This section of the News and Media Services department site tracks stories in print and broadcast media that feature Auggie faculty, students, and staff. The area also is home to material developed for University-related programs, events, and more.
For several months, associate English professor Colin Irvine has listened to Norwegian language recordings during his daily commute between Northfield and Augsburg College as he hoped for good news.
It turned out to be a good decision.
That’s because Irvine was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship award and will spend the 2010-2011 academic year in Norway as a Roving Scholar in American Studies.
In the role, Irvine will prepare presentations on American studies topics and travel to schools across Norway to provide opportunities for Norwegian teenagers to learn about the United States. The schools will request the presentation that Irvine will give. Irvine, who will be based in Oslo with his wife and two children, will likely give between 250 and 300 presentations. Continue reading “Irvine receives Fulbright to rove in Norway”→
David Praska wanted to be a dentist and follow in the footsteps of his uncle, a successful orthodontist. “He had this great lifestyle, and I really wanted that,” Praska says. So in high school and the first two years of college, he focused on biology. “But I was never really good at it.”
Then he went to see Lisa Jack, an assistant professor of psychology at Augsburg. He said he was interested in psychology, and she asked him why. “I told her I liked watching people and how they operate,” Praska explained. The next thing he knew, they were mapping out a strategy for him to complete the psychology major in two years.
And that’s how David Praska, psychology major, found himself at the State Capitol building talking to legislators and guests about his research on therapies for children with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Continue reading “Talking psychology at the Capitol”→
Kyle Loven ’06 has called a few places “home.” He moved from the charming town of Wilmar, Minn. to Minneapolis to study theatre and art history at Augsburg. After college, he spent some time in Europe before settling in Seattle, Wash. And on March 19, Loven will return to his Twin Cities home to perform my dear Lewis, his one-man show about memories.
my dear Lewis will be part of SEEDS, presented by Open Eye Figure Theatre. SEEDS features the work of emerging artists who are supported by the Henson Foundation. Performances are Mar. 19, 20, and 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Mar. 21 at 4 p.m. Continue reading “Loven and Lewis come home to Minneapolis”→
Recently a group of Augsburg students staged two performances of The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler’s episodic play which began off-Broadway and has spawned V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. This year’s production raised more than $800 to benefit the House of Sharing, an organization in Seoul, South Korea that houses and cares for the surviving “comfort women,” young Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII.
Augsburg senior Krystal Mattison is the granddaughter of a comfort woman. After spending time with this group of women during her year in Korea, she came back to Augsburg committed to raising awareness about this issue. Her own grandmother (halmoni) died when Mattison was five years old, but she learned of her grandmother’s story from her father. Continue reading “"Vagina Monologues" raises money and awareness”→
At Augsburg, there is little question that Auggies give back to their community. In the 2008-09 school year, it was estimated that Augsburg students performed 67,000 hours of community service, most of which took place within a mile of campus.
The 2010 Batalden Seminar in Applied Ethics will feature Gustavo Esteva, a writer and activist who is also the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Esteva will speak Friday and Saturday in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center.
[From www.gustavoesteva.com] Gustavo is an independent writer, a grassroots activist, and a deprofessionalized intellectual. He works both independently and in conjunction with a variety of Mexican NGOs and grassroots organizations and communities. He has been a key figure in founding several Mexican, Latin American and International NGOs and networks. Continue reading “Batalden Seminar features Mexican writer, activist”→
The state of Chiapas is known for its tropical climate, lush rainforests, and in part for the civil war and internal conflict that plagued the area in the mid 1990s. It is also a “perfect microcosmic example of a peacekeeping situation,” according to Elise Marubbio, a professor of American Indian studies, women’s studies, film, and English at Augsburg.
Last summer Marubbio led a group of students in Chiapas as part of the Nobel Peace Prize program. The Peace Scholars, students representing five Midwestern Lutheran colleges, spent nine days in Chiapas studying the history of conflict and peace in the state. Augsburg’s Scholars are Katia Iverson, a sophomore cross-cultural studies major, and Jessica Spanswick, a senior majoring in international relations and peace and global studies. Continue reading “Studying peace in Chiapas”→
This year for the fifth time, Augsburg will welcome nearly 1,000 students and community people to campus for the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. This year’s forum will be held on Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6.
Each forum honors and focuses on the work of the previous Nobel Prize laureate; this year the spotlight is on 2008 Nobel Peace laureate, Martti Ahtisaari, international peace negotiator and former president of Finland. He shares a particular connection with Augsburg as he considers the most satisfying work of his career to have been the 13 years he spent as the UN diplomat leading the negotiations for the independence of Namibia. Continue reading “Nobel Peace Prize Forum returns to Augsburg”→
What would compel a college theatre director to present a play about a woman whose husband essentially abuses her?
“You do it because you shouldn’t,” says Darcey Engen, associate professor and director of Augsburg’s re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, which opens tonight and runs Feb. 5-14.
“The play has been problematic since it was written,” Engen says. “But it has helped the students think about their acting choices as political.”
The story is that if Petruchio can get Katherine to agree to marry him, Baptista (Katherine’s father) will give Petruchio part of his fortune. Katherine does not want to marry Petruchio, so he tries to “tame” her by isolating her from her family, starving her, and denying her sleep. Continue reading “Shrew tackles gender inequality”→
Augsburg College presents the 2010 Counseling and Health Promotion convocation on Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13. This year’s presenter, Elena Avila, will share her concept of medicine as a curandera (healer).
Avila is a first generation Chicana born in the barrios of El Paso, Texas. Her parents were born in Mexico and brought their medicine with them out of Mexico — medicine passed down through time. Her family’s health care included Curanderismo as well as Western medicine. Continue reading “The balance between humans and nature”→