Faculty news

  • cSTAC Prof hits national airwaves this Sunday in CBC quiz

    Humanities professor Sharilyn Ingram will put Brock University on a national stage this weekend. She’s one of three academics who will duke it out in a pre-Canada Day quiz on CBC Radio’s flagship current affairs program, the Sunday Edition.

    The show was pre-taped with host Michael Enright earlier this month, though Ingram is sworn to secrecy about who prevails in the good-natured derby between herself, University of Calgary professor Rebecca Sullivan and Anthony Stewart of Dalhousie University.

    She says the experience was fun, if a bit nerve-wracking. The questions cover a broad range of topics, from history to geography and pop culture.

    “There are some very creative answers, and we all laughed a lot,” said Ingram, who teaches in the Centre for Studies in Arts and Culture. “The quiz was meant to be a light-hearted look at all things Canadian, and I think it lived up to this goal.”

    Staging a quiz with contestants in three different studios across Canada has its challenges. She said each contestant was asked to bring their own noisemaker to signal their attempt to answer.

    “I learned that it was most important to be the first to get the noisemaker going, and only then worry about whether you knew the answer – which accounts for some pauses, as well as some wild guesses.”

    Ingram ended up on CBC through a twist of fate. At a recent social event in Toronto, a producer for the program was mentioning the search for an academic who is a good fit for a pop-culture quiz on Canada. A friend of Ingram’s was present, and the rest is history.

    “One of my former employees said I would be perfect – never defeated in Trivial Pursuit.”

    The quiz will air June 24 during the show’s final hour, between 11 a.m. and noon, on 99.1 CBC Radio One.

    see brocku.ca/brock-news/?p=17110

    Posted by tmayer tttton Jun 22nd, 2012 and filed under Gallery, Top stories. ttYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. ttttYou can leave a response or trackback to this entry

     

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Powwow to be held on Campus Sept.7

    From the Brock News

    Students, staff and Niagara residents are invited to start their school year off to the beat of a different drum.

    The Student Justice Centre is hosting a powwow on Friday, Sept. 7 in Jubilee Court to celebrate the fall harvest in partnership with the Tecumseh Centre for Aboriginal Research and Education, Aboriginal Student Services and Brock University Students’ Union.

    The event will feature inter-tribal drumming and dance demonstrations, and opportunities for audience members to participate in traditional dancing.

    “It’s a gathering to celebrate life and be thankful as well as to hang out with old friends and make new ones,” said Adrienne Smoke, a third-year drama student, who came up with the idea for the event. “Powwows are about sharing our culture to help educate people about the current native people not the ancient ones we read about in old outdated textbooks.”

    This free event also features a barbecue, vegetarian options and samples of traditional food, such as three sisters soup, corn bread and strawberry juice. The Brock farmers market will also be held during the powwow.

    Doors open at 10 a.m. with the grand entry happening at noon. Closing ceremonies are at 3:30 p.m.

    For more information or to participate as a dancer, drummer or vendor, email the Student Justice Centre, visit them online or call 905-688-5550, ext. 6325.


    Photo By: DK Martin

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Incoming DART professor reports about the Eurovision Contest from Baku, Azerbaijan

    A spotlight is shining on Azerbaijan this May as it hosts Eurovision, the annual European song contest known for its outlandish performances, and viewed on TV by more than 100 million people. But it’s not all glitz this year. While Azerbaijan attempts to show off its strength to the world, it’s also come under scrutiny by activist groups for its unsavoury human rights record, and its crackdown on anti-government protestors and journalists leading up to the contest.

    Karen Fricker is co-founder of the Eurovision and ‘New’ Europe academic research network who is covering the contest for the Irish Times. She recently reported on what these negative reports mean for the Eurovision Contest and Azerbaijan for the program Q hosted by Jian Ghomeshi on CBC Radio. She is a lecturer in contemporary theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London and deputy London theatre critic for Variety.  You can read more about her research activities in her profile at Royal Holloway. We are delighted that she will be joining her new colleagues at the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University in January 2013.  

     
    You can listen to the report here or here. (22:44)
     
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  • Earp Dance at Brock Nuit Blanche 2010

    For those of you unable to attend Nuit Blanche Brock this year, check out the short video above to see dancers Shannon Perugino and Jessica Goncalves of the Department of Dramatic Arts perform on the beautifully lit top floor of Earp Student Residence at Brock University.   The original piece was performed every half hour from 6pm to midnight on the chilly night of December 3, 2010,  to audiences outside on the street below as part of Nuit Blanche Brock 2010.

    Performed by Dramatic Arts students Jessica Goncalves and Shannon Perugino; Sound Op: Matthew Viviano; Tech and Design Support: Doug Ledingham and David Vivian; Conceived by Natalie Alvarez. Choreography by Jessica Goncalves, Shannon Perugino and Natalie Alvarez.

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  • Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship

    The Department of Dramatic Arts lost a cherished colleague and friend, Dr. Marlene Moser, on December 21, 2010.  In her honour we have established the Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship. To contribute to this Scholarship please send donations to the attention of Norm Bradshaw, Faculty of Humanities, Brock University. The cheque or gift should be made out to Brock University and indicate Marlene Moser Memorial Scholarship. All donations are eligible to be matched dollar for dollar by the provincial government.

    For more information please contact Norm Bradshaw . For information about Dr. Marlene Moser please see her webpage.
     

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  • A New Spring Session course from the Department of Dramatic Arts: DART 1F01: Acting for Non Majors

    Are you interested in Acting, but not a Dramatic Arts Major?
                                       OR
    Are you a Primary/Junior Concurrent Education Student looking for an introductory course in Acting?
                                       OR
    Are you looking for an active, engaging Spring Intensive Course?

    DART 1F01: Acting for Non Majors

    Monday, May 2 – Friday, May 13, 2011
    M T W TH F  9:00h  – 16:30h  TH 141

    This course is a rigorous introduction to acting for non majors. There are no pre requisites and no restrictions.

    Contact dramatic@brocku.ca for more information, ext. 5255
    Brock University

    DEPARTMENT OF DRAMATIC ARTS

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • Theory and Practice of Drama in Education with JONOTHAN NEELANDS Six-day intensive course

    THE DEPARTMENT OF DRAMATIC ARTS
    DART 3V90: Theory and Practice of Drama in Education with JONOTHAN NEELANDS
    Six-day intensive course: Monday, July 25 – Saturday, July 30, 2011

    Through a combination of workshops, demonstrations, reflections, and lectures, this course examines models for the planning and teaching of process drama. It will provide the opportunity for students to examine the community effects of drama and its role in our personal and social development. This half-credit course will be intensely practical and relevant to teaching the full age range of children through to adults. The learning experiences will be supported by readings and other materials developed for sustainable learning.

    Jonothan Neelands is an internationally renowned drama-in-education professor who has written extensively about the use of drama as a learning medium. He has worked with teachers of all age groups, assisting them in understanding how they may employ process drama techniques in teaching a variety of subjects. He is the National Teaching Fellow, Chair of Drama and Theatre Education and Director of Teaching and Learning in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick and an associate of the CAPITAL Centre for creativity and performance in teaching and learning, a joint initiative between the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the University of Warwick. This project aims to improve the quality of Shakespeare teaching at all ages through an ensemble and rehearsal room pedagogic approach.

    A part of the Department of Dramatic Arts Visiting International Professor program, we are pleased to offer students the opportunity to study with someone of Dr. Neelands’ caliber.

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • TAP Jamaica celebrates five successful years

    Turn Around Projects of the Arts – lead by graduates, students and colleagues of the Department of Dramatic Arts of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts – began its fifth year on July 7th, 2011 in Port Antonio, Jamaica.  TAP is a multi-national initiative using the arts and education to build sustainable communities.

    This year, four talented Brock students attended TAP Jamaica: Lescia Poppe, Jamez Townsend, Dorothy Kane and Meaghan Gowrie, as well as seven Brock graduates, Tiffany Stull, Rox Chwaluk, Mike Irwin, Whitney Lee, Alycia McQueen, Christine Cassar, and Matt McLeod. Along with 8 others, the Canadian/American team developed successful workshops in dance, visual arts, music, creative writing, dramatic arts, culinary arts, film, and photography. Many weeks since the conclusion of the program the spirit and principles of TAP persist in the hearts of the Canadian facilitators and the Jamaican youth who participated. The hard work, dedication and compassion that every single team member brought to the project has once again guaranteed its success.

    The TAP pilot project began in 2007 with a collaboration between the programming director of the project and former Drama in Education and Society program graduate, Tiffany Stull, her classmates, and their guest professor the renowned Canadian Dub Poet Michael St. George. Students of the third year dramatic arts course Alternative Forms of Theatre worked together to create a two-week long program of intensive educational workshops for the youth in an impoverished region of Jamaica.  With the leadership of former DART professor Jane Leavitt and Michael St. George a five year commitment to TAP Jamaica was established with the intention of initiating and maintaining integrated arts workshops every July.

    Participant and third-year DART student Meaghan Gowrie exclaimed, “From a personal standpoint, I can proudly say that when facilitating the music workshop, my success was in part rooted deeply in the skills, knowledge and values that I have been taught so far as a Drama in Education and Society student at Brock University.”

    Now that the five year commitment to TAP Jamaica has come to an end the Canadian team is prepared to move into Phase 2 of the program, training Jamaican youth to become facilitators of an autonomous and self-directed workshop program.  This summer the groundwork was laid for Phase 2 with the creation of the F.I.T. team (Facilitators in Training). This team included ten Jamaican youth who have successfully achieved the objectives of TAP through their actions and leadership skills in previous years.  Five of these participants graduated the F.I.T. program in 2011 and will facilitate workshops in July 2012.

    Gowrie added, “The experience that I had as a Canadian team member, educator and friend to the amazing 44 Jamaican youth that attended the program is completely impossible to describe in words or writing. It is my hope that anyone who comes in contact with the pictures, videos, and people of TAP will get a small taste of the impact that the first five years has made on everyone who has ever helped in the execution of, or attended the program. The optimism and positivity that is now ever-presently radiating in each of us will inspire the people of Brock University and eventually the world that the arts can change lives, that anything is possible and that step by step, we WILL make it to the top!”

    Further information about the 2011 program can be found at the project blog http://turnaroundproject.ca/blog/ .  For information about TAP please contact info@turnaroundproject.ca .

    Categories: News, Uncategorised

  • VISA Honours Exhibit: PERCEPTIONISTS

    Rodman Hall Art Centre
    109 St. Paul Crescent St. Catharines,
    ON L2S 1M3

    April 21 – May 6, 2012
    Opening reception: Friday, April 20, 2012 at 7 p.m.

    PERCEPTIONISTS, the 2012 edition of the Brock University Visual Arts Honours Exhibit features artworks by three graduating honours students from the Department of Visual Arts: Sarah Beattie, Danny Fast, and Carrie Perreault.

    This exhibition is the culmination of eight months of work where students pursued the creation of a body of artwork. Under the mentorship of Visiting Artist Donna Szoke, and Assistant Professor Duncan MacDonald, students individually explored diverse mediums ranging from video, performance, painting, photography, and installation.

    Irene Loughlin, an interdisciplinary artist and instructor at Brock University writes, "The works in this exhibition engage both the artist and the viewer, underscoring the complex relationships between illusion and representation, obsolescence and contemporaneity, technology and biology, difference and normativity. These three artists give concrete form to some of the outstanding contradictions inherent in our contemporary lives, challenging established perceptions while opening a space that might allow for the emergence of new subjectivities."

    The Department of Visual Arts has a long tradition of presenting work of graduating students mentored in its Honours Studio program. Students accepted into this course develop a cohesive body of work that will support their entry into graduate school MFA programs and act as a strong portfolio for future artistic endeavours.

    Such exhibits from the Department of Visual Arts are key to the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate to connect the community with the breadth of talent and creativity at Brock University.

    Join us for the opening reception of PERCEPTIONISTS on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 7 p.m., held at Rodman Hall Art Centre. Gallery hours: Tuesday – Friday: 1 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sunday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.; closed Mondays and statutory holidays.

    PERCEPTIONISTS promotional video
    PERCEPTIONISTS on Facebook
    PERCEPTIONISTS on Cogeco

    Media day: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, at 2 p.m., held at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 109 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines, ON.

    Media inquiries: Marie Balsom, Communications, Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, Brock University T: 905-688-5550. x4765 | E: mbalsom@brocku.ca | W: brocku.ca/visualarts

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  • Fanny Dolansky (Classics) receives the Brock University Award for Excellence in Teaching for Early Career Faculty

    Fanny Dolansky, Associate Professor of Roman history, religion, and Latin in the Department of Classics, is the 2011 recipient of the Brock University Award for Excellence in Teaching for Early Career Faculty. She was honoured at the annual Tribute to Teaching organized by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Educational Technologies on December 2, 2011. 

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