From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
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International Jayhawk Festival to celebrate KU’s global community
LAWRENCE — Celebrate and explore the diverse cultures and countries that make up the University of Kansas at the International Jayhawk Festival from 3 to 5 p.m. April 17 in the Burge Union. Representing cultures from around the world, the event includes information about KU’s 150-plus study abroad programs, table activities, games, crafts and performances, as well as free T-shirts, door prizes, international food and a fashion show. Students, staff, faculty and community members are encouraged to attend the free event.
Stories for All Festival to take place April 18-20 in downtown Lawrence
LAWRENCE — Funded by a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Stories for All Digital Storytelling Project, based out of the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, will host a festival with the theme “Sharing Community Stories in a Digital World.” Events will take place April 18-20 in downtown Lawrence.
Spooky Cold War broadcasts inspire new poetry collection
LAWRENCE – Joe Harrington’s new poetry collection is titled “Disapparitions” (Blaze/Vox, 2023), and he designed the cover, which riffs on the minimalist Beatles “White Album.” It seems appropriate for the slim yet weighty volume powered by misty, Cold War memories of spooks and spies, ghosts and divination mingling in the mind of a boy listening to global – perhaps even otherworldly — transmissions over a short-wave radio.
KU Law wins back-to-back national transactional law competitions
LAWRENCE – In March, two University of Kansas Law students traveled to Southfield, Michigan, to compete in the Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition. Jackie Jeschke and Alli Baden, third-year law students, went head-to-head against 21 other law school teams from around the country and came away victorious, bringing home both of the competition’s top prizes – best negotiation and best draft.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Christine Metz Howard, International Affairs, [email protected], @KUintlaffairs
International Jayhawk Festival to celebrate KU’s global community
LAWRENCE — Celebrate and explore the diverse cultures and countries that make up the University of Kansas at the International Jayhawk Festival from 3 to 5 p.m. April 17 in the Burge Union.
Representing cultures from around the world, the event includes information about KU’s 150-plus study abroad programs, table activities, games, crafts and performances, as well as free T-shirts, door prizes, international food and a fashion show. Students, staff, faculty and community members are encouraged to attend the free event.
In its eighth year, the International Jayhawk Festival celebrates KU’s diverse global community, the importance of global citizenship, the value of international education and the need for global awareness.
Close to 40 student groups, academic units and campus organizations will attend, offering intercultural activities, demonstrations and trivia. Sporting KC and the International Relations Council will also be at the event with activities.
Students can meet with study abroad advisers about international education opportunities around the world, discuss academic programs with area studies representatives and language departments, connect with foreign language clubs, explore international career opportunities and learn about international student organizations.
A highlight will be international performances, including those that represent Ukrainian, South Asian, Honduran, Peruvian, Turkish and Chinese cultures. The International Student Association will host an international fashion show displaying traditional dress from around the world.
The Pederson Grants for Global Engagement, funded by KU alumna Christine Pederson, will provide support for 10 student clubs and organization to represent their countries and cultures at the festival.
This year’s sponsors include the centers for East Asian Studies, Global & International Studies, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and Russian, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies; Indigenous Studies Program; International Affairs; International Support Services; Kansas African Studies Center; KU Alumni Association, KU Libraries; Middle East Studies; Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging; Office of Multicultural Affairs; Open Language Resource Center; Pederson Grant, Spencer Museum of Art; Student Union Activities; Study Abroad & Global Engagement; and University Career Center.
Additional support comes from community sponsors Central Bank, International Relations Council, Jayhawk Community Partners and Pepsi.
More information about the 2024 International Jayhawk Festival can be found on the International Affairs website.
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Contact: Giselle Anatol, Hall Center for the Humanities, 785-864-4798, [email protected]
Stories for All Festival to take place April 18-20 in downtown Lawrence
LAWRENCE — Funded by a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Stories for All Digital Storytelling Project, based out of the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, will host a festival with the theme “Sharing Community Stories in a Digital World.” Events will take place April 18-20 in downtown Lawrence.
The Stories for All Festival will kick off with a keynote panel, including Kelly Baker Josephs, editor of The Digital Black Atlantic (2021); Natchee Blu Barnd, author of “Native Space: Geographic Strategies to Unsettle Settler Colonialism” (2017); Eric Gonzaba, project director of Mapping the Gay Guides and Wearing Gay History; and Alex Ketchum, director of the Just Feminist Tech + Scholarship Lab, discussing the ethics and practice of digitally based social justice storytelling. The panel will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. April 18 at the Carnegie Library Building, 200 W. Ninth St.
On April 19, the festival will continue at the Lawrence Public Library with interactive presentations from Stories for All project partners; a funders’ forum, highlighting insights from both national and regional funders of digital storytelling projects; and a digital exhibition of Stories for All projects. That evening, there will be a screening of Stories for All film projects from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Ready for Good, 708 Connecticut St.
The festival will conclude April 20 at the Carnegie Library Building with additional presentations by Stories for All project partners and a closing reception.
Events are free and open to the public, though registration is requested.
“As this grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation comes to an end, we are excited to share all the incredible work our partners have been doing over the past three years with the Lawrence community,” said Giselle Anatol, principal investigator and director of the Hall Center for the Humanities. “I’m looking forward to an energizing exchange of ideas between scholars, artists, activists, nonprofit leaders and the public.”
Stories for All is a collaborative digital storytelling project that works with more than 40 community and KU partners to recover marginalized and suppressed histories and share them widely through digital media. Addressing the opportunities, challenges, ethics and politics of storytelling in the digital era, Stories for All asks how different stories and storytelling strategies can connect rather than divide us. Learn more about Stories for All at the project website.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Spooky Cold War broadcasts inspire new poetry collection
LAWRENCE – Joe Harrington’s new poetry collection is titled “Disapparitions” (Blaze/Vox, 2023), and he designed the cover, which riffs on the minimalist Beatles “White Album.”
It seems appropriate for the slim yet weighty volume powered by misty, Cold War memories of spooks and spies, ghosts and divination mingling in the mind of a boy listening to global – perhaps even otherworldly — transmissions over a short-wave radio.
The University of Kansas professor of English said his third collection could be called “investigative” or “documentary” poetry. There is a section of “Sources” notes at the back, citing works by such writers as William Burroughs, Ralph Ellison and Jean Cocteau, fringe figures like Konstantin Raudive and Akin O. Fernandez, as well as recent news stories.
The poems include ruminations over such strange sounds as the droning “numbers stations” whose broadcasts were received in the home of a young boy in suburban Memphis around the time Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt but that they were encrypted messages to espionage agents in the field, perhaps in England or Romania or who knows where,” Harrington said. “They were intended for one person with a key code to decipher them, but they were broadcast to the world, including my home in Memphis.”
Historical figures like Nikola Tesla, Patrice Lumumba and George Wallace are cited.
But some of the poems seem torn from today’s headlines with allusions to such haunted characters as the conspiracy-bedeviled “Targeted Individuals” and the neo-Nazi Patriot Front.
“Whether it’s the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers or what have you, part of what spawned this project was this feeling of a spiritual insubstantiality among Americans,” Harrington said. “Somehow you can see right through us. We’re lightweights. And that’s a perfect example. On the one hand, they’re scary and dangerous. On the other hand, it’s really hard to take them seriously.”
One of the poems delves into the etymology of the word “truth” itself.
“Whoever you’re loyal to speaks truth … We only believe the ones we believe we can believe,” Harrington writes.
In another passage, the poet wrote, “Writing has always been a suicide note.”
“It came out of this idea of recorded communication, whether it’s written or an audio recording, online or whatever, as being something that really is immortal, in a way, because it lasts,” Harrington said. “It can be there beyond the person’s lifetime.
You’re still hearing the dead person’s voice. That’s probably the sense in which I meant that line — that it’s something that you’re leaving behind.”
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Contact: Emma Herrman, School of Law, [email protected], @kulawschool
KU Law wins back-to-back national transactional law competitions
LAWRENCE – In March, two University of Kansas Law students traveled to Southfield, Michigan, to compete in the Wayne State Taft Transactional Law Competition. Jackie Jeschke and Alli Baden, third-year law students, went head-to-head against 21 other law school teams from around the country and came away victorious, bringing home both of the competition’s top prizes – best negotiation and best draft.
In preparation, Jeschke and Baden spent months drafting and revising an agreement and then competed in two live negotiations. They were coached by Anna Kimbrell, 2014 graduate, a partner at Husch Blackwell and leader of the firm’s national energy and natural resources practice.
“The opportunity to participate in a transactional law competition was a goal of mine since beginning law school,” Jeschke said. “The real-life experience of gathering deal information, drafting an agreement and negotiating with the other side further solidified that being a deal lawyer is the right career path for me.”
“We were honored and excited to win both Best Drafting Counsel and Best Negotiation Counsel for the buyer’s side,” Baden said. “Credit for our success goes to our coach, Anna Kimbrell, who provided us with valuable advice on how to approach drafting and how to effectively convey our deal points during the negotiations.”
This is the second consecutive national transactional competition victory for KU Law. In February, KU Law students traveled to California for the UCLA Transactional Law Competition, where they took home the competition’s top award, best overall for the second year in a row. KU Law was also well represented at Baylor University’s “The Closer” Transactional Law Competition in January by Abbey Brower, third-year student, who won three out of four negotiation matchups.
Student participation in these competitions is supported by the Polsinelli Transactional Law Center, a partnership between KU Law and Polsinelli, which also offers transactional law courses, symposia and other programming to arm students with the practical skills necessary for successful careers in transactional law.
“Polsinelli’s support in creating the Polsinelli Transactional Law Center enables students who are interested in transactional law an opportunity to travel to these competitions without worrying about travel expenses,” Jeschke said. “Instead, we can focus our attention on learning practical skills that will make us better attorneys.”
Learn more about the transactional law programs at KU Law.
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