PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 28, No. 8, Oct. 16, 2008

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brief notes

Japan House celebrates 10th anniversary

Japan House will celebrate its 10th anniversary at its present location, 2000 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, with a series of events beginning Oct. 22, highlighted by a performance of “Hidden Beauty: Yugen in Tea, Noh, and Contemporary Washi Art” at 2 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The performance will explore some of the key aesthetic traditions of Japanese art through three different art forms: a traditional Japanese tea ceremony; Noh theater, a form of Japanese musical drama that dates to the 14th century, with renowned master Akira Matsui and his troupe of performers; and contemporary “washi” artwork (literally, “Japanese paper”) by Japanese artist Kyoko Ibe.

Shozo Sato, professor emeritus of art and design and the founding director of Japan House, will give a brief introduction to the Noh performances.

Affiliated with the UI’s College of Fine and Applied Arts, Japan House is an educational facility that fosters the study of Japanese arts and culture through courses, seminars, community outreach programs and visiting artist programs. The 3,120-square-foot facility opened in June 1998 and houses three tea rooms, two of which were donated by the Urasenke tea school in Kyoto.

“It’s hard to imagine that it was 10 years ago that this unique facility opened its doors and the gardens were planted,” said Kimiko Gunji, the director of Japan House. “We look forward to sharing this celebration with the campus community as it’s our belief that learning about another culture encourages appreciation and respect for all cultures – the key to peace throughout our world.”

Other activities planned during the celebration include a workshop with a kokoro calligraphy artist on Oct. 22; a reception for Tomonokai (Friends of Japan House) members on Oct. 24; a traditional Japanese tea ceremony on Oct. 25; and a demonstration of the ancient folk art of “amezaiku,” a method of sculpting hot taffy-like candy into animal shapes on Oct. 26.

More information about the anniversary celebration is available online or by calling 244-9934.

2009 CAPE Award

AcPro nominations due Nov. 7

Nominations for the 2009 Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence Award are due by 5 p.m. Nov. 7. The award, given annually to six academic professional employees, recognizes the importance of contributions made by these employees.

Additional information, including eligibility requirements and nomination forms, is online at www.ahr.uiuc.edu/CAPE/index.htm.

Lincoln Presidential Library Museum

Mobile exhibit on display Oct. 18-25

As part of the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebration, the mobile museum exhibit “Abraham Lincoln: Self Made in America” will be on the UI campus Oct. 18-25.

The traveling exhibit, sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum in Springfield, tells the story of Lincoln’s life. It features interactive displays and reproduction documents and artifacts. Highlights of the exhibit include a holographic presentation of Lincoln’s 1861 farewell address as he left Springfield for the White House and the video “The Civil War in Four Minutes.”

The exhibit schedule:

   •  Assembly Hall (truck parking area along Fourth Street): 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 18; noon-6 p.m. Oct. 19;

    • Undergraduate Library circular drive: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 21 and 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 22;

    • Assembly Hall (northwest lot at First and Kirby avenues): 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 23; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25.

Approved event

Staff Employee Expo will be Oct. 21

Staff employees are invited to the annual Staff Employee Expo, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 21 in Illini Rooms A, B and C, Illini Union.

Representatives from campus and affiliated organizations will distribute information and answer questions pertaining to civil service employees. Door prizes and gifts will be given away. You need not be present to win, but you must attend to enter your name in the drawings.  The event has been designated as an approved event; employees may be released from work to attend the Expo for up to one hour without loss of pay, departmental operations permitting and with appropriate supervisory approval.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival

2009 festival passes available Nov. 1

Festival passes will go on sale Nov. 1 for the 11th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, to be April 22-26 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign and on the UI campus.

As usual, the festival will feature films selected by Ebert that he believes have been overlooked by audiences, critics or distributors.

The passes, which cover all 12 screenings during the five-day event, are $125. They can be purchased through the theater box office (356-9063) or through TicketWeb by way of the festival Web site at www.ebertfest.com.

Tickets for individual movies will be available April 6. Admission is $12 ($10 for students and seniors).

Over the last two years, the 1,000 festival passes available for each Ebertfest have sold out within weeks, according to Mary Susan Britt, the festival’s associate director. The same number of passes will be available this year.

Ebert, a 1964 Illinois journalism graduate, adjunct professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will again host the event.

The lineup of films, along with additional information on guests and other festival events, will be announced several weeks before the festival. Updates on the festival, an event of Illinois’ College of Media, will be posted on the festival Web site.

Sponsors and volunteers for the festival are being sought. Those interested should get in touch with Britt at 244-0552, or by e-mail at marsue@illinois.edu.

School of Art and Design

Lectures look at why design matters

The UI School of Art and Design is hosting Designmatters2, the second year of an annual series of campuswide lectures exploring the confluence of design, technology, business and society.

The series, which began Oct. 7, will feature speakers from academia, media, engineering, technology, business, and design. Designmatters was created to inspire the imaginations of the designers, engineers and entrepreneurs of the future, according to David Weightman, a professor of industrial design in the School of Art and Design.

The series is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the College of Engineering, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the School of Architecture, the department of computer science, the Illinois Informatics Initiative, the Technology Entrepreneur Center, the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and the American Institute of Architects.

The lectures will last about an hour, including a brief question-and-answer session at the end. All events are free and open to the public, but early arrival is suggested because seating is limited.

A full schedule of upcoming events and videos of previous speakers is available at the Designmatters Web site: http://designmatters.art.uiuc.edu.

The upcoming schedule:

    •  Oct. 28: “Sociable Design,” Donald Norman, the Breed Professor of Design, Northwestern University, 5:30 p.m., Illini Rooms B and C, Illini Union.

    •  Nov. 3: “Design for Life: When Sustainability is a Matter of Survival,” Cameron Sinclair, co-founder, Architecture for Humanity, 6 p.m. (welcome reception at 5:30 p.m.), ballroom, Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

    •  Nov. 4: “The Creativity Imperative: The Technology Professional of the Future,” David Goldberg, professor of engineering, UI, 5 p.m., 2405 Siebel Center for Computer Science.

Boardman’s Art Theatre

French film festival is Oct. 31-Nov. 6

The UI, in cooperation with Parkland College and Boardman’s Art Theatre, will present the fourth Tournées French Film Festival, to be held at Boardman’s Art Theatre, 126 W. Church St., Champaign, Oct. 31 through Nov. 6.

The festival is open to the public. More information about the films, including titles, dates, and show times will be available at the festival’s Web site, http://filmfestival.french.uiuc.edu, or contact Boardman’s Art Theatre at 355-0068.

This year’s movies include “Blame it on Fidel” (2006); “The Last Mistress” (2007);  “Dry Season” (2006); “Dans Paris” (2006); “Her Name is Sabine” (2008); and two children’s classics made in 1953 by Albert Lamorisse: “The Red Balloon” and “White Mane.”

All films will be shown in French, with English subtitles, except the children’s movies, which have an English language voice-over.

Additionally, the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities will host a panel discussion, “Her Name is Sabine: Documentary Film Making and the Ethics of Institutions,” at noon on Nov. 3 in the Humanities Lecture Hall of the IPRH building. The discussion is free and open to the public.

“We’re honored to have been selected again from applicants from all over the U.S. to receive a Tournées grant for culture,” said festival organizer Margaret Flinn, a professor of French and of cinema studies at the UI.  “We’re also looking forward to repeating last year’s success, with the fantastic collaboration of our many co-sponsors,” she said. 

Co-sponsors this year are Parkland College; the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; the UI department of French; the UI School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics; the “Journal of Contemporary French Civilization”; the UI department of comparative and world literatures; the UI European Union Center; and the UI Unit for Cinema Studies.

The festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture. The Tournées Festival is an annual grant program designed to support the screening of contemporary French cinema on American university and college campuses.

UI Foundation

Business meeting to be webcast

The UI Foundation will webcast its business meeting live from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 17. The meeting is part of the 73rd Foundation Annual Meeting and Foundation Weekend.

Included will be news about the university’s Brilliant Futures Campaign and details on many new gift announcements. In addition, it will feature key accomplishments and news from the campuses at Urbana, Chicago and Springfield during a 2008 Year-in-Review video.

Although the webcast can be accessed at any time during the business meeting, it is recommended that viewers plan to access the webcast site, www.uif.uillinois.edu/AnnualMeeting2008, about 10 to 15 minutes prior to the event start. For assistance, visit www.illinois.edu/goto/uif_help.

GSLIS

A look at bridging the ‘digital divide’

The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the UI is hosting a series of lectures on Wednesday evenings through Nov. 12 about bridging the digital divide in communities, education, libraries and public policy.

“Our lecture series will bring the hands-on experts in policy planning and implementation regarding the issues of the digital divide right here to our local community,” said Abdul Alkalimat, a professor of library and information science and of African-American studies at Illinois.

The term “digital divide” refers to the haves and have-nots of the modern information economy: the gap between those who have access to information technology (that is, computers, data networks) and those who don’t.

“We have a digital divide problem in virtually every society in the world, and it is important that all of us understand this issue, especially students at GSLIS,” Alkalimat said.

The lectures will have a focus on community informatics, an academic discipline that studies the uses of information technology for personal, social, cultural and economic development within communities.

All of the lectures, which began Oct. 1, are free and open to the public, and will begin at 6 p.m. at the Library and Information Science Building.

Remaining lectures:

    •  Oct. 22: “Computing in the Champaign School System,” Roger Grinnip, director of information and instructional technology, Champaign Public Schools.

    •  Oct. 29: “The Digital Divide at Illinois,” David Ruby, manager of Computer Labs, Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services, UI.

    •  Nov. 5: “Making and Implementing City Policy,” Fred Halenar, information technology officer, city of Champaign.

    •  Nov. 12: “Broadband Access for Illinois,” Ryan Croke, policy adviser, office of the lieutenant governor, state of Illinois.

Allerton Park and Retreat Center

Stories of Poe featured Nov. 5

The timeless and often haunting stories of Edgar Allan Poe will be featured amid the grandeur of the Allerton mansion during “An Evening With Poe … at Allerton” from 7-9:30 p.m. Nov. 5.

Master storyteller and ghost story aficionado Dan Keding will narrate. A selection of wines will be available for purchase. Candlelight tours of the mansion will follow the readings. Doors open at 6:45. Cost is $20 per person with reservations recommended. For more information or to make a reservation, call 333-3287.

Landscape architecture

Design charrette will be Oct. 21-24

In celebration of its centennial this year, the UI department of landscape architecture has invited some of its most distinguished alumni to return to campus to lead students in a design charrette, which will take place Oct. 21-24.

The charrette – a design-planning meeting involving students, faculty members, design professionals, and campus and community stakeholders – will focus on the Windsor Road corridor connecting Champaign and Urbana to the campus. The UI currently controls all property adjacent to Windsor Road from Neil Street in Champaign east to Race Street in Urbana.

The students’ designs will be presented at 2 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Temple Buell Gallery in the Architecture Building. The public is welcome to attend.

“This is a visionary process in which designers will be looking at the potential for what the corridor might be,” said interim department head Gary Kesler.

The work produced through the project will showcase the abilities of landscape architecture students and professionals on campus and is expected to generate considerable interest and support for a predominantly “green” approach to developing the corridor, with the prospect of additional professional design services to follow.

Kesler said participants will consider a number of potential design options that would position the area surrounding the roadway as “an outstanding southern entry to the campus at the University Research Park,” and “a green ecological design corridor from Neil Street through the Research Park-South Farms interface to the University Arboretum.” Student designs also would include the addition of a university sculpture park that extends the philosophy and benefits of Urbana’s Meadowbrook Park.

During the charrette, students will be organized into six to eight teams led by the department’s alumni designers.

Webcast

Measuring your return on investment

Higher education marketing professionals are under a great deal of pressure to prove the effectiveness of their marketing and branding initiatives. To ensure continued funding, marketing offices must measure return on investment and communicate success to the right people. This takes time, energy, and an understanding of marketing methodologies – all of which can be difficult to come by.

“The Measuring the ROI of Integrated Marketing and Branding Initiatives” webcast will provide a step-by-step primer on how to measure the return on investment for integrated marketing and branding initiatives. The webcast, sponsored by Public Affairs, will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. Dec. 4 in 1214 Siebel Center. The event is free, but registration is required. To register, go to http://Illinois.edu/goto/roi. 

The speaker will be Elizabeth Scarborough, president and partner of SimpsonScarborough and a nationally recognized expert in the use of research to drive marketing, branding, recruitment and retention efforts.

The webcast is designed for marketing and communications professionals who want to more effectively measure the ROI (return on investment) of their integrated marketing and branding campaigns.

For more information, contact Bridget Jamieson, bmj@illinois.edu or 333-5010.

I space

Japanese architect featured

The first comprehensive U.S. exhibition of the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma will be exhibited through Nov. 15 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI’s Urbana campus.

“Material Immaterial: The Architecture of Kengo Kuma” will feature photographic displays, full-scale artifacts, a multimedia presentation and a small tea pavilion design by Kuma, who is considered to be among the world’s leading contemporary architects. The exhibition is curated by Kevin Erickson, a professor of architecture at Illinois.

During the past academic year, Kuma frequently visited the Illinois campus to work with students and faculty members as the 2007-2008 Plym Distinguished Professor in the university’s School of Architecture.

Botond Bognar, an architectural scholar at the UI who has studied and written extensively about Kuma’s designs, writes that his work is characterized by “a delicate simplicity and minimalism, incorporating a wide range of transparencies and other ephemeral qualities.

“With the ineffable vibrancy of his buildings, Kuma aims at creating architecture as an ‘anti-object.’

“By virtue of using a broad range of materials, relying on new, sophisticated and efficient technologies, natural and artificial lighting, his sensitivity to site, and paying close attention to the ecological and prevailing social context, his projects recognize both Japanese traditions and contemporary modes of design on an exceedingly high artistic level.”

A catalog featuring Kuma’s work accompanies the exhibition, and is available by contacting the architecture school at 333-1330.

The I space gallery, 230 W. Superior St., Chicago, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Latin America’

Author Naomi Klein to speak Oct. 29

Author and syndicated columnist Naomi Klein will speak Oct. 29 on the UI campus, on the topic “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Latin America.”

Klein’s talk, based on her similarly titled 2007 book, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Smith Memorial Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

In her talk, Klein will lay out her view of how Latin America became a laboratory for neoliberal economic ideas such as those championed by Milton Friedman and his “Chicago Boys,” starting with the Pinochet regime in Chile. She will argue that military coups and neoliberal ideologues in the region guided the path for the imposition of a new economic model.

Klein, a columnist for The Nation and The Guardian, is also the author of “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.”

Also as part of her visit to the campus, Klein is scheduled as a guest on the WILL-AM show “Focus 580,” at 10 a.m. Oct. 30, and will sign books at noon in the Author’s Corner of the Illini Union Bookstore.

At 2 p.m., she will participate in a roundtable discussion on social movements and protests in Latin America, held in Room 210 of the Illini Union. Also on the panel will be Fernando Coronil, a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Michigan, and Andrew Orta, a professor of anthropology at Illinois.

Additional information can be found on the Web site for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (www.clacs.uiuc.edu), which is hosting Klein’s visit, or by calling Angelina Cotler at 333-8419.

‘Translating the Middle Ages’

Medievalists featured at conference

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin and three-term U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky will visit the UI campus Oct. 28 in conjunction with the conference “Translating the Middle Ages.”

The conference, free and open to the public, will take place Oct. 28-29 in Room 210 of the Illini Union. Sponsored by the UI’s Program in Medieval Studies and the Center for Translation Studies, the conference will feature medievalists from throughout North America and Europe.

“This event is distinctive in that it invites medievalists and modernists, scholars and artists to engage in creative dialogue that will draw the interest of both the campus and the broader community,” said organizer Karen Fresco, the director of the Program in Medieval Studies at the UI. “It will showcase the new Center for Translation Studies and the interdisciplinary work that is the hallmark of Medieval Studies.”

Also distinctive will be a pre-conference “Dante Marathon” on Oct. 23. The event, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. just outside the Foreign Languages Building, will feature a collective public reading of “Inferno,” the first canticle of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.” In case of rain, the marathon will be moved inside to the Lucy Ellis Lounge.

Event organizer Eleonora Stoppino, a UI professor of Italian who teaches a course on “Divine Comedy,” said students, faculty members and community members will take turns reading – in several different languages – the 34 cantos that make up “Inferno.”

Participants in the “Translating the Middle Ages” conference will include medievalists who work in various disciplines – from literature and language to history and art history – and in national traditions from Scandinavia to Greece, focusing on the movement among vernacular languages Arab and Latin.

Twenty-two distinguished scholars are scheduled to read original papers during the conference. According to Fresco, several of the participants have “helped shape the field of medieval translation studies, are making transformative interventions in the field, and are conducting innovative research.” Among the scholars presenting at the conference, four have translated or are preparing translations of medieval texts, and two are contributors to the Worldwide Universities Network collaborative project “Multilingualism in the Middle Ages.” This project’s aim is to further research into the cultural consequences and manifestations of multilingualism in the medieval west.

Merwin and Pinsky will read from and discuss their translations of “Divine Comedy” during a CultureTalk event at the Colwell Playhouse in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28. The conversation will be moderated by author Richard Powers, the Swanlund Chair in English at Illinois. He won a National Book Award in 2006.

Tickets for the CultureTalk event are free but are no longer available. Persons interested in attending may submit a request to Krannert Center’s online wait list, http://www2.kcpa.uiuc.edu/tickets/waitinglist.lasso. To inquire about ticket availability, call the arts center at 333-6280. Patrons who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech-impaired may also obtain tickets by TTY at 333-9714.

An exhibit of Merwin’s papers titled “Multiple Merwins: Poet, Translator and Environmental Activist” is on view in Room 346 of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The poet will make informal remarks at a free reception in there from 1-2 p.m. Oct. 28. The event is open to the public.

Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program

Building children’s health is featured

Barbara H. Fiese, The Pampered Chef Ltd. Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and director of the UI’s Family Resiliency Center in the department of human and community development at Illinois, will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum. Her lecture, “Eat.  Sleep.  Breathe:  Discovering Everyday Opportunities to Build Children’s Health,” is part of the Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program lecture series. The talk is free and open to the public.

Fiese also holds affiliated appointments in the departments of psychology and pediatrics. Her research focuses on family-level factors that promote health and well-being in children at risk because of physical illness and/or poor child-raising conditions She also examines how family rituals may promote medical adherence and reduce anxiety in children with chronic illnesses and tracks how changes in child and parent stories about family events are related to child and family adjustment.  Her latest book, “Family Routines and Rituals,” was published in 2006 by Yale University Press.

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