Part extreme adventure, part hard science, and part reality show, the new PBS program "Time Team America" takes viewers deep into the trenches of America's most intriguing archaeological sites.
Lead Digger is Chelsea Rose, who is finishing her graduate degree in Cultural Resources Management at Sonoma State University. She is a major part of the series which premieres 8-9 p.m. on Wednesdays, July 8-August 5 on local PBS stations.
In each episode, the show's team of top scientists has just three days to uncover the buried secrets of their assigned dig. Every hour counts as they piece together the past using the latest technology, decades of combined experience and their own sharp wits.
Far from the comfort of a science lab, "Time Team America" faces searing heat, driving rain, alligator-infested swamps, frayed nerves and the inevitable technical setbacks.
Through it all, the audience peers over the shoulders of diggers at work, eavesdrops on intense conversations between experts and shares the rush of discovery as artifacts emerge from the ground.
"Time Team America" descends on a new site each Wednesday, traveling to Roanoke Island, North Carolina, the swamps of South Carolina, the fields of rural Illinois, the canyons of Utah and the South Dakota prairie in search of America's roots.
Born and raised in Northern California, Chelsea Rose is an historical archaeologist who lives in Southern Oregon. Consumed with a love of history and archaeology from an early age, Chelsea's passion is researching the Frontier Gold Rushes of the nineteenth century, where her interests include Chinatowns and multi-ethnic mining camps in California and Oregon.
Her current research project is focused on a mid-nineteenth century mining camp in Southern Oregon that was established by native Hawaiians - a population that has been little studied in archaeology.
Rose received her undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon, and is finishing her graduate degree in Cultural Resources Management at Sonoma State University.
She is currently an archaeologist with Southern Oregon University's Laboratory of Anthropology. When she's not in school or on an archaeological dig, Rose is either traveling or raising chickens, garlic and raspberries on her farm.
"Time Team America" is based on the popular long-running British "Time Team" series, which also has served to educate the general public about preserving the United Kingdom's archaeological record.
Rose is blogging now at http://pbs.org/timeteam.
Her interview with Sexy Archaeology is at http://sexyarchaeology.org/?tag=chelsea-rose
See the first episode online at http://www.pbs.org/video/program/1100231536/
Become a fan on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/timeteamamerica
Interior of main hall of Green Music Center on the Sonoma State University which is based on Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood.
The architectural firm for the Green Music Center in Sonoma County - William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., of Boston - has been ranked as the #1 architectural firm in the nation in the May 2009 issue of ARCHITECT, one of the country's two leading national architectural magazines.
The heart of the 105,435-square-foot Green Music Center, a part of the Sonoma State University campus, is its world-class concert hall, designed to perfectly showcase acoustic music and the human voice. The $110 million facility is close to completion with only $16 million left to raise.
Rawn is Executive Architect for the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center and has been intimately and personally involved with the Center well before a shovel hit the dirt.
His inspiring design and attention to detail has made the project what it is today - a world-class musical facility on its way to completion. It's design is based on Rawn's Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in Massachusetts, hence it has often been dubbed Tanglewood West.
He and his firm also served as architect to the Music Center at Strathmore College, Williams College Center for Theatre and Dance, the Lincoln Center Plaza Theatre and many other stunning projects.
"The Architect 50," is ARCHITECT Magazine's annual ranking of the top 50 architectural firms in the country "according to their profitability, commitment to sustainability and caliber of design."
William Rawn Associates received particularly high ranking for its percentage of LEED projects in 2008 and for the number of major design awards received. The firm was specifically cited for its work with major universities and colleges, including the Williams College '62 Center for Theatre and Dance, a winner of a national AIA Honor Award in 2008.
The firm was also cited by ARCHITECT for its public projects (the Cambridge Public Library and the new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and for the diversity of its projects such as its first cemetery and first synagogue.
In addition to its college and university work, William Rawn Associates is best known in New England for its music, theatre and dance projects, its six buildings as part of the new West Campus at Northeastern University, and the range of its renovation and addition projects. The firm has won nine national AIA Honor Awards and more than 105 state and regional AIA awards.
Hundreds have taken a tour of the Donald & Maureen Green Music Center and many are talking with excitement about what it will mean to the students of Sonoma State University and the residents of Sonoma County and beyond.
Below are links to the May 2009 cover of Architect Magazine, featuring William Rawn Associates, as well as the story within the magazine (click on bottom left or right to turn pages).
* Architect Magazine cover http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/architect_200905/#/0
* Architect Magazine article and rankings page http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/architect_200905/#/46/
For more details about the project, visit http://gmc.sonoma.edu/. A recent video of the Santa Rosa Symphony Conductor Bruno Ferrandis' evaluation of the main hall is available for viewing.
Sonoma State University Professor Michael Ezra discusses Muhammad Ali as a cultural icon and historical figure this Sunday, June 14 at 8:15 a.m. on KRON TV Channel 4.
Ezra will be the guest of Weekend News host Henry Tenenbaum about his recently published book Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon - a look at the commercial intrigue that surrounded Muhammad Ali in and out of the ring.
Ezra, chair of the American Multicultural Studies Department, has put together a scholarly book looking at the life of Ali through the lens of those who were profiting from him at each stage of his career.
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) has always engendered an emotional reaction from the public, says Ezra. From his appearance as an Olympic champion to his iconic status as a national hero, his carefully constructed image and controversial persona have always been intensely scrutinized.
In his book, Ezra considers the boxer who calls himself "The Greatest" from a new perspective. He writes about Ali's pre-championship bouts, the management of his career and his current legacy, exploring the promotional aspects of Ali and how they were wrapped up in political, economic, and cultural "ownership."
He explores these processes:
"People have made sense of Muhammad Ali over the years by assessing him as either a good person or a bad person. The public's sense of Ali's moral authority has always been a function of its perception of who has profited off him. For example, Ali's relationships to the Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam, as barometers of his public moral status, were important not primarily because of their political and racial content, but because they represented who had economic ownership of him. What brought Ali infamy during the 1960s was not necessarily that he was a politically oppositional force, but that he threatened to generate wealth for the wrong people.
"Accurately assessing Ali's past and present impact requires that we take a close look at the economic ramifications of his cultural meaning. It is easy to attribute Ali's iconic and beloved status today to his being right about the Vietnam War, or his being a fantastic fighter, or his renunciation of the Nation of Islam. Certainly those things are contributing factors in his becoming sacrosanct. But to truly understand Ali, one must never lose sight of the ways that people have capitalized by spinning such narratives into allegories."
Professor Michael Ezra can be reached at (707) 664-3293.
Summer Orientation is the first step toward graduation for all of incoming freshmen students.
Throughout the month of June and early July, the campus hosts six two-day, School-based sessions and one one-day session for students from any major.
Below is the list of dates and the Schools who will be participating in each session.
June 11-12: Undeclared and Business & Economics students
June 15-16: Undeclared and Science & Technology students
June 18-19: Undeclared, Arts & Humanities, and Social Sciences students
June 22-23: Undeclared, Arts & Humanities, and Business & Economics students
June 25-26: Undeclared and students from all majors
June 29-30: Undeclared, Science & Technology, and Social Sciences students
July 6: Undeclared and students from all majors
Please direct any questions about the program by visiting the website at http://www.sonoma.edu/saem/orientation/, by calling (707) 664-4464 or e-mailing orientation@sonoma.edu.
A mass campus notification service and an active-shooter training video are among the new crisis communications services now being used by the Sonoma State University Police Services Department.
SSU Police Chief Nate Johnson reports the campus has installed and is now testing the Connect-ED program which will allow the University to alert students, faculty and staff about a campus emergency within minutes of notification of the situation.
SSU has almost 8500 students attending the Rohnert Park campus and employs more than 1500 staff and faculty.
This system is reserved only for major emergency situations that may affect individuals immediate safety, says Johnson.
The service enables campus leaders to schedule, send, and track personalized voice messages at up to six phone numbers and two e-mail addresses per student and staff member. In all, the multi-modal service helps officials reach out to students and staff via:
Voice messages to home phones, work phones, cell phones, and even e-mail addresses
Text messages to cell phones, PDAs, networked digital signage, and other text-based devices
Text messages to e-mail accounts
Messages to TTY/TDD receiving devices for the hearing impaired
The Connect-ED service has been successfully used for communication by schools across the country during events, such as the wildfires in Southern California, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ernesto, school evacuations, campus notifications required by the Clery Act, and to help locate missing persons.
With the memories of campus shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois also on the minds of campus police, the University has also responded with a proactive strategy to empower the campus community to respond to a mass-casualty incident.
Survival skills for an active shooter incident on campus are also being taught to SSU students, faculty and staff with a new emphasis on individuals being aware of their option to take matters into their own hands.
An instructional DVD called "Shots Fired On Campus" is now being offered that teaches how to develop a "survival mentality."
As a follow up to the campus active shooter drill last year, SSU Director of Emergency Services and Disaster Planning Tyson Hill has made the rounds of freshman orientation seminars, faculty and staff meetings and classrooms in an ongoing effort to educate SSU's campus community and empower all with a survival mindset and skills that can be used for a lifetime.
"Ever since the tragic events of 911 and the heroic behavior of passengers on United Flight 93, there has been a newer school of thought for individuals who find themselves in critical incidents to become pro-active in protecting their lives and not rely on the passive approach used in previous times," says Hill.
The video was produced by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety, based in Spokane, Wash. and is being shown at college campuses around the country.
Questions regarding the above initiatives can be directed to Tyson Hill, Director of Emergency Services and Disaster Planning,
(707) 664-4444.
