Posted on Oct 19, 2006

For Adam Grode ‘05, communication in whatever language or medium he chooses is an essential component in his making sense of the cultures and world around him. Grode returns to Union as part of the “Perspectives at the Nott” lecture series Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

The talk at the Nott Memorial is free and open to the public.

Grode will discuss his travels along the Silk Road in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan.

Fluent in French and Russian, Grode has a passion for language, study and travel that made him an obvious candidate for the prestigious $22,000 travel-study grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation.

A native of Philadelphia, and the 44^th Union student to receive the fellowship since its inception in 1969, Grode used the grant to study “Long-necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek: A Musical Journey in Central Asia.”

Posted on Oct 19, 2006

Posted on Oct 19, 2006

Adam Grode '05, who used his Watson Fellowship to study long-necked lutes in Central Asia, will talk about his fascinating Silk Road journey at Perspectives at the Nott, Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

A native of Philadelphia who created his own Eurasian Studies major, Grode was the 44th Union student to receive the prestigious travel-study grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. The $22,000 fellowship funded his study, “Long-necked Lutes from Baku to Bishkek: A Musical Journey in Central Asia.”

At the Nott, Grode will discuss his travels in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, a route not only of commerce but of musical styles and instruments developed from centuries of cultural syncretism.

Grode is near-fluent in French and Russian and also speaks Chinese and Arabic. At Union, he hosted weekly WRUC radio shows featuring one language each term in Russian, Chinese and French. A former co-president of Coffeehouse and passionate musician, he was a regular organizer and performer, often singing songs in a language other than English.

Some 200 graduating seniors apply each year to the Watson Foundation, which awards some 50 fellowships of $25,000 each for a year-long project abroad. Last week, Union's Watson committee, chaired by Davide Cervone, announced the 2007 finalists: seniors Adeyemi Adenrele, Charles Holiday, Doris Lo and Mandeep Moondi. The 2006 Union Watson Fellow was Noah Eber-Schmid, with a project on punk culture. 

Grode's talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call 388-6131.

Posted on Oct 19, 2006

The John and Jane Wold Program in Religious Studies and the Department of Anthropology will present Andrew Abel, a sociologist of religion at Keene State College, on Friday, Oct. 20, at 3:30 p.m. at Reamer Campus Center, Room 410.

Abel will address “Chinese Conversion to Protestant Christianity: Implications for the Study of Conversion and Church Growth.”

Abel is completing a Ph.D., titled “Morals, Symbols and Ritual in Microinteraction: A Study of Conversion, Church Growth and Congregational Life in the Chinese Christian Community,” at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

His most recent publication is an article, “Favor Fishing and Punch-Bowl Christians: Ritual and Conversion in a Chinese Protestant Church” in Sociology of Religion 67:2 (Summer 2006). In addition to his work on religion, Abel has conducted research on historical changes in patterns of uxorilocal marriage in urban Taipei. 

His knowledge of Chinese language and culture comes from nearly six years experience working and conducting research in Taiwan and mainland China, and he has written and delivered professional papers in Chinese.

Posted on Oct 18, 2006

Mary K. Carroll, director of Undergraduate Research, reminds faculty members to encourage their best performers, artists, writers and researchers to submit abstracts for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, to be held at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, April 12-14, 2007.

The internal deadline of NCUR 2007 abstracts and supporting letters is Monday, Oct. 23, 4 p.m. Submit materials to Barb Tricozzi in S&E, S-100.

Students should follow the abstract formatting instructions available on the NCUR Web site (http://www.ncur.org), but should not submit abstracts on-line until the internal selection process is complete.