Community Calendar

On Thursday, September 28th at 6:00 p.m. central, the LaSalle Public Library will virtually host Leslie Goddard – Historian – for a presentation on the beloved classic girl detective – Nancy Drew.

Ninety years ago, a plucky detective stepped out of her blue roadster and into the hearts of readers. The brainchild of publisher Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy Drew proved that a strong heroine with style and bravery could win huge popularity. In this virtual lecture, Leslie Goddard will explore the history of America’s favorite girl detective, and will answer questions like who was Carolyn Keene, the author of the series, and why did this series, more than any other, captivate generations of readers.

Leslie Goddard is a scholar and historian who has been lecturing on topics of American history for nearly twenty years. In addition master’s degrees in both Museum Studies and Theater, she has a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and currently works full-time as a historical interpreter and public speaker.

This program is free and open to the public. It will be presented virtually via Zoom. Register: https://rb.gy/dpbx0. For more information, please call the Library at 815-223-2341.

“Sustainability Transitions in the Palm Oil Sector”

Helena Varkkey
Department of International and Strategic Studies
Universiti Malaya

Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's largest producers of palm oil, and the commodity is viewed as an important engine of growth and modernization for these countries. However, this crop has been linked to various socio-environmental problems. This talk traces the sustainability transitions in the Southeast Asian palm oil sector, comparing the influence of global (deforestation, human rights) as opposed to localized (regional haze, land grabs) socio-environmental concerns on this trajectory. It argues that market access has been an important determinant of this sector's sustainability transition, clashing with historical narratives of natural resource-based development in the face of ecological imperialism.

7: 30 pm
Thursday, September 28
Online Only; Virtual via Zoom—Registration Required: https://niu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvceCspzkoEtXwMCS1_uqrIbPWyhvyLlL9)

Contact the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at cseas@niu.edu
Co-sponsored by NIU's Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy/Environmental Studies

The Rockford Society, Archaeological Institute of America, invites the public to its next free in-person, multi-media presentation on archaeology, on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, "Who are the Philistines? Recent advances and discoveries, King Nebuchadnezzar, and the ancient city of Ashkelon" by guest speaker Daniel Master, PhD, Professor of Archaeology at Wheaton College.

Please join us. Dr. Master has researched the ancient port of Ashkelon, the most famous home of the Biblical Philistines. He will present new discoveries about the Philistines, including DNA evidence of their origins, and share their history.

The public is invited to a free reception held immediately following each in-person presentation. Burpee Museum is handicapped-accessible and offers free parking. Additional free parking is also available next door at the Riverfront Museum Park, 711 N. Main Street, Rockford.

The Rockford Society provides additional information on lectures, events, trips, and archaeological topics on the web at www.rockfordaia.org.

Chat GPT, DALL-E and other generative AI technologies are changing the face of human creativity and impacting professions in marketing, art and literature. However, polarizing arguments about these new technologies’ ability to either save or doom humanity are at least as old as Plato – who recorded a debate about that new fantastic and disruptive technology that was called writing more than 2,000 years ago.

Join two experts in new and emerging technologies to learn more about the practical and ethical implications of artificial intelligence on creativity and communication. They’ll help us understand how a computer with no brain can “see,” “learn” and “create” art, how this technology reproduces human biases, and some of the short- and long-term effects of generative AI on human audiences. They’ll also provide historical context to help us better understand recent technology as yet another iteration in a long line of technical innovations that have contributed to and helped us better understand what we mean by “creative.”

Speakers:

David J. Gunkel, Ph.D., NIU Professor of Media Studies and Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor
Andy Jeon, PhD, NIU Assistant Professor of Marketing

Northern Illinois University STEM Cafés are part of NIU STEAM and are designed to increase public awareness of the critical role that STEM fields play in our everyday lives. They are offered in partnership with the NIU Alumni Association and made possible with support from Bayer Fund.

“Poetry of Transnational Immigration: Phan Nhiên Hạo’s Reading”

Hao Phan
Southeast Asia Curator,
Northern Illinois University Libraries

Hao Phan (Phan Nhiên Hạo) is the Curator of the Southeast Asia library collection at Northern Illinois University and a published poet. He is the author of three collections of poetry written in Vietnamese and two collections of poetry translated into English. His recent book, Paper Bells (The Song Cave, 2021), translated by Hai-Dang Phan, was on the Longlist of the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards for poetry in translation, and on the Shortlist of the 2021 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. In his reading, “Poetry of Transnational Immigration, Phan Nhien Hao’s Reading,” Hao will read some of his poems and discuss his writing as an immigrant existing between two cultures and languages.

Noon
Friday, October 6
Peters Campus Life Building 100 and online (registration required for online attendance: https://niu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqduqqqj0jG9ZJ9cqjFXwBt_VT1b42dfnS)

Contact the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at cseas@niu.edu

A graduate of NYU’s doctoral program in Food Studies, Dr. Barton has over 25+ years' experience as an executive chef, restaurant and product development consultant, and culinary educator. Barton currently teaches at NYU Queens College and Montclair State University and holds appointments as Cultural Anthropologist of African Diaspora Foodways at Notre Dame University and Public Scholar at Lynden Sculpture Garden. Barton's research focuses on Diaspora women’s work and knowledge, intergenerational teaching and learning, cultural heritage, and political resistance in Northeastern Brazil.

Presented by the Culinary Historians of Northern Illinois (CHNI) and the NIU Libraries Regional History Center. This event is free and open to the public, but attendees must register at the CHNI’s website to receive the meeting link: https://www.culinaryhistoriansofnorthernillinois.com/. For questions and further information about the virtual presentation, email Culinary.historians.ni@gmail.com.

Registrants are also welcome to join us onsite at NIU’s DeKalb campus to view Dr. Barton’s presentation and enjoy refreshments in the Founders Library Lower-Level Lounge. For questions and further information about the in-person watch party at NIU, please email rhcua@niu.edu or call 815-753-9392.

“Why Are Men into Raw Fish Consumption? Culinary Change and Masculinity in Rural Northeast Thailand”

Visisya Pinthongvijayakul
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chandrakasem Rajabhat University
Dr. James B. Pick/Dr. Rosalyn Laudati Southeast Asia Fellow, Northern Illinois University

Northeast Thailand (Isan) is the region with the highest rate of liver fluke infestation, the resulting cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer), and consequent deaths in the world. Consuming fresh-water raw fish infected with liver fluke is a major cause of the malady. Existing medical research on cholangiocarcinoma frequently notes that men are exposed to more risk than women because they eat raw fish. This article asks a simple question: Why are men into raw fish dishes? Taking an ethnographic approach to the question, I followed my interlocutors’ fish foodways in an agrarian context. I participated in fishing, trading, cooking and eating with them. I talked with lower-income households in villages near Ubonrat Dam and Phong River in Khon Kaen Province between February 2019 and December 2020. I applied perspectives from the anthropology of food and gender studies to analyze my data. The talk demonstrates the ways in which culinary practices among men and women have responded to the challenges of modernization. Migration, religion, and the market economy have diminished male food culture. Raw fish foodways offer a utopian zone for the recovery of otherwise foreclosed homosocial spaces and thus preserve a certain understanding of masculinity.

Noon
Friday, October 13
Peters Campus Life Building 100 and online (registration required for online attendance: https://niu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkd-6rqT8jE9KbakB0wME5Z36N-N5vilhx)

Contact the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at cseas@niu.edu
Sponsored by the Dr. James B. Pick/Dr. Rosalyn Laudati Southeast Asia Fellowship, Northern Illinois University Libraries

Does your evening cocktail taste a little different? Has a spouse recently increased your life insurance policy? Has a neighbor started growing some unusual plants?

This presentation from scientist, teacher, and nationally published author Dr. Neil Bradbury explores the effects of poisons on the human body, and examines the motives of killers in plotting murder. Expect lethal umbrellas, deadly cocktails, and killer curries.

A Taste for Poison is a unique combination of science, true crime, and murder mystery. You will learn the symptoms to expect if you are poisoned, and if you have time, what to tell the paramedics you have been given.

This one-time event will appeal to any true-crime fans, sciencey types, and history buffs. Neil’s book A Taste for Poison is published by MacMillan/St. Martin’s Press and was nominated for a GoodReads Choice Award in 2022. You won’t want to miss it!

Free and open to the public. Registration is required to attend. To sign up, visit www.harvard-diggins.org/events

On Tuesday, October 17th at 7:00 p.m. central time, the LaSalle Public Library will be joining more than 200 other libraries in Illinois in hosting Newbery and Caldecott honoree and New York Times bestselling author, Grace Lin.

In this virtual program, learn about Grace Lin’s latest middle-grade book, Chinese Menu: The History, Myths and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods, a beautifully written full-color book that explores the whimsical myths and stories behind favorite American Chinese food, and learn to draw stories.

Before she was a bestselling author and illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels, Grace Lin was the only Asian girl going to her elementary school in Upstate New York. That experience, good and bad, has influenced her books—including her Newbery Honor “Where The Mountain Meets the Moon,” her Geisel Honor “Ling & Ting,” her National Book Finalist “When the Sea Turned to Silver” and her Caldecott Honor “A Big Mooncake for Little Star.”

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries. Illinois Libraries Present is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). ILP is committed to inclusion and accessibility.

The program is free and open to the public. Register: https://rb.gy/kobgs For more information, please call the Library at 815-223-2341.

Join the NIU Library Special Collections and Archives Department and the Southeast Asia Library for the annual Fall Collections Colloquium featuring presentations on the impact of the Peace Corps on the NIU Community. Retired NIU Thai Studies professor and Peace Corps volunteer, Dr. John Hartman, will reflect on his involvement with the Peace Corps training program at NIU and his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. Southeast Asia Library Curator, Hao Phan, will present on the digitization of Thai Peace Corps materials in the Southeast Asian library holdings. Additionally, NIU School of Music Instructor, Chamni Sripraram, will perform selections of traditional Thai music with the Thai Music Ensemble.

The Colloquium will be held in the Founders Memorial Library First Floor Gallery on October 19, 2023, from 4:30-6:00 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. No registration is required, but attendees are encourage to RSVP. If you have any questions about this event, please contact Brad Wiles at bwiles@niu.edu or 815-75-9392.