Faculty Activities
Xanath Caraza (Foreign Languages and Literatures) has been invited to present readings from her two recent books Corazón Pintado and Conjuro at the 2012 Obermann Humanities Symposium on “The Latino Midwest,” which will take place at the University of Iowa from October 11-13, 2012. This interdisciplinary symposium will examine the history, education, literature, art, and politics of Latinos in the Midwest. She also has been in Spain and Mexico this summer. She was awarded a writer’s residency in Spain, where she participated in a Poetry Festival in Barcelona at the 2012 Festival de Floricanto Barceloa: a Chicano-Charnego Encounter of Poetry. In Mexico, she was interviewed by Radio Universidad Veracruzana and one of her poems will be part of an art show at El Museo de Antropologia de Xalapa.
The Department of Art & Art History hosted two internationally-known visiting artists, Keith Achepohl and Lynn Manos, for a two week summer residency in July. Both artists gave lectures about their work in the Fine Arts Building located on the UMKC Volker Campus. The Department also held their first fall exhibition – the En Plein Air Painting Show. This exhibition included artwork selected from the first annual Brush Creek Art Walk which was a public event held July 27 – July 29 along the scenic trail from Roanoke Road east to Elmwood. Painters registered for the event had three days to complete paintings en plein air (French for “in the open air”) along the creek. For more on the art walk, see: Brush Creek Art Walk. (These items first appeared in U-Matters.)
The Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design hosted a presentation by R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. in April to inaugurate the first in a series of presentations on how design happens in a city. According to their event announcement, “ A design patron is someone who challenges a professional designer to solve a pressing problem— be it furnishing a signature bank or leading a civic coalition to save a historic building.” They went on to say that R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. has exemplified what it means to be a design patron in Kansas City for well over five decades.
Michael Frisch (Architecture, Urban Planning and Design) has been elected to the governing Board of The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), a consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning. Acting together, the ACSP member school faculties are able to express their shared commitments to understanding the dynamics of urban and regional development, enhancing planning practices, and improving the education of both novice and experienced planners. The other board members are from Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Memphis and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The Theatre Department has announced a new program of discounted tickets for UMKC faculty and staff at $10 (with campus ID card). For more see:
The UMKC School of Social Work held its 2012 Field Day event in the Student Union on August 24, 2012. This event brought together students in the Masters of Social Work Program who are in the field placement phase of their programs of study with their Field Supervisors, other agency representatives and UMKC Social Work alumni employed in their profession in the area for a morning of presentations and discussions. About 200 were in attendance.
Beth Miller (Political Science) has published an article titled: “Exploring the Economic Determinants of Immigration Attitudes.” (2012). Poverty and Public Policy, Volume 4, Issue 2.
Sookhee Oh (Sociology) taught Social Organization of East Asian Cities this summer at the International Summer School at the University of Seoul, Korea. The course focused on urban issues in East Asia and the dynamic social contexts of East Asian Cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai. This 5-week intensive summer school program offers courses in English in the areas of Asian Studies, International Studies, and Korean language. The program draws hundreds of students and faculty from the Americas, Europe, and Asia who wish to explore the densely populated megacity, Seoul, South Korea, and other parts of East Asia. Students generally take two courses and participate in many extracurricular cultural activities including a four-day trip to either Beijing, China, or Jeju Island, Korea, and to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), as well as experience Taekwondo and K-pop culture. For more see:
The International students wear a traditional Korean dress in this photo.
The UMKC High School College Partnership held its 2012 Annual faculty Conference at the Student Union on July 20, 2012. Eleven A&S departments were among the 15 academic programs present at the session.
Max J. Skidmore (Curators’ Professor of Political Science and Thomas Jefferson Fellow) has been invited to join the Scholars’ Strategy Network that Harvard professors Ben Veghte and Theda Skocpol are forming. Professor Veghte has called Skidmore’s work on Social Security “fascinating,” and says that he and Professor Skocpol wish to highlight it on the new Network.
Erik Olsen (Economics) presented an invited Lecture at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, Department of Economics: “The Economics of Cooperatives, Employee Ownership and Self-management”, March 19, 2012.
Judy Ancel (Economics) attended the United Association for Labor Education meeting in, March, 2012 in Pittsburgh. She organized and chaired a plenary discussion on Global Union Alliances Step by Step with Leo Girard, President United Steelworkers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, President, Los Mineros, Bruce Klipple, President United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, and Benedicto Martinez, co-President, Authentic Workers Front.
W. Robert Brazelton (Emeritus, Economics) published “Towards a Synthesis of Institutional and Post Keynesian Economics” (with Charles J. Whalen), in Financial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Depression, edited by C. J. Whalen, 2012, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar. For more see:
L. Randall Wray (Economics) gave a presentation at the Institute for Global Law and Policy Pro-Seminar, Harvard University, June 2012. He was Co-organizer of conference, “Global Financial Fragility and the Development of Capitalist Finance”, Nankai University, Tianjin, June 2012, and also gave the plenary lecture. He was co-organizer of the Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, June 2012; at which he gave two lectures.
Frederic S. Lee (Economics) published a number of items recently including “Heterodox Economics and its Critics,’ Review of Political Economy, 24.2 (2012) and “Pricing and Prices” with G. C. Gu in The Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics, 2nd ed., edited by J. King, Edward Elgar, 2012. For more see:
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He also presented a paper at the Political Economy and the Outlook for Capitalism Joint Conference 2012 on “The UK Research Assessment Exercise and the Narrowing of UK Economics”.
UMKC ‘Border Wars’ Workshop Draws Educators from Across the Country
A teacher’s workshop entitled Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom and the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars was held in late July 2012. Sponsored by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the workshop is part of The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for Teachers and was funded by an $180,000 federal grant from the NEH. The workshop, directed by Diane Mutti Burke (History), drew a total of 80 educators for its two sessions. The group aimed to better understand the clash of cultures that played out on the Missouri-Kansas border. For more see:
