Faculty Colloquium by Cecily McCaffrey

cecily-mccaffreyDear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, March 4th at 3 pm. in the Hatfield Room for our fifth Faculty Colloquium of this semester.  Treats will be provided.Cecily McCaffrey, Associate Professor of History
 

Title: Wang Sanhuai and the Jiaqing Emperor: A Study in Political Dialogue

Abstract:
Wang Sanhuai was a prominent rebel leader of the White Lotus Uprisings (1796-1804) in Sichuan province, China. Wang and his band resisted state authority and evaded arrest for two years. During that time, Wang and his fellows made a mockery of imperial policies of pacification that rewarded loyal subjects: for example, in an episode recounted in the Qing shi gao, Wang petitioned for surrender as a ploy to facilitate an ambush against Qing military forces. However, when he was finally captured, Wang played the role of penitent, claiming that he had wished to surrender all along. This talk examines Wang’s depositions and official reports of his conduct as evidence of non-elite political maneuvering. When read against the grain of court rhetoric, Wang’s testimony and actions suggest not only that he had a perspicacious command of imperial policy but also that he attempted to engage officers of the court on their own terms as he negotiated for his life. Although Wang did not survive, his arguments were not without effect: references to Wang’s testimony surface in the Jiaqing emperor’s edicts discussing the evolution of state pacification policies in the months following Wang’s arrest. Taking Wang Sanhuai as one example, this talk argues for increased recognition of the role and influence of non-elite subjects in the constitution and evolution of the state-society relationship in Qing China.

Please feel free to invite students to attend this talk.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Simonsen and Bobby Brewer-Wallin
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Saint-making and Map-making

francavigliaDear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, February 26th at 3 pm. in the Hatfield Room for our fourth Faculty Colloquium of this semester.  Treats will be provided.Richard Francaviglia, Professor Emeritus of History and Geography
 

Title: Saint-making and Map-making: The Cartographic History of Mormonism

Abstract:
This lecture will explore the fascinating and enduring connection between Mormonism and maps. From the first “City of Zion” plat map in the early 1830s to the most modern cartography showing the worldwide distribution of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism has relied on maps to promote and sustain the faith. This lecture will showcase about a dozen maps that cover important themes in Mormon history, including bringing order to the western American wilderness, portraying locations described in the Book of Mormon, and mapping the territories served by missionaries at home and abroad.

Please feel free to invite students to attend this talk.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Simonsen and Bobby Brewer-Wallin
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Sarah Sentilles and Rick Barot Readings

Please join us for the second event of the Spring 2016 Hallie Ford Literary Series at Willamette University: a reading by Sarah Sentilles and Rick Barot, on Wednesday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of Willamette’s library. The event is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale courtesy of the Willamette Store.

 

Sarah Sentilles is a nonfiction writer, scholar of religion, critical theorist, and author of three books, including her recent memoir Breaking Up with God: A Love Story. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Yale and master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard. At the core of her scholarship, writing, and activism is a commitment to investigating the roles language, images, and practices play in oppression, violence, social transformation, and justice movements. She is currently the Mark and Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University, teaching courses in religious studies, art, and creative writing. In 2016-17, she will be Chair of the MA in Critical Theory + Creative Research at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. She is currently working on a book about art and war titled Draw Your Weapons.

 

Poet Rick Barot is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Chord (2015), currently a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award for best book of the year by a writer of color. Born in the Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he attended Wesleyan University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Stanford University, where he was a Stegner Fellow in Poetry and later a Jones Lecturer in Poetry. Barot’s first collection of poetry, The Darker Fall(2002), received the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. His second collection, Want(2008), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and won the 2009 Grub Street Book Prize. His poems and essays have appeared in the New RepublicPoetry, the Kenyon Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and others. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Barot has taught at numerous universities including Stanford, California College of the Arts, George Washington University, and Lynchburg College. He currently resides in Tacoma, Washington, and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University.

 

Read an interview with Sarah here: http://religiondispatches.org/ibreaking-up-with-godi-i-didnt-lose-my-faith-i-left-it/

And read Rick’s poem “Tarp” here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/245802

Scott Nadelson


Featuring Craig Milberg

Craig Milberg joined Willamette University on January 4th, 2016, as the new University Librarian at Willamette University. Before joining Willamette, Craig was Assistant Director for Discovery Systems at Davidson College in North Carolina from 2009 to 2015.  A native New Yorker, Craig also worked on Wall Street as a librarian, project manager and IT manager. Before that, Craig was employed as a chemist making radioactive analogs of potential medicines for drug trials, a job that made it necessary for him to have his radioactivity levels checked on a weekly basis.

Craig is married with two young sons and a grown daughter. In his free time he enjoys hiking, nature photography, rose gardening, reef keeping and taking care of his two dogs, one of whom is one of the rarest breeds in the US, a Canaan Dog. In addition to learning the ins and outs of Willamette he is looking forward to exploring the areas many waterfalls with his sons and dogs.

Please welcome Craig the next time you see him!

Craig Milberg University Librarian

Craig Milberg University Librarian


Youth Leadership Month

Our current display of books and DVDs are centered around Youth Leadership Month.  There are books and videos that feature strong leaders as the main characters, historical movers and shakers, as well as materials to brush up leadership skills.

All of these materials are available to check out, as always!

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Thompson Exhibit

James B. Thompson: Fragments In Timejames-thompson1

January 23 – March 26, 2016

The Mark O. Hatfield Library has some art pieces by James B. Thompson on display on the first floor of the library.  This is in conjunction with the current exhibit by Thompson in the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art presents a twenty-year retrospective exhibition, “Fragments in Time,” by Willamette University’s art faculty member James B. Thompson in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery.

“Fragments in Time” explores the development of Thompson’s work during thejames-thompson3 past two decades, and features 179 artworks that range through 11 series, starting with Thompson’s “Certain Situations” from the mid-1990s, to his most recent “Forgotten Biography of Tools” from 2015. Utilizing various mediums — including mixed-media, painting, intaglio prints, embossed paper and kiln-formed glass — Thompson focuses on his various interests in ancient history, golf, changing landscapes, life in a French village and even hand tools, by incorporating  fragmented references to these in his art making process.

Portland, Oregon art writer and critic Bob Hicks says, “In keeping with his theory of a fragmented universe, Thompson creates situations in his art, but not stories: juxtapositions, suggestions, leftover objects and ideas. Then like a collagist of objects and ideas alike, he creates something new.”

In addition to the objects on display in the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the exhibition is accompanied by a full-color, 128 page book by Portland, Oregon art writer and critic Bob Hicks.

james-thompson4The images included on this page are just a few items on display in the Hatfield Library, which includes a selection of related books from the library’s general collection (books on display can be checked out).

More information is available on the Hallie Ford Museum of Art web site:
https://willamette.edu/arts/hfma/exhibitions/library/2015-16/james_b_thompson.html

 

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Faculty Colloquium: Taoka Reiun (1870-1912)

loftusDear Colleagues,
Please join us this Friday, February 12th at 3 pm. in the Hatfield Room for our third Faculty Colloquium of this semester.  Treats will be provided.

Ron Loftus, Professor of Japanese Language and East Asian History
 

Title: Taoka Reiun (1870-1912) and the Turn Against the Modern

Abstract:

During my Spring 2015 sabbatical, I completed a book-length manuscript on Taoka Reiun (1870-1912), a literary and social critic who was active from the early 1890s until his early death in 1912.  A maverick, Reiun urged his readers to question the entire meaning of bunmei, or “civilization,” as a trajectory for modern Japan.  A student in Chinese Studies at the university, he found himself drawn to ancient Indian and Chinese thought:  the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Daodejing, the Yijing, and the essays of Zhuangzi, as well as the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. He was also taken with contemporary critics like Fabian Socialist Edward Carpenter and German physician Max Nordau.  Bunmei-kaika, or  “civilization and enlightenment,” was embraced by most Japanese as the best pathway to becoming modern; but Reiun questioned whether it had delivered on its promises.  He saw the whole notion of modernity as the triumph of a utilitarian, materialistic, instrumentalist view of the world and he did not trust it.  Reiun feared that the “objective” or “scientific” view of reality, was too narrow and superficial.  He wanted something more: a truer, deeper portrayal of the human experience.  By challenging the assumptions of modernity itself, Reiun was taking an intriguing and bold stance that I will explore in presentation.
Please feel free to invite students to attend this talk.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Simonsen and Bobby Brewer-Wallin
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Welcome Amber D’Ambrosio

Amber D'Ambrosio Processing Archivist and Records Manager

Amber D’Ambrosio Processing Archivist and Records Manager

Please welcome Amber D’Ambrosio, our new Processing Archivist and Records Manager at the Mark O. Hatfield Library.  She has had a meandering path to becoming a librarian and archivist. After graduating from Colorado State University with a BA in English, Amber taught English in Japan as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme from 2006-2008. From there she earned her Master of Arts in English Renaissance Literature at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. While learning about early modern manuscripts and early printed books in the Brotherton Library at Leeds as part of her degree program, Amber realized that she wanted to become a special collections librarian.

She went on to earn her Master of Science in Information Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York with a focus on rare books and archives. She also took every opportunity to intern with and visit special collections and archives in the United Kingdom and the Northeastern United States. She has seen everything from archived brains (yes, actual brains in jars) to archived meat from a British expedition to find a northwest passage through North America. Prior to arriving at Willamette, Amber was Special Collections Librarian and Archivist at Dixie State University in southwestern Utah for over three years.

Amber has at various times contemplated pursuing a PhD in early modern literature, comparative early modern English and Japanese theatre, or digital humanities. In addition to her interest in rare and unusual books and archives, she loves traveling, hiking, studying Japanese, writing, and theatre.

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Vernor Martin Sackett Negatives, Archives Collection

Vernor Martin Sackett, Photographer

Vernor Martin Sackett, Photographer

The Vernor Martin Sackett Negatives Collection in Willamette’s Archives and Special Collections

This is a collection consists of photograph negatives taken by Vernor Sackett while he was a student at Willamette University and while he was serving in the military in Germany. The image of Willamette University are mainly about student life and activities at Willamette University during the 1920s. Sacket, his future wife Mary Notson, his brother Sheldon Sackett and Sheldon’s future wife Sadie Pratt are all featured. The five cubic feet of images also include trips Sackett made to various places in Oregon and Northern California as well as visits to family and friends. In addition, there are images of Germany taken when Sackett spent time there while serving in the United States Army.

Vernor Martin Sackett was born in Jefferson, Oregon in 1898 and graduated from Willamette University in 1922. Next to his portrait in the school yearbook, The Wallulah is the comment “He owns a whole flock of cameras that won’t eat anything but embarrassing situations. Sings a deep ’sonorous’ bass, sells pictures, trades kodaks….”

Vernon died in 1965, and was survived by his wife, Mary Notson Sackett, sister of Robert Notson.

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A Hunting Expedition, Thanksgiving 1919

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Girl’s Basketball Player, Chattin

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Lausanne Hall Construction

Fat-Zeller

“Fat” Zeller

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“Squint” & “Dave,” “Flunkies”

View this collection and the negatives online at:
http://libmedia.willamette.edu/cview/archives.html#!doc:page:eads/4979


Escape Fiction Display

escape-from-fiction-wu-reads-displayThroughout the month of January we will have up a display of fiction movies and books from our general collection.  There are classics and newbies to browse through.  The display is located on the first floor of the library, and all materials in it are available to be checked out.

Here are just a few titles that are in the temporary display:

DVDs

Astro Boy
The Mists of Avalon
Alien
Blade Runner
My Brother is from Another Planet
Tales of Earth Sea
Castle in the Sky
Riddick
District 9
Total Recall
Melancholia
Toy Story 3
Minority Report
Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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BOOKS

Watchmen
Harry Potter
The Lost Heir
The Hunger Games
Ink Heart
Goblin Secrets
Boy, Snow, Bird
300
Cloud Atlas
iRobot
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Sword in the Stone
The Hitch Hikers Trilogy
Watership Down