Faculty Colloquium: Xijuan Zhou

Please join us on Thursday, November 12, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/99528980805

for our fifth Faculty Colloquium of this semester.

Title: Rituals and Beliefs Reflected in Pre-Historic Burials in Xinjiang
Presenter: Xijuan Zhou, Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Xijuan Zhou

Abstract:  In recent years, archeologists in Xinjiang, China, excavated a prehistoric burial site Xiaohe. Rich relics, including well-preserved mummies were found from this site. The present project tries to examine both cultural and textual information from this region and tries to interpret some of the burial practices from this site from the perspectives of early shamanic beliefs and practices.

Come join the discussion!

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


COVID: Experience, Thoughts and Feelings

By Susan Irwin, University Archivist smirwin@willamette.edu

We are living in an unprecedented moment in history. While we are experiencing the pandemic together, each of us is experiencing this pandemic in our own unique way. In line with our charge to collect, preserve and make available records of enduring value relating to Willamette University, the Archives and Special Collections invites you — Willamette students, staff and faculty — to submit original created works that capture your current experiences, thoughts, challenges and feelings.

Hatfield Library’s archivists and librarians will curate these submissions into a digital exhibition, “COVID: Experiences, Thoughts and Feelings.” This project is by and for our community. Eventually, the collection’s accessibility will broaden, so that decades from now, it can be used for exploration and scholarship into the impact of the pandemic on our lives.

Express yourself in a medium that best encapsulates your unique lived experience including sketches, audio recordings of music, videos of dance performances, photographs, poems, stories and essays. Full guidelines and the submission forms are available online.

If you’re not ready for your submission to be shared today, you may add it to a historical collection that won’t be released until 2025. Do not submit works you want to remain private. You retain the right to ask us to remove your submissions in the future.

If you’d like to make an anonymous submission, donate a physical item (e.g. written diary, sketch, etc.), or have other questions, please contact University Archivist Susan Irwin.

Thank you for helping us preserve this moment in history.


National Native American Heritage Month

wooden totem faceNational Native American Heritage Month provides us with a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing heritage and history of Native Americans.  The original inhabitants of America have rich and varied cultures dating back thousands of years. Congress has authorized an annual presidential proclamation that designates November as National American Indian Heritage Month (or National Native American Heritage Month) since 1990.  Let’s take time this month to appreciate and pay tribute to the many achievements and contributions of Native Americans everywhere.  On our WU Reads Reading Guide you will find a selection of wonderful novels written by Native American authors; take some time to explore these great works.

“Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere.”
― Tommy Orange, There There


Faculty Colloquium: Sexual Citizenship and New Conceptions of Sex Ed at Willamette and Beyond

Please join us on Thursday, November 5, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/99851761064

for our fourth Faculty Colloquium of this semester.

Title: Sexual Citizenship and New Conceptions of Sex Ed at Willamette and Beyond
Faculty Presenters: Joyce Millen (Anthropology and Public Health), Omari Weekes (English, African American Studies, and Queer Studies)
Omari WeekesJoyce Millen

Student Presenters: Sophie Bunch (English and PPLE), Lily Clancy (Biochemistry), Claire Johnson (Public Health and Biology), Rose Linville (Environmental Science), Surya Lee (Environmental Science and Public Health), Mo Stein (Archeology)

Abstract:  This special faculty colloquium will be presented by the eight members of the 2020 Liberal Arts Research Collaborative (LARC) devoted to exploring new conceptions of sexual citizenship and collegiate level sex education.

The LARC team worked throughout summer and into fall to explore how Willamette and other colleges and universities in the United States are responding to the needs and demands of their students and the ever changing requirements mandated by federal statute. The presentation will highlight key findings from the research collaboration along with nine recommendations for concrete ways Willamette can improve efforts to prevent sexual assault, enhance interpersonal relations, and promote sexual health.

Come join the discussion!

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Faculty Colloquium: Katherine Skovira

Please join us on Thursday, October 29, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/99828523083

for our third Faculty Colloquium of this semester.

Title: Social Justice, Mindset and Design: Arts and Advocacy
Presenter: Katherine Skovira, Zeller Chair in Opera Studies, Director of Voice Studies, Director of Dramatic Vocal Arts

Katherine Skovira

Abstract:  This event looks at ways we may begin to address current social issues and challenges that lie ahead in the classical contemporary music industry, and looks forward toward advocacy in the upcoming 11/5 Hub New Music performance and a Spring 2021 campus appearance by artist-activist Nicole Paris. Katherine Skovira will detail recent and upcoming projects and key developments in the contemporary classical music industry.

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Autumn Fun

jack-o'-lanternsThe leaves are changing color, the sun is rising later and setting earlier, there is a slight nip in the air–fall is here!  That means it is time to uncover your coziest sweaters, discover your favorite hot beverage at the Bistro, and start thinking about pumpkins!  Or more specifically jack-o’-lanterns, because Halloween is just around the corner.  Did you know one of the earliest meanings of jack-o’lantern didn’t have anything to do with pumpkins but actually referred to a man with a lantern or a nightwatchman?  Want to know more about Halloween?  Check out the interesting selection of Halloween-related print and e-books listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

And here’s to a “bootiful” holiday full of “spooktacular” fun (socially-distanced and safely masked, of course).


Study of Religion at Hatfield: Introducing the Claremont Collection

By Maggie Froelich, Theology Librarian mfroelich@willamette.edu

The affiliation between Willamette University and the Claremont School of Theology continues to move forward, with many CST students, faculty, and staff now located here in Salem.CST at Willamette Logo

The uniting of our two institutions means a sharing of resources, and that’s true in the library, too. Two major benefits to the WU community are a greatly expanded collection of books related to religion, philosophy, ethics, and ministry; and a dedicated Theology Librarian.

The Librarian on Lake Gennesaret, AKA the Sea of Galilee

The Librarian on Lake Gennesaret, AKA the Sea of Galilee

First, let me introduce myself. This summer I joined the library’s Public Services team as the Theology Librarian. I have a PhD in New Testament and Christian Origins, earned at CST. In my academic research I like to read our earliest Christian sources through historical Greco-Roman perspectives. My dissertation analyzed the Gospel of Mark as a response to war and defeat, and lately I’ve been getting really into the ways that the earliest Greek and Roman adherents to Jesus worship might have understood their new devotions. My latest article, “Sacrificed Meat in Corinth and Jesus Worship as a Cult among Cults,” is forthcoming from the Journal of Early Christian History

As a member of the library’s Public Services Division, I officially serve as the liaison librarian to the CST community and will soon begin serving the Religious Studies department, as well. No matter what department you’re in, if you’re interested in ancient Mediterranean history, classical literature, European and Near Eastern polytheism, the Bible, ancient Greek language, any aspect of religious studies, or Netflix’sThe Witcher, I want to talk to you.

But what about the books? As part of CST’s move to Salem, 50,000 volumes from the CST library collection came up here to Hatfield. That collection includes reference works, works by current and past CST faculty, works in Korean, and the collection of the Center for Process Studies, a Claremont faculty institute dedicated to process philosophy and theology. The CST library was southern California’s premier theology library, and the most important books from its collection are now at Willamette, where students, scholars, and ministers can research academic and professional topics in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and more. You can find the Claremont collection on the first floor of the Hatfield library.

I’ll continue to post here in coming months, highlighting some of the distinctive and interesting features of the Claremont collection, and a great place to start is the reference section. Here are some of the unique reference materials now available to the entire Willamette community:

  • The 20-volume Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts contains entries and photographs for important artists, architecture, paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, and styles from all over the Buddhist world.
  • Two editions of the Babylonian Talmud, an 18-volume English translation and a 41-volume Hebrew edition, are invaluable additions to our Jewish studies materials.
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law discusses topics from the early development of Torah to American Supreme Court cases, providing students a foothold in both biblical jurisprudence and issues of religion and state throughout history and across the globe.
  • The second edition of the Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism spans the history of apocalyptic movements from the Hellenistic period to the modern day, covering apocalypticism in Judaism and Christianity, art, and pop culture.

Faculty Colloquium: Melissa Marks

Please join us on Thursday, October 8, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/93049348010

for our second Faculty Colloquium of this semester.

Title: Functional Annotation of TonB Dependent Receptors Involved in Stress Resistance – Results and Reflections from a Cross-Institutional Collaboration

Presenter: Melissa Marks, Associate Professor of Biology

Melissa Marks

Abstract:  Vitamins and minerals are critical for proper functioning of all living organisms. Maintaining the proper balance of minerals, or metal ions, is critical for resistance to stress caused by normal metabolic processes. In Gram negative bacteria, metal transport across the outer membrane is often facilitated by members of a diverse and poorly understood family of surface proteins known as TonB-Dependent Receptors/Transporters (TBDRs). In the aquatic bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, multiple lines of evidence suggest that several predicted, but uncharacterized, TBDRs are important for metal ion homeostasis. In collaboration Lisa Bowers, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Biology, St. Olaf College) and our students, we are in the process of functionally annotating this group of TBDRs by characterizing their substrates, physiological roles, and genetic regulation. In this presentation, I will provide a big picture overview of our scientific endeavors. I’ll also share my reflections on establishing a new cross-institution collaboration and some of the unexpected benefits of doing collaborative science in an undergraduate research environment.

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Faculty Colloquium: Rosa León Zayas

Please join us on Thursday, October 1, at 4:10 p.m. at this URL:

https://willametteuniversity.zoom.us/j/95698064708

for our first Faculty Colloquium of this semester.

Title: Going Deeper: Microbial Diversity and Metabolic Potential in the Marine Deep Biosphere

Presenter: Rosa León Zayas, Assistant Professor of Biology

Rosa Zayas

Abstract:  Exploration of the deep ocean has expanded our understanding of oceanic ecosystems, including continental margins and mid-ocean ridges, and yet still little is known about these deep sites on Earth. Some of the most poorly understood ecosystems are subsurface environments, particularly as it pertains to the distribution of archaea and their associated metabolic abilities. In this presentation, I will share an overview of some of the work I conducted during my junior research leave, which includes the discussion of a recently published analysis of the archaeal community structure and their potential ecological roles, and preliminary results on our most recently NSF funded work on PET Plastic degrading bacteria. Overall, this research seeks to reveal the metabolic potential of novel archaeal lineages, which significantly contributes to our overall understanding of the ecosystem function of subsurface sedimentary environments.Additionally, by studying the metabolic capacity of microorganisms that degrade PET Plastic, we can better understand their mechanisms for degrading one of the largest sources of pollutants, single use plastics, with the ultimate goal of building upon that potential to generate a more efficient degradation process in order to eventually assist with the reduction of this man made environmental pollutant.

Bill Kelm and Kathryn Nyman
Faculty Colloquium Coordinators


Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Image of Frida KahloNational Hispanic Heritage Month originally began as Hispanic Heritage Week back in 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued an official proclamation designating the week.  In 1989, President George W. Bush issued the first proclamation to change the week celebration to a month celebration and thus National Hispanic Heritage Month was born.  It begins September 15, the anniversary of independence of several Latin American countries, and runs through October 15.  This annual celebration gives us a chance to pay tribute to the many ways the Hispanic and Latinx communities have positively influenced and enriched our nation.

As President Barack Obama stated so eloquently in his 2015 proclamation, “During National Hispanic Heritage Month, let us renew our commitment to honoring the invaluable ways Hispanics contribute to our common goals, to celebrating Hispanic culture, and to working toward a stronger, more inclusive, and more prosperous society for all.”

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, check out the diverse selection of print and e-books listed on our WU Reads Reading Guide.

Visit the following websites for more information:

https://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/hispanic-heritage-month.htm

https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/hispanic-heritage-month

 


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