Erin Espelie

2019 ◽  
pp. 275-294
Author(s):  
Scott MacDonald

Artist/scientist Erin Espelie was trained at Cornell University as a biologist, but turned down opportunities to study biology at the graduate level at Harvard and MIT in order to explore the New York City theater scene, before finding her way into independent, “avant-garde” filmmaking, first exploring her interests in biology and the history of science in a series of short films, then producing the remarkable essay-film The Lanthanide Series (2014), which explores the importance of the “rare earths” (the elements with atomic numbers 57–71) for modern communication and informational technologies. The imagery for The Lanthanide Series was recorded, almost entirely, off the reflective surface of an iPad. In her work as a moving-image artist, Espelie combines poetry, science, environmental politics, and modern digital technologies within videos that defy traditional knowledge categories. She is currently editor in chief for Natural History magazine and a director of the NEST (Nature, Environment, Science & Technology) Studio for the Arts at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patti Sherbaniuk

Hlinka, Michael.  Follow Your Money: Who Gets it, Who Spends It, Where Does it Go?  Illus. Kevin Sylvester. Annick Press, New York, 2013. Print.Follow Your Money is a fairly basic yet informative examination of the economy and its complexities, aimed at older kids and teens. The book starts off with a quick synopsis of the “spider web” of the economy and a brief rundown of the history of money and the concept of profit.  The author then breaks down the costs of various activities (a bus ride for example) and objects (baseball caps, sneakers), from raw materials to manufacturing costs, labour, transport, store markups, profits, etc. The author (a CBC commentator on business) is clever in what he has chosen, selecting objects and activities that are of interest to older kids and teens (computers, designer jeans, chocolate, cell phones, music, etc.).  There are also a couple of pages on fuel and its importance to the economy. The book then takes a brief look at banking and the pros and cons of credit and debit cards, and then finishes with resource suggestions for additional information and an index.The cost breakdowns may be too numerous and a little dry for some readers (depending on their interest and attention level), but they are a very effective method of getting the reader to think about where things come from, how various economic factors affect prices, and who gets the profits. The author includes interesting sidebars of historical facts and trivia about particular subjects- tea, for example, or disposable bags-adding a bit of humour in the process.  The illustrations are colourful and quirky and help clarify the points the author is making.Ideal for upper elementary and teen readers.Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Patti SherbaniukPatti is a Liaison Librarian at the Winspear School of Business at the University of Alberta. She holds a BA in English and an MLIS, both from the University of Alberta. She is passionate about food, travel, the arts and reading books of all shapes and sizes.


Author(s):  
Andrea Harris

The Conclusion briefly examines the current state of the New York City Ballet under the auspices of industrial billionaire David H. Koch at Lincoln Center. In so doing, it to introduces a series of questions, warranting still more exploration, about the rapid and profound evolution of the structure, funding, and role of the arts in America through the course of the twentieth century. It revisits the historiographical problem that drives Making Ballet American: the narrative that George Balanchine was the sole creative genius who finally created an “American” ballet. In contrast to that hagiography, the Conclusion reiterates the book’s major contribution: illuminating the historical construction of our received idea of American neoclassical ballet within a specific set of social, political, and cultural circumstances. The Conclusion stresses that the history of American neoclassicism must be seen as a complex narrative involving several authors and discourses and crossing national and disciplinary borders: a history in which Balanchine was not the driving force, but rather the outcome.


2005 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-753
Author(s):  
JEFFREY T. ZALAR

Postmodern communitarian theory insists that all knowledge is participant knowledge: who we are is at least if not more foundational to learning than any philosophy of what we can know. These two books, one written by Jesuit priests and professors of systematic theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and the other by non-Catholic professional historians working at the University of Reading, invite us to consider this assertion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e25853
Author(s):  
Emily Braker

The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History (CUMNH) Herpetology Collection is comprised of over 65,000 fluid-preserved specimens representing over 2,500 taxa from more than 70 countries. Despite its active use, a history of irregular topping up schedules and a decades-long dearth in rehousing projects due to budgetary constraints left the collection in substandard conditions. A 2015 survey of roughly 10% of the collection revealed average ethanol concentrations far below desired levels, with only 15% of specimen jars surveyed containing optimal preservative strengths of 70% (+/- 2.5%). In Fall 2017, CUMNH secured an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant to holistically address shortcomings in the micro- and macro-storage environments within the Herpetology Collection. Program activities include jar-by-jar ethanol remediation using a digital density meter and a topping up algorithm proposed by Notton 2010, collection-wide replacement of faulty jars and lids, and installation of new static and mobile compactor shelving. Updates to nomenclature and a full specimen inventory including condition and location tracking in Arctos also fall within the project scope. This talk will cover progress thus far, our approaches to moving a collection in place, and systematic remedial topping up as a valuable counterpart to routine monitoring in fluid collections.


2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin Carlson

It is no secret, unhappily, that the study of theatre in the colleges and universities of this country is a discipline under siege, but the severity of the problems received strong confirmation in New York State this fall when two of the most distinguished and long-established (over a century in both cases) programs in the country were, with little warning, faced with draconian cuts or outright extinction. The fact that one, the state University of Albany, was the flagship school of the public system, and the other, Cornell University, was one of the state's most distinguished private institutions, suggests the scope and impact of these actions. At Albany, four other programs are being terminated along with theatre—Classics, Russian, Spanish, and French—while at Cornell the extent of the severe cuts imposed on the theatre program—almost a quarter of the total budget of the department (which also shelters dance and film)—are being suffered by no other program in the university. The prominence of these two schools in a state that has long claimed a central position in American theatre makes them particularly significant symbolically of a discipline in crisis, and this has impelled me to engage in serious and sometimes painful reflections on that discipline, the basis of the present essay.


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