UTEP’s COLA Departments Schedule Diverse Spring Events
From history to “herstory” and art to authors, departments within The University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Liberal Arts (COLA) have scheduled conferences and competitions during the spring 2018 semester with something aimed at everyone.
Maryse Jayasuriya, Ph.D., COLA associate dean for student affairs, said the size and diversity of the college, which includes arts, humanities and social sciences, is the reason for the exceptional range of events that benefit the students, faculty and the community.
“We invite everyone to take advantage of these opportunities to join in the intellectual and creative life of the University,” Jayasuriya said.
The following are a few highlights from the college’s spring calendar. For the rest, please visit the college’s schedule of events that is updated frequently.
FEBRUARY - 3rd annual Borderlands History Conference
Raphael Folsom, Ph.D., professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, will be the keynote speaker at the conference Feb. 2-4, at venues on and off the UTEP campus. This year’s conference theme is “Violence, Coercion and Social Change in Borderlands History.”
Folsom will talk about “Violence, Coercion and Consent on the Chichimeca Frontier, 1500-1800” at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, in UTEP’s El Paso Natural Gas Conference Center. The focus is on the indigenous people in northern Mexico and their encounters with the Spanish empire. The public is invited to the free presentation.
Samuel Brunk, Ph.D., chair and professor of history at UTEP, said he expects about 60 scholars and historians from Mexico and the United States to attend. A handful of those work along the U.S.-Mexico border region. Participants come to broaden the scope and depth of their understanding of borderlands history.
“This conference is a great way to learn about and appreciate the history of this community, given our presence in the middle of the borderlands,” Brunk said.
The event is organized and sponsored by UTEP’s Department of History and its doctoral program. Those who attend the rest of the three-day conference will need to register and pay the conference fee.
MARCH - 8th annual Women’s History Month Conference
This year’s theme, “She Persisted: Celebrating Herstory,” is based on the rallying cry popularized after Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate silenced U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, on Feb. 7, 2017, during a confirmation hearing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained that Warren had violated a Senate rule and was warned to stop, but “she persisted.”
About 300 people from UTEP, the community and regional academic institutions, to include a few from Juárez, Mexico, will attend the conference from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, March 27-28, on campus.
Stacey Sowards, Ph.D., chair and professor of communication, said the agenda topics will be tied to the #MeToo and #TimesUp anti-sexual harassment efforts and unfair gender assessments on social media.
“We want to bring women’s voices to the foreground where they will not be afraid,” said Sowards, an event organizer. “That’s why there was such an avalanche of support for Me Too and Time’s Up. There’s power in numbers.”
Information: 915-747-8854 or ssowards@utep.edu
APRIL – 33rd annual Literature Lecture
Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Matteson, Ph.D., distinguished professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, will be the keynote speaker at UTEP’s 33rd annual Literature Lecture at 7 p.m. April 5, 2018, on campus.
The prominent literary figure won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for biography for his 2007 book, “Eden’s Outcasts,” about Louisa May Alcott, author of “Little Women,” and her father.
His lecture, “But I Cannot Leave Them: Whitman, Alcott and Illness and Recovery in the Civil War,” is about the role Alcott and Walt Whitman, considered by many to be America’s greatest poet, played as Civil War nurses, and how that experience shaped their literary work.
Brian Yothers, Ph.D., professor of English and the event’s lead organizer, said the lecture should draw a diverse audience because it resonates with various disciplines such as English, history, nursing, health care and military science.
Yothers said Matteson wanted to come to UTEP because its mission as a Hispanic-Serving Institution mirrors that of his own institution, which is part of the City University of New York.
“We are thrilled to be able to host Dr. Matteson, and he is quite excited to be coming,” Yothers said. “This is a perfect opportunity for UTEP and our community.”
MAY – Annual Juried Student Art Show
UTEP art students will promote their work at the annual juried art show May 11, 2018, in the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts. The event will include an artist lecture.
The event allows students to understand what it is like to participate in a professional art show, said David Griffin, chair of UTEP’s Department of Art. This competition is a high-impact experience that UTEP students can use on their resumes, CVs, and graduate school and job applications.
“The level of work shown is really phenomenal,” Griffin said. “Past jurors have commended us on our students’ work.”
The process begins in February as students submit their entries in drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, metalsmithing and graphic design. Each student may submit up to five works in each category. There is a nominal fee per entry.
Regional art professionals are tapped to be jurors. They will whittle down the entries in April to about 100 finalists and then the winners. A blind juror process is used to ensure no favoritism.
Winners will receive monetary prizes. The pieces will be on display in the Rubin Center through the last week of July 2018.
