UND alum, Minnesota Twins president Dave St. Peter to give main address at commencement

Minnesota Twins president and UND alum Dave St. Peter will give the commencement address Friday, Dec. 18, for both the 10 a.m. graduate degree and the 2 p.m. undergraduate degree ceremonies. Both are at the Chester Fritz Auditorium and both will be Webcast live.

St. Peter, who graduated from UND in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in public relations, was named the fourth president of Minnesota Twins in 2002. He oversees the team’s strategic planning process and the club’s business departments, including ticket sales and service, corporate partnerships, marketing, community affairs, communications, broadcasting, ballpark operations, human resources, technology and finance. St. Peter is also involved in business-related baseball decisions as well as the design, construction, and opening of Target Field, the team’s new ballpark being built in Minneapolis’ Historic Warehouse District.

At age 43, St. Peter begins his 21st year with the Twins in 2010. He joined the Twins organization in 1990 and held several positions, including vice president of corporate communications. He was named senior vice president of business affairs in February 1999 and assembled a sales and marketing group that has increased annual attendance eight of the last nine years and in aggregate by more than 128 percent since 2000. In addition, St. Peter’s leadership has been integral in the team’s growing corporate partnership base, expanded Twins Radio Network, aggressive community outreach and enhanced alumni involvement, including the development of the Twins Hall of Fame.

St. Peter has been part of a leadership team helping the franchise win five American League Central Division championships in the past eight seasons (2002-2004, 2006 and 2009). During St. Peter’s leadership, the Twins have twice been named “Organization of the Year” by Baseball America.

St. Peter was born in Bismarck, N.D., and lives in Eden Prairie, Minn., with his wife Joanie, son Jack, and twin sons Eric and Ben.

Modern Language Association awards top honor to Michael Beard and colleague

The Modern Language Association of America will announce it is presenting its sixth biennial Lois Roth Award for a Translation of a Literary Work to UND Fritz Distinguished Professor of English Michael Beard and his colleague Adnan Haydar of the University of Arkansas for their translation of Adonis’s Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs, published by BOA Editions.

The late Lois W. Roth worked for the United States Information Agency as an advocate for the use of literary study as a means of understanding foreign cultures. Established in 1997, the Lois Roth Award is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on Dec. 28 during the association’s annual convention, held this year in Philadelphia.

The MLA award committee’s citation for the winning book reads: “Adnan Haydar and Michael Beard have exquisitely translated Adonis’s innovative and influential modernist first book, Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs, voiced by a chameleonic ‘knight of strange words.’

“The translators find a meeting place in each stanza between the spareness and allusiveness of the Arabic and the tendency, in English, to focus on the noun. They also develop the multiple valences of the poet’s many voices, which speak truth while they reflect the ceaseless refashioning of the conditions under which speech is possible.

“To convey this spirit of endless transformation, of certainty amid the unknowable, without adding or diminishing, the translators accomplish the marvelous: anchoring these multilayered poems in an English that, rich with metaphor, reflects their compact and endlessly inventive originals.

Beard teaches in the UND College of Arts and Science English department. He received his Ph.D. in comparative literature at Indiana University and taught at the American University in Cairo from 1974 to 1978. His first book, Hedayat’s Blind Owl as a Western Novel, was a study of modernism in Iran, and since then his research has concentrated on Persian and Arabic literatures. He is a coeditor of the journal Middle Eastern Literatures. He is coeditor with Adnan Haydar of the Syracuse University Press series Middle East Literature in Translation.

Haydar is head of the Arabic section in the department of Foreign Languages and professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the University of Arkansas, where he also directed the King Fahd Middle East Studies Program from 1993 to 1999.

The MLA, the largest and one of the oldest of American learned societies in the humanities (est. 1883), exists to advance literary and linguistic studies. The MLA is a constituent of the American Council of Learned Societies and the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures.

New era of international exchanges between Sri Lankan and American Geographers

This article was orgiginally printed in The Sunday Times, Colombo Sri Lanka on Sunday, November 29, 2009

Geographers from the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) and the University of North Dakota (USA) achieved the first step of undergraduate study abroad, graduate student exchanges, and faculty research collaborations during recent visits to the Grand Forks campus by Prof. V. Nandakumar, Head of the Department of Geography at the Peridenya campus. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was brought by Prof. Nandakuma and signed by University of North Dakota President Robert Kelley on Thursday, November 5, 2009. The presentation of the signed document to the Grand Forks campus was made later that day by University of North Dakota Provost and Vice-president for Academic Affairs Paul LeBel Prof. V. Nandakumar and Provost LeBel reviewing the MoU at the Twamley Hall Ceremony on November 5, 2009. The official exchange of the MOU was witnessed by representatives of the University of North Dakota administration plus members of the faculty and graduate students of the University of North Dakota Department of Geography. Particularly significant was the presence of Dr. Joey Benoit, Dean of the University of North Dakota Graduate School who confirmed the request of the graduate director of the University of North Dakota Department of Geography, Dr. D. C. Munski, to set aside a full graduate tuition waiver for the first Sri Lankan undergraduate to pursue either a M.S. or M.A. degree in geography at the Grand Forks campus. As noted by University of North Dakota Department of Geography Chairperson, Dr. B. Rundquist, such an individual would be eligible for additional funding, if qualified, as a graduate teaching assistant, graduate research assistant, or graduate service assistant. Mr. R. Lagasse, director of the University of North Dakota International Centre and International Program, pointed out how this particular MOU was one of the most quickly achieved actions of international cooperation that he had seen. The effort began at the end of the Spring 2009 academic term with the visit of Priyanthi Dissanayake, Guidance Counselor and Foreign University Placement Adviser, was nutured through the summer and brought to fruition by mid-semester Fall 2009. Symbolically, this is the period of the autumn harvest in the Red River Valley of the North, so the first “academic crop” has been gathered-in such that seeds for the new season are being prepared and planted. Later that day, Prof. Nadakumar spoke to the University of North Dakota Senate and received an enthusiastic and warm round of applause for his efforts to promote this particular cultural exchange and to recognize his participation in the North Dakota Geographic Information Systems Users Conference held November 2-4, 2009 at the Alerus Convention Center and CanadInn Destination Hotel in Grand Forks. The University of North Dakota Senate includes representatives from the campus faculty, staff, students, and administration, so Prof. Nadakumar’s brief but heartfelt delivery of greetings from the University of Peradeniya were heard by key stakeholders from across the University of North Dakota, including the institution’s president, Dr. Robert Kelley who graciously acknowledged the presence of Prof. Nadakumar who has been nominated for adjunct faculty status in the Department of Geography at the Grand Forks campus. The first part of Prof. Nadakumar’s journey to the Red River Valley of the North ended on Saturday, November 7, 2009. Prior to his departure, however, Dr. D. C. Munski conducted an extensive afteroon tour of the East Grand Forks, Minnesota/Grand Forks, North Dakota community on Friday, November 6, 2009. Among the sites visited were the Greenway (a substantial local flood mitigation project), the Lincoln Drive Park (a residential neighborhood now converted to non-residential purposes as a consequence of the 500-year flood of 1997), Powell (a railway siding and agri-business location still emphasizing commercial bison raising but now is part of a growing non-farming residential subdivision), Ojata (an abandoned railway siding that is becoming the focus of commuter traffic), agricultural activities such as maize production near Arvilla and potato farmin/processing in the Larimore area, Turtle River State Park (a major local recreational area), the outdoor museum of Grand Forks Air Force Base, Kelley’s Slough (a national wildlife preserve), and the older industrial park of Grand Forks. Such sites would be interesting focal points of research related to flooding, population redistribution, recreation, and economic development. Following his departure to visit campuses in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metropolitan regions, Prof. Nandakumar returned to Grand Forks on Monday, November 16, 2009 as his in-transit starting point to return to Colombo. A special reception was held in his honor that afternoon in the B. L. Wills Room in the Department of Geography of the University of North Dakota as one of the kick-off activities of Geography Action Week 2009, a national celebration of geographic education and the profession of geography. Dr. Victoria Beard, Associate Provost and the administrator most responsible for the international education portfolio on the Grand Forks campus, met with Prof. Nandakumar for an extended period of time after the special reception. Her enthusiasm for the University of Peradeniya-University of North Dakota exchange in geography is high, and she is recommending that timing of visits include the Winter Break people, although one might be teasingly humorous that the flow would be from Grand Forks to Peradeniya and not vice versa at that time of the year. Yet, Sri Lankans will discover that while coming to the American institution in mid-December through mid-January may be a time of exceedingly cold temperatures and some major snowfalls, the scholars and citizens of this North Dakota community will embrace their visitors warmly and take excellent care of them. That warmth was demonstrated on that Monday evening in the home of Dr. and Mrs. B. Rundquist at which Prof. Nandakumar was the special guest of honour at the first annual Geography Action Week Chili Cook-off in Grand Forks. This evening of fellowship included undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty members who had a relaxing time to visit one-on-one and in small groups with their colleague from Sri Lanka. The meal included a wide range of different types of chili, including a special turkey-based recipe from Mr. M. Boucher, the M.A. graduate student who was the most helpful assistant to Dr. D. Munski in handling logistics for Prof. Nandakumar during this one-day stopover in Grand Forks. Plans currently are underway to send representatives from the University of North Dakota Department of Geography to the Department of Geography at the University of Peradeniya as soon as possible. Efforts continue in recruiting for the first sponsored and funded Sri Lankan M.A. or M.S. graduate student in geography for the Grand Forks campus. Inquires regarding the latter in Sri Lanka should be directed to Priyanthi Dissanayake, Guidance Counselor and Foreign University Placement Adviser. Information about the former activity will be forthcoming from Dr. D. Munski. Special recognition must be given to the various stakeholders who supported this visit by Prof. Nandakumar. Mr. J. Anderson of the American Embassy in Colombo arranged a measure of travel support as well as expedited visas. The University of North Dakota Office of the Provost/Vice-president for Academic Affairs made a financial contribution at a crucial time. The Estate of Ms. Virginia George provided a monetary gift to encourage travel for professional purposes to North Dakota. Other contributions came from friends of the University of North Dakota Department of Geography under the aegis of the Association of North Dakota Geographers. All in all, the visit of Prof. Nandakumar is being heralded as the start of a new era of international exchanges between Sri Lankan and American geographers.

Theatre Arts opens 2009-2010 season with “Godspell”

The Cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks have become a tight community over the years through flood fighting efforts and even in their support of the local sports team. Well they have the chance to come together once again and support UND’s Departments of Theatre Arts as they produce “Godspell,” a show all about the creation of a community and how people can come together and support each other through the good times and the bad. “Godspell” is the musical version of Jesus Christ’s teachings and his crucifixion, but underneath the surface it is the story of how a community is created and how that community joins together to support one another. “Godspell” is the Theatre Department’s first show of the season and they are coming in with a bang. Godspell was written by Stephen Schwartz and was first performed in 1971; it contains several well known songs including “Day by Day,” and “We Beseech Thee.”

Director Gaye Burgess is bringing a new perspective to the timeless classic by setting the musical in 1990s urban blight. The characters start off as individuals each thinking only of themselves, Burgess describes everyone as being an “island on their own.” However, as the the show advances, the characters begin to bond with one another while acting out some of the parables based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. As the characters make discoveries about Jesus and themselves they become a community of believers. This metamorphosis is made clear through changes in costumes and lighting.

Burgess along with choreographer Lon Hurst have also made another addition to the show, a chorus. Originally Godspell was made up of only a 10-character cast, but Burgess and Hurst have added a five-person chorus to help boost the sense of community the show encompasses. They want audience to see the community created in “Godspell” as representative of humanity as a whole.

Although the musical is centered on Christianity the plays themes go beyond religion and comment more on humanity and how by working together we can move beyond what we can do on our own. So no matter what your belief, “Godspell” is a must see.

Performances at the Burtness Theatre on the UND campus are Oct 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students with a valid student I.D. Groups of 10 or more people receive a $2 discount. Reserved parking will be available. For ticket information and reservations call the Box Office at 777-2587.

— Alyssa Thompson, UND Department of Theatre Arts Publicity Assistant, Department of Theatre Arts , alyssa.thompson@und.edu, 320-221-0588

Arts & Sciences Announces New Faculty Hires

Welcome New A&S Faculty!

• Dianna Georgina, Anthropology
• Lori Esposito, Art
• Suzanne Gonsalez, Art
• Igor Octchinnikov, Biology
• Qianli Chu, Chemistry
• Sean Hightower, Chemistry
• Richard Aregood, Communication
• Slavka Antonova Communication
• Kimberly Cowden, Communication
• Timothy Pasch, Communication
• Alycia Cummings, Communication Sciences & Disorders
• Sheila Peauchaud, Communication Sciences & Disorders
• Caroline Campbell, History
• Robert Basaldu, Indian Studies
• Paul Worley, Languages
• Timothy Prescott, Mathematics
• Nuri Oncel, Physics
• Alison Finstad, Psychology
• Dimitri Poltavski, Psychology
• Heather Terrell, Psychology
• Caitlin Schultz, Psychology
• Jeffrey Langstraat, Sociology
• Emily Cherry, Theatre Art
• Lon Hurst, Theatre Art

Fishy plays to benefit John Little Memorial Endowment

The ND Playwrights Co-op has been busy fishing, but not with a rod. They’ve been fishing for John Little stories, and they’ve got eight on the stringer. John Little, founder of the UND Writers Conference, also wrote fishing columns for the Grand Forks Herald in the 1980s and early ’90s. In an effort to establish the John Little Memorial Endowment at UND, four playwrights have adapted Little’s stories into plays and plan to premiere them later this month. They will produce the plays with the assistance of actors Steve Finney, Jared Kinney, Jenny Morris, and Patrick Pearson, set by Jeff Kinney.

Bob Greenwade of Corvalis, Ore., saw the call for plays in a Herald story last spring, and while never having met John Little he has written two plays based on Little stories: “The Wildest Caster” and “Opening Day at the Boat Ramp.” Adonica Schultz Aune (Grand Forks) adapted a story about the lengths one angler goes to in order to keep secret a sweet fishing spot. Charlotte Helgeson (East Grand Forks) adapted Little’s ode to Catfish in “Cat What?” Kathy Coudle-King went to town with four pieces, “Muskie Mania,” “Hungarian Bill the Legendary Angler,” “The Big One,” and “The McClusky Canal.” Coudle-King stated that “adapting John’s columns was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I can’t take credit for the plays because I had to do very little in order to turn them into a script. How do you top John Little’s humor? You don’t. The laughs are all his.”

The premiere of the collection, aptly named “Gone Fishing,” is already sold out. A catfish dinner will precede the performance at the Blue Moose on Oct. 21. However, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m. the ND Museum of Art will host the plays as well as “Fresh Fish,” readings by emerging local writers. Topic? Fishing, of course. “Fish Tix” will go for $20 and are available at the Museum the night of the event. All proceeds go to establishing the JL Memorial Endowment. Interest from the Endowment will enable Writers Conference organizers to bring a fiction writer to campus each year to fill the “Little” chair, as a way of honoring Little’s contribution to the literary life of our region. For 41 years, lovers of literature have had free access to such literary stars as Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, and this year Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman will participate. Coudle-King, one of the coordinators of the Writers Conference urges that “The time to create a tangible tribute to the man who gave us the Writers Conference is long over due.” So, what are you waiting for? Grab your rod, and go fishing on Oct. 28.

The events are co-sponsored by the Blue Moose, Home of Economy and the Dept. of English at UND.
— Kathleen Coudle-King, Lecturer , English , kathleen.king@und.nodak.edu, 777-2787

Radio Show Focuses on Healthcare

“The Morality (and Legality) of Universal Health Care” with Sharona Hoffman will be the topic on the next episode of Why? Philosophical Discussions About Everyday Life radio program.  It will be broadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 on live on 89.3 FM in Grand Forks, other Prairie Public radio stations across the state, in Winnipeg on Shaw Cable, 107.9, and online  for anyone who wants it around the world at http://www.whyradioshow.org ( http://www.whyradioshow.org/ ) .  It is hosted by Jack Russell Weinstein of UND’s Department of Philosophy and Religion.

 Very few issues are more on the American mind than health care right now. But what are the philosophical issues behind the politics? Does the state have a moral obligation to provide health care to others? Do citizens have the duty to pay for it? And given that the constitution is silent on the question of health care, what is the relationship between legality and morality? Sharona Hoffman will join us to ask these and other timely questions for what is bound to be a controversial but exciting show.

Sharona Hoffman is a Professor of Law with a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioethics. She is also the Law School’s Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Co-Director of the Law-Medicine Center. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and an LL.M. in health law from the University of Houston.

In 2007, Sharona spent four months as a guest researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working on liability and immunity issues related to public health emergencies. She has also been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for CDC’s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response during 2008-2012. She has published over forty articles, most of which focus on health law and civil rights law. Her research interests include disability discrimination, biomedical research, health care coverage, race and medicine, health information technology, and emergency preparedness.

Why?’s host Jack Russell Weinstein says, “This is an issue that goes to the heart of what we need not only for America but for the modern world, and there is no one better to discuss it with than someone who has legs in both the legal and medical worlds. I’m tremendously excited to have someone as interesting as Sharona to talk with.”

Have a question you want to ask Sharona in advance? Send it to askwhy@und.edu .  Subscribe to the podcast or listen to previous episodes online at http://www.whyradioshow.org .  Stay tuned for more! Upcoming guests include:  Martha Nussbaum, Michael Apple, and Amelie Rorty. — Jack Russell Weinstein, Philosophy and Religion. 

Kathleen Dixon named director of Women Studies

Kathleen Dixon, professor of English and long-standing member of the Women Studies Program, has taken the reins from previous director, Wendelin Hume, associate professor and chair of the Department of Criminal Justice.

Professor Dixon has taught a number of courses in women and gender studies since her arrival at UND in 1991 and has published scholarly books and essays in these fields, including Making Relationships: Gender in the Forming of Academic Community (Peter Lang, 1997) and, with UND graduate student Daniela Koleva, “Baudrillard and History: the Hyperreal on Television, Or Some Women of the Global Village” (International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 4.2 (July 2007). Rowman, Littlefield has just published professor Dixon’s third book, “The Global Village Re-visited: Art, Politics, and Television Talk Shows,” which features case studies of three television talk shows from three countries. Gender differences are central to Dixon’s study of The Oprah Winfrey Show and of Jan Publiek, a Flemish public TV talk show.

The new Women Studies Director wishes to invite all faculty with expertise in women or gender studies to become women studies affiliates. Affiliates may contribute in many ways to the program, but chiefly supply it with courses that students may take for WS credit. Affiliates inform the program of courses they teach that offer topics in feminism or gender studies.

For more information on becoming a women studies affiliate and for help with the process, please email inquires to kathleen.dixon@und.edu.

2nd Annual Tale-Gating Party – Saturday, Oct. 3rd

 No, that’s not a typo. The UND Dept. of English is hosting a “tale-gating” party this Saturday after the Homecoming parade. Starting at 12 o’clock, students, alumni and community members are invited to read and/or sing their words at the open microphone in the back of a pick-up truck. The UND Adelphi Society will be grilling and food will be available for a modest donation. Bring your blankets or chairs and join in the fun on the ND Museum of Art grounds as people read their original work or their favorite authors’.

Also, a preview of one of the plays from the upcoming “Gone Fishing” production will be presented. Steve Finney and Jared Kinney will perform in “Hungarian Bill, the Legendary Angler,” an adaptation of a fishing column by Writers Conference founder, John Little. Info: Kathy Coudle-King, 777-2787, Sr. Lecturer – Dept. of English

UND Arts & Sciences to Host Second Annual Homecoming Reception

Grand Forks, ND (September 23, 2009) – The College of Arts & Sciences is set to host their second annual Homecoming Reception at the Empire Arts Center in Downtown Grand Forks. The event is Friday night October 2, 2009 at 6 p.m. and is free and open to all.

The night’s event includes special entertainment by the UND Music and Theatre Arts departments, as well as a program featuring President Robert O. Kelley, Dean Martha A. Potvin and department Chairs. Featured alumni include the Alumni Association’s Outstanding Alumni recipient Dan Martinsen ’73; Outstanding Geography Alumni recipient Julie Winkler ’73; and featured Chemistry speaker Jeff Banning (PhD) ’88.

The entertainment schedule is as follows:

6:30 PM – UND Steel Pan Band under the direction of Michael Blake

7:00 PM – UND Theatre Arts – Will present a touch of Godspell this fall’s Theatre production

7:30 PM – UND 12 O’clock Jazz Ensemble, directed by Ronnie Ingle

8:30 PM – UND Varsity Bards under the direction of Joshua Bronfman

Come and join us for complimentary appetizers and soft drinks available. The first 200 folks joining us will receive a special Arts & Sciences Homecoming gift.

In addition to alumni relations, the College of Arts and Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates in a variety of traditional and emerging disciplines in the arts, sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Students are challenges to work alongside faculty and within the community to explore and expand the boundaries of knowledge and their own creativity. The research, scholarship, and creative activities of the nationally and internationally recognized faculty enhance teaching and learning, as well as contribute to the expansion of the work’s knowledge base.