David Rayson - The Social Justice Fundamentalism of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abstract:

Beginning in 1980 with the concurrent rise of Protestant fundamentalism in the United States and Islamic fundamentalism in Iran (Shi’a fundamentalism) and Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan (Sunni fundamentalism), the tension between modernism and fundamentalism has been a central focus of both scholars and public policy experts. The idea that this tension only arose in the last quarter of the 20^th century has, however, been largely overturned through the work of religious historians, most notably Karen Armstrong who traced fundamentalist movements in Christianity (mostly Protestantism), Judaism, and Islam from 1492 to the present in her excellent book The Battle for God. Unfortunately, most scholars (including Armstrong) define fundamentalism only in terms of same thinking (orthodoxy) or same ritual practice (orthopraxy). A deeper reading of the historical record, however, quickly reveals that many religious reformers have sought to control the excesses of modernism through a fundamentalism based on the social justice message which is also present in religious texts. Last Spring, I talked about the social justice fundamentalism of Hindu religious leader Mohandas Gandhi and the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and at this colloquium I will focus on the much more difficult task of spiritual preparation for resistance which Martin Luther King, Jr. undertook beginning in Montgomery, Alabama in December of 1955.

Presenter Bio:

David Rayson earned his Ph.D. in History at the University of Minnesota in 1996. From 1996-2001, David was a Teaching Consultant and Instructor in graduate-level courses on pedagogy as part of the University of Minnesota’s Preparing Future Faculty Program during which time he became an advocate of the Universal Design for Learning approach to education. Since coming to Normandale in Fall 2000, he has taught predominantly World History courses where he has increasingly focused on the tension between modernism and fundamentalism, tension which he argues is the central challenge of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Related Links:

Fundamentalism

Relativism vs. Fundamentalism

Susan Krook - Why Do Anthropologists Have All the Fun?

Abstract:

Described as “merchants of astonishment, peddlers of the strange” by Clifford Geertz in 1985, anthropologists have, for the most part, accepted their lot in academia and embraced the subject matter with aplomb. Perhaps what has been described as “having fun” is nothing more than doing what we do best – studying ourselves. One subfield in anthropology, archaeology, has been referred to as the “glitzy” part of the discipline. After all, Hollywood stars have come out of films that show the excitement of discovery. For the past three years, faculty and students (some seasoned and some not-so-seasoned) at Normandale have been diligently working at an archaeological site in southwestern Minnesota on a pre-Contact and post-Contact site. This site is now a registered archaeological site with the State of Minnesota. Our archaeological finds so far, along with plans for future excavation and evaluation at this site, will be shared with others at this colloquium.

Presenter Bio:

Susan Krook completed Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1992. She started teaching Anthropology part time at Normandale in 1990 while she was working as a research associate and medical anthropologist at the University of Minnesota's Medical School and completing her dissertation. Susan grew up in Minnesota, attended Edina schools and eventually found her way to Colorado with her husband and three children. She has been fascinated with archaeology since she was a young girl, going to the St. Paul Science Museum many times to stare at the Egyptian mummy that was and still is on display there. Susan taught in California for two years beginning in 2002 and she returned to Minnesota in 2004 after she learned that she was not a California girl. Since her return in 2004, she has been teaching full-time at Normandale in many areas of this broad discipline, but her true love has come back to her in the form of an exciting archaeological discovery in southwestern Minnesota.

Related Links:

Anthropology Tutorials

MPR - Slaughter Slough

Patrick O'Donnell - Soul Image: Explaining Sir Tyrone Guthrie's Fascination with Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

Abstract:

Sir Tyrone Guthrie, founder of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, had a personal psychological fascination with Shakespeare's play "Hamlet." He directed it five times in his long career as a stage director and it was the inaugural production in May, 1963, for the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Guthrie’s investment in the play had deeper roots than its cultural prestige: the prince Hamlet was in some sense a haunted and haunting image of his own identity as a rebellious, non-conformist stage director.

Presenter Bio:

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Patrick O’Donnell has been living in Minnesota since 1994. He joined the Normandale English Department in 1999. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis at University College Dublin. It is titled: ‘The Irish roots of the Guthrie Theatre’ and it explores various biographical and historical contexts of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, the founder of that theatre from 1959- 1963, and Joe Dowling, who orchestrated its re-invention from 1998-2006.

Related Links:

Sir Tyrone Guthrie

Guthrie Theater

Michael Bielmeier - Philosophy for Poets: Hamlet According to Kierkegaard

Abstract:

No writer in the Western World has so fascinated scholars and the public alike as has Shakespeare, nor any of his works so much as Hamlet. Certainly such was the case for the Danish philosopher/theologian/satirist Soren Kierkegaard. In his pseudonymous writings, Kierkegaard makes various references to Shakespeare’s characters, not the least of whom is Hamlet. This presentation will briefly explore the connection between Kierkegaard and Hamlet by looking at Kierkegaard’s concept of the three existential modalities, or ways of living: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious (spiritual). By using Kierkegaard’s existential notions as an analytic framework, we are provided with a remarkable insight into the sometimes mystifying behaviors of the melancholic Prince of Denmark.

Presenter Bio:

Dr. Michael Bielmeier has taught in the English Dept. at Normandale since 2005. Previous to this, Dr. Bielmeier taught at Columbus State Community College and Franklin University in Ohio, and prior to that he was many years at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, WI, where he served as Chair of the English Dept. He received his undergraduate degree in English from St. Norbert College, his M.A. in English from Arizona State University, and his Ph.D. from Marquette University, where his English emphasis was Renaissance drama and philosophy. Dr. Bielmeier has presented papers at numerous academic conferences on the subject of Shakespeare and philosophy, and he has had articles published on this topic in scholarly journals. In 1999, Dr. Bielmeier received a post-doctoral fellowship from the International Kierkegaard Society, and in 2000, Mellen Press published his book length study Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, and Existential Tragedy.

Related Links:

Hamlet (Provided by MIT)

Kierkegaard (Provided by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)