Dear Colleagues,

Abstract:  The romance of a bottle of wine and a technicolor sunset – perhaps the perfect pairing of a liquid-liquid mixture with light scattering phenomena. This talk will strive for a second-best pairing by showing how light scattering may be used to understand the physical properties of liquid-liquid mixtures. At first glance, pouring two nonreactive liquids together to make a mixture seems like a very simple physical process. Sometimes two liquids mix completely, like ethanol and water do in alcoholic beverages. Sometimes the liquids stay in two layers and do not mix very much at all, like oil and water. However, many pairs of liquids show both types of behavior: the liquids mix completely for some temperatures and some mixing ratios, but the liquids separate into two layers at other conditions. In this talk I will discuss the laser light scattering method we use to make maps of the exact conditions in which two liquids mix to form a single layer, or phase. I will introduce special points on the maps called critical points, and show the universal and beautiful physical behavior that all liquid-liquid mixtures exhibit at a critical point, like critical opalescence and spinodal decomposition. I will also present a new type of fundamental liquid-liquid phase behavior my students and I have observed here at Willamette. Throughout the talk I will illustrate the complex ways in which light can scatter from a liquid-liquid mixture by incorporating examples of light scattering found in the atmosphere, such as the whiteness of clouds and fog, the blueness of the sky, and solar halos. There is also a brief shout out to Edvard Munch.

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

Dear Colleagues,

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

Dear 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

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, November 13th at 3:00 in the Hatfield Room for our eighth Faculty Colloquium of this semester.  Treats will be provided.

Robert Trapp, Professor of Civic Communication and Media, Director of Debate Union

Title:  Willamette University and Debate in the People’s Republic of China
Abstract: For the better part of two decades I have worked to teach debate in the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and even more closed societies like the People’s Republic of China. All of the programs with which I worked were funded by George Soros and the Open Society Foundation (OSF). Then in 2007, after a decade of working in Central and Eastern Europe, I had the opportunity to direct the instruction of students, teachers, and judges at the FLTRP (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) Cup in Beijing, which had the reputation of being the most prestigious English-speaking debate competition in China. I continued to direct the instruction for the FLTRP cup for four more years. Then I applied for a series of small grants from OSF to host instructional workshops for students, teachers, and judges.  In 2012, I applied successfully for an OSF grant of $3,000,000 to create a “sustainable debate program” across many geographic areas in China. The 3-year grant was fully approved.

Debating in China prior to our program was expressly for the purpose of using debate to teach oral English. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the program that we are in the process of completing; its goals and structure as well as the depth and breadth of the program that by all appearances has changed the face of debate in the People’s Republic of China in positive ways.

As always, 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