Archives
People etc.
Workshop to address needs of international students
One out of every eight UB students is from another country, and the ratio is growing. International students offer the possibility of enriched classrooms, yet some never quite fit in. Many are reticent to participate in class discussions. What is the problem?
The needs of international students will be the focus of a workshop to be held from 1-2:30 p.m. Sept. 5 in 120 Clemens Hall, North Campus.
The workshop is sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources.
Speaking at the workshop will be Stephen C. Dunnett, vice provost for international educational and professor of foreign and second language education in the Department of Learning and Instruction in the Graduate School of Education, and Keith E. Otto, director of the English as a second language program in the English Language Institute.
Their presentations will examine the most common language issues and cultural differences that lead to poor interaction, participation and performance by international students.
Dunnett and Otto also will discuss useful techniques that can be integrated into one's teaching repertoire to help unlock the potential of international students.
Those interested in attending the workshop must register online at http://wings.buffalo.edu/ctlr or by contacting Lisa Francescone at lcf@buffalo.edu or 645-7328.
Growing racial, educational inequality to be topic of lecture
A nationally distinguished scholar, teacher and author who recently drew attention to the steady racial and ethnic resegregation of schools throughout the United States, will present the 2003 endowed Charlotte C. Acer Colloquium sponsored by the Graduate School of Education (GSE).
Gary Orfield of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and founding co-director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, will speak from 4-6 p.m. Oct. 30 in 105 Harriman Hall, South Campus.
The title of his talk will be "Race and Educational Inequality: Civil Rights in a Time of Deepening Inequality, Higher Demands and Shrinking Resources."
The event will be free of charge and open to the public.
In his presentation, Orfield will explore the prospects for students in a racially changing and highly stratified society that insists on equal educational outcomes for all, while refusing to deal with the underlying social problems that prevent those outcomes.
Orfield's entire career has been marked by the study of school desegregation and the implementation of civil rights laws. For the past two decades he has been especially interested in education policy, in changing patterns of opportunity in metropolitan areas, in higher education policy, the impact of conservative changes in social policy and civil rights, and in the situation of teens growing up in a post-industrial society.
He has written eight books and many articles that address these topics. One of his most recent studies brought to public attention the steady racial and ethnic resegregation of schools all over the country and its relationship to poverty and educational inequality.
According to Orfield, resegregation contributes demonstrably to a vast and growing gap in quality between schools attended largely by white students and those serving a large proportion of minority students—the very problem to which desegregation as a social and educational policy was originally applied.
Orfield notes that Americans increasingly express support for integrated schools and points to evidence that they both improve test scores and have a positive impact on the lives of students.
"Minority students with the same test scores as white students tend to be much more successful in college if they attended interracial high schools," he says.
Nevertheless, he says we are well on our way to segregating our schools all over again—70.2 percent of black students now attend predominantly minority schools (up considerably from the 1980 low of 62.9 percent) and more than a third of them attend schools with a minority enrollment of 90-100 percent.
Segregation of Latino students, he says, has grown even more dramatically—up 13.5 percent since 1969.
Orfield and his Harvard project team offer a number of policy recommendations to curb racial and ethnic polarization and educational inequalities. These range from expansion and development of magnet schools and the exploration of school and housing policies to avoid massive resegregation of the inner suburbs to the careful documentation of resegregated schools on students.
Distinguished poet, translator Arthur Sze will lecture, read his work in September
Arthur Sze, a leading American poet who conceptualizes the world in Native American and Daoist terms, will be a featured speaker in the Fall 2003 Wednesdays at 4 Plus literary series presented by the Poetics Program at the University at Buffalo.
He will present a lecture, "Truth's Arrow: The Art of Translating Chinese Poetry," at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 9 in 538 Clemens Hall on the North Campus, and will read from his own poetry at 4 p.m. on Sept. 8 in the Screening Room, Center for the Arts, North Campus.
Sze is a second-generation Chinese American and the author of seven volumes of poetry, among them "Archipelago," "River River," "Dazzled," and "The Silk Dragon," which marked his debut as an exceptional translator of Chinese classical poetry.
His work also is familiar to readers of the American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, Mother Jones, Conjunctions, and the Bloomsbury Review.
He has received some of the nation's most prestigious literary recognition, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Witter Bynner Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; an American Book Award and the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
His reputation as an ecopoet reflects his a great interest in Eastern philosophies, the nature of scientific inquiry and Native American culture, with which he is very familiar, having been married to a Hopi weaver for 17 years.
In fact, Zhou Xiaojing writes that in his work, Sze intermingles images of nature with those of metaphysics and quantum physics to produce a conceptualization of the world that parallels the Native American ethos and the basic philosophy of Daoism.
Sze currently directs the Creative Writing Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Wednesdays at 4 PLUS series events are free and open to the public. The series is sponsored by several UB departments and endowed chairs in the College of Arts and Sciences. The series is coordinated by Myung Mi Kim, professor of poetics at UB. For further information, call 645-3810.
CFA to present "Fosse"
A 47-week international tour of the Tony Award-winning musical "Fosse" will begin at the Center for the Arts with a two-week residency leading up to public performances at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 and 8:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
Residency activities will include classes in scenic and lighting design, dance, and musical theatre for UB theatre and dance students. Company members also will rehearse in preparation for the tour.
"Fosse" highlights the popular, as well as lesser-known, work of legendary dancer, choreographer and director Bob Fosse. Fosse's style revolutionized the musical theatre with the Broadway hits "Sweet Charity," "Chicago," "Dancin'," and the films "Cabaret" and "All That Jazz."
Long-time Fosse stars Gwen Verdon and Ann Reinking have recreated Fosse's groundbreaking work, and a talented cast of 26 dancers and singers brings Broadway's all-time best choreography to life.
"It is a true honor and a privilege to have the Fosse company choose our venue to rehearse and open their international tour," says Thomas Burrows, CFA director. "It confirms our belief that the quality of the center's performance and support spaces is on par with other major venues in this country. This opportunity also will address our mandate of presenting world-class entertainment to the community, and most importantly, it affords our theatre and dance students the rare chance to learn from, and interact with, a professional company and crew."
The tour will spend 15 weeks in the U.S., then travel for 32 weeks to such locations as Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Scotland, Manchester, Birmingham, Denmark, Korea and South Africa.
The Sept. 19 performance of "Fosse" is part of Curtain Up! 2003, the 22nd annual official opening of Buffalo's theatre season.
Tickets for "Fosse" are $45 and $35, and are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.
For more information call 645-ARTS.