COMING UP

Tech Drop in Dates

Workshops! Workshops! Workshops! The Library is pleased to announce the debut of its Technology Drop-In Series (weekly workshops on an array of multimedia applications). Workshops include: iMovie, iDVD, Powerpoint, Scanning, and Photoshop Basics. The workshops are perfect for those just getting started on multimedia applications, as well as for those needing a quick refresher. No sign up needed. See schedule and class descriptions.

Healthy Eating Lecture

Registered dietitian Deanna Latson is leading a “hard-hitting, nutritionally sound, research based discussion about food and how it affects your body” on Thurs., Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. in the Cooperage. Admission is free. For more information, contact Ryan Fitzpatrick, Coordinator of Fitness Programs, or at 4-4223.

Ninth Annual Sonoma County Book Festival

The ninth annual Sonoma County Book Festival is from 10-5 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 20 in Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa. The continued support and volunteer efforts of SSU staff, faculty, alums and students help to transform downtown Santa Rosa into a bustling literary marketplace with more than 70 booths showcasing writers, independent booksellers, publishers and other literary exhibitors. Admission is free and includes readings, panels, and activities for all ages. Among the broad range of topics and genres represented are mystery, thriller, nonfiction, debut fiction, poetry, self-help, travel, children's and teen/young adult. This year's authors and presenters include Cristina Garcia, Toni Mirosevich, James Tipton, Susan Griffin, Noelle Oxenhandler, Lisa Margonelli, Julia Whitty, Gaye LeBaron, and many, many more. A special evening fundraiser event features Michael Krasny, host of KQED's award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs program that concentrates on the arts, culture, health, business and technology. Space is limited, with a minimum donation of $20 per ticket requested. For a full list of authors, panels, and to order tickets for the Michael Krasny appearance, visit http://socobookfest.org.

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo discusses “A New Social Agenda for Democracy”

Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo addresses issues surrounding social injustice, indigenous people, education and democracy in his lecture entitled "A New Social Agenda for Democracy" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25 in the Evert B. Person Theatre. The lecture is free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis.

The event is the fourth in a series of annual lectures in the Andrea Neves and Barton Evans Social Justice Lecture Series, co-sponsored by SSU's School of Extended Education, the Osher Lifelong Learning, Associated Students and organized by the School of Education and the School of Social Sciences.

In his remarkable life, Alejandro Toledo emerged from extreme poverty in a remote village in the Peruvian Andes, to later become one of the most prominent democratic leaders of Latin America. Appearing on the international political scene in 1996, he formed and led a broad democratic coalition to bring down the autocratic regime of Alberto Fujimori and became the first Peruvian President of indigenous descent to be democratically elected in five hundred years, serving from 2001-2006.

The fight against poverty through health and educational investment was the central aim of Toledo's presidency. As a result of sustained economic growth and deliberate social policies directed to the most poor, extreme poverty was reduced by 25 percent in five years. Employment grew at an average rate of 6 percent from 2004-2006. During the five years of Toledo's presidency, the Peruvian economy grew at an average rate of six percent, registering as one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. His dream is that other men and women of the large socially excluded Peruvian and Latin American population can also become Presidents of their respective countries by having access to quality health and education.

Toledo received a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the University of San Francisco and has an MA in Economics, an MA in Economics of Human Resources, and a PhD in Economics of Human Resources, from Stanford University. Toledo has lectured in more than forty countries on issues of poverty, economic growth, and democracy as well as on the benefits of human capital investment. He has received forty-six honorary doctoral degrees from prestigious universities around the world. He is actively committed to the promotion of the Global Center for Development and Democracy, of which he is the founder and president.

For more information on this event, contact Kerry Gilbert, School of Extended Education, or at 4-2394.

War and Peace Lecture Series

From the U.S. intelligence community, to the role of religion in war, to planning a non-violent future, this semester's War and Peace Lecture Series at Sonoma State University explores a wide variety of topics. The next presentation is titled, “Intelligence Community in a Democracy” and will be led by Andy Merrifield, professor of political science. Lectures are offered from 4-5:15 p.m. on Tuesdays in Warren Auditorium, Ives 101. The public is invited to attend any of the presentations. There is no charge for admission.

Jewish Literature Series

The University Library presents the next installment of the reading and discussion series called “Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature, Identity and Imagination” on Thurs., Sept. 25, from noon to 2 p.m. in Schulz 3001. This installment is titled, “Exodus, the Second Book of Moses.” The series explores the theme “Between Two Worlds: Stories of Estrangement and Homecoming.” All participants will receive a copy of each book, and space is limited. Every session also begins with a brief lecture by English Professor Anne Goldman after which participants will exchange their own responses to and ideas about the featured reading. The books are "exciting, engaging, challenging and heartwarming," Goldman says. The University Library is one of more than 250 libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series developed by Nextbook and the American Library Association. Local support for the series is provided by SSU’s Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, Hillel of Sonoma County, and the Santa Rosa Junior College Library, Petaluma Campus.

For details, or to register for limited space, contact Karen Brodsky or at 4-4240.

Arts and Humanities Creative Research Forum

Join Brantley Bryant, professor of English, for the second installment of the Arts and Humanities Creative Research Forum, titled “The New Middle Ages in the Classroom” on Thurs., Sept. 25 from 12:05 – 12:55 in Schulz 1121. Recent work on medieval literature pushes in new and eccentric directions, freshly emphasizing the instability of European cultures, gleefully blurring temporalities, promiscuously picking up theoretical moves, and channeling past literature's affective power and inescapable strangeness.  Stephen G. Nichols has identified a "New Middle Ages" emerging from such scholarship, as the period is re-conceived and re-imagined. In this talk, Bryant will critically assess these recent developments and discuss how they have made their way into the classroom.

How can discussions at the field's vanguard (or lunatic fringe) give students new ways to approach medieval literature's difficulties and pleasures? How do these new approaches suggest a place for medieval literature in more general classes investigating contemporary problems? The talk aims to prompt a lively discussion about teaching in the humanities, investing students in challenging material, shaping a global curriculum, and thinking about the past. For more information, please contact the School of Arts and Humanities at 4-2146.