Posted on Jan 19, 2009

World-renowned pianist Emanuel Ax makes his fourth appearance at Memorial Chapel Sunday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. in a program that includes portions of Schubert’s Four Impromptus and Sonata in A, and of Liszt’s Vallee d’Obermann, Sonetto del Petrarca and Mephisto Waltz.

Noted for his poetic temperament, unsurpassed virtuosity and exceptionally diverse performing capacity, the Polish-born Ax moved with his family to Winnipeg, Canada, when he was a young boy and studied at The Juilliard School through the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America. He captured public attention when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974. A year later, he went on to win the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and eventually, the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

He has received numerous other honors, including several Grammy awards. He also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. During his 2004-05 concert season, Ax contributed to a BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and for which he received an International Emmy. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Ax’s special projects for the current season include performances with pianist Yefim Bronfman and a solo recital tour in North America and Europe. He will also return to the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco and the Toronto symphony orchestras.

The concert is free for the Union College community, $25 for general admission and $10 for area students. For tickets, call (518) 388-6080; for more information on the Series, call (518) 372-3651 or click here.

Posted on Jan 19, 2009

David W. Orr, known for his work on environmental literacy and ecological design, will speak on “Some Like it Hot, Lots More Don’t: The Changing Climate of U.S. Politics” on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Orr’s talk opens the 2009 Environmental Science, Policy and Engineering Winter Seminar Series at Union College, “Achieving Environmental Sustainability: The Role of U.S. Higher Education.” All talks are free and open to the public. (See the complete schedule below.)

Orr, the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College, is best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design.

He raised funds for and spearheaded the effort to design and build a $7.2 million Environmental Studies Center at Oberlin College, a building described by the New York Times as “the most remarkable” of a new generation of college buildings and by the U.S. Department of Energy as one of 30 “milestone buildings” of the 20th century.

Orr is the author of five books: Design on the Edge: The Making of a High Performance Building (MIT Press, 2006); The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment (Island Press, 2004); The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002); Earth in Mind (Island, 1994/2004); Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992) and co-editor of The Global Predicament (North Carolina, 1979) and The Campus and Environmental Responsibility (Jossey-Bass, 1992). He has published 150 articles in scientific journals, social science publications, and popular magazines.

Orr is also a James Marsh Professor at large at the University of Vermont. Born in Des Moines, Iowa and raised in New Wilmington, Pa., he holds a B.A. from Westminster College (1965), a M.A. from Michigan State University (1966), and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1973).

Other talks in the series:

Feb. 4: Tyrone Hayes, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, whose research focuses on the role of steroid hormones in amphibian development: “From Silent Spring to Silent Night” 

Feb. 11: Geoff Garver and Peter Brown, Laval University (Quebec): “Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy”

Feb. 18: James Howard Kunstler, urban planning expert, social critic, journalist, Skidmore College professor and author of The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency and other books: “Urban Planning, Design, Peak Oil and Sustainability”

All talks are at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Posted on Jan 16, 2009

As a chemistry student at Union, Joseph James ’69 had his sights set on a career in the sciences. But then a national tragedy changed those plans.

“I guess it was in my junior year Martin Luther King was killed, at a time when he was working on the economics of being a free person,” James recently recalled. “It became very clear to me that I didn’t want to spend my life in a lab.

“I wanted to be involved with the community, particularly on the economic side.”

The passion that grew from this decision fueled a lifelong career in economic development.  It also earned James a 2008 Purpose Prize worth $100,000.

The national award recognizes one of his latest initiatives, “The Greening of Black America – A Rural Development Opportunity.” The project, like much of his other work, creates economic practices that maintain equity for disadvantaged people and communities.

Purpose Prizes have been given for the last three years to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges, according www.purposeprize.org. The award is part of the Encore Careers campaign, which engages millions of baby boomers in jobs that combine social impact and personal meaning with continued income in the second half of life.

“The Greening of Black America” sprung from James’s realization that participating in the south’s growing “green” economy was a way to stabilize the declining number of black farmers and reduce rural poverty.

His project focuses on black farmers in South Carolina. One of its key components is creating opportunities for these farmers within the growing biomass industry. The effort, for instance, encourages farmers to produce oil seed crops like sunflower, sesame and canola seeds.

“The Greening of Black America” also strives to help farmers increase their earnings and reduce “food-miles” by selling produce directly to local consumers. Next spring, The Corporation for Economic Opportunity hopes to launch a farmers’ market at a 6,000-member church in South Carolina.

James, 61, launched the non-profit Corporation for Economic Opportunity in 2004, after leaving his job with the South Carolina Commerce Department. James, who lives in Columbia, S.C., has also held top-level economic development positions in Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia and Richmond.

To view a video about James’s project, click here.

Posted on Jan 15, 2009

Posted on Jan 15, 2009

Union has received a grant from the Bank of America to support three faculty grants for development and implementation of courses using service learning and civic engagement strategies to enhance the classroom experience. For information, contact Terry Weiner, Department of Political Science, at weinert@union.edu.