PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 16, March 2, 2006

brief notes

Spurlock Museum
Exhibition features ‘Rain Forest Visions’
The opening celebration of the exhibit “Rain Forest Visions” will be from noon to 4 p.m. March 12 at the Spurlock Museum. At 2 p.m., there will be a short talk by curator Norman Whitten. “Rain Forest Visions” contains pieces from the Central and South American tropical rain forests.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Jonathan Hill of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale will talk at 2 p.m. April 8 in the Knight Auditorium on  “Soundscaping the World: The Cultural Poetics of Power and Meaning in Wakuénai Flute Music.”
“Rain Forest Visions” is co-curated by Dorothea S. Whitten and co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies through the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI Program and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. For more information about the museum, visit www.spurlock.uiuc.edu.

Spurlock Museum
Program offers activities for students
The “Culture Contact-Urbana” program will offer stories, games and crafts March 10 at the Spurlock Museum while Urbana schools are closed. There are two sessions: 9 to 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The program is open to kindergarten through sixth-grade students and their parents. The cost is $2 per child; children must be accompanied by an adult.  To register or to receive further information, contact Kim Sheahan at 244-3355 or ksheahan@illinois.edu. 

Crawford Audio Archives
Events celebrate audio gift to library
Bob Crawford, a Chicago political reporter and journalist, will visit campus March 9 to celebrate his gift of more than 58 hours of historic audiotape to the UI Library. The symposium will be from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. in Room 100 of Gregory Hall and the reception will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Marshall Gallery.

For more than four decades, Crawford covered Chicago politics at CBS radio affiliate WBBM-AM. Renowned for his reporting, Crawford received numerous awards; in 1995 he was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame. He retired in 2001 but continues to provide political analysis on WBBM-AM, Chicago Public Radio, and the WTTW-Channel 11 program “Chicago Tonight.” The Crawford Audio Archives serve as a resource for historians, journalists, political scientists, researchers and students.

The University Library is asking those wishing to attend to reply by March 7 to 333-5683 or ddiel@illinois.edu.

WILL-TV
Program features Irish dance, music
“Celticpalooza: Irish Music at Mike ’n’ Molly’s,” an hour-long program featuring Irish dancers and Celtic bands from around Central Illinois, will be broadcast at 7 p.m. March 15 on WILL-TV.

Exorna from Springfield; Bloomsday from Bloomington; Spiral Seisiun, with artists from around Central Illinois; and Lisa Boucher and Dean Karres from Champaign-Urbana perform Celtic favorites and standards.

The program, taped outdoors in May at Mike ’n’ Molly’s in Champaign, also includes some Irish storytelling. “Everybody at the taping – the audience, crew and musicians – had a lot of fun,” said WILL-TV producer Tim Hartin.  “People sang along, and anyone who wanted to got up and told a Celtic story. We think that playful spirit will be evident to people watching at home on television.”

Irish dancers in the program include Leila Ramagopal, Emmanuelle Egira, Emily Coles and Kimberley Redeker.

Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees
Nominations due April 1
The Senate Committee on Honorary Degrees is inviting nominations for the May 2007 honorary degree awards. The committee requests that nominations and supporting materials be submitted by April 1. The main consideration should be distinction. The person should have made a distinguished contribution to knowledge and creativity in the relevant field of endeavor and have shown sustained activity of uncommon merit.

Current administrators, faculty and staff members of UI are not eligible, but emeriti are eligible even if engaged in teaching or research at UI. Potential candidates should not be contacted and only persons not affiliated with UI can be used for references.

A nomination form is available at www.senate.uiuc.edu/hd_form.html. For more information, contact the Senate Office at 333-6805 or Mary Mallory, committee chair, at 244-4621.

WILL-TV
Dixieland and country music featured
During WILL-TV’s “Festival” this month, Medicare 7, 8 or 9 performs aboard a Dixie showboat and three country bands – the Red Willow Band, Jump ’N the Saddle Band, and Pork and the Havana Ducks – headline favorite “Country Music Hall” episodes.

“The Dixie Showboat” with Dan Perrino will be broadcast at 8 p.m. March 2 and repeat at 7 p.m. March 8. Performing on a set designed to resemble the deck of a Mississippi showboat, Medicare 7, 8, or 9 is featured in a show taped in 1984. Father and son trumpeters Gregg and Jeff Helgesen perform as well as 81-year-old banjo player Earle Roberts.

“Country Music Hall,” WILL’s 1980-81 local production, will be broadcast at 8:20 p.m. March 7, repeating the popular 1980 episode featuring Pork and the Havana Ducks. That episode will be followed by two more episodes not seen since their original broadcast featuring Jump ’N the Saddle Band – once called the best country band in the Chicago area by the Chicago Tribune – and the Red Willow Band, considered one of the most promising up-and-coming bands in the Midwest at the time the show was taped.

Civil Service Employees and Dependents
Scholarship applications due April 3
Applications for the Civil Service Employees and Dependent Scholarships are due April 3. Approximately eight scholarships are awarded each year to qualified individuals pursuing degrees of higher education at an accredited college or university. Typically, recipients are selected the second week in May and an award ceremony is held in mid-June.

Applications are available online at www.pso.uiuc.edu and printed copies are available at the Personnel Services Office, Facilities and Services and the Benefits Center.

WILL-TV
Vote for your favorite Britcom
WILL-TV invites viewers to participate in the seventh annual Great Britcom Vote at 7 p.m. March 4. Viewers will have the opportunity to sample five British comedies and call in to vote for one of the shows that program director David Thiel is considering for the WILL-TV line-up.

The evening’s schedule: “Waiting for God” (7 p.m.), “Two Point Four Children” ( 7:40 p.m.), “The Office” (8:20 p.m.), “Absolute Power” (9 p.m.) and “The Vicar of Dibley” (9:40 p.m.)  For more information about the programs, go to www.will.uiuc.edu.

“Next of Kin” was last year’s winner.

Ann F. Baum Memorial Elder Law Lecture
Elder abuse legislation discussed
The Ann F. Baum Memorial Elder Law Lecture will be at 12:30 p.m. March 6 in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium at the UI College of Law. Laura Watts, program director of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, will address “Parallel Systems, Second-Class Citizens: The Failure of Elder Abuse Legislation.”

Watts will examine whether elder abuse legislation actually makes older people more vulnerable. The lecture will focus on criminal code provisions, as well as fiduciary laws and their enforcement mechanisms in Canada and the United States.

A reception will follow the lecture in the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Pavilion.

UI Library
Book-collecting contest announced
To foster the love of books and introduce students to the pleasures of book collecting, the UI Rare Book and Manuscript Library has established an annual book-collecting contest.

Collectors will be required to provide statements describing their collection, a brief annotated bibliographic list of the collection as well as a list of 10 titles the contestant would like to add to the collection, with a statement of the reason for adding each item.

The competition is co-sponsored by the UI Library and the new book collectors’ club, The No. 44 Society. It includes separate judging  and prizes for undergraduate (Harris Fletcher Book Collecting Award) and graduate collections (T.W. Baldwin Prize for Book Collecting). The submission deadline is April 3.

Faculty members are encouraged to direct their students to the contest. Prizes will be awarded and each contestant receives
a student membership in the Friends of the UI Library.

The annual contest will be during the spring semester and is open to all registered undergraduate and graduate students at UI. For more information, contact the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at 333-3777 or visit www.library.uiuc.edu/rbx.

Women’s and gender history
Symposium to focus on ‘mobility’
The seventh annual Graduate Symposium on Women’s and Gender History will take place March 9-11 at the UI.

Most sessions of the event, which is free and open to the public, will be in the Illini Union. The symposium, sponsored by Illinois’ history department, constitutes one of the campus’s major events in recognition of national Women’s History Month, observed each March.

Scholars from 28 institutions will present papers on the theme of mobility.

According to the symposium’s executive committee, the event is the only history symposium organized by graduate students that is dedicated solely to women’s and gender history. Adding to the luster of the event are its ties to the Journal of Women’s History, which is based at Illinois.

Jennifer Morgan, a professor of history and women’s and gender studies at Rutgers University, will give the keynote talk on “Accounting for Women in Slavery: Demography and Epistemology in Early African American History” at 7:30 p.m. March 9 in Room 170.

A lunch seminar at noon on March 10 in Room 406 will feature Afsaneh Najmabadi, professor of history and of women’s studies at Harvard University; her topic is “Sexing Gender, Transing Homos: Travail of Sexuality in Contemporary Iran.”

At 3 p.m. on March 11 in Room 405, the editorial team of the Journal of Women’s History will conduct a roundtable discussion on “Demystifying the Journal Article.” Editors are Jean Allman, history and African studies; Marilyn Booth, comparative and world literature; Antoinette Burton, chair of the history department; and Jennifer Edwards, and Rebecca McNulty Schreiber, history graduate students.

Many UI units are co-sponsoring the event, including the Center for Advanced Study, the History Graduate Students Association and the Spurlock Museum.


Engineering Open House
Explore engineering marvels March 10-11
Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, “robot wars,” and more than 160 fun-filled exhibits await visitors to the 86th annual Engineering Open House at the UI.

“We are expecting well over 10,000 visitors, who will experience the myriad of engineering marvels and mysteries in this ever-changing world – a world ‘Beyond Imagination‚’ ” said Doug Johnson, director of the 2006 Engineering Open House at the UI.

“This is a chance for the engineers here to show off what they do during their spare time,” Johnson said. EOH is a great forum for teaching a broad variety of audiences about how engineering affects their lives.”

The event, organized by students in the Engineering Council at Illinois, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 10 and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 11. 

All events are free and open to the public. Visitor guides containing a campus map and descriptions of the activities and exhibits will be available at the open house headquarters booth in the Digital Computing Lab.

Food and entertainment will be located in “Area 51” at the south end of the Bardeen Engineering Quad. Student-led tours, highlighting some of the most exciting exhibits and lasting approximately 30 minutes, also will leave from Area 51.


UI Library
Project reduces textbook expenses
The University Library and Illini Union Bookstore are in the second phase of an innovative pilot project that gives students access to required textbooks for core courses. The Textbook Reserve Project places a broad selection of books on reserve in the Undergraduate Library, allowing students to share resources and reduce expenses.

The project was financed by the Library and IUB with matching funds from the Office of the Provost. As costs rise, the average student easily can spend more than $1,000 per year to buy required textbooks for courses. “We’re continually looking for new ways to improve access to materials,” said  Mary Laskowski, media and reserve librarian. “This collaborative project benefits students by providing new alternative ways to fill their course-related needs.”

Faculty members are encouraged to help inform students of the program. The textbooks selected for the project reflect a range of departments and course levels. They are available at the Media and Reserve Center on the first floor of the Undergraduate Library. Students must present a valid I-card to check out the materials for on-site use.

Since the project began in fall 2005, more than 150 items were circulated and student and faculty feedback has been very positive. This spring, an expanded selection of 1,600 textbooks is available: 600 through the shared-cost program with IUB plus 1,000 owned by the library. This number compares with a total of 285 available items offered last semester. According to Laskowski, the increase in available materials is possible due to a computerized selection program comparing the library’s holdings to the list of required texts provided by IUB.

If resources allow, the library hopes to continue and expand the project in the future. For more information, contact the Media and Reserve Center at 333-2667 or visit www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/mrc/mrc.html.

Child Development Laboaratory
Sign up for child care for ’06-07
The Child Development Laboratory, located at 1105 W. Nevada and 1005 W. Nevada, is accepting applications for the 2006-2007 school year.  Half-day preschool programs for 2-, 3-, and 4-year old children meet Tuesday through Friday for three hours a day during the regular academic year.  Full-day child-care programs for children from 6 weeks to  4 years are in session Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. year-round. 

Orientation tours of both facilities are offered weekly.  Hour-long tours depart from the lobby of the Early Child Development Lab facility Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. and on Thursdays at 9:30 a.m.

To complete an online enrollment application, go to www.cdl.uiuc.edu.  For additional information or to set up a tour, call 244-8622.

Application screening for the half-day programs will be April 1 and application screening for full-day classrooms will be May 1.

Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society
Symposium looks at race, gender, space
Has the recent string of natural catastrophes shaken our sense of individual and communal identity as Americans?  How has it challenged our democratic ideals and narratives of universal justice, given the different ways we appeared to value different lives and to perceive the suffering of others?

Confronting those questions and others will be the goal of a symposium March 15-16 on the UI campus, “Imagining Bodies: Visions of the Nation through Race, Gender and Space,” sponsored by the Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society.

The symposium, free and open to the public, will open on March 15 at 4:30 p.m. with a keynote lecture by Madhu Dubey, a professor of English and African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The lecture, titled “Race Critique in an Age of Simulation,” will be in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum, with a reception following.

The next day’s program will begin at 9:15 a.m. in Room 407 of the Levis Faculty Center. After morning and afternoon sessions, the conference will conclude at 3:30 p.m. with a roundtable discussion on emergent themes, followed at 4:30 p.m. with a reception. Those presenting will make their papers available ahead of time.

Those who wish to have lunch reserved for them on March 16 should e-mail Susan King, and those who wish to have the papers in advance should e-mail Maurice Stevens . Additional information is available on the CDMS Web site.

Andrei Codrescu Collection
Author visit celebrates gift to campus
Andrei Codrescu, a social critic and radio commentator, is coming to the UI March 2 to open and celebrate the Andrei Codrescu Collection.

A prolific poet, novelist and essayist, Codrescu gave his collection of hundreds of Romanian books, periodicals and other materials – many of them rare – to the University Library last year. It will be his first visit to the collection since he made the donation.

Codrescu will be involved in several activities while on campus March 2:

• Interview at 11 a.m. on “Focus 580,” broadcast on WILL-AM (580).
• A free, public symposium on “Romania: Contemporary Reflections Featuring Andrei Codrescu,” 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. in 100 Gregory Hall. Other participants in the free, public event, all from Illinois: Donna Buchanan, director of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center; Paula Kaufman, university librarian; and Miranda Remnek, head of the Slavic and East European Library, which acquired the collection.
  
• Reception, book signing and exhibit of Codrescu Collection materials, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Marshall Gallery, east foyer of the Main Library. Performance by the UI Balkanalia Music Ensemble, directed by Buchanan. The event is free and open to the public.
  

Codrescu has added to the UI collection since his original gift; some of the additional materials have gone to his Romanian-language collection, others to a small archive of items by and about him.

The latter he describes as a private archive of work published in magazines and newspapers since 1989.

The archive includes essays “by me and about me, as well as my poetry and fiction,” Codrescu told Remnek, coordinator of the Codrescu Collection in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Although most of the 660 items Codrescu originally donated are in Romanian, his native language, the collection also includes books in English and other languages, including some of the author’s own writings.

Most of the publications were written since the fall of dictatorship in Romania in 1989, and many were produced by small publishing houses. Nearly half are rare, not documented anywhere else in the United States, Remnek said, adding that
Codrescu gave his collection to Illinois because he “recognized it as an institution of strength” in Slavic materials following a visit to the campus in 2004.

Codrescu is the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University. The winner of numerous literary awards, he was born in 1946 in Sibiu, a small town in the Transylvania region of Romania. He immigrated to the United States in 1966 and became a U.S. citizen in 1981.

For more information about the Codrescu Collection, including information about Romanian authors in the collection, visit www.library.uiuc.edu/spx/codrescu/.

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