UIS Visual Arts Gallery hosts "New Springfield" exhibit inspired by Vachel Lindsay

The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is pleased to present the fall feature exhibition New Springfield, a site-specific installation from new media artist Rosemary Williams.

The exhibition runs Monday, Oct. 7 through Thursday, Nov. 14. Williams will present a public lecture on Thursday, Oct. 17, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium with a gallery reception to follow from 6:30-8:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

The exhibit grows from The Golden Book of Springfield, a novel written in 1920 by famed and local poet Vachel Lindsay. In the novel, Lindsay imagined a utopic vision of world peace coming to Springfield, Illinois in the year 2018. This project, emerging from Lindsay’s book and a site visit to Springfield, will use the looming five-year deadline for world peace, as envisioned by Lindsay, as a way of framing the city of Springfield and investigating broader cultural issues.

“I am interested in the contrasts between Lindsay’s vision and the actual reality of Springfield in 2013, five years before this utopia is to be achieved,” said Williams.

The exhibit will include an oversized, dominating composite photograph of Vachel Lindsay’s historic Springfield home as well as stacks of printed images of every house in Springfield, taken as screen shots from Google maps. One of the images, showing a man aggressively confronting the Google maps camera, will be pinned to the wall across from Lindsay’s home, in opposition to his idealism.

“As a romantic, Lindsay envisioned the struggle to perfect human society, and we can imagine his lofty ideas as we gaze on his well-preserved house. But the day-to-day concerns of most people may or may not match up with his own vision,” adds Williams.

Williams’s work has been exhibited widely in venues in the United States and Europe. She was a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Fellow in Visual Arts for 2007-8. Her work has been profiled in the New York Times Magazine, The Times of London, and National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation. Rosemary received her MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College, City University of New York, and is currently associate professor of integrated media in the Art Department at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery is centrally located on the UIS campus in the Health and Science Building, room 201 (HSB 201). Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information on exhibition programming, please visit www.uis.edu/visualarts/gallery, call 217/206-6506 or email alach3@uis.edu.

UIS Speaker Series presents "Chicanas of 18th Street: Women Community Activism from Latina Chicago"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series presents “Chicanas of 18th Street: Women Community Activism from Latina Chicago”. The Hispanic Heritage Month event will include a panel of women activists of Mexican ancestry who lived and worked in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood from the 1970s. Leonard Ramirez, who will also be joining the panel, featured these women in the book Chicanas of 18th Street: Narratives of a Latino Movement.

WHEN: Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: The panel will discuss the activist tactics their group used to organize for educational equity and social reform. They will also speak about their motivations, initiatives, and experiences, offering insight on the dynamics that transform community members into activists.

Ramirez was a founder and past director of the Latina American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago and received the Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education (ILACHE) Educational Leadership in 2010 for his efforts. His book, Chicanas of 18th Street, received the Society of Professors of Education Book Award in 2013.

This event is co-sponsored by the UIS Organization of Latin American Students, Women and Gender Studies Department, and Sociology and Anthropology Department.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.

"Foot in the Door" Fair helps UIS students and alumni find jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Career Development Center will host the 2013 “Foot in the Door” Career Fair for students, alumni, and community members looking for full-time positions, part-time jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities – both on- and off-campus. The event is free to all attendees.

WHEN: Thursday, September 26, 2013 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

WHERE: The Recreations and Athletic Center (TRAC) on the UIS Campus

DETAILS: The “Foot in the Door” Career Fair is intended to connect students, alumni and community members with employers to discuss career opportunities in a broad range of available positions. Attendees are encouraged to bring their resumes and networking cards to the event. A business casual dress code will be observed.

A partial list of off-campus employers attending includes AriesPro, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), County Market, Dot Foods, Fastenal Company, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Hope Institute, Horace Mann, Illinois Government (Dept. of Revenue, Prisoner Review Board, Division of Rehab Services), LRS Consulting Services, Memorial Medical Center, Rite-Hite Corporation: Arbon Equipment Corporation Division, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, and Wells Fargo. The complete listing of employers can be found online at www.uis.edu/career.

This event is hosted by the UIS Career Development Center in collaboration with their Career Advantage Business and Campus Partners: UIS College of Business and Management, AriesPro, and Rite-Hite Corporation: Arbon Equipment Corporation Division.

For more information about the “Foot in the Door” Career Fair, go online to www.uis.edu/career or call the Career Development Center at 217/206-6508. Individuals requesting disability related accommodations should also contact the UIS Career Development Center.

UIS Lunch & Learn Series presents "From Liverpool to Fiji: A Celebration of Music"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Alumni SAGE Society and Illinois State Historical Society presents “From Liverpool to Fiji: A Celebration of Music” as part of its annual Lunch and Learn Series.

WHEN: Thursday, October 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Public Affairs Center (PAC) Conference Room C/D, located on the lower level of the PAC on the UIS campus.

DETAILS: The year 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles coming to America. Michael Cheney, Beatles historian and UIS professor of communication and economics, will provide an interactive discussion on Beatles history.

Sharon Graf, UIS associate professor of ethnomusicology, recently spent a sabbatical conducting research in the South Pacific and will speak on the musical instruments of the South Pacific and expression of the Polynesian identity.

The cost for the hot buffet lunch and program is $20/per person. Reservations are requested, as seating is limited. Seating is available in the back for those who do not purchase the luncheon buffet. A discounted series subscription is available for $50/per person.

Other upcoming Lunch & Learn events include “War, Medicine and Remembrance” on November 7 and “Quilts, Canvas and Women Artists” on December 5.

Visit www.uiaa.org/uis to register online. For more information, contact the UI Alumni Association at UIS at 217/206-7395 or email alumni@uis.edu.

UIS Creative Writing and Publishing Series brings nationally recognized writers and poets to Springfield

The University of Illinois Springfield Creative Writing and Publishing Series will bring several emerging and established fiction writers and poets of national reputation to Springfield in October. All events are free and open to the public.

“We have a special focus on writers with an interest in place,” said Meagan Cass, UIS assistant professor of English. “Visiting writers give readings from their work, discuss the writing (and publishing) life, and visit UIS classes.”

The first public reading by Matt Rasmussen will take place on Thursday, October 3 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Residence Hall Great Room at UIS. His poetry collection, Black Aperture, was selected by Jane Hirshfield as the winner of the 2012 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and was published by Louisiana State University Press in May 2013. Rasmussen is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Corporation of Yaddo, the Loft Literary Center, the Jerome Foundation, Intermedia Arts, the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota, and the McKnight Foundation.

Katherine Boo, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post will headline the second public event on Monday, October 7 at 7 p.m. in UIS Sangamon Auditorium. Over the years, her reporting from disadvantaged communities has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur “Genius” grant, and a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. For the last decade, she has divided her time between the United States and India. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, her first book, won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2012. The appearance is in collaboration with UIS Brookens Library. Tickets for this event are free, but should be required in advance from the Sangamon Auditorium Box Office at 217/206-6160.

The final October event will feature husband and wife Adam Prince and Charlotte Pence on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Residence Hall Great Room at UIS. Adam Prince’s award-winning fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Narrative Magazine, among others publications. His debut short story collection The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men was published with Black Lawrence Press in 2012. The recipient of the Tickner Fellowship at the Gilman School in Baltimore, he is currently at work on a novel about identity and surveillance that takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia. Charlotte Pence’s full-length poetry collection, Spike, will be released by Black Lawrence Press in 2014. She is also the author of two award-winning poetry chapbooks, The Branches, the Axe, the Missing (Black Lawrence Press, 2012) and Weaves a Clear Night (Flying Trout Press, 2011). Pence also edited The Poetics of American Song Lyrics (University Press of Mississippi, 2012) that explores the similarities and differences between poetry and songs. She is a professor at Eastern Illinois University.

For more information about the UIS Creative Writing and Publishing Series, contact Meagan Cass at 217/206-8358 or mcass3@uis.edu.

UIS Speaker Series presents “The Banning of Mexican American Studies"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series presents “The Banning of Mexican American Studies: Towards Cultural & Intellectual Apartheid in Arizona”. The Hispanic Heritage Month event will be led by Augustine Romero, a founder and former director of the Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) Mexican American/ Raza Studies Department.

WHEN: Monday, September 23, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Teachers in Tucson, Arizona's majority Mexican American K-12 school district developed a Mexican American Studies curriculum that emphasized critical thinking and helped students of Mexican ancestry see themselves in the curriculum. Despite evidence that it enhanced student engagement, graduation rates, and performance on state exams, the Arizona legislature passed a law that shut down the program in 2012. Romero will discuss the theory behind the program and its success. He will address the attacks and dismantling of the department, the current court-mandated resurrection of the model, and what the curriculum means to the students.

Romero is TUSD's director of multicultural curriculum and co-founder of the Social Justice Education Project. He has served on Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano's Latino Advisory Board and was Tucson's Hispanic Professional Action Committee’s Man of the Year (2011).

This event is co-sponsored by the UIS Organization of Latin American Students, Women and Gender Studies Department, and Sociology and Anthropology Department.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.

UIS Speaker Series presents "Law, Religion, and Politics in the American Constitution and Tradition"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series and the Notre Dame Club of Central Illinois presents “Law, Religion, and Politics in the American Constitution and Tradition” as part of a Constitution Day event. The Hesburgh Lecture will be led by Richard Garnett, professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Garnett’s talk will address how citizens might understand the Constitution’s prescription of a separation of church and state, and what is required of religious believers and institutions that engage in public and political life. The topic is timely, especially in the wake of recent elections, the Pledge of Allegiance case, the contraception-coverage mandate, and the same-sex marriage controversy, and the debate about the appropriate role of religious believers and arguments in public life.

Garnett teaches and writes about criminal law, constitutional law, religious freedom, and the freedom of speech. Before coming to Notre Dame, he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and to Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He also practiced law at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, specializing in criminal defense and religious liberty matters. Garnett’s scholarly work is in the areas of law and religion, federalism, school choice, and the freedom of association. He has also participated in the drafting of numerous amicus curiae briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in First Amendment cases, including Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the landmark school-voucher decision.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.

PAPS series to screen "Living in the End of Times (According to Slavoj Žižek)"

WHAT: The Political Art and the Public Sphere (PAPS) series at the University of Illinois Springfield presents a screening and discussion of the film Living in the End of Times (According to Slavoj Žižek).

WHEN: Monday, September 16, 2013 at 6 p.m.

WHERE: Brookens Auditorium on the lower level of Brookens Library at UIS

DETAILS: One of the world’s most famous living philosophers is Slovenian thinker Slavoj ŽiŽek. ŽiŽek’s talks pack auditoriums and stadiums around the world, and he has achieved a peculiar “celebrity” status, despite the fact that he writes books about G.W.F. Hegel and Jacques Lacan. In this film, ŽiŽek is alone on a stage, surrounded by giant television screens, bombarded with clips of images and quotes revolving around four major issues: the economic crisis, ecology, war, and the state of democracy.

The PAPS series is a monthly event on the UIS campus hosted by Richard Gilman-Opalsky, associate professor of Political Philosophy.

The theme of the Fall 2013 PAPS series is “Theory in the World”. The series is dedicated to discussions of social and political questions relating to theory and praxis, that is, to the role of thinking in dealing with real problems of economic crisis, war, democracy, and ecology. The Fall 2013 series explores the importance of philosophy for human action in the world. PAPS events are included in the Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series. All events are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Gilman-Opalsky at 217/206-8328 or email rgilm3@uis.edu.

UIS Speaker Series presents "Immigration and Illegality in the American Imagination"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series presents “Immigration and Illegality in the American Imagination” featuring Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, associate professor of history and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at The Ohio State University.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: This talk and multi-media presentation will explore the historical origins and contemporary manifestations of how the U.S. became a "gatekeeping" nation. It focuses on the groups of immigrants - Asian Americans, Eastern and Southern Europeans, Latino/a, political dissidents, women migrating alone, as well as those who have disabilities - which the U.S. government and people have sought to exclude and restrict to socially engineer ideal Americans.

The United States is often described as a nation of immigrants, a characterization that erases the history of indigenous people to the formation of the nation. At the same time, many Americans harbor intense fears about "the huddled masses" and "the wretched refuse" from other shores.

Professor Wu joined the faculty of Ohio State in 1998 after receiving her Ph.D. from Stanford University. She teaches courses on Modern U.S. History, Asian American History, Women's History, Immigration History, History of Comparative Racialization, the 1960s, Intersectionality, Women and Labor, Race and Sex, and American Women's Movements. She is particularly interested in incorporating new media assignments into her classes.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. All events are free and open to the public.