Beauty and the Beach

The ocean, rocks, waves, sky, cloudsSummer is here and for many of us summer brings to mind sand, sun, water—the beach!  Oh, the beach with the seagulls crying, the waves crashing, the sun sparkling on the water, the scent of the salty air, the feel of the sand beneath our feet…  Walking along the beach has a way of soothing us and at the same time, making us feel more alive.  After a wonderful walk on the beach, finding a comfortable seat on a driftwood log, pulling a book from your backpack, and settling down to read is a moment of pure joy!  So, head to the shore, enjoy the magic of the ocean, walk barefoot in the waves, then find that perfect spot, and check out one of the following beach-related books (both print and electronic) available through the Hatfield Library and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination, and brings eternal joy to the soul. — Robert Wyland

If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it. — Jimmy Buffett


Powerful Pollinators

Close up of a bee on a flower surrounded by a cloud of pollenAccording to the U.S. Forest Service, pollination “is an essential survival function.” Pollinators help plants reproduce by drinking nectar or feeding off of pollen from flowers and then transporting pollen grains as they move from one area to another. We can thank pollinators for approximately one out of every three bites of food! It is well known that insects such as bees, butterflies, and moths are common pollinators, but birds and mammals (including hummingbirds, fruit bats, and opossums), serve as pollinators as well. June has been designated National Pollinators Month to draw attention to these important creatures and the role they have in sustaining life on this planet. Now is the time to honor the precious pollinators of the world; learn more by reading some of the pollinator-related books (both print and electronic) available through the Hatfield Library and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

For additional information on pollinators, check out these sites:

U.S. Forest Service–Pollinators

Pollinator Partnership

Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it! – John Muir

 


Flower Power

Springtime in Oregon is breathtakingly beautiful.  Traveling around our neighborhoods and parks, the walker cannot help but marvel at the many shades of green on the newly leafed out trees and rejoice in the multihued swathes of flowers around every corner.  Whether hiking among native plants like trillium, camas, and rhododendrons or admiring local gardens displaying tulips, lilacs, roses, and much more, Oregonians can enjoy a dazzling array of diverse blossoms throughout the spring.  And, we cannot forget the springtime air filled with wondrous scents from many of these flowers…  These bright spots of colors, these often fragrant morsels of beauty, bring joy and hope to the wanderer.  Join us in celebrating the power of flowers by getting outdoors to admire the blooms.  While you’re at it, why not check out one of these flower-related books available in the Hatfield Library and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide?:


Poetry and Trees

tree on hill with skyTrees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.–Kahlil Gibran

The recent ice storm took a serious toll on many of the beautiful trees across the Willamette Valley and beyond.  Despite all the damage, tree leaves are unfurling and blossoms are blooming to welcome the arrival of spring.  Looking at the trees around us in all their glory might just inspire those with a creative writing talent to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and compose a poem.  Happily, April is the perfect time to contemplate trees and poetry because it is both Arbor Month and National Poetry Month!  Join us in celebrating poetry, trees, and nature by sampling some of the many wonderful books (both print and electronic) available through the Hatfield Library and listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

 


Honoring Women

Women protestingRecognizing, remembering, and celebrating the role women have played in American history is important.  By official presidential proclamation, March has been designated Women’s History Month and now is the ideal time to reflect on the many extraordinary contributions of women through the years.  The National Women’s History Alliance chooses an annual theme and this year’s theme is a continuation of last year’s theme–“Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.”  2020 was the women’s suffrage centennial but the pandemic overshadowed this milestone so the celebration is continuing into 2021.  Recognizing early suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone is important but it also crucial to pay tribute to civil rights activists like Ida B. Wells, Ella Baker, and Shirley Chisholm, who championed voting rights for women and African Americans.  And we can bring the celebration into the 21st century by acknowledging the important contributions of women like Stacey Abrams whose organizing skills helped register thousands of new voters in the state of Georgia, making it a key battleground state during the 2020 election. On our WU Reads Reading Guide, you will find a selection of books about the Nineteenth Amendment and women through the years who were involved in supporting voting rights.


Study of Religion at Hatfield: Process Studies

By Maggie Froelich, Theology Librarian

mfroelich@willamette.edu

 

Process thought is a diverse field of philosophy and theology that emphasizes the dynamic nature of reality. Compared to other strands of Western metaphysics, process holds that “the dynamic nature of being should be the primary focus of any comprehensive philosophical account of reality and our place within it” (Johanna Seibt, “Process Philosophy,” SEP). According to process, things can and should be described with respect to becoming, change, and relationality, not simply with reference to “states” or static being.

Center for Process Studies logo

Process theology, which stems from the process philosophical work of Alfred North Whitehead, was developed in part by John B. Cobb, Jr., Claremont School of Theology emeritus professor. The Center for Process Studies (CPS), founded in 1975 by Cobb and fellow CST professor David Ray Griffin, is a faculty institute that promotes both scholarship and community dialogue in process studies. Over the years, the Center has amassed the world’s largest collection of books, articles, theses, and unpublished papers on or relevant to process philosophy and theology, and the published books from that collection are now housed at Hatfield.

The strength of the CPS collection is its diversity. Process thought has implications for, and is informed by, physics, ecology, psychology, history, theology, religious studies, and many other fields. The three books below offer a taste of some of the interesting, thought-provoking, and sometimes iconoclastic materials you can find in the collection.

You can find the CPS collection on the first floor of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. To access the Process Center’s unpublished materials, take a look at their digitized papers here, or contact info@ctr4process.org.

 

The Fragility of Things by William E. Connolly 

 

This book on political and social theory turns its attention to biology, geology, and climate science to discuss the finely tuned systems that make up our world and are ignored or devalued by neoliberal political and economic policy. Connolly ultimately promotes a marriage of ethics, spirituality, and democratic activism as a remedy to modern crises of ecology and society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The End of Modern Medicine by Laurence Foss

(Also available as an ebook)

Despite its provocative title, this book doesn’t propose that we all stop trusting in scientific approaches to biomedicine. Rather, Foss urges laypeople and medical professionals alike to rethink our modern notions of the separation between empirical science and “softer” or less falsifiable aspects of human life, like culture, psychology, and cognition. Although the book was published in 2003, before the recent emphases on “mindfulness” and “self-care” in American culture, it carries the message that undergirds that movement: our well-being is not only a function of dispassionate physical and chemical processes, but is a holistic result of our bodies, minds, communities, environments, and cultures interacting.

 

 

 

 

Mindful Universe by Henry P. Stapp (second ed.)

We’ve all heard that observation changes the thing that’s observed (and the observer!), but for most of us this adage is usually more at home in the field of anthropology than of physics. Quantum mechanics, however, challenge that preconception. Stapp examines the twentieth-century shift from Newtonian to quantum physics to explain events far outside of the usual scales of human life and interaction. In two chapters new to the second edition, he explores how quantum principles can contribute to discussions of the placebo effect in medicine and to philosophical inquiries about free will. 


Mark O. Hatfield Library Sticker Design Contest

The MOHL invites you to participate in our first annual sticker design contest.  Previously, the library created stickers to hand out to patrons using a design from some time ago.

We are ready to obtain more stickers to share, and would love to have a new design that reflects a student’s view of the library.

If you are a Willamette student who wants to exercise some creativity and would like a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card, please submit as many entries as you like by March 26th.

Further details may be obtained by clicking on this poster.


Faculty Colloquium: Peter Harmer

Please join us on Thursday, February 25, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/96150671636

for our fourth Faculty Colloquium of the semester.

Title: Medicine as political camouflage in Islamic-Israeli sports confrontations: The Federation Internationale d’Escrime – A case study.

Presenter: Peter Harmer, Professor of Exercise and Health Science Peter Harmer

Abstract:  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sports International Federations (IF) are predicated on inclusiveness and have non-discrimination regulations built into their constitutions and by-laws. However, three Islamic countries have used international sports competitions as extensions of their national policy of non-recognition of Israel by prohibiting their athletes from competing against those from Israel. Despite the clear contravention of the regulations of non-discrimination, these countries have effectively utilized exculpatory explanations, particularly medical conditions, to avoid sanctions. Using a basic epidemiological analytical technique, I have developed data from international fencing events that dismantles this defense and provides a foundation for the IOC and IF to hold these countries accountable for violating this important norm of sports competition.

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Faculty Colloquium: Vincent Pham

Please join us on Thursday, February 11, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/99097527632

for our third Faculty Colloquium of the semester.

Title: Community Rhetorics of COVID-19

Presenter: Vincent Pham,  Associate Professor, Department of Civic Communication and Media

Pham

 

Abstract:  The COVID-19 global pandemic has intermeshed itself in our daily lives, (re)shaping our relations with each other and with our institutions. Yet, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,  a search for the origins of the disease is often conducted in order to understand the disease, from where it came, and how the first transmission to humans might have occurred. News coverage, political discourse, and science talk sought to manage uncertainty and allocate blame. While there have been other scapegoats for the origination of a given disease historically and globally, Asians and Asian Americans have become one of the most recognizable objects of blame and derision in United States rhetoric.  In this talk, I examine public discourse in news coverage that construct Asians and Asian Americans as “diseased” themselves and its replication of longstanding tropes about Asians and Asian Americans. I conclude with some future avenues of research related to COVID-19 and its impact on Asian American communities, particularly health workers.

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators

 


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