Faculty Colloquium: Taoka Reiun (1870-1912)

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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

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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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Faculty Colloquium: Geologic Carbon Storage

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Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, February 5th at 3 pm. in the Hatfield Room for our second Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided.

Burt Thomas, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Earth ScienceBurt Thomas

Title: Geologic Carbon Storage: A Climate Salve with Some Nasty Side Effects

Abstract:

Geological Carbon Storage (GCS) is the world’s best hope of mitigating carbon dioxide emissions over the next few decades as global economies transition away from fossil energy sources. GCS refers to a variety of strategies that involve capturing carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere and permanently storing it in geological reservoirs. Over the next 100 years, the lion’s share of carbon mitigation is expected to involve industrial scale GCS. Industrial methods are based primarily on the lessons-learned and expertise of the US oil industry that has routinely used carbon dioxide injection to enhance oil recovery in depleted oilfields. I will discuss the risks and consequences of our Nation’s oil-dependent GCS trajectory and argue for the need for municipal-based low-risk storage options.

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

Hallie Ford Literary Series: Walidah Imarisha

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Please join us for the first event in the Spring 2016 Hallie Ford Literary Series at Willamette, a talk and reading by Walidah Imarisha, co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. The talk will take place on Thursday, February 4, 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.

Octavia’s Brood is the first anthology of its kind to gather science fiction that explores the genre as a means of political expression, of imagining a world free of war, racism, and oppression. The anthology was named one of the top ten feminist books of 2015 by Ms. Magazine, and CBC Radio called it the best new science fiction/fantasy book of the season.

Walidah is a poet, journalist, and fiction writer, who has taught in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department, Oregon State University’s Women Gender Sexuality Studies Department, and Southern New Hampshire University’s English Department. For the past six years, she has presented all over Oregon as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project on topics such as Oregon Black history, alternatives to incarceration, and the history of hip hop. One half of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista, she has published poetry in a wide variety of journals and performed at venues across the country. Walidah also spent six years on the board of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, and helped to found the Human Rights Coalition, a group of prisoners’ families and former prisoners with three chapters in Pennsylvania.

Read an interview with Walidah and her co-editor Adrienne Brown at The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/why-science-fiction-fabulous-tool-fight-social-justice/

Scott Nadelson

Vernor Martin Sackett Negatives, Archives Collection

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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.

hunting-expedition-thanksgiving-1919

A Hunting Expedition, Thanksgiving 1919

Chattin-girls-basketball

Girl’s Basketball Player, Chattin

new-lausanne

Lausanne Hall Construction

Fat-Zeller

“Fat” Zeller

squint-dave-flunkies

“Squint” & “Dave,” “Flunkies”

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

Faculty Colloquium: Star Numbers

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Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, January 29th at a special time, 4:10-5:10 in the Hatfield Room for our first Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided. josh-laison

Josh Laison, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Title: Star Numbers: From 17th-Century Oranges to Delivery Robots and Beyond

Abstract:

We will discuss a new variation of a 400-year-old problem from Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton about how densely geometric shapes can be packed together. Along the way we’ll encounter Amazon delivery robots, geometric networks, an iphone game, computers that prove theorems, 24-dimensional spheres, Tetris, cannonballs, and some exciting new theorems. No previous math or Tetris experience required. This research was done in collaboration with Andrew Bishop WU’14, Ben Gardiner WU’13, and David Livingston WU’15.

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

Escape Fiction Display

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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

escape-from-fiction-display

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

 

 

1941 Pearl Harbor Willamette Football Team

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Guide to the Pearl Harbor Game collection

We’re featuring the archival guide of the 1941 Pearl Harbor Game Collection in which the Willamette Football Team found themselves involved in the infamous Pearl Harbor attack.

Link to the collection: http://libmedia.willamette.edu/cview/archives.html#!doc:page:eads/4269

Here is an ESPN video interview of some of those involved:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrCUBnKZli0&feature=youtu.be

1941-pearl-harbor-football-team

The Pearl Harbor Game collection contains .5 linear feet of news articles, letters and transcriptions of interviews with participants, photographs and memorabilia connected with Willamette University’s 1941 football team and its experience in Hawaii in the days following December 7, 1941.

Collection Number:     WUA009

From the archival path finder:  “On board, as passengers, were the football squads of Willamette University and San Jose College, in Honolulu for games with the University of Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack. These men, under their respective coaches, volunteered in case of emergency to rescue and place in the ship’s boats the seriously wounded men. They drilled at their assignments. In addition, they volunteered to and did feed such wounded as were unable to help themselves. They promoted good morale among the patients in many ways. I consider the services rendered by these young men to be very commendable.”

(Excerpt from a letter written by Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, to Willamette University president Carl Knopf commending the athletes’ contributions. Knox is quoting from a report filed by a senior naval officer aboard the Merchant vessel used to evacuate those injured in the bombing of Pearl Harbor.)

Willamette University’s 1941 football team accumulated an 8-2 record, captured the Northwest Conference title, and included four future Willamette University Athletic Hall of Fame selections: Ted Ogdahl, Marvin Goodman, Dick Weisgerber (assistant coach), and Roy “Spec” Keene (coach). However, the football team is best remembered for their contributions immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.

At the end of the 1941 season, Willamette University and San Jose State were invited to Honolulu, Hawaii, to play in a series of games called the Shrine Bowl. The team was accompanied by a number of supporters, including Bearcat enthusiasts Oregon State Senator Douglas McKay and his daughter, Shirley. On December 6, Willamette lost the first game of the Shrine Bowl to the University of Hawaii, 20-6. The following day, as the entire Willamette contingent was preparing to tour the island of Oahu, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Willamette head coach, Spec Keene, volunteered the men, players and supporters alike, to guard the perimeter of the Punahou School in Honolulu for ten days. The women were volunteered as nurses’ aides at a Navy hospital. Unable to fly home, the team remained in Hawaii until December 19, at which time they returned to the mainland aboard the ocean liner SS President Coolidge. While on board, the team bunked in steerage and, in exchange for passage, were assigned as hospital aides attending wounded men until the ship reached San Francisco on Christmas day.

On September 23, 1997, the football team was inducted into the Willamette University Athletic Hall of Fame. Also inducted that year were Wayne and Shirley (McKay) Hadley, longtime supporters of Willamette athletics who were with the football squad in Hawaii.

 

New Faculty Works Collection

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faculty-researchThe Hatfield Library is beginning an exciting new project.  We are collecting digital copies of Willamette faculty research in our Academic Commons.  This includes past and current research papers other works.  It also includes data sets that Willamette Faculty may have created during their research process.

Here is a link to the current collections (click FACULTY RESEARCH on left side of screen): http://libmedia.willamette.edu/commons

Since these collections will be publicly available, faculty need to make sure that their publication contract allows for general public access.  If the faculty member is not sure, they should contact their publisher.  If the publisher does not allow for the final copy to be made publicly available, often times they allow pre-publication drafts instead, so this collection may include a number of pre-publication drafts too.

Once the faculty member has verified that it is okay to include their work in these collections, all you need to do is email a copy of your work to either Bill Kelm (bkelm@willamette.edu) or John Repplinger (jrepplin@willamette.edu).  They will upload it for the faculty member.  All Willamette faculty from all departments are encouraged to submit their publications in digital form to be included in these collections, so these collections will grow over time.

This is a wonderful way for faculty to get their publications and research work out there for others to read and use.  Students, current and prospective, may be interested in these works.

For questions about these collections, contact Bill Kelm (bkelm@willamette.edu), Systems Librarian or John Repplinger (jrepplin@willamette.edu), Science Librarian at Willamette University.

Politics and Religion: Constantine in Rome, 312-326

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Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, December 4th at 3:00 in the Hatfield Room for our tenth and final Faculty Colloquium of this semester. Treats will be provided.
chenault-sm
Robert Chenault, Associate Professor of History and Classics

Title: Politics and Religion: Constantine in Rome, 312-326

Abstract:

The nature of Constantine’s personal conversion to Christianity has been endlessly discussed, doubted, and defended, and probably always will. Instead of inquiring into the unknowable, scholars would do better to focus on the ways in which Constantine presented his religious affiliations publicly and how they were represented by others. In this talk, I apply this method to a single, especially significant case: Constantine’s relationship with the city of Rome and its various constituencies. By exploiting both the textual evidence and the symbolic meanings of certain buildings and monuments linked to Constantine’s three visits to Rome between 312 and 326, it is possible to arrive at fresh insights into Constantine’s skillful balancing of political messages and religious expressions, the ways in which Constantine and the Senate were able to find common ground, and the flavor of public discourse at Rome in the early fourth century.

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

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