through 10/25
"Tradition is My Life: Education is My Future," featuring artwork by American Indian and Alaska Native students (K-12) from across the country, on display in the Diversity Studies Room, first floor, Pattee Library.
through 10/26
"Honoring Recently Promoted and Tenured Penn State Faculty," on display in the Diversity Studies Room, first floor, Pattee Library.
through 11/7
"Ice Cream U: the Story of the Nation's Most Successful Creamery" on display in the main exhibit hall of Pattee Library.
11/9 - 1/8/2010
"Pioneers of Scientific and Engineering Discovers at Penn State," on display in the main exhibit hall of Pattee Library.
11/2 - 1/8/2010
"Maniere Dawson: artist and engineer," an exhibit on display in the Diversity Studies Room, 109 Pattee Library.
through 12/31
"State College: from Rural Roots to Happy Valley," from the Penn State University Archives, on display in 104 Paterno Library.
Penn State Mont Alto Speaker Series
Lisa White, Head Librarian
Penn State Mont Alto
from Fall 2007: presentation by multiple
faculty on research and travel in Africa
Penn State Mont Alto is a bucolic jewel in the crown of Penn State’s Commonwealth Campus System, bounded on the north by an apple orchard, on the east by Michaux State Forest, and on the west by a golf course community. The campus is rooted in its history as a forestry academy and its agrarian surroundings, but campus activities are increasingly attentive to the wider world. The majority of our students are from rural backgrounds and many have not traveled beyond Pennsylvania. To broaden intercultural offerings, the Mont Alto Library began hosting Fulbright scholars in 2006, to bring a wider world view to the campus community. In 2006, our first speaker was Hossam El Deen Yasseen Elouan, an Egyptian filmmaker and screenplay writer, who previewed the filmmaker Youari Nasrallah’s documentary, On Boys, Girls, and the Veil.
from Fall 2008: from the exhibition
"Under the Mango Tree in Mont Alto"
by artist Jan Yatsko
The next year, Professor Lahay Hussein, a sociologist from the University of Baghdad, presented a lecture on Islam from a feminist point of view, positing that the two are irreparably incompatible. In both instances, the veil emerged as a symbol of cultural differences within the Muslim world and between Western and Islamic outlooks. In both instances, members of the audience adamantly challenged the speakers on their interpretations of Muslim beliefs.
Building on the healthy controversy and general interest sparked by the Fulbright scholars, the library began the Penn State Mont Alto Campus Travels Cultural Events Series in the fall of 2006. The series hosts faculty, staff, and students who have studied or traveled abroad. The first of the travel presentations was given by students who participated in a study abroad trip to Rome and Florence in the summer of 2006. We learned that the Pantheon’s perfect dimensions belie its unstable blue clay foundation and Romans’ daily focus on food and social interactions are more formal and proscribed than popular ads for popular Italian American restaurants would have us to believe.
from Spring 2008 -
from Staci Grimes photo exhibition
Dr. Peter Linehan, associate professor of forestry, took us to Guinea, where we learned about forestry and conservation at the Center for Education in the Environment and Development. Then we traveled along on safari in Kenya with George Siehl, instructor of geography and Penn State alumnus. Next, a former Mont Alto student from Burundi, Aline Niyonkuru, and Dr. Elizabeth Brantley, instructor of forestry, took the audience to Aline’s home country, where an English language education project operates. For the final presentation that year, Dr. Jacqueline Schwab, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies compared social welfare systems in Sweden and the U.S. In the fall of 2008, Lancaster artist Jan Yatsko’s colorful paintings of Costa Rica, in an exhibit entitled “Under the Mango Tree,” were paired with a lecture by Eddy Rodriquez-Arana, instructor of Spanish and German, on non-traditional cultural encounters in Costa Rica and Germany.
from Spring 2008 –
Alan Paulson sculpture exhibition
In the final presentation of the 2007 series, Dr. Cheryl Cheek, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and Dr. Robin Yaure, senior instructor of Human Development and Family Studies took us once again to Italy, where we learned about Italian family life and culture. Most recently, Dr. Giovanni Agnoloni, Italian Tolkien scholar, writer, and translator, spoke on the classical literary origins of Tolkien’s
The Hobbitt and
The Lord of the Rings. Agnoloni highlighted common themes of lightness and darkness, domesticity and wildness, and love and hate in Tolkien and classical works.
The Library’s Penn State Mont Alto Travels speaker series has appealed to members of the campus community, local alumni, and community patrons. These speakers brought other cultures and viewpoints to Mont Alto, sparking students’ interests in other cultures and belief systems. The series speaks to Penn State’s commitment to educate students to become thoughtful and knowledgeable global citizens.
from Fall 2008 -
Presentation "Avventure in Italia" by Dr Robin Yaure and Dr Cheryl Cheek.
