Café Français activities will resume this week. As usual, we will meet from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. every Thursday in Walker 120C. Join us for an hour of laid-back conversation in a francophone setting. Snacks and light refreshments will be provided. Any levels welcome.
L. Syd M Johnson is interviewed by Big Think about the NIH decision to lift the funding moratorium on “gain of function” research with Potential Pandemic Pathogens and by Futurism about a Black Mirror episode featuring neural implants.
Johnson also was interviewed on Copper Country Today, discussing legal, social and ethical aspects of Michigan’s new regulations on medical marijuana. The interview was broadcast Dec. 17th on 97.7 FM, 102.3 FM and 99.3 FM. It is available online.
The World War I & the Copper Country collective, led by Sue Collins (HU) in collaboration with Patty Sotirin (HU), Stefka Hristova (HU), Steve Walton (SS), Elise Nelson (Carnegie Museum), and Hilary Virtanen (Finlandia), has been awarded a Michigan Humanities Council grant.
Conceived as a joint project between Michigan Technological University, the Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw, and Finlandia University, the grant will support a series of events commemorating World War I to run in the fall of 2018 including historical exhibits, a symposium, a relief bazaar, and an immersive life-size trench installation with a Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) produced soundscape.
The project has received a $15,000 public service grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.
Join Modern Languages faculty and students from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28 in Walker 134 for a unique celebration of French, German and Spanish Holiday traditions. Appearing live will be the French Canadian group Maple Sugar Folk as well as guest performer Andy Fiss.
Learn songs in each language for the sing-along and listen to traditional holiday music. Play Holiday Bingo and enjoy a variety of treats from different cultures. No prior language experience required. Families are welcome.
For more information, contact Karin Schlenker.
Anna K. Swartz (HU), a graduate student in Rhetoric, Theory & Culture, presented a poster, “The Neurobiological Explanation of Mental Illness: Implications for the Therapeutic Alliance,” at the International Neuroethics Society meeting in Washington DC on Nov. 10.
L. Syd M Johnson (HU) presented a poster, “Research with Embryo-Like Organisms and Cerebral Organoids: Do the Usual Rules Apply?” at the International Neuroethics Society meeting in Washington, DC, Nov. 10. The poster received a “Top Abstract” award from the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience.
Oren Abeles joins Michigan Tech’s Department of Humanities as an assistant professor. He earned his PhD in English from the University of North Carolina in 2017.
Abeles has multiple publications and awards, including the McLaurin Dissertation Fellowship in 2016.
L. Syd M Johnson (HU) has published “Known Unknowns: Diagnosis and Prognosis in Disorders of Consciousness” in AJOB Neuroscience.
Edzordzi Agbozo, Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture Ph.D. Candidate, authored, with co-author Kwame Osei-Poku, a book chapter entitled “Negotiating the Gothic in African literature: a study of Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard and Besie Head’s Maru“.
Agbozo’s work is in Memories of the Caribbean futures: Reclaiming the pre-colonial to imagine a post-colonial in the languages, literatures and cultures of the Greater Caribbean and beyond, 2017. University of Curacao and the University of Puerto Rico published the book along with editors Nicholas Faraclas, Ronald Severing, Christa Weijer, Elisabeth Echteld, Wim Rutgers, and Robert Dupey.
Congratulations!
Join the English programs at Michigan Tech and Finlandia for the local book launch/celebration of Stephanie Carpenter’s (HU) new book of short stories, “Missing Persons” at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10 at the
Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock.
Carpenter will read from her book and a short reception will follow. George Saunders, winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize and author of “Lincoln in the Bardo,” has described “Missing Persons” as “Inventive, magical, compelling and strange in just the way life and people are strange. Stephanie Carpenter is a rare and wonderful talent.”
The Department of Humanities is pleased to announce a Rhetoric, Theory and Culture Colloquium to be held on Friday, November 10. RTC student Nancy Henaku will first present her talk “Instrumentalizing empowerment: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings’ ‘Feminist’ Rhetoric” followed by RTC students Edzordzi Agbozo & Tolu Odebunmi presenting “Rhetorical ecologies in contemporary West Africa: reconsidering the ‘triglossic structure’.” Patty Sotirin will be providing commentary to the presenters.
Please join us 5 p.m. Friday, November 10 in Walker 134.