IN THIS ISSUE: Founding director to be guest of honor at Japan House events | Vet Med open house to be Oct. 3 | President Hogan's blog celebrates Illinois achievements | Professor's life, achievements honored | Pet U focus is geriatric pets on Oct. 11 | Interdisciplinary conference is Sept. 23-24 | Try seeing through animals' eyes | Central Illinois baseball featured | Public Media Camp is Sept. 25 | Local actors star in fundraiser Sept. 25 | Time for annual ethics training | Guest composer featured Sept. 21-22 | Event celebrates writing, reading | IPRH film series begins Oct. 7 | Family activity days at Spurlock announced
Japan House
Founding director to be guest of honor
Shozo Sato, the founding director of Japan House on the UI campus, will be the special guest at the center’s annual fall open house Oct. 2.
Shozo Sato, the founding director of Japan House on the UI campus, will be the special guest at the center’s annual fall open house Oct. 2.
A professor emeritus in the School of Art and Design, Sato is a renowned master of traditional Zen arts with expertise in ikebana (flower arranging), chanoyu (tea ceremony), sumi-e (ink painting) and Japanese theater. Sato’s contributions in teaching Japanese traditions were recognized by the emperor of Japan, who presented him with the Order of Sacred Treasure.
At 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sato will give presentations on sumi-e, the art of painting with black ink.
At 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., James Bier, the designer of the gardens at Japan House, will host garden tours.
Tea ceremonies will be performed throughout the day by the Urbana-Champaign Association of Chado Urasenke Tankokai.
All events during the Open House, to be from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., are free and open to the public. From 1-4:30 p.m. Oct. 3, Sato will host a workshop and demonstration on the art of black ink painting. He also will sign copies of his most recent book, “Sumi-e: The Art of Japanese Ink Painting” (Tuttle Publishing, 2010).
The fee for the black ink workshop is $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers, which includes paper, ink and use of a brush. Participation is limited to 20 people. No experience is required. To register, contact Nancy Quinn, 244-9934 or ngquinn@illinois.edu.
College of Veterinary Medicine
Vet Med open house to be Oct. 3
The College of Veterinary Medicine will hold its annual open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 3.
The College of Veterinary Medicine will hold its annual open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 3.
It’s the second time this year the college will invite the public in for a behind-the-scenes look at the state’s only veterinary college. The event – which has been held in the spring for nearly every year since 1972 – was moved to the fall to accommodate changes in the college curriculum.
The theme for the event is “Explore Your Animal Instincts.” More than 40 exhibits and demonstrations will illustrate the many aspects of veterinary education and practice, with many animals and animal-related activities featured. The event is free; registration is not required. Free parking is available in Lot F-27.
Also available:
- A look at the new Clinical Skills Learning Center, which provides a hands-on environment for students to master clinical techniques in surgery, imaging, emergency medicine and other areas.
- Career talks will outline the path to becoming a veterinarian.
- Dr. Kandi Norrell will be available to answer questions from pet owners.
Note: Members of the public are not allowed to bring their pets to this event.
PrezRelease
President’s blog celebrates Illinois achievements
New UI President Michael J. Hogan has started a blog to celebrate achievements and provide another connection with students, faculty and staff members, alumni and donors on the university’s three campuses.
New UI President Michael J. Hogan has started a blog to celebrate achievements and provide another connection with students, faculty and staff members, alumni and donors on the university’s three campuses.
The blog, PrezRelease, debuted Aug. 23 on the first day of classes. Hogan, who plans to post entries four days a week, also wrote blogs during his three years as president at the University of Connecticut and for two years as provost at the University of Iowa.
He says the blog is intended to add to other methods of communication with campuses, such as mass mails for critical and time-sensitive information.
“My blog entries will be as diverse as our university culture,” Hogan wrote in his first post. “Some will salute faculty and student accomplishments, update university initiatives or provide status reports on fundraising and efforts to boost state financial support. Others will be plain old fun but just as important, offering a glimpse of the social side of college life as I connect with people and organizations during my first year.”
The president says he welcomes submissions, including photos that students and employees take with him as he makes his way around the Urbana, Chicago and Springfield campuses. Submissions can be sent to Hogan at presmike@uillinois.edu.
Richard Gumport Memorial Symposium
Professor’s life, achievements honored
A symposium honoring the life and work of Richard Gumport during his 38 years at the UI will take place Oct. 9 in Room B102 of the Chemical and Life Sciences Building. Gumport’s research centered on the biochemistry of nucleic acids and protein interactions with nucleic acids. The Richard Gumport Memorial Symposium will bring together distinguished scientists, who also were Gumport’s collaborators, students and colleagues. Many speakers will describe their recent research on nucleic acid biochemistry and trace the influence of Gumport in their work.
The continental breakfast (8-9 a.m.) and symposium (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) will be in the Chemical and Life Sciences Auditorium. Dinner will be at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room of the ACES Library. The symposium is free; there is a $15 charge for dinner. Register online at www.med.illinois.edu/Gumport/.
The symposium is sponsored by the department of biochemistry and the College of Medicine.
Veterinary Medicine
Pet U focus is geriatric pets on Oct. 11
An upcoming session of Pet U, “Caring for Your Aging Pet,” takes place 6:30 to 8 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
The College of Veterinary Medicine and the Companion Animal Resource and Education Center offers Pet U, a series of classes that provides pet owners with important information about maintaining and improving their pet’s health. Classes meet the second Monday of each month and are taught by experts from the hospital or the CARE Center.
A list of classes and schedules for the Pet U series can be found online at http://vetmed.illinois.edu/ope/petu/. Topics include understanding the body language of dogs, understanding pet food labels, and exercising your pet.
Registration is available online or by calling the Office of Public Engagement at 217-333-2907. Registration is $13 per class. Attendees can receive a $5 discount by registering at least two weeks in advance.
‘Geographies of Risk’
Interdisciplinary conference is Sept. 23-24
The department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese will host an interdisciplinary international conference dedicated to examining the many ways that the humanities engage with the notion of risk.
“Geographies of Risk” will take place on campus Sept. 23-24 in the Lucy Ellis Lounge, Room 1080, of the Foreign Languages Building.
The conference invites “reflection on the systems of knowledge that have emerged to assess, distribute, and manage risk (with particular emphasis on) the different types of identifications of risk that take place in diverse cultural locations and historical moments,” said L. Elena Delgado, a professor of Spanish and a conference organizer.
The conference begins with the premise, Delgado said, that discussions of risk have generally been limited to scientific disciplines, such as probability, game theory and actuarial science.
“The experts who decide when a risk is worth taking are very seldom the products of departments of literature and culture,” she said. “Nevertheless, the operation of defining generic hazards as risks is fundamentally a struggle over representation, a field of inquiry that the humanities are in a unique position to study.”
Conference participants will analyze a variety of discourses on risk, asking key questions about what constitutes or does not constitute a risk in different social contexts; when (and for whom) is a risk “good” or “excessive”; why certain phenomena become the point of convergence for a given society’s fears and anxieties; and what types of subjects are constructed through risk discourses. Additionally, the conference endeavors to understand how notions of risk have been distributed geographically and socially.
The scheduled keynote speakers are sociologist Iain Wilkinson, of University of Kent, who will discuss “The Confine of Risk: Towards the Recovery of Social Understanding”; and cultural critic Gabriela Nouzeilles, of Princeton University, who will speak on “Living on the Edge: Geographies of Risk in Postmodern Travel.”
Other panels are dedicated to issues such as “Risky Animals and Human Management,” “Biopolitics of Risk,” “The Eye at Risk,” “Risk and the Realm of the Literary” and “Transnationalism and the Conceptualization of Risk.”
The department also has organized complementary activities that will take place before and during the conference in support of the conference’s theme, including an exhibition at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library through Oct. 26. For more information, visit the conference website: http://georisk.sip.illinois.edu/.
Center for Advanced Study
Try seeing through animals’ eyes
James Elkins, a professor of art history, theory and criticism in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will discuss “How Animals Use Their Eyes” at noon Sept. 27, in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum.
The first half of the lecture will give some simple experiments that demonstrate the limits of human vision. The second half will be a tour through part of the animal world, showing how some animals’ eyes work. The idea is to help people think about their own habits of seeing and the particular limits of human vision – to de-naturalize seeing, so eyes can become the problematic organs they always have been.
This event, free and open to the public, is part of the 2010-2011 Center for Advanced Study Initiative “Knowing Animals: Histories, Strategies and Frontiers in Human/Animal Relations,” which explores how animals are central to human understandings and experiences of the world and to the development of concepts and beliefs about what it means to be human. For more information, contact the Center for Advanced Study at 217-333-6729 or www.cas.illinois.edu.
WILL radio and TV
Central Illinois baseball featured
UI history professor Adrian Burgos was an adviser for Ken Burns’ new baseball series, “The Tenth Inning,“ which will be broadcast on WILL-TV at 7 p.m. Sept. 28-29. WILL reporter/producer Jeff Bossert will interview Burgos and Dave McMahon, writer and producer of “The Tenth Inning,” on WILL-AM 580’s “Focus” at 10:06 a.m. Sept. 27.
Burgos is author of the book “Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos and the Color Line.”
“I’ll talk to Burgos about the emergence of Latino players, who saw baseball as a ticket out of a life of poverty,” Bossert said. “In the ’80s, players like Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez and Omar Vizquel were less expensive options for teams when native born players were costing more and more in the free agent market.”
After the first episode, at 8:59 p.m. Sept. 28, Bossert’s video report looks at the Eastern Illinois Baseball League, which celebrated its 75th anniversary this past summer. Bossert takes in a Buckley Dutch Masters game and talks to Fred Kroner, a News-Gazette reporter who is president of the league and the author of a new book on its history.
After part two of “The Tenth Inning” at 9:04 p.m. Sept. 29, Bossert tells the story of the Danville Dans, drawing college players from across the nation who come to Danville and trade in their aluminum bats for the wooden bats used in the major leagues. Players say they come to improve their game and spectators say they appreciate watching great baseball.
In conjunction with the baseball programs, Illinois Public Media/WILL is seeking contributions of stories about Central Illinois baseball for the new local baseball website at will.illinois.edu/baseball.
‘Be the Media’
Public Media Camp is Sept. 25
Illinois Public Media invites residents to share their ideas regarding local media issues at a Public Media Camp event from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m Sept. 25 at M2, 301 N. Neil St., Champaign. PubCampChambana is part of a series of Public Media Camp “unconferences” being organized around the United States by public TV and radio stations and community partners.
“We’ll work on forming new relationships so we can all ‘be the media’ together,” said Kimberlie Kranich, director of community engagement at Illinois Public Media.
Attendees shape the agenda, lead the discussion and set the course for future action. PubCampChambana will provide an opportunity for citizens and media professionals to engage with each other and with Illinois Public Media. Participants can propose, vote on and attend sessions such as “Are there aspects of our community that the media do not see?” and “What information needs do you have as a citizen in C-U and how can Illinois Public Media better meet those needs?” The event is free and open to the public.
PubCampChambana is co-sponsored by Illinois Public Media, One Main Development and CCNET. For information and free registration, visit http://wiki.publicmediacamp.org/PubCampChambana.
Book Mentor Project
Local actors star in fundraiser Sept. 25
Children’s books will come to life in a concert-style performance Sept. 25 in a fundraising event for Illinois Public Media’s Book Mentor Project. The event will feature actors from the Station Theatre, Parkland College Theatre and the UI department of theatre.
“Words in the Wind” will take place from 7:30-9 p.m. at Faith United Methodist Church, 1719 S. Prospect Ave., Champaign. Tickets are available at the door for $10.
Local musicians will provide vocal, piano or guitar accompaniment for several selections. “These are the most creative actors in town and it’s fun to see what they bring to this imaginative and colorful material,” said Tom Mitchell, interim head of the UI theatre department. “Audiences will be surprised how funny and touching and lyrical the stories can be.”
Performers include longtime Station Theatre regulars Barbara Evans, Hoffsommer and Kay Holley; Parkland College Theatre veterans J.W. Morrissette and Dallas Street; UI department of theatre faculty Robert Anderson, Lisa Dixon and Henson Keys; along with Latrelle Bright, Christine Sevec-Johnson, Robert Ramirez and other area stage professionals. Actors will present 13 pieces, including “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” “Leon and the Place Between,” “Elbert’s Bad Word” and “Steamboat Annie and the Thousand Pound Catfish.”
The Book Mentor Project, which provides books to low-income families, serves nearly 600 families in Champaign County, trains 60 teachers and 50 volunteers a year, works with 42 classrooms in eight locations and distributes more than 3,500 books to families in Champaign County Head Start and the Champaign County Early Childhood Program.
For more information, contact Tom Mitchell at tomitche@illinois.edu or Molly Delaney at delaney1@illinois.edu.
University Ethics Office
Time for annual ethics training
Beginning Oct. 4, UI permanent employees (excluding medical resident, undergraduate student and extra help employees) will receive, through their official university e-mail account, their unique log-in ID and password for the 2010 online ethics training program. Employees are encouraged to complete the required training as soon as possible to avoid reminders and additional follow-up during the 30-day training window.
The online program must be completed online at www.workplaceanswers.com/uillinois/. The training program is available Oct. 4 through 5 p.m. Nov. 2.
Employees who have not received the e-mail by the end of the day on Oct. 4, should call the University Ethics Office at 866-758-2146.
For additional information related to the annual ethics training visit the University Ethics Office website at www.ethics.uillinois.edu/training/.
New Music Ensemble
Guest composer featured Sept. 21-22
Music by guest composer Ching-Wen Chao will be featured in two concerts by the UI New Music Ensemble on Sept. 21 and 22.
Both concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Foellinger Great Hall of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Chao, a professor of composition at National Taiwan Normal University, also will present a public lecture about her music at 3 p.m. Sept. 21 in Room 1201 Music Building.
On Sept. 21, Chao’s “Natural Boundary” for violin, cello, Gu-Zheng and electronics will be performed along with the world premiere of “Etude: Rehydrating Fossils,” by UI faculty composer Erik Lund. The Sept. 22 concert will feature five recent compositions from Taiwan including Chao’s “ In an instant …” for solo piano, performed by Yu-Chi Tai, and “Sound States” for percussion and electronics. In addition, “Hakka Fusion,” which is based on a Hakka folk song by UI faculty emeritus composer Zack Browning, will be performed.
Eduardo Diazmuñoz and Stephen Taylor, both UI professors of music, are co-artistic directors for the ensemble.
Youth Literature Festival
Event celebrates writing, reading
Nationally known and emerging authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers will engage with young readers and readers young at heart during the second Youth Literature Festival. The festival, to take place Oct. 9 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates the ways in which written works enrich the lives of young people and promotes reading as a fun activity.
The day’s events, which begin at 10 a.m., will include author readings, Spanish/English bilingual stories, live music and dance, puppetry and ventriloquism. Throughout the day, festival-goers will have opportunities to engage in a variety of reading-related hands-on activities and workshops, including bookmaking, graphic illustration, folding origami puppets and using puppets to tell stories for television.
The Cat in the Hat, the mischievous feline character created by children’s author Dr. Seuss, will be on hand to greet visitors at Illinois Public Media’s activity table in the Krannert Center lobby.
Among the authors participating in this year’s festival are Debbi Chocolate, who has written more than 20 picture books, some of which have been featured on the television shows “Reading Rainbow” and “Sesame Street”; award-winning local author, teacher, journalist and National Public Radio commentator Beth Finke; and Will Hobbs, the author of 17 outdoor, adventure and mystery novels, seven of which were named Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association.
Also taking part is internationally acclaimed storyteller and columnist Dan Keding, whose writings and recordings have garnered numerous Storyteller World Winner Awards and a Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Network in 2000.
During the two days preceding the festival, Oct. 7-8, the authors and illustrators will visit and give readings at 49 schools in Champaign, Urbana and surrounding communities and at the Champaign Public Library and the Urbana Free Library.
“There’s a direct correlation to reading and success in life,” said Mary Kalantzis, the dean of the College of Education, which is sponsoring the festival. “The kids and the adults that read have better well-being, financial success and success in academics and in other areas of their lives.”
The challenge for educators and families is encouraging young people to read without making it seem like work, Kalantzis said. The festival promotes reading as an enjoyable practice that people can share.
All events on the day of the festival, Oct. 9, are free and open to the public and will be held at Krannert. Free parking will be available in the center’s garage.
The complete schedule of events is available on the Web at http://youthlitfest.education.illinois.edu.
IPRH
Film series begins Oct. 7
The fall film series sponsored by the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities will comprise a variety of films that have only one thing in common: They didn’t attract large audiences during their initial showings early in the series’ 10-year history and deserve second screenings, according to Christine Catanzarite, senior associate director at IPRH and organizer of the series.
This year is the 10th anniversary for the film series, which usually is organized around IPRH’s annual theme, but Catanzarite decided to “take this opportunity to look back at some past films and give them another opportunity to reach a broader campus and local audience.”
The series will begin on Oct. 7 with a screening of “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control,” a 1997 documentary by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris about four people obsessed with their unusual careers as a topiary gardener, a wild animal trainer, an expert on the behaviors of the naked mole rat and a robot engineer.
Working with Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (“Casino,” “JFK”) and using a variety of formats the filmmaker interweaves portraits of four unique people in a film that explores creativity and is at times weird, moving, hilarious and sad.
The rest of the film series: Oct. 28, “Night of the Living Dead,” (1968) the horror film directed by George A. Romero that became a cult classic; Nov. 11, “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,” (2001), a drama about random acts of violence weaves together a series of vignettes about five New Yorkers and the effects that dramatic and mundane events have on their lives.
The films – free and open to the public – will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Room 62 of Krannert Art Museum. For more information, visit the IPRH website at www.iprh.illinois.edu or or contact Catanzarite at catanzar@illinois.edu.
Film titles and screening dates for the spring semester will be announced online in January.
Spurlock Museum
Family activity days announced
Spurlock Museum has announced it will host “Around the World Wednesdays” between 930 a.m. and noon on Oct. 6, 13, 20 and 27. The event provides children with a variety of culture-based crafts and activities. The format allows participants to stop in during the event (it is not necessary to plan to be there the entire time). A donation of $2 per participant is requested. For more information, contact Julia Robinson at 217-265-0474. More information about the museum is online at www.spurlock.illinois.edu.
