Drake UniversityOn Campus


On Campus - Stories
January 19, 2001 - Vol. 53, No. 29


Abel receives Fellowship for College Teachers

Richard Abel, the Ellis and Nelle Levitt professor of English at Drake, has been awarded a 2001-02 Fellowship for College Teachers from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He will receive an award of $35,000 to support his work on a cultural history research project from September 2001 through August 2002.

His project is titled "The 'Imagined Community' of American Cinema, 1910-1914." Professor Abel said he plans to reexamine the development of cinema in the United States during this period and to produce a book that makes at least two claims.
The first claim, he said, is that "the early cinema, as a contested space of leisure consumption, is best understood through a study of exhibition practices and their discursive traces, which will be supported by analyses of previously unstudied cities and towns in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast."

The second claim is that "the most consistently popular of those exhibited films, westerns -- that is Indian, cowboy and 'cowboy girl' films -- not only provided the basis for a potential national epic but constituted an arena within which a heterogeneous 'creole' society could be transformed (yet not without exceptions or difficulties) into a more or less homogeneous 'white nation.' "

Abel is the author of The Red Rooster Scare: Making Cinema American, 1900-1910. Last February his book received a special commendation from the Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Awards, which celebrate the world's best books on film and television.

More recently, Abel presented an invited paper, "The Passing [Picture] Show in the Industrial Heartland: The Early 1910s," in a panel session on Nickelodeon Cultures during a Moving Images: Technologies, Transitions, Historiographies Conference at Stockholm University on Dec. 3.

He also has contributed an essay (translated into Italian) for part one of the third volume on European national cinemas, of Historia del cinema mondiale (Einaudi, 2000). The essay is titled "Toward a Paradigm Shift in the History of French Cinema, 1915-1929."
Dinner with the 'Dogs set for Saturday

There's still time to make reservations for the annual Dinner with the 'Dogs on Saturday, Jan. 20.

The festivities will start with the Drake women's basketball team taking on the Southern Illinois Salukis at 2:05 p.m. in the Drake Knapp Center. Following the game, there will be a chili feed and a variety of special activities from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Bell Center Gym. After dinner, participants can return to the Drake Knapp Center to watch the men's basketball team take on Northern Iowa's Panthers at 7:05 p.m.

Former Drake athletes Julie Fitzpatrick, David Griffith, Brett Nelson and Connie Newlin will receive the Double D Award Saturday and will be recognized during halftime of both games.

The Double D Award recognizes Drake letterwinners for achievements in their chosen fields of endeavor and/or community service since leaving Drake. The Double D Award is the highest honor Drake University bestows on its student-athletes.
The cost of Dinner with the 'Dogs is $5.50 for adults and $3 for children. With the faculty/staff discount, tickets for the women's basketball game are $5 for adults, while tickets for the men's basketball game are $9 for adults and $7 for children 14 and under. Children 14 and under are admitted free to the women's game with general admission seating.

For dinner reservations and more information, call x3152 ASAP.
"Guardian Spirit Gates" by Maureen Seamonds will be on display in the faculty exhibition titled "Art and Source" that opens Tuesday, Jan. 23, in the Anderson Gallery. The opening reception will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28.

Recital to feature to premiers

On Friday, Jan. 26, soprano Leanne Freeman-Miller, assistant professor of voice, will perform a recital celebrating 20th century music with works by Copland, Vaughan Williams and Lekburg, as well as two premiered works by Drake student Christopher Krampe and William Dougherty, chair of the music department.

Krampe, a sophomore from Baxter, Iowa, who is majoring in church music, has written a song cycle composition for voice and piano based on song texts by Stephen Crane. Professor Dougherty's pieces are for flute and voice and are based on poetry written by the late Patricia Shinehouse, who was associate professor of flute at Drake before her death last July.

Assisting Freeman-Miller will be Michelle Havlik-Jergens, piano, Jay Light, oboe, and Kimberly Helton, flute. The recital will start at 8 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main. Admission is free.

On Saturday, Jan. 27, Sean Flanigan, trombone, will give his debut recital at Drake. The newest brass faculty member will be assisted by Gisela Mendez-Flanigan, piano. The program will include music by Albrechtsberger Tomasi, Massenet and others. The recital will start at 3 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main. Admission is free.
Student brings seascape to Community Center

Heather Terlecki poses next to some of the sharks in the mural she designed for the Drake Community Center.
The long hallway leading to the Drake Community Center on the fourth floor of First Christian Church is infested with sharks and colorful fish as the result of Heather Terlecki's senior honors thesis project. Instead of writing a paper, she designed a seascape mural for the hallway and painted it with the help of approximately 30 of the children who participate in after-school activities at the center.

"It was a great experience," said Terlecki, a senior graphic design major from Elk Grove Village, Ill. "I had never done a mural before, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The kids showed a lot of creativity and enthusiasm for the project. I would go over on Monday and Wednesday afternoons throughout the fall semester. All the kids would want to paint at once, but I could work with only a few of them at a time. I'm glad they were excited to do it."

Terlecki spent the summer preparing for the project and creating drawings of various fish. She let each child pick a drawing of the fish he or she wanted to paint. Then the children used crayons to color in the drawings and figure out what colors they wanted to use in the actual painting. The children painted all of the fish except for the sharks, which Terlecki did.

Sondra Eddings, director of the Drake Community Center, said the mural proved to be a terrific experience for all who were involved. "It gave all the children, regardless of their age, the opportunity to be involved in an artistic endeavor and a project that served to draw them together and unify the group," she said. "Of course, it beautified the building, too. Heather really put her heart into the project and it really reflects her sense of her caring about the children. She has a beautiful spirit and we've all profited from it."

Arthur Sanders, director of the Honors Program, and Angela Battle, assistant professor of art and Terlecki's faculty adviser, viewed the mural at the end of the fall semester. "It was a wonderful project because it involved both a creative component for the student, a lot of hard work, outreach to the community, and resulted in something that will have lasting significance for many children," Sanders said. "It was a wonderful kind of culmination for an honors project."
Aaron Knight, a junior forward on the Drake men's basketball team, reads a book to students at McKinley Elementary School in Des Moines. Knight is a sociology major from Louisville, Ken. The entire team visited the school on Jan. 12. Each member of the team read a story to students and participated in a pep rally.

Fine Arts Trio to perform Jan. 30

The Drake University Fine Arts Trio will give a concert Tuesday, Jan. 30, featuring works by Messiaen and the premier of "Passacaglia" by William Dougherty, chair of the Drake music department.

Completed in December 2000 and written for the Drake Fine Arts Trio, "Passacaglia" uses a traditional continuous variation form -- over an eight-measure repeated bass pattern -- as a constructive framework.

Trio members Chiu-Ling Lin, piano; Misha Rosenker, violin; and Julie McGinnis, cello, will be joined by Clarence Padilla, clarinet. The concert will start at 8 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main. Admission is free.
Gallery features art by John Hicks

The Artist's Gallery in Valley Junction has a theme show featuring works by John M. Hicks, professor emeritus of art at Drake.

The show, titled "Space Odyssey or Oddity (whichever catches your fancy)," opened Jan. 10 and continues through Feb. 8 at the gallery, 206 Fourth St., West Des Moines. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Among Hicks' works on display are "Space Series Paintings" that incorporate masking tape and mixed media. The show also includes an environmental series of mixed media works titled "Personal Spaces for John."

Stories | Calendar | Faculty & Staff News

Drake Home Page > News & Events >> Publications >>> On Campus >> Stories

Special Routes for:
Prospective Students | Current Students | Faculty & Staff | Alumni | Visitors
Last Modified: 1/19/01
Created by: Web Editor