April 2009
Professor defends academic value of Chavez’s controversial gift to Obama
Bruce Podobnik, associate professor of sociology, shared his thoughts with FOXNews.com about the book Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez handed to President Obama at the Summit of the Americas earlier this month. Titled “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” the book was published by Eduardo Galeano in 1971 and remains controversial for its critical depiction of the United State’s role in the colonization of Latin America. Podobnik included the book in his course “Latin America in Cultural Perspective” last fall, but notes that the text presents a one-sided analysis, which he offset with Walter Rostow’s “The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto.” According to Podobnik, the importance of such a comparative analysis is that “the students get exposed to a polarized discussion that continues to go on today.”
FOXNews.com (New York, NY) Book Chavez Gave to Obama Is Used as Core Text on Many College Campuses
Professor publishes article on writing program for urban, Latina students
Sara Exposito, assistant professor of education:
Exposito published an article in the April 2009 issue of Educational Leadership: Supporting English Learners titled “Top Notch Supports for Language Learners.” The article describes Exposito’s experience with a group of girls from Bell Gardens Intermediate in Los Angeles for the past two years. The school’s high concentration of immigrant students primarily from Mexico and Central America led Exposito to feel that Latina girls needed a place to discuss their lived, urban realities that sometimes lead to a numbing of the spirit. After working with the principal at the school and two counselors, the group set up a writing club called Girls at Promise. In this club, girls meet for two days a month to write and share their stories as well as read literature that is connected to their urban reality. Exposito’s team led the girls on field trips to the Huntington Library, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and to local colleges. Girls at Promise is currently finishing its second year.
Professor publishes article on multi-lingual learners
Ruth Shagoury, Mary Stuart Rogers professor of education:
Shagoury published an article titled “Language to Language: Nurturing Writing Development in Multilingual Classrooms” in the March 2009 issue of Young Children. In the article, Shagoury recounts her time spent in a multilingual kindergarten classroom in which six or more languages were spoken by the children. She provides examples of the process young dual-language learners engage when learning written languages in both first and second languages. “When the two written language systems that children are learning are very different, children still draw on their knowledge of their home language as well as their growing understanding of English, testing out hypotheses just as they do in their oral language,” Shagoury said.
Young Children is the journal for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The theme for the March issue was “Supporting All Kinds of Learners.” In the introduction to the issue, the editor states: “All the articles in this cluster are about getting to know individual children and then planning a curriculum and teaching strategies that will support every child’s development and learning.”
Director of Watzek Library publishes book on Oregon’s utopian heritage
Jim Kopp, director of the Aubrey Watzek Library:
In February, Kopp published Eden Within Eden: Oregon’s Utopian Heritage. This book surveys Oregon’s utopian history in relation to communal experiments. Since 1856, with the establishment of the Aurora Colony, there have been over 300 communities within Oregon, ranging from religious groups to Socialists to the ecologically friendly. Kopp explores the social, political, and cultural effects these utopian communities have had on Oregon’s history.
Kopp will do a reading from his book at Powell’s Books on May 27 and be interviewed by KPOJ on the same day.
Archivists Doug Erickson and Paul Merchant explain the importance of written archives
Doug Erickson, head of special collections/archivist at Watzek Library, and Paul Merchant, William Stafford archivist special collections archivist at the Watzek Library:
Erickson and Merchant were quoted in an article by the Oregon Council for the Humanities about the hidden treasures found in library archives. Unfortunately, digital technology is quickly contributing to the extinction of paper archives, said Erickson. “We communicate in very short and spontaneous ways now, rather than being methodical and contemplative about what we are writing,” he said. Merchant added, “Word-processing programs that overwrite previous drafts will result in fewer early versions being preserved. There may be poets and novelists who end up keeping only their final version. This will be very impoverishing for literary scholars.”
One of the major concerns archivists face involves the longevity of digital technology. Erickson pointed out that archivists know how to preserve written documents, but the same is not true for archival CDs. Merchant also believes that works deemed to be “inferior” may not be saved in the digital world, which could lead to the elimination of great authors’ novels. “We can’t anticipate the judgments of posterity, and masterpieces sometimes lie hidden,” Erickson said. “Emily Dickinson is the perfect example. She was not very well known when she died, and it is a miracle that we have her work. It is in little bound volumes that she left behind. It’s wonderful, just wonderful. But someone might easily have thrown those away.”
Legal clinic aids small businesses through collaborative workshops
Faced with growing demand for access to its legal services, the Lewis & Clark Law School Small Business Legal Clinic (SBLC) is organizing community outreach seminars to reach a broader audience.
On April 9 SBLC held an Intellectual Property seminar for about 45 small business owners. Presenters included Randy Foster and Jay Rafter, partners at Stoel Rives in the Intellectual Property group. The clinic has also held seminars on contract law and employment law.
SBLC will organize four seminars in May and June, all of which focus on tax and other payroll deductions for small businesses. They will partner with representatives from the Internal Revenue Service, the Oregon Department of Revenue, WorkSource, Oregon, the Social Security Administration, and the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.
Professor pens editorial on pending climate change legislation
Rob Kugler, Paul S. Wright Professor of Christian Studies:
Kugler, chair of the Religious Studies Department, published an editorial that highlights his concerns for leaving future generations a livable planet. In addition to his role as professor, Kugler serves as the coordinator for Lewis & Clark’s participation in the National Teach-In on Global Warming, a day-long event involving tens of thousands of college students nationwide who engage with faculty and public leaders in dialogue about public policy solutions to stem the rise in the earth’s temperature.
He frames his argument through a biblical lens: “Jesus, a fairly sharp observer of human nature, argued that parents, when their children ask for bread, are unlikely to give stone instead (Matt 7:9). Tragically, Jesus’ confidence in us is in doubt. Although our children would ask for bread — a future free of the consequences of human-caused climate change — our actions so far have assured them only stone.”
Kugler teaches courses on Jewish and Christian origins, including courses on both the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and New Testament. His special area of research deals with the interface between the sociohistorical contexts of early Judaism and Christianity and the religions’ interpretation of their received texts and traditions. Kugler was named Professor of the Year by Lewis & Clark students in 2007.
The Oregonian Bread, not stone
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