Browning to share Hong Kong experiences
Austin Browning ’16 will present “From McMinnville to Hong Kong and Beyond” on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. in 201 Riley Hall.
Browning, a biology major, spent last spring abroad studying at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). In his presentation, he will speak about life at HKBU and the differences between China, Hong Kong and the U.S. He will also discuss the “Hong Konger,” the complex identity of Hong Kong people, with influence from China, the U.K. and other western nations.
Linfield’s alliance with HKBU is a direct exchange program, which means that every year students from HKBU also study at Linfield for a semester or a year. Linfield provides all students, regardless of major or discipline, the opportunity for January Term, semester or year-long experiences in more than 30 locations around the world.
The event is sponsored by the International Programs Office. For more information, contact Michele Tomseth at 503-883-2434 or mtomseth@linfield.edu.
Reinke to explore genetics research in faculty lecture
Professor Catherine Reinke will kick off the Linfield College faculty lecture series when she discusses the study of genetics in the age of whole-genome sequencing Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. in 201 Riley Hall.
Reinke, assistant professor of biology, will present “From Observers to Participants: Building the scientific community through independent and course-based research in genetics.”
How do organisms use their genetic information to carry out essential life processes and generate the diversity of form that we observe? Or put another way, what do genes do and how do they do it? The talk will describe Reinke’s genetics research in model organisms, including plants, yeast and insects over the past 20 years. Many aspects of this work continue with undergraduates in her laboratory at Linfield.
Rapid advances in genetics research are allowing geneticists to ask new types of experimental questions using protocols such as RNA-seq and whole-genome analysis. Reinke will introduce how these new techniques are being used in her lab to better understand how organisms make use of the information in their genomes at the molecular level.
Before coming to Linfield, Reinke worked as a yeast cell biologist at the University of Chicago, where she engineered proteins and observed their movement in living cells to better understand how cellular compartments are organized and propagated. She later worked as a fruit fly geneticist at Northwestern University, where she began work to decipher the requirements for gene silencing and the molecular mechanisms of this silencing. This continues to be the focus of her work now.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and English from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago. Her research is currently funded by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.
For more information, call 503-883-2409.
Linfield theatre season kicks off with ‘We Are But One Thread’
The Linfield Theatre Program will kick off its season with “We Are But One Thread,” a devised work with Jerry Goralnick and The Living Theatre Workshops.
Goralnick and Linfield students will develop an original production based on Linfield’s PLACE (Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement) theme for 2015-16, “Air, Water, Earth, and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet.”
Performance dates are Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 17-19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Marshall Theatre in Ford Hall.
Air, water, earth and fire create the loom upon which the tapestry of the planet is woven, connecting all its elements by a common thread. “We Are But One Thread” examines the way in which humankind, a single filament within this fabric, alters the design in ways no other creature has ever done. What happens to the planet and to ourselves when we pull one interconnecting thread?
Themes for the play will be drawn from the common reading for Linfield’s entering students, “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert. Using improvisation and other acting techniques, the ensemble will develop the script and production elements.
Goralnick will be in residence at Linfield for two weeks, working with Linfield students from across the college and participating in class discussions. Since 1947, The Living Theatre has created an imaginative alternative to the commercial stage by using the theatre to further social change. Founded by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged more than 100 productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents – a unique body of work that has influenced theatre the world over. To learn more, visit: http://www.livingtheatre.org.
The play is presented by the Linfield Theatre Program and the Lacroute Art Series, and is a Linfield PLACE event. The Lacroute Arts Series is made possible by the generosity of Ronni Lacroute, Linfield College trustee and arts benefactor.
All tickets are $5 and seating is reserved. Tickets are available at http://www.linfield.edu/arts and at the Marshall Theatre Box Office. The box office is open Monday through Wednesday from 3 to 5 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 3 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 503-883-2292. The Marshall Theatre is fully accessible.
Workshop kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month celebration
The Linfield College Spanish Club will host a series of events in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
The first event will be a workshop on the legacy of Flamenco and the traditional fans from Spain on Friday, Sept. 18, at noon in the Dillin NW Room. Learn more about the importance of this art while dancing and tasting a traditional dish from Spain.
The upcoming Hispanic Heritage events will promote the appreciation of a variety of cultural elements that embody the richness of the Spanish World.
For more information, contact Carina Garibay at cgaribay@linfield.edu or Professor Tania Carrasquillo at tcarrasq@linfield.edu.
Renowned conservation biologist to discuss elephant poaching
Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, will speak about elephant poaching on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. in Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall.
The lecture kicks off 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.”
Wasser will present “Where Are All the Elephant-Poaching Hot Spots in Africa and What Should We Do About Them?” He is acknowledged worldwide as a pioneer of noninvasive wildlife monitoring methods, including the genetic, endocrine, toxicology and detection dog techniques used by the center. His groundbreaking work in noninvasive environmental monitoring and wildlife forensics is internationally respected among scientists, environmental activists, and government and nongovernment wildlife managers alike.
The lecture is sponsored by the Program for the Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement and Hearst Foundations. For more information, contact 503-883-2481, scoste@linfield.edu.
Historian to speak about Mexican railroad workers
Erasmo Gamboa, professor of history and Latin American studies at the University of Washington, will speak on “Mexican Railroad Soldiers: A Forgotten Story of World War II” Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m., in Nicholson Library.
Gamboa, an expert on the Mexican laborers’ guest worker program to the Pacific Northwest, is the author of “Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942-1947.” He also edited “Nosotros: The Hispanic People of Oregon” and contributed an article to this collection. His book on laborers is still considered the seminal study of the history and impact of the Bracero Program in the Pacific Northwest, and Gamboa is the leading scholar nationally on this subject.
In addition to his published works, Gamboa has been a consultant and narrator for public television and radio programs on agricultural workers in California, Oregon and Washington and on student movements. For his work in advancing social justice, he was recognized by Gov. John Kitzhaber as one of “Oregon’s Civil Rights Trailblazers” in 1999 and has received accolades for his public service work.
His current research project for a book on Mexicans in the railroad industry highlights the history of this group beyond agricultural work in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. He examines labor issues, questions of cultural integration, U.S.-Mexico relations, construction of nationalist ideologies and gender dynamics.
The lecture is funded through a grant awarded by Linfield’s Diversity Committee. It is also sponsored by the Departments of Modern Languages, History, and Sociology and Anthropology, and the Spanish Club and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA). For more information, contact Sonia Ticas, associate professor of Spanish, 503-883-2367, or sticas@linfield.edu.
Constitution Day lecture scheduled
Author Matthew Stewart will discuss his book, “Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic,” at the Constitution Day lecture Thursday, Sept. 24, at 11:45 a.m. in 201 Riley Hall.
In addition to “Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic,” Stewart is also the author of “The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World” and “The Management Myth: Debunking Modern Business Philosophy.”
In “Nature’s God,” Stewart draws on the study of European philosophy in pursuit of a genealogy of the philosophical ideas that inspired the American revolutionaries. Along the way, he uncovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “self-evident” and many other phrases crucial to our understanding of the American experiment but now widely misunderstood.
Stewart, who lives in Boston, Mass., graduated from Princeton University with a concentration in political philosophy and was awarded the Sachs Scholarship from Princeton for study at Oxford University, where he earned a D.Phil. in philosophy
Lunch will be available at 11:45 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. Stewart’s talk will begin at noon, followed by a question and answer session. Stewart will also meet with Linfield students to discuss his intellectual journey and provide advice on research and writing.
The lecture is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights, and Justice at Linfield College and the Office of Academic Affairs. For more information, contact Nick Buccola, associate professor of political science, 503-883-2246, nbuccol@linfield.edu.
Community News
The Linfield community welcomes a number of new faculty this year. Additions include Mary Bartlett, assistant professor of nursing; Jacob Creviston, assistant professor of nursing; Virlena Crosley, assistant professor of business; Michelle Dedeo, visiting assistant professor of nursing; William Fleeger, visiting senior scholar of environmental studies; Julian Haigh, visiting assistant professor of chemistry; Christian Millichap, assistant professor of mathematics; Carmen Morgan, visiting assistant professor of business; James Paine, visiting assistant professor of business; Bruce Patnoudes, instructional associate, health and human performance; Gina Rucavado, visiting assistant professor of English; Gayatree Sarma, visiting assistant professor of business; Trisha Staab, instructional associate of biology; Timothy Sullivan, instructional associate of biology; Aaron Tabacco, visiting assistant professor of nursing; Cecilia Toro, assistant professor of biology; Ericka Waidley, visiting assistant professor of nursing; Patrick Wohlmut, assistant professor, reference and instructional librarian; Gregor Yanega, visiting assistant professor of biology; and Mindy Zeitzer, visiting assistant professor of nursing. Read more at http://www.linfield.edu/academic-affairs/newfacultyorientation/new-faculty-biographies.html.
Music professors Anton Belov, baritone, and Albert Kim, pianist, performed classical music from Austria, Italy, Persia and the United States on Saturday, Sept. 12, during a concert for the Oregon Coast Chamber Music Society.
Jesús Ilundáin-Agurruza, associate professor of philosophy, attended the annual meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport in Cardiff, Wales. As the outgoing president, he delivered the Presidential Address, “Empty and Skillful Exertions: a revaluation of sport,” and also co-presented “High Performance, Risk Sports, and Japanese Thought and Culture: Excellence without Cognitive Content.”
Campus Calendar
TUESDAY, SEPT. 15
4 p.m.: Austin Browning ’16, “From McMinnville to Hong Kong and Beyond,” 201 Riley Hall
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16
7 p.m.: Catherine Reinke faculty lecture, “From Observers to Participants,” 201 Riley Hall
7 p.m.: Volleyball vs. Pacific
7 p.m.: Women’s soccer at Willamette
THURSDAY, SEPT. 17
7:30 p.m.: “We Are But One Thread,” Marshall Theatre, Ford Hall
FRIDAY, SEPT. 18
Noon: Flamenco workshop, Dillin NW Room
7 p.m.: Volleyball at Willamette
7:30 p.m.: “We Are But One Thread,” Marshall Theatre, Ford Hall
SATURDAY, SEPT. 19
Today and tomorrow: Women’s golf at Pacific Invitational, The Reserve
Today and tomorrow: Men’s golf at Pacific Invitational, Quail Valley
Noon: Football vs. Redlands
2:30 p.m.: Men’s soccer vs. Whitman
7 p.m.: Volleyball vs. New Hope
7:30 p.m.: “We Are But One Thread,” Marshall Theatre, Ford Hall
SUNDAY, SEPT. 20
9 a.m.: Parker Archie Moore 3.5-mile Memorial Run/Walk, Maxwell Field
Noon: Women’s soccer at Puget Sound
2:30 p.m.: Men’s soccer vs. Whitworth
