Fall 2011 Newsletter
2010-11 edition Published Fall, Winter, & Spring Volume III, Issue I
Let's Meet at the Crossroads
Dear Fellow HERA members,
Whenever I get together with members of HERA, I am reminded of a passage in Plato's Republic when Socrates asks of his pupil Glaucon, “If anyone has a good appetite for study, if he is ready to taste every dish, and tackles learning gladly and never can have enough, we justly call him a philosopher, don't we?" (The Republic, Book V). I use this description in class to encourage my students to project themselves into the model of Socrates' philosopher, that is, to develop "a good appetite for study," "tackle learning gladly" and "taste every dish" while they have the good fortune of being at a university and the time and means to pursue an education. I feel that you, my HERA colleagues, fit this image perfectly: I am always amazed at the incredible range of scholarly interests and pursuits reflected in your papers and panel presentations at our conferences. The strength of our organization lies in its diversity and its willingness to disregard traditional disciplinary boundaries and limits in an effort to pursue a deeper understanding of an increasingly complex world and its varied cultures.
I hope you will bring that "appetite" with you to our conference in Salt Lake, where, as part of our attempt to let you "taste every dish," we plan to incorporate the option of a Saturday afternoon trip to the BYU Museum of Art to view an important exhibit of Islamic art. I hope the conference will stretch you in ways you hadn't expected or anticipated but in useful and productive directions.
Now, in response to Socrates' question, Glaucon replies, "You will find many of that sort and they are very odd people." Well, I don't know about you but, as someone working in interdisciplinary studies, I've gotten used to being considered "odd" by faculty in other disciplines at the university and am quite proud of it. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again soon when we "odd people" can have another great intellectually enlarging experience together.
Mike Call
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interdisciplinary
Humanities
The Humanities Education and Research Association's Scholarly Journal: Interdisciplinary Humanities is a refereed scholarly journal, published twice a year. Interdisciplinary Humanities defines "interdisciplinary humanities education" as any learning activities with content that draws upon the human cultural heritage, methods that derive from the humanistic disciplines, and a purpose that is concerned with human values. The journal welcomes manuscripts from university colleagues, but also ones that examine interdisciplinary scholarship and education in elementary grades, teacher education, adult public programs, graduate seminars, educational radio and television, museums, and historic parks.
Subscriptions are included as a benefit of membership in the Humanities Education and Research Association. Libraries and institutions may subscribe for $100.00 per year.
Submit articles and Creative Works to co-editors, Stephen Husarik shusarik@uafortsmith.edu and Lee Ann Westman, lewestman@utep.edu. Don't forget to include your e-mail address. Check HERA's website under JOURNAL to obtain information on upcoming editions.
Spring 2012 - Children's Media.
Editor: Wynn Yarbrough, University of the District of Columbia
Deadline
for Submissions: November 1, 2011.
Summer
2012 - Conference issue based on "Transformations" theme from 2011 San Francisco
conference
Co- Editors: Lee Ann Westman
Deadline for Submissions: January 15, 2012
Fall
2012 - Service Learning in the Humanities
Co-Editors: Isabel Baca, UTEP and Joana Owens, Jacksonville University.
For further information click on
>Calls
Deadline for Submissions:May
1, 2012.
Spring 2013 - PRIDE AND HUMILITY
Editor: Shawn Tucker, Elon University
For further information click on >Calls
Deadline for Submissions: Nov 1, 2012.
Summer 2013 - Conference Issue Crossroads theme from 2012 SLC Conference
Co- Editors: Lee Ann Westman or Stephen Husarik
For further information click on >Calls
Deadline for Submissions: January 15, 2013
Fall
2013 - Fat Representations
Co-Editors: Brenda Risch and Christoph Zepeda
For further information click on
>Calls
Deadline for Submissions: May 1, 2013
Spring
2014 - Online Learning in the Humanities
Co-Editors: John R. Groves, Ferris State University and Stephen
Husarik, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith
For further information click on >Calls
Deadline
for Submissions: Nov 1, 2013
Summer 2014: Conference Issue
Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2014.
Calling all Book Reviewers!
IH editors are looking for well written book reviews of new publications that educators might use in interdisciplinary classrooms or scholarship. These can be scholarly works as well as textbooks that examine themes and ideas across disciplines. This is an excellent opportunity for young scholars and graduate students to publish! Please submit reviews to Wynn Yarbrough, wynnyarbrough@hotmail.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Member Updates (cont'd)
Stephen
Husarik this summer completed a project combining study abroad in Paris
with online study at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Husarik traveled
with a student film crew to Paris and Versailles who communicated with online
students in Husarik's Humanities and Music class back in Arkansas. The online
students were able to do research on material supplied by the student film
crew, taking a virtual study abroad tour. Husarik notes, "Students received
special permission to photograph historical paintings in the elegant Cotelle
Gallery, which is off limits to the general public."
Husarik has also
recently presented a summary of this teaching method to faculty under the
title "A Chorus of Research" in which he explains how one can involve him/herself,
traveling students, and online students at the home institution in a single
large-scale research project that leads to a public presentation. For more
details about this project, see: http://www.uafs.edu/News/news?
storyid=3095
Photo
of Salles de Festins by Jean Cotelle taken from special access in Versailles.
A
computer rendering of an outline of a castle and moat contained within the
footprint of the above design generated by students from the filming done
by the student film crew.
Sunset Skyline - Photo Credit:
Steve Greenwood. Used by permission of Visitsaltlake.com
2012
Conference
Crossroads
Driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit,
Utah on May 10, 1869.
HERA Conference
in Salt Lake City, Utah
March 8-10, 2012
In keeping with HERA's mission of promoting the study of the humanities across a wide range of disciplines, we invite presentations exploring any form of artistic representation---literature, the visual arts, music, theatre, opera, dance, film, photography, architecture et al---from any world culture, using an interdisciplinary "crossroads" approach to enrich and deepen our understanding of these cultural artifacts and the societies that produced them. Presentations on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching the humanities are also welcome. Proposals for papers, panels, or workshops must be submitted through the conference web portal on the HERA website at www.h-e-r-a.org
Questions may be directed to the conference organizers, Francesca Lawson (francesca_lawson@byu.edu) or Michael Call (michael_call@byu.edu).
Presentation time for individual papers is limited to 15-20 minutes.
Deadline for submission: November 15, 2011.
Conference
Host Hotel
Salt Lake City Marriot
Downtown
Located within walking distance to fine restaurants, cultural centers, shopping, and Historic Temple Square, the Marriot Downtown Hotel is a AAA four diamond full-featured luxury hotel. Rates for conference attendees are $99 per night plus taxes. Depending on availability, these rates would be in effect 3 days prior and 3 days after the conference for anyone wishing to experience more of the area or even hit the slopes for wonderful spring skiing. For hotel reservations, call 801-531-0800 or toll free at 888-236-2427, or reserve for this rate online by following this link: Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown>> (click to follow the link rather than pasting it in your browser).
The hotel is located 15 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport. The hotel does not provide an airport shuttle. There is bus service from the airport or taxi service available. For more information about Salt Lake City, visit Salt Lake City Convention and Visitor Bureau website at: http://www.visitsaltlake.com.
Skier-Alta
- Photo Credit: Adam Barker. Used by permission of Visitsaltlake.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Member Updates
James Bell wrote an article titled "Ritualized Theatre: The Performing Pilgrim's Process at the Hill Cumorah Pageant," for Volume 3 of Mormons and American Popular Culture, which is a pending three volume work scheduled for publication in January 2012 by Praeger Publishers, an imprint of ABC-CLIO. Bell together with Dr. Jason Yancey an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Grand Valley State Universitys has also just completed a new translation/adaptation of Tirso de Molina's Spanish Golden Age play Antona Garcia. The play will premiere at Grand Valley State University in April, 2012.
Colleen
Coughlin and Terri Tomasek are the first recipients of the new
Davenport University Diversity Program Development Fund!
The Women's Initiative
on Learning and Leadership (WILL) is a project aimed in the first year at
developing a model program to support the efforts of female Davenport students
to improve their leadership efforts and networking opportunities. The proposal
provides three primary components:
· Support for
ongoing participation at four different leadership development conferences
and events
· A new series
of seven networking meetings with local women's business organizations, caucuses
and networking groups
· Continued partnership
with West Michigan Women's Studies Council for an educational Salon & Speaker
Series
Doré
Ripley wrote the article "Level Up Debuts with Epic Draw Off" for GraphicNovelReporter.com.
The article is about the latest work by Printz award winning author, Gene
Luen Yang, the author of American Born Chinese. The full article is
available at: http://graphicnovelreporter.com
/content/level-debuts-epic-draw-feature-stories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other
Items of Interest
Learn
about HERA's mission by clicking on the ABOUT
link at the top of this page, where you'll also find links to JOIN,
DONATE, learn about Board Members,
CALLS for Papers and, of course,
upcoming CONFERENCES.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HERA
Newsletter Items
The HERA newsletter is published three times a year and features conference
and journal updates, information about HERA members, web sites about interdisciplinary
teaching and scholarship, reports on effective teaching strategies, travelogues,
and other brief information that would be relevant to humanities educators.
Send your newsletter items to: Jim Bell, HERA Newsletter Editor, School of
Communications, Grand Valley State University, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale,
MI 49401or via email at: bellja@gvsu.edu
(email is the preferred method).
The production
of this newsletter is made possible by the support of the School of Communications
and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Grand Valley State University,
Anthony Thompson, Director and Fred Antczak, Dean.
