Professional Activities
Alison Pantesco (Modern Languages) led a workshop on “Active Learning with Music” at the First International Conference for Performative Teaching and Learning. Sponsored by the German department, the conference was held at the University of Cork College in Cork, Ireland, May 29-June 1. Presenters from five continents described and demonstrated forms of foreign language teaching that derive from the performing arts and serve as a catalyst to more engaged learning.
One student, three staff, and an administrator from Keene State attended a unique day-long institute that was sponsored by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals in conjunction with the University of Vermont in July. Hersch Rothmel, Deb Barrett, Diana Duffy, Phoebe Price, and Dr. Dottie Morris traveled to Burlington, Vermont, to learn about emerging trends in LGBTQ student services, connect with colleagues across the northeast region, discuss how to create and maintain partnerships, and share problem-solving strategies about campus policies, such as enabling transgender students to use a name other than a legal name on campus records. Rothmel is the student chair of Keene State College’s Campus Commission for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness. Barrett, Duffy, and Price are members of the college’s Safe Space Subcommittee, and Morris is the college’s Chief Officer for Diversity and Multiculturalism.
Theatre and Dance Professor Daniel Patterson attended the annual conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) in Scottsdale Arizona during the last week of July. Prof. Patterson was elected chair of the committee to organize the new ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting. While at the conference, he was the producer of the Getchell Playwriting Award Staged Reading, and performed a role in one of the ten-minute plays for the New Play Development Workshop.
Shannon Mayers, Redfern Arts Center, has received a $5,000 grant from the New Hampshire Humanities Council. This award provides support for the Redfern’s presentation of City Council Meeting, a project that blends participatory democracy and civic engagement through the structure of a local government meeting to explore the various ways that people participate or not in their civic life. The project includes a formal public presentation at Heberton Hall of the Keene Public Library and related public programming—book discussions as well as public talks and exhibits. The artists have been in residence at Keene State to research local issues within Keene; meet with city councilors, planning officials, citizens, faculty, and students; and assemble a working group of “staffers” who will co-develop and run the performance. Dr. Brian Kanouse of the Communication and Philosophy Department will serve as the humanities expert on the project.
Shannon has also received a $1,000 grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts. This award provides support for Redfern’s special Halloween screening of Phantom of the Opera with Alloy Orchestra, a three-man musical ensemble famous for writing and performing live accompaniment to classic silent films. The Redfern is collaborating with KSC’s departments of Music and Film Studies as well as the student Film Society as part of a semester-long presentation and study of silent film, film music, and composing for film.
