In Focus
In Focus: 9/19/2008
Top News
HBO MOVIE TO BE FILMED AT SOUTHWESTERN
When students leave campus for Fall Break in October, a film crew for HBO will move in to shoot scenes for a made-for-television movie.
The movie is the true life story of Temple Grandin, a woman born with autism who went on to become one of the country’s leading experts on animal behavior. Grandin earned her undergraduate degree from Franklin Pierce College (now Franklin Pierce University) in New Hampshire. She earned a master’s degree in animal science from Arizona State University and Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently is a professor at Colorado State University and a noted leader in both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements. She used her insight into the minds of cattle to help design more humane slaughterhouses. Livestock handling facilities she has designed are used worldwide to help reduce stress on animals during handling.
Grandin is the author of several books, including Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism (1996) and the New York Times bestseller Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (2005).
Most of the scenes from Grandin’s undergraduate days will be filmed at Southwestern. These include a shot of her mother dropping her off at college, a scene where she gets called to the dean’s office, a classroom scene and her college graduation. The scenes at Southwestern will be filmed in the Cullen Building and Mood-Bridwell Hall, and on the Academic Mall. Other scenes for the movie will be filmed at various locations throughout Central Texas.
To read the rest of this story, go here: http://www.southwestern.edu/cgi-bin/newsroom/article.cgi?id=104
Events
BARITONE RECITAL SEPT. 19
Baritone Carl Ratner will perform a guest artist recital on Friday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater located in the Fine Arts Center. Ratner will be accompanied by faculty pianist Kiyoshi Tamagawa and soprano Dana Zenobi.
The concert will feature works from George Frideric Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus” and “Samson,” Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation,” Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” Giuseppe Verdi’s “Nabucco,” Maurice Ravel’s “Chanson Hebraique,” and from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”
Ratner currently serves as director of opera for Western Michigan University and is an artistic and management consultant to Opera Naples in Florida.
The concert is presented by the Music Department in the Sarofim School of Fine Arts. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 512-863-1504.
SPECIAL CHAPEL SERVICE SEPT. 21
Southwestern will host a special service in Perkins Chapel Sunday evening, Sept. 21, at 5 p.m. as part of the worldwide observance of the International Day of Prayer for Peace. The 30-minute service will include prayers, hymns and liturgy around the theme of world peace. It will be led by Interim Chaplain Eric McKinney, along with current students and alumni. For more information, call the Office of Religious Life at 512-863-1527.
PIANO RECITAL SEPT. 22
Pianist Carolyn True from Trinity University in San Antonio will perform a guest artist recital on Monday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater located in the Fine Arts Center. The concert will feature vocal works of J. S. Bach, operatic fancies of W.A. Mozart, songs of Franz Schubert and George Gershwin songs from the stage.
The concert is presented by the Music Department in the Sarofim School of Fine Arts. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 512-863-1504.
SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT SPONSORS LECTURE ON GEORGIA SEPT. 25
Southwestern University’s Political Science Department and The A. Frank Smith, Jr. Lecture Series are sponsoring a lecture by Gregory Hall on “The Crisis in Georgia: Perspectives on Russian Foreign and Security Policy in the Post-Yeltsin Era” on Thursday, Sept. 25, from 4 – 5:15 p.m. in the atrium of Mood-Bridwell Hall .
Hall is a professor of political science at Morehouse College and is writing a book on geopolitics and security in the Caspian Sea region. Admission is free and all are welcome. A reception will immediately follow the lecture. For more information, contact Bob Snyder, professor of political science at Southwestern University, at 512-863-1938.
VIOLIN, PIANO RECITAL SEPT. 27
Violinist Eri Lee Lam and pianist Kiyoshi Tamagawa will perform a faculty recital on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater located in the Fine Arts Center. The concert will feature Mendelssohn’s “Violin Sonata in F Minor, Op. 4,” Schnittke’s “Violin Sonata No. 1,” Mozart’s “Violin Sonata in B-flat K. 454” and Szymanowski’s “Nocturne and Tarantella.”
The concert is presented by the Music Department in the Sarofim School of Fine Arts. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call 512-863-1504.
Media Coverage
The Williamson County Sun ran a story about Southwestern’s new “green” buildings.
Gilbert St. Clair, part-time professor of political science, was interviewed by KPSI radio in Palm Springs, Calif., about the impact of the Latino vote on the presidential race.
Notables
Thad Anderson, percussion instructor, is the artistic director of a new group called the Cage Percussion Players which is dedicated to the performance and research of historical percussion ensemble repertoire. The group will give its first performance Friday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Armstrong Community Music School, 901 Barton Springs Rd. in Austin. For more information on the group, visit www.cagepercussionplayers.com .
Ed Kain, professor of Sociology and University Scholar, had two short pieces on teaching published in Sociology Through Active Learning, Student Exercises, 2nd ed. The articles are titled “Global Stratification and its Impact on a Country’s Population Characteristics” and “An Introduction to an Important Source for Basic Quantitative Sociological Data.”
Shannon Mariotti, assistant professor of political science, had a book review titled “Critique from the Margins: Adorno and the Politics of Withdrawal” published in the June 2008 issue of Political Theory. Another article titled “The Death of the First-born Son: Emerson’s ‘Focal Distancing,’ Du Bois’ ‘Second Sight,’ and Disruptive Particularity” has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Political Theory. Her article “Thoreau, Adorno, and the Critical Potential of Particularity” will be included in A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, to be published in spring 2009 by The University Press of Kentucky.
An article by Andrew Mills, visiting professor in German, titled “When Opportunism Knocks: Evaluating the Career of German Popular Entertainment Musician Peter Kreuder in the Third Reich” appeared in the Music Research Forum (Vol 23: 2-25) published by the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Katy Ross, assistant professor of Spanish, had an article titled “Trauma, Violence and Pornography: Un mal ano para Miki by Jose Ovejero” published in Letras hispanas 5.1 (Spring 2008). The article is available at http://letrashispanas.unlv.edu/vol5iss1/Bourland_Ross.htm Have a submission for “Notables”? Send it to infocus@southwestern.edu.