Monday, March 12, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Diversity speaks

Novelist, poet and essayist Judith Ortiz Cofer will be the keynote speaker for this year’s National Women’s History Month activities at 1:30 p.m. TOMORROW in the Keathley University Center Theater. Ortiz Cofer’s address, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception and book signing. “A strong advocate for freedom of expression and the need to disseminate the literature and art of the many people contributing to the culture of the United States, Ortiz Cofer speaks to the issue of whether there is an expectation that minority artists create sociological text rather than art,” Dr. Elvira Casal, chair of the National Women’s History Month Committee and associate professor of English, writes in the Spring 2007 Women’s Studies Newsletter. The theme for this year’s National Women’s History Month is “The Challenges of Diversity.”

For more information about National Women’s History Month events, contact Casal at 615-898-2668 or ecasal@mtsu.edu or Dr. Elyce Helford, associate committee chair, at 615-898-5961 or ehelford@mtsu.edu.

Iraq around the clock

One of the nation’s foremost experts on U.S.-Arab Gulf relations, Dr. F. Gregory Gause III, will speak on “The Iraq War: Causes and Consequences” at 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business Aerospace Building. Gause is an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont and director of its Middle East Studies Program. He is the author of Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States and Saudi-Yemeni Relations: Domestic Structures and Foreign Influence. Gause has testified before the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives and his articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, Security Studies, and other publications. This event, which is sponsored by MTSU’s Middle East Center, is free and open to the public. Media welcomed.

Contact Dr. Allen Hibbard, director of the center, at 615-494-8809 or ahibbard@mtsu.edu, or Chantal Rich at 615-494-7906 or cfrich@mtsu.edu.

The patients’ perspective

Sita Diehl, executive director of NAMI Tennessee, the state affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, will speak from 12:35 p.m. to 1:35 p.m. WEDNESDAY in Room 316 of the Keathley University Center. Diehl’s address, which is free and open to the public, is titled “A Closer Look at the Consumer and Ex-patient Movement for the Mentally Ill.” The recipient of master’s degrees in community psychology from Antioch University and social work from the University of Tennessee, Diehl has conducted research on public-managed behavioral health career and consumer-operated services, as well as a multi-year study of mental health services in Tennessee county jails. She also has developed curricula to cross-train mental health and criminal justice personnel. This event is sponsored by the Department of Political Science. Media welcomed.

Contact Dr. Sekou Franklin at 615-904-8232 or franklin@mtsu.edu.

TR EXTRA

FREEDOM ON DISPLAY--"Free at Last! Emancipation and Reconstruction in Tennessee," an exhibit created by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area (TCWNHA), will travel throughout middle Tennessee this spring and summer. The two-panel exhibit, which is on display now through March 30 at the Roy Bailey African-American History Center in Lebanon, emphasizes the significance of emancipation as a result of the Civil War, says Antoinette van Zelm, historian for the TCWNHA. "Freedom for former slaves was a key outcome of the Civil War, and it was the slaves themselves who made it happen," van Zelm said. "They took advantage of the presence of the occupying Union army to break down the bonds of slavery." For a complete list of tour stops, contact Laura Holder, manager of the TCWNHA, at 615-898-2947 or via e-mail at lholder@mtsu.edu.

LET'S MAKE TRACKS!--Don't wait until the last minute to sign up your youngsters for the next recording workshop in the John Bragg Mass Communication Building. MTSU student Ryan York, who teaches guitar, bass and drums at Chambers Guitars and Musical Instruments in Murfreesboro. The deadline for the next four-week series of lessons is March 9. For a fee of $125 per student, kids ages 12-17 will be introduced to cassette four-track recording, computer recording, electronic music, and digital eight-track recording on portable equipment in two classes each week. The recording workshops, which will take place on Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon each week, are sponsored by the Youth Culture and Arts Center. For more information about the workshops, contact York at bororecording@gmail.com. To learn more about the Youth Culture and Arts Center, go to http://www.youthculturecenter.org/. A workshop syllabus may be accessed there by clicking on “Workshops” at the bottom of the page.

“THE EMPIRES OF THE FUTURE ARE THE EMPIRES OF THE MIND.”—WINSTON CHURCHILL--The cigar-chomping bulldog of Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill’s wartime leadership is legendary. But what about the other Churchills—prisoner of war, disgraced politician, painter, and Nobel Prize-winning author? MTSU is offering a July 2007 study-abroad history course which will take students to the Cabinet War Rooms underneath London, as well as Parliament, Churchill’s birthplace, his country estate, and other sites related to the life of this great statesman. The instructor will be Dr. Jim Williams, a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., site of Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946. Contact Williams at 615-898-2633 or jhwillia@mtsu.edu or Jennifer Campbell, MTSU Study Abroad Office, at 615-898-5179 or jjcampbe@mtsu.edu.

BRICK BY BRICK--Each and every brick to be laid in the MTSU Veterans Memorial will represent the support of an entire community for the enlightenment and inspiration of future generations. The bricks may be reserved by all those who wish to honor a veteran or active-duty service member or merely acknowledge their support for the construction of a permanent on-campus memorial to MTSU faculty, students, staff and administrators who perished while serving their country. The bricks will be integrated into the overall memorial design. All proceeds will help to pay for the memorial, which will be an outdoor classroom that includes a wall with the names of the military personnel. To purhcase a brick with a memorial message, send a tax-deductible check of $150 payable to “MTSU Foundation—Veterans Memorial,” to P.O. Box 109, Murfreesboro, TN 37132. Credit cards also are accepted. Address any questions about brick purchases or donations to Robyn Kilpatrick at 615-898-5223 or rkilpatr@mtsu.edu.