“Dog Soup versus Wonder Bread”
Allegheny College Lecture Series: Eric Pallant
September 29, 2010
6:30 p.m., Campus Center 301/302
In early summer 2000, I taught Allyson Tinney to bake sourdough bread. The sourdough starter I gave her has been handed from baker to baker since the Cripple Creek gold rush of 1893. I visited her and her breads in spring 2010 to learn how she and the starter had changed in the last decade.
Keynote Event
Angélique Kidjo
September 25, 2010
8:00 p.m., Shafer Auditorium
Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist. Kidjo’s music is a fusion of funk, salsa, jazz, pop, and tribal rhythms of West Africa. She has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, and founded The Batonga Foundation, which gives girls a secondary school and higher education so they can take the lead in changing Africa.
“The Biodiversity of Culture: Understanding Indonesia’s Place in Your World”
September 22, 2010
6:00 p.m., Quigley Auditorium
Indonesia is a country with a rich culture, diverse natural resources, and active civil society. Whether the people of the world’s largest archipelago are aware or not, their culture and safety is embedded in their natural surroundings.
Keynote Event
Sonia Nazario
October 25, 2010
Public Reading, 4:00 p.m., Tippie Center
Public Lecture, 7:30 p.m., Ford Chapel
Sonia Nazario has written about social issues for more than two decades, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She holds the distinctions of winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, and of being the youngest writer to be hired by the Wall Street Journal.
Her evening lecture will be on immigration and based on her book,
John Imanene
October 26, 2010
Public Lecture, 7:00 p.m., Schultz Banquet Hall
Public Reception, 8:00 p.m.
His evening lecture focused on his life in Kenya, his role as the lead investigator for the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances in Kenya, and what he has done since he has come to America.
Gerry Adams to Visit Allegheny College
November 3, 2010
12:30 p.m., Tillotson Room, Tippie Center
Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Féin, the largest political party in Northern Ireland, will talk about his experiences in a conversation with Joshua Searle-White, associate professor of psychology, at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3 in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center. Inside Allegheny Story
“Healing Ecology: Buddhist Reflections on the Eco-Crisis”
David Loy, Ph.D.
November 18, 2010
7:30 p.m., Quigley Auditorium
David Loy most recently was the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion & Society at Xavier University (2006-2010), and has also held academic appointments at the National University of Singapore and Bunkyo University in Chigasaki, Japan.
International Education Week
November 15-19, 2010
International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.
Cookies and Milk
December 5, 2010
2 p.m. & 4 p.m.
The Dance and Movement Studies Program at Allegheny College will present its annual Cookies and Milk holiday concert in the Montgomery Performance Space.
Art Exhibition: Diasporas and Dreams
January 25, 2011
The five exhibiting artists invite us to examine the personal and political dimensions of human displacement, including in diasporas. It is proposed that diasporic peoples, whatever their reason for leaving “home,” are as close as one gets to finding a “global citizen.” Curated by Jacqueline Gehring, Shanna Kirschner and Darren Lee Miller.
The exhibition will open January 25 with a reception and artist panel discussion by 2010 NEH Summer Institute Fellow, Bonnie Donohue; 2010 Puffin Foundation grantee, Rebecca Heyl; “10 Years and Counting” co-founder, Andrew Ellis Johnson; Cypriot-American freelance artist and activist, Vasia Markides; and 2008 Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Artist-of-the-Year, Susanne Slavick. The panel will be followed by a free concert by Oakland, California rap artist, Ise Lyfe.
Closing reception and artist’s talk by filmmaker Vasia Markides, March 11, 2011, 7 p.m., Art Galleries.
Opening Reception: Diasporas and Dreams
January 25, 2011
7 p.m., Art Galleries
The exhibit will open with an artist panel discussion by 2010 NEH Summer Institute Fellow, Bonnie Donohue; 2010 Puffin Foundation grantee, Rebecca Heyl; “10 Years and Counting” co-founder, Andrew Ellis Johnson; Cypriot-American freelance artist and activist, Vasia Markides; and 2008 Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Artist-of-the-Year, Susanne Slavick.
The opening reception will be followed by a free concert by Oakland, California rap artist, Ise Lyfe.
Symposium — Citizenship Today: Reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy
January 25, 2011
Full Schedule
Keynote Event
“Modern Environmentalism: Voices from the Planet”
Alon Tal, Ph.D.
February 2, 2011
7:30 p.m., Ford Chapel
In 1996, Dr. Tal founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a graduate studies center in which Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian students join environmentalists from around the world in an advanced interdisciplinary research program. He is Israel’s leading environmentalist and author and a multi-award winner, including a lifetime achievement award for Environmental Protection.
Photojournalist Craig F. Walker
February 9, 2011
7 p.m., Art Galleries
Craig F. Walker is a photojournalist with the Denver Post. He was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography with an essay chronicling over two years of the life of a young man who joined the army out of high school during a time of war, through boot camp and training, the rough times and finally to the war zone and back home a very changed young man. Craig’s work involved many of the newest forms of reportage and communication. He photographed, conducted video interviews and even had to learn how to text message on his phone. The final piece not only ended up as a big spread in the newspaper, but was a multi-media piece on the newspaper’s website where it reached far more people. Now the story has reached millions with the award.
“What I Learned About Judaism from the Dalai Lama: Spiritual Ecology and the Endangered Species of Religion”
Rodger Kamenetz
February 23, 2011
7:30 p.m., Tillotson Room, Tippie Alumni Center
The Dalai Lama asked Jews to give him the “secret of spiritual survival in exile.” This sense of threat is common actually to all of our spiritual traditions today in our new world of global competition. The exchange of survival secrets between rabbis and Buddhist monks went both ways, as each came to discover the power of true dialogue.
Rodger Kamenetz is the author of ten books including the international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus, which describes the historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama. He is a poet and winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. His most recent book is Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka. He is LSU Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies Emeritus.
Step Afrika!
February 25, 2011
8:00 p.m., Shafer Auditorium
Step Afrika! is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Founded in December 1994, the company is critically-acclaimed for its efforts to promote an understanding of and appreciation for stepping and the dance tradition’s use as an educational tool for young people worldwide. Step Afrika! reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year and has performed on many stages in North & South America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
Black History Month Events
All events designed and funded by Allegheny’s Black Studies Program. For more information on the program, please click here.
February 2011
In Honor of Women’s History Month
Screening & Discussion: “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo”
February 28, 2011 – 7 p.m. – Quigley Auditorium
Presentation: Filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson
March 1, 2011 – 7 p.m. – Quigley Auditorium
Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize in Documentary and the inspiration for a 2008 U.N. Resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war, this extraordinary film, shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), shatters the silence that surrounds the use of sexual violence as a weapon of conflict. A survivor of gang rape herself, Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson travels through the DRC to understand what is happening and why.
“Harrowing moments of the film come as dozens of survivors recount their stories with an honesty and immediacy that is pulverizing in its intimacy and detail, but this powerful film also provides inspiring examples of resiliency, resistance, courage and grace.” (Women Make Movies)
Peace Corps 50th Birthday Celebration
March 2, 2011
Nominee Panel Presentation
12:00pm Campus Center 301/302
Current nominees will share their experiences, including the application, interview process and decision-making.
Peace Corps Stories
4:00 p.m., Campus Center 301/302
Alumni, faculty and staff who have served with the Peace Corps will share their experiences and the rewards of service. With 173 Allegheny alumni serving in the Peace Corps since its inception, Allegheny has the honorable distinction of ranking 2nd in producing the highest number of nominees in western Pennsylvania. Hors d’œuvres and cake to be served.
Keynote Event
Global Citizenship Conference
March 11-12, 2010
Various Locations
Undergraduate conference featuring four plenary speakers: J. Baird Callicott (University of North Texas), Noelle McAfee (George Mason University), Ladelle McWhorter (University of Richmond), and Eduardo Mendieta (State University of New York at Stony Brook). The conference is organized by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Diasporas and Dreams lecture and film screening
Vasia Markides
March 11, 2011
7 p.m., Location TBA, part of Allegheny College’s Global Citizenship Conference
Vasia Markides is a painter and filmmaker living in New York City and Cyprus. Her 2008 documentary, “Hidden in the Sand,” chronicles the story of Famagusta, the idyllic home city of the artist’s refugee mother, that was evacuated of its Greek Cypriot population by the Turkish army during the 1974 military invasion. Markides says, “The media institutions, the educational system, and the government all foster a general attitude of victimization amongst the Greek Cypriots… I wanted the film to encourage people to question the institutions and social structures around them, which keep them tethered to a painful past and a grim future.”
“Soko” Spring Dance Concert
Choreographed by Andrea Markus
March 10–12, 2011
8:00 p.m., Montgomery Performance Space
Many of the dances will draw on international dance styles and movement forms in celebration of the college’s Year of Global Citizenship. Styles of movement will range from tap and modern to ballroom and Middle-Eastern dance.
Hannah Cosdon will both perform and present choreography. Betsy Sumerfield, James Reedy and Tom Erdos all have created new dances for the concert. Eleanor Weisman worked with Daystar/Rosalie Jones to stage a piece based on American Indian themes specifically for this year’s theme, building on the idea that global citizenship begins at home. In addition, Andrea Markus’ “Soko” will be re-staged for the concert. Markus was a Diversity Scholar in Residence at Allegheny College in 2010.
This year’s performance coincides with a two-day Global Citizenship Conference, which will bring together scholars and students concerned with investigating the future of citizenship in a world that is becoming ever more connected while racked by strife and inequity.
For more information on the free concert or to make reservations, call the Dance and Movement Studies office at (814) 332-2813.
Helen Welch + Jazz Trio
March 10, 2011
7:30 p.m., Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre at the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts
Singer, song-writer and actress Helen Welch was born and raised in Norwich, England. Helen has performed on the international stage and brings her extraordinary performance to Allegheny College. Helen and her Jazz Trio will be performing her “Divas Show,” which debuted in 2005, and is a salute to legendary female vocalists of the past 50 years including Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler and more.
Tickets: $20 each for show / $35 each for show and private after-concert reception
A Symposium on Hirokazu Kore’eda
Screenings April 4-7, 2011, Symposium April 7
Vukovich Center for Communication Arts Screening Room
Film Criticism, one of America’s oldest academic film journals, has been edited by Professor Lloyd Michaels since 1976 and published at Allegheny College since 1984. Its most recent number (XXXV, 2-3) is a special double issue on the contemporary Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore’eda.
In celebration of this occasion and as part of both The Year of Global Citizenship and Asian Awareness Month, the college will present a Kore’eda Film Festival and a symposium on Kore’eda’s artistic achievement.
Four films will be presented on successive evenings:
Monday, April 4, 5 p.m. — Maborosi (1995)
Tuesday, April 5, 5 p.m. — After Life (1998)
Wednesday, April 6, 5 p.m. — Nobody Knows (2004)
Thursday, April 7, 7:30 p.m. — Still Walking (2008), discussion to follow
Participating in the Thursday discussion will be Japanese film scholars Arthur Nolletti Jr., professor emeritus of English at Framingham State University, and Linda Ehrlich, associate professor of Japanese at Case Western Reserve University. Nolletti also will guest lecture in a first-year seminar co-taught by Film Criticism editor and English professor Lloyd Michaels and philosophy and religious studies professor Eric Boynton.
In addition to serving as guest editor of the most recent issue of Film Criticism, Nolletti is also a member of Film Criticism’s editorial board. He has edited or authored several books, including “Reframing Japanese Cinema,” “The Films of Fred Zinnemann” and “The Cinema of Gosho Heinosuke.”
Ehrlich, who contributed an essay to the current issue of Film Criticism, has recently interviewed Kore-eda and published articles on world cinema in Cinemaya, Cinema Journal, Literature/Film Quarterly and several other journals. In addition, she co-edited “Cinematic Landscapes” and authored “The Cinema of Víctor Erice: An Open Window.”
Bobby Bailey, co-founder of the Invisible Children movement
April 4, 2011
7:30 p.m., Shafer Auditorium
Bobby Bailey will be presenting what he calls a “roadmap to eradicating extreme poverty.” His new project can be seen at www.globalpovertyproject.com.
China’s Economy: Historical Legacies & Modern Growth
April 11, 2011
12:15-1:30 p.m., Quigley Hall, Henderson Auditorium
Professor Thomas Rawski, professor of economics and history at the University of Pittsburgh, will present a public lecture. He has published ten books and more than a hundred papers on China’s economy, and was among the early visitors to China after 1978.
Free pizza will be available. Event sponsored by the Departments of Economics and History and the Asian Studies Program.
“Secularism and Islam in Modern Turkey” (afternoon seminar)
April 11, 2011
3-4:15 p.m., Campus Center Room 206
“Muslims and Minorities in the Pre-Modern Middle East: The Ottoman Difference” (Annual Towns Family Lecture)
April 11, 2011
7:30 p.m., Tillotson Room, Tippie Alumni Center
Dr. Virginia Aksan of McMaster University will deliver the annual Towns Family lecture titled “Muslims and Minorities in the Pre-Modern Middle East: The Ottoman Difference,” considers European-Muslim encounters in the early modern world and the practice of religious tolerance in the Ottoman context, offering an uncommon historical perspective on this year’s annual theme of global citizenship.
Dr. Aksan will also conduct an afternoon seminar on “Secularism and Islam in Modern Turkey,” and she will visit Allegheny courses on Tuesday as well.
Dr. Aksan is professor of History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, specializing in eighteenth and early nineteenth century Ottoman history. She teaches courses in Islamic, Middle Eastern, and most recently Mediterranean history and regularly contributes to the graduate program in Globalization at McMaster. She is also an Associate Member of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Dr. Aksan has been Secretary and President of the Turkish Studies Association of North America, and President and Board Member of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. What is more, she is an alumnae of Allegheny College.
Her publications include a study of an influential Ottoman reformer, An Ottoman Statesman in War and Peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi, 1700-1783 (Brill, 1995) and reflecting her interest in the Ottoman intellectual milieu and cross-cultural contacts and influences, Ottomans and Europeans: Contacts and Conflicts (Isis Press, 2004) and Ottoman Wars, 1700-1870: an Empire Besieged (Pearson-Longman, 2007).