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The Harbinger

November 12 , 2007

Voices from Darfur - stop the genocide

On November 13, at 7 p.m. in the Alumni Heritage room of Teachout-Price Hall, survivors from the Darfur will speak about the genocide. It is natural to feel helpless when faced with a huge crisis in the world – especially something as overwhelming as the violence in Darfur, Sudan where more than 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million (out of 3.5 million people in total) have been forced out of their homes since the government-sponsored genocide began in 2003. You may ask, “What would it take to stop genocide, and is there anything that I can do to make a difference?” This is the theme of this presentation. In the case of Darfur, there are specific steps that can be taken by the international community to stop the genocide.

The Save Darfur Coalition raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. It is an alliance of more than 180 advocacy and humanitarian organizations.

For more info contact: SASI@hiram.edu

The James A. Garfield Institute for Public Leadership presents seminar

The James A. Garfield Institute for Public Leadership will present its fall seminar, “National Security and the Environment: Confrontation to Convergence,”

on Monday, November 12, at 4:15 p.m. in the Alumni-Heritage room in Teachout-Price Hall. This seminar will feature Leon Fuerth, former national security advisor to Vice President Al Gore, as a keynote speaker and panelist.

Panelists:

Terry Flannery, former manager with the CIA on weapons, antisubmarine warfare, arms control and environmental issues and currently an intelligence consultant with Applied Signals Technology

Stephen Zabor, Hiram College professor of economics and environmental studies

Michael Benedict, Hiram College professor of environmental studies

Schedule:

Panel Discussion

4:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.

Reception Ballroom – Kennedy Center

6:30 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Dinner- Followed by Keynote Address
7:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Ballroom – Kennedy Center

2007 Creative Nonfiction winners chosen

Winners have been selected for the 2007 Kroehle Creative Nonfiction Contest. Winners and honorable mention selections are listed below. Congratulations to everyone!

Winners

First Place: Limery Rose, by Angela Miloro ($300)

Second Place: Looks and Sight, by Karen Cover ($200)

Third Place: Shoe Women, by Leah Schaffer ($100)

Honorable Mentions

Blood Alcohol, by Rory Lenehan (Book Prize)

Wayne’s Intelligence, by Adam Hardwick (Book Prize)

Heart’s Love, by Jarrad Davis (Book Prize)

The Stainless Steel Knight, by Joanne Bennardo (Book Prize)

President of John Cabot University comes to Hiram

On Tuesday, November 13, at 2:30 p.m. in 3rd floor Hinsdale, the president of John Cabot University in Rome will be speaking with faculty about opportunities for faculty exchange. If you are a faculty member and have an interest in teaching at John Cabot in Rome, Italy on an exchange program, consider attending this meeting.

Professor and Chair of Communications Linda Rea taught at John Cabot in the 80s and encourages other faculty to consider this opportunity. Professor Rea states from a campus email, “I can tell you that it is a fabulous experience because of the very diverse student body and a great opportunity to see Rome for an extended period of time...perhaps even more of Italy.”

Assistant Professor Janis Breckenridge serves as visiting educator at Whitman College

Janis Breckenridge

Janis Breckenridge, assistant professor of Spanish, was recently invited to Whitman College where she spent a week in the role of visiting educator. Whitman is a premier liberal arts institution in the state of Washington.

The special invite was received in the fall of 2006 when Janis presented a conference paper titled

“(Mis)appropriations: Re-constructing Protest Art in Argentina” at the annual Asociación Internacional de Literatura Femenina Hispánica (International Association of Hispanic Women’s Literature or AILFH) symposium held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Immediately following the presentation Professor Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson of Whitman College asked Janis to come to campus to discuss her research and share her experiences in the profession with graduating students majoring in Spanish.

Throughout the week Janis interacted extensively with Whitman’s twelve seniors enrolled in the Spanish 490 Senior Seminar course - a seminar that focuses specifically on Latin American dictatorships. Janis directed a class session on visual representations of Argentina’s “dirty war,” introducing the students to various media including human rights posters, a televised campaign ad sponsored by the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo (the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), and recent documentary films. In addition, Janis offered a campus-wide talk titled “Reflections on Violence: Artistic Responses to Argentina’s State Terror. ”

According to Janis, the most rewarding aspect of her visit to Whitman was working individually with the Spanish majors as they prepared their senior thesis proposals. Janis served as a mentor for students whose projects ranged from Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography to translating a work by Nicaraguan poet and liberation theologist Ernesto Cardenal to an examination of Argentine films depicting the guerra sucia.

Syrian ambassador to United States spoke at Hiram

Dr. Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States, spoke at Hiram College on Saturday, November 10, about the “U.S., Syria and the new old Middle East: Confrontation or Cooperation?”

Moustapha has served as the Syrian Ambassador to the U.S. since 2004. Prior to assuming the ambassador’s role, he was the dean of the faculty of information technology at the University of Damascus, and secretary general of the Arab School on Science and Technology. Moustapha is a member of the Syrian team which drafted reform strategies for the ministries of Culture, Education, and Higher Education. He has appeared on almost all major U.S., British, Syrian, and Arab TV news programs and presented a large number of public lectures in various Arab and American cities. A prolific writer, Ambassador Moustapha has a long list of publications written in both English and Arabic. Much of his writing has been focused on U.S. political policies. He holds a Ph.D. in computer Science from the University of Surrey.

Moustapha’s visit to Northeast Ohio was made possible by the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.

Hiram College to host New York photographer Lynn Saville’s exhibit

Hiram College will present an exhibition by noted New York photographer Lynn Saville in the Art Gallery of the Gelbke Fine Arts Center, 12000 Winrock Road, from November 12 through December 18.

Titled “Night/Shift,” the exhibition will feature the artist’s signature color and black-and-white photographs of urban and rural settings enveloped in veils of darkness.

Saville explains that her work explores, “The paradox that cities are populated by and built for crowds, but only truly inhabited by individuals.” While cities can be places associated with anonymity, Saville reveals that “Only when we bring the traffic of our dreams to a darkening city do we make it ours.”

Saville will be present for a reception on November 25 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and will give an artist’s talk in the gallery at 6 p.m. The reception and talk, like the exhibit, are free and open to the public.

Directions to Hiram College can be found at www.hiram.edu/visitors/gettingtohiram.html. For more information, please call the Hiram College Art Department at 330-569-5304

The Art Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. It will be closed from Nov. 22 through Nov. 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Novelist Clyde Edgerton to speak at Hiram College Library

Clyde Edgerton

Critically acclaimed novelist Clyde Edgerton will speak at Hiram College on Thursday, November 15 in the Pritchard Room of the Hiram College Library. The 12 p.m. event is free and open to the public.

Edgerton’s appearance is sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature, one of Hiram’s six Centers of Excellence.

Called “quietly and wonderfully outlandish” by Entertainment Weekly, Edgerton is the author of eight novels - Raney, Walking Across Egypt, The Floatplane Notebooks, Killer Diller, In Memory of Junior, Redeye, Where Trouble Sleeps, and Lunch at the Piccadilly - five of which have been included in the New York Times’ Notable Book of the Year list. His first nonfiction book is a memoir of his flying years titled Solo: My Adventures in the Air. He served five years as an Air Force fighter pilot.

Edgerton's novels typically feature characters and stories from the rural South. He grew up in the tiny Bethesda, North Carolina, the only child of Truma and Ernest Edgerton, who came from families of cotton and tobacco farmers. His nearby extended family included nearly two dozen aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Edgerton earned a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lyndhurst Fellowship, the North Carolina Award for Literature, a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Education Department, and many other accolades.

Two of Edgerton’s novels - Walking Across Egypt and Killer Diller - have been made into movies.

The Machine Stops to be aired on WCPN

90.3 WCPN ideastream and Hiram College have partnered together on the production and broadcast of The Machine Stops, a radio drama adapted from the remarkably clairvoyant short story written by E.M. Forster in 1909. The one-hour AROUND NOON special premieres on Friday, November 16 at 9 p.m. on 90.3 WCPN (An encore presentation will air on Monday, November 19 at noon).

Recorded in August in the Idea Center’s Westfield Insurance™ Studio Theatre before a live studio audience, the story was dramatized by the local professional theater team of playwright Eric Coble, director David Hansen and actors Nick Koesters, Rasheryl McCreary, Dawn Youngs, Jazmin Corona, and Tim Keo. The production includes original music by local composer Dennis Yurich.

The Machine Stops describes a world where life on the surface of the earth is so inhospitable that the human population lives below ground in small, hive-like apartments with all human communication moving through “the machine.” The story focuses on two characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, who live on opposite ends of the world.

The Machine Stops grew out of a symposium on Human Enhancement sponsored by the Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. Eric Coble, working with theater educator Jodi Maile, led symposium participants in sessions responding to the original story and his adaptation. A few months later, in September 2005, a cast of professional actors performed a dramatic reading of The Machine Stops for Cleveland’s inaugural Ingenuity Festival. Shortly after a second performance, Coble was approached by David Hansen to adapt the story for radio.

Eric Coble and David Hansen will join Dee Perry during November 16 at noon for a preview of the broadcast airing at 9 p.m. that evening (and repeating November 19 at noon).

The Machine Stops, dramatized by Eric Coble, is based on The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster.

Hiram biomedical majors present poetry/prose about illness

On Tuesday, November 13, at 4:05 p.m. in the Writing Center in 217 Hinsdale, biomedical humanities writing majors in Joyce Dryer's Writing about Illness Workshop will present a series of prose (plus one poem) about illness.

“We must consider the illness memoir . . . as this: a gift from me to you. A folk cure, a hand held out. . .

The illness memoir, after all, is not a prescription but a description, offered not to cure but to accompany.”

—Lauren Slater, One Nation, Under the Weather

Light refreshments will be served.

Hiram Jazz and African Ensembles have joint concert