Friday, April 13, 2007

Desert Sunrise

Are you all going to see the 2pm or 7pm performance, or neither?


The Center for Global Culture and Communication, with a grant from the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues project presents:

Desert Sunrise: A new play by Misha Shulman Inspired by Ta’ayush - Israeli-Palestinian partnership for peace, Live Music by Yoel Ben-Simhon, Dance by Dalia Carella

Sunday April 15th
2:00 pm and 7:00 pm
The Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center
10 Arts Circle Drive
Admission FREE
Contact Amber Day at a-day@northwestern.edu to reserve your seat.

Desert Sunrise portrays an encounter in the South Hebron Hills between anIsraeli soldier, a Palestinian shepherd and a young tormented Palestinianwoman. Over the course of one memorable night the process of mutual understandingbegins, halts, gets rejected, but is ultimately embraced by the painedcharacters. Using humor, music, poetry and dance the play unfolds toward itstragic yet hopeful ending.

Come see what the NY Times called “elegant and affecting”and compared to Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’.“Unforgettable….Shulman presents his message with intelligence, eloquence and beauty.” nytheatre.com

The Difficult Dialogues project at Northwestern is designed to confront a culture of indifference that defers civic engagement for individual self-advancement. Each of the several components of the project, by themselves and in concert with one another, encourage a more robust civility grounded in thoughtful public discussion of contemporary problems defined by cultural misunderstanding and conflict. Each feature of the program strives to help students recognize difference in others and in themselves, understand collective memory, and communicate effectively about and across ethnic, religious, and other commitments. The program is grounded in first-year seminars and public issues forums. Additional features include the theme of negotiating difference and memory, interdisciplinary faculty and curricula, seminars being embedded in the residence halls, attention to skills in public debate and conflict resolution, audience development for the forums to encourage diverse participation, pedagogy workshops for seminar faculty, and summer research opportunities for the students.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

We're official!

Our chapter has been officially added to the list of RSA student chapters. You can see the others by going to http://rhetoricsociety.org/ and clicking on the "Membership" tab.

A few next steps:

1. Let's start a discussion here about possible readings for a discussion group. After finishing J.G.A. Pocock's Machiavellian Moment, some were interested in reading more Paul Ricœur Rule of Metaphor. For a shorter read, I might also suggest ["Explanation and Understanding" in From Text to Action, trans. Kathleen Blamey and John Thompson (Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 1991).] If somebody has selections from Rule of Metaphor, Time and Narrative, or other works (or even non-Ricœur readings), let's put them out on the table. Patrick can take those suggestions and finalize plans, perhaps in collaboration with Dilip and/or Keith.

2. I'd like to hold at least one Cumnock colloquium in May for graduate students (and possibly faculty) to present papers-in-progress developed or further edited outside of seminars. This is a friendly setting to work on presentation skills and discuss ideas that may not be fully articulated (or even coherent). Several of us are going to the Alta Conference this summer, and could present a first draft of those presentations here. Others might be going to the RSA Institute or the NCA Summer Conference. In any case, let's tentatively say 7pm on Monday, May 21. If that's not a good time for some of you who want to come, we'll reconsider.

3. I'd also encourage everyone to attend the Derby party at the Webster's home if you received an invitation. Last time the attendance from the Rhetoric and Public Culture "clan" was quite low and noted by the other party-goers. We don't want to be perceived as the South Campus isolates!