Higgins to present annual philosophy lectures at Linfield
Kathleen Higgins, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas at Austin, will present two lectures Oct. 5 and 6.
The talks are part of the annual Walter Powell-Linfield College Philosophy Lectures at Linfield. They are also part of this year’s Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement (PLACE) lecture series on the campus-wide theme “Air, Water, Earth and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet.”
Higgins will present “Life and Death in Rock: Meditations on Tombstones” Monday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. in Ice Auditorium. She will discuss the symbolic resonances behind stones, which suit them for use in commemorations of the dead, and how many cultures make use of them for this purpose. In an effort to make sense of this phenomenon, Higgins will consider some of the roles stones play in other aspects of human experience and the associations that arise from them.
Higgins will present “The Functionality of the Aesthetic in the Context of Mourning” on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in Jonasson Hall. She will focus on the context of mourning, and how human beings often turn to aesthetic activity. Higgins will argue that the aesthetic sphere has certain characteristic capabilities that make it especially well-suited for helping one deal with bereavement.
Higgins’ areas of research are in continental philosophy, aesthetics and philosophy of music. She is a frequent visiting professor at the University of Auckland and the author of a number of books including, “Comic Relief: Nietzsche’s Gay Science,” “What Nietzsche Really Said” with Robert Solomon, “A Passion for Wisdom,” “A Short History of Philosophy” with Robert Solomon, “The Music of Our Lives” and “Nietzsche’s Zarathustra.” She has edited or co-edited several others on such topics as German idealism, aesthetics, ethics, erotic love and non-Western philosophy. She has been a resident scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University Philosophy Department and Canberra School of Music.
The Walter Powell-Linfield College Annual Philosophy Lectureship is in recognition of a generous gift from Michael Powell in honor of his father. Walter Powell founded Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, the largest private bookstore in the United States with over one million volumes.
The lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza, Linfield professor of philosophy, at 503-883-2362 or jilunda@linfield.edu.
Davis to talk about sexuality and HIV awareness
Human rights ambassador Thomas Davis will examine multiculturalism in the context of sexual orientation, ethnicity and minority status in two upcoming lectures.
Davis will present “How Health Care Professionals Can Effectively Work with and Support HIV Positive Clients” on Monday, Oct. 5, at 11:30 a.m. on the Portland Campus. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. he will present a second talk, “What We Don’t Know CAN Hurt Us,” in Ice Auditorium in McMinnville.
Davis, a young gay African American man and a Human Rights Campaign Youth Ambassador who is living with HIV, will meet with students and staff in Portland and McMinnville and examine multiculturalism in the context of sexual orientation, ethnicity and minority status. He will discuss his own experience and raise awareness about the need for more honest and inclusive education programs in sexuality. Davis will remind us that HIV does not discriminate, and stress the importance of responsibility to reduce risk of exposure.
He received a BFA in performing arts dance theatre from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy College and Conservatory of the Arts and also studied with Debbie Allen Dance Academy. He currently teaches at the Lula Washington Dance Theater in Los Angeles and also has toured with the theater’s professional company. Most recently Davis has started working as a research assistant at UCLA, designing a mobile application for health and well-being.
The talk is sponsored by the Department of Health, Human Performance and Athletics; Student Health, Wellness and Counseling Services; the Black Student Union; Fusion; and the Associated Students of Linfield College.
It is also funded, in part, by a grant awarded by Linfield’s Diversity Committee to explore and support the intellectual and research interests of students, faculty and staff in areas of diversity and inclusion, promoting courageous conversations about diversity and lived experiences across our college and communities. For more information about those grants, contact Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, rdutt-b@linfield.edu.
The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dawn Graff-Haight, dghaight@linfield.edu, 503-883-2641.
Linfield to host folklore performance and panel discussion
The music and culture of northern Scandinavia will be the focus of a performance and panel discussion on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 5 p.m. in the Delkin Recital Hall in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center.
“Sámi and Native American Folklore, Poetry, Song & Joik” will feature guests from Arctic Norway who will present joik (a Sámi expression similar to a chant) and stories from northern Scandinavia. They will be joined in a panel discussion by Ralph Salisbury (pictured left), Native-American poet, scholar and professor emeritus from the University of Oregon; Tom Love, Linfield professor of anthropology; and representatives from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The discussion will include information about joik, how Scandinavian Sámi share common threads with the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and how these diverse cultures honor the earth and share wisdom. The panel will also touch on how poetry, chanting and oral history can sustain people and the environment.
Panelists from Norway include Stina Fagertun, who has coastal Sámi and Kven (Finnish descendant) ancestry and comes from the fjords of Arctic Norway. She has written fairy tales and has collected ancient, unique fairy tales from the Sámi, Kven and Arctic storyteller tradition. Her stories have been published as books and CDs in Norway. She is the winner of the Northern Norway Cultural Award and she and Anita Barth-Jørgensen, a Norwegian and an adopted Sámi, have been performing around the world for nearly two decades. Øistein Hanssen still lives inside a culture mixed with Coastal Sámis, Qvens and Nordic people. An engineer, instrument maker and composer, Hanssen also plays historical wind instruments. Today, he is the only one who still has the technique of making the traditional Sámi instrument Fádnu, the small “Sámi oboe.” Hanssen has also researched Sámi drums, and is able to interpret the ancient symbols on the heads of the Sámi drums and the meanings attributed to them by the Arctic shamans.
Salisbury is the winner of the 2012 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize for his memoir, “So Far, So Good.” He is also the winner of a Rockefeller Bellagio Award, and recipient of the 2015 C.E.S. Wood Lifetime Achievement Award. His three books of fiction and 11 books of poems evoke his Cherokee-Shawnee-Irish-English-American heritage. He has devoted his life to writing, editing, translating and teaching. As the editor-in-chief of Northwest Review for six years, Salisbury has also edited “A Nation Within,” an anthology of contemporary Native American writing (Outriggers Press, New Zealand), and has co-translated two books by Sámi poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää: “Trekways of the Wind” and “The Sun, My Father.”
This event is part of this year’s campus-wide theme for the Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement (PLACE), “Air, Water, Earth and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet.” It is sponsored by The American Scandinavian Foundation and the Bernhard and Johanna Fedde Grant from the Grieg Lodge Scholarship Fund.
It is also funded, in part, by a grant awarded by Linfield’s Diversity Committee to explore and support the intellectual and research interests of students, faculty and staff in areas of diversity and inclusion, promoting courageous conversations about diversity and lived experiences across our college and communities. For more information about those grants, contact Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, rdutt-b@linfield.edu. For more information, contact Joan Paddock, 503-883-2258 or jpaddock@linfield.edu.
Award-winning speaker comes to empower student leaders
Tish Norman, executive director of Transforming Leaders Now, will present “History, Herstory, YOUR Story” on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ted Wilson Gymnasium.
In addition to the lecture, Norman will meet with student leaders from groups such as Black Student Union, Associated Students of Linfield College, Greek Life and others throughout the day, helping them understand the importance of diversity and inclusion among all students and student groups on campus.
Her presentation will offer insight for students to better understand the culture of diverse students and campus-wide organizations, and how to build effective interpersonal communication skills. She will also discuss how to identify the MVPs (Most Valuable Points) of multiculturalism and diversity and what steps students and student leaders can take to create a Personal Action Plan for implementation for themselves and their organization.
Transforming Leaders Now, Inc., is a leadership development company, specializing in educational programming. Norman has spoken in 43 states and eight countries and is an influential voice on leadership, women and the African American experience, and her keynotes have become favorites among universities, associations and leadership conferences. She has published several articles in university publications and is a contributing author of “From Mediocre to Magnificent” and “Leading the Way, Stories of Inspiration and Leadership.”
This event is funded, in part, by a grant awarded by Linfield’s Diversity Committee to explore and support the intellectual and research interests of students, faculty and staff in areas of diversity and inclusion, promoting courageous conversations about diversity and lived experiences across our college and communities. For more information about those grants, contact Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, rdutt-b@linfield.edu.
For more information, contact Dan Fergueson, 503-883-2435 or dfergue@linfield.edu.
Seniors to speak on experiences in Ecuador
The Linfield College Spanish Club will host a series of events in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
This week, three Linfield College seniors will present “3 Minds, 3 Worlds, 1 Universe” on Friday, Oct. 9, at noon in 201 Riley Hall.
Stephanie Sánchez ’16, Lorena Álvarez ’16 and Sandra García-Hernández ’16 who studied abroad Spring 2015 in Ecuador, will share all that they learned while traveling abroad. These three Mexican-American students will also talk about some of their experiences while traveling to other parts of Latin America, such as Perú and Colombia. Learn what it was like to live there while being immersed in three very unique cultures.
For more information, contact Carina Garibay at cgaribay@linfield.edu or Professor Tania Carrasquillo at tcarrasq@linfield.edu.
Choir to present program based on PLACE
The Linfield College choral program will present a concert, “To My Old Brown Earth,” Sunday, Oct. 11, at 4 p.m. in Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall.
The concert will focus on this year’s PLACE theme, “Air, Water, Earth, and Fire: The ancient elements on a changing planet.”
The Concert Choir, the Women’s Vocal Ensemble and the Wildcat Men’s Glee Club will perform music that explores nature, the elements and environmental stewardship. The program will feature a variety of styles, including works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Holst, Górecki and Whitacre, as well as Peter Seeger and others.
The Linfield choral groups are directed by Anna Song, associate professor of music and director of choral activities, since 2008. Song graduated with a bachelor’s in composition from the University of California and received her master’s in conducting from the School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. She recently completed her doctoral studies in music education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
The performance is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Linfield College Department of Music. For more information, call 503-883-2275 or visit linfield.edu/arts.
Sharfeddin to read from book on racial and cultural tensions
Author Heather Sharfeddin will read from her novel, “A Delicate Divide,” on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room, in the Nicholson Library.
Sharfeddin’s novel is based on her doctoral research depicting racial and cultural tensions and also deals with post-Civil Rights tensions within the interior West. It draws on a historic event, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ water compact proposal, which threatens to strip land owners within reservation borders of their longstanding water rights.
Sharfeddin is the author of several novels about the Pacific Northwest and numerous essays, articles, and reviews. Her work has earned high acclaim from Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, has been honored with an Eric Hoffer award, and at the New York and San Francisco Book Festivals, as well as the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is completing a Ph.D. in creative writing. She has taught writing at Randolph Macon College and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and is currently an adjunct professor at Linfield College.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte, 503-883-2517 or swhyte@linfield.edu.
Core Ensemble to present ‘Los Valientes’ (The Courageous Ones)
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Linfield College will present the Core Ensemble in their production of “Los Valientes” (The Courageous Ones).
The performance will be Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Ice Auditorium. It is free and seating is first-come, first-served. It is sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Series, the Linfield College Department of Theatre and Communication Arts, and the Department of Music.
“Los Valientes” is a chamber music theatre production for solo actor and trio (cello, piano, percussion), exploring the artistic and political passions of Diego Rivera, the unwavering commitment to human rights of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the pursuit of social justice by Mexican American desperado Joaquin Murrieta aka Zorro. Text is by Jose Cruz Gonzalez. Music for this show features songs and concert/vernacular music by a wide range of Latin American composers including Astor Piazzolla and Osvaldo Golijov.
Chamber music theatre is a unique performance format developed by the Core Ensemble featuring a marriage of theatrical narrative to chamber music performance. Since 1993, the Core Ensemble has toured nationally to every region of the United States and internationally to England, Russia, the Ukraine, Australia and the British Virgin Islands. The Ensemble was the recipient of the 2000 Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has received support from the State of Florida Department of Cultural Affairs, New England Foundation for the Arts, Palm Beach County Cultural Council, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Virgil Thomson Foundation.
The Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield College is made possible by the generosity of Ronni Lacroute, Linfield College trustee and arts benefactor. The series, sponsored by the Lacroute Arts Fund at Linfield College, is dedicated to helping the college present art events and activities for the campus and community. It provides programs featuring artists in the areas of music, art and visual culture, and theatre and communication arts.
To learn more about this production visit: http://www.coreensemble.com/shows-on-tour/los-valientes/. For more information, call 503-883-2802.
Campus Calendar
MONDAY, OCT. 5
Today: Men’s golf at Whitworth Invitational
11:30 a.m.: Thomas Davis, “How Health Care Professionals Can Effectively Work with and Support HIV Positive Clients,” Portland Campus
7 p.m.: Kathleen Higgins, “Life and Death in Rock: Meditations on Tombstones,” Ice Auditorium
TUESDAY, OCT. 6
7 p.m.: Kathleen Higgins, “The Functionality of the Aesthetic in the Context of Mourning,” Jonasson Hall
8 p.m.: Thomas Davis, “What We Don’t Know CAN Hurt Us,” Ice Auditorium
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7
5 p.m.: Performance and panel discussion, “Sámi and Native American Folklore, Poetry, Song & Joik,” Delkin Recital Hall
THURSDAY, OCT. 8
7:30 p.m.: Tish Norman, “History, Herstory, YOUR Story,” Ted Wilson Gym
FRIDAY, OCT. 9
Noon: “3 Minds, 3 Worlds, 1 Universe,” 201 Riley Hall
7 p.m.: Volleyball at Pacific Lutheran
7:30 p.m.: Men’s soccer at Willamette
SATURDAY, OCT. 10
Today and tomorrow: Men’s and women’s golf at NWC Fall Classic
10 a.m.: Cross country at George Fox Invitational
Noon: Women’s soccer at Pacific Lutheran
1:30 p.m.: Football vs. Pacific
7 p.m.: Volleyball vs. George Fox
SUNDAY, OCT. 11
Noon: Women’s soccer at George Fox
4 p.m.: Choral concert, “To My Old Brown Earth,” Ice Auditorium
