2011-2012 UMA THEME: REVOLUTION

rev·o·lu·tion Noun/ˌrevəˈlooSHən/

Definition: a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time

THEME BOOK: Talking About a Revolution

Interviews with Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, bell hooks, Peter Kwong, Winona LaDuke, Manning Marable, Urvashi Vaid, and Howard Zinn

South End Press Collective (Editors)

Every spring, UMA's faculty Colloquium Committee selects an academic theme for the upcoming academic year. Along with a theme, an accompanying book is also selected.

The Revolution theme was formally launched at UMA's 2011 Convocation. Winona LaDuke, one of the featured interviews in Talking about a Revolution, delivered the keynote address.

 

This year's theme invites the UMA community to consider the concept of revolution in a wide array of situations -- politically, economically, and culturally among them. Discussions of the idea of revolution will be incorporated into multiple experiences throughout the academic year, including over a dozen classes, the annual Convocation, a film series, the annual Terry Plunkett Poetry Festival, cultural events and other programming.

For more information about this year's theme and/or programming, contact Lisa Botshon (botshon@maine.edu/621-3473), or Peter Milligan (peterm@maine.edu/621-3228).

Explore this year's theme through UMA Classes or Events!

 

 

CLASSES THAT WILL EXPLORE THIS YEAR'S THEME

Fall 2011

Professor Sarah Hentges

AME/MUS 303 Hip Hop: Art, Culture, and Politics

The theme of revolution is fitting to the subject, motives, forms, critiques and actions inspired by Hip Hop. Thus, we will consider the revolutionary aspects of Hip Hop (as well as the challenges to Hip Hop's revolutionary qualities and visions). One of the most obvious ways that we will consider this theme is through the ways in which Hip Hop challenges oppression and creates counter-narratives to dominant misrepresentations and lack of representation in public life. We will also consider the many revolutionary aspects of Hip Hop art, culture, and politics as well as specific artists, albums, or songs that speak to, and about, revolution.

 

Professor Sarah Hentges

AME 201W Introduction to American Studies

This course focuses on education, state violence, popular culture, and social movements as well as an understanding of the revolutionary field of American studies. Students will read parts of Talking About a Revolution, will write on revolution-related themes, and will also create a "Living History" project and a Social Movements Project that will explore the ways in which Americans continue to make revolution on a variety of levels and in a variety of contexts.

 

Professor Susan Baker

BIO 110 Intro to Biology

Labs in Augusta will feature student presentations related to this year's theme of revolution.  The focus will be "people and ideas that revolutionized biology."

 

Professor Tom Giordano

BUA 253 Principle of Investments

We will discuss the "revolution" going on with investors increasing demand for accurate and timely financial information in order make informed investing decisions.

 

Professor Ellen Taylor

ENG 351 Creative Writing

Students will look at the concept of revolution in writing, both as style and content.  They will create wikis to explore the word and its various manifestations. In the context of this course, we might consider how contemporary writers are "revolutionary"; how in many political revolutions, poets and writers are the first to be arrested, imprisoned, or assassinated; how the evolution of language depends on the revolution of stale or dysfunctional genres or uses of language.  This word applies to our work in this course in a wide context.  We will also be reading three authors from our theme book, Talking About a Revolution: Noam Chomsky:  "There Are No Limits to What Can Be Done: (13-26); and Howard Zinn, "A New Great Movement" (113-124).

 

Professor Abe Peck

HUM 389 Memoir, Memory and Trauma

How does collective memory shape the construction of a subject? How do memory and history relate to the construction and representation of "tradition?" Is it race, identity, the nation? If that notion of tradition is tied to horrific historical events, how can and should we understand the relationship between these pasts and the present? How can we represent the unspeakable? How do we convey trauma without merely reproducing a spectacle that attracts us as gawkers are attracted to a traffic accident?

 

Professor Ellen Taylor

WST 101 Intro to Women's Studies

This year we will look at the idea of "revolution": What is a revolution? What conditions are necessary to create and sustain a revolution?  What would such a thing look like for feminists in the United States?  In the world? We will also be reading three authors from our theme book, Talking About a Revolution:  Barbara Ehrenreich, "On Political Ecstasy and Marble Rolling" (27-38); bell hooks' "Critical Consciousness for Political Resistance" (39-52); and Winona LaDuke, "Power Is in the Earth" (67-80). Students may choose to look at the idea of revolution in relationship to gender and Women's Studies in their final papers and projects.

 

 

Spring 2012

Professor Sarah Hentges

AME/ENG 413 Cultural Criticism and Theory: The Arts of Social Change

In this class students will read our theme book Talking About a Revolution in its entirety and will engage in conversation about "the arts of social change." We will consider, in theory and practice, how we might go about making the kinds of revolutionary change that we want to see in our world(s).

 

Professor Ellen Taylor

ENG 375 Contemporary Latin American Literature

The literature of contemporary Latin America is deeply concerned with social justice and revolution.  We will discuss how historical conditions favor and sustain revolution, and how the literature mirrors these conditions.  The course will include a film series to supplement the literature.

 

Professor Rob Kellerman

ENG 376 Renaissance Literature

This class will be organized around the theme of revolution: the Reformation (religious revolution), the rise of humanism (philosophical revolution), the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution (political revolution), and the scientific revolution of the early 17th century (intellectual revolution).

 

Professor Tom Giordano

BUA 448 Auditing

We will focus on the sometimes problematic certified audits and how the "people" have spoken in terms of being fed up with misleading corporate reports.

 

Professor Rick Nelson

MUS 435 Senior Seminar

Radical? Revolutionary? Selected snapshots of music in the West since 1950.

 

Professor Ellen Taylor

WST 101 Intro to Women's Studies

This year we will look at the idea of "revolution": What is a revolution? What conditions are necessary to create and sustain a revolution? What would such a thing look like for feminists in the United States?  In the world? We will also be reading three authors from our theme book, Talking About a Revolution:  Barbara Ehrenreich, "On Political Ecstasy and Marble Rolling" (27-38); bell hooks' "Critical Consciousness for Political Resistance" (39-52); and Winona LaDuke, "Power Is in the Earth" (67-80). Students may choose to look at the idea of revolution in relationship to gender and Women's Studies in their final papers and projects.

 

 

EVENTS THAT WILL EXPLORE THIS YEAR'S THEME

Fall 2011

Friday, September 23, 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM, UMA Convocation 2011, On the Campus Green

 

Friday, September 23, 11:30-12:45: Hip Hop: Art, Culture, and Revolutions, Klahr Center Classroom

Join the professor and students of UMA's Hip Hop course to discuss the ways in which Hip Hop is connected to ideas of revolution.

 

Friday, November 4, 6:30 pm, "Revolutionary Movements" (fitness-dance class) in Bangor.

This Power, Pleasure, and Movement (PPM) class focuses on the colloquium theme of revolution, offering a fitness-based dance workout that also explores revolutionary ideas and revolutionary forms of movement. This class is free to UMA students and funds raised by these PPM classes contribute to a UMA-Bangor scholarship fund.

 

WEBSTER: Augusta Thursday, November 3 at 6:30, Jewett Auditorium AND Bangor Friday, November 4, 12-1 pm Huskins Lounge/Eastport Event room.

Webster is a French-Canadian rapper whose revolutionary work includes working with disenfranchised youth, providing spaces for cultural critique, and building a Hip Hop community.

 

Friday, November 18, 11:30-12:45: Hip Hop Feminism, Klahr Center Classroom

Hip Hop's feminist incarnations are certainly revolutionary aspects of Hip Hop and revolutionary aspect of feminism. Join the professor and students from UMA's Hip Hop class to discuss what Hip Hop feminism is all about.

 

Spring 2012

Terry Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival, April 13^th and 14^th.  Readings and Panel Discussion on Poetry and Revolution.

Revolution in Latin America:  Film Series.  Details TBA

Women's Week, March 5-9

The week of March 8 (International Women's Day) is UMA's third annual Women's Week, a week devoted to discussion about issues related to women in Maine and around the world. Our signature event, Soup & Substance, reminds us how many people around the world survive on very little. This event will be held on both the Augusta and Bangor campuses and will include vegetarian soup as well as a raffle to raise funds for an organization of the students' choice. Students on the Women's History Month Planning Committee will also plan a variety of events on both campuses for this week including a read-a-thon, a feminist fitness class, and other revolutionary events.

 

Concert of student compositions inspired by the "revolution" theme.  Jewett Auditorium, April 2012