Tag Archives: Clark University

Clark U – always in style! Fall dialogue symposium!

September 13, 2017 admin

Cece, what are you doing in this listing?!! pic: R.T.

Clark University’s fall dialogue symposium to focus on the “public good”

Lectures, art exhibit to highlight how the arts, humanities unite us in common pursuits

This fall, Clark University’s Higgins School of Humanities’ dialogue symposium “Common Pursuits/Public Good” will consider how the arts and humanities contribute to the public good through acts of advocacy and teaching; creation and critique; contemplation and scholarship.

“A commitment to the public good premises a system of shared values, even as those values change and, sometimes, come into conflict with each other,” wrote Meredith Neuman, director of the Higgins School of Humanities. “Consensus can be elusive, and compromise difficult, but the pursuit continues.”

All events listed below are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, they will be held on the Clark University campus in Dana Commons, 36 Maywood St., Worcester.

Exhibit

“ENGAGE: An exhibit by William Chambers”
On display from September 12 through November 21
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Socially engaged art exists at the intersection between powerful symbolic statements and quantifiable political change. Part installation, part performance, wholly participatory, this exhibit will feature two works by artist William Chambers – “Service Station” and “Repairs” – that explore the power of art objects to foster conversation on important issues and to allow for the unexpected. This exhibit is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Department of Visual and Performing Arts. (Chambers will give a lecture on Wed., Nov. 8.)

Community Conversation

“What’s In It for Us? A Community Conversation on the Public Good”
Thursday, September 28
7pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
How do we support, utilize, and recognize contributions to the public good? Clark University professors Barbara Bigelow (Graduate School of Management) and Toby Sisson (Studio Art) will share their respective expertise in dialogic process and community-based art as facilitators of the discussion. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and Difficult Dialogues.

Discussion

“Why Bother with Prison Education?”
Thursday, October 5
4:30pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Arguments for the value of prison education generally focus on larger social benefits, such as reduced recidivism, but arguments might also be made for the less quantifiable but no less transformative outcomes for individuals themselves. Poet Jill McDonough (UMass Boston) and Arthur Bembury (Executive Director of Partakers, a non-profit organization devoted to helping volunteers mentor incarcerated students), will lead this conversation on the fundamental role of education in the prison system. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Department of English, and the Hiatt Center for Urban Education.

Panel

“Why Get Involved with Prison Education?”
Tuesday, October 17
4:30pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
In this follow-up to “Why Bother with Prison Education?”, Clark University Professor Shelly Tenenbaum (Sociology), former Clark student Claude Kaitare, and Steffen Seitz of the Petey Greene prison tutoring program will discuss the various goals of prison education programs, offer reflections on their own experiences, and discuss volunteer opportunities. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Department of Sociology.

Readings

“Terror Rising: The Village Mob”
Wednesday, October 25
7pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Professors Gino DiIorio (Theater) and James Elliott (English), and Jennifer Plante (The Writing Center) will read scary stories that turn our attention from the fear of the monster to the fear of the mob. This event is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities.

Off-Campus Lecture

“Community and Memory: The Bullard Photographs”
Sunday, October 29
4pm
Belmont A.M.E. Zion Church
55 Illinois Street, Worcester
Cheryll Toney Holley (Sonksq and historian of the Nipmuc Nation and Hassanamisco Band of Nipmuc Indians) and Professor Janette Thomas Greenwood (History) will lead this discussion of how the recently discovered William Bullard photographs of Beaver Brook residents (1897-1917) can help reconstruct this neighborhood, its families, and their stories, suggesting lessons we can learn about community and memory today. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Department of History. Rediscovering an American Community of Color: The Photographs of William Bullard, 1897-1917 will be on display at the Worcester Art Museum from October 14, 2017 to February 25, 2018.

Lecture

“Race/Memory/Public Space”
Friday, November 3
12pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Cultural historian Mabel O. Wilson (Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation), who has written about the National African American Museum of History and Culture and was a designer of the University of Virginia’s Memorial for Enslaved African American Laborers, will examine current and historical intersections of race, architecture, and the public realm. This event is part of the African American Intellectual Culture Series and is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Office of the Provost, Africana Studies, and the Department of Political Science through the Chester Bland Fund.

Lecture

“Health Care for Good: What We Need to Learn from Radical Clinics”
Tuesday, November 7
7pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Author, performer, and practitioner Terri Kapsalis will draw upon the history of radical clinics linked to political movements, such as the Black Panther Party and the Women’s Health Movement, to address the continued need to expand economic and geographic access to quality health care and to offer a vision of what radical health care has been and can be. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities; the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies; and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Lecture

“Art as Social Practice”
Wednesday, November 8
7pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
William Chambers, instructor at Massachusetts Bay Community College and Visual Arts Chair at the Bancroft School, will consider how socially engaged art has the power to interrogate privilege and inequity as well as identity-based pretexts for social and political discrimination. This event is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities.

Also at Higgins this semester:

Lecture

“The Science of Undeath: Zombies and Animated Corpses in Historical Perspective”
Wednesday, October 18
4:30pm
Higgins Lounge, 2nd Floor, Dana Commons
Winston Black (History, Assumption College) will discuss how and why medieval scholars debated corpse animation and hence understood the porous boundaries between life and death. Clark University Professor Deborah Robertson (Biology) will offer commentary. This event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, Early Modernists Unite, and the Departments of Biology and History.

Music

🎵🎶🎵 music to our ears!

April 20, 2017 admin

Ora Szekely

From Clark University …

(I’ve made some sentences bold. – R.T.)

The nature of international conflict has evolved in recent decades.

Rather than conflict between state militaries, warfare increasingly takes place within regional conflict systems involving both states and non-state armed groups.

Understanding the internal dynamics of these organizations is an important part of understanding the nature of international conflict, according to Ora Szekely, Clark University assistant professor of political science. Their sometimes surprising policy choices have important (and sometimes unintended) consequences for both their long-term prospects and for the conflict itself.

Szekely explores these dynamics within the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict in her latest book, “The Politics of Militant Group Survival in the Middle East: Resources, Relationships and Resistance.”

Szekely draws from field research conducted in Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Egypt to compare the performances of four key non-state actors of the Arab-Israeli conflict ecosystem: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas, Amal, and Hizbullah.

Her research reveals how strategic domestic and foreign policy choices affect certain groups’ ability to “militarily resist and politically recover from confrontations with far more powerful adversaries.”

“We tend to think of wars as being either traditional interstate wars, like WWII, or smaller, local civil wars,” Szekely said. “But today, most conflicts take place as part of complex conflict systems involving multiple states and armed militant groups. Yet, even within the same conflict system, different militant groups often demonstrate very different abilities to resist attacks by their enemies, and to recover politically afterward. Understanding the roots of those differences can help us understand the dynamics of these conflict systems more broadly.”

In the course of researching the book, Szekely attended events organized by Hizbullah in Beirut and political protests led by communists in Amman.

She interviewed former PLO members in both the spacious Ministry of the Interior of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and in the decidedly less well-appointed offices of various Palestinian factions based in the in refugee camps of Damascus and Beirut, as well as members of the Palestinian parliament sympathetic to Hamas in the West Bank.

“I met with members of the Lebanese parliament from parties across the political spectrum, veterans of the Israeli military, and Palestinians in both refugee camps and political offices,” she said. She also spoke with journalists, aid workers, and UN officials around the region. “These interviews, combined with secondary sources, helped me to understand and compare the internal dynamics of a set of extremely complicated organizations in an extremely complicated region.”

Szekely’s research straddles the intersection of comparative politics and international relations.

She focuses primarily on foreign and domestic policies of non-state and proto-state military actors (rebel groups, guerrillas, insurgents, terrorists, etc.), particularly in the Middle East.

At Clark, she teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics, identity politics, civil war, and forced migration. She also is affiliated with the University programs in Peace Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from McGill University.

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Animal Issues

SPEAK OUT AGAINST TRUMPISM!!!

April 18, 2017 admin

Chiderah Okoye

NSBE Boston invites you to join us at the March for Science Boston on Saturday, April 22nd from 1pm – 4pm, at the Boston Common.

This is a family friendly event and it will be outdoors.

March For Science is a celebration of people who love and support science.

The Boston rally is part of the National March for Science taking place in Washington, DC.

NSBE Boston is an exhibition partner for the 2017 the March For Science Boston and will have an exhibition stand. NSBE Boston chapter President, Chiderah Okoye, will be a featured speaker at the Rally.

Date: April 22
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Location: Boston Common

Volunteer with NSBE Boston : If you are a interested in being a volunteer at the Boston March for Science, please contact Lenny – PCI@nsbeboston.org

March for Science champions publicly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity.

We are committed to making science accessible to everyone and encouraging people from diverse backgrounds and experiences to pursue science careers.

Diverse science teams outperform homogeneous teams and produce broader, more creative, and stronger work. This group is inclusive of all individuals and types of science.

For more information, please visit the March for Science website – www.marchforscienceboston.com

Innocence Project director to speak at Clark University, April 20:

Justin P. Brooks

The California Innocence Project, founded in 1999, espouses three goals:

to free innocent people from prison

to help train law students to become great lawyers

and to change laws and procedures to decrease the number of wrongful convictions and improve the justice system.

The California Innocence Project’s founding director, Justin P. Brooks, will talk about the organization’s crucial efforts to accomplish those key goals, during a talk at Clark University, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in the Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons, Maywood and Florence streets.

This event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by Clark’s Study Abroad and LEEP Center, and by CAPA – The Global Education Network.

Brooks is executive director at the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy and professor of law at the California Western School of Law, in San Diego, where he also directs the California Innocence Project, a law school clinic that is a founding member of global Innocence Network and has helped launch organizations throughout Latin America.

“Over the years, it has given me great joy to see our work go global in an ‘innocence movement’ that grows bigger and stronger every day,” Brooks writes.
Brooks has spent his career litigating wrongful conviction cases. He recently was featured in Time magazine, and presented popular TED Talks. His high-profile cases include the exoneration of Brian Banks, a former NFL player wrongly convicted of rape when in high school.

Brooks teaches a global seminar, titled “Wrongful Conviction,” at the CAPA London Study Center.

The seminar is open to Clark University students.

Global Seminars are three to four-week, 1-2 unit summer programs providing students with intensive study and experiential opportunities.

Animal Issues

FYI 🌷🌷🌷🌷…

April 11, 2017 admin

At the Mustard Seed kitchen, on Piedmont Street: every eve, free dinner to the community. Pictured here: Central Mass Kibble Kitchen super volunteer Dorrie Maynard checks in with super Mustard Seed volunteer “AUTUMN”💗💗💗 (in red apron, behind the counter) before dinner. Besides serving food to the needy, Autumn helps Mustard Seed diners connect with social service programs or Dorrie/Central Mass Kibble Kitchen, if they are pet owners and need help feeding their dogs and kitties. Go, Autumn, go!! pic: R.T.

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8th Annual Asian American Mental Health Forum

Spinning Threads of Hope:
Preventing Suicide in Asian Communities

Opening Remarks by:
MA Dept. of Mental Health Commissioner Joan Mikula

Keynote Speech by:
MA Dept. of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 – 9 AM to 3 PM

Higgins University Center, Clark University

Hosted by Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts

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Roberto G. Gonzales

April 14 at Clark U: Leading expert to present ‘Lives in limbo: undocumented and coming of age in America’

Clark University will host Roberto G. Gonzales for “Lives in limbo: undocumented and coming of age in America,” at NOON, on Friday, April 14, in Jefferson 320, Clark University campus.

This free, public event will highlight the disastrous effects immigration policies have had on more than two million children coming of age in the United States.

Gonzales, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has conducted the most comprehensive study of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

His book, “Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America” (University of California Press 2015), is based on an in-depth study that followed 150 undocumented young adults in Los Angeles for 12 years and exposed the failures of a system that integrates children into K-12 schools but ultimately denies them the rewards of their labor.

Gonzales’ National UnDACAmented Research Project has surveyed nearly 2,700 undocumented young adults and carried out 500 in-depth interviews on their experiences following President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

His work has been has been featured in top social science journals as well as in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, U.S. News & World Report, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Gonzales has received support for his work by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the James Irvine Foundation. He has received the American Sociological Association Award for Public Sociology in International Migration and the AERA Scholars of Color Early Career Award.

This event is co-sponsored by the Sociology Department, the Center for Gender, Race and Area Studies, the History Department, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The first 50 guests will receive a free copy of Gonzales’ book.

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As you do your spring cleaning, add these products to your ‘toss’ pile

By Amanda Nordstrom

This spring, as you dust cobwebs out of corners and pack up unwanted clothes for the charity thrift store, there’s an important task that you may not have thought of: tossing cruelly produced items from your bathroom. If your soap, shampoo, toothpaste or deodorant were made by companies that still test on animals, it’s time for a fresh start.

It’s hard to believe that in this day and age — when more than 2,400 responsible companies have gone cruelty-free — some manufacturers are still needlessly poisoning and killing animals in order to test their products. Rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and others are forced to swallow or inhale massive quantities of a test substance or endure immense pain as a chemical eats away at their eyes or skin. Some tests, such as the now-infamous lethal dose test, continue until a predetermined percentage of the animals dies.

No law in the U.S. requires companies to test personal-care products on animals — and such tests have been banned in the European Union, India, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Not only is using animals as test tubes cruel, it often produces inaccurate or misleading results. Even if a product has blinded an animal, it can still be sold to consumers.

Fortunately, the number of forward-thinking companies grows every day, as more and more manufacturers reject cruel and crude tests on animals — relics of the 1920s — and opt instead for modern, sophisticated techniques to evaluate the safety of their products. The results of non-animal tests are quick and accurate, and no one gets hurt.

If you don’t spend your days working on this issue, as I do, you may not realize that there are a surprising number of pioneering non-animal tests now in use and more in development, including cell and tissue cultures, reconstructed skin grown from human cells and computer models that allow extrapolation of existing data to predict the activity of a chemical.

For example, the fluorescein leakage test method uses a fluorescent dye to measure a chemical’s ability to break through a solid layer of cells, thereby mimicking the damage that the substance would cause to the eye. This spares rabbits the pain that they endure when chemicals are dripped into their sensitive eyes. EpiDermTM — a 3-D, human cell–derived skin model that replicates key traits of normal human skin — is more accurate at predicting allergic responses than cruel tests on guinea pigs and mice, which involve injecting them with chemicals or smearing substances onto their shaved skin.

Even China, a country not known for its progressive stance on animal welfare, is moving forward on this issue. Late last year, the Chinese government, which currently requires cosmetics companies to pay for inhumane tests on animals, announced that it is accepting findings from the completely animal-free 3T3 Neutral Red Uptake Phototoxicity Assay, which tests chemicals for their potential toxicity when they come into contact with sunlight.

As these and other sophisticated tests show, we don’t have to choose between protecting animals and keeping humans safe. It’s really a choice between effective and ineffective science.

So this year, as you go about your spring cleaning, why not clear your conscience as well as your clutter? It’s as simple as making the decision to support companies that are committed to animal-friendly principles by always buying cruelty-free. PETA has a searchable online database that makes finding cruelty-free products a breeze.

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IN CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WEEK

THE FITCHBURG COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT INVITES YOU TO:

A Community Development Celebration

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2017: 4 PM – 6 PM

GARDEN ROOM — FITCHBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY

610 MAIN STREET, FITCHBURG

• View the programs funded by the Community Development Block Grant

• Learn about current Community Development projects

All are welcome to attend.

For more information please call: (978) 829-1899

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Animal Issues

This weekend! Celebrate Mother Jones at the Worcester Historical Museum!

April 4, 2017 admin

Mother Jones

April Programs at the Worcester Historical Museum😃

While the snow thaws and we wait for the flowers to bloom, there are lots of great programs happening at Worcester Historical Museum in April:

“The Most Dangerous Woman”

Friday, April 8 at 6:30 PM

Saturday, April 9 at 2 and 6:30PM
$20 adults, $17 WHM members, seniors and students.

The story of Mother Jones, advocate of child labor laws, and the catalyst behind minimum wage and a 40-hour work week.

This sweeping epic one-woman show is a tour de force for Robbin Joyce who reprises her role as Mother.

😉Call 508.753.8278 for tickets

Freud at Clark U. Image from the Clark University Archives

In Europe I felt as though I were despised; but over there I found myself received by the foremost men as an equal. As I stepped onto the platform at Worcester to deliver my Five Lectures upon Psychoanalysis it seemed like the realization of some incredible day-dream: psychoanalysis was no longer a product of delusion, it had become a valuable part of reality.
-from Freud’s autobiography

Following Freud’s Footsteps from Vienna to Worcester

April 13 at 7 PM
Fletcher Auditorium
Worcester Historical Museum

Robert Deam Tobin, the Henry J. Leir Chair in Comparative Literature at Clark University, will trace Freud’s Worcester visit from his invitation to his return. What did Freud expect from his trip to America? What did he find in Worcester? What were the lasting results of his lecture series?

Also in April🌺🌺😉:

April 18: John Hancock’s Trunk returns to the galleries (Limited engagement)
April 19 & 20: Find your “selfie” in Worcester

WHM at 140 Celebration!!!!
Happy Birthday, WHM!

April 19

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Our history. Our future. Toast the 140th anniversary of the incorporation of Worcester Historical Museum and look to the exciting future of our shared past in the exhibit, Worcester in 5O Objects.

Worcester Wall to Wall Mural Tours

April 22
11 AM – 3 PM

Join members of the Pow! Wow! team and the Worcester Mural Archive for student-led walking tours of some of the city’s downtown murals.

Tours begin with an orientation in the WHM auditorium and loop through downtown returning to WHM.

Fashion

Part 2 – Woo news you can use … and a song🎵💗

March 31, 2017 admin

At Holy Cross college:

At Clark University:

Julie Hewitt

April 3 at Clark U: EPA exec to deliver Geller Lecture on the economics of water

Julie Hewitt, an Environmental Protection Agency executive, will present this year’s Albert, Norma and Howard ’77 Geller Lecture, “Waters… People…Value” at Clark University at 4:30 p.m., Monday, April 3, in the Grace Conference Room on the 1st floor of the Higgins University Center, 950 Main St.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hewitt is the associate director for economics in the EPA’s Office of Water, an office that ensures drinking water is safe, and restores and maintains oceans, watersheds, and their aquatic ecosystems to protect human health, support economic and recreational activities, and provide healthy habitat for fish, plants and wildlife.

Hewitt is an expert in the economics of water and water quality; she oversees a wide range of analyses that seek to understand how people are affected by changes to U.S. waters.

Hewitt previously served as a staff economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Hewitt holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

This event is co-sponsored by the George Perkins Marsh Institute, the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise and the Economics Department.

DID YOU KNOW THE WORCESTER ANIMAL RESCUE LEAGUE AT 139 HOLDEN ST. HAS A “RE-TAIL” STORE?🐰🐰 Open 7 days a week – noon to 5 p.m. All proceeds go towards the 💗 of the WARL dogs and cats! Adopt today!

The cat’s meow! For sale:

pics: R.T.

Jett! What are you doing in this post?!

Animal Issues

Clark U news …

March 28, 2017 admin

This Friday! March 31

Free Screening and Discussion of Award-Winning Doc ‘The Case
of the Three Sided Dream’ at Clark University

Clark University will host a free screening of the documentary Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Case of the Three Sided Dream this Friday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in Razzo Hall, 92 Downing St.

There will be a discussion with the film’s director, Adam Kahan, immediately following.

Adam Kahan

This event is free and open to the public.

The film is the story of multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk who went from blind infant, to child prodigy, to adult visionary, to political activist and finally to paralyzed showman who played until the day he died from stroke in 1977 at age 42.

Since its world premiere in 2014 at the South By Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), the film has garnered rave reviews including praise for Director Kahan and a renewed respect for Kirk, who Jimi Hendrix once described as “a stone cold blues musician.”

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: The Case of the Three Sided Dream, an official selection of the 2014 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the 2015 Big Sky International Film Festival, took home Best Documentary honors at the Pan African Film Festival and Soundtrack Cologne, both in 2015.

Jazz Times calls Kirk, “an artist who fiercely asserted both his creativity and his personhood while pushing against two characteristics [blindness and blackness] society would use to diminish him in any way it could.”

“My purpose,” Kahan told Esquire last year, “was really to celebrate Rahsaan Roland Kirk and his legacy, which is largely as a musician and performer.”

Kahan added, “He was a presence, and I wanted his presence to be on screen, above and beyond anyone else, playing his music and telling his story in his own words.”

In making his film, Kahan eschewed the usual documentary format, which might include musicologists and historians, in favor of a more “impressionistic and organic film.”

For more information, please visit: www.rahsaanfilm.com.

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Clark University professor’s new book examines what it means to ‘become American’

‘The New Americans’ examines immigration policy, focuses on protests and experiences of five Latino national origin groups

In 2006, millions of Latinos mobilized across the United States to protest far-reaching immigration legislation that would have criminalized undocumented immigrants and anyone who helped them enter or stay in the U.S. In her new book, Clark University political science professor Heather Silber Mohamed suggests that these unprecedented protests marked a major milestone for the Latino population — one that is even more relevant today with the immigration debate back in the forefront of American politics.

“The New Americans?: Immigration, Protest, and the Politics of Latino Identity” illuminates questions at the heart of American political culture: specifically, what does it mean to “become” American? Silber Mohamed focuses on the 2006 immigration marches. Taking advantage of a unique natural experiment, her research uses survey data to examine how protest and the immigration debate can influence Latinos’ sense of belonging in the U.S.

In her book, Silber Mohamed charts major developments in US immigration policy over the last 50 years, and explores the varied historical experiences of the five largest Latino national origin groups currently in the US— Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans and Dominicans.

She provides in-depth analysis of the Latino population, particularly in response to the politics of immigration. This nuanced study yields important insights for understanding the ongoing debate over immigration reform and the extent to which it will unify this diverse population.

Silber Mohamed spent six years working on Capitol Hill in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of her personal background (her father’s family fled Fidel Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba) and her policy experience contributed to her academic preoccupation with the effects of political debate on Latino attitudes and incorporation.

“I find that the distinct message (‘We Are America’) advanced by the Latino community during the 2006 protests led group members to think differently about what it means to be American,” said Silber Mohamed. “For some Latinos, the protests in 2006 increased their sense of belonging in the US. These events contrast sharply with today’s political environment in which inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants and heightened deportations are increasingly forcing immigrants into the shadows.”

Silber Mohamed finds that the 2006 protests were empowering for immigrants. Yet, she notes that the current political environment may instead lead to fear and mistrust, even among some Latino U.S. citizens.

Deborah Schildkraut, author of “Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration,” says the book “raises important normative questions about the conditions that promote a sense of belonging in an increasingly diverse United States.” Tomás R. Jiménez, author of “Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity,” calls it “a must read for anyone hoping to understand politics in America today.”

“The New Americans” expands on an article Silber Mohamed published in the American Politics Research in 2013. She has also published research in Latino Politics En Ciencia Politica and Politics, Groups, and Identities. She has been on the Clark faculty since 2013, and is affiliated with the Latin American and Latino Studies concentration and the program in Women’s and Gender Studies.

Animal Issues

From Clark U …

March 19, 2017 admin

Dr. Atyia S. Martin

Clark University
950 Main St.

FREE!

March 21 at Clark U: Boston’s first Chief Resilience Officer to give lecture on ‘environmental racism’

Clark University will host “Environmental Racism: Identifying and Combating Injustice in our Communities and Beyond,” a talk by emergency preparedness expert Dr. Atyia S. Martin and community organizer Rushelle Frazier at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 21, in the Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons, Clark University campus.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh appointed Dr. Martin as Boston’s first Chief Resilience Officer in August 2015. The goal of Dr. Martin’s two-year position, which is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program, is to look at how ongoing issues like income inequality, a lack of affordable housing, poverty and racism could play a role in recovery from a disaster.

She is developing a resilience strategy for Boston and leading a city-wide effort to help Boston prepare for, withstand and recover from disasters such as floods, infrastructure failure and terrorism in addition to her focus on addressing social and economic issues.

Dr. Martin previously served as the director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness at the Boston Public Health Commission. She is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and has worked for the FBI and National Security Agency.

She has also taught in the Master of Homeland Security program at Northeastern University.

Rushelle Frazier is a queer black feminist writer, permaculture educator, urban farmer, counselor and organizer. She is a member of the 2015 Worcester Slam Team and co-coordinator of Choice Words Poetry Series. Frazier uses her passion for poetry and writing as a vehicle for justice and education, and has organized the Worcester Youth Spoken Word since 2015 and is the co-originator of the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show. She is also founder of Neighborhood Botanicals, a Worcester-based company that provides herbal education and related products and services.

This free, public talk is sponsored by the Clark Sustainability Collaborative and Black Student Union.

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Dr. Richard A. Freund

Clark U. to host lecture by archaeologist who discovered hidden Holocaust escape tunnel in Lithuania, March 30

Clark University will host “Escape from the Holocaust: Geoscience and Archaeology,” a lecture by esteemed American archaeologist Dr. Richard A. Freund, at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 30, in the Grace Conference Room, first floor of the Higgins University Center, 950 Main Street, Worcester.

This free, public lecture is sponsored by the The David H. ’65 and Edith Chaifetz Endowed Fund for Jewish Studies.

In this talk, Professor Freund will discuss his recent work in Vilna, Lithuania, where he and an excavation team used electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technology to uncover an escape tunnel which had been hidden for 70 years. The 100-foot tunnel, which was found between five and nine feet below the surface, had been dug over the course of 76 days by 80 prisoners using spoons and other small tools. On the last night of Passover in 1944, the prisoners attempted the escape the tunnel; only 11 survived. Professor Freund’s team also uncovered a previously unknown mass burial pit next to the tunnel which may hold the remains of thousands of people.

Professor Freund is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Jewish History and the director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. His books “Digging Through the Bible” (2009) and “Digging Through History” (2016) have unearthed questions about the past, including the Bible, the lost island of Atlantis, and the Holocaust.

Freund’s discovery made international headlines last year. Professor Freund and his colleagues worked on a “Nova” documentary on this discovery, “Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” which will premiere on PBS on April 19.

Animal Issues

Worcester news you can use!

March 13, 2017 admin

WORCESTER STORM INFO:

Parking ban in effect early Tuesday, City offices closed, trash collection delayed

Worcester prepares for 18+inch storm!

In anticipation of Tuesday’s snow storm, predicted to drop 18-plus inches on Worcester, City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. on Monday made the following announcements:

CITY STORM RESPONSE

· Public works crews began pretreating the city’s streets at noon Monday and will continue through the evening. Morning crews will be ready to go starting at 4 a.m. Tuesday, with more than 350 pieces of equipment ready to plow, salt and sand.

· The city’s Customer Service line, 508-929-1300, will be staffed starting at 6:30 a.m. through the end of the storm.

· The City’s Emergency Operations Center at the new Regional Emergency Communications Center will open Tuesday morning and stay open throughout the storm, to allow representatives from various City departments, public utilities and the Worcester Public Schools to coordinate their response.

PARKING BAN

· A declared winter parking ban will go into effect at 2 a.m. Tuesday. Residents can check the city’s website to find out where to park on their street. The parking ban is an essential part of keeping the city’s streets clear in a snow emergency, and the Worcester Police Department teams will be enforcing the ban as soon as it begins, with tickets and tows where necessary.

· All municipal garages will be open and free to the public starting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, through the duration of the storm, until 8 a.m. Wednesday.

TRASH/RECYCLING COLLECTION

· Trash and recycling collection will be postponed for Tuesday. Collection across the City will be delayed by one day. Tuesday’s collection areas will be picked up on Wednesday; Wednesday areas will be collected on Thursday, and so on. This will allow for all available resources to be put towards plowing and clearing the roads.

SCHOOLS

· The Worcester Public Schools have canceled classes for Tuesday.

CITY OFFICES CLOSED

· City Manager Augustus has ordered all municipal offices closed on Tuesday, in keeping with Gov. Charlie Baker’s call to keep as many people as possible off the roads. City Hall, the Worcester Public Library, the Worcester Senior Center will all be closed to the public, and to all non-essential city employees.

· All City Hall meetings, including City Council, will be postponed.

· City Manager Augustus also urged all Worcester businesses to consider closing if possible on Tuesday, or to encourage employees whose jobs allow to work from home.

SHELTERS

St. John’s [Church on Temple Street] will again open its emergency overflow homeless shelter Monday evening.

The St. John’s food pantry will remain open throughout the day Tuesday.

The city’s emergency shelter at Worcester Technical High School will be ready if needed for large-scale power outages or other emergencies requiring the sheltering of a large number of people.

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Fred Astaire called her “beautiful dynamite” …

InCity Voices

Worcester news you can use!🌸🌻🌺💐🌼

March 3, 2017 admin

Chris Edwards

Clark University
950 Main St.

March 16 at Clark University: regional transgender author to discuss new memoir, ‘BALLS: It Takes Some To Get Some’

Boston-area author and transgender advocate Chris Edwards will talk about his life-changing journey and read from his memoir, “BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some,” at Clark University at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 16, in the Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons, 2nd Floor.

The event is part of the Higgins School of Humanities’ spring dialogue symposium, “What’s so funny?” which includes lectures, community conversations and exhibits on humor.

Edwards grew up in the Boston suburbs and started the process of transitioning from female to male at the age of 26 when he was a copywriter at a high profile ad agency in Boston.

Edwards, who came out at a company board meeting before his white, middle-aged colleagues, endured 28 painful and extensive surgeries to become the man he is today.

He’ll reveal how humor helped him negotiate his gender transition and gain acceptance from his family, friends, and colleagues at a time when the word “transgender” was almost non-existent.

Edwards has been interviewed by O Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Refinery29, Vice.com, the Improper Bostonian, New York Post and NECN about his book, and about being young and transgender in the workplace. He was recently interviewed by The Boston Globe about his decision to attend his 10-year high school reunion while transitioning from Kristin to Chris.

“That’s when it hit me … everyone was going to assume I didn’t show up because I didn’t have the, well, balls,” Edwards told the Boston Globe. “And while technically that might have been true (that surgery was years away), after publicly transitioning in front of 500 coworkers I’d developed quite a set of cojones. I was not about to let my former classmates think I was ashamed. I was going.”

Books will be on sale and a signing will follow Edwards’ talk. This free, public event is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

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EB3KP2 Flintlock pistol display at Culzean Castle, South Ayrshire, Scotland — Flintlock pistol display at Culzean Castle, South Ayrshire, Scotland

March 16 at Clark University: historian to give talk, ‘Controlling Guns, Then and Now’

Historian Lois Schwoerer will present, “Controlling Guns, Then and Now,” at Clark University at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, March 16, in the Higgins Lounge, Dana Commons, 2nd Floor.

This lecture offered as part of the Roots of Everything Series.

Currently in the U.S. much of the debate around gun control focuses on the second amendment, however, struggles between government effects to regulate gun ownership and public gun culture date back to the 16th and 17th century England. When the English government tried to limit possession and use of gun to wealthy subjects, the policy was met with outrage and willful disobedience.

In this timely talk, Professor Schwoerer will examine the impact of gun ownership and regulation on both the government and private subjects of early modern England. Mark Miller, professor of political science and director of Clark’s Law and Society concentration, will offer commentary.

Schwoerer is Elmer Louis Kayser Professor Emerita of History at George Washington University and Scholar in Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library; she was a member of GWU’s History Department for 32 years. Professor Schwoerer’s recent book “Gun Culture in Early Modern England” identifies and analyzes England’s domestic gun culture from 1500 to 1740, uncovering how guns became available, what effects they had on society, and how different sectors of the population contributed to gun culture.

The Roots of Everything is a lecture series sponsored by the Early Modernists Unite (EMU) — a faculty collaborative bringing together scholars of medieval and early modern Europe and America—in conjunction with the Higgins School of Humanities. The series highlights various aspects of modern existence originating in the early modern world and teases out connections between past and present.

This free, public event is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Early Modernists Unite, and the Department of History.

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Purchase these NOT-TESTED-ON-BUNNIES cosmetics and personal care products at Walgreens, CVS, Target and your local super-market. Go cruelty-free!!

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Rose’s fave saint – ST. FRANCIS XAVIER – Patron Saint of Animals. This little St. Francis sits by Rose’s back door, blessing Lilac and Jett as they enter and leave the apartment. pic: R.T.

St. John’s Church
Temple Street, Worcester

ST. FRANCIS NOVENA

THE 94th ANNUAL NOVENA OF GRACE IN HONOR OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER will begin Saturday, March 4 and run through Sunday, March 12.

Mass and Novena prayers will be held on the weekdays at 9:15 AM, 12:15 and 6:15 PM and on the regular weekend schedule (Saturday 4:15 and 7:15 PM, Sunday 8 and 10:15 AM, 12:15 and 7:15 PM).

Benediction and Novena prayers will be celebrated at 2:15 PM on March 4th and March 11th.

This year’s theme is “The Love of Christ Impels.”

All are welcome and encouraged to participate in this great Lenten tradition!