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Multimedia art project pays tribute to vanished Topeka neighborhood
LAWRENCE — A multimedia art and oral history project that spawned a documentary film, “Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms,” opens this weekend in the capital city. It’s a University of Kansas professor’s attempt to recapture the essence of a neighborhood, mostly occupied by Hispanic immigrants and members of the African American community, that was destroyed in the 1950s and ‘60s to make way for Interstate 70 and other forms of urban renewal. The exhibition and documentary film debut April 4 and 5.
Second dean of the School of Business candidate to present April 3
LAWRENCE — Lin Nan, a faculty member and administrator at the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, will be the second dean candidate to give a public presentation on her ideas and strategies for the future of the University of Kansas School of Business. Nan’s presentation is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. April 3 in Room 1020 of Capitol Federal Hall, and it will be livestreamed.
Podcast dramatizes spiritual bridge between Gandhi, MLK
LAWRENCE — Many people know Mahatma Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King Jr. Now a new podcast traces theologian Howard Thurman’s eventful path from the Khyber Pass to a Harlem hospital room, thus becoming a personal bridge between the two great prophets of nonviolent social change. Darren Canady, University of Kansas professor of English, wrote the six-part, three-hour audio drama that is part of the multimedia “Day of Days” project.
Evolution of distinctively human cognition explored in new book
LAWRENCE — A new book from a University of Kansas professor of philosophy titled “It’s Only Human: The Evolution of Distinctively Human Cognition” explores what makes such cognition unique, suggesting its evolution is built on a feedback loop of innate representations, forms of cultural learning and technology. The book is published by Oxford University Press.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, rick_hellman@ku.edu
Multimedia art project pays tribute to vanished Topeka neighborhood
LAWRENCE — The results of nearly three years’ worth of work can be seen this week when a multimedia art and oral history project that spawned a documentary film, “Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms,” debuts in the capital city.
It’s F. Maria Velasco’s attempt to recapture the essence of a neighborhood, mostly occupied by Hispanic immigrants and members of the African American community, that was destroyed in the 1950s and ‘60s to make way for Interstate 70 and other forms of urban renewal.
With financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and others, the University of Kansas professor of visual art spearheaded the multimedia project and partnered with Matt Jacobson, professor of film & media studies at KU; public historian Valerie Mendoza; and Neill Esquibel-Kennedy, archivist and visiting assistant professor of American studies at KU, to collect the stories of former Bottoms residents and their descendants.
Velasco has created more than two dozen tabletop models of homes, which she said are “small enough to evoke childhood memories of the lost neighborhood.” Each one represents a different person’s story. In addition, for each of the 39 storytellers, the artist created a portrait and a postcard that includes a QR code leading to a video of that person’s story. Visitors can take one of the cards home with them.
The exhibition will also include a large wall display of the cards and artwork based on an old Sanborn fire insurance map, which Velasco said is “the only map that exists of the neighborhood … the only thing the residents have where they can still find their home, rekindle memories of those days and everything that was prior to the demolition.”
The small house models are made of wood and have hand-silkscreen maps on their roofs and excerpts of quotes from former residents on their sides. Velasco involved doctoral and master’s students from the KU Department of Visual Art and freshmen from the Emerging Scholars Program to help with everything from 3D modeling to manual fabrication to designing catalog layouts.
Especially given all the work involved, Velasco said, she hopes “Reclaiming Home” can be shown multiple times, “Not only in the area but across the nation, because urban renewal was a controversial trend in the U.S. and globally.” She will pursue such opportunities once the premiere exhibition ends.
“This is a tremendous work,” Velasco said. “And remember, it’s not just me. I formed a team in the beginning with two historians who know the community really well and the local history of the place … And then, when I realized the tremendous impact the work would have, I invited Matt Jacobson to film the stories and create a documentary. … This is very cool. It has so many parts to it. This project hopes to offer some measure of relief to the communities displaced by urban renewal and, at the same time, to celebrate a local neighborhood that was a true model of global diversity and solidarity.”
Art exhibition, documentary premieres set
“Reclaiming Home: Remembering the Topeka Bottoms” premieres April 4-5 at two locations in Topeka.
Artwork created by Velasco will be on display at Arts Connect, 909 N. Kansas Ave., from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 4, with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition continues through May 31.
The documentary film of the same title premieres at 2:30 p.m. April 5 at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, 1515 SE Monroe St. Project contributors will be recognized at 2:30 p.m., followed by the film at 3 p.m., with a question-and-answer session with the filmmaker and archivist to follow.
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Contact: Savannah Rattanavong, Office of the Provost, 785-864-6402, s.rattanavong@ku.edu
Second dean of the School of Business candidate to present April 3
LAWRENCE — Lin Nan will be the second dean candidate to give a public presentation on her ideas and strategies for the future of the University of Kansas School of Business.
Nan’s presentation is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. April 3 in Room 1020 of Capitol Federal Hall. In addition, the event will be livestreamed, and the passcode is 800688.
Nan is the Brock Family Chair Professor, senior associate dean of faculty affairs and department head of management at the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The remaining candidates will be announced approximately two business days before their respective campus visits. Their presentations will also take place 4-5 p.m. in Room 1020 of Capitol Federal Hall on the following dates:
Candidate 3: April 8
Candidate 4: April 10.
Members of the KU community are encouraged to attend each presentation and provide feedback to the search committee. Presentation recordings and online feedback forms will remain available on the search page through April 15.
Additional search information, including Nan’s CV, can be found on the search page.
As senior associate dean of faculty affairs, Nan oversees academic policies and procedures, faculty recruiting and retention, faculty promotion and evaluation, faculty awards and recognition, faculty annual reviews, merit and summer support, faculty grievance and school strategies. She serves as the business school’s liaison to the Vice Provost Office for Faculty Affairs.
Nan also heads the management department at Purdue, which includes nine academic areas and 138 full-time faculty members. This involves curriculum and teaching planning, strategic program designing and improvement, and program reviews of the department. Nan is additionally responsible for department and area budgets and expenses, resource allocation, and area head appointments and reviews.
Nan has published numerous research papers in journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies and Journal of Management Accounting Research.
She has been recognized for her work and research, including top rankings in accounting research by Brigham Young University, the Purdue Research Foundation International Travel Grant Award and Purdue’s Jay N. Ross Young Faculty Scholar Award.
Prior to joining Purdue in 2012, Nan taught at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
She earned her doctorate in accounting from the University of Florida, her master’s degree in economics from West Virginia University and her bachelor’s degree in engineering from Tianjin University in China.
The School of Business Dean search committee includes representatives from faculty, staff, students and alumni and is being led by Ann Brill, dean of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, and Jason Hornberger, vice provost of finance.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, rick_hellman@ku.edu
Podcast dramatizes spiritual bridge between Gandhi, MLK
LAWRENCE — Many people know Mahatma Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King Jr. Now a new podcast traces the eventful path from the Khyber Pass to a Harlem hospital room and the mystic theologian who trod it, thus becoming a personal bridge between the two great prophets of nonviolent social change.
Darren Canady, University of Kansas professor of English, wrote the six-part, three-hour audio drama that is part of the multimedia “Day of Days” project helmed by executive producer Michael Epstein.
The podcast dramatizes the 1958 meeting between King and the Christian minister and academic Howard Thurman in a hospital room, shortly after King barely survived a stabbing by a Black woman at a book-signing event. It also brings to audio life the transcendent experience Thurman had at the Khyber Pass.
While the assault on King is largely forgotten today, “It created the emergency that caused these men to reconnect, and it came at a point in Martin’s own trajectory where he really needed … a voice of advice,” Canady said. “The stabbing also was one of the first signs that King’s opponents were not limited to white racists in the South. There were people throughout that book tour, in the days leading up to the stabbing, who were protesting because they felt like he was too conciliatory already.”
Canady said Thurman’s message to King was: “You have to understand that part of where this violence is coming from is that you are preaching something that could upend entire world orders. Yes, your initial entry into this is about Blacks in the South. But you know the truth is that what you are discussing and advocating for has global connections and global meanings.”
“Howard was saying that to really accomplish what you are destined to accomplish, you have got to slow your roll. You are doing too much,” Canady said. “You are moving so fast that you’re not allowing yourself to do the interior work that will make it possible for you to do the revolutionary work beyond this.”
The podcast dramatizes the meeting Thurman and his wife, Sue, had with Gandhi in 1936 in India, and links their pilgrimage to the hospital room meeting.
When the Thurman’s finally meet Gandhi, “They’re having this back and forth about the choices that have made up to that point in the Civil Rights Movement, but also in the struggle for Indian independence,” Canady said. “Sue and Howard are trying to get a sense of how does nonviolence actually work on the ground? That’s when Gandhi says he doesn’t like the term nonviolence because it has a negative connotation. It’s better to think about the thing that you do, as opposed to talking about the thing that you don’t do. So he talks about the concept of ahimsa, which is basically the soul force. It is the thing that gives you strength to withstand injustice, the thing that helps you to connect to your fellow person and shift their energy that would do you harm to another energy that actually acts as resistance and survival and forbearance for you.”
The Thurman’s ask Gandhi to come to America to preach this message, but the Mahatma demurs, insisting they need their own champion.
“He says, ‘Based on the struggles that I have already seen, the American Negro may actually be the way that my compassionate system of nonviolence reaches the world,’ and it becomes prophetic in certain ways,” Canady said.
It’s not as though King was unaware of the great Indian leader before 1958, Canady said, partially because of the work Thurman had been doing ever since his meeting with Gandhi.
Canady said he knew little about Thurman when he got the assignment to write the podcast script, but researching the man engendered great admiration.
“I was struck by the wisdom and his ultimate optimism about humanity, which I could use at that moment, and we certainly can use in the current moment,” Canady said.
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Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”
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Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, jniccum@ku.edu
Evolution of distinctively human cognition explored in new book
LAWRENCE — What separates us from all the other living things on this planet? The answer is cognition … supposedly.
But what human cognition is (and isn’t) has never been explicitly, universally defined.
“For it to be distinctively human cognition, it will have to be the kind of thing only humans show — though not all humans need to show it,” said Armin Schulz, professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas.
His new book titled “It’s Only Human: The Evolution of Distinctively Human Cognition” explores what makes such cognition unique, suggesting its evolution is built on a feedback loop of innate representations, forms of cultural learning and technology. It’s published by Oxford University Press.
“The book tries to provide an explanation of how humans came to think in the ways that we do,” Schulz said. “Who are we thought-wise? What kind of thinkers are we? Why do we get to be the way that we are?”
Many examples have been proposed over the centuries when seeking to define human cognition. The most customary is the fact humans are the lone literate species.
“Only humans read and write. There’s no nonhuman animal that reads and writes,” Schulz said. “But the reality is that most humans don’t read and write. There are still very few literate cultures, and these took forever to develop. So it’s weird to say, ‘Oh, literacy is this typically human thing.’ That’s true in one way — but it’s also quite exceptional as far as human thought is concerned.”
The same goes for language. Yet nonhuman animals communicate in all sorts of ways.
“I want to explain why it is that humans do something that maybe we find in nonhuman animals, too, but dial it up a little bit. It’s not entirely unheard of in the nonhuman world; it just may be more strongly pronounced or has a different signature,” he said.
Schulz said his research contains equal parts anthropology, biology, economics and philosophy. The book utilizes these approaches to scrutinize what he considers are the key elements that set humans on a “slightly different trajectory” from other species. These include:
Innate expectations about the world
Tools
Social learning.
“For instance, we have an ability to focus our concentration on a very wide array of tasks,” he said. “That’s quite cool because lots of animals can only focus on certain tasks at a time. But I can earn a Ph.D. in philosophy over a period of years while doing other completely separate things, and there’s no direct reward — like, I don’t get fed for this. We humans can do that kind of thing.”
He said the key isn’t to focus on any one of these three aspects. Rather, it’s the combination of them that helps define human cognition. He views the framework for this analysis as a feedback loop.
“Our cognition process is more comparable to a guitar amplifier. To get the sound, it’s not a matter of turning one knob. It’s a matter of turning the gain and then dialing in enough treble and enough master volume — then that’s the sound,” he said.
“All these things interact with each other to produce an outcome which is actually quite different from where you started.”
Growing up in Mainz, Germany, Schulz eventually studied philosophy and economics in London. While in graduate school, he became captivated by the foundations of decision-making. But the theoretical models he analyzed felt quite abstract to him.
His first book, “Efficient Cognition: The Evolution of Representational Decision Making” (MIT Press, 2018), explores how organisms interact with the environment. His next, “Structure, Evidence, and Heuristic: Evolutionary Biology, Economics, and the Philosophy of Their Relationship” (Routledge, 2020), offers the first systematic treatment of the philosophy of science underlying evolutionary economics.
“The more ‘meta aspect’ that ties my books together is a certain way of approaching the problems, which is trying to do justice to the complexity of these issues. What all my books are trying to do is to say, ‘You know, it’s just not that simple.’ There’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and you must do justice to all sides of the debate,” said Schulz, who’s been at KU since 2014.
“With the latest book, it’s not just culture, it’s not just tools, it’s not just language. There’s not merely one thing that makes us human.”
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