In Brief
Financial Aid offers reminder
Filed for 2007-2008 financial aid yet? See www.fa.niu.edu for information and/or watch your NIU Z-ID e-mail account.
Art professor from Turkey
to present ‘Earth, Potter, Fire’
Oya Pancaroðlu, assistant professor in the Department of Archaeology and History of Art at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, will present “Earth, Potter, and Fire: A Short History of Medieval Islamic Ceramics,” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, in Room 100 of the Art Building.
A series of innovations in glazed ceramic technology, introduced in the pottery workshops of the 9th century, often have been described as an artistic revolution with repercussions extending not only into the subsequent centuries of ceramic production in the Islamic world but also into Renaissance Italy and beyond.
This lecture will outline both developments in the ceramic industry between the 9th and 13th centuries and explore the remarkable engagement of ceramics with other forms of art as well as with literary culture.
Pancaroðlu obtained her doctorate in Islamic art history from Harvard University in 2000. She spent the six following years at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, first as a research fellow and later as a lecturer. Her research focuses especially on the larger literary and intellectual contexts of figural representation in medieval Islamic cultures, especially on ceramics, metalwork and in illustrated manuscripts.
A secondary area of research is the history of architecture in Anatolia between 1100 and 1500. She has most recently published “Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection” (Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2007) to accompany the exhibition of the same title at the Art Institute of Chicago (March 31 to Aug. 12).
More information about the exhibition is available online.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/plotnick
This talk is the second in the Spring 2007 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Lectures in Art History Series, hosted by the Art History Division and funded in part by the NIU Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. For more information about events at the NIU School of Art, visit www.niu.edu/art.
Wellness Fair offers chance
to explore ‘six dimensions’
The NIU Wellness Fair 2007 will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom and Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center. Co-sponsored by the Employee Assistance and Wellness Program and Recreation Services, the fair is open to all NIU students, faculty and staff, as well as community members.
The Wellness Fair offers the opportunity to explore resources related to the six dimensions of wellness: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and occupational. More than 85 booths will feature campus and non-campus providers offering a variety of free screenings, assessments, massages, educational and awareness activities, as well as free drawings and give-aways.
Call (815) 753-9191 for more information.
Brown Bag Lecture to feature
NIU geologist Ross Powell
NIU’s Lifelong Learning Institute will host Geology Professor Ross Powell from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Holmes Student Center, Room 505. His presentation is titled “Report from the Ends of the Earth: Drilling in the Antarctic.”
Bring a lunch, pick one up at the HSC Blackhawk Cafeteria or just come and listen. The lecture is free and all are welcome. For details, call (815) 753-5200.
Art professor from Stanford
to present ‘Piety or Parody?’
Melinda Takeuchi, professor of Japanese art at Stanford University and executive director emerita of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Study, Yokohama, Japan, will present, “The Apotheosis of the Great Danjûrô the Eighth: Piety or Parody?” at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in Room 100 of the Visual Arts Building.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, it was the practice to issue memorial prints, called shini-e, when a popular individual died. Most shini-e depict kabuki actors. Shini-e might celebrate the actor’s life by showing him in his most famous roles. They often include the actor’s own death poem. Sometimes they employ compositions lifted from religious art, substituting the actor’s image for the Buddha’s.
This long-neglected genre of Japanese art is a treasure trove of conflicting notions of the afterlife, commercialism of the theatrical milieu, lineage, fandom, and the protocols of death.
Takeuchi’s talk focuses on the death prints illustrating the 19th century’s most beloved actor, Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII. Danjûrô’s tragic suicide at the age of 31 spawned an unprecedented number of commemorative pictures, by some counts as many as 200. This welter of images runs the gamut from somber representations to pictures that would seem to cross the line from piety into parody. How the Japanese negotiated this fine line is the central question raised in this lecture.
Takeuchi’s diverse expertise in Japanese paintings and prints has led to a range of accolades. Her book “Taiga’s True Views: The Language of Landscape Painting in Eighteenth-Century Japan” (Stanford, 1992) won the Association for Asian Studies John W. Hall Prize for best book in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her edited volume “The Artist as Professional in Japan” (Stanford University Press, 2004) received rave reviews.
This talk is the third in the Spring 2007 Elizabeth Allen Visiting Lectures in Art History Series, hosted by the Art History Division and funded in part by the NIU Visiting Artists and Scholars Program. For more information about events at the NIU School of Art, visit www.niu.edu/art.
Indonesian political scientist to speak
Political Science Professor Ramlan Surbakti of Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia, will deliver a lecture on “Elections in Indonesia” at 3 p.m. Friday, March 30, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Surbakti is chairman of the General Election Institute in the Republic of Indonesia and also is an NIU alumnus (political science, 1991).
The lecture is open to the public. It is sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Department of Political Science.
April marks LGBT Awareness Month
Education, activism and entertainment are all part of the calendar of events for April’s celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness Month.
Featured events include training workshops for the Ally Program, comedian Lorne Newman, the National Day of Silence/Night of Noise, a presentation on “Gay Straight Alliances: Education and Queer Curiosity” by Chris Mayo from the University of Illinois and Prism’s 11th annual drag and variety show.
Full details about these and all other events are available by visiting the online calendar of events at www.niu.edu/lgbt, calling (815) 753-5428 or e-mailing lgbt@niu.edu.
LGBT hosts Ally Awards reception
The university community is invited to the third annual Ally Awards reception to kick off Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness Month in April.
The reception is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, April 2, in the Clara Sperling Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center. A recognition ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. to present the awards.
The Ally Awards recognize individuals, departments or groups who have shown their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people or the LGBT community during the 2006-2007 school year. All are welcome.
The awards are sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center, LGBT Studies Program and the Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
For more information about the Ally Awards, visit www.niu.edu/lgbt/allyawards.htm, call (815) 753-5428 or e-mail lgtb@niu.edu.
Ally Program offers training workshops
The Ally Program is a campus-wide program designed to foster a welcoming and supportive campus environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students, faculty and staff by creating a visible network of allies.
Faculty, staff, graduate assistants, residence hall staff and students who want to visibly show their support for LGBT people are invited to volunteer for the Ally Program.
Ally Program volunteers participate in a training workshop to learn more about how to be an effective ally, and then display the “NIU Ally” symbol on door signs, buttons and magnets to identify themselves as resource persons who can provide support and information. For more information about the Ally Program, visit www.niu.edu/lgbt/allyprogram.htm.
Volunteers must attend one three-hour training workshop. Space is limited, and advance registration is required.
Spring 2007 workshops are:
- Thursday, April 5, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, April 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
- Monday, April 23, 9 a.m. to noon
- Tuesday, April 24, 9 a.m. to noon
To register, contact the LGBT Resource Center at (815) 753-LGBT or e-mail lgbt@niu.edu.
Alumni to host Paris trip
The NIU Alumni Association invites you to experience the romance that is Paris from May 18 through May 26.
Travelers can choose which days to browse the fashion houses and shops, contemplate art in one of the 90 museums, be amazed at the architecture, relax and people-watch in the sidewalk cafes or venture outside of the city on the optional tours.
Optional side-trips are planned to Giverny and Rouen, two Chateaux in the Loire Valley, and Mont Saint Michel, along with a Parisian cooking class.
The cost is $2,195 per person, double occupancy; single supplement is available. For more information or to place a reservation, call Pat Anderson at (815) 753-1512.
3-26-07
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