Fem Fair to Celebrate Women's History From the GMC Journal Week of March 15, 2010 “Writing Women Back into History:” It’s the theme for this year’s Fem Fair, to be held March 18 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in Withey Hall lobby. The Women’s and Gender Events (WAGE) group sponsors the celebration in honor of Women’s History Month. The event’s purpose is to raise awareness about gender issues through posters and exhibits of some 20 local and regional organizations, including the GMC women’s studies class. GMC's Shakti Tribal Dance students will perform at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. outside of Withey Hall, weather permitting. Rain location is the Gorge.
Dailey Publishes Article in AsiaNetwork Exchange From the GMC Journal Week of October 26, 2009 Prof. Mark Dailey (anthropology) had an article published in the current issue of ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts. The article, "Rural Resiliency: Sources of Sustainability in the Chinese Countryside," is based on a paper Mark presented at last year's ASIANetwork Conference in Lisle, Ill., and relates to upcoming ethnobotany research Mark will be conducting in southern China during a spring 2010 sabbatical. Read the paper.
Conference on Asia Features Talk from Prof. Dailey From the GMC Journal Week of March 23, 2009 Prof. Mark Dailey (anthropology) presented a paper, titled "Rural China: Imagining the Future at the 'Headwaters of Globalization'," on March 14 at the 17th Annual ASIANetwork Conference in Lisle, Illinois.
Food in Rural China Focus of Upcoming Talk From the GMC Journal Week of February 23, 2009 On Friday, February 27, Prof. Ellen Oxfeld, a professor of anthropology from Middlebury College, visits GMC for a talk titled “The Culture of Food in Rural China.” The presentation begins at 4 p.m. in Terrace 124. Oxfeld earned her Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University and has been teaching at Middlebury since 1985. For one year in the mid- 1990s she lived in a small village in China and researched “changes in the Chinese systems of morality, status and honor over the past thirty years.” She is in the process of turning this research into a book, which will “focus on the way people resolve moral dilemmas in different areas of action, such as family, economics, politics, and religion.”
Blust Presents at Women's Congress in Spain From the GMC Journal Week of September 2, 2008 Prof. Vangie Blust (sociology) attended the Women’s Worlds 08 Congress in Madrid, Spain July 3-9. She presented a paper titled “Touched by Overseas Filipino Employment: Four Women, Four Struggles, Similar Outcomes,” which was derived from the research she and four GMC students conducted in the Philippines in summer 2007 under the ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation grant. More than 3,000 women and about 100 men from over 100 countries attended the congress with more than 1,000 paper presentations. The Women’s Worlds Congress is held every three years; the next will be in 2011 in Ottawa, Canada. GMC Professors attend ASIANetwork Conference in Lisle, Illinois From the GMC Journal Week of April 23, 2007 Profs. Vangie Blust (sociology), Dick Weis (art) and Mark Dailey (anthropology) just attended the 2007 ASIANetwork Conference in Lisle, Illinois (April 20-22). Weis attended in particular to network in his role as GMC's International Programs Director. Blust attended a mandatory session for all faculty recipients of the 2007 ASIANetwork - Freeman Faculty-Student Research Awards; she is preparing to take 5 students to the Philippines this summer. Dailey and two students who went to China with him in the summer of 2006 on an ASIANetwork grant presented the research results from the trip at a poster session of all 2006 ASIANetwork-Freeman grant recipients. The two students were Felipe Estudillo-Colon ('06), who is pursuing graduate studies in anthropology at the University of New Mexico and Keith Solmo ('06), who is working as an archaeologist in Utah. The poster was titled "Ritually Honoring Ancestors in an Era of Rapid Economic Transformation: 2006 ASIANetwork-Freeman Student-Faculty Research in Jiangsu Province, China."
China Scholar/Translator Bill Porter to Speak Tonight From the GMC Journal Week of March 12, 2007 Bill Porter is an internationally renowned translator of Chinese poetry and Buddhist texts, will give a slideshow talk entitled “In Search of the Way: The Chinese Quest for Solitude” on Monday evening, March 12 at 7 p.m. in The Gorge of Withey Hall. Porter has been a practicing Buddhist monk, worked as a radio journalist (putting together over 1100 programs about his extensive travels in China), written a book about searching for hermits in contemporary China, and penned several books of translations, including "The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain," the 300 surviving poems of a Tang Dynasty hermit poet. Porter will also visit two classes – Prof. Mark Dailey’s Anthropology of China and the block course, “Chinese Mountain Poetry,” taught by Dailey and Prof. Laird Christensen. Porter’s appearance is co-sponsored by the anthropology department and the Speakers Bureau.
Freeman Grant Awarded to Students for Philippines Research Trip From the GMC Journal Week of Feb. 19, 2007 Professor Vangie Blust (sociology) and five students have been awarded a research grant of nearly $26,000 by the ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation Student-Faculty Fellows Program. The grant will cover the group’s study on the impact of overseas Filipino employment on families left behind, especially children. Over the past 2-3 decades, overseas labor has become the Philippines' chief export. The country's economy has benefited from this trend through remittances sent to families back home, but there have also been some onerous challenges that those families face, especially in caregiving. The GMC team will investigate the social costs and benefits of overseas employment related to caregiving of family members left behind. They will also look into the role of community support structures in providing a nurturing environment for those families. The research team, which will travel to the Philippines for 3-1/2 weeks in June, includes: Prof. Blust and students: Matthew Bower (philosophy); Paula Maciel (soc/anthro); Svea Miller (soc/anthro); Ashley Potter (soc/anthro); Rafi Wainhaus (psychology).
GMC Student Wins Scholarship for India Study From the GMC Journal Week of Dec. 4, 2006 Green Mountain College junior, Tala Wunderler-Selby, has been awarded a highly competitive Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for study at Pondicherry University in India next semester. Granted by the U.S. State Department's Institute of International Education, the $5,000 Gilman scholarship was awarded to 400 students out of 1,189 applicants. The scholarship encourages students to study abroad in non-traditional locations, especially those outside of Western Europe and Australia.
Archaeologist to Discuss Early Champlain Valley Native Americans From the GMC Journal Week of Sept. 11, 2006 In honor of Vermont Archaeology Month, UVM anthropologist, Dr. John Crock will present a guest lecture entitled Native Americans in the Champlain Valley between 10,000 B.C. and European Contact.” Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gorge. Crock is Director of the Consulting Archaeology Program at University of Vermont. His illustrated lecture is free and open to all. Vermont Archaeology Month is presented by the Vermont Archaeological Society in partnership with the Division for Historic Preservation and is generously supported by the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
China 2005/2006 Culture change in contemporary China Anthropology In May 2005, 14 students traveled with Professor Mark Dailey to eastern China’s Jiangsu Province for a three-week course called “Culture Change in Contemporary China.” The group conducted hands-on anthropological field research methods to learn about shifting practices and values in China today. Topics included increasing class inequality, gender roles, informal vs. formal economies, and ideologies relating to modernization and the environment. The class was hosted by Yancheng Teachers’ College, where Dailey taught and lived with his family for a year in 2000.
In the summer of 2006, Dailey and five Green Mountain students made a return trip to China funded by a $33,000 ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Award. The grant funded the 4-week research trip for Dailey and students Felipe Estudillo-Colon, Ashley Converse, HariNarayan Khalsa, Keith Solmo, and Tala Wunderler-Selby. The students conducted ethnographic research on the changing traditional behaviors and beliefs relating to ancestors in Jiangsu Province, China. “China is changing at light speed and how people are responding to modernization – especially as it relates to the deep cultural meaning of ancestors – can tell us a lot about this society,” Dailey said. The students focused on 3-4 families during the course of their research. They also sought the views of local officials and developers. The group conducted their research in Yancheng, which translates to “Salt City.”
