November 2002
Program Notes
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First Week (November 2-8)
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Forrest Carter claimed The Education of Little Tree was
a memoir of his childhood as a part Cherokee orphan. Some were shocked
to later learn that Forrest Carter was in fact Asa Carter, a fiery
speechwriter for former Alabama governor George Wallace. English
professor Laura Browder (VCU), author of Slippery Characters:
Ethnic Impersonators and American Identities, says Carter is but
one of a long line of American authors who've left behind unwanted
pasts to create new identities. Also featured: The carpetbagger
was a Yankee scoundrel to white Southerners and a redeemer to former
slaves. Historian Ted Tunnell (VCU), author of Edge
of the Sword: The Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell in
the Civil War and Reconstruction, discusses the life of one
carpetbagger whose venture south lost him nearly everything.
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Second Week (November 9-15)
Not Your Father's P.E.
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The field of physical education has gone through dramatic changes
over the past 25 years. It's even gotten a new name - kinesiology.
While P.E. is still about getting people physically fit, it's also
about the role movement plays in our human experience. John Charles
(W&M) heads a kinesiology department and uses texts like
"Zen in the Art of Archery" to examine the relationship
between wisdom and human movement. Ken Kambis (W&M) trained
an 81-year-old man to climb to the top of Mount Rainier in Washington
State. And biomechanics professor Ray McCoy (W&M) is
experimenting with new therapies to improve the gait of people with
Parkinson's disease.
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Third Week (November 16-22)
The Roots of Islamic Terrorism
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Before September 11th, the targets of Middle-East terrorism were
mostly outside the United States. But Al Qaeda now plots attacks
on American soil. Why has terrorism changed, and what's the best
way to combat it? Kamal Beyoghlow (GMU) has spent twenty
years in the U.S. State Department fighting terrorism abroad. Lt.
Col. Dale Davis (VMI) is a former Marine Corps intelligence
officer and a current scholar of the Arabic language. He frequently
travels to the Middle East to build cultural relations with Islamic
nations..
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Fourth Week (November 23-29)
In Defense of Schadenfreude
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Gore Vidal once said "Every time a friend succeeds, I die
a little." Schadenfreude is a malicious satisfaction in the
misfortunes of others. Religion professor John Portmann (UVa)
has written an entire book on the emotion and discusses its role
in the pantheon of human sins. Also featured: With Good Reason goes
to church to see how the 19th century practice of shape note singing
lives on. As musicologist Andrew Connell (JMU) explains,
shapes were used to teach musically untutored parishioners how to
harmonize.
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Fourth Week (November 30-December 6)
Grasping for Words:Adult Literacy
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Literacy is defined by the U.S. government as the ability to read,
write and speak in English and to compute and solve problems at
levels necessary to function on the job, and in the family and society.
But, more than that, it's the ability for a person to fully communicate
their hopes and dreams as human beings. Literacy experts Edward
Jones (GMU) and Rebecca Spurlock (GMU) explain how the
mind acquires the ability to read. Also featured: Literacy coordinator
Susan Erno introduces some adult learners in Central Virginia who
recently showed off their newly acquired writing skills by reading
them out loud at a public event.
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