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University Hour

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Wednesdays, 3-4 p.m. dURING THE aCADEMIC yEAR

The University Hour provides an opportunity to engage outside speakers to bring focus to important research, current events, and performance media. These free lectures and cultural events are open to students, faculty, staff, and the community. We encourage you to identify events that will complement your courses and be of interest to a broad group of students.

For more information, please contact Pamela Wrinn, Academic Affairs, wrinnp@easternct.edu.

 

 

Campus Map & Directions

The Student Center Theatre is on the first floor of the Student Center

The FAIC Concert Hall is on the first  level of the Fine Arts Building

 

  • "Live Mixing and Introduction to Deejaying with Eric Otero"

     

    October 25, 2023 | FAIC Concert Hall

    Eric Otero will explain and demonstrate the program Rekordbox, the industy standard for mixing software and how it is used in the daily creative process. As part of the presentation, Eric will give a tutorial of the program as well as a live performance using the software.

    Contact: Christine Echols, echolsc@easternct.edu/ Anthony Cornicello, cornicelloa@easternct.edu

    “A 65-year History of Pop Music in Eastern Connecticut"

    November 1, 2023 | Student Center Theatre

    Bruce John will present in stories and songs his role in the music of Eastern Connecticut during the last 6 decades.  He will begin his history with Willimantic Rock and Roll in the 1950s, Hootenannies in the 1960's, the Shaboo and the many musical acts they showcased in the 1970s, the Eagleville's Kidsville Kuckoo Revue in the 1980s, and in the 1990s to now, playing music and doing good as a fund-raiser for the Covenant Soup Kitchen, No-Freeze Shelter, WAIM, and many other agencies who have asked for his help. With his wife Therese, he founded the Bread Box Folk Theater in Willimantic in 2009. Bruce will be accompanied by Peggy Harvey from the Music Vault - 100 Years of Hits.

    Contact: David Stoloff, stoloffd@easternct.edu

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    “Migrant Stories En Route to the U.S. - Mexico Border"

    November 8, 2023 | Student Center Theatre

    Madeline Baird will discuss reserach and share photos based on extensive experience interviewing migrants (in Panama and Mexico) about their experiences en route to the U.S.-Mexico border. Many have crossed the  treacherous Darién Gap. She will discuss the health and psychosocial consequences for irregular migrants and their experiences navigating illegality, violence and other human rights protections.

    Contact: Mary Kenny, kennym@easternct.edu

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    “Triumphs and challenges of building a strong local network in Eastern Connecticut"

    December 6, 2023 | Student Center Theatre

    Sydney Clements, director of the Windham Community Food Network (WCFN), will discuss the food justice non-profit made up of diverse community members, farmers, and businesses, who work together to promote access to healthy food, generate economic opportunites, and promote diverse communtity participation in problem-solving.

    Contact: Patricia Szczys, szczysp@easternct.edu

  • “CLiCK: the multi-cultural, multi-service kitchen connecting farmers, chefs, and food-lovers — right here in Windham County"

    February 21, 2024 | Student Center Theatre

    Chelsea Cherrier will introduce CLiCK and how our programs work towards our mission to create a local, just, sustainable food system for our community in collaboration with our local food system network. This will include our Food Business Incubator Program, Farmer Assistance and Collaborative Program and how these two things greatly play into the sustainability of our work and local region. Followed by a discussion about CLiCK’s composting program including how we started, our current waste diversion efforts in collaboration with WCFN and a trajectory for the future. Lastly, I will briefly discuss my background, how my career developed into this role serving the community and the importance of food system and sustainability work.

    Contact: Patricia Szczys, szczysp@easternct.edu  

    “Going Under The Hood Of Classic Tube Microphones & Recording Equipment"

    February 28, 2024 | Student Center Theatre

    Alan Venitosh, Operations Director of TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik will give a presentation focusing on the important internal components and applications of vacuum tube-based recording microphones. TELEFUNKEN microphones are some of the most sought-after microphones in live sound, recording, and broadcast, used by acts such as Alycia Keys, Green Day, and Death Cab for Cutie. This presentation will explore the differences in capsules, transformers, vacuum tubes, and electronic components and how they are related to the sound and performance of microphones. 

    Contact: Travis Houldcroft, houldcroftt@easternct.edu 

    “Abortion Pills and Reproductive Empowerment Post-Roe"

    March 6, 2024 | Student Center Theatre

    Abortion pills are playing a critically important role in post-Roe America, providing safe abortion access to tens of thousands of people living in states with abortion bans. Based on her forthcoming book, Freeing Abortion Pills: Science, Politics and Reproductive Freedom in the United States, Carrie N. Baker will share her research on the creative strategies advocates are using to ensure ongoing access to abortion pills post-Roe. This event is offered in conjunction with Eastern's NEA 2023-2024 Big Read, Madeline Miller's CIRCE, and is connected to our focus on female empowerment.

    Contact: Emily Todd, todde@easternct.edu 

    “Dana Gooley, “Stephen Sondheim, Broadway, and Dynamic Song"

    March 20, 2024 | Fine Arts Center

    Stephen Sondheim's name has become so closely associated with the Broadway tradition that it is easy to forget how profoundly he challenged its conventions. In the music theater he inherited from his mentor Oscar Hammerstein III, songs were points of emotional and dramatic consolidation, freezing dramatic motion to unfold a character's feelings or state of mind. Sondheim however turned the theater song into a mini-drama, following the character through a process of transformation, thus carrying forward the action of the story. Sondheim further employed conventions of musical genre to bring further subtexts to his lyrics and music. This talk demonstrates how three songs—"Free" (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), "Moments in the Woods" (Into the Woods) and "Live, Laugh, Love" (Follies)—realize this vision of dynamic song and transformed the Broadway tradition.

    Contact: Emily Riggs, riggse@easternct.edu, Tim Cochran, cochranti@easternct.edu 

    “Brilliance in the Valley "

    April 10, 2024 | Student Center Theatre

    Brilliance in the Valley is a presentation about an educational program being developed to share information about the students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities who worked on the tobacco farms in the CT River Valley for about 4 decades starting around 1915. The lives of the students were changed by this opportunity and many of them went on to impact Civil Rights in a number of ways.

    Contact: Brian Day, daybr@easternct.edu 

    “Emergency: COVID-19 and the Uneven Valuation of Life"

    May 1, 2024 | Student Center Theatre

    Drawing on interviews with federal, state and local policymakers and experts, as well as residents of three racially and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Chicago, this talk analyzes the “racial equity” framework adopted by the state of Illinois and city of Chicago to mitigate racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes and assesses its success, from the perspective of those most marginalized by race, class and legal status. I argue that the COVID-19 emergency response sought to protect white supremacy and wealth and ignored the slow emergencies racially marginalized populations have faced due to the long-term gutting of care infrastructure and deindustrialization and the sacrifice “essential workers” were asked to make to protect the US economy.

    Contact: Nicolas Simon, simonn@easternct.edu