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Juniata College

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Juniata College

(Posted December 15, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata Voices, a yearly anthology of lectures, articles and presentations given by Juniata faculty and visiting speakers, has released its latest online edition, featuring contributions from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell and New York Times journalist Cornelia Dean.

The journal, which can be accessed online at http://www.juniata.edu/voices, has released a collection of notable lectures on campus every year since 2003.

James Tuten, associate professor of history, notes that many of the selections gravitate to how people function "in the real world."

This year's anthology offers a wide range of topics, although editor James Tuten, associate professor of history, notes that many of the selections gravitate to how people function "in the real world."

Sometimes, the real world can be on a college campus, as David Sowell, professor of history, memorably describes in a speech called "Wisdom of the Sages." Sowell quotes another colleague, English professor Mark Hochberg, to spur students to be more involved during their time on campus: "You have the capacity to succeed, or you would not be here. You must work, however, to do so. Nothing good comes easy."

Poet Galway Kinnell, returned to campus in 2007 for the first time since 1965, when he served as poet-in-residence. He also helped lead a group of Juniata students to Selma, Alabama in that same year to protest civil rights violations. He returned last year to accept an honorary degree from the college.

Kinnell contributed the poem "Oatmeal," which wittily deconstructs the poetry styles of John Keats, William Wordsworth and others as Kinnell shows how poets or artists can find inspiration in anything, even a bland bowl of oatmeal.

Two historians show how history can be interpreted to discover or uncover new takes on accepted knowledge. Robert Miller, professor of religion at Juniata, takes his readers (and listeners) through a skillfully argued treatise on "The Illegitimacy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew."

Miller, citing extensive research on the original Gospels of Matthew, shows that the circumstances of Jesus' birth were controversial and that Matthew used his cultural background to present the birth of the Messiah not as a virgin birth, but as "an act of God, vital to the unfolding epic of the people of Israel."

Another historian, LeeAnna Keith, reveals a little known incident in African-American history in "Passion and Belief: The Story of the Untold Story of the Colfax Massacre." Her article uncovers the factors that led to a massacre of 150 Negroes and three white men in 1873 in Colfax, La.

Cornelia Dean, a science reporter for the New York Times, takes time to show how journalists and scientists can often misunderstand each other when they step into each others worlds. In "Disconnect: The Gulf Between Scientists and Journalists," she details how "journalists and scientists have much in common. Both groups are curious, analytical, skeptical, competitive, highly motivated, resistant of authority and self-centered." She then offers a few tips how the gulf between journalism and science can be crossed.

In addition, David Hutto, assistant professor of English, explains how the practice of rhetoric originated in ancient Greece. In "Telling Lies and Inventing Rhetoric in Ancient Greece" Hutto explains how the Greeks used the art of lying to help create rhetoric, which can be simply described as "manipulating language."

Another poet, Huntingdon midwife Joann Condellone, has two poems included in the anthology. The poems "In May" and "Anniversary" talk of the changes time makes on the earth and on human beings.

International affairs is the focus of the lecture "Islam and Democracy in Indonesia," delivered by retired ambassador Alphonse F. LaPorta. LaPorta served as a Foreign Service officer in Indonesia and New Zealand and was ambassador to Mongolia from 1997 to 2000.

Three Juniata faculty, two of them historians, also are featured in the publication. Tuten contributed a lecture on the history of the wine Madeira in America. David Hsiung, Knox Professor of History, contributed "Prizes and Gifts," a humorous satire on the student and faculty awards given out on colleges campuses every spring. Finally, Andrew Murray, professor emeritus of peace and conflict studies, offers "Welcome to the Real World," a lecture he wrote shortly before his retirement in 2008.

The final selection in the anthology is the 2008 Commencement address, delivered by Michael Klag, a 1974 Juniata alumnus and the dean of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.




Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.

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