Please join us at 7:00 p.m. on Friday February 21, 2014 in Room 305 of the Weinberg Memorial Library for a free presentation of the American coming-of-age film Foreign Letters. A brief discussion will follow the film.
Set in the 1980’s, Film Movement describes Foreign Letters as the story of Ellie, a 12-year-old immigrant from Israel who is lonely and homesick. Life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. Trust slowly builds as the two teach each other about life in America. As Ellie and Thuy become inseparable, they eventually hurt and betray each other. Ellie must give up her most prized possession, in order to save their friendship. Based on filmmaker Ela Their’s experiences, Foreign Letters is a story about prejudice, poverty, shame, and the power of friendship to heal us.
Foreign Letters is in English, Hebrew and Vietnamese with English subtitles.
This event is open to faculty, staff, students and the public. Please email Sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for reservations.
Although the mutiny on the Bounty will always stand as a signal event in maritime history, the circumstances surrounding the mutiny have been clouded by early attacks on Lieutenant William Bligh and by motion pictures, which portrayed him as a tyrant. Doubtless, Bligh had a sharp tongue which he used quite effectively to berate his petty officers. But contrary to the portrait created by partisans of the mutineers, Bligh was an enlightened commander who limited the use of disciplinary flogging.
The mutiny is only part of the story. After the Bounty was taken by Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers, Bligh and 18 loyalists squeezed into a launch for a harrowing 47 day open boat voyage in bad weather. Bligh and most of his men survived one of the greatest feats of navigation in history and returned home. But Bligh, eventually a Rear-Admiral, was always dogged by the mutiny and by the concerted smear campaign waged by a couple pardoned mutineers and the family of Christian.
In celebration of the 225th anniversary of the mutiny, Weinberg Library is presenting an exhibit on the topic drawn from the collection of University benefactor and alumnus Edward R. Leahy. Mr. Leahy has acquired rare and fascinating books showing both the historical facts and the efforts to sully Bligh. From Bligh’s Narrative to the mutineer’s court martial transcripts to the spurious Fletcher Christian letters and the authentic and extremely rare Peter Heywood letters, Mr. Leahy has assembled the historical evidence. But he has also collected the start of the Mutiny saga in the arts with works like Lord Byron’s The Island. This exhibit provides both the fiction and the facts of the mutiny on the Bounty.
The Heritage Room exhibit will open February 7 and close April 17, 2014. On April 9 at 5:30 PM Edward Leahy will speak on The Mutiny on the Bounty: Myth and Fact in the Heritage Room with a reception to follow. The talk is free and open to the public.
Contact Special Collections Librarian Michael Knies Michael.Knies@Scranton.edu 570-941-6341 for more information.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 – In conjunction with Wellness Day, this TOYOT workshop will feature fitness apps and gadgets that helps you get healthy and stay active.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014 – This workshop will give you some tips about how to cut your cable bill without doing a MacGyver! It will be held from 12:00 to 1:00pm in WML 305 and will be presented by Joe Casabona.
Bill Strickland, President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corp., Social Architect and Community Leader has used his leadership skills to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people through programs of his own design.
Winner of the coveted MacArthur “genius” Award, Bill will speak on “The Art of Leadership” focusing on what skill sets and leadership style can speak to the very complex and increasingly global nature of our challenges.
Looking for a good book? Why not see the movie instead? Media Resources houses dozens of films based on bestselling books. From classic stories like Little Women and To Kill a Mockingbird to young adult favorites like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The HungerGames, there is something for everyone.
Last night, I had the honor of speaking at the Part-time Faculty Appreciation Dinner. The event was hosted by the CTLE and was a wonderful opportunity for adjuncts to network and to “talk shop.” Here is a copy of the speech I delivered.
It Matters
By: Amye Archer
In second grade, Bobby Lewis caused our teacher to have a nervous breakdown.I was nine and her screams sounded like a siren in the dead of night.The girls in the class cried as the Principal paddled Bobby in front of us.I can’t remember what Bobby said that set her off, or what triggered her spontaneous madness.
Image from www.BarnesandNoble.com
In fourth grade, unable to stop me from talking, my teacher picked up my desk, dumped its contents on the floor in front of me, and threw the empty desk across the room.My father grounded me for a month.I have no memory of to whom I was speaking or what was so important that it just couldn’t wait.
In seventh grade, Jenna Beckwith and I walked once or twice a week to the small store across the street from our middle school and purchased a pack of Marlboro Reds for our social studies teacher.He sent the boys for booze, the girls for smokes.I can’t remember how he managed to pull this off.I can’t even remember his name.
In ninth grade, we learned we could leave at lunch and not return, explaining our absence the next day to our young, green, vice-principal by saying we had “female troubles.”I don’t know why we needed the extra time, who discovered this loophole, or how many times we used it.
During my senior year of high school, I was lost.I had transferred out of public schools and had been at Bishop Hannan for two years.I didn’t fit in.I wrote poetry, listened to John Lennon, and read Bukowski.I watched around me as my classmates, nestled warmly in the comfort of a better pedigree, walked forward into their future like the road had been paved for decades.Like they had the map of their life tattooed on the backs of their hands.I couldn’t commit to a college, I couldn’t commit to a path. But the clock was ticking and the forest thickened around me.The irony that I was a poet standing at two roads diverged was not lost on me.
Then, I met Anne Langan, my senior-year English teacher.Her classroom was number 214, at the end of the second floor hallway.At Hannon, we operated on semesters, so it wasn’t until the dead of winter that I first walked into her classroom.Over the course of a few weeks, we had the chance to do some creative writing.I wrote some poems, some short stories, and of course, lengthy papers on the role of women in Macbeth.Then, about halfway through the year, we were asked to write our own myth, in the tradition of the Greeks.I eagerly wrote mine after school.I think it took me an hour.
The Weinberg Memorial Library Special Collections recently received an extraordinary gift in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Library. Dr. Midori Yamanouchi, Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library Board Member, provided funding for the acquisition of a fine art facsimile of the Lindisfarne Gospels. The original Lindisfarne Gospels is at the British Library in London, and it is one of the most important and one of the best-preserved early medieval manuscripts.
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an Illuminated manuscript gospel book created approximately 715-720 AD in a monastery at Lindisfarne off the coast of England. It is considered one of the best early versions of St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. The Lindisfarne Gospels also includes an interlinear Old English translation of the Gospels. This word-for-word English gloss was added to the Gospels around 950-970 AD. It is the oldest known translation of the Gospels into English.
This fine art facsimile of the Lindisfarne Gospels was produced in 2002 by Faksimile Verlag of Luzern Switzerland, a company that specializes in the highest quality reproductions of liturgical medieval manuscripts. The facsimile was produced in cooperation with the British Library using state of the art digital photographic technology.
The facsimile is currently on display in the Library’s 4th floor Special Collections Reading Room.
On January 16th, Erika Funke from WVIA’s Artscene interviewed Sondra Myers, Schemel Forum Director. Tune in to listen to the discussion on the new and exciting offerings the Schemel Forum is bringing to campus starting in February!
The Schemel Forum Courses are slated to begin in February!
Enlightened Self-Interest Examined
The semester starts out with a course with a philosophical nature. Dr. Matt Meyer will discuss the pursuit of self-interest for the common good. This course will take look civic responsibility and the connection today’s Americans may or may not understand between self-interest and the common good. Readings will include those from Thucydides, Plato, Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Milton Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz.
This course meets on Thursdays from 6 to 7:15 pm, starts Feb. 6th.
Jewish-American Short Stories Dr. Joe Kraus will take this course through a variety of Jewish-American short stories from before World War II to present day. Looking at the world from both sides of the hyphen; as Jews and Americans. Readings include those from Delmore Schwartz, Grace Paley, Philip Roth, Thane Rosenbaum and Nathan Englander to name a few.
This course meets on Wednesdays from 6 to 7:15 pm, starts Feb. 19th.
The University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library is requesting book and tag sale donations for its annual spring book sale, as well as volunteers to help with preparation and staffing for the event, which will take place during the last weekend of April. All proceeds from the book sale benefit the Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library Endowment, which supports library collections and services.
The library will accept all titles of used hardcover and paperback books, including children’s books, cookbooks, fiction and non-fiction. In addition, the library is collecting videos, compact discs, audio-cassettes, records and tag sale items.
This year’s book sale is scheduled for Saturday, April 26 from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Sunday, April 27, from noon until 4 p.m., in the fifth floor Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library.
Donations may be placed in the boxes on the Monroe Avenue side of the library, and will be accepted until Wednesday, April 23.
This year’s book sale is scheduled for Saturday, April 26 from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Sunday, April 27, from noon until 4 p.m., in the fifth floor Heritage Room of the Weinberg Memorial Library. The Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library, the library staff and volunteers will conduct the event. Book prices begin at $1.00 in addition to specialty priced items.
A special preview sale will be held on Friday, April 25, for Friends’ members and Schemel Forum members.
For additional information or to volunteer, please contact Barbara Evans, circulation/access service clerk for the library, at 570-941-4078.
