Documentary and Panel Discussion About Stolen Children, 11/6

The film "Dawnland," Emmy Award-winner for outstanding research, will be shown on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in Ashland University's Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium as part of the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which is focusing on "Liberty and Responsibility."

Co-sponsored by the Ashland Center for Nonviolence and the Native American Awareness Committee of the United Methodist Church, the free, public event will also include a panel discussion immediately following the film's screening with Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson of the Yankton Sioux Tribe; Nancy Udolph, Ashland University Associate Professor of Social Work; and Daniel Hawk, Ashland Theological Seminary Professor of Old Testament.

For most of the 20th century, government agents forced Native American children from their homes and placed them with white families to save them from being Indian. As recently as the 1970s, one in four Native children nationwide were living in non-Native foster care, adoptive homes, or boarding schools. Many children experienced devastating emotional and physical harm by adults who mistreated them and tried to erase their cultural identity.

Now, for the first time, they are being asked to share their stories. In Maine, the first official “truth and reconciliation commission” in the United States began a historic investigation. "Dawnland" goes behind-the-scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, reconciliation, racial healing, tribal autonomy, and child welfare system reform.

Crosscut, the Pacific Northwest’s independent, news site, declares "Dawnland," “A powerfully illuminating film — a history lesson that you’re ashamed to have never learned but whose truths you’ll likely never forget.”

The Ashland event is pleased to welcome Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson to the panel discussion immediately following the film's viewing. She was adopted off of the Yankton reservation under false pretenses, spent nearly four decades separated from her first family, and was raised with a white Christian family. In addition to teaching English Composition at Kent State and Ashland University, Jackson also teaches an Indigenous Writing and Research class with The North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies: A Learning Community, and is Co-editor of the Journal of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community.

Joining Jackson for the panel discussion, are two Ashland professors who have worked with the Native American populations. Dr. Hawk has been active in peace and justice programs locally and regionally and chairs the East Ohio Conference Native American Awareness Committee (UMC). Nancy Udolph has presented at state, national and international conferences on a variety of topics including cultural competence, working with indigenous populations and the social construction of difference.

For more information about "Dawnland," visit the links below:

• Movie Trailer
• A Teacher's Guide
• Website

Sangre mía / Blood of Mine editors to share message of peace

On Monday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium, the editors of the anthology Sangre mía / Blood of Mine will share a message of peace in their presentation and reading from their bilingual collection of 53 poets whose verses denounce violence committed against women along the U.S. – Mexico border region of Ciudad Juárez – El Paso, Texas.

The event is presented as part of the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which is focusing on "Liberty and Responsibility." Co-sponsored by the Department of Foreign Language, the event is free and open to the public.

The title of Dr. Juan Armando Rojas Joo and Dr. Jennifer Rathbun's anthology Sangre mía / Blood of Mine Poetry of Border Violence, Gender and Identity in Ciudad Juárez pays homage to writer, social activist and media blogger Susana Chavéz, who was best known for coining the phrase “Ni una muerta más” used in the social campaigns against femicide in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

In January of 2011, Chavez fell victim to the very violence she denounced when she was brutally murdered. Her mother laid her to rest with a copy of “Blood of mine”, the only poem Chavez published while alive, whose title she later changed in her blog spot to “Blood of ours”. 

Rojas, Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University, is a  transborder poet, narrator and essayist from Ciudad Juárez, México. In addition to co-editing two anthologies with Rathbun, he has published Sanctuaries Desert Sea / Santuarios desierto mar (2015, 2004), Light / Luz (2013), Vertebral River / Río vertebral (2009, 2002), Ceremonial of Wind / Ceremonial de viento (2006), and Lluvia de lunas (1999). Rojas has participated in many national and international conferences and poetry festivals and his scholarly and literary work has also been published in reviews and anthologies of several countries. Currently his main professional and personal interests are Academic Leadership, Mexican and Border Studies and Poetry. He received his doctorate from the University of Arizona.

Rathbun, Professor of Spanish at Ashland University, also received her doctorate from the University of Arizona . She has translated and published complete poetic works by Mexican authors Alberto Blanco, Minerva Margarita Villarreal, Juan Armando Rojas Joo and Ivan Vergara. In 2018, Artepoética Press published her translation of La llama inclinada/The Inclined Flame by Colombian author Carlos Satizábal. Her poetry, translations and articles on contemporary Latin American literature appear in numerous international reviews and journals. 

Speaker Presents His Findings on Causes & Consquences of Inequality

Randolph Roth, Professor of History and Sociology at The Ohio State University, will speak about "Inequality and the Quality of Life: A Global View" on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Trustees Room of the Myers Convocation Center. The event is presented as part of the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which is focusing on "Liberty and Responsibility." Co-sponsored by the Ashland Center for Nonviolence, the event is free and open to the public.

Roth will present his findings on the causes and consequences of inequality, globally and within societies, with special attention to the question of why inequality had risen so rapidly since 1980 in the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia, but not in the rest of the affluent world. The answer bears heavily on the question of liberty versus responsibility.

Photo Courtesy of Columbus Monthly Magazine

Professor Roth’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and other organizations. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable of Crime Trends (2013-2016), and of the Editorial Board of the American Historical Review (2014-2017). He specializes in the history of the United States from colonial times to the present, with an emphasis on social and cultural history, the history of crime and violence, environmental history, the history of religion, the history of democracies, global history, quantitative methods, and social theory.

Fact or Fake News: A Panel Discussion of World Events in Relation to An Enemy of the People

On Monday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. on the set of Ashland University Theatre's production of Arthur Miller's An Enemy of the People in Hugo Young Theatre, AU faculty representing the disciplines of journalism, history, business and chemistry will join the show's director to relate recent headlines and world events to the timelessness of the play. The panel discussion is free and open to the public and is presented as part of the College of Arts & Sciences' biennial Symposium Against Indifference which is focusing on "Liberty and Responsibility."

An Enemy of the People was originally written in 1882 by Henrik Ibsen, then adapted in 1950 by Arthur Miller, and produced by AU Theatre in 1980 and now 2019. Every version of the script and show present audiences with “moral conundrums” of the specified time period.

For this panel discussion, AU faculty will address and discuss questions such as:

• What responsibility does a scientist have to a community with tainted water?
• Does an employee have the freedom to let the public know about a potentially dangerous situation caused by an employer? 
• What responsibility does a journalist have to report the facts? 
• Are politicians free to decide that jobs and a strong economy are more important than freedom of speech? 

The panelists will include:

• Margaret Cogar, Professional Instructor of Journalism and Digital Media
• Dr. John Moser, Professor of History
• Dr. Rebecca Schmeller, Assistant Professor of Management
• Dr. Jeffrey Weidenhamer, Trustees' Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

Those planning to attend the panel discussion are encouraged to see AU Theatre's production of An Enemy of the People which will be performed the previous weekend on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. The production will continue the following weekend on Oct. 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the Ashland University Box Office at 419.289.5125 or online at Ashland.edu/Tickets.