December 5, 2014: Dallas Rising--Animal Rights Activist--Ethics and Animals: Examining the Moral Status of Non-human Animals

 

Ethics and Animals: Examining the Moral Status of Non-human Animals

 

At no other time in history has the question of humans' obligation to other animals been more seriously considered. With over 56 billion land animals being killed for human consumption annually, global rapid species extinction and climate change, Americans spending over 55 billion dollars on their pets in 2013, and animal rights and environmental activists labeled the number one domestic terror threat by the FBI, it's clear that our relationship with other species is significant. Dallas Rising, Executive Director of the Animal Rights Coalition, will clarify why an increasing number of people are calling for a radical shift in the way we, as a species, engage with the rest of the animal kingdom on Earth.

November 21, 2014 Susan Crook--A PERSPECTIVE ON HOW ANTHROPOLOGY HAS CHANGED IN RECENT YEARS: OBSERVING WITH CLEARER VISION

A PERSPECTIVE ON HOW ANTHROPOLOGY HAS CHANGED IN RECENT YEARS:  OBSERVING WITH CLEARER VISION

by Susan Krook

What began in the Nineteenth Century as an academic discipline seated in observational studies soon became a text-driven library of interpretive work written by European and American scholars, many of whom, while simultaneously entranced with what they saw, were bogged down in the mountains of books and journals dedicated to explaining cultures through various theoretical orientations by the mid-Twentieth Century and beyond.  Today, many of those sources are gathering dust on the shelves in academic institutions and private collections, where they stand ready for anthropologists’ use if and when they are needed.  Historical films and photographs spell out a resurgence of new interest for their value in anthropological work today, however, and they could possibly reveal far more about cultural practices than many of those written accounts.  By examining the work of a non-anthropologist but very well-known photographer of American Indians, Edward Curtis, in comparison to the photographs taken by the Father of American Anthropology, Franz Boas, we can see how historical films and photographs are especially valuable to our understanding of previous cultures. 

November 14, 2014 "Professors and Poets Performing and Publishing"

Matt Mauch

 

 

"Professors and Poets Performing and Publishing"

 

Poets and AFA in Creative Writing faculty Lynette Reini-Grandell, Matt Mauch, and Kris Bigalk will read their recent poetry and discuss how they wrote and published their recent books.



Lynette Reini-Grandell

 
Kris Bigalk

 

November 7, 2014 Politics and Law

This Friday, November 7, 2014, Kurt Burch, Faculty in Political Science, along with three of his students, will present a colloquium on the following topic:

The 2014 elections are now largely complete (a couple of run-off elections remain).  The results are in, but who won?  Which major and minor parties were most successful?  What factors caused the results?  What are the likely consequences?  What does the political future hold?  Join us for results, reactions, analysis, questions, and the best answers we can offer.    

October 31, 2014 Manufacturing Fear: The Hidden History of China’s Secret Societies

Friday, October 31, 2014, Eric Mein, Faculty in English, will present a colloquium from noon-12:5- p.m in C-1018 on the following topic: 

“Manufacturing Fear:  The Hidden History of China’s Secret Societies.”  The summary is as follows:

For nearly a thousand years, White Lotus Buddhists and Triad brotherhoods posed a threat to the stability of Imperial China.  They stirred up rebellion after rebellion, from the outlying provinces to the heart of Beijing, from the actual overthrow of the Yuan dynasty to the near overthrow of the Qing during the Boxer Rebellion.  Each time Imperial officials stamped out one secret society, a vast underground network insured that the tradition of rebellion lived on.  Or did it?  With increased access to the People’s Republic, international scholars have unearthed evidence that casts doubt on the accepted history of China and points to a far more sinister origin for China’s secret societies.

October 24, 2014 Emergence of a LBGT Community in Minnesota

Friday, October 24, 2014,  Robert Frame, Faculty in History presents a colloquium on the following topic:

 

Emergence of an LBGT Community in Minnesota:
In 1970, a Minnesota gay couple did the unthinkable: they applied for a marriage license. In 2013, the Minnesota legislature legalized same-sex marriage. The forty-three years in between saw great change within the LBGT communities and in broader society; the emergence of an LGBT community in Minnesota goes back even further. Join us as professor Robert Frame speaks about that long experience of change in Minnesota.

October 10, 2014 Grammar and Privilege

Grammar and Privilege

 

A recent book about punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, warns that if we don’t know the rules of grammar and punctuation, we risk being misunderstood—or worse—being perceived to be “illiterate.”

 

What about you?  Do you say that you’re good at grammar?  How you answer that question depends on all sorts of things, including what is meant by “grammar” and how one becomes good at it.   For good or ill, we have set up mechanisms that sort people based on grammatical proficiency.  But is that fair?  Should we use skills in grammar as a means to judge writing and writers? 

 

Johan Christopherson is a faculty member in the English department at Normandale Community College

September 26, 2014, The World’s Hardest Worker: The Life and Times of the Honeybee

The World’s Hardest Worker: The Life and Times of the Honeybee

Presenters: Adam and Jen Miller

Recent documentaries, such as Vanishing of the Bees, and newspaper features, such as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s series Bees on the Brink, have done much to draw attention to the dramatic decline of honeybee populations in recent years.  Thanks to these features, pesticides such as neonicontinoids and the disease “colony collapse disorder” are now common topics of discussion, and “bee-friendly” gardens are a popular trend.

But apart from this imminent crisis, how much do you actually know about honeybees?  Minnesota beekeepers Adam and Jen Miller will describe the lifecycle and habits of honeybees, point out differences between honeybees and other insects such as wasps, discuss the challenges and rewards of keeping bees, and describe the process of harvesting honey.  Come with all of your questions about bees, and be prepared to be amazed!

Adam Miller is a software developer at Voya in downtown Minneapolis, and Jen Miller is a faculty member in the English department at Normandale Community College.  Together, they live in New Brighton with their two children; their 100,000+ bees live on a farm in Lake Elmo.

May 2, 2014

Title: James Joyce’s Dubliners (1914): Giving a City to the World.

This year (2014) marks the centennial of the publication of James Joyce’s classic collection of short stories, Dubliners. This collection of sketches was Joyce’s attempt to give Dublin to the world. The book is a paradoxically naturalistic and symbol-haunted depiction of Irish middle-class life in the early years of the 20^th century when  the Irish Literary Revival was at its peak, and the search for a national identity and purpose was paramount. Joyce’s style of “scrupulous meanness” in his stories offers an ironic critique to such longings. He would instead diagnose a more profound condition of paralysis beneath the emerging nation’s cultural ideologies. This colloquium will present Joyce within the contexts of his family, his artistic ambitions, and the Irish Literary Revival, while also presenting his multifaceted creative engagement with the passion, paralysis, and loneliness inscribed in a city.

Originally from Dublin (a long time ago!), Patrick O’Donnell holds a Ph.D. in Anglo-Irish literature from University College Dublin, and teaches composition and literature at Normandale. He is an enthusiastic participant in the on-going Colloquium Series.

April 18, 2014

"Monstrous Tendencies: Of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who" 

Jen Miller, Patrick O'Donnell, and Lynette Reini-Grandell, Faculty in English

Fans of Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes were pleasantly shocked when long-time Doctor Who writer and producer Steven Moffat began also writing for Sherlock, a 21^st century version of Sherlock Holmes starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  Moffat has been famously quoted as saying, “The Doctor is the angel who aspires to be human and Sherlock is the human who aspires to be an evil god.”  But is Moffat’s assessment correct?  Are Sherlock and the Doctor really that different?  And why do they both need sidekicks?  

JEN MILLER earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota.  Before coming to Normandale in 2010, Jen taught at Valparaiso University, University of St. Thomas, St. Catherine’s University, and the University of Minnesota.  She teaches freshman composition, developmental writing, and a variety of literature classes.  In her spare time, she likes camping, watching Doctor Who and Sherlock, and trying to use her writing strategies to organize her life.

LYNETTE REINI-GRANDELL has been an English professor at Normandale since 2003.  She holds a B.A. from Carleton College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota. She teaches honors classes as well as a course on Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian Age.  She is also the faculty advisor of the Creative Writing Club.  Her first collection of poetry, which includes material inspired by her Finnish heritage, is called Approaching the Gate and will be published in October 2014.