Wilkinson Review

WILKINSON REVIEW THE CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY: WILKINSON COLLEGE MAGAZINE CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY

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Students Discover Why the Holocaust Matters to Them

also: Artwork submitted for Ninth Annual Holocaust Writing Contest Connecting the Pieces – Past and Present

By Lisa Cho, 7th Grade Acaciawood College Preparatory Academy Anaheim

Preserving the Shiwilu Cultural Heritage

Volume 4 Number 1 • Fall 2011 • A Chapman University Publication

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Message from the dean Now into my third year as Dean of Wilkinson College, I am pleased to articulate where I see the college headed over the next few years. Acting in accordance with President Doti and Chancellor Struppa’s vision for Chapman, Wilkinson has formed an academic vision centered on themes of interdisciplinarity, global citizenship, collaborative student/faculty research and scholarship, and strengthening associations with our Latino and Asian communities. Concurrent with these aims is a need to ensure that the integrity of the liberal arts disciplines grow and thrive.

The essential aim of the Wilkinson Review is to ensure that our graduates feel assured that the administration of Wilkinson College continues to hold firm in their beliefs on the value of a broad liberal arts education: that we are doing everything in our power to promote the philosophical basis behind the college’s mission and ethical aspirations. A quick glance at the contents in this issue of the Review confirms that the college’s academic programs and community initiatives are in harmony with great liberal arts college. For example, the article entitled “Students Discover Why the Holocaust Matters to Them” highlights the dedication of our Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, Marilyn Harran, to ensure that we all remember what can happen when totalitarian regimes replace the democratic values inculcated in a free republic.

In the article “Preserving the Shiwili Cultural Heritage” one of our students relates her first trip to the Amazon with Dr. Pilar Valenzuela of our Languages department. As she describes her thoughts about working beside her professor in order to preserve a Peruvian dialect from extinction, the importance of a liberal arts education becomes manifest. The question of why we should educate our students to grasp the nature of the global citizenry and diverse cultures answers itself. Not only has our student intellectually comprehended the significance of diversity and cultural difference, but she has participated and viscerally understood the complications of human development.

“An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Human Behavior at Disneyland” brings us closer to home, but Dr. Takaragawa’s article , nevertheless, demonstrates that an academic classroom need not only be found within the boundaries of the Chapman campus. Using Disneyland as a learning laboratory, her students dissected this monument to American creativity from one end to the other with fascinating results. The second part of the article offers a student’s perspective of the course. Eileen Regullano’s response serves once again to reveal the various ways in which the Chapman experience of collaborative student/faculty research introduces students to the spirit of academic inquiry.

Finally, Professor Jan Osborn and Maribel Reyes’ joint article on what humanistic inquiry can “make possible” is a wonderful success story and is representative of one that is typical to Wilkinson. Here, the dedication to serving students and ensuring that they are equipped with every possible means to awaken their potential and to actualize their abilities is highlighted. A firm grounding in the liberal arts is essential in every undertaking that is necessary to a professional, technological, scientific, or service position. Our intention at Wilkinson is to ensure that all Chapman students are prepared to face the modern workplace and make an impact on it.

This volume of the Wilkinson Review is dedicated to our own IMPACT PROJECT; we are asking our alumni to share their stories of how their Chapman education has impacted their lives and attitudes. Many of our alumni have already done so, but if you have a story to tell, please visit our IMPACT WEBSITE at http://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/impact/.

Patrick Quinn, Ph.D. Dean of Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences

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CONTENTS Thoughts 6 Students Discover Why the

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Holocaust Matters to Them

By Jessica MyLymuk, Assistant Director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education

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The Humanities: Transforming Lives

“ A Making Possible”

By Dr. Jan Osborn Impact, A Domino Effect

By Maribel Reyes

Research

2 An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying

Human Behavior at Disneyland

By Stephanie Takaragawa, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Eileen Regullano ’12

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Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences is named to honor Harmon Wilkinson ’35, Chapman University trustee and longtime supporter of the liberal arts. The college is comprised of nine departments, all finding a unifying purpose in their commitment to making a difference, and each in its own distinct way carrying out the Chapman traditions of academic excellence, ethics, service, leadership, global citizenship, and personalized education.

For more information about Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, please contact: Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences Office of the Dean (714) 997-6947 Roosevelt Hall Chapman University One University Dr. Orange, CA 92866 www.chapman.edu/wilkinson Editor: Taryn Stroop ­Graphic Design: Ryan Tolentino Wilkinson Review is published for our alumni and friends.

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Preserving the Shiwilu Cultural Heritage

By Katlin Kane ’11

Happenings 15 Faculty Bookshelf Spring 2011

By Laura Silva

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Wilkinson College Spring 2011 Highlights

By Laura Silva

Wilkinson College Departments Art Communication Studies English History Languages

Philosophy Political Science Religious Studies Sociology

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An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Human By: Stephanie Takaragawa Behavior in Disneyland and Eileen Regullano ’12 “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”

These words mark the transition from the front gates into Mainstreet, USA, when you first enter Disneyland Park. In some ways these words wouldn’t be and shouldn’t be out of place at a university. Through various disciplines we study the past, project about the future, and construct imaginary worlds through literature, film, and poetry.

As a faculty member, one of the things that I most appreciate about Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences is the flexibility the college gives its faculty in terms of creativity and exploration in the classroom. With humanistic inquiry at its core, it provides students an invaluable education to become critically aware, independent, thoughtful members of society. Its students are vibrant, unpredictable and in some ways, messy undergraduates who are finding their own ways in the world. It is our privilege (and responsibility) to provide small bits of guidance toward helping them find their own strengths. Sometimes, however, it is the students who help the faculty find their way as well.

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RESEARCH: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Human Behavior at Disneyland As an anthropology and sociology professor, I explore the social context that informs why individuals behave in the ways they do. In class we discuss social stratification in terms of identity and ethnicity or in terms of equality and inequality. We talk about institutional effects on society, as well as the role of the individual in resisting institutional forces. We talk about the environment and how it may affect behavior.

We discuss the media and its relationship to economics and to politics. We theorize about the past, the present, and the future. We evaluate the role of authority and hierarchy. We synthesize the histories of the disciplines and the theories and attempt to apply them to real-world examples in the present. And we do that by watching MTV’s The Real World and by going to Disneyland.

Understanding how people behave in social situations requires either watching people in social situations or being in social situations, both of which will put you in a social situation. To explain how behavior is influenced by the environment, I sometimes have students analyze their behavior in the classroom or in an elevator, for example. I often use the example of how people behave in Disneyland as a way of sorting through some of the dynamics of environment and behavior. “Why…,” I ask them, “…do you spend close to $100 dollars for the privilege of being surrounded by noisy, sticky children, standing in lines for an hour to then sit in some unreasonably restricted space and move past painted cardboard pictures, and spend $15 for a cheeseburger? And then smile the entire time?” They are generally stumped for the most part, and so am I. Discussing this conundrum with my anthropology students, they turned to me and said, “Can we go and find out?”

While I had a sneaking suspicion that actually understanding this question might have been secondary to the opportunity to actually visit Disneyland and call it school-work, I didn’t think it was a bad idea. I wasn’t sure how other faculty would view it, but I knew that we often send students out to museums, historical sites, and other places to explore behavior, particularly in sociology and anthropology classes. Why not Disneyland?

When I first came to Chapman I was given the opportunity to teach special topics in sociology courses during interterm. It was through both encouragement of the chair of my department and through students that ANTH 335, The Anthropology of Space and Place: Disneyland class came to fruition. I had students from different majors enroll in the course, which was useful in providing an interdisciplinary approach. The plan Volume 4 Number 1 • Fall 2011

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was to look at a series of social theorists across the last 50 years to see how well their theories stood up to “The Happiest Place on Earth.” It would also include aspects of marketing, culture, and representation.

The idea was that if they could actually see social theory at work, they could understand it more clearly. They could also learn the difference between theory and practice. Because it would be their responsibility to decide which social theorist they would work with and how they would apply it, it also became a type of fieldwork class. Because it was a small class that met four times a week, we had ample time to discuss social theory, explore different ideas, and really collaborate on the learning process. Students identified different issues ranging from marketing and advertising to the representation of gender roles, and their relationship to individual and group behavior. Armed with a specific idea to investigate, they went out “into the field” to understand how these theoretical orientations operated on-the-ground. Because it was Disneyland it was fun. Because it was social theory it was work. The beauty of it all was that because they had helped design, develop, and determine part of the process, they felt as though they truly learned their subject, as evidenced from the following comments from students:

“The readings provided a general “The readings provided a general framework framework for theory. understanding theory. for understanding Actually doing fieldwork the park gave us thein context to Actuallyindoing fieldwork the park gave employ the framework.” us the context to employ the framework.”

“Held in seminar format, discussions, hands-on experience, mixed with lots of theoretical reading. I learned a lot, and had fun!” It’s true that most of the students had positive views of the Disneyland Park and joined the class because they thought it would be fun.

But there were some students who had never been to Disneyland and a few who actively disliked the idea of it. This was interesting because it allowed students to explore the role of Disneyland in their own cultural context and to investigate dissenting points of view.

Some students felt that Disneyland was simply a bad corporate machine and assumed the class would focus on those aspects. Some students even asked if this was a class that would make them hate Disneyland, because if so, they didn’t want to take it. In teaching this class I was not trying to convince them one way or the other, but simply to use this opportunity to try

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RESEARCH: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Human Behavior at Disneyland to understand social interactions and its relationship to the environment. I believe students came away with a deeper understanding of why some people like and some dislike Disneyland, allowing them to truly understand things from another perspective. It also provided them with a framework for understanding their own social interactions inside and outside of the park. I believe that this class could be taught in any environment, but Disneyland has proven to be quite ideal for the task.

I can take some credit in the success of this class, but I believe that it was largely a success because of the students themselves. They were the ones who determined the specifics of what issues would be the foci of their research. And I learned a lot from them.

Eileen Regullano, ’12 Originally, when I signed up for the Disneyland class titled “Anthropology of Space and Place,” I was genuinely interested in the anthropology rather than the Disneyland field trips. In fact, I disliked Disneyland and was somewhat reluctant to leave the comfort of the classroom confines to socially interact in “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Disneyland was a place etched in my childhood, whose attraction remained attached to the three-year-old girl in the past rather than to the serious college student I had become. Little did I know that my entire view of Disneyland would be forever altered in the space of a few weeks’ time.

Prior to the first class, I was afraid my fellow classmates would not take the class seriously and would only be there so they could have a legitimate excuse to buy an annual pass to this “magical” park. I was concerned about applying sociological and anthropological theory to Disneyland, a place I had grown up near and whose fireworks I could view nightly (without buying a $60 ticket) from my balcony, a place all my friends loved to visit, making me resent it over the years. How could I possibly change my seemingly static view of Disneyland after nearly two decades’ worth of my own opinions and perspectives on the park to fit what I would learn in the class?

Thankful for the first couple of days spent in the classroom with familiar pedagogic tools such as reading and discussing assigned articles, I looked to the first Disneyland field trip with dread. Luckily, there would be no social interactions that first visit; we were assigned to sit in one place, observing the goings-on around us for an hour without talking to anyone. It was interesting to observe that I was really the only

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person just sitting by myself for an extended period of time with no social interaction whatsoever.

The second visit was not so easy. This time we had to do the opposite—fully engage with our surroundings and socially interact with our classmates and with Disney characters by taking pictures with them.

It was exactly what I had previously dreaded—social interaction? Having fun at Disneyland? But I gritted my teeth and, along with my classmates, settled in to do this difficult assignment. Thanks to my more Disney-infatuated classmates, the day turned out to be somewhat fun rather than just another assignment I had to slog through. It also presented another issue for me—why DID I hate Disneyland so much? This dislike among those in academia of Disneyland was only one of many topics we explored during class.

The following weeks were more comfortable and familiar to me, having already completed the anthropology Ethnographic Fieldwork course. One day involved interviewing Disneyland employees, while the other was comprised of our own fieldwork for our individually chosen final presentations. These particular field trips were the most heavily laden with the practical application of sociological and anthropological theory.

On the days between field trips, we would return to the classroom and to more traditional ways of learning, such as reading and discussing articles and concepts as well as listening to lectures on the same. The material was dense and challenging, especially in the first two weeks. I felt like my head was swimming in a whirlpool of abstract concepts I couldn’t understand. Then one day, it all just fell into place. I was suddenly able to understand exactly what Baudrillard’s “hyperreality” and “simulacra” meant.

I could clearly articulate Foucault’s Panopticon and how it influences people’s behavior.

And it never could have happened without going to Disneyland. What other place could provide a better example of theories like Baudrillard’s or Foucault’s?

More importantly, what other place could show AND force the researcher to participate in the social interactions inherent in social and anthropological theory? Without physically going to Disneyland, I would not have been able to understand important sociological and anthropological theories, much less apply them to real-life situations.

Besides, I learned how to enjoy spending time at Disneyland.

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MASTER OF ARTS IN

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Natalie Larson meets Holocaust survivors Zelda Gordon and Idele Stapholtz

Students Discover Why the Holocaust Matters to Them By: Jessica MyLymuk, Assistant Director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education

Since 1999, teachers from public, private and parochial middle and high schools have made Chapman University’s Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest a vital part of their curricula. Sponsored by the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and The “1939” Club, an organization of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, the contest offers students the opportunity to learn about the Holocaust and to share their understanding and their creativity through prose, poetry, and art.

In its first year, the contest reached a few hundred students from 48 schools in Orange County and Los Angeles. Twelve years later, the contest reaches thousands of students from more than 110 schools in Northern and Southern California, as well as Tennessee, Arizona, and Oregon.

Though the contest has grown over the years, its goal remains the same: connecting Holocaust survivors with students.

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THOUGHTS: Students Discover Why the Holocaust Matters to Them It was a prize—a book—that first brought students and survivors together at Chapman. The Holocaust Chronicle: A History of Words and Pictures, a valuable resource in its own right, became more than a book—it became a bridge connecting the generations. The publication of this volume, a groundbreaking 750-page history of the Holocaust, of which Rodgers Center’s director, Dr. Marilyn Harran, was a contributing consultant and writer, coincided with the inaugural contest. Louis Weber and Publications International generously donated copies of the book to each educator and student who participated. More than 3,500 copies of the book have been donated to contest participants to date.

ceremony and reception with the intent of meeting those who inspired their works.

Mary Hoovestol, former teacher at St. Anne School in Laguna Niguel and the educator with the most first place students in the history of the contest, started a tradition that focused on the personal connection each student felt with his or her survivor. At the contest reception, Mrs. Hoovestol’s students would wear nametags that included their names, the name of their survivors, and their survivors’ photos. Not only did this make it easier for students and survivors to find each other at the bustling reception, but it also instilled in students a sense of responsibility—the responsibility to find their survivors, to meet them, to listen to their stories, and to carry the messages of their stories forward.

At the reception following the first awards ceremony, students seized the opportunity to have their books signed by the many Holocaust survivors who were Every year the contest prompt challenges students to present. It became a conversation starter, a way for discover their own meaning students to approach in history and to reflect upon survivors and begin how and why the history a dialogue. And the of the Holocaust matters to conversations have continued them. Students connect to for the past 12 years. This one of many themes—faith, year’s gathering was so large loss, memory, hope—that that the reception had to be are intrinsic to survivors’ moved to a large tent outside experiences. Just as every of Memorial Hall. In the survivor’s story is unique, books, survivors inscribe every lesson learned is personalized requests for distinctive to each student’s remembrance, calls to action, experience and every entry and messages of hope for received is as individual as the future before signing their names. As a result, each Lindsey valentine with “1939” Club member, Barbara Gerson the student who created it and the survivor who lived student’s book is uniquely his through the events of the Holocaust. or her own, the tangible evidence of an unforgettable day and a physical link between the witnesses to the For Shelli Bautista, first place winner in the high Holocaust and the witnesses to the future. school prose division in the Ninth Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, the contest became about What makes the personal meeting especially something more than winning. She wrote: meaningful is the fact that students listen to the survivors’ testimonies before they prepare their entries.

At the beginning of this assignment, I wanted to Thanks to the efforts of The “1939” Club and the USC win in order to meet my survivor. But hearing Mila Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and [Page’s] voice transformed an assignment into a Education, more than 100 full-length video testimonies journey no words could describe. Elated and excited by “1939” Club members are available online. These lost their meaning—what I felt was far stronger. videos, ranging from just over an hour in length to nearly six hours, introduce participants to those whose I have won. This experience is the prize I will lives were forever changed by the Holocaust, making carry the rest of my life. A prize that will be a historical events that once seemed distant become constant reminder of what Mila’s late husband vividly real and deeply personal.

Leopold said: This sense of connectedness to history is the impetus for student entries. It is a connection that does not fade when the video stops. Students attend the awards Volume 4 Number 1 • Fall 2011

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“It is so much easier to love than to hate.”

Shelli continues to be in touch with Mrs. Page.

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THOUGHTS: Students Discover Why the Holocaust Matters to Them The messages the students hear inspire them not only to remember and to pass on the stories they have learned, but to take action. Some take a stand against bullying in their schools, some feed the homeless in their communities, and some use their voices to bring awareness of injustices that are happening on the other side of the world.

Gabriela Duva, first-place winner in the middle school prose division in the Sixth Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, wrote “I’m learning so I can educate others about genocide. Through education, we can stop this tragedy. Things aren’t going to change by themselves; they will only change with each person’s contribution, starting with me.”

Natalie Larson meets Holocaust survivors Zelda Gordon and Idele Stapholtz

The contest isn’t the only way that memory is brought to life on campus. An Evening of Holocaust Remembrance, an annual event sponsored by the Lodzer Organization, draws some 800 people from throughout the community to an occasion of remembrance and reflection. Each year, survivors, accompanied by first-place recipients in the contest, light six candles in remembrance of the millions who perished.

This spring’s program, the theme of which was Metaphors of Memory: A Witness through the Arts, was created by Liane Burns, Michaela Burns, Laura Lasco and John Rocco, 2011 graduates of Chapman University who majored in dance, film, or music and completed a minor in Holocaust history or peace studies in the Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This extraordinary event—for which the student performers received a prolonged standing ovation—included filmed interviews with Holocaust survivors, live music performances, and originally choreographed dance. It was the culmination of years of study and months of creative collaboration. A fusion of historical knowledge and artistic creativity, the evening offered a moving tribute to the survivors whom the students have come to know during their four years at Chapman. As they wrote in their program notes, “Your memories are now whispers within our souls which will guide our lives.”

Student dancers perform at An Evening of Holocaust Remembrance

Holocaust survivors lighting the candles of remembrance

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The Humanities:

Transforming Lives The Beginnings 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of Wilkinson College. Wilkinson was founded in 1991 as part of the transition from Chapman College to Chapman University and was named after Harmon Wilkinson, an alumnus and long-time friend of Chapman College. Harmon believed that the liberal arts and sciences are the heart and soul of the university. He was committed to values, social issues, and service. He refuted that Universities are inanimate, and alleged instead that Chapman “had a soul, character and purpose”, and he urged its faculty to merge together excellence and caring.

The values and identity that were established with the formation of Wilkinson College have, over the years, remained central to its mission. The following story is not unique in the caliber of faculty we have in Wilkinson College. In fact, through the Impact Project we have heard from many alumni who have been greatly changed by the mentorship and education they received while students at Chapman.

However, it is an important snapshot of the ongoing impact one individual can have on another, their community, and their world, as well as the important role that the liberal arts play in empowering and transforming perspective. The following article is written by Jan Osborn, Assistant Professor of English and previous Century High School teacher. Through Chapman’s John Fowles Center for Creative Writing, Jan has been working with Orange High School to offer creative writing classes.

The insert feature of the article is written by Maribel Reyes, Center Manager for Community Action Partnership of Orange County. Maribel grew up in Santa Ana and is a former high school student of Jan’s. Their paths have crossed once again as members of Wilkinson’s Iluminación board.

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THOUGHTS: The Humanities: A “Making Possible”

The Humanities: A “Making Possible”

By Dr. Jan Osborn Wondering about meaning and meaning-making is central to the humanities. While a definition of the humanities can be reduced to a list of disciplines, what the disciplines share are ways of working with the ideas, the words, and the stories that help us make sense of our lives. This meaning-making is important for those of us concerned with helping students discover new ways of perceiving the world and the way we are living in it. I think of this kind of education as a “making possible.”

Maxine Greene expresses it as “a reaching out for meanings” (Variations on a Blue Guitar 7), and Paulo Freire expresses it as a process of discovering yourself as a re-creator of reality, a re-creator of knowledge in a world perceived “not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation” (Pedagogy of the Oppressed 83). If you perceive yourself as a “re-

creator of reality,” your imagination is engaged; you are imagining possibilities for yourself, for others, for the very world itself.

I see the transformative power of this meaning making most dramatically when working with students in public schools serving youth from lowersocioeconomic communities. Far too often, the curriculum and expectations in schools serving these communities are not about a “making possible,” but rather, maintaining a static reality.

If students come to a school that sees their language, their family, their way of being in the world as problems, they get the message. If they are not perceived as coming from a valued place, bringing gifts that deepen our understanding of the world we live in, there is this sense of being “behind,” while others somewhere else are “ahead.” Students see who they are and who they are expected to become in these judgments and in the curriculum and expectations that continued on page 11

The Humanities: Impact, A Domino Effect By: Maribel Reyes People have power to influence the lives of others in many ways. As a student at Century High School I was inspired and most importantly motivated by my senior English teacher, Jan Osborn. Her love for teaching was evident and she created an environment where students felt included and that they were a valued member of the class. The attention she gave on an individual basis allowed us to feel valuable and significant. As a teen I lost my home in a fire, my family was facing financial burdens, and its dynamics were in shambles. The difficulties at home left me in a tough spot: college was on my mind, but there were other pressing things to think about. But Jan always knew how to get my attention even in the midst of my sea of thoughts and worries. She knew I had it in me to attend college and understood I needed guidance. Miss Osborn looked at my transcripts and helped me fill out college and financial aid applications. Before I knew it, I was on my way to Cal State Fullerton. Jan inspired me by her many acts of kindness, by her love for students, and by providing a platform for students like me to feel extraordinary.

through my college years, which did not get any easier, but my dream of becoming a college graduate was so strong that I never gave up. I graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Spanish Literature and a Minor in Human Services from Cal State Fullerton. Currently, I am the Center Manager at El Modena Family Resource Center for Community Action Partnership of Orange County. Jan’s presence is in me. I have become a passionate service provider working with youth, families, and our elderly, but most importantly I have become a leader in the community that I work for and I have earned their respect.

Just a few months ago during my drive to our corporate office I was asking myself how I might bring services to our youth to help them improve their writing and language skills. I was wondering where youth can turn for help with these subjects. I shared my thoughts with our Planning Director, Alan Woo, who immediately invited me to attend a meeting for the Wilkinson College Iluminación Project that same day. As it turns out, Jan Osborn sits as a member of this committee—one of the ironies of life. I am not surprised. It is amazing the impact that one individual can have on the life of another. One person can inspire another, and then in turn inspire someone new, creating a domino effect that continues indefinitely.

I carried this inspiration and encouragement with me

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Thoughts: The Humanities: A “Making Possible” grow out of such deficit identities. They are perceived and then projected as a “certain kind of person.” While there is a lot of talk about becoming whatever you want to become in the world, a lot of talk about work hard and go to college, the stronger message is that education is about behavior, right answers to questions you did not ask, and test scores that show your community at the bottom of a scale created by people who have never been anywhere near your community. If the questions themselves aren’t meaningful, if the focus is on learning how to take tests that rank and sort people, if imagination is “off task,” school becomes a “getting through” rather than a “making possible.”

The humanities offer a wonderful opportunity to change this paradigm. If language and literature, for example, are seen as places where students can use their humanity—those qualities shared by all human beings, like language and imagination and creativity—they begin to connect to ideas in a way that is self-affirming, building a confidence in who they are and where they come from that allows them to move into new areas of learning and understanding. They can take risks, leaps of confidence, where change happens. Transformed, they are transformers, re-creators of knowledge in a reality in process.

Such an abstract discussion of the “making possible” nature of the humanities comes to life in Maribel Reyes.

Maribel was a graduate of the second class of Century

Faculty Impact Nominations Wilkinson College recently launched the Wilkinson Impact Project. Since the start of the project alumni have been sharing their stories with us. It has been fantastic to hear how your liberal arts education has impacted you, and in-turn, how you have impacted your communities.

We have created a space in this edition of the Wilkinson Review to acknowledge the faculty who you have told us made a difference in your education, self, and career. Thank you for taking the time to acknowledge the impact Wilkinson’s faculty have made on you.

If you would still like to share your story with us or nominate a faculty or fellow alumni it’s not too late.

Visit us on the web at http://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/impact/ and share your story today!

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High School in Santa Ana, California. The school opened in 1987 as an opportunity for students in an immigrant community to experience an education that valued their language, their experiences, and their potential for transforming society. Century took the idea of a liberal arts education to heart. The faculty often talked about how we might be liberated from a narrow perception of what it meant to be a “secondlanguage” student, an “immigrant” student, a “firstgeneration” secondary student; therefore, challenging our perceptions about what it meant to be educators as well. While the focus of the school has changed as state and federal oversight has tightened, those first few graduating classes are living examples of the possibilities embodied in such an educational concept.

Maribel is a case in point. She was a student alive with possibilities. She read, she studied, she asked questions; she read, she studied, she asked more questions.

She studied in the midst of tremendously difficult situations. She was able to see that what she brought to Century High School could help Century itself grow and change. She valued her family, her experiences, her past; and in so doing, she could be fully herself as she created a future. She has gone on to get an education at California State University, Fullerton, and has returned to her community to work with Community Action Partnership of Orange County as their Center Manager.

Faculty Nominated

Alumni

Bert Williams Ron Huntington Fred O. Francis Art Blaser Paul Apodaca Don Will Roberta Lessor Ron Steiner, Gordon Babst, Don Will Patricia See Kevin O’Brien Rob Duke Charles Wilbourn Jim Blaylock Bernard McGrane, Pat See Marilyn Harran James Blaylock Dr. Jankowski Alana Nicastro Myron Yeager

Dean Echols David R Booth John Mansell Susan Hixon Jason Hernandez Dr. Jessica J. Alabi S. Rebecca Neusteter Patrick Hardy Andrew Holmer Patricia Anders Kelly Seibert Maureen A. Mumm Jaclyn Witt Sue Coffman Jennifer Matsunaga Niloo Sarabi Vanessa Gordon Misty Lecompte Larry Bourgeois

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Preserving the Shiwilu Cultural Heritage By: Katlin Kane ’11 My journey into the Amazon began in January 2010, when I was given the opportunity to visit Jeberos, a destination that took well over a week of travel and included a domestic flight from Lima to the city of Tarapoto in the eastern slopes of the Andes, a three-hour drive around mountains to the city of Yurimaguas, two days of travel by boat down the Huallaga River and up the Aipena River and then the Rumiyacu, a thirty minute ride by peke peke, and a brief yet bumpy journey via mototaxi. When we finally arrived at Jeberos, I was greeted by people I had seen in photographs or people I had heard of from Dr. Valenzuela’s accounts of her previous travels to the village. Suddenly the people from the photographs were shaking my hand, greeting me in Spanish, and speaking to each other in this language I had been transcribing for nearly a year. One of them, a Don Meneleo Carreajano Chota, told me, “Te voy a contar la historia de mi pueblo” (I will tell you the story of my village).

My first experience with the Kawapanan Project took place in the spring of 2009 when I met with Dr. Pilar Valenzuela from the Department of Languages. She showed me scanned pages from a journal that had seen better days and was filled with phonetic symbols, slanted cursive, various scribbles of notes in the margins, and words from a language I could not recognize. When Dr. Valenzuela began pronouncing the words I was even more confused by the incomplete sounding ‘d’s, the ‘n’s that emanated from the back of the throat, and the rather choppy rhythm that was quite different from that of English or Spanish. I soon learned that these scribbles and odd sounds were words of Shiwilu, an indigenous language spoken in Jeberos, a village in the Peruvian Amazon. Dr. Valenzuela first visited Jeberos in 2005 and began documenting the language in 2007. In 2009 she was awarded an NSF grant to continue her work on Shiwilu as well as on Shawi, the sister language (Shiwilu and Shawi make up the Kawapanan language family). The statuses of these two languages are quite different. Today, Shawi is spoken by some 20,000 people, including children, while Shiwilu is on the verge of disappearance.

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RESEARCH: Preserving the Shiwilu Cultural Heritage There is very little documentation of Shiwilu. One of the few trained linguists who studied the language was John Bendor-Samuel, who went to the village of Jeberos (where Shiwilu is primarily spoken) in the 1950s and recorded Shiwilu stories in his journal.

During the time of Bendor-Samuel’s stay, Shiwilu was spoken by approximately 1,500 people. Since then, the number of speakers has fallen to roughly 20-30 elders, and has ceased to be passed down to younger generations. Once these speakers die, the language dies with them. Over the course of the semester, my task was to transcribe the pages of this journal, which contained popular stories that are a part of the Shiwilu oral tradition. With Dr. Valenzuela’s knowledge of the language and my efforts at transcribing, we worked for the remainder of the semester to produce a total of three stories, transcribed in Shiwilu and with an English translation. From these stories, we had hints of what was happening within them, but they lacked fluidity and were difficult to make sense of given the structure of Shiwilu and how the stories were translated. The only way to fill in the gaps was to go to Jeberos and work with someone who knew the language and the stories.

For the three weeks that I stayed in Jeberos, I worked with Meneleo to correct the transcribed stories and to produce a clear translation of each one in Spanish and in English. Of these stories, my favorite is an account of an armadillo (chi’lek), who is a pipe-player. He plays so beautifully that the birds stop to dance whenever he pipes, which makes a jaguar (amana’) very angry. The jaguar steals the pipe and tries to play, but his mouth is so ill-suited to the instrument that it produces a sound with very little substance. In a struggle involving wit and a disguise of feathers, the armadillo manages to get his pipe back and kill the jaguar, leaving him and the birds to play and dance as they please. As the Shiwilu language dies and ceases to be learned by children, these invaluable stories (among other pieces of information about their ethics, habitat, and traditional medicines) are no longer passed down. In addition, the Shiwilu language serves as the strongest indicator of their indigenous identity. During my stay in Jeberos, I recognized a strong desire by Shiwilu elders and community leaders to preserve and maintain their indigenous language, to teach it to their children, and to ensure that future generations would have access to the Volume 4 Number 1 • Fall 2011

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stories of their ancestral traditions. By recovering these texts and providing a reliable version of them, we are contributing to the preservation of the Shiwilu cultural heritage, Shiwilu pride, and a better understanding of indigenous Amazonian peoples.

For three weeks, I was surrounded by green, sleeping beneath a mosquito net, and waking up to the calls of roosters. We visited the farms where people grew manioc and pineapples, drank masato (a manioc drink prepared for celebrations), bathed and washed our clothes in a river, and lived with a few hours of electricity a day. In all my years of studying a second language, never had my Spanish improved so much in so short an amount of time. I was introduced to new words, many of which pertained specifically to the Peruvian Amazon.

I was told about various plants and their uses. One example that came up frequently during my stay was leche caspi (ekka’dek), the scientific name for which is Couma macrocarpa. It is a type of tree sap that is described as a sticky white latex, and has various uses, from sealing the pores of pottery to waterproofing canoes to treating stomach illnesses. Meneleo told me about other plants that could alleviate a variety of pains and illnesses, but knowledge of these plants has also ceased to be learned by the younger generations.

As I boarded a plane back to the United States, I thought of how I would suddenly be put back into a world of Englishspeakers, a world of luxuries and excesses. I would miss the kindness demonstrated by the Jeberinos, listening to people converse so naturally in Shiwilu, the simple and enriching way of life. I remember wondering what kind of impact I might have had on Jeberos, thinking I might only leave my footprints.

I remember walking, taking extra heavy steps in the hopes that they would be there for a while.

My work with Dr. Valenzuela on this project has continued with the creation of a trilingual dictionary that will permanently document the Shiwilu language (Shiwilu, Spanish, and English). During the fall of 2010 I worked with Priya Shah, a sophomore pursuing a dual degree in history and Spanish. We worked with students of Dr. Valenzuela’s linguistics class to translate the Spanish portions of the dictionary into English.

In addition to gaining experience in the process of translating, students became aware of customs, plants,

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RESEARCH: Preserving the Shiwilu Cultural Heritage and animals inherent in Shiwilu culture. Many students came across types of animals that they had never heard of, such as the naca-naca snake (ker’chi’, ke’chi’) or the paucar bird (kuku’). Students learned about Shiwilu customs, such as the process of cleaning cotton for spinning (sekkatapalli) or preparing a certain drink with sweet plantains and water (sekmu’lu’tapalli). They also discovered and reflected on interesting linguistic patterns in the Shiwilu language and learned of the suffix “-ku’”, which is added when the person speaking is referring to someone who is deceased. “Papinku-ku’”, for example, means “grandfather now deceased”. Finally, students were also introduced to Peruvian Amazonian Spanish, which includes words that are unknown to Spanish-speakers from other parts of the world. Leche caspi—the tree sap found in the Peruvian Amazon that serves a variety of uses—is a combination of the Spanish word “leche”, which means “milk”, with the Quechua word “caspi”, which means “tree or wood.” In their work students have come across other such examples of the mixing of the Quechua and Spanish languages, which is pervasive in Amazonian Spanish.

Priya will continue working on the Kawapanan Project with Dr. Valenzuela and will visit the Amazon

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in May 2011 to conduct interviews with Shawi and Shiwilu speakers. The goal of her project is to conduct research on how the situations of Shawi and Shiwilu came to be so different despite the fact that they faced similar colonial situations.

The project project,asaswell wellasasthe the experience The experience of of going been invaluable going to to the theAmazon Amazon,has has been invaluable to to educationasasa aPeace PeaceStudies Studiesstudent student and mymy education and global citizen at Chapman University. global citizen at Chapman University. It has It has shaped my interest in indigenous shaped my interest in indigenous rights, Latin rights, Latin American studies, and has American studies, and has illuminated the value illuminated the value in preserving a in preserving a dying language, especially dying language, especially when the work when the work is atoresponse to theofdemands is a response the demands the last of the last speakersand andthe thecommunity communityasasa whole. a whole. speakers I am forever grateful to Dr. Valenzuela, the National Science Foundation (for sponsoring a large part of the trip), and Wilkinson College for preparing me for and providing me with the opportunity to play a role in the Kawapanan Project.

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Faculty Bookshelf The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs (2011) James P. Blaylock, Professor of English.

Contexts & Choices: A Guide to Practical Writing (2011) Doug Sweet, Writing Program Coordinator, Department of English Finding Common Ground: New Directions in First World War Studies (2011) Jennifer D. Keene, Editor, Professor of History and Michael S. Neiberg.

Five Volume Set of Encyclopedia of American Art (Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5) (2011) Paul Apodoca, Consulting Editor, Associate Professor of Sociology Giuseppe Conte “Angelina’s Lips” (2011) Robert Buranello, Italian Translation, Professor of Italian Natatio Aeterna (2011) Alicia Kozameh, Assistant Professor of English

The Nazarene Gospel Restored (2011) Patrick Quinn, General Editor, Dean and Professor of English, Robert Graves and Joshua Podro.

A Presidency Upstaged: The Public Leadership of George H. W. Bush (2011) Lori Cox Han, Professor of Political Science Punctum de Roland Barthes e Imagem-Tempo de Gilles Deleuze: um dialogo possivel? In Deleuze: Vai ao Cinema (2011) Patrick Fuery, Professor of English This Book is Not Required: An Emotional and Intellectual Survival Manual for Students (2011) Bernard McGrane, Associate Professor of Sociology, Inge Bell, John A. Gunderson, Dr. Terri Anderson An Unintentional Liaison: Lars von Trier and Italian Cinema and Culture (2011) Angela Tumini, Assistant Professor of Italian Wired and Mobilizing: Social Movements, New Technology, and Electoral Politics (2011) Victoria Carty, Associate Professor of Sociology World War I: The American Soldier Experience (2011) Jennifer D. Keene, Professor of History

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HAPPENING: 2011 Event Highlights

Wilkinson College Spring 2011 Highlights

By Laura Silva On February 14 The Wilkinson Report, Current Affairs Through the Lens of the Liberal Arts: The Arab Youth Revolt, launched in Beckman Hall. Chapman experts (Dr. James Coyle, Dr. Nubar Hovsepian and Dr. Don Will) discussed events happening in Tunisia, Egypt and the Greater Middle East. Be sure to look for more from The Wilkinson Report this fall.

The Department of English and Wilkinson College hosted Austenalia: A Panel Discussion with Jane Austen-Related Authors consisting of Diana Birchall (Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma), Syrie James (The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen), Laurie Viera Rigler (Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict) and Karen Joy Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club) on February 15. The event was moderated by Assistant Professor of English Dr. Lynda Hall.

On February 16 the Art Department kicked off their Visual Arts Speaker Series with Kristen Morgin, a sculptor know for her unique interpretations of nostalgic objects made of clay and mixed media. The series also included Ron LeLand (March 16), Nicola Camerlenghi (April 6), Design Career Paths: Panel Discussion with Dan Wayland, Velvette Laney and Monica Schlaug (April 27) and Charles Gaines (May 4).

The “A Night With … “ series continued this semester with Jane Austen (featuring Assistant Professor of English Lynda Hall) on February 22 and “A Night With …

Abraham Lincoln” (featuring Professor of Communication Studies Richard Doetkott) on April 7.

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Associate Professor of English Kent Lehnhof headed a symposium on the production of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The symposium provided background on the play (hosted by the Theater Department on February 17) and insight into the production process.

Guests included director of the play (Tom Bradac) and lighting director (Don Guy), members of the cast and members of the design team.

The Philosophy Department hosted Heather Battaly, Associate Professor of Philosophy from Cal State Fullerton. Dr. Battaly’s lecture titled, “Attacking Character: Ad Hominem Argument and Virture Epistemology took place on February 24.

The first art exhibit of the new year was called Breakdown and was curated by special guest artist guest Julie Schustack.

Other artists featured in the exhibit were Matthew Alden Price, John Chwekun, Emily Maddigan, Katie Martineau-Caron, Kristen Morgin, Thomas Muller and Christian Tedeschi.

Known for his mashups, which is taking songs apart and putting them back together in a different way, DJ EARWORM performed on the Chapman campus on February 25. Chapman Radio hosted the event and students filled Hutton Gym to see him perform and listen to his music.

Wilkinson College (along with Chancellor’s office, Schmid College, Leatherby Libraries and College of Performing Arts) sponsored a week-long event (February 25 – March 3), Einstein’s Universe. The interdisciplinary series featured physicist Brian Foster and 2010 BRIT-award winning violinist Jack Liebeck. Events included, Master Class for Strings with Jack Liebeck in Salmon Recital Hall, Einstein’s Universe with Brian Foster and Jack Liebeck in Memorial Hall, a Physics Colloquium with Brian Foster in Arygros Forum, Room 202 and closed with a solo recital with Jack Liebeck in Salmon Recital.

On March 4 the 12th Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, The Holocaust: Spaces of Memory, featured Holocaust survivor and member of the “1939” Club, Idele Stapholtz.

The 2011 John Fowles Literary Forum focused on world-acclaimed Italian authors launching with Dacia Maraini (March 7) followed by Assaf Gavron (March 21), Erri De Luca (April 4), Paolo Giordano (April 11) and Giuseppe Conte (April 25).

Tabula Poetica and the English Department hosted an event with Lynn Emanuel on March 14.

Ms. Emanuel is the author of Noose and Hook and two-time NEA Fellowship Recipient.

Featured in the Guggenheim Gallery in March was the Measure for Measure art exhibit curated by Lisa Randall, professor of theoretical physics at Harvard University and Lia Halloran, assistant professor of studio art here at Chapman University.

The Third Annual Alpha Mu Gamma Conference was held on March 19 and was a rousing success. History majors presented their papers, preparing themselves for the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference.

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The Second Annual French Film Festival returned this year with eight French Films playing over four days. Films included the US Premiere of Espion(s) (March 24), Paris and Bluebeard (March 25), Summer Hours, Coco Before Chanel, Welcome and The French Kissers (March 26) and closed with La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (March 27).

Chapman was honored with the opportunity to host a talk by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel on March 29. Professor Wiesel presented a lecture titled, “Knowledge and Ethics”.

The Communication Studies Department invited Dr. Michelle Miller-Day, an Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State on March 28. Dr. Miller-Day discussed the primary prevention of adolescent substance use via a communication-based prevention curriculum.

An interdisciplinary panel titled “Nature of Reality” with bestselling author Deepak Chopra and Michael Shermer, founding editor of Skeptic Magazine (among others) took place on March 31. The sold out event was organized by Wilkinson College, Schmid College of Science and Dodge College.

As part of the Distinguished Writer Series Pico Iyer was invited to speak on March 30. Pico Iyer is the author of several books about cultures converging, including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul, and Abandon.

On April 7, Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Master Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche spoke to students and faculty in a lecture titled, The Four Noble Truths of the Enlightened: Tibetan Wisdom, Modern Stress and the Shapes of Suffering. The event was hosted by the Sociology Department, Department of Religious Studies, The Honors Program, and the Chapman University Shambhala Meditation Group.

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This year’s Poetry Week (April 4-7) was coordinated

by Wilkinson’s Tabula Poetica. The weeklong series included poetry readings, and music and art celebration throughout the campus. Students, faculty and staff participated all week long.

The History Department and Alpha-Mu-Gamma chapter of Alpha Theta hosted the 2011 PAT Southern California Regional Conference on April 9 with renowned American historian, Kevin Starr as the banquet speaker.

Dr. Arvind Singhal spoke on April with a lecture titled, Focusing on What Works! Positive Deviance and Healthy Communities. The event was hosted by the Department of Communications.

The Art Department put on an Art History Symposium with Dr. Karen Klein Felder, Kelly Thang, Madia Castro, Benjamin Halpern and Charlie Martensen on April 29.

On April 29 internationally respected sitarist and composer of Indian classical music, Roop Verma, gave a lecture discussing the energy of religions of the world titled, Energy and You: Using various forms of energy for our wellbeing. The 2-day series continued on May 2 with a screening of “Dalai Lama Renaissance” and a live concert with Roop Verma, Michel Tyabji and Tashi Sharzur the film’s musicians.

M.A. International Studies presented Global Mobilization and Sustainable Solutions on May 2. The panel discussion addressed contemporary social movements in Latin America among other topics.

Wilkinson was honored to host renowned author, speaker and movement builder Ocean Robbins for Earth Week on April 14.

On April 27, as part of the Asian Studies Minor celebration, Dr. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a specialist in Chinese history, gave a keynote address.

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and Wilkinson College hosted, An Evening of Holocaust Remembrance – “Metaphors of Memory a Witness Through the Arts” – a program of dance, music, and documentary film on April 28.

On May 3 Malin Isaksson of Umea University in Sweden gave a lecture titled Tough Girls’ Love: Gender and Genre in Fan Fiction. Isaksson is a research Fellow of French and her research interests span contemporary French literature, fan fiction, reception studies, gender and queer theory.

Chapman’s Guggenheim Gallery hosted an exhibition of the painting and drawing of 1961 Department of Art alumnus Carson Gladson – Musical Improvisations.

The exhibit ran from June 12 - July 14.

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