PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 28, No. 5, Sept. 4, 2008

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brief notes

WILL-TV

Documentary reveals history of Memorial Stadium

Steam engines, horses and painstaking labor erected Memorial Stadium. So did the spirited fundraising of Illini students, alumni and other fans who contributed $2 million for construction, and of community members who wanted to honor soldiers who died in World War I. The memories built in the 85 years since the stadium opened – from the Galloping Ghost who emerged on dedication day, to crucial wins and losses, to the feats of players with names like Butkus, Grabowski and Halas – have made it a place of legend.

“Memorial Stadium: True Illini Spirit,” a WILL-TV local documentary premiering at 7 p.m. Sept. 9, tells the surprising history of the stadium, one of the first of the new magnificent sporting venues built on university campuses in the early 1920s. The program will be repeated on WILL-TV at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 11, 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 14.

Premiering to coincide with the Sept. 6 rededication of the renovated stadium, the documentary looks at how students raised funds to replace the old wooden bleachers at Illinois Field with a stadium both functional and classically grand that would also be a memorial to the war dead. Designed by the same architects who planned Soldier Field, the structure on a swampy southwest campus site was a great human and engineering achievement.

The documentary, produced by WILL-TV’s John Paul and Denise La Grassa, includes never-before-seen footage of an interview with Harold “Red” Grange produced by Kemper Peacock Productions for the CBS Sports series “In Their Own Words.”

Grange, named the greatest college football player of all time by ESPN earlier this year, describes in the 1982 interview how his fraternity brothers made him play football as well as track and baseball, and how he achieved the dedication day performance in which he ran the opening kickoff back for a 95-yard touchdown, and scored five more touchdowns as Illinois routed Michigan 39-14.

Viewers also hear what the stadium means to former players Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski, along with athletic director Ron Guenther, sports reporter Loren Tate and others.

The documentary also looks at how George Huff and Robert Zuppke built the Illinois football program with innovative ideas, the big game that produced such a huge crowd that fans clamored for a new stadium, and the architecture that made a steel and concrete athletic facility also appropriate as a monument for fallen soldiers. Historic photos and old film footage are interwoven with interviews to tell the stadium’s story.

To share your stadium memories and explore more surprising stories about Memorial Stadium, visit www.will.illinois.edu/stadium.

The program is made possible by a grant from the Mid-Central Illinois Regional Council of Carpenters. Additional funding was provided by the King Family in memory of Fred L. King.

CAS/MillerComm lectures

Fall lectures at Illinois to range from comics to economics to immigration

Prize-winning poets, journalist Naomi Klein, and a UI physicist will be among the speakers this fall on a diverse schedule of lectures and discussions at the UI.

Five of the 14 events will focus on immigration as part of a CAS campuswide initiative. Among other topics on the schedule are children’s books, comic books, Arab attitudes, human rights, superconductors, Cambodia, Cuba, capitalism in Latin America, and Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.”

The lectures and discussions are sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study at the UI. Several are part of the CAS MillerComm series, begun in 1973 and supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment and several co-sponsoring campus units. The Miller-Comm lectures provide a forum for discourse on topics spanning the university’s many disciplines.

All CAS talks are free and open to the public.

The first fall event, on Sept. 9, will be the CAS Annual Lecture, this year given by Dale J. Van Harlingen, a CAS Professor of physics at Illinois, on “Searching for Unconventional Superconductors: A Quantum Map-Quest.” Van Harlingen will discuss the quest to explain the extraordinary and puzzling properties of superconductors, especially those discovered in recent decades, and their potential for technological impact. 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum.

Subsequent lectures:

•  Sept. 11, “Migration and National Development: Reconciling Opposite Views,” by Alejandro Portes, a professor of sociology at Princeton University. Portes will discuss the factors involved, and schools of thought, regarding human migration and its effects on the development and policies of both sending and receiving countries. 4 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Sept. 18, “A New Deal for the Nursery: Golden Books and the Democratization of American Children’s Book Publishing,” by Leonard S. Marcus, author, critic and children’s book historian. In his MillerComm talk, Marcus will discuss the forces, technologies and marketing innovations that came together in the creation in 1942 of the children’s book publisher Little Golden Books, and how it revolutionized the way families viewed books. 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Sept. 24, “Enchiladas, Dim Sum and Apple Pie: Immigration and Food,” a presentation by UI Chancellor Richard Herman and professors Jorge Chapa, sociology; Amy Gajda, journalism; and Martin Manalansan, anthropology. Herman will discuss the significance of immigration, and the professors will discuss the relationship between various migrations and notions of ethnic and American food. It will end with an array of ethnic foods. 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

•  Oct. 2, “The View From the Street: Attitudes Toward Politics and Religion Among Ordinary Citizens in the Arab World,” by Mark Tessler, the Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Tessler will discuss findings from opinion research in the Muslim world and how those findings challenge popular U.S. and European notions of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. 7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Oct. 7, “What’s New About the New Immigrants?” by Nancy Foner, professor of sociology at the City University of New York. Foner will discuss the parallels and contrasts between the current large influx of immigration and that of a century ago, as well as how the earlier influx helped shape the immigrant experience of today. 4 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Oct. 8, “The Old New Media of Comics Art: Comics and Graphic Novels in the 21st Century,” by Damian Duffy, a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and John Jennings, a professor of graphic design, both at Illinois. Duffy and Jennings, curators of a fall exhibition on comics at the Krannert Art Museum, will discuss the art found in comic books, comic strips, graphic novels and manga, as well as the history and future of these forms. 4 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Oct. 22, “Forum on Comparative Immigration Policy Issues,” featuring as panelists Illinois professors Doug Kibbee, French; Alejandro Lugo, anthropology; and Dorothee Schneider, history. 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

•  Oct. 23, “The Flute Player: Moving Beyond the Madness of War,” by Arn Chorn-Pond, a human-rights activist and founder of Cambodian Living Arts. Chorn-Pond will discuss his life before and after the Khmer Rouge killing fields, and his work to revitalize his Cambodian homeland, its people, and their cultural heritage. His MillerComm talk begins at 7 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Oct. 28, “Merwin, Pinsky and Powers,” a discussion of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin, former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky, and author Richard Powers, a CAS Professor and the Swanlund Chair in English, serving as moderator. The discussion, a CAS and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts CultureTalk event, is being held in conjunction with the Program in Medieval Studies conference “Translating the Middle Ages.” 7:30 p.m. in the Colwell Playhouse Theatre at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

•  Oct. 29, “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Latin America,” by Naomi Klein, author of a similarly titled 2007 book, as well as of the book “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.” In her MillerComm talk, Klein, who also is a columnist for The Nation and The Guardian, will lay out her view of how Latin America became a laboratory for neoliberal economic ideas such as those championed by Milton Friedman and his “Chicago Boys.” 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Smith Memorial Hall.

•  Nov. 3, “In the Trails of the Historic Diaspora: Africa’s New Global Migrations and Diasporas,” by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, a professor of history at UIC. 4 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

•  Nov. 5, “Human Rights and the Struggle for Global Justice,” by Geoffrey Robertson, author of the book “Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice,” and one of three jurists on the United Nation’s new Internal Justice Council. Robertson will examine the hopes and challenges in the current struggle for global justice in his MillerComm talk. 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

•  Nov. 13, “The Cultural Politics of Identity and the Cuban Revolution,” by Louis Perez, the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. In his MillerComm talk, Perez will discuss the “special relations” between Cubans and North Americans from the late 1800s forward and how they established the climate that greeted the Cuban revolution in 1959. 4 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium.

CAS events occasionally must be canceled or rescheduled, and lectures may be added later in the semester. For additional information, or to confirm details prior to a lecture, check the events calendar on the CAS Web site. Also check the Web site for audio podcasts and streaming video of many CAS presentations, which are generally posted one to two weeks after the event.

To receive notification on individual events, phone 333-6729 or e-mail cas@illinois.edu; indicate your preference for postal mail or e-mail.

Faculty/Student Senate

Annual Meeting of the Faculty is Sept. 22

The campus Senate Executive Committee will host the Annual Meeting of the Faculty at 3:10 p.m.  Sept. 22, on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.  Professor Nicholas Burbules, SEC chair, will host the event.  Guest speakers will include President B. Joseph White, Chancellor Richard Herman and Provost Linda Katehi. An open discussion session is scheduled after the speakers during which questions and comments are welcome.

The Annual Meeting of the Faculty can and should serve as a forum for issues affecting all of campus, to which both administrators and faculty contribute. No registration is required.  After the meeting’s conclusion, there will be a reception.

For more information, go to www.senate.uiuc.edu.

Nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering

Head of NRC to visit campus Sept. 11

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Dale E. Klein will visit the UI campus Sept. 11 to take part in a panel discussion, “Vision for the Future of Nuclear Energy,” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

Open to the general public, the event also will include panelists William E. Burchill, the president of the American Nuclear Society; and Charles “Chip” Pardee, chief nuclear officer, Exelon Nuclear, and senior vice president of Exelon Corp.

At 7:30 p.m. that same day, John B. Ritch III, director general of the World Nuclear Association, will deliver the featured lecture, “Accelerating the Nuclear Renaissance: A Human and Environmental Imperative,” in the Alice Campbell Alumni Center. The lecture also is open to the public.

The panel discussion and lecture are part of the 50th anniversary celebration activities of the UI department of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering. The celebration will continue with invited talks during the day on Sept 12, at the alumni center. For information about the event, go to www.ne.uiuc.edu/50th/.

Translational biomedical research

Vet Med hosts fall seminar series

Advances in biomedical imaging and new animal models of lung disease and breast cancer are among the topics slated for the fall seminar series on translational biomedical research – interdisciplinary collaborations that “translate” fundamental research discoveries into practical biomedical applications to improve human and animal health.

The seminars, organized by the College of Veterinary Medicine, will be held on Mondays at noon in Room 2271C of the Veterinary Basic Sciences Building. Metered parking is available.

The series kicks off in September with talks on the role of animal models for human reproductive disease, including ovarian cancer and uterine tumors. Speakers will be campus faculty members Janice Bahr and Romona Nowak and Prema Narayn from the School of Medicine at Southern Illinois University.

In October the talks will address animal models for assessing the impact of environmental toxicants and cancer. Speakers will include John Bucher of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Robert Cardiff from the UC-Davis Center for Genomic Pathology, and Jack Harkema from Michigan State University. These talks are co-sponsored through Merck Research Laboratory.

Biomedical imaging, from infrared spectroscopy to photoacoustic tomography, is the topic for the November talks. Stephen Boppart and Rohit Bhargava from the Urbana campus will speak, along with Lihong Wang from Washington University in St. Louis.

For the full schedule see www.vetmed.illinois.edu/research/tbrseries.html.

A musical commemoration

Anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks observed

This year’s UI musical commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States will have a change of venue.

The memorial event, free and open to the public, will take place Sept. 11 in the Foellinger Great Hall at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

As in past years, the performance will begin at 7:46 a.m., marking the time the first hijacked jet crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. It will conclude at 8:04 a.m., coinciding with the time the second jet hit the center’s south tower.

There will be no speeches before or after the performance, said UI School of Music director Karl Kramer.

Featured performers will be Illinois music professors Julie Jordan Gunn, Nathan Gunn and Yvonne Gonzales Redman.

On the program:

• “Don’t Look for Me Anymore,” a poem by Alicia Vasquez set to music in Richard Pearson Thomas’s composition “Race for the Sky: Voices of 9/11,” featuring Redman, soprano, and Julie Jordan Gunn, piano.

• “Intermezzo,” Op. 118, No. 2, by Brahms, performed by Julie Jordan Gunn.

• A suite of “Three American Songs”: “Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger,” “Bound for the Promised Land” and “Tenting Tonight,” sung by Nathan Gunn, baritone, and accompanied on piano by Julie Jordan Gunn.

UI Press

Winning books displayed through Sept. 19

The UI Press will host the 2008 Book Show of the Association of American University Presses, which highlights design excellence in university press books. Forty-four winning book designs and 31 winning covers will be on display from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays Sept. 8 -19 at the press. A reception will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 10. In celebration of the UI Press’ 90th anniversary, there will be a display of past UIP winning books.For information, call Cope Cumpston, 333-9227.

Center for Teaching Excellence

How to improve your teaching skills

The Center for Teaching Excellence has announced its fall schedule of programs and workshops for faculty members, academic professionals and graduate students who wish to explore new ways to enhance teaching and learning. The programs offer an opportunity to connect with colleagues across campus with similar interests.

The center offers a variety of events from workshops to reading groups and learning communities. Some workshop topics: “Test Construction,” “Lecturing for Learning,” “Introduction to Problem-Based Learning,” “The Teaching Philosophy Statement,” “Using Informal Early Feedback” and “ICES Online.” Reading group topics: “The Joy of Teaching” and “Scholarship of Engagement Learning Community.”

New this year are Ann Abbott’s Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Project, “Community: Leveraging Opportunities to Advance Teaching Practices,” and the “Oral Communication Program for International Faculty.” The first workshop, “Clickers on Campus,” is Sept. 4.

In addition, for those interested in ways to continue their personal development in teaching and documenting their efforts, the center offers several options in its teaching certificate program: the Certificate in Foundations of Teaching, the Graduate Teacher Certificate, the Teacher Scholar Certificate, the Certificate in Technology-Enhanced Teaching and the Citizen Scholar Certificate. 

Information about the certificates, the fall series of programs and events, and other services provided by the center are available at www.cte.uiuc.edu. To register for workshops and programs online, click on the event calendar on the CTE Web page. Those who want to receive announcements about workshops and special events, may sign up for the center’s listserv.

I space art gallery

Japanese architecture featured

Two new exhibitions will be on view Sept. 5 through Oct. 4 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI’s Urbana campus:

• “A Life’s Work Introducing Japanese Architecture: Botond Bognar” includes 14 books by Bognar, the Edgar A. Tafel Chair in Architecture at Illinois. The exhibition also will introduce Bognar’s forthcoming book “Beyond the Bubble: The New Japanese Architecture” (London: Phaidon Press Ltd.), along with 41 color prints from his extensive collection of photographic images on Japan.

Among the material featured in the exhibition will be a selection of works by internationally renowned architect Kengo Kuma, who was a Distinguished Plym Professor at Illinois during the 2007-08 academic year. An exhibition of Kuma’s designs will be at I space Oct. 10 through Nov. 15.

• “Chicago Verge” presents the work of a diverse group of artists representing multiple generations, and working in a variety of mediums. While the artists have highly individualized styles and approaches, their visions coalesce in a shared effort to address issues related to human existence, and what it means to belong to a trans-cultural society.

Exhibiting artists are Marcin Berdyszak, Deborah Boardman, Clairie Wolf Krantz, Patrick Lichty, Emma MacCagg, Samia Mirza, Lorraine Peltz, Justin Swinburne, UBERMORGEN/Hans Bernhard, and Zafos Xagoraris. The exhibition curator is Gosia Koscielak.

An opening reception is planned in conjunction with the exhibition, from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 5 at the gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago.

I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘By the People: A Lincoln Portrait’

Participants sought for Lincoln series

Feb. 12, 2009, marks the 200-year anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Beginning this fall, the UI is planning a campuswide celebration commemorating this historic bicentennial.

Conferences and Institutes, a division of the Office of Continuing Education, is working with the WILL AM-FM-TV on a community effort to commemorate the Bicentennial. The two units will collaborate on a series titled “By the People: A Lincoln Portrait,” which will air on WILL-TV. 

“By the People” will feature Champaign-Urbana community members each reading a portion of Lincoln’s speeches, letters and stories that have special meaning to them along with an explanation of the context of the reading or significance it has to the reader.

Community members who are interested in being featured in the program are asked to contact Jim Onderdonk, at 333-2880 or onderdon@illinois.edu by Sept. 26. 

Participants will need to be present at the WILL studio in Urbana for the recording that will be done in October.

The 10-part series is scheduled to air in early 2009 between WILL-TV programs.

Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities

Free fall film series announced

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities is presenting a film series titled “Disciplinarity – Films on Film.” All screenings will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium (Room 62) of the Krannert Art Museum. The IPRH film series is free and open to the public.

The series begins Sept. 11 with “8 1/2” (1963). In the film, successful director Guido Anselmi (played by Marcello Mastroianni), fresh from a smash hit film, finds himself personally and artistically drained as he contemplates his follow-up project. Spending time at a health spa as he faces this creative crisis, he finds his reverie intruded upon by demanding actors, producers, business associates, and above all, the many women in his life, past and present. Guido’s dilemmas – reconciling fantasy and reality, commerce and art – animate Federico Fellini’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece about finding meaning in the circus of life. The film also stars Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimée.

Other features throughout the semester: “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” (1991) on Oct. 9; “Ed Wood,” (1994) on Oct. 30; “Singin’ in the Rain,” (1952) on Nov. 13.

For more information, contact IPRH at 244-3344, or film series organizer Christine Catanzarite at catanzar@illinois.edu, online at www.iprh.uiuc.edu.

Annual Icko Iben lecture

Space telescope astrophysicist to talk

Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, will discuss the wonders of the universe observed by the Hubble Space Telescope during a talk Sept. 17 at the UI.

Livio, who also is the head of the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute, will present the 2008 talk in the UI department of astronomy’s Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lectureship. The lecture, “The World According to the Hubble Space Telescope,” begins at 7 p.m. in Foellinger Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.

Launched on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest and most complex astronomical observatories placed in orbit. The Space Telescope Science Institute is responsible for the scientific operations of the Hubble Space Telescope.

“Few scientific experiments in history have had such a profound impact on research and on the public as the Hubble Space Telescope,” Livio said. “In addition to providing astronomers with unprecedented detail, Hubble has brought a glimpse of the wonders of the universe to homes worldwide.”

In his talk, Livio will present some of Hubble’s most riveting contributions to astronomy, from planets circling other stars, to galaxies and supermassive black holes, and on to the mysterious “dark energy” that permeates all of space and increases the rate of cosmic expansion. During his talk, Livio will show some of the most dramatic images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Livio’s research interests span a broad range of topics in astrophysics, from cosmology to the emergence of intelligent life. He has performed fundamental work on such topics as the accretion of mass onto black holes and the possibility of extracting energy from them. His latest work has focused on the use of supernovae to determine the rate of expansion of the universe, and the nature of dark energy.

Livio, a self-proclaimed “art fanatic,” has combined his passions for art and science in three popular books: “The Accelerating Universe” (2000), “The Golden Ratio” (2002), and “The Equation that Couldn’t Be Solved” (2005). “The Golden Ratio” won the Peano Prize in 2003, and the International Pythagoras Prize in 2004, as the best popular book on mathematics.

Founded in 1997 and named in honor of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Astronomy Icko Iben Jr., the Iben lectureship brings a noted astronomer to campus each year to highlight some of the latest developments in astronomy. In addition to giving a public lecture, the invited speaker also will give a technical colloquium and meet informally with faculty members and students.

‘Picnics, Potlucks and Tailgates’

Favorite take-along foods featured

When fall approaches, Denise and Mike Blakeman of Blue Mound start their tailgate preparations. As each Illini football game approaches, the group confers on who’ll bring the meat, the side dishes, the snacks and the desserts. Sitting in lawn chairs in the Loyalty Section parking west of Memorial Stadium, they relish watching the people, having UI students drop by, and sharing their favorite tailgate foods.

For side dishes to accompany their grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, they rely largely on “grab and go” foods to feed the 20-25 people who stop in, says Sally Brown, one of the cooks of the group.

Brown has provided several recipes for a cookbook published in conjunction with WILL-TV’s all-new, local cooking special, “Picnics, Potlucks and Tailgates, to be broadcast at 7 p.m. Sept. 8. WILL-AM host David Inge and WILL chef-in-residence Doyle Moore host the live special, which focuses on food-on-the-go, for outdoor feasting and for shared meals away from home. Moore will prepare meat and egg pie, and he and Inge will help guest cooks demonstrate how to prepare food for picnics, potlucks and tailgates.

“We asked seasoned tailgaters and picnickers to share some of their secrets and recipes, and they didn’t disappoint us,” said Heather Miller, who is coordinating the project for WILL-TV. “We have traditional favorites as well as new and unusual ideas for outdoor and potluck fare.”

Cooks featured on the program and the dishes they’ll be preparing will be UI volleyball coach Don Hardin, Champaign, corn salad; Larry Eastep, Springfield, quick-fix tailgate chili; Steve Trame, Champaign, Trame’s tailgate chili; Jerry Gaston, Springfield, chicken and wild rice soup; Anne Farrell, Champaign, the best brownies; Melissa and Grant Siegmund, St. Joseph, corn spoon bread; Cammy Seguin, Tuscola, picnic casserole; Doug Rokke, Rantoul, Swiss steak; Dorothy Williams, Urbana, Joe’s baked beans; and Dianna Oliveira, Champaign, apple pie cake.

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