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Jackson to present academies’ keynote
Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, will deliver this spring’s Undergraduate Academies keynote lecture, “In That Timeless Time: Life on Death Row,” highlighting issues relevant to UB’s Civic Engagement Academy, one of three academies that connect students to faculty and staff interested in a broad, common theme.
In his talk, to take place at 12:30 p.m. April 8 in 109 Knox Hall, North Campus, Jackson will discuss the work that he and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Diane Christian have done to document daily life on Death Row in Texas. He will address the politics and economics of capital punishment in America and present photographs from his forthcoming book, which shares a title with his lecture. After the event, undergraduate students will have the opportunity to join Jackson and Christian in an informal, follow-up discussion in 17 Norton Hall, North Campus.
“Bruce Jackson is one of UB’s most prominent public intellectuals. He’s an academic and also an artist, a writer and someone who engages in public affairs,” says Andreas Daum, associate dean of undergraduate education. “This lecture will contribute to UB’s vibrant and exciting campus culture and demonstrate to the public that the Undergraduate Academies are truly hubs of activity.”
The Undergraduate Academies launched in 2007 with the Civic Engagement Academy and Research Exploration Academy and expanded in fall 2008 to include the Global Perspectives Academy. Today, the academies’ academic directors include some of UB’s most distinguished faculty members: Peter Sobota, clinical professor, School of Social Work, for Civic Engagement; James Jensen, professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, for Research Exploration; and Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Political Science, for Global Perspectives.
The academies bring together students from diverse backgrounds and provide a venue for them to interact with outstanding faculty members, participate in seminar courses and interact outside the classrooms in activities that range from academic workshops and film screenings to off-campus community service events. In the past, academy members have enjoyed backstage access to speakers in UB’s Distinguished Speakers Series and participated in a behind-the-scenes tour of the Buffalo Zoo. Hadar Borden, the academies’ administrative director, says the learning communities have grown to include more than 280 students who have enrolled in academy seminars or lived in an on-campus residential community sponsored by the academies. Many more students attend academy events.
Each annual spring keynote address, the highlight of the academies’ programming, features a topic of particular concern to one of the three academies. For last year’s lecture, Peter Katzenstein, a well-known Cornell University professor and scholar, discussed “Obamania and Anti-Americanism” in a speech tailored to the Global Perspectives Academy. Next year’s talk will focus on a subject linked to the Research Exploration Academy.
Besides the talk, another major programming feature is a weekly theme around which events, including workshops and excursions, are centered. Borden says the themes help introduce undergraduates and the community at large to the many fields in which UB faculty members work. Issues have included “Expanding Diversity in the U.S.: Investigating the ‘Melting Pot’”; “Miracle in Rwanda: Hope in the Face of Genocide”; “ArtsMANIA: Highlighting Local Arts”; “Fitness and Nutrition: You ARE What You Eat”; and many others. “Physics of Sound,” a January theme, included a tour of a Buffalo Science Museum exhibit on sound and a lecture by faculty expert Robert Burkard on hearing problems and research. Last year, the academies partnered with the Asian Studies Program and Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy to screen “Fire Under the Snow,” a film about a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was arrested, tortured and sentenced to hard labor in China.
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