Faculty:
Art & Art History: SJSU Professor Lectures and Displays her Photos at Two European Museums
Jo Farb Hernandez, Professor in the Department of Art and Art History and Director of the Thompson Art Gallery, presented information about her ongoing art environment documentation projects at two major European museums this fall. Several of her photographs of art environments in the U.S. and Spain were included in the “Architectures” exhibition at the Collection d’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland (continuing on display through April 2016), and in mid-December she presented a powerpoint lecture at the Reina Sofia Museum, Spain’s national museum of contemporary art, located in Madrid.
English & Comparative Literature: Ryan Skinnell – New Associate Professor
In April 2015, I published an essay called “Who Cares If Rhetoricians Landed on the Moon? Or, a Plea for Reviving the Politics of Historiography” in a top-tier rhetoric journal, Rhetoric Review. I just learned that the essay has been selected by the editorial board to receive the Theresa J. Enos Anniversary Award for the best essay published in Rhetoric Review in 2015.
English & Comparative Literature: Harris Interviewed by MLA
Katherine D. Harris, Jentery Sayers, Rebecca Frost Davis, and Matthew Gold got together with Nicky Agate of the Modern Language Association to talk about the history, development, and innovation of Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities (https://digitalpedagogy.commons.mla.org/). This labor of love project, five years in the making, is under contract with the MLA and being delivered for open peer review in batches with final publication by 2017. When the editors first began working on this idea in 2011, the technology hadn’t become pervasive enough to facilitate a project based on 50 keywords with 50 curators, an open editorial process, and an open peer review process. Join the project’s open peer review after watching this enlightening video that provides the history of this long-standing project in digital pedagogy.
English & Comparative Literature: Poetry Reading at the San Jose Quilt Museum: The Four Elements
A poetry reading and artists’ reception will be held Sunday, February 7, 2016, at 2 p.m. featuring an exhibit of 16 quilts and 16 poems written in response to the four elements. Poets include Sally Ashton and Persis Karim (both SJSU faculty), as well as Parthenia M. Hicks and Jennifer Swanton Brown. Quilts were made by four fiber artists from Nevada City: Sandra Poteet, Ann Sanderson, Lin Schiffner, and Gail Sims. An exhibit catalog featuring images and poems will be available. Consider this as an alternative to the Super Bowl!
Linguistics & Language Development: LLD Showcases Best Practices
On October 3, 2015, the Department of Linguistics and Language Development held its annual “Best Practices Workshop.” The five presentations covered a wide variety of topics. Zerrin Erkal, Roshini Joseph, and Kaye Sanders presented on “Audience and Purpose,” demonstrating how novice writers can be moved from a writer-centered focus to greater awareness of readers by composing a piece of writing for multiple audiences. In “Using Discussion Boards for Grammar,” Sharon Stranahan explained how she incorporates schema activation, self-awareness, and student-centered learning through the use of discussion boards for students to teach each other grammar. Jackie Norgord, in “Using Reverse Outlining to Understand Structure,” exhibited how this technique can help students develop arguments, improve on organization, and determine how the paper forms a cohesive whole. Debra Hunter, in “Teaching Toulmin,” showed how this model, with its claim, grounds, warrant, reasons, rebuttal, and qualification, can provide students with an effective formula for logic and evidence-based argumentative essays. In “Empowering Students through Reflective Critical Analysis,” Reiko Kataoka illustrated a process of self-reflection and meaning-making based on past experiences regarding social identities. The workshop was well attended with faculty and students from LLD, English, International Gateways, Engineering, and Child and Adolescent Development, as well as visiting faculty from AJK University in Pakistan.
Music & Dance: Lington to Compose for Amazonas Philharmonic
Professor Aaron Lington will be writing a piece to be performed by the Amazonas Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble in Spring 2016. This ensemble is located in Manaus, Brazil and performs at the Teatro Amazonas.
World Languages & Literatures: NEH Institute in Theatre
David Kahn’s NEH Summer Institute on Theatre and Immigration is great news for TRFT and the College. It has been funded twice and merits a feature story that would also highlight David’s own remarkable career.
Student:
Philosophy: SJSU Department of Philosophy Hosted the 2015 Regional Ethics Bowl Competition
This year the SJSU Philosophy Department hosted the 2015 Regional Ethics Bowl Competition on Saturday, December 5, 2015. We had twenty teams from fifteen universities in California. Three universities qualified for the National Competition and SJSU, in second place, is on its way to the National Championship in Washington D.C. on February 21, 2016. SJSU will compete against the top thirty-six teams in the country. The Ethics Bowl is a national program sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (www.indiana.edu/~appe/ethicsbowl.html) which requires students to analyze difficult ethical problems drawn from practical and professional contexts. Students present and defend their solutions to these problems in a format that closely resembles a debate. Participation in the Ethics Bowl enhances the students’ educational experience as they develop research skills, skills in philosophical, political, financial, and legal analysis, and communication skills. More importantly, participation in the Ethics Bowl hones their leadership skills as they confront and develop constructive solutions to ethical issues in practical and professional life. This year’s team includes two students from Philosophy, two students from Political Science, and one Business major. Their names are Matteo Poort, Michael Monte, Lemar Karimi, Baltizar Lopez, and Adrian Esquivias. They are coached by Philosophy Professor Michael Jordan.
