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SHSU Update For Week Of Feb. 24
- Crane To Highlight Education In �Unconventional� Journey
- Theatre Production To Revive ‘Our Town’
- University Journal Seeks Literary Submissions
- Spring Concert To Highlight Women’s, Concert Choirs
- New Degree In Victim Services Area To Be Available In Fall
- Houston Documentary Scheduled To Be Broadcast March 20
- SHSU Celebrates The Year Of The Snake
- Staff Council Spotlights Writing Center Secretary
- Submit Update Items Here
Crane To Highlight Education In ‘Unconventional’ Journey
Jeff Crane, associate professor of history, will take students, and members of the community, down his “long and winding road,” sharing the benefits and challenges of an unconventional journey on Tuesday (Feb. 26).
His discussion, part of the Honors 3332 Spring Journeys Seminar, will begin at 5 p.m. in the Smith-Hutson Building's Haney Auditorium, in Room 186.
The presentation will focus on “the role of real world experience in education” and will include readings and discussion on community learning and experience based education versus online education, Crane said.
Crane’s unconventional “journey” to SHSU began as a “Navy brat” from Washington, who, upon graduating from high school, joined the U.S. Army as a linguist-interrogator, served largely in a psychological operations unit at Fort Bragg, N.C.
“As a young man I traveled extensively. At age 16 I spent two months on the road, hitchhiking from Washington to Los Angeles and other places in California,” he said. “I have backpacked extensively in Alaska, the Olympics and Cascades of Washington and in desert regions of Utah and California.”
He earned his doctorate at Washington State University in American history and has been teaching at SHSU for six years.
Crane’s areas of interest include the American West and environmental history, about which he has published five articles and two books, Natural Protest: Essays on the History of American Environmentalism and Finding the River: An Environmental History of the Elwha.
“The thing I enjoy most about SHSU is the ability to teach undergraduates and work with them closely in a real classroom environment,” he said.
Crane’s presentation, sponsored by the Elliott T. Bowers Honors College, is part of a class designed to show students what characteristics lead to success.
It is open to the public.
For more information, contact instructor Patrick Lewis at 936.294.3397.
Theatre Production To Revive ‘Our Town’
Sam Houston State University’s department of theatre and musical theatre will explore the idea of universal human experience through the lives of childhood sweethearts when it presents “Our Town,” Wednesday (Feb. 27) through Saturday (March 2).
Show times will be at 8 p.m. each day, with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee in the University Theatre Center’s Erica Starr Theatre.
“Our Town” explores the relationship between two young Grover's Corners, N.H., neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage.
When Emily loses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town—growing up, adulthood and death—is fully realized, according to the Thornton Wilder website.
Wilder's most frequently performed play, “Our Town” appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize.
“Our Town” stars Teresa Zimmermann, as Emily, and Nathan Wilson, as George.
The cast also includes Christian Quiroga, Zach Adair, Erik Saul, Garrett Hayes, Kasi Hollowell, Connor Lyon, Swayde McGaughey, Carian Parker, Michael Stewart, Cameron William Davis, Rachel Watkins, Maci Bass, Alex De Luna, Joshua Ochoa, Grant Schwenke, Ryan Darcy, Jeaneen Dorsey, Cortney Hafner, Viktoria Kareva and Sean Willard.
The play is directed by theatre associate chair Tom Prior, the stage manager is Grant Brown and the production stage manager is Mariah Gill.
Designers include Mercedes McCleary (lights), Malcolm Nichols (sets), Trey Kroon (costumes), and Ryan Brazil (sound).
Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for SHSU students and senior citizens. Group rates are available for $8.
Children under the age of 3 will not be admitted.
For more information, call the UTC Box Office at 936.294.1339.
University Journal Seeks Literary Submissions
Sam Houston State writers have the opportunity to share their creative endeavors with the literary world through the Sam Houston State Review, the literary journal of SHSU, which is currently accepting submissions for its 2012-13 issue.
The review publishes short fiction, poetry, and essays by students, faculty, staff and alumni. The deadline for submissions is March 1.
“This is one of those venues where writers get their start,” said Scott Kaukonen, director of the English department’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing. “They’ve often been churning out pages and poetry in the solitude of their dorm rooms or in the corner of Starbucks, or subjecting it to the rigors of the creative writing workshops, and it’s time to move that work out into the world and to find readers.
“Literary journals have a long tradition of identifying new writers and bringing them into print, and we’re part of that tradition.”
The journal is produced by the students enrolled in the undergraduate practicum in publishing courses, English 3383, taught by Kaukonen and creative writing professor Nick Lantz, both of whom serve as faculty advisers for the journal.
Authors may submit one short story, one essay, and up to five poems. Authors may submit in each genre.
Files should be submitted as attachments to shsreview@shsu.edu in one of the following formats: doc, docx, pdf or rtf.
Those selected for inclusion in this year’s issue will be invited to read at the review’s annual publication party later this semester.
“We’re simply seeking the best fiction, poetry and essays being produced in our little corner of the world so that we can share it with others,” Kaukonen said. “In a way, it’s not much more complicated than that. It’s an excellent opportunity for writers, students in particular, to engage with the submission and publication process.”
For more information, contact Kaukonen at kaukonen@shsu.edu or 936.294.1407 or Lantz at nick.lantz@shsu.edu or 936.294.1990, or visit the journal’s Facebook page (Sam Houston State Review).
Spring Concert To Highlight Women’s, Concert Choirs
The SHSU Women’s Chorus and Concert Choir will show their range when they perform music that spans more than 500 years during their spring concert on Tuesday (Feb. 26).
The group performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Concert Hall.
The program for the women’s chorus will include music from the Renaissance period to the 20th century, including collaborations with the jazz program and other instrumental soloists.
“The Women's Choir will sing a variety of choral music appropriate for any audience,” said Denise Eaton, conductor of the SHSU women's choir. “We will conclude our portion of the concert with the song ‘All the Things You Are,’ accompanied by a small jazz trio led by their director Aric Schneller.”
Jackie Kiefer, the graduate choral conducting student, will conduct half of the concert as partial fulfillment for her Master of Music degree in conducting.
The concert choir also will present “The World’s a Stage!,” a concert featuring numbers from opera and musical theatre such as the “Anvil Chorus,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” and selections from “Carmen.”
Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for senior citizens, and $5 for SHSU students.
For more information, call the SHSU School of Music at 936.294.1360 and for ticket information, call 936.294.2339 or email tickets@shsu.edu.
New Degree In Victim Services Area To Be Available In Fall
To help victim service providers advance their careers, Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice will offer a new, online Master of Science degree in victim services management beginning in the fall 2013 semester.
Designed for working professionals or those who want to assist victims of crime, the Master of Science degree in victim services management is a 36-hour program delivered entirely online.
The program, which can be completed in two years, includes 24 hours of required courses, such as victimology and research methods, as well as applied courses, like crime victim services management. Students also select from 12 hours of elective courses on topics relevant to the study of victim services.
“With new opportunities growing in the field of victim services, this degree will help professionals in the field to be able to better manage agencies and understand the trends and challenges facing their clients and programs, “ said Leana Bouffard, director of the victim studies program and the Crime Victims’ Institute at SHSU.
The program will train those who want to work in victim service offices or positions in law enforcement agencies, corrections, prosecutor’s offices, courts and other agencies.
The degree prepares graduates to work in various areas of victim services, including but not limited to, direct service provision, such as rape crisis centers or victim service providers; organizational management; and social policy development.
Sam Houston State University is among the few colleges across the country that offers an undergraduate degree in victim studies and even fewer that offer graduate level courses in this area. The college was one of the first to provide victimology classes more than three decades ago.
“This is one of only a few master’s programs in victim services available across the country, which will make Sam Houston State University a leader in this field of study,” Bouffard said. “In addition to helping practitioner, students will be exposed to cutting-edge research in victim studies through the college’s doctoral program.”
For more information, visit www.shsu.edu/~grs_www/vcst_ms.html.
Houston Documentary Scheduled To Be Broadcast March 20
The first “biographical documentary” ever made on the life of Gen. Sam Houston will be broadcast on Houston’s KUHT, Channel 8, on March 20.
Denton Florian’s “Sam Houston: American Statesman, Soldier and Pioneer,” which will show from 7-10 p.m. that day, includes historical reenactments based on extensive research and interviews of Houston’s descendants and other top scholars, including Sam Houston Memorial Museum former director Patrick Nolan and former curator of education Gene Pipes.
The result is a 167-minute long film that was shot in 31 locations in four states with more than 200 historical reenactors, 35 animated maps, numerous original works of art, and nearly 300 restored photographs and documents, according to the film’s Facebook page.
“The subject matter experts assembled here are the finest that have ever been brought together to discuss Sam Houston,” the page says. “Biographers, professors, authors, descendants, Native Americans, and governmental leaders who have held offices once occupied by Houston bring a variety of points of view to help understand this monumental figure of history.”
Directed by Florian and Mike Huffine, and based on the screenplay by Houston biographer James Haley, the film examines Houston’s life from his Virginia birth, through his time in Tennessee and the U.S. Senate, to his Texas death.
“We’ve pigeonholed him into Texas, and he belongs in Texas, but he was a national figure,” Florian has said. “If you’re going to talk about coast-to-coast empire, the westward expansion to the Pacific, Manifest Destiny and all that, you’ve got to talk about Thomas Jefferson and you’ve got to talk about Sam Houston.”
Sam Houston State University and the Sam Houston Memorial Museum were contributors to the film.
SHSU Celebrates The Year Of The Snake
Sam Houston State University’s foreign languages department ushered in the “Year of the Snake” on Feb. 10 with a series of events that commemorated “the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar.”
The Chinese New Year celebration was held in conjunction with the People’s Republic of China consulate-general in Houston and Chi Alpha campus ministries.
Festivities included a Chinese cultural exhibition in the Lowman Student Center Art Gallery, which featured scenery photos, paper-cut, painting, calligraphy, Chinese traditional musical instruments and handcrafts; and a “Chinese Night” at the Chi Alpha House, where students enjoyed Chinese food, games, music and the bamboo dance.
The Chinese New Year began on Feb. 10.
“Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day,” said Shengxia Ma, SHSU exchange professor of Mandarin. “New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the first month and continue until the 15th, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks to prepare for and celebrate the New Year.”
Ma’s students also celebrated the New Year with home-made dumplings that students made themselves.
“Chinese people like to make and eat dumplings on the Chinese New Year Eve. The shape of dumpling looks like gold ingot from ancient China,” Ma said. “So people eat dumplings on the New Year Eve to wish for money and treasure in the New Year.
“In addition, dumpling in Chinese is ‘JIAO ZI’ which means the dividing point of last year and next year,” Ma said. “In modern time, Chinese people like eating dumplings mostly because it is delicious and they can work together and enjoy the family time while making the dumplings.”
Staff Council Spotlights Writing Center Secretary
Ronda Harris, a secretary III in SHSU’s Writing Center, was selected by the university’s Staff Council as the February “Staff Spotlight.”
Harris has lived in Huntsville for 16 years and has worked at SHSU for almost the entire time.
She spent nine years as a secretary II in the sociology department before moving to the Writing Center.
Harris has a master’s degree in English, which she said she feels makes her a great fit for the center and that she enjoys working with the tutors and her director Ann Theodori.
“The smiles of our tutors, their ever cheerful greeting as they meet students, and the thanks I get from students as they leave the center is the best motivation possible,” she said.
In the future, the Writing Center hopes to expand to establish a center in The Woodlands, Harris said.
Submit Update Items Here
In order to assist members of the Sam Houston State University community in publicizing events, the SHSU Communications Office (Today@Sam) is now requesting that students, faculty and staff submit information about events, accomplishments or ideas for feature stories online.
Submission criteria and guidelines, including deadlines, have now been placed online, at /guidelines.html. This information is also accessible through the “Submissions” link in the right-hand navigation on Today@Sam.
From there, those submitting ideas can access forms that will allow them to provide detailed information about their idea, as well as attach event calendars, vitas/resumes or photos, depending on the type of submission.
Ideas submitted to the SHSU Communications Office are directly utilized in several ways: as news stories, “slider” or SHSU home page stories, hometown releases, and on the Today@Sam calendar.
If your submission qualifies for distribution, we will either contact you for more detailed information, or we will edit the information using SHSU/journalistic style and forward the final release to the appropriate media.
All information is verified before release, so please provide complete, accurate and timely information. Please type all responses in appropriate upper and lower cases.
For more information, contact the Communications Office at 936.294.1836 or today@sam.edu.
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SHSU Media Contacts: Julia May, Jennifer Gauntt
Feb. 22, 2013
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu
This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Associate Director: Julia May
Manager: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
