Monday, November 12, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Is it justice or just us?

Olga Trujillo, a much-honored activist against the abuse of women, children and immigrants, will speak at 4 p.m., tomorrow, Nov. 13, in the Tennessee Room of MTSU’s James Union Building. Her speech, which is presented by the June Anderson Women’s Center, is free and open to the public. Trujillo, who survived abuse as a child and rape as an adult, is Director of Programs at Casa de Esperanza in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of O.R.T. Solutions, Inc., a company that works on domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, immigration and human trafficking issues. Her career began in the U.S. Department of Justice, where she assessed asylum regulations implemented by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. She also oversaw the department’s implementation of the Mariel Cuban program.

Contact the June Anderson Women’s Center at 615-898-2913.
jawc@mtsu.edu

It’s all right, Ma, I’m only bleeding.

Cindy Rehm, assistant professor of art at MTSU, will present “Spontaneous Bleeding: The Performative Video Works of Cindy Rehm,” the latest lecture in the Fall 2007 Women’s Studies Research Series, at 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, in Room 100 of MTSU’s James Union Building. The lecture is free and open to the public. Rehm will present and discuss a selection of her video works, which explore female identity, eroticism and hysteria. “The works express visceral manifestations of female desire through private acts of ritual,” Rehm says. “The images oscillate between the beautiful and the grotesque and aim to diversify the erotic possibilities of the female body.”

For more information, contact Dr. Jane Marcellus at 615-898-5282
jmarcell@mtsu.edu
or the Women’s Studies office at 615-898-5910.
womenstu@mtsu.edu

Old McDonald had a Garmin, E-I-E-I-O.

Today’s high-tech farmers are using global positioning systems. “Technology basically allows us to practice agriculture smarter,” says Dr. Tony Johnston, agribusiness and agriscience. “We’re actually using GPS (global positioning systems) to determine how much fertilizer a specific place in a field needs as I’m applying that fertilizer.” Since individual locations on a field don’t need much fertilizer and some need more, knowing which areas need less will help the farmer save money and increase yields. “We are actually using less pesticide today than we’ve ever used before in our country,” Johnston says.

Contact Johnston at 615-898-2421.
johnston@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

DEPENDING ON THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS--The Center Players will perform their inaugural presentation, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Thursday through Saturday Nov. 15-17 at the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts, 110 West College Street in Murfreesboro. Blanche DuBois will be portrayed by Dr. Elyce Helford, director of Women’s Studies and professor of English at MTSU. Dr. Robert Bray, an MTSU English professor and Tennessee Williams scholar, will deliver a talk titled “Laying the Tracks for His Streetcar: The Evolution of a Great American Play” at 7 p.m. on the night of the Nov. 8 performance. A video of Bray’s talk will be played at future performances. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. for the Sunday matinee. Contact the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County Center for the Arts at 615-904-ARTS (2787) or http://www.boroarts.org.