Please contact LeAnn Evey (x7129 or eveyld@plu.edu), if you have a lecture you would like added.
Ambassador Chris Stevens Memorial Lecture
Robin Wright
"Rock the Casbah:" Challenges and Solutions in the Middle East"
February 21, 2013
10:30 a.m. - Lagerquist Concert Hall
Robin Wright has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, The Atlantic, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News, Foreign Affairs and many others. Her foreign tours include the Middle East, Europe, Africa and several years as a roving foreign correspondent worldwide. She has covered a dozen wars and several revolutions. Until 2008, she covered U.S. foreign policy for The Washington Post.
Wright has also been a fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as well as Yale, Duke, Stanford, and the University of California.
Among Several Awards, Wright received the U.N. Correspondents Gold Medal, the National Magazine Award for reportage from Iran in The New Yorker, and the Overseas Press Club Award for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and initiative" for coverage of African wars. The American Academy of Diplomacy selected Wright as the journalist of the year for her "distinguished reporting and analysis of international affairs." She also won the National Press Club Award for diplomatic reporting and has been the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant.
She lectures extensively around the United States and has been a television commentator on morning and evening news programs in ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN and MSNBC as well as "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," "This Week," "Nightline," "PBS Newshour," "Frontline," "Charlie Rose," "Washington Week in Review," "Hardball," "Morning Joe," "Anderson Cooper 360," "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," "Piers Morgan Tonight," "The Colbert Report" and HBO's "Real Time."
Wright's most recent book is "Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic world." Her other books include "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East" (2008), which The New York Times and The Washington Post both selected as one of the most notable books of the year. She was the editor of "The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and U.S. Policy" (2010). Her other books include "The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran: (2000), which was selected as one of the 25 most memorable books of the year 2000 by the New York Library Association, "Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam" (2001), "Flashpoints: Promise and Peril in a New World" (1991), and "In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade" (1989).
For more information, go to: http://www.plu.edu/wang-center/AmbassadorMemorialLecture/home.php
Special Lecture
Department of Psychology and Department of Philosophy
"Speciesism: A Philosophy/Psychology Dialogue"
Dr. Andrea Karkowski and Dr. Erin McKenna
February 21, 2013
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Hauge Administration Building, Room 101
Pacific Lutheran University Department of Psychology and Department of Philosophy present Dr. Andrea Karkowski, Department of Psychology, Capital University ("Speciesism: Just another -ism? Or, is it an -ism at all?") and Dr. Erin McKenna, Department of Philosophy, Pacific Lutheran University ("Speciesism, Human Exceptionalism, and Ecofeminism") on "Speciesism: A Philosophy/Psychology Dialogue". All are invited. Please call 253-535-7294 for more information.
State Farm MBA Executive Leadership Series
American Defense International, Inc.
Van Hipp, Jr., Chairman of American Defense International, Inc.
February 21, 2013
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Leraas Lecture Hall, Rieke Science Center
Van Hipp is Chairman of American Defense International, Inc. (ADI), a Washington, DC based consulting firm specializing in government affairs, business development and public relations.
Hipp is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served on active duty in both Operation Desert Storm and Operation Restore Democracy. He continues to speak on defense issues at public forums across the country, and his articles on defense and international policy have been widely read in the national print media.
Since the September 11th attacks on the United States, Hipp has appeared on the Fox News Channel well over 400 times as an expert commentator on the War on Terror. He formerly served on the President's Council of the National Safe Skies Alliance. In 2002, Hipp was named as South Carolina Ambassador for Economic Development. He is the past Chairman of the Salvation Army Board of Advisors in Alexandria, VA, and currently serves as a member of the National Capital Salvation Army Advisory Board, and as a member of the Board of Visitors of Charleston Southern University.
Hipp received his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Wofford College and his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Hipp is married to the former Jane Grote of Nashville, Tennessee. They have three children: Trey, Sarah Camille, and Jackson. Hipp and his family reside in Alexandria, VA.
The Thirty-ninth Annual Walter C. Schnackenberg Memorial Lecture
Professor Neil Foley
"The Hispanic Challenge and the Latinization of America"
February 25, 2013
7:00 p.m.
Anderson University Center - Scandinavian Cultural Center (UC 101)
Professor Neil Foley, the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Chair in American History at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, is the Thirty-ninth Annual Walter C. Schnackenberg Memorial Lecturer. Professor Foley is the author of Quest for Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity (Harvard University Press, 2010). He teaches courses in 19th and 20th-century U.S. history; Mexican American and Latino History; The American West; Immigration, Citizenship, and Transnational Identity in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Professor Foley has lived abroad for a number of years in Mexico (Mexico City), Germany (Berlin, Heidelberg, Stuttgart), Spain (Salamanca, Zaragosa), and Japan (Misawa; Naha, Okinawa). Professor Foley's lecture title will be "The Hispanic Challenge and the Latinization of America." The lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer period and a reception of light food and drinks. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public.
Special Lecture
Religious Studies Lecture
Dr. Deborah Green
"Holy Perfume and Functional Frankincense: The Spicier Side of Ancient Judaism"
February 26, 2013
7:30-9:00 p.m.
Anderson University Center Scandinavian Cultural Center (UC 101)
Why is the Messiah perfumed? Why is God hidden in a cloud of incense? There's a blessing for musk?
Through ancient Jewish literature, we find descriptions of fragrance as key metaphors for righteousness and holiness; and in the archaeological and historical record, we find the use of perfume and incense in order to obtain spirituality. Join us on an exotic journey of spices and scents, the divine and the worldly.
Dr. Deborah Green is the Greenberg Associate Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, and Director of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Oregon. Her most recent book is The Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature, which came out with Penn State University Press in 2011.
Visiting Writer's Series
Joe Oestreich, Nonfiction Writer
March 12, 2013
3:30 p.m. - The Writer's Story at the Garfield Book Company
5:30 p.m. - Reading - Scandinavian Cultural Center, Anderson University Center
State Farm MBA Executive Leadership Series
Esterline Corporation
Brad Lawrence, Chairman, President & CEO of Esterline Corporation
March 12, 2013
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Leraas Lecture Hall, Rieke Science Center
Brad Lawrence is the Chairman, President & CEO of Esterline Corporation. Lawrence had already accumulated more than 30 years of experience in the technology and manufacturing industries when he joined Esterline in 2002 as President of its Advanced Input operation. His role was soon expanded to include general management responsibility for Esterline's Interface Technologies platform, one of the company's larger business platforms. It includes operations in the U.S. and abroad focusing on medical and high-tech interface products. Lawrence's responsibilities expanded further in 2007 when he was appointed to the position of Group Vice President for Esterline Corporation. In September of 2009 he was named Esterline's President and Chief Operating Officer and then promoted to Chief Executive Officer in November when Lawrence became a member of Esterline's Board of Directors. He was appointment Chairman of the Board in March 2012.
Prior to joining Esterline, Lawrence held management and executive positions in sales, marketing and operations with Rockwell International, Paccar, Flow International and PRI Automation.
Lawrence holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He and his wife Donna live in Bellevue, Washington and have a seasonal residence in northern Idaho. They have two grown daughters, Allison and Kelsey, and a Labrador Retriever named Lily.
Special Lecture
Dr. Russell Kolts, Eastern Washington University
"A Brief Introduction to Compassion-Focused Therapy"
March 15, 2013
2:00-2:50 p.m. - Xavier 201
Compassion-focused therapy is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy which draws upon evolutionary psychology, affective neuroscience, and Buddhist mind-training techniques that help clients work with difficult emotions and overcome shame and self-criticism. In this presentation, Dr. Kolts will present some of the major points underlying this therapeutic approach.
Visiting Writer's Series
Jaimy Gordon, Fiction Writer
April 10, 2013
3:30 p.m. - The Writer's Story at the Garfield Book Company
5:30 p.m. - Reading - Scandinavian Cultural Center, Anderson University Center
Special Lecture
A Matter of Literature, Music, and the Digital Age
Transatlantic Majesty: Representations of Amerindian Rulers in Restoration Drama and Public Spectacle
Dr. Ana Elena Conzález Treviño (UNAM)
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
1:45 p.m. – Admin 200
Representations of American Indians occur frequently in Restoration and early eighteenth-century drama and public spectacle. While such depictions mix the stereotypes of the good savage and the primitive other, portrayals of so-called Indian kings betray anxieties about the monarchic institution, both in the context of the Restoration of Charles I, and the absolutism of Louis XIV. A significant exchange of costumes and gestures between state and stage took place, revealing both the theatrical nature of the restored monarchy and the potential influence of drama on public policy. Some of those cultural exchanges will be examined, with examples drawn from the plays of John Dryden and Aphra Behn, as well as Louis XIV’s 1662 carousel and the Iroquois diplomatic embassy of the Four Indian Kings.
Special Lecture
A Matter of Literature, Music, and the Digital Age
A Matter of Literature: From Early Documents to Contemporary Creation
Dr. Ana Elena Conzález Treviño (UNAM) & Dr. Susana González Aktories (UNAM)
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
7:00 p.m. – Regency Room
We will discuss the fundamental role that technology has gained in the field of literary creation and research in the past two decades. It has demanded of the reader the development of new skills and the consideration of the literary object in a broader perspective. New paradigms have emerged, which depend, among other things, on the possibilities offered by technology that instantly reproduces and makes ancient manuscripts accessible, while simulating their materiality. Regarding literary creation in the twenty-first century, it offers the possibility of new, intermediate ways of expression which have led to what is called “expanded literature.”
Special Lecture
A Matter of Literature, Music, and the Digital Age
The Embodiment of the Voice in Music
Dr. Susana González Aktories (UNAM)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
6:30 p.m. – AUC 201
Voice is much more than a vocal human emission of sound. It can be understood as a primary metaphor of creation, as a vehicle that allows for the connection with the inner self, as one of the ways communicating with the world, of transcending. Voice is the expression of individuality; it is paradoxically immaterial yet conveys a sense of materiality. As such, it embodies emotions, states of mind, states of existence, and more. When talking of an artistic expression, voice may also attain different meanings: the narrative voice, the poetic voice, the sung voice. Through a brief consideration of the different dimensions that the notion of voice may have in a cultural discourse, we can gain a better understanding of its performative value.
Jolita Hylland Benson Education Lecture
S. Craig Watkins, University of Texas
"Digital Divides, Digital Literacies, and the Power and Potential of Connected Learning"
April 18, 2013
7:00 p.m. - Anderson University Center - Scandinavian Cultural Center
When we think of the digital divide we usually think of access to technology as the primary factor. But the scope and nature of the digital divide has changed in some notable ways, creating a very different digital world as well as new perils and possibilities. After spending an entire year in a Central Texas high school, researcher S. Craig Watkins draws on some of the insight from The Digital Edge, a multi-year study funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Digital Media and Learning Hub at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Texas at Austin. The Digital Edge explores how even though a greater diversity of youth than ever before are using social, mobile, and digital media platforms that America's social, educational, and economic divides persist. In this talk, Watkins discusses the vision and the challenges of "connected learning" in the lives, schools, and communities of low-income youth.
Earth Day Lecture
Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University
"When 'Small was Beautiful': The Ancient History of Resilient Practices"
April 23, 2013
7:30-8:30 p.m. - Scan Center
Archaeological fieldwork illustrates the long span of human occupation of the earth. What can archaeology teach us about social and environmental issues today? The great statesman Winston Churchill understood the value of looking to the distant past for clues to the present and future: "The father back we look, the father ahead we can see." I describe three examples of archaeological fieldwork that have contemporary relevance. (1) Small-scale intensive agriculture. Archaeological fieldwork has uncovered ancient sustainable farming practices that are being put to work to feed growing populations in the developing world today. (2) Families and communities. My own excavations in Mexico reveal successful and prosperous ways of life in an unexpected corner of the Aztec Empire. The ways these people solved social and environmental problems suggest reasons why some modern communities and neighborhoods are more successful than others. (3) Urban sustainability. Current research on ancient cities may hold clues for understanding the sustainability of urban practices and policies today. These examples illustrate the importance of the social component of sustainability and show the value of looking to the past for insights about the present and future.
Michael E. Smith is a Professor of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He is an archaeologist who has directed excavations at numerous Aztec sites in central Mexico. His fieldwork emphasizes houses and domestic contexts in order to study questions of urbanization, imperialism, and household-level activities and conditions. He also directs a transdisciplinary research project that compares neighborhoods and urban life from the earliest cities to the present. His books include The Aztecs (3rd edition, 2012), Aztec City-State Capitals (2008), The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies (2012), and The Archaeology of Aztec Families and Communities (in preparation). For more information, see his website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~mesmith9/.
State Farm MBA Executive Leadership Series
Love Culture, Inc.
Brenda Morris, Chief Financial Officer of Love Culture, Inc.
April 25, 2013
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Brenda Morris is the CFO at Love Culture, Inc., a young women's retailer with 81 stores. During her career, Morris has acquired extensive experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, treasury functions, consulting and IPOs, which she has employed while working in a diverse group of industries (retail, sporting goods, apparel, heavy equipment, service industries, manufacturing, food distribution and production). Prior to her position at Love Culture, Morris was the CFO at Icicle Seafoods from 2009 to 2011. While at Icicle she completed the integration of AG Seafoods and Smoki Foods as well as the sale of Icicle's surimi business to Trident. Morris worked at Maveron start-up, iFLOOR Inc., during the economic downturn in 2008. Prior to that, Morris was CFO of Zumiez Inc, a specialty teen retailer. During her tenure, the company grew from 99 stores to approximately 250. At Zumiez, she was responsible for financial, operational management and strategic direction, and also completed an IPO, two secondary offerings, a DC and HQ relo, and an acquisition of one 20 store chain.
Other positions held by Morris include CFO at K2, Controller of UNIONBAY, and roles at Bowers Machine, FlowMole, Wilcox Farms and Mylin Manufacturing. Morris is the Chair of Washington Business Week; serves as an editorial advisor for the Journal of Accountancy, as a PLU Regent, and is on the Executive Advisory Board for the School of Business.
Morris earned her BS in Business, Accounting from PLU, and her MBA from Seattle University. She also holds CGMA, CPA, and CMA certifications.
Special Lecture
Behavioral Investigations of Right Hemisphere Contributions to Syntactic Processing
Dr. Laura Kemmer
Friday, May 3, 2013
2:00 – 2:50p.m.
Xavier 201
In contrast to the claims of pop psychology, the differences between the brain’s hemispheres are subtle. While it may be meaningful to talk about dominance of a hemisphere for some functions, both hemispheres generally contribute, although each may contribute in a different way. In the realm of language, for some functions, the right hemisphere is dominant (metaphor, following discourse, humor) while for other functions (semantics), both hemispheres make important (albeit sometimes different) contributions.
Syntactic (or grammatical) aspects of language are important for establishing how the words of a sentence relate to each other. While research with brain-injured patients suggests the left hemisphere contribution is more important for syntax, there is little research on the contributions of the right hemisphere. This is despite evidence showing right hemisphere damage affects syntactic aspects of language. This talk will focus on research using neurologically normal presentation as well as a presentation paradigm which allows investigation of each hemisphere’s contribution to syntax.
Special Lecture
Writing Torture, Deconstructing Trauma? The Uruguayan Case
Dr. Giovanna Urdangarain
May 6, 2013
4:00 – 5:00p.m.
Admin 209
Uruguay still deals with the consequences of its dictatorship (1973-1985) negotiating the inclusion of diverse voices in the experience of State Terrorism and its aftermath in multiple ways (e.g. over twenty documentaries, fiction and an extensive corpus of testimonial literature).
In August of 2010 and thanks to the support of a Regency Advancement Award, I traveled to Uruguay to interview members of a group of former female political prisoners and the Director of the MuMe (Museum of Memory) created in Montevideo in 2007. This paper analyzes the data obtained by these interviews vis à vis recent filmic and literary production. As Ruth Leys demonstrates in Trauma: A Genealogy, in the aftermath of violence, we are faced with two kinds of trauma: an internalized one that condemns the victim to the repetition of violence and an external one that enables the victim to denounce violence. It is a crucial question whether testimonial projects, novels and films such as the ones I investigate in this paper subvert or perpetuate this paradox.
Additionally, my analysis illuminates the challenges involved in providing an inclusive account of violence. By showing how these testimonies function as documents, I aim to demonstrate how the inclusive nature of these accounts resists an essentialist construction of memory, something crucial since Uruguay is the only country in South America that has twice rejected via referendum (1989 and 2009) an Expiry Law that prevents the prosecution of military officials for crimes committed before 1985.