Faculty and Staff International Activities
The office of International Programs encourages all Columbia faculty to submit information about their international activities which can be easily done by filling out the Faculty and Staff International Activities Form.
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Sandra Allen
Director
PR Studies
Profiling the student-customer: Implications beyond the millennial generation
Since the early 1960's, a variety of methods have been developed and numerous criteria proposed to guide curriculum development at U. S. colleges and universities (Kiguwa & Silva, 2003). Sophisticated academic metrics often overlook marketing intelligence and approaches. This paper will report how current trends in marketing research and retail customer profiling were applied to the academic environment to tailor student learning to behavioral learning patterns of today's student-customer. Paper to be presented by Sandra Allen and Michael Swidler (full-time faculty in Marketing Communication) at the annual conference of the European Institute of Retailing and Services Studies. Conference to be held July 13-15 in Zagreb, Croatia. |
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Stephen Asma Asia: Buddhist philosophy and culture In 2003, Asma was Visiting Professor at the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. There, he taught "Buddhist Philosophy" as part of their pilot Graduate Program in Buddhist Studies, and also studied Theravada Buddhism throughout Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam). After the Khmer Rouge almost eliminated Buddhism in the 1970's, Cambodia has had to excavate its own rich Buddhism tradition. Asma was part of an international team of scholars that helped train Khmer graduate students how to do research and preserve their own Buddhist heritage. Asma's work in Cambodia spawned his HarperCollins book, "The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha" (2005). China:
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Arnold N. Breman The class focuses on four different cultures and does in-depth study of the arts in each one of the areas. The four cultures include: Ethiopian, Iranian (Persian), Peruvian and Vietnamese. Four of the classes are conducted in ethnic restaurants of the above cultures. The major component of the class is the International Arts Mentor Program. Each student is assigned to a global mentor. There are 14 students this semester and 14 international mentors. This semester’s mentors are arts professionals from the following countries: Petion-ville. Haiti; Castries, St. Lucia ; Bogota, Columbia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Brno, Czech Republic; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; Rekjavik, Iceland; Tunis, Tunisia; Zanzibar, Tanzania; Jaipur, India; Khorog, Tajikistan; Tehran, Iran; Damascus, Syria; Sydney, Australia. The students correspond by e-mail on a weekly basis throughout the semester. The student and the mentor plan a final project related to the culture of the mentor. At the end of the semester the project is submitted to the mentor for review and then is presented to the class. During the past 5 years we have had more than 75 mentors from all over the globe.
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Anna Bernadska Curriculum Design in Arts Management, Kyiv, Ukraine The project addresses the need for program development in cultural management in Ukraine. It seeks to involve Ukrainian educators and practitioners in developing cultural management curricula with regards to the current socio-cultural context in Ukraine and the implications of the Bologna process.
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Kevin Christophersen Studies indicate that gay men are more dissatisfied with their bodies due to a number of factors. Furthermore, in gay culture, men are programmed that in order to be valued by other gay men, they must attain an unrealistic ideal of beauty. This paper analyzes current marketing practices targeting both gay and mainstream audiences. Current gender scholars and body image thought leaders are cited to understand how current cultural trends in and out of the gay community play a role in how men interpret physical self-concept. Too, this study will analyze the role marketing and advertising play in perpetuating the idealized and objectified male form. (Co-authored with Margaret Murphy and Margaret Sullivan)
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Garnett Cohen Presentation of Paper "The Role of the Linked Collection in the Short Story Genre," International Short Story Conference, Cork, Ireland Garnett Cohen will be presenting a paper at the International Short Story Conference in Cork, Ireland from June 18-21. This paper will address the role of linked short stories (also called cycles, interrelated stories, and novels-in-stories) in the genre. Specifically, the paper will discuss the power that discreet stories accrue when read in concert with other stories from a series. While novels and individual stories can provide varying perspectives and unusual points-of-view, they generally do so by obvious devices: white spaces, transitional sentences and paragraphs, or chapter's which rarely supply enough distance to erase the sense that they are intended to spotlight a particular theme or follow a constructed storyline. The most successful linked stories result in a more authentic replication of the way we read and tell our own lives in pieces, rather than completed narratives.
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Cindy Gerstner Sustainability of Peruvian Amazon Fisheries Dr. Gerstner's research focuses on the conservation of tropical fisheries, especially in the Peruvian Amazon. She received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Program in Conservation and Sustainable Development in 2003 to continue field work on the home aquarium fish trade in Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve compared to rivers near Iquitos, Peru. Her research paper on the sustainability of the home aquarium trade in Amazon fishes was first presented at the meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in 2004, and was subsequently published in the internationally known, Journal of Fish Biology in 2007. An article about her research was written in the Chicago Tribune in July 2003. She also received a Columbia Faculty Development Grant to study the function of an unusual physical feature in an Amazonian suckermouth catfish. Her paper published in the internationally known Canadian Journal of Zoology in 2007 established that suckermouth catfishes use mouth suction to avoid swimming in current flow. Dr. Gerstner was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors, Tahuayo River Amazon Research Center, Rainforest Conservation Fund in 2006. She is currently working on a project on the Sustainability of Fish Populations in the Area de Conservacion Regional Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo (ACRCTT), Peru, which is supported by a Columbia Faculty Development Grant (2007). This area was established for formal protection in May 2007 as Peru's first state-designated regional reserve. Encompassing more than 420,000 hectares of megadiverse lowland Amazonian rainforest, this area is 60 km SSE of the city of Iquitos, Loreto, Peru, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon basin. It will serve as the pilot project in planning for a system of communally-protected regional nature reserves across Loreto.
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Norma Green Invited guest lecture, March 2008 Representative, first-ever, June 25-28, 2007 http://www.spj.org/rrr.asp?ref=78&t=ij Guest Lecturer, March 2005 Lifetime member of Fulbright Association, former Chicago Fulbright Assn board member (2002-2004), newsletter copy editor; Fulbright Scholar Campus Representative (for faculty, staff and administrators) 2002-present. Member of International Network of Street Papers' Archive Working Group, Glasgow, Scotland hq. Member of Council for the Parliament of World's Religions Academic Task Force(based on providing Columbia graduate journalism students with international reporting experience as accredited journalists covering the previous Parliament in Barcelona, Spain as part International Forum of Cultures, July 2004) Other international service: 2007 International review judge for Killam Research Fellowships, Canada Council for the Arts 2006 International research judge for "Thinking Journalism Across National Boundaries" conference, Porto Alegre, Brazil
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Robert Gordon Book Publications, Lecturing Gordon's book "Perspective Drawing" has recently been published by Fairchild Books. It includes a series of drawings and historical information of architectural and interior design subjects throughout the world, including France, Tahiti, Morocco, the U.S. He is currently working on another book about Residential Architecture, which will include sketches and photographs of housing in different parts of the world. He has lived and worked professionally in France for about 7 years, and am fluent in French. He regularly visit Europe due to my interest in international architecture. He also lectures in France and in the U.S.
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Terence Hannum ScopeBasel Terrence Hannum had new paintings and drawings featured in Switzerland for the ScopeBasel art fair June 3-8 with the gallery Light & Sie out of Dallas, TX. At ScopeBasel Terence Hannum exhibited a series of ink, gouache and enamel on canvas tondo paintings. These paintings dealt with the formal issues of the drum by using the tondo canvas and in some of the pieces depicting drummers mid-beat. http://www.lightandsie.com/news_item_35.htm
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Philip Hartigan Workshop Presenter: Journal and Sketchbook - Ways of Seeing; National Association of Writers in Education, Manchester, UK Visual artist and adjunct faculty member of the Fiction Writing Department, Hartigan was selected to co-direct a workshop for "Reporting Back," the Autumn Conference of the National Association of Writers in Education in the UK. Hartigan and Fiction Writing Department full-time faculty member, Patricia McNair, will conduct the workshop based on one they designed for Columbia College Chicago called "Journal and Sketchbook: Ways of Seeing." Hartigan part in the workshop will draw upon his visual arts training and teaching, while McNair's will draw upon her work as a writer and writing teacher.
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Kay Hartmann My year off + on, Sabbatical 2006-07
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Kevin Henry Presentation at ELIA's Teacher's Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria Kevin will present "The textual photograph: emergent stories in an emerging social sphere". The continuous integration of consumer grade technologies has increased the average individual’s ability to create personal visual narratives. In the age of Flickr, Facebook, and other social networking or photo/video sharing sites, this phenomena is exploding thus providing multiple methods for telling and promoting our own stories in a rapidly expanding virtual social sphere which is indexed by folksonomic tags or search terms. However, many of the newer narrative conventions are built around older analog ones maintaining a vital connection to the past. Drawing on primary and secondary research from media studies, sociology, and anthropology, this presentation will examine more closely those connections and how they are impacting classroom interaction and education. http://www.elia-artschools.org/teachers_artes/news
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Shawn Lent Transatlantic Network 2020 Shawn Renee Lent has been selected as one of 100 outstanding young professionals from Europe and North America to participate in Transatlantic Network 2020, an initiative of the British Council looking to strengthen transatlantic ties through the creation of a sustainable network of young leaders. This group of young professionals aged 25-35 from 21 countries will gather in person and online through 2020 to establish a new cross-border dialogue at a critical time, learn about and identify solutions to global problems, share resources and design programs, and to build a cohort of leaders for the next generation. In September 2008, Shawn joined the other participants for TN2020's inaugural summit in Dublin and Belfast. During the eight-day, all-expenses-paid summit, Lent and the other participants engaged in community arts projects, outdoor excursions, a live taping of BBC World, a presentation by Bono, cultural events and had breakfast with President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. http://www.britishcouncil.org/tn2020
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Ilya Levinson Keynote Speaker September 7-8, 2007 Ilya Levinson was a guest keynote speaker at the Schillinger System of Musical Composition 1st International Symposium, September 7-8, 2007 at the University of Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. The title of his talk was "Systematic" Gershwin: Evidence for the Schilinger System in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. His piece Colors of the Day, song cycle on the texts by Ruth Gembicki-Bragg will be presented on Nov. 3-4 and 10-11, 2008 at Momenta Dance Company in Oak Park, IL. http://www.momenta-dance.org/index.php?pageID=1 He has written music for the show about comedian Belle Barth: If I embarrass you, tell your friends. It was performed at the benefit for Chicago Writers’ Block on Oct. 1, 2007.
Performance of music Levinson's piece Shtetl Scenes was performed by Alt-Hastedter Kammerorchester on May 8th at the 60th anniversary of Israel concert in Bremen, Germany. http://www.senatspressestelle.bremen.de/detail.php?id=18944 http://www.j-zeit.de/archiv/artikel.1250.html For the first time, an audience at the Belarusian Philharmonic will hear John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, which has become one of the most popular American works of all time and the official march of the USA, Old Man River composed by Jerome Kern and popularized by Frank Sinatra, and The Entertainer by the famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Arrangements of The Entertainer and Stars and Stripes Forever were prepared exclusively for the Classic Avantgarde Soloists Ensemble by Ilya Levinson, composer-in-residence for American Music Festivals, whose diverse repertoire includes operas, musicals, symphonic and chamber music, film scores and original music for theater productions. For detailed information about the event, please contact the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Belarus. Tel: (017) 217 04 81 or the Belarusian State Philharmonic at 331 36 91. |
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Tim Long Daniel Burnham's Enduring Vision for the Philippines Tim Long is spending the month of June in Manila and Baguio, in the Philippines, photographing the streets and structures built according to plans drawn by Daniel Burnham for those two cities in 1905. Burnham's plans have had a lasting impact on the landscapes of those cities that have endured the devastations of WWII, natural calamities, and the chaos wrought by 30 years of rapid and uncontrolled growth. His project is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Fine Arts.
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Erin McCarthy Who Cared? Oral History, Caring, Health and Illness: Marking 60 years of the National Health Service To mark 60 years of the National Health Service, the Oral History Society is collaborating with the Medical School, University of Birmingham, to organize a conference aiming to understand health care relationships in the histories of medicine; illness; well-being; disability; and planned environments. The event will be of interest to both new and experienced oral historians in diverse fields of research, with opportunities to discuss and reflect on themes and issues that arise in oral history projects. For further information contact: http://www.ohs.org.uk/conferences/2008.php
ELIA Teachers' Academy, Oral History Workshop, Sophia, Bulgaria Erin will present "Capturing and Preserving Stories: the Foundational Oral History Interview" The Foundational Oral History Interview refers to oral history initiatives with little or no budget, significant time constraints, and limited resources. The material presented in this workshop is designed to be adaptable to a wide range of projects that seek to capture life stories. The workshop will focus on script development and interview techniques. Participants will learn how to organize interviews and ask "picture" questions. Many myths about interviewing will be dispelled and participants will also learn how to handle awkward situations. The workshop presentation format will include power point enhanced instruction, digital interview clips, as well as in-class partnering exercises. http://www.elia-artschools.org/teachers_artes/news
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Patricia McNair Visiting Academic, Creative Writing Program, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK As part of the on-going international exchange program shared by the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia and the Creative Writing Program of Bath Spa University, McNair will teach graduate and undergraduate creative writing students while in residence at Bath, UK. McNair will also help supervise students from the Fiction Writing Department and from Bath's Creative Writing Program taking part in a brief residential exchange that will culminate in the publication of the second literary anthology edited, written, and produced by students from both programs. While overseas, McNair will attend the ELIA Conference in Sweden with colleagues from Columbia College Chicago. She will also visit the beaches at Normandy, France, and Cornwall, UK to do research for two magazine feature articles. With co-presenter Philip Hartigan, McNair was selected to direct a workshop for fellow writing teachers at "Reporting Back," NAWE's Autumn Conference. The workshop will be comprised of activities and exercises designed for the Fiction Writing Department's class, Journal and Sketchbook: Ways of Seeing, and will be open to all participants in this international gathering of writers and educators.
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RoseAnna Mueller RoseAnna Mueller recently published a book review "Approaches to Teaching Early Modern Spanish Drama." Ed. Laura Bass and Margaret Greer, New York: MLA, 2006. for the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association Spring 2007, Vol 40, #1 Machiavelli in the Modern World RoseAnna Mueller published a chapter, "Machiavelli in the Modern World" in the anthology Seeking Real Truths: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Machiavelli, Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. Presentation RoseAnna Mueller presented "Gonzalo Guerrero: la otra cara del mestizaje" at the VI Congreso Internacional de Literatura Hispanica, Mexico, March 2007. In this paper/powerpoint presentation, she explores the visual representation of Gonzalo Guerrero, the Spanish sailor who was shipwrecked on the Yucatan peninsula in 1511 and married a Maya noblewoman. He is the true father of European/ Indian race-mixing and provides an alternative to the idea that the first mixed race children in the Americas were fathered by Hernan Cortes. Mueller received a Faculty Development Award, Spring 07, which allowed her to travel to Mexico to research archives, visit museums, and take photos. She is planning a Spring 09 Semester Abroad to the Kukulcan Educational Spanish Community in Cuernavaca, Mexico, for Columbia College Students. Presentation Presentation of "Learning Spanish from Mama Blanca: Teresa de la Parra's Novel as Pedagogical Text at American Association, Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 90th Annual Conference, San Jose, Costa Rica. aatsp.org
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Judy Natal Artist residency in Iceland with SIM: The Association of Icelandic Artists Building upon the work Natal created at the Springs Preserve, Las Vegas, and the Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona,she will continue the ongoing photographic series Future Perfect in Iceland. This series examines the relationship between humankind and the natural world and our efforts to control it. Natal will photograph the spectacular geothermal features of the Icelandic landscape and the structures that harness and convert it into geothermal energy. She will also examine how these structures have altered the extraordinary landscape of the island.
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Sarah Odisho The Yoking of the Arts and Liberal Arts: A Radical Vision
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Pangratios Papacosta International Conference in Germany Pan Papacosta of the Science and Mathematics Department attended an International Conference in Darmstadt Germany (March 6 -9) 2008, organized under the theme "Integrating Engineering and Humanities in Higher Education: The Bologna Process and Beyond." Pan Papacosta opened up the conference with his talk "Reinventing Prometheus: Humanities in the Education of Scientists and Engineers." http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/fb/mb/tvt/iehhe/ Oxford Round Table In the summer of 2006, Pan Papacosta participated in a week-long session of The Oxford Round Table at Oxford, England. The theme of the session was "C. P. Snow's Two Cultures: The Current Debate." The thirty invited participants, academics, scientists and artists, spoke of the need to narrow the gap between arts and sciences. The title of Pan's presentation was "Humanities and Arts to the Rescue of Science." http://www.forumonpublicpolicy.com/archive07/papacosta.pdf
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Valeriu Paraskiv The Return of the Banished Val Paraskiv: playwright, artistic director, actor and Adjunct Faculty at Columbia College in the Film/Video Department, co-star in "The Return of the Banished" directed by Malvina Ursianu in 1979 was screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the series Romanian Cinema Rising, award-winning Eastern European films on Saturday May 24 at 3:30 and Thursday May 27, at 6:30 http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/2008/may/2.html Gene Siskel Film Center
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Alexis Pride Memory, Truth and the Imagination in the Autobiographical Novel Memory, Truth and Imagination in the Autobiographical Novel, a paper to be presented at the conference, the Novel and its Borders in Aberdeen, Scotland, will discuss the autobiographical fiction writer's process: patterns in subject material many writers choose and the artistic effect of these choices. This essay will argue against the common descriptor of a thinly veiled autobiography, used frequently to denigrate the work of autobiographical fiction writers, with little consideration given to writers for their ability to create art that is imaginative and compelling. The conference, hosted by the University of Aberdeen, will engage with the novel in all its aspects from the 18th to the 21st century. Plenary speakers include Ian Duncan, Jonathan Lamb and Terry Castle. Over 300 countries will be represented. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/novelconference/
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Marilyn Propp Two Person Exhibition: "David Jones and Marilyn Propp" In early October, 2008, I will be traveling to Xalapa, Mexico with my husband and studio partner David Jones, Director of Anchor Graphics at Columbia College. We have been invited to present a two-person show of our work, which will be exhibited at the Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, for one month. The University is hosting us for one week so that David can present a printmaking workshop and I can speak with painting students.
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Joseph Roberts International conference presentations as a plenary speaker As an invited plenary speaker on the topic of Cultural Entrepreneurship Professor Roberts was invited to Taiwan and Shanghai to discuss the changing topography of the cultural and creative industries. Representatives of the education and cultural ministries of China, Taiwan, France, U.K. and the United States cultural exchange program were present to discuss the possible policy issues on a global basis. There are several such hearings planned for the future. Roberts is also the founder of an academic division dedicated to the cultural and arts entrepreneurship studies and curriculum design within the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. This is a national organization of entrepreneurship educators.
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Lisa Schlesinger Virtual Round Table A virtual round table discussion begun at PEN World Voices Conference to be published in UK journal Contemporary Theatre Review. Our ( ) Town, a short play was included in the University of Iowa's International Writing Program's Global Play Project, read at the University of Iowa and London, England. The Paul Engle dinner party, a multi-media event commissioned by the International Writing Program and the Iowa Playwrights Workshop will be produced in October 2008 at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in partnership with the Theatre Arts Department. Postcards from Gaza and Other Unspeakable Geographies, an essay on navigating the Ben Gurion Airport, after a trip to the Palestinian Occupied Territories, is included in a collection called Out of Silence, to be published by University of Manchester Press in 2008. http://www.lulu.com/content/1729495 Twenty One Positions is a collaboratively written play, originally commissioned by the Guthrie Theatre's International Play Project. The play was developed in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem with Naomi Wallace (UK) and Abdel Fatteh Abu Srour (Bethlehem) and has been workshopped at the Guthrie in Minneapolis and at Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas. It received a mainstage workshop production at Fordham University at Lincoln Center. A panel with Rashid Khalidi, Alissa Solomon and others, was held to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian conflict on stage. http://www.fordham.edu/theatre/main_seas_5a.htm
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Brian Shaw Mr. Shaw presented at the European League of Institutes of the Arts biannual Teacher’s Academy. The 2007 Teachers' Academy was hosted by the University of Brighton, July 11-14. The title of his presentation was “The Skeleton. The Skeleton in Space. Skeletons meet Skeletons in Space.” In 2001, Brian developed a faculty exchange program with the Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad in Serbia & Montenegro. In 2003, under his direction, students from the Academy collaborated with Columbia College students to create an original performance titled Scale/Vaga for the International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre in Novi Sad.
In 2004, Brian started an exchange program with the University of East London around community arts practice in theater. Brian is currently on sabbatical (Fall 2007) as a Visiting Research Fellow at UEL in London, researching college/community partnerships and their impact on the curriculum."
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Louis Silverstein Louis Silverstein will present on the subject of his work in the field of death and dying as reflected in his forthcoming book, Eros & Thanatos: Blessed By Your Presence, Graced By Your Love, at the Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture, Sixth Annual Conference, Rome, Italy, 29-30 November 2007. Eros & Thanatos: Blessed By Your Presence, Graced By Your Love excerpt.
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Margaret Sullivan Ms. Sullivan presented at the European League of Institutes of the Arts biannual Teacher’s Academy. The 2007 Teachers' Academy was hosted by the University of Brighton, July 11-14. The title of her presentation was “Content Analysis of Imagery.”
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Tony Trigilio New Book: VISIONS AND DIVISIONS: AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LITERATURE, 1870-1930 Co-edited with Tim Prchal, this anthology includes short stories, poems, essays, and song lyrics written during the United States's first major wave of immigration. The works collected in this anthology represent the experiences of immigrants from all over the world, and reflect the controversy and uncertainty that abounded as the meaning of what it meant to be "American" was reconsidered in light of increased global migration. Writers participated in debates about restriction, assimilation, and whether the idea of the "Melting Pot" was worth preserving. Writers advocated -- and also challenged -- what emerged as a radical new way of understanding the nation's ethnic and racial identity: cultural pluralism. The book also includes an introduction, annotations, a time line, and historical documents that contextualize the literature -- all of which suggest ways in which these early controversies over immigration still shape our discourse in the present. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Margot Wallace Margot Wallace researches, writes, and talks on museum branding, a field she pioneered, to museums in the U.S. and abroad. Her book, Museum Branding, was published by AltaMira Press in 2006. She has recently spoken at the American Association of Museum national conferences, Midwest Association of Museum conferences, Historic House Museum conference, and programs in Canada, England, and The Netherlands. She also initiated the Marketing Communication Department’s focus on China, and is working with Youming Che, who teaches its China marketing courses, to consult with marketers and museum professionals in Shanghai during her sabbatical in Spring 2008.
Workshop at ELIA Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria In the world of marketing, companies that want to stay in business use the tools of the storyteller. Marketers listen to their culture and then provide products and communications that resonate. Good marketers, like storytellers in any of the arts, tap into a common consciousness and make listeners nod their heads in recognition. And then, like the best of storytellers, they inject a jolt of magic. Marketing communication students, like those in all creative disciplines, need encouragement in creating magic. This workshop will use the tactics of a marketing professor to elicit more creative thinking from all arts students.
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Diane Wawrejko Receipt of PhD in Dance Studies from University of Surrey, UK Diane received her PhD in Dance Studies from the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK. The degree was approved Fall 2007 but conferred by His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent (Queen Elizabeth's cousin) in Guildford Cathedral in April 2008. Selected for the Chicago-Lucerne Switzerland artist residency Wawrejko will be in residence at Ballettschule, a ballet and contemporary dance school with a regional company in Lucerne, Switzerland. During this residency, she will teach a workshop in contemporary dance improvisation that culminates in a site-specific choreographic work(s) for performance. Wawrejko’s improvisational style comes from the interactive work of her former teacher and mentor, the modern dance pioneer Daniel Nagrin with whom she studied for several years. Nagrin’s work is uniquely American and is appropriated from the physical theatre exercises and techniques of fin-de-siècle Russian theatre director, Konstantin Stanislavski of the Moscow Art Theatre. This method-acting technique goes deep into the psyche and soma to find the rhythmic pulse and motivation, then is transferred into the moving body via metaphors. Within this immediacy, each dancer’s body provides materials, concepts, and movement metaphors from which to create organic, as opposed to plastic (ie, teaching set movement or steps from/organic to my body onto another’s body), work. As a Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria 2006-07, Wawrejko’s improvisational choreographic style explored the tension between culturally engendered bodies and their responses to culturally stylistic movement. She will continue working in this manner in Lucerne, teaching an American style of improvisation to Swiss dancers and observing how they heuristically choose to embrace and embody these culturally engendered constructs. Wawrejko has commissioned associate Steve Johnson to compose and perform the musical score. The mission of the Chicago-Lucerne Residency is “to build a foundation for artists to create their work, in whatever medium they may choose. Artists have the skills to interpret different cultures, raise questions and challenge us to look at things differently. The studio provides the opportunity for artists to immerse themselves in a new culture and build bridges between different societies. In a world that seems to become ever smaller, we depend on an increasingly changing understanding of other ways of life. The program will help us to better see and appreciate the humanity that defines and unites us”.
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Stan West A Personal Geography Examining Why American Expatriate Writers Lived in Paris and Madrid For the last 150 years, writers from throughout the United States have written from Spain and France, many of them finding a special home in Paris and Madrid. One could roughly divide them by centuries 19th-century American expatriate writers like Henry James, Edith Wharton and Frederick Douglass; 20th-century writers like Sam Boynes Jr., James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Rose Jourdain, and Barbara Chase-Riboud; and 21st-century writers like Kai El Zabar, Pat Westheimer, Lawrence Schmiel, Miles Marshall, Dr. Tyler Stovall, and Dr. Gerald Honigsblum. The most famous American expatriate writers lived in Madrid or Paris between World War 1 and World War II such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Ezra Pound, and Langston Hughes. They were called the "Lost Generation" first by Stein, who coined the phrase, then by literary scholars who sought a way to describe disaffected American writers who fled to Europe between the two world wars seeking a freer environment. They came from different race, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and political persuasions. They were rebels with perhaps good cause...Thinking out loud, I wrote about them while writing about myself, my twin sons, and their great uncle, all while researching the expats' stories in Madrid and Paris. |
