Office of the Chaplains
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem, Oregon 97301
503-370-6213 voice
EVENTS and PROGRAMS
University Convocation
Fall Semester, 2009
Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Cone Chapel, Waller Hall (unless otherwise noted)
The University Convocation series is planned by the students of IDS 202 (Convo: Campus/Community/Cosmos) so the schedule is under constant development throughout the semester. These are the programs scheduled to date.
September 10
What's All the Buzz about the Death Penalty Today?
Dr. Bill Long, Oregon Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Bill Long is a writer and legal consultant in Salem. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including "A Tortured History: The Story of Capital Punishment in Oregon," and numerous articles on law, religion and history. Three additional projects that currently occupy him are: foundation consulting - the legal status of the foundation, goals, mission, learning about grantees, maximazation of foundation efforts; consulting with autism organizations on legal and organizational issues; and chairing Oregon's effort to repeal the death penalty.
From 2003-06 Long was a visiting professor at Willamette University College of Law. He has also taught history and government at Sterling College (Kansas) and religion and humanities at Reed College, has been a litigation attorney, was pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland. During a sabbatical from Reed, he was a senior editorial writer for The Oregonian.Dr. Long holds degrees from Brown University (B.A. and Ph.D.), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Willamette University (J.D.). He has studied 11 languages, has taught Biblical Greek and has placed second twice and third once in the National Senior Spelling Bee.
September 17
Rogers Rehearsal Hall, Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center
Alchemy: Transforming the Ordinary
Yehudi Wyner, composer and concert pianist
Awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his piano concerto, Chiavi in Mano, Yehudi Wyner’s compositions include over 60 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo voice and solo instruments, piano, chorus, and music for the theater, as well as liturgical services for worship. He has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, The Boston Symphony, The BBC Philharmonic, The Library of Congress, The Ford Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Fromm Foundation, among others. His recording The Mirror on Naxos won a 2005 Grammy Award, and his Horntrio (1997) was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Wyner has an active career as solo pianist and chamber musician and has been the keyboard artist of the Bach Aria Group since 1968.
September 24
CAUSA: Immigration Reform in Oregon
Panelists:
Lorena Manzo, CAUSA community representative|
Hoskar Romos, CAUSA community representative
Robin Wright, CAUSA volunteer organizer (senior history major)
Ted Richardson, CAUSA volunteer organizer (senior international Studies major)
CAUSA is Oregon’s statewide, grassroots immigrant rights coalition that works to defend and advance immigrant rights through coordination with local, state, and national coalitions and allies. CAUSA organizes, educates and mobilizes to build power in the immigrant community. Through networking with immigrant, religious, labor, youth and ally organizations, CAUSA works to create a society that recognizes the contributions of immigrants and upholds the values of equality and respect.
Join us to learn more about what immigration reform is and and how it is being carried out in Salem and the greater Oregon community.
October 1
A Tale of Many Identities: Growing Up Multiracial in America
Panelists:
Alisa Alexander, '10
Behzod Sirjani, '10
Melissa Magana, '09
Stephanie Nixon, Associate Director of Residence Life
Three students will share their experiences being raised in multiracial households and how those experiences affect their views of what it means to be an "American." Each comes from a different background with a unique story and has grown up in a way that makes him or her aware of the two (or more) worlds in which each exists. Moderated by Stephanie Nixon, associate director of Residence Life, who will also share her own academic research on the experiences of children in multiracial families.
October 8
Health Care Reform: A Discussion
Melissa Buis Michaux (politics)
Jerry Gram (economics)
A discussion of major issues around health care reform will be led by professors Jerry Gray and Melissa Buis Michaux, who co-taught an upper-division seminar last semester on "The Politics and Economics of Health Care." There will be plenty of time for questions and answers following their presentation.
October 15
Twenty Years of Partnership: Student Perspectives on the TIUA-WU Relationship
WU students and TIUA students will share their perspectives on the 20-year partnership between TIUA and WU. The group will discuss the challenges and rewards of effective cross-cultural communication and cross-cultural awareness. The panel will explore the ways in which the TIUA/WU relationship has impacted the WIllamette Community and how this relationship can be further developed to maximize the potential for learning through diversity.
October 22
Door Gig: Why Talented People Follow Their Calling - Even When It Doesn't Pay
Noru Ka Soru Ka
Noru Ka Soru Ka is an improvisational music and dance ensemble formed as the result of a chance 2006 encounter in Japan. Noru Ka Soru Ka’s performances draw on jazz, New Music, and electronica, as well as the folk, classical, dance and theater traditions of East and West. The current ensemble is comprised of dancers Makoto Matsushima and Mao Arata (Japan), percussionist Georg Hofmann (Switzerland), violinist Richard Carr (New York), guitar/electronicist Mike Nord (Oregon). At this Convocation the members will discuss their work and its place in their lives. Who knows? They may just improvise!
Noru Ka Soru Ka's campus appearances are co-sponsored by The Lilly Project, TIUA, The Center for Asian Studies and Schweizerische Interpretengesellschaft.
October 29
Film Studies Room - Ford Hall 122
Halloween Film Contest and Showcase
Willamette University students (any college) are invited to submit a 3-5 minute original film for inclusion in the 2009 Halloween Film Showcase at today's Convocation.
The following components must be included in each submission:
- a mop
- a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- someone must whistle, hum or sing at some point
- a feather boa; a Willamette faculty or staff member
NOTE: Please be mindful when incorporating humor and/or satire. Offensive material, as determined by the Convo class, will not be included in the showcase.
November 5
The Work of a Writer in a World of Wounds
Dr. Kathleen Dean Moore
The wounds that our way of life has inflicted on the land, the air and the great diversity of life on Earth have brought us to a pivotal point in human history. We are called to find new answers to the foundational questions of the human condition: What is a human being? What is the relation of humans to the Earth? How, then, shall we live? The search for a new worldview will be -- it must be -- the greatest exercise of the human imagination the world has ever seen. What is (and what is not) our work in this time and this place?
Using her recent co-authored book, In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens, Kathleen Dean Moore will discuss how the sciences, humanities, and arts can work together to re-imagine the way we live in a world of catastrophe and renewal.
Kathleen Dean Moore is best known for her award-winning books about our cultural and spiritual connections to the wet, wild world: Riverwalking, Holdfast and The Pine Island Paradox. She is a winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. She is distinguished professor of philosophy at Oregon State University, where she directs the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word and teaches classes in environmental ethics.
November 12
Alumni Lounge, University Center
Introduction to Active Nonviolence and Conflict Resolution
Peter Bergel, Oregon PeaceWorks
Peter Bergel is the founder and editor of Oregon PeaceWorker and the executive director of Oregon PeaceWorks. He has served as chair of Community Action for Nonviolence, seeking to improve conflict resolution programs in the Salem-Keizer schools. He was a co-founder and instructor for the Peace Training Institute at Willamette University, providing training to agents of social change. And he serves regularly as a community mediator, victim-offender mediator and mediation consultant for Neighbor to Neighbor, a community mediation organization in Salem.
November 19
From Toqueville to the Green Revolution: What Would a Colloquium Grantee Do?
Joseph Hines, Claire Hoffman, Stephanie Jones, Madison Niermeyer and D'Arcy Wright, recipients of 2009 College Colloquium Student Research Grants, discuss their projects and reflect on their experiences.
November 26
No Convocation - Thanksgiving
December 3
TBA
December 10
Lessons & Carols
The campus and Salem communities are invited to the university's 25th annual Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols. Based on the service broadcast annually by the BBC from King's College Chapel at Cambridge University, the worship service includes traditional scripture passages from the Old and New Testaments read by representatives of various parts of the campus community - the Lessons - and choral and congregational singing - the Carols.
An offering will be taken to benefit the work of Marion-Polk Food Share.