Thursday, October 25, 2012

10/31 - Athenaeum at 1pm - Birthing the Monster: Unnatural Reproduction by Andrea Wood & Brandy Schillace on Halloween!

Please join us for our Library Athenaeum at 1pm on Halloween, Wednesday October 31.  Birthing the Monster: Unnatural Reproduction will be presented by Andrea Wood and Brandy Schillace, Assistant Professors of English at WSU.

PAPER 1: “Failed Futurity: Reproductive Anxieties, Undead Children, and Queering Survival in Apocalyptic Zombie Films”

The zombie is the “monster du jour,” omnipresent in current horror media as the emblem of an imagined undead future. Apocalyptic scenarios tend to serve as the catalyst for the annihilation of the normative social order, producing a chaotic and anarchic time and place in which survivors become the marginal Other to the continuously expanding homogeneous zombie hordes. Collapse of the dominant social order occurs in tandem with the collapse of the symbolic order—the zombie apocalypse is always an abject one. Survivors must abandon the past and their conventional understandings of futurity, which generally revolve around the institutions of marriage, family, and the reproductive imperative, in order to survive in a world that has lost meaning. This paper examines how the failure of futurity becomes manifest in the figure of the zombie child, who provokes a queer understanding of survival predicated on alternative kinship structures and the temporality of living in the present moment.

PAPER 2: ‘Children of the Night’ Dracula, Degeneration and Monstrous Birth at the fin de siècle

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is often read as a narrative of reverse colonization, revealing fears of degeneration at the fin de siècle. Anxieties over the decline of empire and the degeneration of masculinity in Victorian Britain resulted in a number of dystopic narratives, each revealing an uneasy relationship between devolution, sexuality, sexual identity and mental health. However, the signal terror of Stoker’s vampires lies not only in their overt sexuality and promiscuity—but also in their fecundity. Both “father” and unnatural mother, Count Dracula is capable of reproducing the undead at an alarming rate. Culminating in a re-examination of the only human birth in Stoker’s novel—Mina Harker’s son Quincy—this project seeks to provide new insight into 19th century anxieties about degeneration’s naissance.

The Krueger Library Athenaeum is located on the second floor of the Library, bluff side.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Sunday, October 21, 2012

10/24 - Noon - Book Signing & Reception with Dr. Conradin Perner

Dr. Conradin Perner – Book Signing & Reception
WSU Darrell W. Krueger Library
Wednesday October 24
12:00 Noon – 1:00 p.m., Conference Room

WSU Darrell W. Krueger Library invites you to celebrate the acquisition of the four volume monograph: The Anyuak – Living on Earth in The Sky by WSU Lyceum Series speaker Dr. Conradin Perner.

Dr. Conradin Perner is a Swiss scholar who has worked in the fields of literature, ethnography, diplomacy and humanitarian causes. He has been heavily involved in the peace-making process in Sudan.  His Lyceum talk is Thursday, Oct. 25 @ 7:30 p.m. in Stark 103.

The Anyuak live on both sides of the border between South Sudan and South-western Ethiopia. They are a highly intellectual, strong-minded and well-organised people who have created, in the middle of so-called wilderness, a centre of human civilisation. If their socio-political system is of a particular interest, their philosophy is equally fascinating: it centres on the human person and governs his or her relationship not only within human society but also with animals, earthly matters and spiritual forces. Thanks to their stubborn, almost desperate belief in the essential goodness of existence and the positive forces of life, the Anyuak have – in spite of all pressures from outside – up to now succeeded in preserving their cultural identity and maintaining their pride of being “pure human beings”.

The monograph on the history and culture of the Anyuak is the result of more than five years of fieldwork (1976–1983). It is a well-documented, detailed and passionate description of an African people’s spiritual and material world, their culture and history. Myths, oral traditions, stories, maps, genealogies, records of songs and music as well as a great number of photographs invite the reader to join in the journey through the universe of the Anyuak. The author writes:

“More than thirty years have passed since the time of my field work; the Anyuak universe reflected in my monograph has undergone fundamental changes – not always to the benefit of the people.  Will the Anyuak survive “modern times”, get respect for their identity and eventually enjoy their human rights?  Will they be part of any positive development?  The long-standing civil war has ended, the people of South Sudan have decided to separate from the North and take their destiny into their own hands … There is reason to hope!” 


Please join us to review the books, learn about the Anyuak and talk with the author and Lyceum guest Dr. Perner and his host Dr. Beckry Abdel-Magid. 

10/24 - Athenaeum at 1pm - Residence Life: The Benefits and Opportunities of On-Campus Living and Why Students Don't Live in Dorms

Please join us at 1:00pm on Wednesday, October 24, for "Residence Life: The Benefits and Opportunities of On-Campus Living and Why Students Don't Live in Dorms" presented by Tyler Treptow and Dan Badalamente.

“Dorm.” (Gasp) It’s a common mistake among incoming and current students and many others.  What does dorm exactly mean and why is the word frowned upon?  How do professional and student staff members strive to create an on-campus living environment that will benefit all students? This presentation by two student leaders will focus on just that---how WSU’s on-campus living facilities and the employees/leaders that work in them are dedicated to improving the lives of the students that call them home and why exactly the buildings are called residence halls.

Please encourage your students and colleagues to attend.

The Library Athenaeum is located on the second floor of the Krueger Library, bluff side. For more information about the fall Athenaeum events please visit: http://www.winona.edu/library/athenaeum/

Friday, October 12, 2012

10/17 - Athenaeum at 2pm: Elections 2012! Voting in Winona and the Ballot Amendments

Please join us at 2:00pm on Wednesday, October 17, for Elections 2012! Voting in Winona and the Ballot Amendments presented by Kara Lindaman, Matt Bosworth, and Heather Hawkins.

Join us to learn about voting in Winona. There will be information available on: where do I vote, what offices can I vote for, and a description of the voter registration process. Our presenters will discuss voter turnout and the two amendments on the Minnesota Ballot. Kara Lindaman, professor of Political Science & Administration, will provide an overview of issues that affect voter turnout. Matt Bosworth, professor of Political Science & Administration, and Heather Hawkins, assistant professor of History, will discuss the ballot amendments for the state of Minnesota, the Voter Identification Amendment and the Same-Sex Marriage amendment respectively. There will be time for questions/answers. We hope this session will be informative for you as the Tuesday, November 6, 2012 elections are right around the corner. 

Please Note: This event starts at 2pm.

The Athenaeum is located on the second floor of the Krueger Library, bluff side.
 
For more information about the Athenaeum schedule, please visit our web site at:
 

Friday, October 5, 2012

10/10 Athenaeum at 1pm - Laundry or Lawn Mowing? Housework as Gender Performance in Same-Sex Couples by Nicole Civettinii

Please join us at 1pm on Wednesday, October 10 for our Athenaeum titled  Laundry or Lawn Mowing? Housework as Gender Performance in Same-Sex Couples  presented by Nicole Civettini, Assistant Professor, Sociology.

Professor Civettini will discuss her test of an original theory that incorporated the idea of normative vs. non-normative gender displays with the "gender performance" approach and a trend toward gender liberalism among lesbians and gay men. In a survey of 244 members of same-sex couples, people who expressed high levels of gender-normative traits (femininity for lesbians, masculinity for gay men) did not use housework as way to create a gendered identity. However, women who expressed greater masculinity did a smaller share of housework than other women, and men who expressed greater femininity contributed a larger share of housework relative to other men in the sample.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

10/4 & 10/11 - Learn about RefWorks: Bibliography and Citation Management

On October 4th and 11th at 3:00pm the Krueger Library will have two hands-on practical sessions on how to use RefWorks.  Stop by Library room 102 at 3pm to learn more and set up a personal account.

RefWorks is a web-based personal database/citation manager that will allow you to:
  • Create your own databases of citations by importing references from the WSU Library Catalog and WSU Databases or entering them using a template.
  • Automatically generate bibliographies in all major styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago, etc.).
  • Format your paper and footnotes/endnotes in all major styles.
  • And then export them as several document types (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.).
  • Store your sources for future research. 
If you have questions please contact Kendall Larson  507.457.5367