Carleton College News

The Semaphore Repertory Dance Company, a group comprised of advanced dance students at Carleton College, will present their annual spring performance on Friday, May 24 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and again on Sunday, May 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. The performances will take place in the Weitz Center for Creativity Theater and are free and open to the public. Reservations are encouraged and can be made online at www.carleton.tixato.com/buy.

Carleton College will celebrate some of the best in popular American music in a special choral concert on Friday, May 24 at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. “It’s Showtime, Folks!” will feature the vocal talents of the Carleton Singers (performing American jazz standards) and the Carleton Choir (performing semi-staged choruses from classic Broadway musicals). This event is free and open to the public. 

Carleton College’s Chinese Music Ensemble will present their spring recital this Sunday, May 26 at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall. The performance, which is free and open to the public, will feature the world premiere of Minnesota composer Paul Dice’s new instrumental composition, “Father and Son Mock Fishing at Duck Creek,” from his forthcoming full-length album of Chinese music.

International Festival is an annual celebration of the diverse backgrounds and cultures represented at Carleton. Numerous clubs and student groups present food, dances, music, and skits from around the world. This year, the festival was hosted for the first time at the Weitz Center for Creativity. See pictures here by student photographer, Maria Kjellstrand '15.

In a new installation celebrating 25 years of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the work of Carleton College art professors David Lefkowitz and Stephen Mohring is featured in “Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf.” On Thursday, May 23, The Walker Art Center will open two eight-hole courses, featuring individual holes created by various architects, artists, engineers, machinists, and mini-golf aficionados. The new interactive installation features everything from garden gnomes masquerading as foosball players to a scale model of a French chateau, along with mazes, gopher holes, and contours mapped from the course of the legendary Augusta National Golf Club. The result is a delight for both serious golf purists and lovers of outdoor kitsch.

Carleton College’s Jazz Ensembles will perform their annual Spring concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 19 in the Carleton College Concert Hall. Carleton’s new Instructor of Saxophone Greg Keel will perform as a guest soloist. This event is free and open to the public.

Qiguang Zhao, Burton and Lily Levin Professor of Chinese, has been invited to talk weekly on Phoenix TV, an influential Chinese TV channel located in Hong Kong, about international affairs. Zhao comments on a range of topics from Obama’s election to North Korea’s nuclear tests, and the show is broadcasted to millions of Chinese viewers. Additionally, Zhao plans to begin hosting a series of documentary shows about the travel of Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu with Phoenix TV, along with several other channels, which will air in 2014.

Laurence Cooper, professor of political science, recently gave a lecture, "Me, Myself – and Rousseau: The New American Spirituality and Its Origin," at Christopher Newport University on April 8. The discussion analyzed the increasing tendency in America to think that the proper way to live is to turn inward and get in touch with oneself. Cooper, however, discussed the importance of former belief, where people looked beyond themselves for guidance and validation. Previously, Rousseau had promoted these ideas, which urge for less rigorous self-examination and more spontaneity and sincerity. The source of these features is belief in the natural goodness of human beings and the idea of a perfect true self.

Hsianghui Liu-Spencer, cataloging and digital services librarian, and Tom Lamb, cataloging and metadata librarian, presented their study "A batch solution to the death date problem: a case study" at the Innovative Users Group 2013 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on April 25. The presentation discussed the impacts of recent policy changes on the library catalog and their ‘batch solutions’ to these new obstacles. They shared their experiences of what worked and what didn’t with other catalogers as they experimented with unique solutions to these challenges.

Al Montero, professor of political science, and Kathryn Hochstetler of the University of Waterloo (Canada), have had their article titled, “The Renewed Developmentalist State: The National Development Bank and the Brazil Model,” accepted for publication in the Journal of Development Studies. The study examines how Brazil operationalized a renewed developmentalist project during the country’s democratic period.

For Grandma: The 2013 Senior Art Exhibition opens tonight at 7 p.m. in the Perlman Teaching Museum of the Weitz Center for Creativity. The exhibit is the culminating event in the studio art major's experience at Carleton, showcasing artwork produced during their senior year. Tonight's reception is free and open to the public. For Grandma will remain on display through June 14.

Carleton College student Sara Hooker '13 (Belfast, Ireland) has earned a Davis Projects for Peace grant worth $10,000. Hooker, a double  major in economics and international relations, along with a concentration in political economy, will utilize the grant to work with a group of low-income urban farmers in São Paulo, Brazil. The project goal is to raise the income of the farmers and their families, as well as strengthening ties in the community itself. 

Carleton College’s Symphony Band, directed by Ronald Rodman, will present its spring concert on Friday, May 17 at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. This special performance wraps up the academic year with a concert celebrating the graduating members of the Class of 2013. This event is free and open to the public.

Volunteers are needed for two events happening this Saturday, May 18 in the Cowling Arboretum. From 6 to 9 a.m., the College will host its Annual Spring Bird Count and from 9 a.m. until noon, participants are invited to help with an Arboretum Spring Clean Up.

On the heels of their first official concert in almost seven months, the revered St. Paul Chamber Orchestra comes to Carleton College for a special performance on Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 the general public, $7 for students and seniors, and free for those with a Carleton or St. Olaf College ID.

Carleton College’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) will host the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser on Friday, May 17 on the campus Bald Spot at 11:50 a.m., following the weekly convocation address. This popular event is open to the public.

Randy Cohen, a writer best known as the author of a long-running New York Times Magazine column on ethics, will deliver Carleton College’s convocation address on Friday, May 17. Cohen’s presentation, entitled “How To Be Good,” explores what he considers to be the means of creating more virtuous communities. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and it is free and open to the public. Convocations are also streamed live and can be viewed online at go.carleton.edu/convo/.

Former Carleton College cinema & media studies (CAMS) instructor Eric Tretbar, Class of 1986, returns to campus this Saturday, May 11, for the Northfield premiere of his latest feature film, "Girl Meets Bike." This local screening will take place at 7 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema. The 105-minute film will be followed by a Q & A session with Tretbar, along with members of the cast and crew. The screening is free and opening to the public. Please note that the film is unrated but includes adult content.

On Sunday, May 12 at 3 p.m., Carleton College is pleased to present a rare performance by Minnesota Orchestra principals Erin Keefe and Tony Ross, along with faculty pianist Nicola Melville. The 90-minute concert of piano trios will be held in the Concert Hall and is free and open to the public.

Steve Kelly, Dye Family Professor of Music, Emeritus, is set to give a present “Lipstick Traces” at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. The lecture will discuss the pen name of one of the most fetching personalities of New York’s Jazz Age. Lipstick (who’s real name was Lois Long) worked as a nightlife columnist for The New Yorker in 1925. Writing more than 100 columns, Lipstick traced the late-night comings and goings of New York’s jazz scene. Kelly will discuss the racial segregation of the jazz industry, evidenced by Lipstick’s column, and explain how racial categorization was employed by the marketing strategists of the time.