Educational Studies Program Presents Book Discussion on Teaching Practices for Undocumented Students
St. Mary's College of Maryland's educational studies program presents Lori Dodson '04, Sandra Duval, and Anne Marie Foerster Luu for a book discussion on "Teachers as Allies: Transformative Practices for Teaching DREAMers & Undocumented Students," on Monday, Feb. 19, 5 p.m. in Daugherty-Palmer Commons on the College's campus.
The realities faced by DREAMers and undocumented students impact the work of all educators. The discussion will focus on transformative practices for working with students and their families. Educators are invited to join the discussion and find out what they can do to support undocumented children and youth in pre-K through university education.
Lori Dodson has taught in pre-K through fifth grade for 13 years. She currently serves as an ELL national professional training instructor for the National Education Association (NEA). She has also served as a board member of her local TESOL (formerly Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) affiliate. She is a 2004 graduate of St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Sandra Duval, Ed.D, works in pre-K through university classrooms, leadership, and curriculum development, and is a teacher education professor in university and school district settings. Her bachelor's degree is in sociology and secondary education. Her master's degree from Teacher's College, Columbia University, is in bilingual education. Her doctorate from the George Washington University is in special education with an emphasis on bilingual education.
Anne Marie Foerster Luu, NBCT, has taught in pre-K through12th grade settings for 19 years. She is an adjunct faculty member (focused on assessment as an advocacy tool) of McDaniel College's TESOL program. She was honored by TESOL International as their Teacher of the Year 2013.
Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series presents Laura M. Ahearn
The St. Mary's College of Maryland Anthropology Department will host Laura M. Ahearn for the lecture "Love Letters, Language, and Learning: An Anthropologist's Journey," on Monday, Feb. 26, at 4:45 p.m. in Cole Cinema, Campus Center. The event is free of charge and open to the public.
Ahearn will reflect on the path she has traveled as an anthropologist, which began with several years serving in the Peace Corps in Nepal. Returning to the same village where she taught as a volunteer, she conducted research on changing courtship and marriage practices, focusing in particular on love letters, which were only made possible by the increase in literacy among the village women.
She will also discuss how one can apply anthropological skills in many different work settings. Recently, Ahearn left academia after 20 years to work on organizational learning with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Ahearn is a senior monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning specialist on USAID/LEARN. She has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan, the University of South Carolina, and Rutgers University. She is the author of numerous articles and two books, "Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in Nepal" and "Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology."
An Evening to Honor the Legacy of Lucille Clifton Thursday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.
The Office of the President presents "Nurturing the Compassionate Community: An Evening to Honor the Legacy of Lucille Clifton" on Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.) in Daugherty-Palmer Commons. The event, co-sponsored by the VOICES Reading Series, is free of charge and open to the public. The evening will feature poetry readings and reflections to honor St. Mary's College's former Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Lucille Clifton.
Aracelis Girmay will receive the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award during the event. Girmay is the author of three poetry collections, "Teeth," "Kingdom Animalia," and most recently, "The Black Maria," as well as the collage-based picture book, "changing, changing." Her book, "Kingdom Animalia," was selected as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Girmay was awarded a Whiting Award in 2015, where the judges noted that her poems "are always in service of a moral vision, a deep concern for who we are and who we have become." Born and raised in California, she has degrees from Connecticut College and New York University. Girmay has received numerous recognitions and fellowships and currently teaches at Hampshire College and Drew University's Master of Fine Arts in Poetry program.
Girmay was nominated by Elizabeth Alexander. Alexander was born in Harlem, New York, but grew up in Washington, D.C. She is a renowned poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and social justice arts advocate who is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and director of creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation. She previously served as the inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American studies department. In 2009, she composed and delivered "Praise Song for the Day" for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Her latest book, "The Light of the World," was released to great acclaim. Alexander has published six books of poems, two collections of essays, and a play. Her book of poems, "American Sublime" (2005), was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the American Library Association's Notable Books of the Year.
Both Girmay and Alexander will perform original works of poetry during the event.
Angela Draheim, academic program support coordinator and departmental web specialist for the psychology department, will receive the President's Lucille Clifton Award. Nominated by senior students, faculty and staff of the College, the President's Lucille Clifton Award is given to employees who best embody the spirit of caring, compassion and nurturing that characterized Lucille Clifton's tenure at the College.
Lucille Clifton was one of the most distinguished, decorated, and beloved poets of her time. She won the National Book Award for Poetry and was the first Black recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. Her honors and awards give testament to the universality of her unique and resonant voice. In 1987, she became the first author to have two books of poetry— "Good Woman" and "Next"— chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in the same year. She was named a Literary Lion of New York Public Library in 1996, served as chancellor of the Academy of American Poetry and was elected a fellow in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
PBK 20th Year Celebration Lecture with Alumna Kerry Crawford
In celebration of St. Mary's College of Maryland's PBK chapter's 20th year celebration, alumna and PBK member Kerry Crawford '07 will be a guest lecturer at the College. On Monday, March 5 at 4:45 p.m., in Cole Cinema, Campus Center, Crawford will discuss "How sexual violence became a security issue: The importance of advocacy in national and international affairs." The event is free of charge and open to the public.
Crawford is an assistant professor of political science at James Madison University. She received a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University (2014) and a B.A. from St. Mary's College of Maryland (2007), where she majored in political science. Crawford's first book, "Wartime Sexual Violence: From Silence to Condemnation of a Weapon of War" (2017, Georgetown University Press), examines the impact of advocates' framing of sexual violence as a weapon of war on international efforts to mitigate conflict-related sexual violence. Her second book manuscript, "Human Security: Theory and Practice" (2018, Rowman & Littlefield, co-authored with David Andersen-Rodgers), examines the landscape of human security in 21st century scholarship, policymaking, and security provision.
Her research has been published in the following: Journal of Global Security Studies, Gender and Development, Armed Forces & Society, and Air and Space Power Journal, openDemocracy, the Monkey Cage (Washington Post), and the United States Institute of Peace.
Crawford's visit is cosponsored by the Office of the President and the Department of Political Science.
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker to guest lecture Thursday, March 22, 2018
St. Mary's College of Maryland welcomes Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker for the lecture, "Can't Stand Election Suspense? Why Wait?" on March 22. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the St. Mary's College campus. A question and answer period will follow at 8:15 p.m. Presented by the Office of the President, the event is free of charge and open to the public but registration is required. To register, visit www.smcm.edu/parker.
Parker, whose political predictions have been on target more often than any other commentator's (so says Media Matters and they don't even like her), will cut through the wheat, the chaff, the hulls, the dross, and, yes, the indigenous products of the bovine alimentary canal. She'll tell you who's up to what, who's going to be the next president and why you really should turn off the TV. You don't even have to vote, though you probably should. "It ain't math," says Parker. "You don't have to be a nerd with a calculator to predict politics. All you need is common sense and a keen understanding of human nature. Alas, I'm cursed with both."
Parker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post, writing twice-weekly on politics and culture. The most widely syndicated columnist in the nation, her 750-word essays appear in more than 450 newspapers across the country, which translates to about 80 million print readers and countless millions online. She is a popular commentator on news shows and a regular guest on NBC's "Meet the Press," as well as MSNBC's "Hardball," and Fox News' "Media Buzz." Parker won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "her perceptive, often witty columns on an array of political and moral issues, gracefully sharing the experiences and values that lead her to unpredictable conclusions." Describing herself as "slightly to the right of center" politically, she addresses politics, culture, and contemporary issues.
Visit www.smcm.edu for information on additional upcoming speakers such as David E. Sanger on April 6 presented by the Presidential Lecture Series; GOP staple and communications strategist Ed Gillespie on April 12; and comedian, actor, and writer Tig Notaro on April 20 presented by the Annual Mark Twain Lecture Series on American Humor and Culture.