the branches of learning (as philosophy, arts, or languages) that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes (as in physics or chemistry) and social relations (as in anthropology or economics)
UC Launches Women in Leadership and Learning Program
Applications are due May 4 for WILL, a new University of Cincinnati program that uses experiential learning to develop women leaders.
Date: 4/27/2012 12:00:00 AM By: Greg Hand Phone: (513) 556-1822
A new program, known as WILL, for Women in Leadership and Learning, aims to build leadership among University of Cincinnati's women students in a community setting over the course of their college years. The program applies classroom and experiential learning components built on themes of social justice and activism. The new program will begin in the fall of 2012.
Collaborating in WILL’s development are the UC Women’s Center and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in UC’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. The program incorporates a core curriculum based in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as co-curricular leadership development programming coordinated through the Women’s Center. Amy Howton, Assistant Director of the Women's Center, coordinates the program with assistance from WILL student workers Dylan Colvin and Tasha Vaught.
“WILL is a multi-year learning community comprised of both academic and co-curricular experiences designed to develop a student’s leadership over the course of her collegiate experience,” Howton said.
The UC program is modeled on the original WILL program established at the University of Richmond in 1980.
“WILL was created in response to scholarship demonstrating that the self-confidence of women students plummets in their college years,” Vaught said. “Since its inception over 30 years ago, WILL has gained considerable national recognition. The UC program focuses on applied learning so that students grow as individuals, build community, and work toward creating social change.”
WILL was created to encompass the key, three touch points of a students’ collegiate experience: first year experience, mid-collegiate, and senior year experience.
“These touch points are effectively structured through both required, sequential academic courses and developmental, multi-year co-curricular experiences,” Howton said.
Applications to participate in WILL are due by Friday, May 4. For more information on WILL, or to download an application, visit:
From UC News: For Third Year Straight, Princeton Review Names UC a Top Green School
In time for Earth Day, UC was named among the nation’s top green schools by The Princeton Review due to strong commitment to sustainability in academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. This is the third year straight that UC earned a spot on the prestigious list.
Date: 4/18/2012 12:00:00 AM By: M.B. Reilly Phone: (513) 556-1824
Photos By: Dottie Stover
Because of its strong commitment to sustainability, the University of Cincinnati has been named among the best “green” schools by The Princeton Review.
UC is among a handful of Ohio schools named to “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges.” Partnering with The Princeton Review on the guide was the U.S. Green Building Council.
UC's Bearcat Bike Share program allows the campus community to check out bikes for free.
UC’S GREEN HIGHLIGHTS In the national “green” guide, UC was recognized for
Incorporating sustainability throughout university operations and classrooms.
Studying and conducting research on sustainability issues in an urban context.
Buildings that meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.
UC is working to reduce its environmental footprint, with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Specific innovations and achievements on the part of the university include'
A UC urban garden provides hands-on education in sustainable agriculture.
Food served in campus dining halls is purchased from a purveyor that works with local farmers whenever possible.
The Bearcat Bike Share program allows anyone with a university ID to check out a bike and use it for up to three days to travel around campus and community. This serves as a means for decreasing carbon emissions produced by automobile use.
Student volunteers work on recycling projects around campus, including the student-led recycling of 11 tons (22,000 pounds) of plastic, metal, glass and cardboard at UC’s 2011 sporting and other special events, completed with the help of vendors, athletes and fans. That’s about a ton more than was recycled in 2010. In addition, recycling is available in all UC buildings.
Student Vishnu Suresh places recyclables from two floors in Calhoun Hall into a bin.
The 322 green-leading schools listed in the guide are not in hierarchical order. It is, instead, organized state-by-state and alphabetically.
Other Ohio schools named in the green guide are Case Western Reserve University, Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio University, Ohio State University, University of Dayton and University of Mount Union.
Other national schools named among the green elite include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.
“College-bound students are increasingly interested in sustainability issues,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president, publishing, The Princeton Review. “Among 7,445 college applicants who participated in our spring 2012 ‘College Hopes & Worries Survey,’ nearly seven out of 10 (68 percent) told us that having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the school.”
Find out about more UC Earth Week events, including presentations, workshops and the planting of about 100 trees starting at 10 a.m., Sunday, April 22, on UC’s Victory Parkway campus, 2220 Victory Parkway, Walnut Hills. Those trees will be planted at the rear of the campus buildings.
Green Promise: UC Team Seeking to Turn Fryer Fat to Fuel Competes in National EPA Event
The University of Cincinnati's German Studies Department will be hosting a free screening of the documentary film Audre Lorde-The Berlin Years 1984-1992 directed by the white German, anti-racist feminist, as well as life-long friend of Lorde, Dagmar Schultz.
The event will be held in Mainstreet Cinema in TUC on Thursday, May 10, 2012 starting at 7:30pm. We hope to see you all there!
About the film: The film premiered at the 62nd Annual International Berlin Film Festival and has not yet been released. Detailing Lorde's years in Berlin as a guest lecturer at the Free University and her impact on the development of the Afro-German movement, the documentary highlights a period of Lorde's life that is unknown to many.
Mr. Tong assumed the post of the Hong Kong Commissioner for Economics and Trade Affairs, USA, the most senior representative of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government in the U.S., in October 2008. As commissioner he directs the HKSAR Government’s efforts in promoting U.S.-Hong Kong economic and trade ties, and constituency-building activities in the U.S. He also oversees the work of the three Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco.
UC MainStreet now has a Facebook page! The goal is to use our Facebook page to engage and interact with the University Community. To do this, we want to open the Facebook conversation to the students and university departments and give you the ability to use our page as a means of communicating the details of your events on MainStreet. We encourage them to post videos, pictures, or any information on our page to enhance attendance and awareness of their event and organization.
It is as simple as three easy steps:
1)Like our UC MainStreet Facebook page.
2)Post details about your upcoming event on the page.
3)After your event, share your experience with pictures, videos, or posts.
All events need to be approved by Conference & Event Services (CES) as well as scheduled on MainStreet, before they are permitted to post information on the Facebook page. If it is not approved, the post will be removed. The event confirmation email from CES will serve as the approval. Please be sure to keep it clean!
Don’t forget to follow our UC MainStreet Twitter page too. Use @UCMainStreet and #UCMainStreet in your tweets!
Let’s help our UC community grow by sharing our experiences and events with others and by creating a place for everyone to come together and learn about all of the exciting programs offered right here on MainStreet.
The new, exciting repertoire and the pulsing exuberance of our rhythmic selections -- it moves us all! We cannot contain our enthusiasm for our upcoming programming. It all begins next month with our Spring Concert, May 12th!
@The School for Creative and Performing Arts
108 W. Central Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Things to know!
General Admission, Concert Begins at 7:30 pm, Doors open at 7 pm
Great Musical Selections for Every Age
World Choir Games / GALA Preview!
Alumni & Children's Songs
Multimedia
Free childcare
New! printable online tickets!
Sliding Scale Available
Plenty of parking
Fair Trade Coffee Pickup this Night!
Click the link below for tickets. You may also purchase tickets from our members or at the following loyal, local ticket vendors.
As part of our Queercat Pride Week celebrations, the University of Cincinnati LGBTQ Center, Colors of Pride, and the United Black Student Association are bringing the audio/visual installation (Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color to the University. In addition to a gallery display at the beginning of the event, the group will present Building Solidarity: An LGBTQ-Focused Anti-Racism Workshop. The event will take place at the African-American Cultural Resource Center located by Daniels and Dabney on the University of Cincinnati's campus.
ABOUT (UN)HEARD: (Un)heard is an audio/visual installation about the lives and experiences of transmasculine people of color. By sharing first-person accounts and positive images, this exhibit seeks to challenge damaging myths and stereotypes about transgender people and people of color, and to educate people about a marginalized, and often invisible, group. The project celebrates a range of views, opinions, and experiences that are unique and empowering to trans gender people everywhere.
The past two decades have seen an increase in conversation about transmasculine experiences and identities. However, the experiences of transmasculine people of color are often misunderstood, ignored, unaddressed, and unheard. To date there is no other mixed media project that focues specifically on the expereinces of transmasculine people of color. By utilizing in-depth audio interviews and intimate portraits, (Un)heard seeks to move transmasculine (transgender, ftm, bois, masculine of center) people of color identities and community from margin to center and addresses issues of personal triumph, loss, desire, community, relationships and discrimination. At the most basic level, (Un)heard combats transphobia and racism by breaking silence and making the invisible visible. By encouraging people of all ages to affirm and appreciate diversity, this traveling exhibit contributes to the process of dismantling the destructive power of prejudice and intolerance, thereby making the world a safer place for all individuals.
Passionate about fighting for young people's rights to sexual health information and services?
Interested in connecting with youth leaders from across the country?
Dedicated to developing skills to make a difference in your community?
Consider applying for one of Advocates for Youth's programs! See all of the available opportunities below.
If selected, you will have opportunities to: develop new organizing and leadership skills; become informed on sexual and reproductive health issues; connect with passionate young people from across the country; and have a lasting impact on your communities. You will also join more than 100 youth activists in Washington, DC for an intense four-day activist training institute free of charge!
Advocates' youth activists have done amazing work this year. You can join them in:
Increasing HIV testing on your campus
Providing confidential support and resources to young people who are worried about coming out
Working with college administrators to make condom distribution more widely available on your campus
Mobilizing your peers around international family planning issues
Working to destigmatize abortion and ensure youth access to affordable birth control
If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, check out the program descriptions below and apply today! Application deadlines are coming up fast.
Wait — I'm not a young person…
If you are a parent, teacher, or advocate who knows young people who are passionate about sexual and reproductive health and rights, please encourage them to apply today.
Thanks!
Julia Reticker-Flynn Youth Activist Network Manager Advocates for Youth
--- Campus Organizing Team
Advocates for Youth works with campus organizations to provide them with skills, information, and materials to conduct advocacy campaigns on their campuses. Each year, selected campus organizations are chosen to receive intensive assistance, including funding, advocacy and media training, materials for dissemination and on-going assistance to help educate, activate, and empower students on issues such as condom availability, LGBT rights, comprehensive sex education, abortion access, and HIV prevention/treatment among others!
The Young Women of Color Leadership Council is composed of young leaders and activists who come together to promote a message of prevention and empowerment through a reproductive justice lens. All of the Council's work is a collaboration of diversity and power, in the hopes of affecting a million more young women of color. The goals of the Council are to educate, include, and empower.
YouthResource, a website by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) young people, explores issues of concern to GLBTQ youth. The Online Peer Educators provide affirmation and support to their peers, answer questions posed by visitors, and assist users to find the local resources they need. Peer Educators also write blogs, articles, and issue briefs for the YouthResource website, advocate for GLBTQ rights, and present at conferences on GLBTQ issues.
Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative (CAMI): State Activists
Advocates for Youth works with state youth activists in 8 target states (AL, CA, CO, FL, OH, NC, SC, TX) on youth leadership councils, which advocate for comprehensive sex education and other sexual health and rights issues in their communities. Their goal is to mobilize people in their states to fight for honest, responsible sex education and ensure that young people are listened to and have a voice within the debate. Click here to find out more about our state partners. Applications will be available shortly.
Monday, April 30 – Film Series: DOUBLE FEATURE! Taken for a Ride & Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway, 7pm, Rec Center 3250
These two short films take a look at lost alternative transportation systems nationally and locally. These are a great introduction for Wednesday’s streetcar lecture! More info here.
Join us for an update on the progress of the streetcar project! Chris Eilerman, John Schneider, and Valerie Robbins will discuss the planning process, challenges faced along the way, the current project state, and future plans.
Saturday, May 5 – PAC Spring Concert, 7pm, Sigma Sigma Commons
We will be recycling and staffing a table with information and giveaways. Stop by and say hi! More info here.
Sunday, May 6 – Bike Ride: Newport on the Levee, 12pm, Meet at the Bike Kitchen
May is Bike Month! Celebrate with us on this ride to Newport on the Levee and back. This will be a moderately difficult ride, but the pace will be slow and steady to accommodate all riders.
QueerCat Pride Week It's that time of year again … for UC's LGBTQ community and its allied friends to celebrate diversity! Join us for all of the great events that the LGBTQ Center has planned for Queercat Pride Week 2012!
MONDAY, 04/30 • Rainbow Flash Mob ..... 11:50 a.m. – 12:10 p.m., Main Street • Queer Movie Monday ..... 7:00 p.m., Swift 500 (Food will be provided.)
TUESDAY, 05/01 • Ally Day • Purple People Eater Picnic ..... 12:30 – 2:00 p.m., McMicken Commons (Show your support. Wear purple. Pick up your ally button.) • Sara Montiel as a Gay Icon in Theatre, Cinema and Literature within the Hispanic World Today ..... 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., Baur Room, CCM • Speaker: Genny Beemyn, Ph.D., Director, the Stonewall Center, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst ..... 6:00 p.m., Braunstein 301 • Queer Game Night ..... 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Daniels Hall (Bring your favorite game. Snacks will be provided.)
WEDNESDAY, 05/02 • Ally Day (Wear your ally button.) • Free HIV Testing ..... 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., TUC 415 • UC Monologues / Open Minded Mic Night ..... 7:00 p.m., Baba Budan’s • Alternative to the Alternative Dance Party ..... 9:30 p.m., Baba Budan’s
THURSDAY, 05/03 • Queer Zumba w/ Carlos Gooden ..... 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., McMicken Commons • (Un)heard: Transmasculine People of Color Speak! / Building Solidarity: An LGBTQ-Focused Anti-Racism Workshop ..... 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., AACRC (Gallery display at start of program.)
FRIDAY, 05/04 • Same-Sex Hand Holding Day • Genderf*ck Drag Show .... 9 p.m., Catskeller • Guerilla Queer Bar ..... After the drag show, location TBA
For more info contact: LGBTQ Center (565 Steger), 513-556-4329
Free food and color throwing! You are allowed to bring some kind of water dispense or water balloons but NOT ALLOWED TO BRING ANYTHING RESEMBLING A GUN!
What do you get when you take three visual artists, a screen printing guru, a visionary, and over 1400 photos and stories from across the city?
THE CINCY STORY MURAL!
...I’ve never been very good at jokes. Sorry. :/
All (failed) jokes aside, working as part of the design team has been a once in a lifetime experience. After hearing so many incredible stories at the Photo Harvests and perusing the amazing photos submitted with Krista, three artists working on the mural design met on one of Clifton’s rooftops. The rooftops of Clifton
Each equipped with our own artistic process, aesthetic, and background, we spent a lot of time talking about what the project meant to us and wondering how we were going to merge our very different perspectives into a cohesive piece of art. It could have been a mess, and to be honest, I listened my fair share of doubts from people who heard about what we were attempting to accomplish. But, as it turns out, our diversity has made us--and this project--stronger. Instead of clashing, we found that our individual talents and approaches complemented one another. I had never worked in a digital medium before, but Marjorie’s digital design background, Photoshop expertise, and talent as a teacher brought the rest of us up to speed in no time. I love connections and tend to see everything in terms of systems of possibilities, so when I looked at the rich body of raw material we had been given, I saw a beautiful sum, not 1400 parts. It provided us a framework and starting point. Laura, with her incredible eye for detail, was able to hone in on the individual photographs and collage them in compelling compositions that honored each photograph while creating fluidity between them. All these pieces together gave us a vision and direction for the mural that we could have never achieved individually.
The idea for a template that we began with...
We brought our design ideas and first few finished neighborhoods to Krista, who loved it and urged us onward. Then we met with Aaron Kent of DIY, who took our digital designs and spearheaded the process of turning them into physical screenprints. Again, without their individual perspectives and talents, the mural couldn’t have gone forward. And without everyone’s written and photographic contributions, we’d have nothing to create with. CSM is truly a collaborative effort that represents the power of what can be accomplished when we don’t try to put aside our differences, but instead embrace and utilize them in a unified effort.
A sneak peek of what's to come!
Guest post written by Cincy Story Mural design team member, Missy Miller
The city of Chicago hosted the12th annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureatesfrom April 23-25, 2012. More than a dozen prominent laureates attended the summit whose theme was to, "Speak Up, Speak Out for Freedom and Rights" through discussions and presentations over the three days of the event. The aim of the summit was to help motivate the young, civic leaders and the general public concerning matters of peace and social justice.
Dr.Who is a BBC TV show that's run, off and on, since the 1960s. The Doctor reincarnates whenever a new actor takes over the role—so far, all the Doctors have been white, male, British, and vaguely middle-to-upper class.
Except one.
Christopher Eccleston is known to fans as the Ninth Doctor. I loved him because his incarnation of the Doctor, with a Northern English accent and a black leather jacket, evokes the working class. Some people didn't like him for that reason; a snobbish Guardian writer refers to Eccleston's Doctor as "looking like an EastEnders extra".
The Doctor is traditionally accompanied by a companion or two, the show's Watsons. My favorite, Billie Piper's very working-class Rose Tyler, began with Eccleston and continued when David Tennant became the Doctor's tenth incarnation. You may argue whether the Ninth Doctor's working class status was a matter of sympathy or identity—though he was reborn in a new human form, he was still a Time Lord—but Rose Tyler was, in the words of the actress who played her, "a bit of a chav." (The show made that explicit when Rose, possessed by an alien intelligence, looked in a mirror and exclaimed, "Oh my god! I'm a chav!")
Many fans saw what that Guardian writer missed. Backword Dave at “The new Doctor Who” at A Fistful of Euros noted:
Both Rose and the Doctor seem to be “working class.” So far they’ve stood up for enslaved corporate hacks against unnamed bankers, overthrown a despotic billionaire who considered his staff “disposable,” supported an honest (and Labour seeming) MP against a corrupt system, visited a Victorian funeral parlour (where the most likeable characters were a maid and Charles Dickens). In the second episode, the sympathetic character was some kind of maintenance worker, and in episode 1, Rose worked in a department store. Where is the middle classness?
The white Rose Tyler had a black boyfriend, Mickey Smith, who could be considered a companion, but his part wasn't as important as Rose's. The first major black character in Doctor Who was Piper's successor, Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones, a middle class medical student.
Just as Rose was an excuse to acknowledge class issues, Martha was an opportunity to explore race. How well the writers did depends on who you ask.
Now, the Doctor always reincarnating as a white male has bugged me for ages. Whoopi Goldberg hinted decades ago that she would love the part, and she should've had it. Or if the producers insisted on someone male and British, Lenny Henry would've been great, as he proved in a spoof in 1985.
But when people talk about race and Dr. Who, they focus on Martha and especially on a scene from "Human Nature:” Martha, who had been pretending to be the Doctor's housemaid in 1913, tries to convince an upper-class Brit that she's from the future:
MARTHA: I'm training to be a doctor. Not an alien doctor, a proper doctor. A doctor of medicine.
JOAN: Well that certainly is nonsense. Women might train to be doctors, but hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your color.
It's a brilliant scene. The comment about "hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your color" tackles race and class simultaneously: To an upper-class Brit in 1913, being a doctor isn't for the working class, and it's especially not for brown-skinned members of that class.
But some of scifi fandom's Critical Race Theorists hate that scene. K. Tempest Bradford denounced it on a Tumblr page. then accused its writer, Paul Cornell, of "unintentional" racism at “Let’s Talk About Human Nature”, where she also complained about the Doctor getting to pass as a teacher, while Martha had to be a servant.
Two important points:
1. Bradford's comment about "unintentional" racism absolves no one of racism. All racism is unintentional: racists do what they do because they believe what they believe, not because they intend to be racist.
2. In this story, the middle-class Martha has accepted a working-class role to avoid calling attention to herself. Martha’s predecessor, Rose, wore a maid’s costume at least once; the Doctors companions have often passed themselves off as servants, I suspect.
What fascinates me about the discussion is that no one at Tumblr said a word about class, nor did Bradford at her blog.
But Paul Cornell, replying at Bradford's blog, mentioned class immediately:
...the question is, do we have everyone in (upper class, somewhat sheltered) 1914 be portrayed as absolutely non-racist, or do we note the possibility? I hate it when series set in the past ignore the racism of previous eras to extraordinary degrees. (To not have Martha hammered with it *every time* she sets foot in the past was, though, I think, the right decision.) I think it airbrushes the suffering of individuals back then out of history, by implicitly saying things were always all right. However, as you’re in the group portrayed here, I think your voice should have weight, and I don’t want to push it aside through my own privilege. It’d be really good if we could manage to have the (perhaps first ever) caring, dignified chat about race in the series. Mainly because I’m an enormous wuss and if it gets heated I could well disgrace myself with the wailing and the sobbing.
What Cornell missed with his "you're in the group portrayed here" is Bradford is not, because there's not a united black race. Bradford is a middle class fan whose Angry Black Woman blog excludes class from its concerns. She once said, "I rarely mention class because it’s not an issue I’m particularly familiar with." It's no surprise that in the conversation with Cornell, she continued to ignore class.
Cornell did not. He said:
I think it’s clear that, in some ways, we simply let you down, and I’m sorry about that. Some of this stuff one just can’t argue with, really. Back then we saw ‘chosen by the Tardis’ as a more poetic way of saying ‘by a roll of the dice’, but yes, it’s our choices that mattered. As a British person, the idea that in 1914 Joan would have known about women of colour being doctors feels very strange to me. That sort of cultural information would have been hard to come by (people of her class would have been surprised by that, I think, up until the 1950s, some much later), and I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to assume her ignorance. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think one of the reasons the text is problematic for you is that you feel kicked by the heroine expressing such things. The way institutional bigotries touch good people (because I think it’s important to be able to acknowledge one’s own racism, so I also think it’s important to show racism as a flaw in otherwise positive characters) is a theme in my work. I’ve read the Butler, which is, as you say, the best sort of SF.
Bradford then replied:
I will have to defer to historians on this one, because I admit I don’t know.
Despite acknowledging her ignorance, Bradford didn't change her mind. At Tumblr, she said:
Having a discussion with Paul Cornell about this episode over on my blog. I’m realizing again (always have to re-realize this stuff) how some people just do not see the world the same way as others. They just don’t fathom how everything in this episode is just… arg.
To people like Bradford who care only about the depiction of race, class and history are always irrelevant.
I can suggest answers to her plot complaints, though whether my explanations are implied by the script or are only fan-spackling, I don't know. She says:
People have pointed out that the Doctor did not choose the time and place, the TARDIS dd. Well, TARDIS: wtf? Still not okay. ... In the world of the show that is bad enough. But I find it to be handwavy and bull on the part of the writer/creators/whoever came up with this idea. It looks like they’re trying to absolve the Doctor of responsibility here, and that’s a dick way to do so. Plus, it doesn’t fly for the TARDIS, either, as it’s been well established by this point that it has a consciousness, too.
1. Having the Tardis rather than the Doctor choose a time and place at random seems like a good plan if you're trying to hide from creatures who can travel in time and space.
2. Throughout the show's history, the Tardis has been presented as slightly damaged and not completely dependable. Maybe it goofed up when it chose 1913 Britain.
3. A time-traveling vehicle with an alien consciousness might not know or care to avoid sending Martha to any place with a history of racism. That choice would rule out Martha visiting much of Europe and the Americas after slavery in those places was restricted to one race.
4. The Tardis may have thought the Doctor's pursuers would never think they would hide in a racist time. If so, it was being considerate in sending them to 1913 Britain rather than the Antebellum South or Britain before 1833.
Bradford also complained:
It’s yet another example in a long list of examples where Martha is put into the Mammy role. I might have let it slide except it happens so often it’s a damn theme, and that’s really problematic.
It's actually another example of companions put in servant roles. Did anyone complain when the working class Rose Tyler was put into a maid's role?
For these critics of the handling of Martha Jones, the question doesn't seem to be whether the stories accurately present prevailing attitudes toward race and class. The question is whether it's racist for a middle-class black woman to visit a time where black women are assumed to be working class. That Martha is heroic isn't doubted; she's a much-loved character in Who fandom. I think her fans who wanted her written differently are missing something the writers know: part of her heroism comes from confronting racism. She could have been written like Star Trek's Uhura and only visited post-racial and non-racial places. That would have been a valid choice of the writers.
But it would have meant keeping her out of the last five hundred years of history where English was spoken.
Or it would have meant ignoring racism in those times.
Good writers know a truth about storytelling that fans don't: A writer's job isn't to give fans what they want. It's to give them what they need. If fans are upset because a beloved character faces hard realities, their upset may only be a sign that the writers are doing their job well.
Few events on campus offer an opportunity to indulge your palate quite like Worldfest. Here's your quick guide to the more eclectic eats and appetizing aromas that will be wafting across campus April 23-29.
Date: 4/18/2012 12:00:00 AM By: John Bach Phone: (513) 556-5224
Photos By: Lisa Ventre, Photo Services
UC's Worldfest is best known for the International Festival that will take place on McMicken Commons at lunchtime Thursday, April 26. But multicultural events actually span the entire Worldfest week. And like the International Festival, many events include plenty of tasty (often free or low-cost) ethnic dishes. Here's your guide to some of the international flavors you can sample throughout the week:
The Dish:Sweet treats and appetizers from around the world Menu: Vietnamese spring rolls and fresh rolls; Indian gulab jamun, samosas, pakoras; Jamaican plantains, chicken and vegetable patties; Ethiopian beef and vegetable sambussa; Mexican tres leches cake and flan; plus Greek kataifi and baklava When and where: 4 p.m., Monday, April 23, @ TUC's Great Hall Served up by: Worldfest committee Event: Worldfest Kickoff Celebration
The Dish:Latin dishes and desserts Menu: Tacos and fajitas with sopapillas When and where:Noon, Tuesday, April 24, @ 555 Steger Student Life Center Served up by: Latinos en Accion and Ethnic Programs and Services (EPS) Event: Tacos on Tuesday
The Dish:International Festival (of food) A foodie's tour of some of the McMicken Commons booths at lunchtime, April 26
Arabic Club: Baklava
French Club: Crêpes and madeleines
German Club: Pretzels
Hillel Jewish Student Center: Birthday cake (to mark Israel's birthday)
Identity: Smoothies
Indian Student Association: Samosa chat
International Friendships: Oranges, apples and nuts
Japanese American Student Society: Yakisoba
Latinos en Accion: Churros, niño envuelto, conchas, jarritos
Muslim Student Association: Falafel, hummus, pita bread and samosa
Taiwanese Student Association: Fried rice, Chinese sausage, fried dumplings and bubble tea
When and where:11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, April 26, @ McMicken Commons Served up by: UC International, Mainstreet and SALD Event: International Festival The Dish: Shabbat dinner Menu: Traditional Israeli food including hummus, falafel, barekas and pita When and where:7 p.m., Friday, April 27, @ Stratford Heights Pavilion Served up by: Cincinnati Hillel Event: Challah, It’s Shabbat Dinner!
The Dish:Northern Indian cuisine Menu: Samosas, pakoras, gulab jamun, vegetable biryani, saag paneer When and where:4 p.m., Saturday, April 28, @ Sigma Sigma Commons Served up by: Ethnic Programs and Services, Asian American Association and Hindu Yuva Event: Holi Festival
The Dish: Taste of India Menu: Nan, paneer butter masala, aloo gobi, pakora with chutney, kheer, rice and vegetable biryani When and where:2 - 5 p.m., Sunday, April 29, @ TUC's Great Hall Served up by: UC's Association for India's Development Event: Taste of India
When RAPP started putting quotes on the back of t-shirts, it remained "Give a little of yourself before you expect others to give" - a wise and telling quote about the RAPP process.
Since a few years before I became involved with RAPP (I joined in 2006), RAPP groups selected a quote for the back of the shirt. We've done this, at least since 2005, through voting.
The RAPP XXVII t-shirt was dropped at the joint spring retreat - where both halves of RAPP XXVII spent 24 hours exploring sexuality, gender, and race. Here, finally, is their selected quote!
Quote: We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary. Malcolm X
It was time for another Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension to keep Disney's star property out of the public domain. Somebody's nephew had a bright idea. Instead of telling Congress to add the standard twenty years to the length of copyright, why not go for the big time? Extend copyright by 500 years.
Somebody's niece added a smarter reason: A 500 year extension would let Disney track down Shakespeare's heirs and buy all rights to the Bard. No matter how much the heirs wanted, the deal would pay for itself in no time. Every school that ever wanted to perform or study Shakespeare would have to send a check to Disney. Every newspaper or magazine or radio show that wanted to quote the Bard would have to send one, too. So Disney asked, and Congress gave, and the World Intellectual Property Organization followed Congress's example. Disney paid off Shakespeare's heirs, then used the Shakespeare profits to buy all rights from the heirs of Dumas, Dickens, Twain, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Bram Stoker and more. Once most of the films in every other studio's library were subject to Disney's copyright, they went bankrupt or became divisions of Disney.
And everyone was content, except for the storytellers who had to buy a Disney license or prove their work owed nothing to the last 500 years of literature.
Then Jimmy Joe Jenkins's DNA proved he was the primary descendent of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible. At first, Jimmy was satisfied with ten percent of the price of every KJV sold and 10 percent of every collection plate passed by any church that used the KJV. But when some churches switched to newer translations, Jimmy sicced his lawyers on all translations based on the KJV. That got him a cut of every Bible and every Christian service in English. Some translators claimed their work was based on older versions and should therefore be exempt, but none of them could afford to fight Jimmy in court.
So the churches grumbled and paid Jimmy his tithe, except for the Mormons, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists, Quakers, and Unitarian Universalists. Jimmy said their teachings hurt the commercial value of his property and refused to let them use the Bible. All of those groups dissolved, except for the Unitarian Universalists, who didn't notice a change.
Then Jimmy took out the parts of the Bible that criticized rich people. Most of the surviving major churches didn't notice that. But they did complain when Jimmy changed the traditional translations of Yusuf and Miryam to Jimmy Joe and Lulabelle, the name of his pretty new wife.
But when his Lulabelle ran off with a Bible salesman, Jimmy retired to one of his mansions and refused to let anyone print any more Bibles or use the Bible in any way that raised money.
The surviving churches sent delegates to Disney, begging them to get Congress to shorten the copyright period to put the KJV back in the public domain. But Disney had picked up the rights to a Restoration revenge tragedy that looked like a great vehicle for Britney Spears, so they made a counteroffer.
Congress extended copyright for an additional two thousand years, and the WIPO followed their example. Jimmy had to pay every dollar he had made to the Catholic Church, because the KJV was based on St. Jerome's Vulgate version. In order to use the Bible, all Protestants became Catholic. Disney bought the copyrights and trademarks for Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the Arabian Nights.
And everyone was content, except for the storytellers who had to buy a Disney license or prove their work owed nothing to the last two thousand years of myth and folklore.
Then Spike Greenbaum's DNA proved she was the primary descendent of Jesus or his brother James. Spike agreed to let Catholics use their Bible after the Pope married her to her girlfriend. Then she said that since Catholic priests could be married or celibate for the first thousand years, then had to be celibate for the next thousand, now all priests should be married to at least one other person. And since Jesus had told his followers to sell their goods and give their money to the poor, every expensive thing owned by the Church had to be given up for AIDS research.
Catholics grumbled, but they took some satisfaction when the courts ruled that the Qur'an was a derivative work, and Spike would not let Saudi Arabia use it until they ruled that women could drive cars and men could not.
The Pope considered recreating the church of Mithra, which would let his people keep worshipping on Sundays and celebrating a virgin birth on December 25th. But his wives pointed out that Rome's Mithra Cult fell within the current period of copyright, and the primary heir was a charter member of NAMBLA who was preparing legal action against Spike for the rights to the Bible. So the Catholics sent delegates to Disney, begging them to shorten the copyright period to put Jesus's words in the public domain.
But Disney had just picked up the rights to the Satyricon, which looked like a great vehicle for Ashton Kutcher, so they made a counteroffer.
Congress extended copyright an additional twenty-five hundred years. Spike Greenbaum owed every dollar she had made to Israel, because St. Jerome's translation was based on Hebrew sacred texts. To use the Bible, all Catholics became Jewish, and Disney bought the rights to the Iliad and the Odyssey.
And everyone was content, except for the storytellers who had to buy a Disney license or prove their work did not owe anything to any story that had ever been part of human civilization.
Then Kurosh Jadali's DNA proved he was the primary descendent of Zarathushtra, whose teachings about monotheism had been adopted by the Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. Kurosh said that since Zoroaster had taught religious tolerance, he would be glad to let the Jews use their sacred texts. In return, he only wanted a thousand Euros for each Torah that was published and three-fourths of any money that flowed through a synagogue. When the rabbis grumbled, Kurosh asked if they were communists who didn't respect intellectual property.
So all the branches of Judaism sent delegates to Disney, begging them to roll back the period of copyright so that Zarathushtra's teachings would be in the public domain. But Disney had picked up the rights to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which looked like a great vehicle for Jim Carrey, so they made a counteroffer.
Congress extended copyright for an additional hundred thousand years. Kurosh Jadali had to give all his money to the United Nations, since everyone's DNA proved they were the descendants of the first people to tell stories about gods. Disney bought the rights to a story that had been painted on a wall about some people with some animals that they thought would be a great vehicle for Mel Gibson.
And everyone was content, except for the storytellers who had to buy a Disney license or prove their work did not owe anything to any story that had characters doing anything.
Until one day a woman came into the Disney offices and said thanks to the extension of the period of copyright law, patent law had been extended, too. And since her DNA proved she was the primary descendent of the first person who cast shadows on a wall and told stories about them, she would like to speak to the C.E.O. about every movie and television show that Disney had thought it owned.
A new program, known as WILL, for Women in Leadership and Learning, aims to build leadership among University of Cincinnati's women students in a community setting over the course of their college years. The program applies classroom and experiential learning components built on themes of social justice and activism. The new program will begin in the fall of 2012.
