Tag Archive for 'lectures'

“How to Be Mexican” lecture 10/12

What does it mean to be a Mexican today? Alma Guillermoprieto, award–winning journalist born in Mexico, will speak on “How to Be Mexican” on Mon., Oct. 12, at 7 pm in Young Auditorium. This is the first 2009/2010 Contemporary Issues lecture.

“Alma Guillermoprieto is considered an authority on the cultural and political life of Mexico and South America, especially as they relate to the United States. For the last thirty years, she has traced the history of Latin America incorporating her personal experiences.” She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, won the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting in 2000, and she is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Heart that Bleeds coverThree of her books are available in Andersen Library:

If Andersen Library’s copies are checked out, UWW students and staff may borrow titles from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested titles arrive in 2-4 weekdays.

Alma Guillermoprieto also writes frequently for publications such as the New Yorker and National Geographic. Search article databases such as Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) for au Guillermoprieto to find her articles, including “Days of the dead” (New Yorker, 11/10/2008, pp. 44-51) on the violence of the illegal drug trade in Mexico and its social repercussions.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

Nat’l Alcohol Awareness Week @UWW

UWW will observe National Alcohol Awareness Week with several events:

  • Mon., Oct. 5, 6:45 pm: The “Day of Dialogue” program will include stories from students, faculty & staff about alcohol and other drug experiences. Thomas Farley, brother of the late comedian Chris Farley, will speak at 7 pm about his brother’s struggles with addiction. (Hamilton Center, James R. Connor University Center)
  • Tues., Oct. 6, 6:30 pm: Former UW-Whitewater prof. Dan Sable’s video presentation will chronicle his wife’s battle with alcoholism. Sable lost both his wife and son to alcohol-related circumstances. (Room 1303, Hyland Hall)
  • Wed., Oct. 7, 8 pm: Party without drinking–root beer pong, simulated sobriety testing through UW-Whitewater Police Services, a pouring station to illustrate the amount of alcohol in one serving, and musical guest De La Buena. (Down Under, James R. Connor University Center)

College Drinking book coverInterested in research about alcoholism? Andersen Library has materials. Searching HALCat (Andersen Library’s catalog) could find titles on various aspects of alcohol and alcoholism, such as College drinking: reframing a social problem (3rd-floor Main Collection, HV5135 .D69 2009) which explores why students binge drink, what are links to campus crime and sexual assault, and what are effective prevention programs and countermeasures. Another title that could be found is Secondary effects of heavy drinking on campus, an online government publication from the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. A search of the Library’s article databases will find many articles as well.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

“Right to Read” lecture, 9/29, 7 p.m.

As part of the Library’s Banned Books Week events, Carin Bringelson will speak on “40+ Years of the Right to Read” at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29, on the Library’s Main Floor. Ms. Bringelson works for TeachingBooks.net and is the Director of Friends of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at UW-Madison.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

For more about the Library’s Banned Books Week events, see our previous post.

Latino Heritage Month @UWW

UWW is celebrating Latino Heritage Month (September) with several free events on campus, all of which take place in the Old Main Ballroom of the James R. Connor University Center:

Somos Boricuas CD coverIf you are interested in related materials, check out Andersen Library! For example, a search of HALCat, Andersen Library’s catalog, will find CDs such as Somos boricuas/We are Puerto Rican (Browsing CDs, 2nd floor, Call Number: M1681.P6 P57 1996) and books such as Improving schools for Latinos: Creating better learning environments (Main Collection, 3rd Floor, Call Number: LC2670.3 .V35 2006.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

“It’s the Economy, $tupid…” series

The Fall 2009 Fairhaven Lecture Series will look at various aspects of the global, U.S., and local economies through the eyes of economists, historians and political scientists. All of these free and informative lectures are on Mondays at 3:00 p.m. in the Fairhaven Community’s Fellowship Hall (435 W. Starin Road, Whitewater).

  • Sept. 14: Prospects for Economic Revitalization in Urban and Underserved Communities (Richard McGregory, Academic Support Services)
  • Sept. 21: What Happened to the Greatest Companies on Earth? (Nikki Mandell, History Dept.)
  • Sept. 28: Why Prices are Good, Trade is the Same as Technology, and Other Fun Things in Economics (David Welsch, Economics Dept.)
  • Oct. 5: The Spillover Benefit of Student Housing on Property Values and Tax Revenues in Whitewater (Russ Kashian, Economics Dept.)
  • Oct. 12: Commercial Bank Reform in China (Nancy Tao, Economics Dept.)
  • Oct. 19: What’s New in Monetary Policy: Moving Into a New Universe (Stuart Glosser, Economics Dept.)
  • Oct. 26: How Politics Drives Economic Policy Making (Susan Johnson, Political Science Dept.)
  • Nov. 2: The Stimulus Package, Bailouts, and How They Relate to Globalization (John Dominguez, Economics Dept.)
  • Nov. 9: The Local Economic Impact of the Stimulus Package (Bud Gayhart, Business Outreach Services, College of Business & Economics)
  • Nov. 16: An Armchair Economist’s Dusty Crystal Ball: Seeing the Economic Future and Other Reckless Prognostications (Jeff Heinrich, Economics Dept.)

Videos and podcasts of previous lecture series are available:
Fall 2007 “Big Ideas at UW-Whitewater”
Spring 2008 “Our natural Wonders”
Fall 2008 “Election 2008″
Spring 2009 “My Favorite Lecture”

And if you are interested in doing research on these topics, Andersen Library has materials! Books that can be identified through HALCat (Harold Andersen Library catalog) and articles found in the article databases. Please ask a librarian for assistance.

Author Jerry Apps – Sept. 9

Jerry Apps will give a talk at the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library (Whitewater’s public library at 431 W. Center St.), on Wed., Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. Apps, a former UW-Madison professor, is the author of many books.

Ringlingville coverCheese coverUWW’s Andersen Library has some of his books, including Ringlingville USA: The stupendous story of seven siblings and their stunning circus success (3rd-floor Main Collection, GV1821.R5 A66 2005) and Cheese: The making of a Wisconsin tradition (3rd-floor Main Collection, SF274.U6 A66 1998).

UWW students and staff also can get Apps’ titles from other UW libraries by using the free Universal Borrowing service, which brings requested materials here in 2-4 weekdays. Among the titles available are
Living a country year: Wit and wisdom from the good old days and Every farm tells a story: A tale of family farm values .

Please ask a librarian if you would like assistance with finding and requesting materials.

Life in Occupied Palestine talk 9/1

Anna Balzer will present “Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photos” at a Whitewater Breakfast Kiwanis Club meeting on Tues., Sept. 1, 7am at Novak’s Restaurant (111 W Whitewater St). Non-members are welcome.

Anna Balzer is a Jewish-American graduate of Columbia University, a Fulbright scholar, granddaughter of Holocaust refugees and an award-winning lecturer, author and activist for Palestinian rights who has appeared on television and at over 300 universities, schools, churches, mosques and synagogues around the world. She recently traveled through Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Her “Anna’s Eyewitness Reports from Palestine” blog has more info, photos, and sample pages from her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. UWW students and staff may request the book from other UW libraries via the free Universal Borrowing service.

Culture and customs of the palestinians coverAndersen Library has materials on Palestine. Search the HalCat library catalog to find titles such as The case for Palestine: an international law perspective (3rd-floor Main Collection, DS119.7 .Q7219 2005) and Culture and customs of the Palestinians (3rd-floor Main Collection, GN635.P19 F37 2004).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

Human Trafficking Lecture 4/29

E. Benjamin Skinner will speak about “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery” at 6 pm on Wed., April 29th, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

It’s hard to believe, but some practices you think are merely historical, like piracy, still exist today. The forward to Skinner’s 2008 book, A Crime So Monstrous, states

Of course, we all know what slavery is. We’ve read about it in countless history books, seen it in documentaries and movies. Slavery is awful. Slavery is inhuman. Slavery is dead.

But that last point isn’t true. In fact, slavery is very much alive on every continent. In fact, as Ben Skinner points out, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before…

War on Human Trafficking coverAndersen Library does not own a copy of Skinner’s book, but UW-W students and staff may borrow it from other UW campus libraries using the free Universal Borrowing service. Requested items arrive in 2-4 weekdays. A search of the Library Catalog for keywords such as slavery or “human trafficking” will find other titles available locally, such as The war on human trafficking: U.S. policy assessed (3rd-floor Main Collection HQ125.U6 D47 2008).

Health Care Access Lecture 4/27

Meg Gaines, ovarian cancer survivor and national advocate for cancer patients, will deliver this year’s John Kenneth Kyle lecture “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Getting Health Care in America” at 7 pm on Mon., April 27, in the Summers Auditorium (James R. Connor University Center).

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that had also infected her liver.  Her doctors told her the cancer was inoperable and that she should go home and think about the quality of her remaining days. The mother of two toddlers, Gaines felt that diagnosis was unacceptable and conducted a national search for treatment. She eventually was treated in Texas and remains healthy today.

Gaines’ story reminds me of the affecting TV ad I’ve seen for Cancer Treatment Centers of America by pancreatic cancer survivor Peggy Kessler, in which she says she was basically told by her doctor to go home and prepare to die. But after working with Cancer Treatment Centers of America she was told she had no expiration date.

Health Care Politics coverAndersen Library has resources on topics related to this lecture. For example, if you are interested in reading other cancer survivor’s stories, there are books like It’s not about the bike: my journey back to life by Lance Armstrong (3rd-floor Main Collection GV1051.A76 A3 2000) and Deanna Favre’s Don’t bet against me!: beating the odds against breast cancer and in life (2nd-floor Browsing Books Collection RC280.B8 F38 2007). The web site of the National Cancer Institute also has information about different types of cancer. If you are researching particular kinds of cancers there are books such as Dr. Susan Love’s breast book (3rd-Floor Main Collection RG491 .L68 2005). And if you’re interested in access to health care in the United States, there are books including Critical: what we can do about the health-care crisis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 .D375 2008) and Health care politics, policy, and services: a social justice analysis (3rd-floor Main Collection RA395.A3 A4795 2007). The Library’s article databases can yield relevant reading also, such as “Awash in information, patients face a lonely, uncertain road” in the New York Times (Aug. 14, 2005, p. 1).

Please ask a librarian for assistance in finding materials.

Government Printing Office logo

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

YouTube for Smart People

Some people kill time by watching YouTube videos or your favorite television shows on Hulu for hours. And if Alec Baldwin is correct, then your brain will turn to mush. What if there was a place where you could watch interesting videos and expand your mind?

There is. Academic Earth provides thousands of videos of lectures done by today’s greatest minds. With six of the most prestigious universities in the country participating in the project, you can listen to individual lectures, such as To Get an MBA or Not? from Stanford, to entire courses like Introduction to Solid State Chemistry from MIT. In true Web 2.0 fashion, you can even grade instructors on their presentations as well.

Check it out – you might just learn a thing or two.