DR. MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Reception:  6:00 pm
Presentation: 7:00 pm
Location: Woodward Center

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is an American academic, author and radio host. A former teen father who once lived on welfare, he received a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University and is an ordained minister of the Baptist denomination. Dyson taught at the DePaul University, Chicago Theological Seminary, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, Brown University and University of Pennsylvania. Since 2007, Dyson has been University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University teaching courses in theology, English and African American studies. He is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio, CNN and the HBO TV program Real Time with Bill Mahr.

Dyson is best known for his commentary on American culture, especially as it pertains to African Americans. Dyson uses the terms 'Afristocracy' and 'Ghettocracy' to describe a division in American black society. He is also a leading scholar on hip-hop music, as well as its roots in African and African American cultures.  He has been dubbed 'the hip-hop intellectual' for his pioneering explorations of rap music.  He has been named one of the hundred most influential black Americans by Ebony Magazine.

www.michaelericdyson.com

THE ONION
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Reception:  6:00 pm
Presentation: 7:00 pm
Location: Woodward Center

The Onion dates back to 1756, when Freidrich Siegried Zweibel, an immigrant farmer from Prussia, bartered a sack of yams for a printing press and named his fledgling news paper The Mercantile Onion.

Others contend the first issue of The Onion was printed in 1988 in Madison, Wisconsin, by two students working out of their University of Wisconsin dorm.  In the paper's early years, the humor had a local focus, with headlines that included 'Pen Stolen From Dorm Study Area' and 'Winged Monkeys Terrorize State Capitol.'

The Onion is a Peabody award-winning, American 'fake news' organization. It features satirical articles reporting on international, national and local news. The Onion's articles comment on current events, both real and imagined. It parodies traditional newspaper features, such as editorials, man-on-the-street interviews, and stock quotes, as well as a traditional newspaper layout and AP-style editorial voice. The Onion's presentation explores/mocks today's most current topics while specifically tailoring the content to the tone of any event.   The Onion is distributed in cities throughout the country and has a weekly readership of more than three million people.  The Onion has been dubbed 'arguably the most popular humor periodical in world history' by The New Yorker.   Taking into account its humble dorm-room origins, The Onion is an authority in turning creative endeavor into profitable business.

www.theonion.com

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Reception:  6:00 pm
Presentation: 7:00 pm
Location: Woodward Center

Zbigniew Brzezinski is a Polish-born American political scientist, geostrategist and statesman, who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Known for his hawkish foreign policy at a time when the Democratic Party was increasingly dovish, he is a foreign policy "realist" and considered by some to be the Democrats' response to Republican Henry Kissinger.

Major foreign policy events during his term of office include the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China, the signing of the Second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, the brokering of the Camp David Accords, and the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, relinquishing overt U.S control of the Panama Canal after 1999. He is currently professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and a member of various boards and councils. He appears frequently as an expert on the PBS program The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

ERIC GANSWORTH
March 3-Apri l 3, 2010
Eric Gansworth
Two Rows: A Balancing Act Painting Exhibition
Artist Reception: March 10, 5:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Eric Gansworth Reading: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Westfield State Downtown Art Gallery

Poet, novelist, playwright, and artist Eric Gansworth is an enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation and was born and raised at the Tuscarora Indian Nation in Western New York. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He is the author of six books: Indian Summers; Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon; Smoke Dancing; Mending Skins; Breathing the Monster Alive; and A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function. His first play, Re-Creation Story, received a staged reading at The Public Theater in 2008. He also edited the anthology, Sovereign Bones, New Native American Writing, and was fiction editor for the third issue of the journal, Stone Canoe.  His books all feature paintings as integral parts of their narratives.

Wii Fit Fest with Dr. Dan Drury
Monday, March 8, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm Wii Fit Fest
7:30 pm Wii Exercise Games Get You Fit 
Location: Scanlon Banquet Hall and
Scanlon Living Room

Is the Wii Fit a fitness fad, a fluke or the future of health and fitness' The Wii Fit Fest sponsored by GameStop is a fitness technology expo in which equipment and software will be available for display, demonstration and participation. This interactive expo will give participants an opportunity to test a wide variety of fitness technology products from Wii Fit to Dance Dance Revolution to Polar Heart Rate Monitors.

Dr. Daniel Drury, an entrepreneur and associate professor of exercise physiologist at Gettysburg College will follow the Fitness Expo with a presentation of the benefits and pitfalls of using technology-based products to achieve fitness goals.

HELEN SPIELMAN
Performance Anxiety from Inside Out
Helen Spielman, Performance Anxiety Specialist Wednesday & Thursday, March 24 & 25, 2010

March 24:
Talking to Yourself Means You're Sane and Confident
    12:30 pm, Dever Stage, Parenzo Hall
Drop-in Session with Helen: 3:30-4:30 pm
    Bates Hall Room 117
Peak Performance through Mental Visualization
    7:00 pm, Dever Stage, Parenzo Hall
        Reception to follow

March 25:
Persistance and Resilience are a Musicians
    Best Friends
    10:00-11:00 am, Bates Hall, Room 117
Drop-in Session with Helen: 11:00 am-1:00 pm
    Bates Hall, Room 117

Helen Spielman is an acclaimed performance anxiety coach who delivers compelling presentations to musicians, speakers, actors, and dancers wishing to eliminate performance anxiety. Many performers are blocked from achieving optimal success, while others berate themselves for perceived flaws. Helen's classes are rich with transformative, life-changing moments, and are deeply personal and full of humor.  Helen's own triumph over a profound struggle with stage fright gives her a compassionate connection to everyone in her classes. She synthesizes 30 years of experience to bring vast knowledge and resources to her presentations.

GLORIA STEINEM
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Reception:  6:00 pm
Presentation: 7:00 pm
Location: Woodward Center

Rising to national prominence as a feminist leader in 1969, Steinem was a founder of New York Magazine in the 1960's and broke ground in 1963 with an investigative report on how the employed women of Playboy were treated, which was made into a 1985 movie, A Bunny's Tale. In the 1970's, she became a leading political leader and one of the most important voices of the Second-Wave feminism, the women's rights movement of the 1960's and 70's. In 1971, along with other feminist reformers, she founded the National Women's Political Caucus. The next year, Steinem became the founding editor and publisher of "Ms." Magazine, which brought feminist issues to the forefront and became the movement's most influential publication. Steinem actively campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, in addition to other laws and social reforms that promoted equality. She also founded/co-founded many groups, including the Women's Action Alliance, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Women's Media Center, and Choice USA. She helped create the Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

Today, Steinem is considered one of the most important feminist reformers of the Second-Wave of the Women's Movement in the United States. She has had several of her books become bestsellers, and has been published in many magazines and newspapers here and in other countries.  Biography magazine listed her as one of the 25 most influential women in America.  In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She is currently at work on Road to the Heart: America As if Everyone Mattered, a book about her more than thirty years on the road as a feminist organizer; and with the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College on a project to document the grassroots origins of the U.S. women's movement.  

AN EVENING WITH DANNY GLOVER
Friday April 2, 2010
Reception: 6:30 pm
Presentation: 8:00 pm

This event is a beer & wine and hors d'ouevre reception with Mr. Glover in Scanlon Banquet Hall, followed by casual conversation and Q&A in Dever Stage, Parenzo Hall. Seating is limited to 500.

Tickets are $25 for the Q&A only, $50 for the reception and Q&A. All proceeds benefit the Westfield State Future Teachers Scholarship Fund.  For advance ticket sales using a visa or mastercard, visit www.westfieldalumni.org/DannyGlover or call (413) 572-8356 for purchasing assistance.  Remaining tickets will be available at the door, cash payment only, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Danny Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is best known for his role as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple and as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise. 

The Global Women's History Project at Westfield State College Presents:
GENDER AND THE IRANIAN STATE
Thursday and Friday, April 15 & 16, 2010

A two day event featuring Iranian culture, music, film and lectures, sponsored by the Global Women's History Project.

For more information call Dr. Elise G. Young, 413-572-8237.

'Politics of Veiling in Modern Iran'
Thursday, April 15
7:00 pm
Scanlon Banquet Hall

Dr. Janet Afary will speak on the topic 'Politics of Veiling in Modern Iran'- accompanied by images, followed by a conversation with Dr. Janet Bauer and Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, and a preview discussion with Neda Sarmast's on her film 'Enemy- The Youth Culture of Iran.'

Dr. Janet Afary is a native of Iran and a historian of modern Iran.  She holds the Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion and Modernity at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is a Professor of Religious Studies and Feminist Studies.  Dr. Afary is considered one of the most astute commentators on current events and on gender in Iran historically and currently.  She will explain the history and context of events connected to the recent election in Iran, with particular focus on women as a major force in the movement for political change.

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Friday, April 16, 2010

'Nobody's Enemy- The Youth Culture of Iran.' 
Film and discussion with Iranian filmmaker Neda Sarmast
12:00 p.m.
Scanlon Living Room

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'Working Class and Socialist Women Activists in Iran'
Dr. Janet Bauer

'Reformist Women in Iran'
Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo

4:30 p.m.
Scanlon Banquet Hall

Dr. Janet Bauer is an Anthropologist and Associate Professor of International Relations at Trinity College. Her research, teaching, and publications focus on transnational feminism, international migration, and comparative Islamic Studies, from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, to the Caribbean and North America, with a concentration on Iran and Muslim diasporas. Her forthcoming translation and introduction of Iranian women's memoirs from the 1940s seeks to address the gap in the literature on international, working class, women socialist activists, available in English.

Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo , a leading advocate of human rights and democracy in Iran, was a member of Iran's reform parliament, and was the first to resign in 2004 when anti-reform measures began to take shape. In 2001 Iran's judiciary sentenced her to 20 months in prison- later reduced to 10 and which she has not served- for her claims that the government had tortured prisoners and for criticizing the arrest of a journalist. Ms. Haghighatjoo is currently a Visiting Scholar at MIT's Center for International Studies.

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127 Band, Iranian jazz and 'gypsy punk',  with African American Hip Hop artists
Evening Concert
7:00 pm
Scanlon Banquet Hall

Concert by Iranian musicians, 127 Band, with lead musician/songwriter Shorab Mohebbi, playing music adapted from a 19th century Iranian musical form that is ironic social commentary. Their music interweaves jazz and a 'gypsy punk' sound. They will be followed by African American Hip Hop artists; a collaboration with the Community School of Music in Springfield. The musicians will have a conversation about the similarities in their musical forms.

GREG MORTENSON
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Presentation: 7:00 pm
Location:  Woodward Center

Tickets are free for faculty, staff and students, $35 for the general public, and $30 for Westfield State Alumni. Seating is limited.

All proceeds benefit the Westfield State Future Teachers Scholarship Fund. For advance ticket sales using a visa or mastercard, visit www.westfieldalumni.org/GregMortenson or call (413) 572-8356 for purchasing assistance.  Remaining tickets will be available at the door, cash payment only, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Guests are also urged to contribute to Pennies for Peace.  Collection jars will be located at the event.

Greg Mortenson is the co-founder and executive director of non-profit Central Asia Institute, founder of Pennies for Peace, and co-author of New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace'One School at a Time which has been a New York Times bestseller for 120 weeks since its release in January 2007. In March 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan's highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (Star of Pakistan) for his dedication and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for 15 years. Several bipartisan U.S. Congressional representatives nominated Mortenson for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Three Cups of Tea is required reading for U.S Senior military commanders, 0fficers in the Norwegian War College, U.S Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan, Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training, and Canadian Defense Ministry members. He served in the U.S Army in Germany, where he received the Army Commendation Medal. Since a 1993 climb on Pakistan's K2, Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote community- based education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson has established more than 131 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These schools provide education to more than 58,000 children, including over 44,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. TV newscaster Tom Brokaw calls Mortenson, 'one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world.'

www.gregmortenson.com