College of the Liberal Arts Electronic Magazine, Issue 5

Issue 5, 3/22/02

Contents

Understanding Genetic Information

Erin Dini

Dr. Gianotti Invited to Mecca

Civil War Historian

Dr. Moses First Ferree Professor

Trivia

Dan Luczak

ANNE FRANK EXHIBIT TO VISIT UNIVERSITY PARK

    “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all of my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
    In 1944, 15-year-old Anne Frank was hiding in an Amsterdam attic from Nazi soldiers when she wrote those words. Her unceasing hope and optimism in the face of persecution and complete loss of freedom have appealed to Americans and people worldwide, even though she died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Now her timeless story comes to the Penn State's Robeson Gallery in the exhibit “Anne Frank: A History for Today” on view April 2-30, 2002.
    Developed by the Anne Frank House and sponsored in North America by the Anne Frank Center USA, the exhibit premiered January 1998 in New York City at Rockefeller Center and has since toured throughout the United States. The history of Anne Frank and her family is the exhibit's leading theme. The family's story reflects world events during and after the Nazi dictatorship.
    “Anne Frank: A History for Today” juxtaposes photographs from the Frank family collection with photographs of historical events of the time from Dutch and German archives. The photographs are silk-screened on nine foot high transparent panels, mounted in specially designed units. Many of the Frank family photographs have never been seen by the public before.
    The 55-panel exhibit informs visitors of the Holocaust from the perspective of the Frank family and introduces the history of World War I and World War II. The roles and stories of individuals are emphasized, as some individuals chose to join or resist the Nazi movement as others became victims to it.
     Major support for the exhibition is provided by the College's Jewish Studies Program, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the HUB-Robeson Galleries, and the University Park Allocation Committee.

UNDERSTANDING GENETIC INFORMATION

    A 35-year-old woman neglects to have regular mammograms. She believes check-ups are unnecessary because she doesn’t carry the “breast cancer gene.” This mistaken idea is called “genetic determinism:” the misconception that genes control certain factors of our bodies that they actually do not.
    Roxanne Parrot, professor of communication arts and sciences, says such beliefs can have deadly effects. “People will rationalize continuing to smoke cigarettes because they think: ‘Well, my grandfather smoked two packs of Camels a day and lived to be 106. So, I can smoke as much as I want and not have to worry about lung cancer,’” Parrott explains. “Perpetuating this myth gives people the permission to take no responsibility for their actions.”
    On the other hand, individuals often think are in charge of their bodies in situations that are beyond their power. The athletic, tall teenage girl who starves herself because she is not as thin as her petite mother is probably unaware that genetic factors will never allow her to fall below a certain weight.
    In many cases, the media is responsible for sensationalizing and circulating inaccurate medical information. Parrott's hope is that scientists and academics can work together to find better ways to communicate health information to the public. In this way, she believes, they can begin to counteract the damage resulting from false or misleading information.
    Parrott's research considers how the general public understands genetic information and processes to understand their own health issues. Parrott and Kami Silk, a research assistant in speech communication, are part of a team who received funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research with focus groups, examining and evaluating public knowledge of human genetics research. Parrot is also working on an undergraduate text, Health Communication: A Multiple Discourse Approach, and has two new articles in press.

STUDENT ERIN DINI MOUNTS DISPLAY OF THE WORK OF JAMAICAN POET VIVIAN VIRTUE

    For over a year, an old and battered suitcase squatted on a desk’s edge just inside the massive archive vault in Special Collections in the University Libraries. Within the maroon leather sides and the tan strapping rested the detritus of one man’s creative life— a poet whose only full book of poems, Wings of the Morning, published in 1938, established him as the successor to Claude McKay, the Jamaican national poet.
    In fall semester 2001, senior English major Erin Dini was the first person to open the suitcase. In the months that followed, Dini took on the task of organizing the Vivian Virtue papers—a chaos of letters, cards (including a number of card from noted Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes), date books, research notes, and dozens and dozens of drafts of poems.
    Virtue wrote out all possible rhyming patterns of sonnets. He kept exhaustive notes on what he did with his time. Curiously, however, much of his record keeping did not reflect the major movements in his life besides poetry—that he was a broadcaster for the BBC in London, that he started New Dawn Press, or that he married the McKay’s daughter.
    The bulk of materials revealed a poet who seemed “impelled by some Puritanical or civil service obligation to account for his time,” according to Alan McLeod, the editor of the newest edition of Virtue’s poems and the person who gave the papers to Penn State. McLeod earned his Ph.D. in English from Penn State, and is now Emeritus Professor of English and Speech at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. After writing an article on Virtue, McLeod carried on a long correspondence with the poet until Virtue’s death in 1998.
    By the time she finished, Dini organized the suitcase contents into three archive boxes, each with 25 to 40 compartments, all of which are worth around $30,000 to collectors and museums. To scholars, however, this first foray into understanding the literary life of an important Caribbean poet is potentially priceless.
    Dini also produced an exhibition on Virtue, with items from the papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, publications, translations, broadcast scripts, and photographs, which was displayed in commemoration of Black History Month. While putting the exhibit together, Dini said, “Working on a Jamaican poet who lived in London reminded me that Black History is about much more than African Americans. I think we sometimes forget that.”

LIBERAL ARTS PROFESSOR ONE OF A HANDFUL OF AMERICANS INVITED TO MECCA BY SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY

    Under the winter sun of the Saudi Arabian desert, Timothy Gianotti, assistant professor of religious studies, hears the melodic call to prayer overpowering the traffic and bustle of Mecca.
    Within the city, between two and three million Muslims have gathered to perform the ancient Abrahamic rites of Hajj, or pilgrimage. Islamic tradition requires all Muslims who are both financially and physically able to make this journey of faith at least once in their lifetimes. Some have spent their life-savings to make the trek; others are veterans of earlier pilgrimages who may have traveled across the globe to renew their religious commitment. One of the rites Muslims are required to perform over a period of several days is the “circle-ambulation” of the Kaaba. This practice and the many other rites that take place in Mecca and its vicinity during the days of the Hajj are expressions of the pilgrims' submission (“islam”) to the will of God, to whom they appeal for forgiveness and blessings throughout their journey.
    Gianotti is one of about thirty Americans chosen by the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences of America to take part in the pilgrimage as an official guest of the Saudi royal family. This delegation is more than just a group of American Muslim academics. It includes prominent businesswomen and men, publishers, doctors and surgeons, elected officials, and civil rights leaders. Part of the shared goal is to critically examine the future of the Islam in America. Gianotti explains, “Especially after September 11, there is a real need to discuss the future of the Islamic faith in the United States.”
    Though no conclusive answers were discovered, Gianotti feels the meeting of minds has given rise to a powerful momentum. Just the sight of the millions of Muslims from all over the planet gathered together to worship is enough to inspire even the most complacent individuals.
    Gianotti searches for a way to explain the atmosphere of Mecca. “Imagine millions of people from every corner of the earth coming together in this very small place in the desert, some in difficult conditions, and yet nobody is fighting; nobody is complaining.” He pauses. “To be part of this ocean of humanity—there are no words to accurately describe it.”

PULITZER-WINNING CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN REVEALS TWO PARTY SYSTEM NOT ALWAYS A BENEFIT TO THE UNION

    With elections approaching, the President worries that party politics may disrupt a thus-far generally united war effort. The Republican party has enjoyed enormous support, in spite of controversial wartime practices, including the detainment of many individuals. This success raises a number of habeas corpus issues.
While such a summary may sound like only a current problem, it is actually a fair summation of the political climate Abraham Lincoln and his party faced during the years of the U.S. Civil War.
    According to Mark E. Neely, Jr., McCabe Greer Civil War Professor in the Era of the American Civil War and Senior Historian in Residence at the Pennsylvania State University's Civil War Era Center, historians have long thought that the two party system benefited the Union during the American Civil War. In his new book, The Union Divided: Party Conflict in the Civil War North, Neely argues that party competition did more to disrupt and threaten a cogent Union war effort than to support it.
    Neely's thesis requires a few clarifications, which he provides early in the book. The most important of these is that elections and politics at the time existed in their pre-reform state. After the Civil War, the United States’ political system underwent a period of change affecting everything from ballots to the appointment of civil servants.
    But during the war, the costs of unreformed party politics took a toll on the North during the war years. At one point, sweeping Democratic wins in the Illinois state legislature nearly resulted in the state's revolt in 1863. Most local newspapers, and even a good number of metropolitan dailies, were little better than party propaganda for whichever group they supported. The newspapers often gave inspiration and platforms for the political organizations that existed during the time to either bolster the Republican party or call for some form of its demise, either through electoral means or worse. Neely even relates evidence of one set of circumstances in which partisan politics in newspapers effectively hid from view strategic ideas that might have shortened or modernized the war.
    Neely will continue his reconstruction of Civil War politics as the 2002 Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecturer in the Era of the Civil War. The newly expanded series-which will include three separate lectures on three consecutive dates-occurs this weekend, March 21, 22, and 23. Neely has entitled his lectures, “So Many Voters: American Political Culture in the Civil War Era.” All of the lectures are free, and the public is encouraged to attend.

WILSON MOSES NAMED FIRST FERREE PROFESSOR

    Wilson Moses was not a typical kid. For much of his childhood, he spent his time reading and rereading books that fascinated him. As he grew up, he developed a love for the Latin hymns sung in church. His parents encouraged in him an appreciation for the lyrical prose of Shakespeare and were more concerned with what he learned rather than what grades he made. His wide-ranging interests have continued to grow and have recently been recognized by his being chosen as the first recipient of Pennsylvania State University's Ferree Professor in Middle-American History.
    The late Walter and Helen Ferree, both alumni of Penn State and long-time donors, endowed this professorship to further academic endeavors in the history department and to recognize professors who illustrate outstanding scholarship, drive, and teaching ability. Moses has met and exceeded these qualifications
    His research and subsequent books have looked at the work of black American intellectuals like W.E.B. Dubois, Fredrick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. Currently, he is examining other well-known American intellectuals such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. “I find their complications and complexity fascinating,” he explains. “George Washington is more than a symbol of character. Franklin is more than a wit and Jefferson is more than master of Montecello.”
    Moses offers his gratitude to Penn State for the award which will allow him more freedom to pursue his academic interests. He feels that “a professorship affirms the University's confidence that the recipient is committed to continuing scholarly endeavors.” The professorship, he says, “Has allowed me to feel inspired, encouraged, and refreshed.”

DO YOU KNOW?

     Here’s the question: two of our academic units had name changes in the last three years. Who are they?
    We will provide the answer next time, and a prize to the first person to send us the correct answer.
    In the last issue, we asked, “Which faculty member in Penn State's English Department later went on to author which of these best-selling books? a. The Status Seekers; b. First Blood; c. Speak for the Dead; d. Catch-22”
    This was a bit of a trick question. The Status Seekers was written by Vance Packard, an alumnus, in 1959, and explored class behavior. First Blood was the debut novel by David Morrell, who earned his Ph.D. here and, although he did teach, he did so as a graduate student, and not as faculty. Finally, Paul Levine, author of the Jake Lassiter mysteries, of which Speak for the Dead is one, is also an alumnus. So, the correct answer, given first by Stephen Giffhorn, was Catch 22, written by Joseph Heller, who was on the English faculty at Penn State.

IN CYBERSPACE, DAN LUCZAK FINDS LATEST PROJECT

    When you first enter the room, you see a shining wooden desk filled with books and surrounded by dim hanging lights. Outside the room stands a bearded man in the process of lighting a cigar. He is Giovanni, and, like Virgil, he will serve as the guide through a journey that promises to pass through places you’ve not yet imagined.
    The place you start the trip is monkeygrinder.com. This interactive website is the newest conception of Penn State alumni’s Dan Luczak, a 1968 graduate in electrical engineering. Since leaving the University, Luczak has done everything from study Chinese culture, bringing laser presentations into courtrooms, running his own school, to consulting. His eclectic interests and innovative mind have now taken him into the largely uncharted regions of cyberspace.
    Monkeygrinder.com intertwines video, sound, poetry, and narrative. No matter what link you click, each scene is a live action color video with crisp dialogue, video images, and music. The viewer’s guide through this link is the soft-spoken Giovanni, a three-dimensional video character who has lived for hundreds of years (Luczak, but not Luczak).
    Luczak explains how cyberspace creates a new way to communicate and tell stories. “The personal interaction between Giovanni and the viewer allows for the possibility of a relationship that cannot develop when watching movies or television. The computer allows one privacy and choices.”
    Some links are straight-forward stories told by Giovanni or the other characters who are part of this world. Other links are visual images that glide across fields or peek into homes accompanied by prose and music. Still other links blur reality and fantasy.
    One of the most moving pieces begins in a hospital room where a woman lays paralyzed on a hospital bed. She strains to breath through a ventilator. The video dissolves and reappears with Giovanni (Luczak?) composing an e-mail. A voice-over narrates as he types—explaining how Linda is on her way home, how difficult and frightening her illness and frailty have become, and how the family is not sure how to take care of her. The short film continues, merging images with narration underscored by the vibrant stirrings of the violin. The last moment is a close-up of Linda’s face. She is no longer in bed. The viewer may wonder if this is a picture of her before she was injured, or a suggestion of her eventual recovery.
    “It is the viewer who shapes the experience by filling in the gaps in the narrative for herself.” He pauses. “This is the next step in the evolution of communication. This is how we move beyond current modes of creating and sharing stories. This is the beginning of a whole new realm of possibilities.”