'Telling Our Stories' empowers high school students to write creatively

On May 6, 2010, several Madison-area high school students presented their creative writing pieces at the UW Memorial Library as part of the Telling Our Stories project.

Telling Our Stories, coordinated by Sociology Ph.D. student Mytoan Nguyen, connects UW-Madison graduate students and community educators with high school students to empower the youth to creatively write about their families' histories.

The intention is to help the students of immigrant and refugee backgrounds to learn about and document how their families came to Madison, Wisconsin, and the daily challenges and rewards that they experienced.

For many youths, the journey toward uncovering their unique family history helped enrich their sense of place in the world and enhance their tools to critically construct their own version of history and events.

A printed anthology of the students' work will be released this summer.

The creative writing pieces were composed on seven Saturday morning workshops where youths learned the components of storytelling and about the different creative techniques they could use to present their stories.

Telling Our Stories is supported by the Humanities Exposed Program, and has partnered with after-school youth programs such as GEAR UP and the PEOPLE program as well as a Room of One’s Own Foundation, the Madison Children's Museum, the Mess Hall Press, and the UW Departments of Sociology, Educational Policy Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

Category: Humanities & the Arts
Tags: , , , ,

Year of Humanities finishes with events, performances

The Year of the Humanities will come to a close during the remaining weeks of the semester and the concluding events are not to be missed.

What makes us tick? Perhaps it depends on whom one asks.

A panel discussion will explore the topic "What is the Mind?" from the perspective of a philosopher, a psychologist and a cognitive neuroscientist, Thursday, April 29, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Union.

Panelists are Elizabeth Spelke, professor of psychology and co-director of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative, Harvard University; John Gabrieli, professor of cognitive neuroscience, MIT; John Haugeland, professor of philosophy, University of Chicago; and Larry Shapiro (moderator), professor of philosophy, UW-Madison.

The Zhang Clan from Hunan, China, will explore "Supernatural Presences" in performances that include hymn singing accompanied by flutes, gongs, and drums, brandishing swords and burning ritual paper.

The performances, the first of their kind in North America, will introduce audiences to Daoist traditions of mainland China.

Magic Moves: A First Glimpse of Daoist Ritual will take place Thursday, April 29, 4 p.m. on Library Mall. Inviting the Gods: Daoist Ritual Performance will take place Saturday, May 1, 1 p.m., Union Terrace.

Category: Humanities & the Arts
Tags: ,

Great World Text Project builds on past success with 'Things Fall Apart'

The Center for the Humanities' Great World Text Project is proud to build on the success of past years with the 2009-10 project: "Things Fall Apart in Wisconsin."

During the 2009-2010 academic year, high school classes from across the state participated in reading Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart.

Teachers also attended workshops on teaching the novel and students prepared projects inspired by the novel.

On April 13, 2010 in the Memorial Union these students will present their plays, films, poetry, artwork, and other projects to each other and the UW community.

As part of the day’s activities, award winning author Chris Abani, will deliver a keynote address at 11:00 am in the Union Theater.

In previous years, the Great World Text Project has featured: "The Brothers Karamazov in Wisconsin," "One Hundred Years of Solitude in Wisconsin," "Don Quixote in Wisconsin," and the "Dante's Inferno in Wisconsin".

To learn more about the project (and past projects) please visit:  http://humanities.wisc.edu/programs/great-texts 

Category: Humanities & the Arts
Tags: ,

Mellon Foundation grant establishes post-docs in humanities

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded more than $1.8 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to support postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities, history and humanistic social sciences.

The funds will create 12 two-year Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities in the College of Letters & Science.

Disciplinary Crossings is expanding the scope and reach of the humanities in a number of fields that address the "crossings" of knowledge between the West and the regions of Eurasia, the Pacific Rim, Indian Ocean and the eastern Mediterranean.

The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships will build upon the Disciplinary Crossings initiative.

The Mellon Foundation, located in New York, previously provided $2.5 million to the College for Disciplinary Crossings in the 21st Century Public University, enabling the hires of 12 new faculty members.

Funding for fellowships in the humanities can be hard to find and that makes the Mellon Foundation's support all the more valuable.

• Mellon Foundation gives another $1.8 million to UW-Madison (Wisconsin State Journal)
• Mellon Foundation awards to fund postdoctoral fellowships (University Communications)
  

Category: College Updates
Tags: , , ,

La Colonie graces the stage again 2/12/10

After a successful debut in October 2009, the Department of French and Italian troupe will perform a reprised reading of the musical comedy, La Colonie.

Written by UW-Madison Professional French Masters Program Executive Director Ritt Deitz, La Colonie is a play in French. The play débuted October 9, 2009 to a full UW-Madison French House audience made up of university and community members.

La Colonie may be the first all-French-language musical to be written and débuted in Madison—it is certainly the first one about Madison, even an imaginary one.

The play will held February 12, 2010 at the Hemsley Theatre at 8 pm. The performance is free and doors open at 7:30 pm.

Deitz (PhD'94, French) teaches a course on Quebec every spring in the Professional French Masters Program and has long been fascinated by the odd nature of that miniature French-language society.

Category: Humanities & the Arts
Tags: , ,

Upcoming Special Event: Humanities in the 21st Century, 2/3/10

Mark your calendars for the upcoming special event The Humanities in the 21st Century on February 3rd @5:30p in the Chazen Museum of Art, Room L160.

As part of the Year of the Humanities, this panel brings together the nation's foremost experts in the humanities to discuss the direction of the Humanities in the 21st century.

Moderated by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, the panel will include comments from Jim Leach, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Don Randel, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and Pauline Yu, President of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Category: Humanities & the Arts
Tags: ,

L&S gets Twitter-savvy

A number of Letters & Sciences departments are programs have started Twittering.

Join the conversation!

• Department of Geography
• Department of Economics
• Department of Political Science
• Center for the Humanities
• School of Journalism & Mass Communication
• Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
• UW Space Place
• Wisconsin Film Festival

Not on the list but should be?  Let us know.

Category: College Updates
Tags: , , , , , , ,