menokin to raise $1.5 million. Menokin will stabilize the 18th century National Historic Landmark for educational programming.

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Designing a senior living space is unlike designing any other health care facility due to the unique needs of aging populations. This spring, students in an Iowa State University wellness design studio are working on innovative solutions to design issues in senior living facilities.

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Not all strong females challenging gender roles in the comics were superheroes like Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman. Some were just regular girls with a bit of attitude and names like Little Iodine, Little Lulu and, yes, Nancy. And at least one – Li’l Tomboy – pushed the boundary even further.

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University of California San Diego Distinguished Professor Jann Pasler was awarded a 2.5 million-euro Advanced Grant from the European Research Council, funding a five-year project that will greatly expand colonialism studies and help develop researchers from the former French empire as well as Europe.

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New York University’s Center for Ancient Studies will host “Ovid and Art,” a symposium on the influential Roman poet, on Thurs., April 4.

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In Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, Kellie Carter Jackson, assistant professor of Africana studies at Wellesley College, provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists.

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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University to hire faculty members in the newly established Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora (RCD), an interdisciplinary department organized around the historic and contemporary study of colonialism and race in shaping societies and cultures in the United States and the world

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Wake Forest University and Forklift Danceworks are co-creating “From the Ground Up” – a dance featuring the movement and stories of custodial, maintenance and utilities, landscaping, construction, and waste reduction employees. The large-scale performance will take place on Hearn Plaza Oct. 4 and 5.

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Author Jeffrey Eugenides will read and discuss “Pink Belly,” a work-in-progress essay about parental expectations and gender roles within the family, on Wed., April 3.

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In new work by University of California San Diego assistant professor Julie Burelle, the relationship between two groups of people in Quebec, Canada come into play in an important conversation about settler-indigenous relationships and decolonization, deeply adding to the growing field of Indigenous studies.

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Laura Wiegert, director of the Program in Medieval Studies at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, is available to discuss the misuse of medieval icons in white supremacist rhetoric, as well as common misperceptions about the racial diversity of Europe during the Middle Ages.

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Eighty-five percent of artists whose work is found in collections of major U.S. museums are white, and 87 percent are male, according to new research by Chad Topaz of Williams College, MA, and colleagues.

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Irvine, Calif., March 19, 2019 — Blending the power of big data and history, an expanded and redesigned version of Slave Voyages – one of the most utilized resources in the digital humanities – is now available. Housing both trans-Atlantic and intra-American slave trade databases, the Slave Voyages website illuminates the ubiquity of the slave trade from the 16th century to the 19th century.

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The symposium is presented in conjunction with UIC’s design competition for a new Center for the Arts.

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The new Race and Oral History Project at UC San Diego is intended to collect the stories of people who work and live in the San Diego region, but who have largely been left out of how this history is told.

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After a rigorous review process, Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum Complex has achieved a significant milestone: accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums. The Mayborn joins a list of only 3 percent of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums with that standing.

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For featured artists Kayla Mattes and Elisa Ortega, the title of their exhibit, “The F Word,” stands for “fiber,” “fabric” and “feminism.”

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At Rutgers-New Brunswick and other U.S. universities, the study of philosophy remains mostly white and male, but a new course on African, Latin American, and Native American philosophy is expanding the canon to include voices that speak directly to fundamental philosophical topics as well as urgent issues such as immigration, cultural appropriation and the #MeToo movement.

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Nathan Wolfe, author of The Viral Storm, will give a public talk on Virus Hunting and Exploratory Research on Fri., March 29.

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The vast diversity of artists and experiences that make up Nashville’s love affair with music was the topic on a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

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Women’s contributions are integral to the Global Heritage Fund and the heritage sector as a whole. When we focus on their work and their voices, we gain an immeasurable richness in perspective that would otherwise be lost. When we bring women to the governing table, we are capable of creating a truly holistic relationship between people and place.

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When the Captain Marvel movie opens on March 8, coinciding with International Women’s Day, it will be Marvel Studios’s first female-superhero led film and many people will be lined up to see this much anticipated flick and to enjoy one of Captain Marvel’s trademark specialties: fighting galactic evil.

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The pedal steel guitar is the province of the mavericks—people who were not afraid to roll up their sleeves and tinker with their instrument, according to Anthony Lis, who is researching five early pioneers.

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On March 8, some Americans will send greeting cards to the important women in their lives to celebrate “International Women’s Day.” Little do most of them know about the radical origins of the holiday they are marking,

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The fundamental design of the violin has been changed only once since the times of Antonio Stradivari, considered the ultimate master craftsman of the instrument. But new research by a Texas A&M University professor suggests that a modification could be made to the instrument that will enhance its tonal quality and how it is played. His findings could rock the music world, so to speak, and alter the way the stringed instruments are constructed in the future.

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Every year, millions of people around the world celebrate Mardi Gras and Carnival. It’s a worldwide festival of parades, music and, of course, richer, fattier foods leading up to the 40-day season of Lent, during which millions of Christians observe this religious tradition by fasting or foregoing treats and meats. Richard McCarthy, Slow Food USA executive director and a Meatless Monday ambassador shares, “Green gumbo is perfect for people exploring vegetarian options for Mardi Gras, Meatless Monday, and the six weeks of Lent that follow.”

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The American Institute of Architects, California (AIACA) announced the winners of the eighth annual Architecture at Zero competition for zero net energy (ZNE) today at CSUMB's Alumni and Visitor Center.

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Arkansas is well known for its location on the Trail of Tears, the pathway the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes traveled through the state in the 1830s to new lands in the Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma. Few people, however, know about Arkansas’s history as the first and only state in the country to legally evict its entire free black population.

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Long before there were therapists, there were biblical psalms — many of them praise to God and pleas for forgiveness. But there are more laments in the book of Psalms than any other type of psalm, says a Baylor University scholar of the Old Testament. And they go a long way toward dealing with reality as opposed to the way we wish things were.

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PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State University archaeologists have discovered the oldest tattooing artifact in western North America.

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LeVar Burton, a celebrated American actor, director, producer and writer for more than 40 years, is adding another accolade—this one for his tireless, decades-long dedication to children’s literacy and AIDS research and treatment.

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The popular view that music enhances creativity has been challenged by researchers who say it has the opposite effect.