Academics and popular culture will collide on April 7 at Arizona State University’s West campus during a celebration of Harry Potter Day. Students enrolled in the Harry Potter and American Culture course, offered by the American Studies program in ASU’s http://newcollege.asu.edu/" target="_blank">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, have taken the lead in planning a full schedule of events ranging from a Quidditch tournament to children’s activities to discussions of Harry Potter and sexuality and race.

All events, at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix, are free and open to the public. Visitor parking on the West campus costs $2 per hour. Download Full Image

“The Harry Potter course that spawned this event has been successful beyond our wildest expectations,” said Monica Casper, director of New College’s http://newcollege.asu.edu/harcs" target="_blank">Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies. “Clearly, we have tapped into a cultural phenomenon that is also intellectually rich and provocative, whether the analytic focus is on myth, religion, play, gender, generation gaps, magic, friendship, or hope in the presence of darkness.”

Shannon Lank, the New College faculty associate who teaches the course, describes her group of students as one that every educator dreams of having.

“They are enthusiastic and hard-working, and they pose meaningful questions and engage in open, honest debate during class,” Lank said. “We have more than 80 students in the class. The number was higher when the semester started, but a few people quickly dropped the class when they realized that it would be academically rigorous.”

Casper said she understands it can be easy to ridicule academic examinations of popular culture as lacking rigor.

“As a sociologist, a mother of two young daughters, and a Harry Potter fan, I believe it’s a mistake to underestimate the power of popular culture,” she said. “Books, movies, art, music, digital media and games reflect and refract cultural meanings and politics; these shift across time and space, making the study of American pop culture always relevant to defining who ‘we’ are. The fact that something makes us smile and laugh doesn’t mean profound insight is not wrapped up inside the fun.”

Lank said Harry Potter Day activities are designed to showcase New College and the West campus, with faculty and student involvement in discussions and a Harry Potter scavenger hunt designed to acquaint participants with campus amenities.

“Education majors from the Teachers of the Future club will be helping with the Kids Zone activities, and students in the Las Casas residence hall will compete in a dorm room decorating contest. The campus has really united behind this event. The community is involved as well, with Quidditch teams from local high schools and some local recreational teams participating in the tournament,” Lank said.

The day’s activities include:

Wand-making Workshop

9:00-10:15 a.m., basketball courts west of Sands Classroom Building

House Points Tournament with students from the Harry Potter and American Culture class

10:30-11:45 a.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom A

Muggle Studies Presentation: “Death Eater Attack,” “Order of the Phoenix Rescue”

Noon-1:30 p.m., University Center Building, Delph Courtyard

Harry Potter Video Gaming

1:30-5:30 p.m., Classroom Lab/Computer Classroom Building, Room 239

Potter Scavenger Hunt

2:00 p.m., across the campus

Discussion: Harry Potter and Race

New College faculty member Bertha Manninen will lead the discussion.

2:30-3:30 p.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom A

Quidditch Tournament

3:00-7:30 p.m., Fletcher Library Lawn

Discussion: Defense Against the Dark Arts – The Impossible Horcrux

New College faculty member Tuomas Manninen will lead the discussion.

3:30-4:30 p.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom A

Kids Zone featuring face painting, bounce house, puppet making, kids’ wands, coloring tables, reading circle and more

3:00-8:00 p.m., outdoors between the University Center Building and Faculty/Administration Building

Wizards Play

3:00-7:00 p.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom B

Wand-making Workshop

4:00-5:00 p.m., basketball courts west of Sands Classroom Building

Discussion: Harry Potter and Sexuality

New College instructor Shannon Lank will lead the discussion.

4:30-5:30 p.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom A

Comedy Night, featuring Harry Potter Puppet show and multiple performances of Potterness

8:00-10:00 p.m., University Center Building, La Sala Ballroom A, B & C

For additional information, email shannon.lank">mailto:shannon.lank@asu.edu">shannon.lank@asu.edu or visit http://potterdayasu.eventbrite.com/.">http://potterdayasu.eventbrite.com/">http://potterdayasu.eventbrite.com/...

Cyberbullying prevention, intercultural conflict at work among topics

The Conflict Transformation Project of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Program of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University along with the Graduate Professional Student Association are sponsoring the 2011 Arizona State Summit on Conflict Management Resolution at the Phoenix Convention Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., April 8. Download Full Image

The Arizona State Summit will bring together practitioners and academics to discuss contemporary approaches to managing conflict in the community, workplace, and school. The keynote speaker is Steven Dinkin, director of the National Conflict Resolution Center. He will be speaking on his strategy, known as “The Exchange,” which he hopes will change the climate in which people communicate with one another.

Break-out sessions facilitated by ASU scholars and local community leaders will be offered throughout the day. Topics include: Facilitating a civil dialogue, effective conflict strategies and tactics, collaborative law practice, and cyberbullying.

The goal of the summit is to facilitate information exchange and collaboration between important stakeholders in the management of conflict at various levels of society, said Jess Alberts, an ASU President’s Professor in communication. “Anyone interested in conflict management is encouraged to attend the summit, particularly those who work in schools, mediation, and law,” she said.

CLE credit is available for judges who attend the event. The cost of the summit is $45 if registered by March 30. Students may attend the conference for $25. Registration and other information are online at http://humancommunication.clas.asu.edu/AZConflictSummit">http://humancommunication.clas.asu.edu/AZConflictSummit">http://humancom.... Additional information is available by contacting Alberts at Jess.Alberts">mailto:Jess.Alberts@asu.edu">Jess.Alberts@asu.edu.

More information about the Conflict Transformation Project of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is online at http://humancommunication.clas.asu.edu/content/conflict-transformation-project.">http://humancommunication.clas.asu.edu/content/conflict-transformation-p...

A grand sporting edifice grew from the heart of the Bronx in 1923 that came to be known as “The House that Ruth Built,” a sizeable nod to Yankees star Babe Ruth, whose legendary talents coincided with the construction of the original Yankee Stadium.

Years earlier, in 1918, what would become a shrine to the brilliance and innovation of the American playwright was converted from a bottling plant into the Provincetown Playhouse in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village. It could just as well be called “The House that O’Neill Built,” a likewise suitable tribute to the starring role dramatist and Literature Nobel Laureate Eugene O’Neill played in creating an American identity in the plays of its native playwrights that had yet to emerge on the commercial stage. Download Full Image

Jeff Kennedy, a clinical associate professor in the New">http://newcollege.asu.edu/">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University’s West campus, knows the “O’Neill house” as well as anyone, like it was his house. He knows of the “family” that performed there and how its members worked together to usher American theatre into the modern era. Now he’s bringing that knowledge, his appreciation of the history of the Playhouse, the Provincetown Players and their significant impact on theatre in this country, to his classroom and across the country as well. In fact, Kennedy is in charge of the June 2011 International O’Neill Conference, which will take place in – where else? – Greenwich Village.

The Playhouse actually was built as a stable at 133 MacDougal Street, on the western edge of Washington Square on the island of Manhattan, and later turned into a bottling plant. When the Provincetown Players needed additional operating room, they rented the building and turned it into a 200-seat theatre that opened on November 22, 1918. The rest, as they say, is history.

“When you consider the rich history and the legacy of the Playhouse,” said Kennedy, “the primary contribution it made to the American stage is the importance of its early playwrights, particularly Eugene O’Neill and Susan Glaspell, whose play ‘Trifles’ continues to be considered by many as the greatest American one-act ever written, and whose feminist plays were subtle in execution but powerful in effect.

Continuing, he noted, “The Playhouse was a successful experiment in creating an amateur company for the purpose of experimentation towards the creating of an American identity in the plays of its native playwrights.”

Kennedy, whose 1,000-page dissertation for his Ph.D. from New York University traced and re-examined the history of the Playhouse from an interdisciplinary lens, said he brings his students a similar multi-perspective approach to the historical study of the Playhouse by integrating the social, political and cultural history of the times. He noted that the history of the theater is as much a history of Greenwich Village, a residential neighborhood viewed as a bohemian hotspot in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, and where Kennedy lived for six years while attending NYU.

“The Village was the locale of a bohemian culture that influenced not only the arts and literature, but politics and modes of social interaction throughout the 20th century,” he said. “Many of the participants in the original Provincetown Players were social and political activists. Many were involved in the IWW (International Workers of the World) fights and strikes for fair labor practices, and many of the Players’ women were suffragettes. The Playhouse was next door to the home of the Liberal Club, the center of bohemian interaction in the Village.”

Among the earliest participants – actors, writers, producers – in the Provincetown Playhouse productions were such luminaries as O’Neill and Glaspell, George Cram Cook, John Reed, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Charles Gilpin and Wilbur Daniel Steele. As the Players launched American playwriting into the modern era and created a pathway for serious American playwrights to begin creating artistic plays about serious issues, James Weldon Johnson, one of the first African American professors at NYU, and a noted author, activist, poet and early organizer of the NAACP, wrote that the Playhouse and its Players were, “the initial and greatest force in opening up the way for the Negro on the dramatic stage."

Kennedy said his experience in the teaching of such subjects as theatre history, innovation in American theatre, and the development of interdisciplinary arts and performance includes many references to the Playhouse and its productions and history. In fact, he reported, it might be an instructor’s toughest role to teach American theatre without an important section of study on the Playhouse.

“The Provincetown is where the first imagist plays, expressionistic plays and surrealistic plays written by Americans were created and presented,” said Kennedy, who has created a web site for the theater, http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com.

“Since many consider O’Neill our most important American playwright of the 20th century, his early plays presented at the Playhouse – “The Moon of the Carribees,” “The Dreamy Kid,” “The Emperor Jones” – are always cited as his training ground to experiment with ways of presenting and writing.

“The Players’ impetus to even formally organize was to create an amateur group in which playwrights could present, without pressure of commercial theatre, new plays exclusively by American playwrights,” he said. “The plays the group presented were the first to use theatre to examine social conditions and political issues in a way that the professional theatre of Broadway had yet to do.”

Now Kennedy is juggling his teaching responsibilities in the New">http://newcollege.asu.edu/harcs">New College Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies with chairing this summer’s conference, the eighth annual meeting presented by the Eugene O’Neill Society. The four-day conference will bring together O’Neill and theatre scholars from across the United States and Europe, and from as far away as Russia, India and China. Participants in the conference will include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, director Robert Falls and actor Brian Dennehy, all of whom have been involved in presentations of O’Neill’s work.

“With this conference being hosted where O’Neill first began writing and producing his plays, what is generally regarded by scholars as the birthplace of modern American drama, we could not have found a more appropriate director for our conference than Jeff Kennedy,” said Laurin Porter, president of the O’Neill Society. “Since he wrote his dissertation on the artistic legacy of the Playhouse at NYU in 2007, he has emerged as a leading scholar on both this period and this historical institution.

During his days as a doctoral candidate at NYU, Kennedy created the historical gallery that is located inside the refurbished Playhouse. He also penned a 28-page monograph for NYU that was given to visitors and to celebrate the 1998 re-opening and produced plays at the historic location while a teaching fellow for the university’s Program in Educational Theatre. He is widely written on the subject of the Provincetown Playhouse.

“Jeff’s wide experience in the world of theatre, including musical theatre and theatre education, make him the ideal source person,” noted Porter, who is a professor of English at the University of Texas-Arlington. “In planning for this conference, he has dipped into his wide array of contacts and connections to provide a rich smorgasbord of events. He has been tireless in his efforts, and I, personally, could have asked for no better director.”

If the Provincetown Playhouse is “The House That O’Neill Built,” boasting an American arts legacy that is difficult to match, then Jeff Kennedy is one of its important caretakers. He is sharing his deep passion for the Playhouse, the Players and theatre itself with the world and with his classroom.

“The richness of the legacy of the Playhouse is why I would choose as an interdisciplinary researcher to become a scholar of its history,” he said. “The history of the Playhouse is a vital example of experimentation for a tangible purpose, in this case creating an American identity in theatre that its founders believed was lacking.

“Only a truly interdisciplinary program and a college like New College would allow me to teach the wide scope of the Playhouse’s influence and its affect on history.”

Arizona State University has named Diane Humetewa as special advisor to the President for American Indian Affairs.

Humetewa, a former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, takes over the duties previously handled by  Peterson Zah, who left the university last year to return to work for the Navajo Nation, where he served as the first president of the tribe. She will continue to practice in the tribal affairs and natural resources areas with the law firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey (US) LLP.  Download Full Image

“ASU is committed to working with Arizona’s tribes to bring more Native American students to the university. Diane Humetewa will provide advice and counsel to ASU on its efforts to design and implement programs and initiatives to better serve Native American students and to partner with Arizona’s Indian tribal governments,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow.

Humetewa will serve as chairperson of the ASU Tribal Liaison Advisory Committee and will be a member of the Provost’s Native American Advisory Council. She’ll continue the university’s work to promote higher education opportunities among Arizona’s tribes. 

“I am looking forward to working with Diane to improve the retention and success of Native American students at the university,” said Elizabeth D. Capaldi, ASU Executive Vice President and Provost. 

Humetewa is looking forward to building relationships with students.

“President Zah had been so instrumental in recruiting Native American students at ASU. The student population had grown immensely. We want to continue to build on the foundation he laid  in terms of bringing in new students to pursue higher education from Native American communities and to work to retain those students who come to ASU,” Humetewa said.

She will also serve as legal counsel and in an advisory capacity with ASU in its relations with Native American tribal governments. In addition, Humetewa will be appointed as a professor of practice in the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law.

Humetewa is looking forward to discovering opportunities the university offers to Native American students and finding out how higher education at ASU has evolved during the years since she graduated with the addition of new campuses and advances such as the variety of courses that are now taught online.

“ASU has changed in terms of its ability to reach outside of Tempe,” Humetewa said.  One of her initial goals in taking over the position is to take a hard look at the future plans of the university and where Native American students and Indian Tribes fit into ASU.

“One of the comments most often heard among tribal leaders is that providing higher education opportunities to tribal members is an important goal. There’s a real priority placed on providing as much assistance to tribal members or identifying and tackling the roadblocks to education in the native communities,” Humetewa said.  This can be challenging in an environment where nationally approximately 50 percent of Native American students don’t obtain a high-school diploma.

Humetewa, a member of the Hopi tribe, was born and raised in Arizona. She started school on the Hualapai Reservation. Her exposure to Arizona’s tribes began at an early age.  Her father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and traveled throughout Arizona’s Indian country, often taking her with him. She attended public high school in the Valley, but ties to her family and culture kept her close to the Hopi reservation.  “At the time, Indian children were still attending boarding schools far from the reservation,” Humetewa recalled. 

Humetewa received her Juris Doctor degree in 1993 from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and her bachelor’s degree from ASU in 1987. She has served on the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Indian Legal Advisory Committee since 1997.

Humetewa was the first Native American female in history to be appointed as a U.S. Attorney in 2007.  During her long career in public service, she also served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Subcommittee, then chaired by Sen. John McCain.

The Arizona State University Office of Public Affairs will hold the Tribal Government Leadership Forum on April 5-6, 2011. This program, presented from a uniquely Native worldview, brings together outstanding, respected leaders who share their experience, stories, and wisdom with new and current generations of tribal government leaders. This year’s Tribal Government Leadership Forum will be held in conjunction with the National Indian Gaming Association Trade Show at the Phoenix Convention Center, 100 N. 3rd St., Phoenix.

“The purpose of the Tribal Government Leadership Forum is to help prepare the next generation of tribal leadership,” says Ivan Makil, former president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. “What we’re hearing from current and former tribal leaders is the need to ensure the continuity of strong governments through strong leadership.” Current tribal leaders are encouraged to attend to provide insight and lessons to young emerging leaders and key staff that also play a critical role in leading and managing tribal governments. Download Full Image

Participants will discuss strategies that can enrich their own lives and the lives of their people and communities. The program includes sessions on the history of federal Indian policy, ethics, intergovernmental relations, legislation, and economic stability in challenging times. This year’s program will be highlighted by a panel discussion on the benefits and options available to tribal communities to participate in energy projects such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Both Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service will participate on the panel as well.

Ivan Makil recognized the need for a program tailored specifically to the unique leadership challenges of tribal governments and worked with ASU to develop the TGLF program. The original program, previously titled the American Indian Newly Elected Officials, was established in 2005.

Registration information for this year’s program can be found at http://outreach.asu.edu/tglf/">http://outreach.asu.edu/tglf/">http://outreach.asu.edu/tglf/. For more information contact 
Jacob Moore in ASU's Office of Public Affairs at 602-496-1010 or tglf">mailto:tglf@asu.edu">tglf@asu.edu.

7 p.m., March 24
Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix

Leroy Little Bear wants to change the way you see the world. Download Full Image

Imagine, he invites, being suspended above Phoenix, looking down at the scene below. What would you see? Movement? Flux? The big picture?

Little Bear asks us, metaphorically, to suspend ourselves in this way. Doing so will allow us to see that the hierarchies and patterns we see as “natural” – from the linearity of time to the ordered world of mathematics – have, in fact, been imposed upon nature by Western science. Asking us to rethink existing definitions of “science,” which he argues, are dependent upon the worldview of the definer, Little Bear invites us to see the powerful possibilities for change that arise through the collaboration of Native science and Western science.

Little Bear will present his theories in a public lecture, “Native Science and Western Science: Possibilities for a Powerful Collaboration,” at 7 p.m. March 24 at the Heard Museum’s Steele Auditorium in Phoenix. The lecture is the spring installment of the Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture and Community, presented by Arizona State University.

Little Bear is a member of the Blood Tribe of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Canada) and head of the SEED Graduate Institute, which seeks to integrate existing fields of learning, including science and cosmology, with indigenous worldviews. He is also the former director of the American Indian Program at Harvard and Professor Emeritus of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge where he was department chair for 25 years. In 2003, he won the prestigious National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Education, the highest honor bestowed by Canada’s First Nations community.

Simon Ortiz, a professor of English and American Indian Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU and in whose honor the lecture series is named, explains that Little Bear’s ability to look at things from this wider perspective actually helps develop new knowledge. “Call it acumen, insight, uu-tuunieme'h (a Keresan word meaning "what and the way one knows"), it has to do with visionary expressiveness.” According to Ortiz, this is “a honed skill having to do with presenting and conveying ordinary knowledge so that extraordinary understanding is achieved.”

Little Bear demonstrated this acumen in a recent interview in which he elaborated on the powerful possibilities he sees in a collaboration between Indigenous and traditional sciences.

Question: Can you say more about the differences you see between Western sciences and Native sciences?

Answer: Western society has a particular way of looking at things, best exemplified by the linearity of time. We look at life in linear, hierarchical terms. These hierarchies have been built into “classical physics,” Newtonian science. For example, for Western scientists, the Big Bang is a creation story of linear progress. However, the relatively new science of quantum physics invites a different way of looking at science, a more holistic way. This way of looking at science is more like Native American science, which sees flux, movement, simultaneity. There are areas of overlap between quantum physics and the Indigenous way of thinking.

Q: Generally speaking, the Western mind resists the kind of flux you describe. Why do you think that is?

A: Part of it is fear. We are fearful of the unknown. We would rather keep what we know, what we think we can control. The notion of control is built into Western ways of thinking. In Genesis, a Christian creation story, the world is as God made it and God’s work is perfect. Yet men like Copernicus and Galileo introduced imperfection into this creation story by saying it wasn’t quite like what [the Church] described. We have a vested interest in the existing system. Modern technology, our ways of doing things, are all based on linearity. We don’t want to fool around with it. As Einstein said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” We don’t want to mess up the picture, God’s picture. In contrast, consider the Navajo Sand Painting ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the artists erase the sand painting. We Westerners want to save the painting. We take pictures, saying, “It’s so beautiful. Don’t destroy it.” The Navajos say, this painting is only for this ceremony not for all things. There is a greater willingness to see ebb and flow in the universe.

Q: What do you see as necessary for the paradigm shift you describe to occur?

A: One way to create change is for people to stand back and reflect, to look at the big picture. When we look at the world linearly, we look at specifics. We see only tiny little aspects of the big picture and not the picture itself. This leads to our seeing things in isolation, disconnected. If you allow yourself to see a more holistic picture, you’d see things in flux. That’s what the quantum physicists do. They are trying to tell us something about the world, but we are too busy texting and emailing to hear them. Native American science has existed for ages, but we aren’t making any use of it. Integrating it with a Western worldview would allow us to do things differently, to resolve our problems. For example, why does everything start at 8 a.m.? This causes, among other things, traffic congestion. Why not stagger business start times? Some could start at 8 a.m. Some at 9 and some at 10. Traffic congestion would go away. Existing notions of linearity have led us to the idea that things must start at 8 a.m. Something as small as staggering start times could have a big change.

Q: You describe science as “the pursuit of knowledge.” Traditionally in Western science, art and literature are kept separate from “pure” science. Do you see room for art and literature in this “pursuit of knowledge”?

A: Absolutely. Western science is all about measurement. The English language has a hard time explaining some scientific phenomenon, so it adopts the language of mathematics, the language of science. Art and literature, therefore, get dropped from the picture. Nobody wants to learn a new language, so most people hate math. Native American languages are better able to express these ideas. There is more flexibility, more room for possibilities, more room for art and literature. There is math in Native American science; Western science, however, imposes a mathematical grid on nature, arguing it was there all along. Like the land-survey system that divides lands into townships and sections. Though superimposed on the land, we start to believe that such division is the nature of the land. It is not. Can we say nature is math? I’m not sure we can. We make nature mathematical. It is our way of understanding it to control it.

Q: You differentiate between science and technology. Can you explain?

A: Most people mix science and technology. Technology is not science. Technology is the application of what is already known. Science is the pursuit of knowledge. If we can draw a line around how much we know, science pushes beyond that line. It finds new ways of knowing. iPads, iPhones, the knowledge to make those has been around 50 or more years. They do not reflect new knowledge. We are just now putting that knowledge to use.

Leroy Little Bear’s talk is free and open to the public. Sponsors include ASU’s American Indian Policy Institute; American Indian Studies Program; Department of English; Faculty of History in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies; Indian Legal Program in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law; Labriola National American Indian Data Center; Women and Gender Studies in the School of Social Transformation; and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

For more information visit http://english.clas.asu.edu/indigenous.

http://english.clas.asu.edu/indigenous">http://english.clas.asu.edu/indi... />Written by Sarah Fedirka.

Media contact:
Kristen LaRue, kristen.larue">mailto:kristen.larue@asu.edu">kristen.larue@asu.edu
480-965-7611
Department of English
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

A new center to examine, explain and redefine race and democracy has been established at Arizona State University. U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor will be the keynote speaker for a ceremonial launch scheduled for 11 a.m. March 21 at Coor Hall on ASU’s Tempe Campus. The new center will also host a national conference on March 24-25: “Barack Obama and American Democracy.”

“The goal of the center is to examine race and democracy as a whole,” said Matthew Whitaker, founding director of the center. Download Full Image

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at ASU will serve as a hub of scholarly activity and interchange among several departments and schools, including law, political science, English, sociology, anthropology and religious studies, according to Whitaker, an associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“We will examine and discuss race and American democracy, produce research, and analyze public opinion. Through traditional and non-traditional scholarship our efforts will be designed to positively impact race relations and public policy,” Whitaker said.

Congressman Pastor, representing Arizona’s 4th Congressional District, will provide remarks at the ceremonial launch. Pastor, who graduated from ASU with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1966 and a Juris Doctorate in 1974, was first elected to Congress in 1991.

The ceremonial launch is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Among the new center’s research projects is one that focuses on participatory democracy and the American presidency.

“As part of this project, we are hosting a national conference to assess the achievements, failures and possibilities of the presidency of Barack Obama,” said Whitaker.

The conference will feature keynote addresses and panel discussions facilitated by authors and scholars including Catherine Clinton, William Jelani Cobb, Peniel E. Joseph, Jeremy I Levitt, John Stauffer, Rhonda Williams and David K. Yoo.

“This is the second bi-annual symposium on Barack Obama and American democracy,” said Whitaker. “Dr. Peniel Joseph hosted the first conference at Tufts University in 2009. The conference at ASU will examine the first two years of the Obama presidency, and its meaning for democracy in America.

“It will pay close attention to issues of race, gender, class, domestic affairs and foreign policy,” Whitaker said.

Panel topics include “The Obama Doctrine: American Foreign Policy in an Era of War and Peace,” “Imagery, Rhetoric and Media in the Age of Obama,” and “Hope and Change? Assessing Obama’s Domestic Policies.” Yohuru Williams, an associate professor of African American history at Fairfield University, Connecticut, will deliver the closing keynote address.

Also scheduled to speak at the conference are Michael Crow, ASU president, and Elizabeth D. Capaldi, ASU executive vice president and provost.

Conference events will take place at the University Club on ASU’s Tempe campus and at the Mission Palms Hotel in Tempe. Details and registration information are at http://shprs.clas.asu.edu/BOAD.">http://shprs.clas.asu.edu/BOAD">http://shprs.clas.asu.edu/BOAD.

A theatrical performance, art exhibit, roundtables, panels and a variety of perspectives on immigration and migrant rights are all part of the 8th annual Border Justice Series at Arizona State University’s West campus, March 30-April 1.
The Series, featuring the 2011 theme “Networks, Justice and the Border,” is presented by the social justice and human rights graduate degree program (MASJHR) in ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and is free to the community.

The three-day event has become a signature offering from MASJHR, its students and faculty. This year’s schedule offers new additions, including a presentation of “Performing SB 1070,” a collection of 12 short works exploring themes surrounding Arizona Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s controversial illegal immigration law. New Carpa Theater Company, founded by award-winning Phoenix playwright James Garcia, will produce the 5- to 10-minute plays, which were chosen from 70 submissions by an array of playwrights in Arizona and at least 12 states across the country. All are centered on themes related to immigration. The performances take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in La Sala A and B in the University Center Building (UCB). Download Full Image

“This year we chose to approach the event by putting a more explicit emphasis on what has always been crucial for this Border Justice Series: teaching and learning about the social realities of border communities,” said Michael Stancliff, an assistant professor in the New College Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies and the faculty advisor for this year’s event. “Our focus on ‘networks’ acknowledges that justice work happens along paths of activity and organization that are dynamically at work in Arizona and around the world. Because we want the event to be generative of networks, we have planned events that maximize opportunities for dialogue. This event always generates audiences with common interests and concerns.”

The event kicks off at 6 p.m., March 30, when New College Associate Professor Patricia Clark presents an art installation titled PRO•file: How To Win A Free Trip To Latin America that, in form, pays homage to the Chicano and Latino Protest posters of the 60’s and 70’s along with contemporary handbooks created to inform those who attempt to cross into the United States. Clark’s installation is a satirical response to current immigration policies in Arizona and across the United States. The installation will be featured in ArtSpace West and in the Faculty Lounge, both on the second floor of UCB.

Cristina Sanidad, an MASHJR student who will receive her master’s in May 2011, serves on the event coordinating committee and will also participate on the graduate research panel on immigration and border issues at 9 a.m., March 31, in La Sala C. She likes this year’s focus on networks, because it provides an opportunity for students, local non-profit organizations, faith-based institutions and coalitions committed to border and immigration issues to come together and share ideas.

“This is a new lens through which we can analyze and discuss immigration and border issues,” said Sanidad, adding, “In planning the event, we recognized the numerous efforts of individuals, organizations and coalitions operating on both sides and across the U.S.-Mexico border, so to honor their commitment and work, we have chosen to focus our discussion on collaborative efforts that address border and immigration issues.”

In addition to the March 31 graduate research panel, a roundtable featuring undergraduate students, including Campus Republicans, Campus Democrats, and the West campus chapter of No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, will discuss Arizona immigration law and the Dream Act.

Friday events include an opening prayer by tribal representatives of the Tohono O’dham Perspectives on Immigration and Border Issues at 10 a.m. on the Fletcher Lawn, followed at 10:30 a.m. in La Sala C by a roundtable discussion on border issues with Tohono O’odham Solidarity Across Borders.

“We’re particularly excited this year to have Tohono O’odham Solidarity Across Borders sharing indigenous perspectives on border and immigration issues, which have such an impact on their community,” said Stancliff, who joined the ASU faculty in 2004. “Like all of the presentations and discussions we have scheduled, these young leaders will provide important insights and information about border issues and immigration that aren’t available through the mainstream media; Border Justice Series events will help our students and community understand policy on the ground of their own local communities.”

“I like the networking component in this year’s Border Justice Series, because it allows participants to not only listen and learn from the panel discussions and roundtables on contemporary border issues, but also concludes with an opportunity to engage in the issues,” said Nic de la Fuente, who received his master’s from the MASJHR program in December and has worked with the student event committee in its community outreach efforts. “Not only are we asking participants to critically engage in conversation, we are asking them to get involved. This year’s event is a call to action.”

“This is a great teaching event, both in terms of the content and the lesson of participants’ ability to disagree with civility and respect,” said Stancliff. “People should know that ASU is a leader in addressing real issues. The Border Justice Series event is an excellent opportunity to learn about important issues and to participate in serious conversations.

For more information on this year’s events, contact Michael Stancliff at michael.stancliff">mailto:michael.stancliff@asu.edu">michael.stancliff@asu.edu.

The current event schedule is below.

March 30:

6 p.m. – Opening Reception featuring PRO•file: How To Win A Free Trip To Latin America, ArtSpace West and Faculty Lounge, Second Floor, UCB

7 p.m. –Theatre: “Performing SB 1070,” La Sala A and B, UCB
 
March 31:

9-10:30 a.m. – ASU Graduate Student Research Panel: Immigration and Border Issues, La Sala C, UCB

10:45 a.m. – Shuttle departs West campus for State Capitol Building for presentation of “Performing SB 1070”

3-4 p.m. – ASU Undergraduate Student Roundtable: Arizona Immigration Law/Dream Act, La Sala C, UCB

5-7 p.m. – New College “ThinK” Series Film and Conversation – “Crossing Arizona,” Kiva Lecture Hall

April 1

10 a.m. – Opening Prayer, Tohono O’odham Perspectives on Immigration and Border Issues, North end, Fletcher Lawn

10:30-12 p.m. – Tohono O’odham Solidarity Across Borders Roundtable: Border Issues, La Sala C, UCB

1-2:30 p.m. – Local Faith Leaders Roundtable: Faith Networks, Justice and the Border, La Sala C, UCB

2:45-4:15 p.m. – Intersection of Queer and Immigration Issues: A Conversation with Third Space, La Sala C, UCB

ASU’s West campus is located at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix. Visitor parking is $2/hour.

Only “the most promising and highly motivated students in the nation” are selected to be American Chemical Society (ACS) Scholars, says Jean Andino, an Arizona State University associate professor of chemical engineering.

Three recently named ASC Scholars have chosen to pursue their studies at ASU. Download Full Image

David Gonzalez, Dennis Pittman and Nicolas Acuna are now chemical engineering majors in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Gonzalez, a freshman, graduated from Yuma High School in Yuma, Ariz. He’s the first of his family members to attend college.

Acuna, a freshman, graduated from Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Ariz. He sees a degree in engineering as the best way to combine his interests in math and chemistry.

Pittman, a junior, graduated from Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia.  He chose his major, he says, because expertise in chemistry and engineering will offer a wide range of career choices.

Andino is a mentor for ACS scholarship recipients at ASU. She expects the three scholarship winners to be outstanding students at ASU because the ACS “goes through a rigorous process to select students with the highest potential.”

Gonzalez is interested in the role of chemical engineering in water treatment and environmental issues, but he wants to explore more areas.

“I like how many opportunities are available to you with a degree in chemical engineering,” he says. “Right now I don't know the direction I want to go in, but I like that I have many options,” he said. 

He says he hopes to one day use his engineering and chemistry expertise to start his own business.

Acuna is interested in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. “I have always been fascinated with medicine. I really want to understand the whole process of manufacturing medicine, and I want to get a job in the pharmaceutical industry,” he says.

He thinks his strong work ethic helped him win an ACS scholarship. In high school, he says, “I was in football and track, and I still took Advanced Placement classes, and studied for them. I think doing all of that showed I could go to college and succeed.”

Acuna has a brother in his senior year at ASU and another sibling who plans to attend ASU next year, so his ACS scholarship helps ease the financial burden on the family, he says.

The ACS Scholars Program awards up to $5,000 per academic year to each of its scholars and provides them opportunities to participate in undergraduate research, make presentations at professional conferences and perform internships in industry.   

Acuna hopes to also take advantage of ASU’s study abroad opportunities because of an interest in Japan. “I want to see the culture and experience it,” he says.

Pittman says a range of experience helped him in being selected for ACS scholarship.  He had a 3.7 grade point average when he transferred to ASU, he had played Division I college football and worked as a high school teacher, a high school varsity football coach and a tutor. 

Pittman wants to use his education in chemical engineering to pursue battery technology research that’s essential to meeting society’s growing need for energy storage methods.

Beyond research, he says, he would like to start a business in the battery and energy-storage field.

In 2001 the ACS Scholars Program received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

“The fact the that the program earned this honor from the president of the United States is further evidence of its excellence,” Andino says, “and that reflects positively on the students who are selected as ACS scholars.”

Read more about the ACS">http://www.acs.org/funding">ACS Scholars Program. 

Written by Amy Lukau

Family educators, mental health professionals and outreach specialists from faith communities, schools, philanthropic organizations and social agencies will gather with ASU researchers and outreach offices for “Growing Stronger Families Through Communication,” March 25, in Phoenix.

“This interactive workshop and symposium is designed to facilitate collaborations between ASU’s myriad resources and community practitioners who are concerned with strengthening families in all their various forms,” said Vincent Waldron, professor of communication in ASU’s http://newcollege.asu.edu/" target="_blank">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and coordinator of the university’s http://famcom.asu.edu/" target="_blank">Family Communication Consortium. Faculty members from numerous ASU departments on all campuses are involved with Consortium programs and activities. Download Full Image

“Even in our changing society, the family continues to be a primary source of cultural socialization and personal stability,” Waldron said. “Ideally, families cultivate a sense of belonging, uniqueness and safety for all members. Because of the critical importance of the family unit, we wanted to provide an opportunity for Valley practitioners to come together and gather resources, share expertise, make contacts and build meaningful collaborations.”

Morning activities on March 25 include an interactive poster session that will enable community members to learn about ASU research, teaching and service projects related to families and communication. The morning schedule also features roundtable discussions in which community participants can share best practices drawn from their experiences as family educators and advocates.

The afternoon session is a symposium for those interested in collaborative grant-seeking and community-embedded family research. It will include presentations from two Pennsylvania State University faculty members. Michelle Miller-Day, who earned her doctorate at ASU, will discuss “Community-based research with youth and families,” while Michael Hecht will address “Getting funding for community-based research: Tips for managing the process, working on the proposal, and negotiating partnerships.”

“Growing Stronger Families Through Communication” is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the A.E. England Building, 424 N. Central Ave. Registration is $20 in advance and $25 at the door, space permitting. Visit http://famcom.asu.edu/">http://famcom.asu.edu/">http://famcom.asu.edu/ to register or receive more information.