 Humanities Festival and Demorest Lecture Agenda
February 19 - 22, 2013
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday lectures are free and open to all.
Wednesday’s theatre production requires purchased tickets.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19
Wyoming Veterans’ Memorial Museum
- 5:45 p.m.
Welcome
Valerie Innella, Ph.D., Humanities Festival Committee Chair
and John Goss, Museum Director
- 6:00 p.m.
The Conscience of Man and the Power of Resistance to the Acts that Shock It
Lance Jones, Casper College Honors Program
Power is that which produces an effect, after all. In and of itself it is neither good nor bad, it just is. The power of both active and passive response on the part of nations and individuals has resulted on more than one occasion in dictatorial power being met and (eventually) defeated by the power of collective resolve.
- 7:00 p.m.
The Murals of the Wyoming Veterans’ Memorial Museum: A Depiction of Manifest Destiny in Wyoming and the Politics / Power of Display
Eric Wimmer, Art Historian/Curator, The Veterans’ Memorial Museum
Wimmer will discuss the 19th century notion of Manifest Destiny as seen in the World War II murals on the walls of the Wyoming Veterans’ Memorial Museum, originally the Casper Army Air Base Servicemen’s Club. The murals were completed in 1944 and sought to educate the roughly 16,000 bomber crewmen on the state of Wyoming’s rich history. The murals cover Native American legends through Casper’s role in WWII with Manifest Destiny taking up a bulk of the mural’s compositions.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20
Natrona County Public Library, Crawford Room
- 12:00 p.m.
Richard III Book Group Discussion
led by Patrick Amelotte, Casper College Department of English
Amelotte will engage participants with a thoughtful discussion of Shakespeare’s work, which will be presented by the Casper College Theatre Department and Dance as part of the Humanities Festival. The group will try to peer beneath the cartoonish qualities of Richard’s villainy and examine his relationship to power, including the power behind his character – the Tudor view of history. As an aid in the discussion, students from English/Theatre 2225 may present dramatic or academic interpretations of several scenes.
Gertrude Krampert Theatre, Casper College
- 7:30 p.m.
Richard III
presented by the Casper College Department of Theatre and Dance
Tickets for this production are:
$12 per person
$10 for students 5-18
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Gertrude Krampert Theatre, Casper College
Original Music composed for the Casper College production of Richard III
Enjoy music played by musician Gary DePaolo between sessions
- 8:45 a.m.
Welcome to the Casper College Humanities Festival and Demorest Lecture
Walter Nolte, Ph.D., Casper College President
- 9:00 a.m.
The Philosophy of Power
Brent Pickett, Ph.D., Dean, University of Wyoming/Casper College Center
Dr. Pickett will look at Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault and the fact that the idea of ‘power’ was central to their analysis of politics and society in general. He will explore their understandings of power, which have been widely influential yet deeply controversial.
- 10:00 a.m.
Outsider Art
Connie Gibbons, Director, The Nicolaysen Art Museum
Gibbons will discuss Outsider Art, which encompasses spontaneous, original, and uninfluenced art creation outside of the bounds of the traditional networks of art education and training. This lecture will focus on two female outsider and visionary artists: Lee Godie (1908-1995) and Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980). Both of these artists lived on the fringes of society and utilized art as a tool for personal empowerment and expression of their deepest selves.
- 11:00 a.m.
Japanese Internment Camps
Grace Amemiya
Grace Amemiya’s education was interrupted when she and her family, along with 120,000 other Americans of Japanese heritage, were forced into internment camps throughout the western U.S. Amemiya will talk about her personal experiences as a former internee, her continuing efforts to educate citizens of all ages about the camps, and her successful efforts to secure honorary degrees for the 400 students who were displaced from their studies at University of California campuses and unable to finish their studies. Amemiya’s efforts have been profiled in numerous national publications.
- 1:45 p.m.
The Dance of Power: Politics and Cuban Dance
Suki John, Ph.D., Texas Christian University Dance Department
John’s presentation will reflect on the manifestations of power as revealed through the politics of Cuban dance. Contemporary Cuban dance was developed with the support of the revolutionary government and with the mandate to represent a multi-cultural society. Cuban ballet, conversely, survived a reinvention of Cuban culture, despite its roots in European aristocracy. The various styles of dance in Cuba, included modern hip hop and social dance will be considered as vehicles to understand the shifting political and social powers that define contemporary Cuba.
- 6:00 p.m.
Drums of Power: the Afro-Cuban Bata
Neeraj Mehta, D.M.A., Casper College Music Department
Through an examination of the relationships between master drummers and their religious, cultural, and national communities, this lecture and musical demonstration will explore the power of the drum within the Afro-Cuban religious traditions of the Lukum people. The lecture will also explore the ritual, cultural, and social powers vested in the principal drums of worship, the Bata, and how this power is realized in both religious and secular performance contexts in Cuba and throughout the world.
- 7:00- 9:00 p.m.
Keynote Demorest Lecture
Power in Government with Former Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal
Dave Freudenthal began the first of his two terms as Wyoming Governor in 2002. Previously he served as state planning director under Gov. Ed Herschler, and was appointed by Gov. Mike Sullivan as U.S. attorney for the district of Wyoming. "Governor Dave's" presentation will examine some of the distinctions between positional, personal, expert, and physical (presence) authority, and how those concepts are sometimes applied in the context of governmental power. Gov. Dave hopes for an interactive discussion with the audience so bring your opinions and your questions.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Gertrude Krampert Theatre, Casper College
- 9:00 a.m.
Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature
Roberta Seelinger Trites, Ph.D., Professor of English, Illinois State University
Seelinger Trites will analyze the ways that one genre of literature – the young adult novel – uses ideology both to empower adolescents and to simultaneously repress them into conventional and conformist roles within the status quo. It’s certainly logical that we must all grow up, but the message to teen readers is a consistent one: “there is something wrong with your subject position as a teenager. Grow up and be someone else.” In that sense, adolescent literature is the only genre written with the subversive ideological intent of undermining the reader’s subject position. The Hunger Games serves as the most recent popular example of a young adult novel in which the protagonist can only succeed by employing her power to shift out of her subject position as a teenager and assume adult responsibilities. Seelinger Trites will explore theories of power and repression specifically with The Hunger Games as an example.
- 10:00 a.m.
The Power of Cinema
Ebba Stedillie, Casper College Communications Department
Stedillie will question, “Is watching film a dangerous activity?” and “Should movies carry a warning label that they are dangerous to our intellectual / social / cultural health?”. In addition to capturing our imagination in the telling of stories, do films reflect the culture or do they shape it? Stedillie will discuss communication theory as applied to selected modern films that will address these questions about the power of film to influence individuals and societies.
- 11:00 a.m.
Theatres of Power
William Conte, Ph.D., Casper College Theatre Department
Conte will discuss the ways in which the theatre was used to express and negotiate power in the West from antiquity to the Renaissance. The presentation will consider the semiotics of theatre architecture; the political aspects of ancient festivals such as the Greek Dionysia and the Roman munera; the Catholic Church’s use of theatre as a means to promulgate orthodoxy in the Middle Ages; and the theatrical aspects of politics and the political aspects of theatre in Elizabethan England.
- 2:00 p.m.
The Oak and Holly King
Holly Wendt, Ph.D., Casper College English Department
Wendt will read from her novel in progress – a work chronicling the life and exploits of Captain Sam Bellamy, whose yearlong career as a pirate in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic seaboard has come to light as a result of the recovery of his wrecked ship, the Whydah – a new story to most listeners. The Whydah’s multicultural crew, Bellamy’s reputation as an egalitarian and merciful pirate, and the fantastic circumstances of his career make a rich field for a historically informed exploration of his life. The novel showcases the troubled power structure of the early 1700s, the conflicting interests of trading entities, individual privateers, the Spanish and British navies, and those who, for good or ill, wanted no part of any of them. This particular period in history also pulls into sharp relief the concrete power differences (and therefore the perils and potential charms) between lawful life aboard a naval or trading ship where authority was highly structured and generally assumed to be absolute and the illicit (and punishable by death) but far more fluid methods of governance offered under the black flag.
Nicolaysen Art Museum and Discovery Center
- 5:00 p.m.
Women, Art and Power Roundtable at the NIC
Moderated by Lisa Hatchadoorian with Colleen Denney, Ph.D., Julie Speed, Haley Hasler, Georgia Wheatley, and Renee Piechocki
This all-female panel will include art historians from Casper College and the University of Wyoming and three female artists who deal both explicitly and subtly with issues of power and feminine identity in their artwork. The panel will explore power in all forms, through artwork, the art world, art history, and the experiences of artists. They will also explore, through the research of art historians, why this dynamic exists and what, if anything, can be done to create more balance and equality.
- 6:30 p.m.
Reception at The Nicolaysen Art Museum for the exhibitions of Julie Speed, Haley Hasler, and Chudk Kimerlee
The public is invited to a reception for artists Julie Speed, Haley Hasler, and Chuck Kimerlee. Refreshments will be served.
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