Spring 2013 Events
Monday, March 11: Jane Stadler (University of Queensland)
"Landscape and the Western Genre in Australian Cinema"
3:30pm, Alumni Board Room (Commons 2nd Floor)
Jane Stadler is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland. Her recent research focuses on landscape in Australian cinema, and she is chief investigator for the Cultural Atlas of Australia, a federally funded research project that maps the locations of Australian films, novels, and plays. She is author of Pulling Focus: Intersubjective Experience, Narrative Film and Ethics (2008), co-author of Screen Media (2009) and Media and Society (2012), and co-editor of an adaptation studies anthology, Pockets of Change: Adaptation and Cultural Transition (2011).
Co-sponsored by the CAS Department and the Calvin Film Forum.
Friday, April 5: P.J. Hill
“Geography Colloquium: The Not So Wild, Wild West"
3:30pm, North Hall 078
As part of Calvin's Geography Colloquium, P.J. Hill will discuss his book The Not So Wild, Wild West, written with Terry Anderson, which challenges many traditional theories of how the West was settled. Dr. Hill, professor emeritus of economics at Wheaton College in Illinois, holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, and his undergraduate degree is in Agricultural Economy from Montana State University. He is an economic historian by training and has written on institutional change and the evolution of property rights. He is currently a senior fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana. Read more about Dr. Hill and his lectures and research..
Co-sponsored by the Geography Department and the Henry Institute.
Fall 2012 Events
Wednesday, September 19: William Katerberg
"Other Manifest Destinies: Globalizing American Creation Stories"
3:30pm in the Commons Lecture Hall
American "creation stories" emphasize our nation's "manifest destiny." For example, myths about the U.S. frontier depict settlers migrating into the wilderness, with ingenuity and courage adapting to new circumstances and building new lives, thus generating the unique American character and freedom. But what about he Native Americans and Mexicans already living in the land? And how did U.S. frontiers compare to those in Canada, Argentina, south Africa, Australia, and more? These issues are not only historical, but ethical. What does it mean to love our neighbors as ourselves when it comes to historic national identities? Answering these questions won't end angry debates in the U.S. over legal and illegal immigration. But it might reorient how we as Americans think about ourselves and others in these debates.
Co-sponsored by the Calvin College History Department.
Wednesday, November 28: William Van Vugt
“British Isles Music on the American Frontier - Some Early Explorations"
3:30pm, Covenant Fine Arts Center Recital Hall (CFAC*107)
During the 18th century, many of thousands of people left England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland for the North American frontier, and they brought along their culture, including their music. On the frontier their culture adapted to the new American environment. This colloquium presents music from the British Isles and demonstrates how the melodies, keys, and lyrics were affected by life on the American frontier. The music will be presented on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, with Bruce Ling of Hawks and Owls String Band.
Co-sponsored by the Calvin College History Department.
Recent Events
March 7, 2012: Dr. Carol L. Higham
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“Seeing Cannibals: Spanish and British Accounts of Cannibalism in Nootka Sound, 1770-1795”
Historians and anthropologists have debated the existence of cannibalism among the Native peoples of North America, but none have examined this case, where two different European groups visited the supposedly cannibalistic peoples of Nootka Sound at roughly the same time. The Spanish applied their long history of interaction with the indigenous peoples of Mexico and California while the English overlaid their recent experience with the peoples of the South Pacific.
This lecture compares Spanish and British accounts of the Nootka between 1778 and 1784, revealing a significant shift in European thinking about human progress, one influenced by the goals of the two empires. The Spanish placed the Nootkans within their ethnographic knowledge of their empire, while the British attempt to answer questions about the origin of the human condition while furthering their commercial progress.
The Spanish did not see cannibals because that would have implied their lack of control over a commercial area they had considered theirs for several hundred years. The British categorized the Nootkans by their level of “civilization” in comparison to the peoples of the South Pacific. They use cannibalism to demonstrate the power and wealth of the Nootka and justify the intervention of the British empire.
Co-sponsored by the Mellema Program and Calvin College History Department.
Find out more about past events.
