Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Bringing the Middle East to Middle Tennessee

MTSU Honors students are going beyond the headlines to understand more about the customs and values of people in the Middle East. In “Contemporary Middle East Culture: Film, Music and Literature,” students are listening to music from various traditions, viewing films produced by contemporary Arab and Israeli directors, and read literary work by writers from the region. In their explorations, they discuss issues of language, identity, borders, homeland and memory. The instructors, Dr. Sonja Hedgepeth, professor of foreign languages and literatures, and Dr. Allen Hibbard, English professor and director of the MTSU Middle East Center, can assure students of a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the Middle East than that which is afforded by news stories reported in the general media.

Contact the University Honors College at 615-898-2152.

Houston, we have a classroom.

The first of two programs connecting astronaut training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to the K-6 classroom will be Webcast today at 9 a.m. CST by the MTSU Satellite and Webcasting Center. The Tennessee Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Center will sponsor the program, which will feature a tour of the center hosted by Billy Hix, a Motlow State Community College computer science professor, and Terry Sue Fanning, the curriculum and technology coordinator for Moore County Schools, according to Dr. Connie Schmidt, director of the Instructional Technology Support Center. Teachers and students in Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Knox, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore and Warren counties may view the programs via satellite.

For more information, call Schmidt at 615-898-5191, or go to http://www.mtsu.edu/~itsc.

Pay for play

Legislation under consideration in Congress would assess a performance royalty on over-the-air broadcasts of music to be paid to performance artists and/or their record labels. At present, only composers get such royalties, but digital broadcasters pay royalties to composers and artists. Ken Sanney, recording industry adjunct professor and practicing attorney, says, naturally, over-the-air broadcasters object, but “joining the over-the-air broadcasters in their opposition to this legislation are the performers’ own collaborators: the composers and songwriters, who themselves fear that such royalties would cut into their share of the revenue generated by limited advertising dollars.”

Contact Sanney at 615-456-6502.
ksanney@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

LINGERIE LIVES!--MTSU Theatre & Dance will present Underwear: The Musical, book, music and lyrics by Heidi Ervin and Brandon Gwinn, at 7:30 p.m. from Thursday, Jan. 31 through Saturday, Feb. 2 in the Studio Theatre of the Boutwell Dramatic Arts Building. This tender, hilariously irreverent and original musical reveals a unique plan to control men and rule the world through the ingenious design of their underwear. Though lighthearted and endearing, Underwear: The Musical features scantily clad performers (no nudity) and mature themes. Therefore, it might not be appropriate for teenagers and younger children. General admission tickets are $3 each. The show will be performed in two acts with a 15-minute intermission. More information is available at http://www.underwearthemusical.com.

SHE’S A MAINIAC--MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit titled “MAINE WOMEN living on the land” featuring the works of Lauren Shaw. She photographed, recorded and videotaped 20 women whose livelihoods come either from producing a product or building a community. Shaw’s work is in the collections of the Getty Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Library of Congress, among other venues. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Tom Jimison at 615-2085 or tjimison@mtsu.edu.

DIALING FOR DELEGATES--Dr. Michael Nelson, the Fulmer Professor of Political Science at Rhodes College, will present “MTSU’s Super Tuesday Lecture” at 7 p.m. tonight, Jan. 29, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building. A member of Rhodes’ political science faculty since 1991, Nelson is the author of more than 200 articles published in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Politics and Political Science Quarterly and in periodicals such as Newsweek and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dr. John Vile, chairman of MTSU’s political science department, says Nelson is considered “the gold standard” when it comes to presidential discourse. “He’s one of the leading presidential scholars in the country,” Vile says. For more information, call 615-898-2534 or 615-898-2351.