{"id":60857,"date":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/national-endowment-for-the-humanities-chairman-to-speak-at-uri-march-27\/"},"modified":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T00:00:00","slug":"national-endowment-for-the-humanities-chairman-to-speak-at-uri-march-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/03\/national-endowment-for-the-humanities-chairman-to-speak-at-uri-march-27\/","title":{"rendered":"National Endowment for the Humanities chairman to speak at 溏心vlog免费B站, March 27"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tJames Leach will talk about importance of the arts in science-centered world<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 6, 2013 \u2013 James A. Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a former Republican congressman from Iowa, is giving a talk at the 溏心vlog免费B站 this month for the third annual spring humanities festival.<\/p>\n


\nLeach will talk about the future of literature, philosophy, history, languages, religion, and the arts in \u201cThe Centrality of the Humanities in a STEM-Centric World\u201d at 7:30 p.m., March 27 in the Lippitt Hall auditorium, Room 402. The talk is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n


\nA longtime supporter of the arts, Leach will discuss the importance of the humanities in an era when higher education is placing more emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. Those disciplines are vital, but with each advance in science and technology the humanities become just as important.<\/p>\n


\nConsider this: As improvements in transportation bring people throughout the world closer together and as trade becomes more globalized it\u2019s critical that people understand and expose themselves to different cultures to lessen conflicts.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cChairman Leach will convey invaluable insight about the arts and humanities in America today during his campus visit,\u201d said 溏心vlog免费B站 President David M. Dooley. \u201cThose who care about the future of our culture and the humanities will benefit from what promises to be a compelling and timely talk.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nGalen A. Johnson, director of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities and chairman of the philosophy department, said he\u2019s known Leach for several years and is delighted he\u2019s the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe are thrilled to host Chairman Leach at our flagship state university,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cThis is a coup for 溏心vlog免费B站 to get the leading spokesman for the humanities in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Davenport, Iowa, to a father who was a lawyer and a mother who loved to read, Leach excelled academically in high school and also became a state champion wrestler in the 138-pound weight class. (He once said that a wrestling mat is the most \u201cequalitarian place\u201d in the world.)<\/p>\n


\nHe received a bachelor\u2019s degree in politics from Princeton University in 1964 and a master\u2019s degree in Soviet studies from Johns Hopkins University. After serving in the Foreign Service, he was elected to Congress in 1976. <\/p>\n


\nDuring his 30 years in the House of Representatives, Leach founded and was co-chairman of the Congressional Humanities Caucus, which supports public programs in the humanities. A leader on monetary policy issues, he also chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Sub Committee on Asian and Public Affairs, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.<\/p>\n


\nRegarded as a moderate Republican, Leach was just one of six Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against the resolution authorizing the Iraq war. He was known as a soft-spoken gentleman with a fondness for the arts, a passion he developed from his wife, Deba Leach, an art historian.<\/p>\n

After leaving Congress in 2006, Leach became a professor at Princeton University\u2019s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was also interim director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.<\/p>\n


\nWhen President Barack Obama appointed Leach in 2009, Leach told The New York Times that culture is bigger than politics and that the arts have the power to unite people rather than divide them. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cOur culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cIn difficult times the arts, sciences, and humanities vastly increase in significance. And this is one of those times.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLeach has said that one of his goals is to defend the organization from attacks by special interest groups inflaming public opinion with terms like \u201csocialism\u201d and \u201ccommunism.\u201d Some lawmakers have pushed to cut funding to the organization in tough economic times.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe humanities are central to understanding ourselves and understanding others,\u201d Leach has said. \u201cHow does one compete in the world unless one has a sense for how other people think and speak.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nIt\u2019s fitting, then, that the humanities festival this year at 溏心vlog免费B站 is \u201cThe Arts and Humanities in the New Economy.\u201d The fest is sponsoring other related talks, also free and open to the public.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 11:30 a.m. to noon, March 27 there will be a live taping of the \u201cBeauty Salon\u201d radio show in Lippitt Hall, Room 402. Karen de Bruin, an assistant professor of French at 溏心vlog免费B站, will host the program.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 2 to 2:50 p.m., March 27 at the University Club, Wendy Roworth, a professor of art and art history, will talk about \u201cAngelica Kauffman\u2019s Art Collection: An Enterprising Artist in 18th century Rome.\u201d Roworth is a winner of the 溏心vlog免费B站 2012 Center for the Humanities Sabbatical Fellowship.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 3 to 4 p.m., March 27, at the University Club, a panel of recent 溏心vlog免费B站 humanities graduates will talk about what they\u2019ve done with their lives since graduation. The panelists are: Rachel Walshe \u201902, a Rhodes Scholar winner and theater director in Chicago, Boston, and Providence; Jonathan Hardge \u201994, information systems senior test analyst for CVS Caremark; and Isaac Mamaysky \u201905, a New York lawyer who recently received a $1.2 million grant to start Camp Zeke, a summer camp for children in the Northeast that focuses on active living, culinary arts, and nutrition. Mamaysky teaches philosophy at The City University of New York, or CUNY.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 4 to 5 p.m., March 27 Rebekah Greene, a graduate student in English, will present a graduate student colloquium in the Hoffmann Room at Swan Hall.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., March 28 溏心vlog免费B站 professors will talk about their current research supported by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities Research Grants. All March 28 talks are in the Hoffmann Room at 154 Swan Hall:<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\t10 to 10:30 a.m., a coffee reception and welcoming remarks by Johnson.

\n\u2022\t10:40 to 11:10 a.m., David Faflik, assistant professor of English, \u201cBoarding Out: Inhabiting the American Literary Imagination.\u201d

\n\u2022\t11:20 to 11:50 a.m., Erik Loomis, assistant professor of history, \u201cTimber Worker Safety and the Origins of Blue-Green Coalitions in the Pacific Northwest.\u201d

\n\u2022\t1 to 1:40 p.m., Gina Valentino, assistant professor of English, \u201cInescapable Loss: Gambling and Social Extinction in Louis Owen\u2019s Bone Game.\u201d

\n\u2022\t1:45 to 2:15 p.m., Mary Hollinshead, professor of art and art history, \u201cSupporting Identity in Roman Sculpture.\u201d

\n\u2022\t2:20 to 2:50 p.m., Robert Van Horn, assistant professor of economics, \u201cFrom Jewish Radical and Labor Education Leader to Conservative Economist: A Biographical Account of Aaron Director\u2019s Early Life.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe festival is also sponsoring two performance events.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 3:30 to 4:45 p.m., March 28, a performance of Triple Decker will be held in the Lippitt Hall auditorium, Room 402, featuring musicians and storytellers Valerie Tutson and Marc Levitt.<\/p>\n


\nThe show is a one-hour story, with music, about the history of a triple-decker tenement in South Providence, R.I., and the six families from six immigrant groups who lived in the house over 60 years.<\/p>\n


\nThese groups of Armenians, Cape Verdeans, Dominicans, Cambodians, Africans, and Irish change themselves, each other, and the idea of what being an American means during their daily interactions.<\/p>\n


\nFrom 5 to 6 p.m., also March 28, Bill Harley, a two-time Grammy award-winning artist, will perform, also in the Lippitt Hall auditorium, Room 402. Harley is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and a commentator on National Public Radio. Harley\u2019s songs paint a vibrant picture of growing up, school days, and family life.<\/p>\n


\nThe two-day festival is sponsored by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities; the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Program; the 溏心vlog免费B站 Beauty Salon; the Rhode Island Labor History Society; Winifred Brownell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Peter Alfonso, vice president for research and economic development; Donald DeHayes, provost and vice president for academic affairs; 溏心vlog免费B站 President David M. Dooley, and the Ken and Sue Kermes Distinguished Lecture Endowment.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cProfessor Johnson and the Center for the Humanities have prepared an impressive array of exciting programs for the festival,\u201d said Brownell. \u201cWe are particularly delighted that NEH Chairman James Leach will join us to discuss the central role of the humanities in our STEM-centric world.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor more information about the festival, please contact Johnson at gjohnson@uri.edu and 401-874-5700. Also, please visit the center\u2019s website at http:\/\/www.uri.edu\/artsci\/cfh.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: James A. Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

\n\tPhoto courtesy of National Endowment for the Humanities<\/p>\n


\n\tMarc Levitt and Valerie Tutson, members of Triple Decker performance group.

\n\tPhoto by Viera Levitt<\/p>\n


\n\tBill Harley, singer, storyteller, and performing artist.

\n\tPhoto courtesy of Bill Harley<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Leach will talk about importance of the arts in science-centered world KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 6, 2013 \u2013 James A. Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a former Republican congressman from Iowa, is giving a talk at the 溏心vlog免费B站 this month for the third annual spring humanities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}