Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Migrations

“Migrations” is the theme of the 16th annual Tennessee Undergraduate Social Science Symposium at MTSU on Thursday and Friday Nov. 15-16. The gathering is expected to attract 800-1,000 undergraduates and educators from the local campus as well as from across the state. “Papers presented by students will include a variety of topics (such as) immigration, social problems, social and cultural theory, hate crimes, race and ethnicity, Appalachian studies, health, family and work, sociology of emotions, and experiential learning in archeological studies and study abroad,” says Dr. Vicky MacLean, associate professor of sociology at MTSU and the event’s co-director.

Contact Connie Huddleston at 615-494-7628.
chudd@mtsu.edu

To your health

With all the information and advertising about vitamins on the market, how is a confused consumer supposed to know which vitamins to take and how many of them? Dr. Janet Colson, human sciences, says, “It is very true that too much of a vitamin (and/or mineral) can be just as harmful as too little. For those who do take a supplement, the amount of any vitamin (and/or mineral) in the supplement should not exceed 100 percent of the DRI (dietary reference intakes). The problem arises when people take single nutrient supplements that can provide about 2-10 times the amount needed. In this case, the vitamin can have a pharmacological effect—in other words, it acts like a drug.”

Contact Colson at 615-898-2091.
jcolson@mtsu.edu

Mind and body

Princeton Athletic Director Gary Walters says sport should have the same prestige in academia as drama and music. Walters says sport is great art and should be accepted as such, but an intellectual appreciation of sport get short shrift in colleges and universities. Dr. Colby Jubenville, health and human performance, says, “The challenge sport administrators like Walters … face is communicating the value of ‘body-knowing’ in developing the body, mind and emotion of a total person. For example, from a ‘mind-knowing’ perspective, we all assert that 1 + 1 = 2 and would equate that in “body-knowing” to a one-inch putt on the golf course. But ask the masses to solve for ‘y’ in the equation of y = mx + b, and many will be at a loss. In ‘body-knowing’ terms, one might equate the equation of a straight line (y = mx + b) to Michael Jordan jumping from the free throw line to dunk the basketball.”

Contact Jubenville at 615-898-2909.
jubenvil@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.

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 or jmarcell@mtsu.edu or the Women’s Studies office at 615-898-5910 or
womenstu@mtsu.edu.

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., today, 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 or jawc@mtsu.edu.