The Butler Brown Bag Research Seminar

Schedule of Speakers from Fall 2008

September 10, 2008
Jamie Comstock, Communication Studies and Provost,
“Mutual Influence in the Teacher Student Relationship”
In this talk, Provost Comstock will address these two basic questions:
  1. How can professors manipulate their classroom behaviors to promote the highest level of cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning for students, and
  2. How can students manipulate their classroom behaviors in order to bring out the best in their professors?
Provost Comstock will be introduced by Jeanne Van Tyle, Pharmacy Practice and President of Faculty Senate.
September 17, 2008
Margaretha Geertsema, Journalism,
"Who is Talking with the Lion in its Den? Gender and Media Activism in South Africa."
This presentation will report results of a case study of the South African-based nonprofit organization Gender Links, which was founded in 2001 with the specific mission of changing gender relations in and through the media. During the past six years, Gender Links has done a tremendous amount of work through media monitoring projects, audience research, gender policy work, gender training, gender justice campaigns, opinion pieces and commentaries, media literacy projects, and several publications. This Brown Bag presentation will focus on what Gender Links considers to be the most effective strategies for bringing about change in mainstream media organizations in South Africa, as well as challenges faced by the organization. The study consisted of an institutional analysis of Gender Links materials, in-depth interviews with 25 participants in Johannesburg, and a two-week long participation observation in July 2007.
NOTE: this talk will be held in GH108
September 24, 2008
David Woods, Journalism and the Indianapolis Star,
"Back from Beijing: A Journalist’s Olympic Experience"
David Woods, a sports writer for the Indianapolis Star, has covered six Olympics. He is an adjunct professor in the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism, where he teaches a special topics course in sports writing. Mr. Woods is a graduate of the University of Illinois and has been a journalist for 37 years. Many of you will recognize his byline on Butler University sports stories in the Indianapolis Star.
(See also his Top 10 Olympic Moments.)
NOTE: this talk will be held in GH108
October 8, 2008 (rescheduled from 10/1)
Siobhán McEvoy-Levy, Political Science,
"Negotiating Boundaries & Inventing Peace: Children and Youth in Global Conflict"
I will talk about my ongoing research on the roles of children and youth as actors in global conflict and post-war societies, and the relationship between images of youth, intergenerational dynamics in conflict zones, and peacebuilding. There are multiple dimensions of youth agency in warzones. For example, in conflict zones youth interact with their peers in numerous overlapping spaces - such as armed groups, peace organizations, on the streets, in schools, in religious communities, and refugee camps. These interactions provide vital support networks, shape the wider social and political context, and create and recreate knowledge about conflict and peace. I consider the implications of these processes for perpetuating violence and/or for contributing to post-war reconstruction and reconciliation.
October 29, 2008
Carrie Maffeo, Jennifer Snyder, Darin Ramsey, and Michael Vance, COPHS,
"Popol Vuh meets Machu Picho – slides and discussion"
Faculty that accompanied students on medical missions to Peru and Guatemala will relate their experiences. The Peru trip was a COPHS project and most of the students were either pharmacy or physician assistant, while the Guatemala trips involved students from a wide variety of majors. The faculty would like to explore the value and feasibility of these types of group international expeditions as educational endeavors. The logistics of coordinating such a program, expenses, need for coordination with groups in the other countries, expectations of students, problems encountered by participants including illness and adjusting to life in a different culture will be discussed. Are projects such as these worth pursuing at Butler University?
November 5, 2008
Robert Holm, University Research Programs and the Butler Summer Institute,
Bob will introduce two BSI students from this past summer, each of whom will talk briefly about their research projects:
  • Jill Devine, Biology, TBA
  • Keenan Hecht, Mathematics & EDDP, TBA
November 19, 2008
Eloise Sureau, French,
"Redon reader of Ducasse; spiders and hypotyposes in black and white"
Despite the decade that separates Ducasse' strange and disturbing novel Maldoror’s Cantos (1868) and Redon’s lithographies (1880’s), both works display striking similarities. It almost seems as though, unknowingly, Redon had put Ducasse' words into images, thus allowing Ducasse' black and white hypotyposes to be shown in a radically more visual light. This presentation will compare and contrast Redon and Ducasse, both personally and esthetically, with a particular focus on the motif of the spider, a Romantic figure dear to both artists.

Schedule of Speakers for Spring 2009

April 1, 2009
Elizabeth Mix, Art
"Appropriation - Gustav Klimt"
April 22, 2009
Rebecca Dolan, Botany and Friesner Herbarium Director
"Spring is Coming - Wildflowers in the Butler Woods"
Come see photos and learn about native plants on campus. You can also sign up for Campus Bloom and Groom and/or come on Rebecca's nature walk in May to see the wonderful plants in situ.

Organizers

Carol Reeves, English creeves@butler.edu, 9858, and
Jon Sorenson, Computer Science & Software Engineering, jsorenso@butler.edu, 9765.