Countdown commenced
1/10/2007
I opened my email this morning and the electronic calendar popped up to tell me that 'classes begin in 16 hours.' While we don't actually commence at the stroke of midnight, we will be underway tomorrow, and students have been streaming into our college office all day for last-minute registrations, and to rendezvous with their new faculty advisors who escort them back to their offices.
Speaking of commencement, we had a grand one this past Saturday. It's always a joy to see the students' faces as they cross the stage and shake the president's hand. I didn't even botch any of their names as I read (hopefully) given the strong and timely phonetic tutoring many of them provided as they lined up to march.
Our commencement speaker was Barbara Whitney Carr, President and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden, who gave a wonderful talk with lots of good advice, including show up, say yes, ask questions, connect, communicate, keep on listening, learn to love working hard, do it because it's the right thing to do, serve the world well, and above all, laugh.
She ended magnificently: 'Ask yourself, please, one simple question: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Answer that question; then go and do it. Odds are that you won't fail. Sometimes it is only fear that turns us back from dreams which are worthy and aspirations only seemingly beyond our reach.'
She reminds me that college is that amazing place where precisely this dynamic can be enacted.
We're excited as we begin the semester to welcome our second Lund-Gill Chair to campus. Here's a little announcement I sent out earlier today:
The Lund-Gill Chair
This year's holder of the Lund-Gill Chair is David Bevington, PhD. The chair is named for former Dominican University President Sr. Candida Lund, OP and former English professor, Sr. Cyrille Gill, OP.
Each year, the Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences brings to campus an individual of the highest moral and intellectual reputation who can address themes and issues at the heart of the liberal arts and sciences.
About David Bevington
Dr. Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago where he has been teaching since 1967. Previously he taught at Harvard University and the University of Virginia.
Dr. Bevington will be teaching an honors course titled 'Wisdom and Power' for seniors in the spring 2007 semester. The course will focus on Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, The Book of Job and Shakespeare's King Lear.
David Bevington's Work
His studies include From Mankind to Marlowe, Tudor Drama and Politics, and Action Is Eloquence: Shakespeare's Language of Gesture. He is also the editor of Medieval Drama (Houghton Mifflin); The Bantam Shakespeare, in 29 paperback volumes, currently being reedited; and The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman), as well as the Oxford 1 Henry IV, the Cambridge Antony and Cleopatra, and the Arden 3 Troilus and Cressida.
He is the senior editor of the Revels Student Editions, the Revels Plays and of the forthcoming Cambridge edition of the works of Ben Jonson. He is senior editor of the recently published Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama. With Peter Holbrook, he has edited a collection of essays on The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (Cambridge University Press). His two latest books are Shakespeare, second edition and, edited with Anne Marie Welsh and Michael L. Greenwald, Shakespeare: Script, Stage, Screen (New York: Pearson Longman). Forthcoming in 2006 from Blackwell Publishers is How to Read a Shakespeare Play and, from the University of Chicago Press, This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now.
He is the recipient of several distinguished honors and awards such as the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize, University of Virginia; the Quantrell Teaching Award, University of Chicago; and two Guggenheim Fellowships (1964-1965 and 1981-1982).
For more information contact Mickey Sweeney, professor of English at (708) 524-6940 or email her at msweeney@dom.edu.
Lund-Gill Chair events
January 24, 2007
Meeting with the Junior Seminar students on The Tempest at 2:30 p.m. This will be an introduction to the play for all of the juniors as many of the seminar instructors will only be starting ' The Tempest.'
February 25, 2007
David Bevington will lecture before the final performance of Othello, presented by the Dominican University Performing Arts Center. Pre-show lecture at 2:00 p.m.;
performance at 3:00 p.m. in Eloise Martin Recital Hall, Fine Arts Building.
Call (708) 488-5000 for details.
March 14, 2007
Lund-Gill will sponsor a faculty seminar at 12:30 p.m.
March 21, 2007
Public lecture titled, 'Should Shakespeare Be at the Core of a College Education?' will be held in the old library, Lewis Hall at 5:30 p.m.
March 28, 2007
Movie Night: Shakespeare in Love or David Mamet's The Winslow Boy beginning at 6 p.m.
April 15, 2007
David Bevington will introduce Troilus and Cressida, a Dominican University and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre sponsored event at Navy Pier. Pre-show lecture at 2:15 p.m.; performance at 3:00 p.m. with a reception following the play.
For more information
David Bevington, University of Chicago
Former holder of the Lund-Gill Chair, Dr. Leon Lederman
Inaugural Lund-Gill Lecture
After sending that announcement, I learned that Prof. Bevington is also involved in one of our motion graphics classes this semester. The instructor, Bill Kerr, will be assigning the students a Shakespeare sonnet which they will have to animate, and Prof. Bevington will be the critic. Sounds like fun! As an example of what he has in mind, Bill sent me a delightful piece of work by student Jenny Bozak, which seemed appropriate to forward to instructor Julie Petry, who's teaching Jazz Dance this semester. Julie wrote back to say it was inspiring her as she put the finishing touches on her syllabus for tomorrow.
Speaking of which... I'd better get back to mine.
I opened my email this morning and the electronic calendar popped up to tell me that 'classes begin in 16 hours.' While we don't actually commence at the stroke of midnight, we will be underway tomorrow, and students have been streaming into our college office all day for last-minute registrations, and to rendezvous with their new faculty advisors who escort them back to their offices.
Speaking of commencement, we had a grand one this past Saturday. It's always a joy to see the students' faces as they cross the stage and shake the president's hand. I didn't even botch any of their names as I read (hopefully) given the strong and timely phonetic tutoring many of them provided as they lined up to march.
Our commencement speaker was Barbara Whitney Carr, President and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden, who gave a wonderful talk with lots of good advice, including show up, say yes, ask questions, connect, communicate, keep on listening, learn to love working hard, do it because it's the right thing to do, serve the world well, and above all, laugh.
She ended magnificently: 'Ask yourself, please, one simple question: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Answer that question; then go and do it. Odds are that you won't fail. Sometimes it is only fear that turns us back from dreams which are worthy and aspirations only seemingly beyond our reach.'
She reminds me that college is that amazing place where precisely this dynamic can be enacted.
We're excited as we begin the semester to welcome our second Lund-Gill Chair to campus. Here's a little announcement I sent out earlier today:
The Lund-Gill Chair
This year's holder of the Lund-Gill Chair is David Bevington, PhD. The chair is named for former Dominican University President Sr. Candida Lund, OP and former English professor, Sr. Cyrille Gill, OP.
Each year, the Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences brings to campus an individual of the highest moral and intellectual reputation who can address themes and issues at the heart of the liberal arts and sciences.
About David Bevington
Dr. Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago where he has been teaching since 1967. Previously he taught at Harvard University and the University of Virginia.
Dr. Bevington will be teaching an honors course titled 'Wisdom and Power' for seniors in the spring 2007 semester. The course will focus on Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, The Book of Job and Shakespeare's King Lear.
David Bevington's Work
His studies include From Mankind to Marlowe, Tudor Drama and Politics, and Action Is Eloquence: Shakespeare's Language of Gesture. He is also the editor of Medieval Drama (Houghton Mifflin); The Bantam Shakespeare, in 29 paperback volumes, currently being reedited; and The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman), as well as the Oxford 1 Henry IV, the Cambridge Antony and Cleopatra, and the Arden 3 Troilus and Cressida.
He is the senior editor of the Revels Student Editions, the Revels Plays and of the forthcoming Cambridge edition of the works of Ben Jonson. He is senior editor of the recently published Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama. With Peter Holbrook, he has edited a collection of essays on The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (Cambridge University Press). His two latest books are Shakespeare, second edition and, edited with Anne Marie Welsh and Michael L. Greenwald, Shakespeare: Script, Stage, Screen (New York: Pearson Longman). Forthcoming in 2006 from Blackwell Publishers is How to Read a Shakespeare Play and, from the University of Chicago Press, This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now.
He is the recipient of several distinguished honors and awards such as the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize, University of Virginia; the Quantrell Teaching Award, University of Chicago; and two Guggenheim Fellowships (1964-1965 and 1981-1982).
For more information contact Mickey Sweeney, professor of English at (708) 524-6940 or email her at msweeney@dom.edu.
Lund-Gill Chair events
January 24, 2007
Meeting with the Junior Seminar students on The Tempest at 2:30 p.m. This will be an introduction to the play for all of the juniors as many of the seminar instructors will only be starting ' The Tempest.'
February 25, 2007
David Bevington will lecture before the final performance of Othello, presented by the Dominican University Performing Arts Center. Pre-show lecture at 2:00 p.m.;
performance at 3:00 p.m. in Eloise Martin Recital Hall, Fine Arts Building.
Call (708) 488-5000 for details.
March 14, 2007
Lund-Gill will sponsor a faculty seminar at 12:30 p.m.
March 21, 2007
Public lecture titled, 'Should Shakespeare Be at the Core of a College Education?' will be held in the old library, Lewis Hall at 5:30 p.m.
March 28, 2007
Movie Night: Shakespeare in Love or David Mamet's The Winslow Boy beginning at 6 p.m.
April 15, 2007
David Bevington will introduce Troilus and Cressida, a Dominican University and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre sponsored event at Navy Pier. Pre-show lecture at 2:15 p.m.; performance at 3:00 p.m. with a reception following the play.
For more information
David Bevington, University of Chicago
Former holder of the Lund-Gill Chair, Dr. Leon Lederman
Inaugural Lund-Gill Lecture
After sending that announcement, I learned that Prof. Bevington is also involved in one of our motion graphics classes this semester. The instructor, Bill Kerr, will be assigning the students a Shakespeare sonnet which they will have to animate, and Prof. Bevington will be the critic. Sounds like fun! As an example of what he has in mind, Bill sent me a delightful piece of work by student Jenny Bozak, which seemed appropriate to forward to instructor Julie Petry, who's teaching Jazz Dance this semester. Julie wrote back to say it was inspiring her as she put the finishing touches on her syllabus for tomorrow.
Speaking of which... I'd better get back to mine.
