Hutchins Library News Blog

Happy November everyone!

This month's spotlight goes to Dr. Chad Berry. His book, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles, "examines one of the largest internal immigrations in the U.S., allowing those migrating workers the opportunity to talk about how their migration influenced their lives and futures."

"Southern out-migration drew millions of southern workers to the steel mills, automobile factories, and even agricultural fields and orchards of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Through vivid oral histories, Chad Berry explores the conflict between migrants' economic success and their "spiritual exile" in the North. He documents the tension between factory owners who welcomed cheap, naive southern laborers and local "native" workers who greeted migrants with suspicion and hostility. He examines the phenomenon of "shuttle migration," in which migrants came north to work during the winter and returned home to plant spring crops on their southern farms. He also explores the impact of southern traditions--especially the southern evangelical church and "hillbilly" music--brought north by migrants.

Berry argues that in spite of being scorned by midwesterners for violence, fecundity, intoxication, laziness, and squalor, the vast majority of southern whites who moved to the Midwest found the economic prosperity they were seeking. By allowing southern migrants to assess their own experiences and tell their own stories, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles refutes persistent stereotypes about migrants' clannishness, life-style, work ethic, and success in the North."

-University of Illinois Press. 

Want to read more? Come and check out Dr. Chad Berry's books! 

The Hayloft Gang by Chad Berry (Editor)

Call Number: 781.642 H421 2008 - BC Scholarship Collection (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 2008

The National Barn Dance was the nation's most popular country music radio show during the 1930s and 1940s, essentially defining country and western entertainment until it was supplanted by the Grand Ole Opry and rock 'n' roll in the 1950s. Broadcast for more than three decades from Chicago on WLS's powerful 50,000-watt signal, the show reached listeners throughout the Midwest, the East Coast, and large regions of the South, delivering popular entertainment to rural and urban areas and celebrating the folk traditions that were fading in an increasingly urbanized America. Drawing on the colorful commentary of performers and former listeners, these essays analyze the National Barn Dance and its audience, trace the history of barn dance radio, explore the paradox of country music in a major urban center, investigate notions of authenticity in the presentation of country music and entertainment, and delve into other provocative issues raised by the barn dance phenomenon.

 

Looking and Learning: Visual Literacy Across the Disciplines by Deandra Little (Editor); Peter Felten (Editor); Chad Berry (Editor)

Call Number: 371.904 L863 2015 - BC Scholarship Collection (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 2015

In this volume, the authors focus on the importance of inclusive teaching and the role faculty can play in helping students achieve, though not necessarily in the same way. To teach with a focus on inclusion means to believe that every person has the ability to learn. It means that most individuals want to learn, to improve their ability to better understand the world in which they live, and to be able to navigate their pathways of life. This volume includes the following topics: best practices for teaching students with social, economic, gender, or ethnic differences adjustments to the teaching and learning process to focus on inclusion strategies for teaching that help learners connect what they know with the information presented environments that maximize learners academic and social growth. The premise of inclusive teaching works to demonstrate that all people can and do learn. 

 

Studying Appalachian Studies by Chad Berry (Editor); Philip J. Obermiller (Editor); Shaunna L. Scott (Editor)

Call Number: 974 S933 2015 - BC Scholarship Collection (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 2015

In this collection, contributors reflect on scholarly, artistic, activist, educational, and practical endeavor known as Appalachian Studies. Following an introduction to the field, the writers discuss how Appalachian Studies illustrates the ways interdisciplinary studies emerge, organize, and institutionalize themselves, and how they engage with intellectual, political, and economic forces both locally and around the world.   Essayists argue for Appalachian Studies' integration with kindred fields like African American studies, women's studies, and Southern studies, and they urge those involved in the field to globalize the perspective of Appalachian Studies; to commit to continued applied, participatory action, and community-based research; to embrace more fully the field's capacity for bringing about social justice; to advocate for a more accurate understanding of Appalachia and its peop≤ and to understand and overcome the obstacles interdisciplinary studies face in the social and institutional construction of knowledge.

Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles by Chad Berry

Call Number: 304.809 B534so Copy 1 - BC Scholarship Collection (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 2000

In this record of ordinary lives, dozens of white southern migrants describe their experiences in the northern wilderness and their irradicable attachments to family and community in the South.

Hutchins Library is featuring a display of Herbarium Sheets for the Ecological Weed Management Course. These are sheets created by students in Dr. Nancy Gift's class during  the Fall 2017 semester. The display can be viewed in  the library's main floor through the end of the semester.

Dr. Gift provided the following statement on the display:

Plant scientists can, of course, grow a wide variety of plants in greenhouses and arboretums and botanical gardens, but the true library of a plant scientist is a herbarium.  For Ecological Weed Management class (ANR/SENS 328), we use a cabinet as a weed herbarium, and students contribute to this herbarium by collecting 30 weeds.  While the purpose of the samples is functional – to help future weed scientists study the weeds of our time and place – many of these samples may also be beautiful. 

Of course, many of these weeds were collected on Berea College campus, in the gardens, flower beds, lawns, and farm fields.  Some weeds, like wintercreeper and burning bush, are invasive weeds that were introduced as landscaping plants.  Some weeds, like common blue violet and red clover, are beneficial plants that make their appearances in lawns not treated with herbicides.  Many weeds, like chickweed and dandelion, are edible, and were an important component to nutrition for many Appalachian families.  Sometimes a plant, like dandelion, may be considered a weed in one place (a golf course) and a beneficial plant in another place (a bee-friendly lawn). 

On the cards accompanying the plant samples, you see the Latin name (Genus and species), the common name, the family name, the name of the collector, and the date and location of the collection.  Once the identity of a plant is known, the land manager (farmer, gardener, homeowner) can look up more information about the life cycle of the plant and decide whether and how to control the plant, either with herbicides or with management decisions.

Here is a sample photo:

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is here! NaNoWriMo happens each November, and it is a national program aimed at helping creative writers fulfill their writing goals. Writing Resources invites NanoWriMo writers to use the Center for Teaching and Learning space (located on the ground floor of the library) as a space for their writing.
 
From November 1-30th, you can use the following spaces:
 

• Any Time – CTL Open Space – Writers are always welcome to be writing in the CTL open space as long as the library is open. During the day, it’s a nice quiet place with lots of comfortable nooks and couches. Hit a snag? Schedule an appointment with one of our consultants at the front desk or on berea.mywconline.com.
   
•  Any Time – CTL Study Carrels – The CTL space also has two large study carrels that are about the size of a group study room. You can block the front of them with rolling white boards if you need a slightly more private space.
   
• After WR Closing – Consulting Room 115 – This is a small consulting room behind the Writing Resources desk. While Writing Resources is open, we use it for consultations; after we close in the evening, the library has agreed to have NanoWriMo writers use this as a quiet place to write during November.

Attend Innovative Chamber Music on

November 16th, 2017, 8:00pm

Phelps-Stokes Auditorium

Among today's most exciting chamber music ensembles, the American Chamber Players perform repertoire ranging from familiar masterpieces to neglected gems to newly commissioned American works. Its delightful programs with varied instrumental combinations have been as enthusiastically praised as its dynamic performances. Stephenson Memorial Concert.

If you enjoyed their performance, check out some chamber music we have available on display near the cafe!

This month's showcase goes by the name of Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick:

"In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman's failure to comply with her patriarchal overlords will result in exile to the meanest penal planet in the galaxy. When the newest crop of fresh femmes arrive, can they work together to stay alive or will hidden agendas, crooked guards, and the deadliest sport on (or off!) Earth take them to their maker?"                   -from the publisher

Check it out today!

Bitch Planet by Valentine De Landro (Artist); Robert Wilson (Artist); Taki Soma (Artist); Kelly Sue DeConnick

Call Number: 741.597 D296b 2014 v. 1 - Graphic Novels (Main Floor Circulation Area)

Publication Date: 2015

November's reference book of the month is Eerdman Brills's The Encyclopedia of Christianity. The following description is from amazon.com: 

A major intellectual resource. Jaroslav Pelikan, from the foreword. The multiple award-winning Encyclopedia of Christianity (EC), copublished by Brill and Eerdmans, is a monumental five-volume work presenting the history and current state of the Christian faith in its rich spiritual and theological diversity around the world. Volume 1 (A-D) contains 465 articles featuring - articles on all but the smallest countries of the world, including the former communist nations that have gained independence since 1989; - the latest statistical information from David B. Barrett on the religious affiliation and ecclesiastical breakdown of each country and continent; - articles on doctrines, denominations, and social and ethical issues in relation to the churches; - biographical articles on prominent figures through church history.

Recommended for anyone taking religion courses or GSTR 310.

Fun fact: The book contains statistical percentages of religious and church affiliations of populations in many countries.

The Encyclopedia of Christianity by Erwin Fahlbusch (Editor); Jan Milic Lochman (Editor); John Mbiti (Editor); Jaroslav Pelikan (Editor); Lukas Vischer (Editor)

Call Number: 230.003 E56

Publication Date: 2003

Attend The Future of Human Rights on

November 9th 2017, 3:00pm

Phelps-Stokes Auditorium 

Dr. Simmons, a Political Science and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the roots of human rights and how human rights became an international priority. She details how and why the United States has both assisted and resisted international human rights laws around the world. Simmons suggests that there is hope that human rights could thrive under certain conditions. Begley-Van Cleve Lecture.

If you enjoyed her presentation today, check out her book we have available on display near the cafe!

Mobilizing for Human Rights by Beth A. Simmons

Call Number: Call Number 341.48 S592m 2009 (3rd Floor)

Publication Date: 2009

This volume argues that international human rights law has made a positive contribution to the realization of human rights in much of the world. Although governments sometimes ratify human rights treaties, gambling that they will experience little pressure to comply with them, this is not typically the case. Focusing on rights stakeholders rather than the United Nations or state pressure, Beth Simmons demonstrates through a combination of statistical analyses and case studies that the ratification of treaties leads to better rights practices on average. Simmons argues that international human rights law should get more practical and rhetorical support from the international community as a supplement to broader efforts to address conflict, development, and democratization.

Hutchins Library will be displaying the art exhibit entitled "The Other Side" in the library's main floor. The exhibit will run from November 1, 2017 to November 30, 2017. The display can be viewed during library regular hours. It is free and open to the public.

The artists featured are Christine Kuhn, Karla Rose Weakly-Gruber, and Sylvia Zingg. The artists provided the following exhibit statement:

"The Other Side" is an art show of work created by former students of the Berea Art Department who for one reason or another did not graduate from the college but instead, transferred to other institutions to finish their degrees or were graduates of Berea College who received non-art related degrees and after graduating became artists.

Christine Kuhn is an artist/muralist who lives, works, creates and sometimes teaches in Lexington, Kentucky. Her works of art have been seen and published in various publications and venues in Kentucky and elsewhere.

Karla Rose Weakly-Gruber is an artist who lives in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky.  She is the owner of Front Porch Art and former artist/art teacher at the Music and Art Center of Cultural Learning in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  She studied art education at both Berea College and Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. 

Sylvia Zingg currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska with her family. She actively volunteers her time and talents to various community organizations. She is an RN by trade, but recently has been creating art and working in her studio.

Art piece by Christine Kuhn:

Art piece by Sylvia Zingg:

Art piece by Karla Rose Weakly-Gruber

If you haven't already visited the Hispanic Outreach Program's Day of the Dead Display in the lobby of Hutchins Library, make time to come see it and reflect on those you have loved and lost.

So, what is the Day of the Dead? According to Marta Vides Saade, in Hispanic American Religious Cultures:

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a day of commemoration of family and friends who have died. In contemporary times, this commemoration takes place on November 2, to coincide with the Christian holy day of All Soul's Day. And yet, the commemoration is separate and distinct from the Christian holy day. The origin of the commemoration is sometimes attributed to Aztec or Nahuatl tradition, sometimes to postcolonial syncretism or a mixture of the indigenous Aztec/Nahuatl tradition with Christianity, and, in a more contemporary understanding, as a sign of Mexican national pride and as a Chicano sign of resistance, as well as indigenous precolonial pride. For some observers of the tradition, the commemoration remains a religious one, for others merely a cultural expression of identity, and for outsiders a kind of political recognition or even kitsch.

 

Visit the Altar

Share the name - or memory - of a loved one you would like to remember

Check out the beautiful Calavera Catrina