Foundational Scientific Reasoning

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Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, April 21st at 3 pm. in the Hatfield Room for our ninth Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided.

Courtney Stevens and Melissa Witkow, Associate Professors of Psychology,
 

Title:  Promoting foundational scientific reasoning skills in Introductory Psychology: Findings from an NSF-IUSE curriculum grant

In this talk, we will describe our collaborative work over the past 5 years to develop and assess new materials to improve the training of scientific reasoning skills in introductory psychology.  This work was initially inspired by changes to the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) to include psychology-focused questions. These questions highlighted the potential for introductory psychology to move beyond traditional content coverage to include stronger training of scientific reasoning skills, including data interpretation and research design. Our talk will cover a series of studies, moving from initial efforts in our own classes at Willamette to broader efforts involving other instructors at WU, as well as Chemeketa Community College and Oregon State University. The talk will highlight the course modules and assessment results, as well our design process. This work was funded by a Keck grant (iScience; PIs: Mark Stewart and Stas Stavrianeas) and an NSF-IUSE grant (PIs: Courtney Stevens, Melissa Witkow, and Kathy Becker-Blease).

Students are welcome.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Simonsen and Daniel Rouslin
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators

 

Professor Parayil

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Tuesday April 18, 4:15 in the Library’s Hatfield Room,  Prof. Govindan Parayil will give the 2017 Teppola Chair lecture on “The Return of ‘the Machinery Question’ and the Failed Promise of Globalization.”
Abstract: Political economists and social critics of the 19th century theorized “the machinery question”: the rage against machines by unemployed former artisans and alienated workers after the onset of modern capitalism. Two centuries later, resistance to the “march of the machine” has returned.  Whereas the Luddites in the 19th century English mills attacked textile machines as tangible instruments of their oppression, information-age revolts rage against the post-Cold War global political and economic order. There is public anxiety and fear that the twin forces of globalization and technological innovation are forging an economic future in which most work will be done by autonomous technologies.  Looming in scholarly debates and public discourse is the prospect of a dystopia worse than the one Charlie Chaplin portrayed in the film “Modern Times,” that is, an economic marketplace where humans need not apply.  In Bill Joy’s words, we fear a future “that doesn’t need us.”  In this talk, I will investigate whether, as several major technological advances revolutionize the world’s political economy, it is possible to have a fair economic future in the face of gross asymmetries in social relations, political power, and economic opportunities for the marginalized and excluded majority.

WU Alumni Publications

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The Willamette University Alumni Publication collection comes from the University Archives & Records collection area, which contains publications, images, administrative records, research materials, and scrapbooks dating from Willamette’s beginnings.

It includes the Willamette University Bulletin (1919); The Willamette Alumni Magazine (1922-1923); The Willamette Alumni Bulletin (June, 1925); The Willamette University Alumnus (1926-1970); The Willamette Scene (April 1967 – Spring 2014); The Willamette Magazine (Fall 2014 – Summer 2016)

Also available are materials relating to Freshman Glee, one of Willamette’s longest running – and most beloved – traditions. This collection can be browsed or searched.

http://libmedia.willamette.edu/commons/collec/102

Acclaimed Novelist Leah Stewart

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Please join us for the final event of the Spring 2017 Hallie Ford Literary Series, a reading by acclaimed novelist Leah Stewart and a celebration of the first annual Mark and Melody Teppola Creative Writing Prizes at Willamette, with food, drink, and readings by our winners in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The readings and celebration take place on Thursday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hatfield Room and are free and open to the public.

Leah Stewart is the critically acclaimed author of The History of Us, Husband and Wife, The Myth of You and Me, and Body of a Girl. The recipient of a Sachs Fund Prize and a NEA Literature Fellowship, she teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati.

The New York Times Book Review says of her newest novel, The New Neighbor, “In simple, elegant language, Leah Stewart draws us to a little pond hidden away in the mountains of Tennessee… Stewart never relaxes her tight focus on these complex characters.”

Read an interview with Leah here: http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/an-interview-with-leah-stewart

The winners of this year’s Mark & Melody Teppola Creative Writing Prizes are:

Poetry: Lara Zetzsche, for “Electronegativity of Atoms,” judged by Michelle Y. Burke

Nonfiction: JoAnna Hernandez, for “Tongue Tied,” judged by Jay Ponteri

Fiction: Jacob Kirn, for “Voodoo,” judged by Leah Stewart

 

Image sources from leahstewart.com

Colonial Latin America Myth-Making

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Professor Adorno is not only a distinguished scholar, but she has also written quite successfully for a general audience, and she is an excellent guest speaker. She will give a public lecture, “Gonzalo Guerrero: Hearsay and History in Myth-Making about Colonial Latin America,” on Friday, April 14th at 3pm in the Hatfield Room.

Talk abstract:

“Gonzalo Guerrero” is the name given by sixteenth-century Spanish chroniclers to a shipwreck victim who was thought to have joined Maya society and became a Maya war lord who thwarted the Spanish conquest of Yucatan (Mexico). The retelling of the story has proven irresistible: as recently as fifteen years ago there appeared a newly discovered “autobiography” of Gonzalo—and it was not the first. Tracing this series of arresting accounts through the centuries in both Spanish-language and Anglo-American English-language traditions, we will consider how fiction emerged from history and hearsay in the Latin American literary tradition. Taking this celebrated example from the chronicles of the Spanish conquest period, we will contemplate the issue of  how vaguely known historical events become the object of hearsay, eventually creating myths that are ultimately given the credence and weight of history. This lecture will be illustrated (PowerPoint).

Lestle Sparks Collection

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The Lestle Sparks Willamette Student World War II Correspondence collection contains letters written to and from Willamette students serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. In general, the students thanked Sparks for college newspapers sent by the athletic department and recounted their efforts to exercise and play their favorite sports while in the service. Often students were unable to indicate their current location or assignment, however, some letters contain candid depictions of military life.

Lestle J. Sparks was born on May 3, 1897 in Seaz, Arkansas. Sparks was associated with Willamette University for 64 years spanning his enrollment in 1915 to his death in 1979. Sparks graduated from Willamette in 1919 with a degree in Chemistry. Shortly after graduation he began teaching at Coquille High School near Bandon, Oregon. In 1921 Sparks returned to Salem and taught Chemistry and Physical Education at Salem High School.

In 1923 Sparks was offered a full-time teaching position with Willamette University. Sparks began as an Assistant Professor of Physical Education and was soon promoted to Associate Professor, eventually Sparks became Head of the Physical Education Department. At various times throughout his career, Sparks served as head coach of the football, basketball, track and tennis teams. Although he retired as a member of Willamette’s faculty in 1962, Sparks continued coaching tennis until 1974. Sparks died at the age of 82 in 1979.

Upon Sparks’ death, his wife, Marion Linn Sparks ’22 and his daughter, Marion Sparks DaBoll ’51 found an unlabeled box in his office containing correspondence. Unknown to his family, these letters were sent to and from Willamette students serving in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.

To view this collection visit:

http://libmedia.willamette.edu/cview/archives.html#!doc:page:eads/4884

Lecture: Electoral Politics in Southeast Asia

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The Center for Asian Studies is pleased to invite you to a lecture and presentation by Prof. Meredith Weiss, University at Albany SUNY) on “Electoral Politics in Southeast Asia: Policy, Patronage, and Public Interest.”  The lecture will be on Monday, April 10 at 4:15 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library.  Refreshments will be served.

“Throughout Southeast Asia, in a range of phenomena sometimes collectively labeled “money politics,” candidates for elected office distribute patronage— benefits that might include cash, food and other goods, public-sector jobs, infrastructure projects, or other rewards—via clientelist networks. Sometimes illegal or illicit, other times above-ground and at least tacitly condoned, such practices span the electoral cycle and deeply inflect the quality and character of governance structures, democracy, and national integration. This seminar will offer an overview of a multi-year, cross-national, collaborative research project to track and compare these practices and their implications for candidates, political parties, citizens, and policies in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.”

Read more about Professor Weiss at: http://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/faculty_pos_weiss.shtml

WU Reads: April’s Focus is Immigration

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“For all the noise and anger that too often surrounds the immigration debate, America has nothing to fear from today’s immigrants.  They have come here for the same reason that families have always come here, for the same reason my father came here—for the hope that in America, they could build a better life for themselves and their families.” —Barack Obama

Locally, nationally, and around the world, immigration is on everyone’s mind.  To find out more about this important topic, check out some of the current immigration-related books from our collection: http://libguides.willamette.edu/wu_reads

 

Faculty Colloquium: Michaela Kleinert

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Please join us this Friday, April 7th at 3 pm. in Collins 318 for our seventh Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided and please note the change in location.

Presenter: Michaela Kleinert, Associate Professor of Physics
Title:  “Danger! Do not look into the laser beam with your remaining eye!” – Or – What is going on in Kleinert’s research lab?

Since its invention in 1960, the laser has become an integral part of our society. While most everyday lasers are cw (continuous wave) lasers of low power – for example barcode scanners at the grocery checkout –, powerful pulsed lasers that produce extremely short bursts of light (between only a billionth and a millionth of a billionth of a second long!) find more specialized applications both in research and industry. From the creation of super-hydrophobic surfaces that are completely water-repellent to the formation of micrometer sized structures that guide light or allow computers to work properly, from identifying explosives at long range to determining the chemical composition of ancient coins or even rocks on Mars – if you can imagine it, there is a laser to do the job!


A generous donation of two 10-ps pulsed laser systems (ESI, Beaverton) has allowed me to enter this fascinating field of research, and in this talk I will discuss projects that are currently being investigated in my research lab. I will introduce the physics of laser/material interaction that leads to the formation of microstructures on metallic surfaces. I will also talk about the plasma plume, the ejected material that forms above the surface and that can be a blessing and a curse: A dense plume leads to strong recombination lines as the electrons recombine with their respective ions. This is advantageous when investigating laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) since it amplifies the characteristic chemical fingerprints that allow us to identify unknown samples. On the other hand, a large plasma plume also acts as a shield and prevents the laser light from hitting the surface (plasma shielding). This of course is not desired when the goal is to pattern the surface in a controlled way (micromachining).

Students are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.

Doreen Simonsen and Daniel Rouslin
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators

Roger Lowenstein Talk

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The Economics Department, with support from the Gillis Fund, is excited to announce a talk by financial writer and bestselling author Roger Lowenstein on Monday, April 3rd at 4:15 p.m.  This event will be held in the Hatfield Room, and is free and open to the public.  There will be a book signing after the talk.