Category: Arts & Humanities

The UW-Milwaukee student newspaper, the Post, announced last week that it will no longer be available in print, shifting in January to an exclusively online news model. It?s not necessarily bad news, since news online is better than no news at all. But the paper?s dueling headlines reflect the ongoing upheaval in the media industry, even at the collegiate level: The headline announcing the news to readers ? THE POST IS DEAD ? does not exactly inspire confidence of a bold, new era of online student journalism. The adjacent headline ? LONG LIVE THE POST ? suggests brighter days may be ahead for the 56-year-old weekly.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Odyssey Project was featured Sunday on the Big Ten Network?s television show ?Forward Motion,? which is produced by the university. The episode focused on the project?s impact on the participants involved in the program.

American Disability Research scholar Kim Nielsen visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Tuesday to discuss the history and repercussions of disabilities in the U.S., as part of an event put on by UW-Madison Disability Studies. Nielsen, author of ?A Disability History of the United States,? is a professor in the department of disability studies at the University of Toledo. Her research is one of the first scholarly attempts to examine the history of disabilities dating back to the period prior to European arrival.

A doomed love triangle involving a hero, a princess and a scorned sorceress hell-bent on murder and revenge, the Greek myth and of Medea is ideally suited to an opera plot. Indeed, it has been interpreted into a number of operatic versions, and University Opera has chosen Cherubini?s fiery and challenging ?Medea,? in its Italian translation, as its latest stage production.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and First Wave dedicated their eighth-annual ?Passing the Mic? showcase to the late First Wave performer John ?Vietnam? Nguyen, who drowned in Lake Mendota in August. The showcase, which the Office of the Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity also sponsored in conjunction with the Wisconsin Book Festival, featured spoken word and music performances by First Wave, high school spoken-word artists from around the Midwest and guest performances.

One of Molly Kunz?s first exposures to the movie business came in the late 1990s, when her older brother, Eddie, got a role in the BBC production of ?Wisconsin Death Trip,? a dark film based on a dark book by Michael Lesy. Eddie played a young boy who was abandoned near some railroad tracks and ended up freezing to death.

?I was crying uncontrollably,? Molly said. Life being occasionally funny, Molly Kunz is now in the movie business. Kunz, 20, is a junior at UW-Madison, but she?s most definitely in the movie business. Kunz has spent parts of the past few summers acting in films in distant locales.

Qi Cao of Shanghai, China, recently received a national Love of Learning Award from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She is one of 140 recipients nationwide to receive the award, which helps fund post-baccalaureate studies and career development. Initiated into the Society in 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cao currently is a candidate for a Doctor of Musical Arts with a major in music performance and minor in music theory at UW-Madison.

The young people over at the Simpson Street Free Press are proudly busting their buttons these days. And well they should. They?ve just put out another great edition of their little newspaper, which has been distributed to area schools where other kids read it and some of their teachers use it in class. The public can also pick up copies at local grocery and drugstores and other outlets all over town….The editorial page tackles the dismal graduation rate in Madison high schools and includes a column that labels recent attacks on UW-Madison?s admission policy misguided.

?Do you hate America?? This was one of the questions Saad Siddiqui, secretary of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Muslim Students Association, remembers hearing while growing up as a Muslim in a post-9/11 world. A panel on the origin, impacts and iterations of Islamophobia in the United States, where Siddiqui told his story, brought together UW-Madison professors, students and experts Friday. The MSA and the Muslim-Jewish Volunteer Initiative, along with the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions, co-sponsored the event, which featured six speakers and two First Wave performances, each touching on a different nuance of Islamophobia.

The Muslim Students Association, the Muslim-Jewish Volunteer Initiative and the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions will co-sponsor an event Friday to examine and discuss the way Islam is viewed in America. The event, entitled ?Understanding Islamophobia,? will feature five speakers from UW-Madison and around the nation who will discuss how Islam is depicted in American media and how it is treated in politics. The forum will also include performances by First Wave and a Q&A session for attendees.

For young actors graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s theater department, finding work is all about flexibility, both physical and intellectual. In response to students who are starting their own companies and forging multifaceted careers, the UW Department of Theatre and Drama has created a new, combined graduate degree in acting and directing starting this year.

The author of the this year?s Go Big Read selection spoke about her book as well as her experiences combining research and art at Union South Monday evening.

It?s typical for people to come to Madison for school and end up being utterly transformed by the experience, and in ways only peripherally related to the completion of an academic degree. In this way, writer David Ebenbach, author of the short-story collection ?Into the Wilderness? (Washington Writers? Publishing House), is a typical former Madison student. But his gifts of perception and storytelling are anything but common.

UW-Madison?s Odyssey Project, which provides an introductory humanities course to members of the community facing economic barriers, is holding a 10th anniversary celebration on Thursday.

The Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee met Monday to discuss its plans to challenge University of Wisconsin-Madison?s ethnic studies requirement, which was last reviewed in 2002 with few changes put into effect since. According to ASM Diversity Chair Mia Akers, the committee has a consensus UW-Madison?s three-credit ethnic studies courses do not reflect what is currently happening in the United States, and that most students do not take the requirement seriously.