May 1, 2015 Letting Go of the Perfect Girl: Disney and the Representation of Women

This Friday, Jennifer Miller will be presenting the following colloquium from noon-12:50 p.m. in C-1018:

 

Letting Go of the Perfect Girl: Disney and the Representation of Women

 

Many people have long been critical of the representation of women and girls in Disney’s classic movies.  Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Cinderella—all these women are examples of passive princesses who sit around (or sleep), waiting for Prince Charming to come rescue them.  In recent years, however, with movies such as Tangled (2010), Brave (2012), and most recently, Frozen (2013), things seem to be changing.  The heroines of these movies are more active, taking their fates into their own hands.  Some of these movies even avoid the traditional love story, focusing instead on relationship between family and friends.

 

But have things really changed?  Has Disney really let go of the idea of the stereotypical, “perfect” princess?  In this colloquium, Normandale English professor Jennifer Miller will examine the representation of women in Disney’s Frozen to see if characters such as Anna and Elsa really are an improvement over princesses like Cinderella and Ariel.

April 24, 2015 Atmospheric Kilns

 

Lazare Rottach (Normandale Faculty in Art)

 and Keith J. Williams (Art and Design Chair at Concordia University, St. Paul)

 

Lazare Rottach (Normandale Faculty in Art) and Keith J. Williams (Art and Design Chair at Concordia University, St. Paul) will present their findings from the Extraordinary Education Collaboration Grant awarded in 2013.  This project involves the construction and continual joint usage of atmospheric kilns located at Concordia University. Atmospheric kilns are usually high temperature kilns in which specific firing atmospheres, (beyond simply heating the kilns), are introduced for a variety of aesthetic and sometimes practical effects. The discussion will focus on the challenges involved in designing the kilns and the outdoor kiln space, the construction phase and some early results of the project. We will also discuss the collaborative work that continues ahead of us and the important opportunities that grants like this can provide in creating excellent programs that encourage more expansive educational objectives and outcomes.

April 17, 2015 Sexism and Speciesism

 

Dallas Rising: Director of the Animal Rights Coalition of Minnesota

 

Sexism and Speciesism: In our culture, both women's bodies and animal's bodies are objectified, consumed, and commodified and I'll have a slideshow presentation with visual examples of this phenomenon. I will also, of course, be giving suggestions about how we can take steps to create a safer world for everyone, beginning with a frank discussion about the meaning of consent and respect.

 

 

 

April 10, 2015 Travels along the Mississippi: A Minnesota Boy goes Downstream

 

Travels along the Mississippi: A Minnesota Boy goes Downstream

 

Richard Dunning, Faculty in Geology

 

Student engagement is a challenge for all teachers and a fundamental component of the learning process.  I began my 2011-2012 sabbatical with a desire to use the Mississippi River as a central focus around which to increase student engagement in my Environmental Geology class.  Environmental Geology is really about how geology affects people so the basic question of my project was to find out how many ways the Mississippi River affects us; as individuals, as residents of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and as citizens of the U.S.  The answer is of course, a lot.  The primary activity of the project was to travel the length of the Mississippi and find out about the ways that the river affects the people that live within its wide sphere of influence.  In this brief presentation I want to share some of what I learned in those travels.