Professor Smith Speaks to Western Civilization Students

On Tuesday September 29, Professor David Smith spoke to the Western Civilization Series. His talk was entitled "Cartography in Western Civilization."

Smith, who holds his doctorate from the University of Chicago, and who teaches Geography and Area Studies for HPJ, began his talk by giving an overview of his discipline, and moved quickly to a discussion of the first representations of map making, which included the Lascaux Caves and Catal Hoyuk, where humans first began to create graphic representations of the earth. The first map, that we know of, which includes the basic elements ( representations of the shape and size of objects, distances and directions) was the Turin Papyrus. This Egyptian map, which was discovered during Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of the county, depicted a wadi, or dry creek bed used as a road, and included depictions of mines, hills, intersecting paths, and other information useful to finding one's way.

The Babylonians were the first to create maps purporting to show the entire world, and the Greeks expanded on this habit. Especially active were Greek philosophers such as Anaximander, Hecataeus, and others who lived in Miletus, a city state in modern day Turkey. They began creating world maps that were somewhat accurate at placing Europe, Asia, and Africa in rough approximation of there actual locations. Other notable Greeks included Herodotus, who Smith touted as the father of geography (historians claim him also), because of the detailed descriptions of peoples that can be found in his History and for naming the Atlantic Sea (sic), and Erotashtenes, who was the creator of meridians (longitude) and parallels (latitude).

Smith finished by telling students that in the Middle Ages, the cartographic world split, with Europeans creating maps that reflected spiritual values, and the Islamic world continuing the work of the Greeks. Smith's lecture in streaming video can be found on the HPJ Signature Lectures page.

Modern East Asia Class Takes to the Field

The Modern East Asia (HIST 314) class went to the New China Chinese Restaurant in Ada on Tuesday for lunch. The purpose was to explore how East Asian cuisine has been transmitted to the United States.

In addition to the meal (students tended toward the spicier items) the owner of the restaurant, who comes from Guangzhou in the People's Republic of China, told the students about how the food she offers differs from what they would find in that country. According to her, the main difference is that in China the food normally comes in its original form, i.e. chicken comes with the head and feet still attached, as do fish, and that the bones generally remain. American sensibilities require that these be removed. She also told the class that Chinese cooking varies between north and south, with northern cooking featuring more noodles and bread, while southern contains the rice that is more familiar to Americans.

The photos above were taken by Sophie Crawford, wife of Professor Crawford, who joined the class for lunch. Sophie, who is from France, also told the class about how Chinese food in France differs from the American version. She told them that the sauce in American Chinese food tends to have thicker sauce, similar to American gravy. This brought up grocery-store tourism, or looking at a culture through how they set up their groceries. Professor Crawford mentioned that one of the first things he noticed in France was that there was an odor in groceries, of fresh food, but one could smell fish, cheeses and other foods, something that is unusual in American stores. Alyxia Caragiu mentioned that she had noticed the same thing in Romania, and Matt Byal found the same thing in India.

It was a good meal and a good learning experience, looking at how East Asian culture has moved across the Pacific, and how culture must adopt to its new location.

Pictured from right foreground around the table counterclockwise – Trey Jones (SO Social Studies), Carol Wilson (SR English), Jennifer Bazell (SR Social Studies), Matt Byal (SR International Studies), Alyssa Smithers (JR History), Warren Burless (JR Psychology), Anthony Azzarello (SR Sport Management), Heather Stein (FR General Studies), Alyxia Caragiu (JR Business), Kim Howard (SO Social Studies), and Professor Crawford.

Geography Students Discuss Correlation between Maps and Reality

Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography Jimmy Wilson took advantage of near-perfect weather to demonstrate the important correlation between real-world phenomena and digital maps. According to Wilson, "field work is vital to effectively doing geography. Everything recorded on paper and digital maps are merely someone's perceptions of reality. It is important to take geography students outside to emphasize the link between the two so that we can better study spatial relationships."

Professor Schuck Presents in England

Professor Ray Schuck presented a paper titled, “Transcending the Obvious: Teaching Material Culture to History Students,” at the Annual Conference of the Center for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the University of Manchester, England. The conference, held from September 1-4, featured speakers and presenters from around the world. He shared the panel with professors from England and Denmark. Professor Schuck’s presentation focused on how the written word and material objects can be employed to produce a greater understanding of history among students. He argued that by focusing on a more absolute relevance of the built environment both past and present, students of history can gain a more enduring understanding of the world gone by.

Students Present on Constitution Day

On Thursday September 17, four HPJ students presented their ideas about Freedom of Speech and Social Networking sites.

The presentations were part of Constitution Day, and Professor Jo Ann Scott began the program by giving a brief background of the celebration. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia sponsored an amendment to change Citizenship Day, which fell on September 17 to commemorate the final ratification of the United States Constitution, to Constitution Day in 2004. His amendment required that all educational institutions that receive federal funding present a program celebrating the document's passage on that day.

Pictured from left to right Daniel Arant (JR History Lima, OH) Brendan Kinder (SO History Elida, OH), Alexandra Habbouche (JR Political Science Oregon, OH), and Matt Allen (SR History Chicora, PA) discussed various First Amendment issues dealing with social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

Matt began the presentations by giving an overview of why our constitution protects freedom of speech. He told the audience that these protections grew out of British abuses prior to the American Revolution, particularly in regards to prior restraint of the press and seditious libel. Colonial papers were required to submit their text to the government before publication and if officials deemed a story unacceptable, it was suppressed. Seditious libel laws made it a crime for newspapers to publish stories that were disrespectful to government officials, regardless of the story's truth. This censorship began to break down however, after the Zenger case in 1735, when John Zenger was acquitted of charges of seditious libel in an instance of jury nullification. This opened the floodgates, which helped lead to the Revolution. After the Constitution was ratified, the First Amendment was written to protect freedom of the press, even though some of the Founding Fathers initially opposed the idea of a Bill of Rights.

Alexandra spoke next, and she described the increasing incidence of employers firing their employees after reading content that angered them on social media sites. For instance, one woman was fired after she tweeted that "My job is boring." Alexandra drew a sharp line between and employee's behavior on and off of the job, arguing that what a person does on their own time is their own affair, and that employers are guilty to suppressing free speech when they take action such as described above. She maintained that free speech ceases to be free when it opens up a person to retaliatory action by an employer, likening the situation to that described in the book 1984, where Big Brother watched everything.

Brendan took a different tack, arguing that companies exercising their property rights were not guilty of violating the First Amendment's protections. Using a definition of censorship taken from the Roman Republic, he discussed how some cases that seem to be clear cut censorship, are in fact not so clear. He gave several examples, including Wal-mart's insistence that music artists ad record companies censor their songs before they can be sold in the store. Brendan argued that did not represent an abridgment of the First Amendment since the musical content is available elsewhere in unabridged form, and that Wal-mart is within its rights as property owners to control what they sell on their property.

Daniel spoke last, arguing that the internet was an important tool in maintaining free speech, which he argued was not so much in danger from government as it is from media conglomerates. As ownership of media outlets becomes more and more concentrated amongst a smaller number of companies, the true threat to free speech comes from prior restraint by news organizations that decide what the public needs to know. Daniel argued that the internet served as a powerful tool to check the power of big media, allowing many voices to forward stories that the conglomerates would not. He pointed to the over 100 million blogs that are written in English alone as proof that stories not privileged by the media could find expression.

Professor Rob Waters, the discussant then asked the panelists questions about their presentations. However, before he began his questioning, he took a moment to remind the audience that these students were not recycling papers that had been written for class and that they were not receiving any financial reward for their participation. All they would get from the night was the experience of nervously presenting in front of a large group of their peers, faculty and university administration.

Waters and panelists traded questions and answers and then the floor was opened to the audience, with President Baker acting as microphone provider. Mike Hamper (JR Political Science Jefferson, OH) mentioned that a court in Spain had ruled employees could swear at their supervisors without fear of firing. The panelists were agreed that here that would probably end up in an American being fired. After some discussion of Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who called out "You lie" during a speech by President Obama to both houses of Congress, Lawren Neeley (JR Social Studies Alger, OH) asked if Obama calling Kanye West a jackass was any different. Matt answered and maintained that he disagreed with anyone calling a president of the United States a liar. He argued for the standard held during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, when policy differences could be aired, but personal attacks were off limits. In response to a question about the amount of unreliable information on the internet, Daniel argued that one must filter claims found there, but that the shear number of sites available there makes cross checking available, if one takes the time to check sources.

All panelists turned in superb performances that belied their undergraduate status, and they should be commended on their hard work and willingness to address serious issues. If they are indicative of the nation's young people, the constitution is in good hands.

Pi Sigma Alpha Receives Best Chapter Award

Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society has recognized ONU's Pi Iota Chapter with one of its' Best Chapter Awards for 2008-2009.

The award letter from National President Nancy McManus designates Pi Iota as one of the local chapters that are "particularly active in their departments and universities and exhibits high levels of energy and creativity in furthering the goals of the honor society.

The national organization recognizes four chapters from among schools with enrollment under 6,000 students, and the award also carries a $250 cash award along with a certificate for framing. In addition to notifying President Baker, the national organization also will publicize the award in the fall issue of the Pi Sigma Alpha Newsletter, and in the American Political Science Associations' (APSA) quarterly journal PS: Political Science and Politics. Award winners will also be featured in APSA's Pi Sigma Alpha display at their convention in Toronto in September.

Among the activities that earned plaudits for the chapter were sponsorship of the spring HPJ Picnic, presentation of conference papers, and help preparing and sending surveys to presidential electors last spring.

Well done Pi Iota!

Dan Jones Describes his Internship in London

HPJ offers a wide variety of internship and study abroad opportunities that allow students to gain real world experience that complements their classroom education. Below is Dan Jones' description of his internship in London, England, and his thoughts on what he brought home from the experience.

Hi, my name is Dan Jones, and I recently spent the summer studying abroad in England. The programme was set up through the Washington Center, which is an internship center in Washington, D.C. that routinely does these types of internships domestically and abroad. The Washington Center subsequently worked through CAPA, which is a similar programme based out of London for study abroad students. I was always interested in studying abroad because of my interest in the field of international law and the knowledge and experience you can gain simply from travelling and being elsewhere.

The programme ran as such: We spent about a week in Washington, D.C., getting acclimated to the city and taking a course that prepared us for relevant issues while we were abroad: political economy, homelessness, and culture were all discussed thoroughly, as well as general societal and political norms of England. This week had us living in Alexandria, VA, where we were within walking distance of the metro. We got to see exactly what it was like to live in a professional setting in the American workplace.

After this week, we all had flights to London Heathrow airport. After arriving, I grabbed the Tube off to where I was living in London, a place called Scala House just north of Tottenham Court Road. If you know the Tube system at all, you'll realise that this location is in the heart of central London. Our apartment was within walking distance of University Central London, The British Museum, Leicester Square, and Oxford Street, and only a short Tube ride away from the Houses of Parliament, The Thames River Walk, Fleet Street, Hyde Park, Piccadilly CIrcus, Abbey Road, and a variety of other places that came into interest as our 8 weeks there went on.

Probably the most rewarding part of this experience was where I worked. I interned at the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association (CLA), which is a professional organisation that works toward good governance and promotes the rule of law in Commonwealth territories. Although that sounds painfully memorised, or perhaps even copied and pasted from the website (www.commonwealthlawyers.com, if you're interested), it was actually just off the top of my head. And the reason I could do that was because it was so interesting to work there.

The CLA does a number of activities throughout the Commonwealth, biggest of those being putting on their annual Commonwealth Law Conference (CLC) in different locations on a biennial basis. Additionally, training workshops and programmes are run through the CLA, as well as holding governments accountable when they violate rule of law or the independence of the legal profession.

As an intern here, I did do a bit of bookkeeping--that's part of the benefit for a small but prominent entity like the CLA gets for having interns. But I had so much other work that this faded into the background. I got to research developing situations in third world countries in the Commonwealth, aid in strategic planning and statement development, as well as simply meeting some pretty high-profile lawyers from England and around the world. My best story about this had to have been taking a phone call, asking the man how to spell his name, and then realising later that he was the Attorney General of India.

Other activities I enjoyed while I was in England included: seeing the ancient city of Bath and Stonehenge, as well as Ireland, Scotland, and Oxford; checking out the quite active nightlife and interesting pubs in London; seeing a variety of museums including the Churchill Museum, The National Gallery, The British Museum, and many others; and taking photos of the London Eye, Big Ben, and all those other touristy things.

To say it was an eye-opening experience would be an understatement--I got to see what I would like to do when I get older. The field of international law is somewhat amorphous--that is to say, we all know it exists, but its hard to put a finger on exactly what it is. I understand know the implications of immigration issues, human rights institutions, international business markets, and how the Commonwealth itself works. This experience was certainly education at its finest, in all realms.

Dan Jones

To read more about Dan's experience, check out Dan's ONU blog page, and for an article by Jamienne Scott, about Dan's experience, click here.