Posted on Nov 2, 2010

Interdisciplinary studies took on new heights last week when four cirque performers from Montreal tumbled into town for a day of workshops and a free public performance, titled “Cirque! CarnEvil,” at the Yulman Theater. They delighted a standing room only crowd and challenged the creative side of many who were new to circus artistry.

“This amazing experience brought together students, faculty and staff from varied departments and offices across campus,” said Charles Batson, associate professor of French and Francophone Studies.

“Cirque! CarnEvil” was led by choreographer Louis Guillemette, who teaches at Montreal’s prestigious National Circus School and has served as artistic advisor to several of the city’s circus troupes, including Cirque du Soleil. Accompanying him were Danielle Hubbard, dancer, fire artist, singer and performance artist; Ugo Laffolay, équilibriste and acrobat; and David Menes, clown, juggler and Cyr wheel performer.

The quartet offered workshops and an open class on “Movement and the Circus Arts,” incorporating juggling and balancing, in the Union Dance Studio. Some who showed up for the workshop found themselves on stage later that evening.

“I stayed and practiced a variety of moves, including cartwheels, jumps and spins in the air, ground movements and dancing,” said Benjamin Romer ’11, an interdepartmental major in economics and history. “Although I don't see circus performance in my future, it was a really cool experience.”  

The evening performance complemented the study of cultural Quebec in Batson’s upper-level French class, where students are taking an in-depth look at the U.S. neighbors to the north and their influence on world culture. It also celebrated the arrival of the Halloween season with a dash of Mardi Gras festivity and fantasy, beginning with a spectacular entrance in front of the Yulman Theater.

“Students in Anthony Cafritz's sculpture and welding classes provided the backdrop for the outside fire-performance scene,” Batson said. “Staff from Media Services and an international student on motorcycles added light, sound and atmosphere to the two outside scenes. There was real collaboration from across the College.”

The events, including dinner and a discussion with students and performers in Messa House, were supported by the Office of Minerva Programs, with additional support from the departments of Modern Languages and Literatures, Theater and Dance, and Visual Arts; the French Section; the Office of Residence Life; and the French Club. 

For one alumnus, Janet Weick '86, the evening was an opportunity to reconnect with her love of dance and movement. Weick, a former College nurse in the 1950s, joined the troupe onstage.

"I didn't expect to be a part of the show," said Weick, the wife of Chemistry Professor Emeritus Charles Weick. "It was the experience of a lifetime to be involved with a group of such talented, athletic, creative performers. I've been active in Union College since 1953, and this was definitely a highlight of my Union career." 

Video Highlights

To view excerpts of the performance, videotaped by Adah Keegan '14, click here.

Posted on Nov 2, 2010

Bradley Hays, assistant professor of political science, was featured in an Election Day segment of the “Academic Minute” on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. His topic addressed why we vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in congressional elections.

Tol isten, click here.

“Academic Minute” is a new program airing weekdays at 7:37 a.m. and 3:56 p.m. on 90.3 FM. The program “features professors from top institutions around the country, delving into topics from the serious to the light-hearted, keeping listeners abreast of what’s new and exciting in the academy,” according to WAMC’s website. WAMC serves New York and parts of six other northeastern states.

Posted on Nov 2, 2010

The Limits of Voluntarism: Charity and Welfare from the New Deal through the Great Society by Prof. Andrew Morris of History has been named winner of the Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Book Prize for 2010.

The prize is awarded annually by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, based in Indianapolis, Ind., in conjunction with Independent Sector, an organization that promotes the non-profit sector.

Morris’ book (Cambridge University Press, 2009) describes what became known as the “New Alignments,” a new relationship between charities and welfare that lasted from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Before the Great Depression, opponents of public welfare argued that charities, not the government, were the best source of relief. But their inability to meet the crushing demands of the 1930s led them to welcome the creation of the welfare state.

Under the “New Alignments,” the public sector provided the financial safety net, and the voluntary sector focused on specialized therapy services such as marriage and family counseling.

By the 1970s, Johnson’s War on Poverty had infused public money into non-governmental organizations and set the stage for the current debate over public funding for charities and non-profits.

Morris joined Union in 2003. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown University, and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where he received a Miller Center Fellowship in National Politics. He has published several articles including “The Voluntary Sector’s War on Poverty,” which received the 2006 Ellis Hawley Award for best article by a junior scholar from the Journal of Policy History.

Morris is to receive the award this month at the annual conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action in Alexandria, Va.

The prize recognizes Virginia Hodgkinson who, as vice president of research at Independent Sector, advanced understanding of the role of the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and abroad. She also developed many of the institutions and organizations supporting research on philanthropy, volunteering and nonprofit organizations.

Posted on Nov 1, 2010

Teresa Meade, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture, and Eric Langner ’12, economics and Latin American and Caribbean studies major, delivered an invited lecture, “Brazil: An Emerging 21st Century World Power?” on Oct. 22 at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, Cambridge, Mass. Members of a Harvard Extension class had read Meade's book, “A Brief History of Brazil,” and she subsequently was invited to present at Harvard's weekly lecture series. Last spring, Meade directed Langner’s Sophomore Scholars project about the effects of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Brazil’s economic outlook. The lecture was an expanded version of a presentation at Union during Homecoming Weekend, titled “Brazil: What Difference Will the Olympics Make?”

Jillmarie Murphy, assistant professor of English and American Literature, recently presented a paper at the Charles Brockden Brown Society Biennial Conference, “Weird American: Circum-Atlantic Cultures, 1790-1830” at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. The paper was titled “'Was she not a mangled corpse?’: Charles Brockden Brown and the Female Cadaver in Arthur Mervyn.”

“Bitter Scrolls: Sexist Poison in the Canon” by Peter Heinegg, professor of English, has been published by the University Press of America. The book is a collection of essays on misogyny in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as the western classics, from Homer to William Butler Yeats.

 
Samuel Amanuel, assistant professor of physics, has published a paper on reinforcement mechanism in nanofilled polymer melts and elastomers in collaboration with Sanford Sternstein of RPI and Meisha Shofner of Georgia Institute of Technology. The article discusses a plausible mechanism of how the mechanical property, especially modulus, of rubber is influenced due the presence of nano particles. The article appeared in the Journal of Rubber Chemistry and Technology.

Posted on Nov 1, 2010