Union Institute & University, Master of Arts

Check out the new post on the MA News Blog on Union's website. Our MA students are working on some fascinating projects! Feel free to contact me if you have some news to share on the blog.
http://myunionmasterofarts.blogspot.com/

Union Institute & University Master of Arts

MA faculty member Woden Teachout recently presented a talk at the St. Johnsbury Atheneum as part of a Vermont Humanities Council lecture series. Check out this blog; it sounds like people found the talk inspiring! http://www.semperscribens.org/blog/2013/12/4/reflections-on-reflections

(Reflections on) Reflections on a daguerreotype I graduated college with and left campus with my fancy, Latin-filled diploma, my poofy cap, and a definition of history I thought was cemented into my very psyche.

Here is a Fall photo of Brattleboro, VT, the new home of the MA program—we are in the building on the far left. We joined Union's Ph.D. and M.A. in Counseling Psychology and the B.A. program teams in the Marlboro College Graduate Center. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi.

Dr. Michael Raffanti, Associate Dean of Union’s Ph.D. Program in Interdisciplinary Studies and graduate of the Literature and Writing concentration, will present a paper based on his M.A. Thesis at the 2013 International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations being held in Darwin, Australia, June 26-28. His paper, titled ‘Challenging Heteronormativity: Twenty- First Century LGBTQ Young Adult Fiction,’ examines LGBTQ-themed young adult novels that explore the complexity of sexual and gender identity in a counter-hegemonic, transformative manner.
Check out the conference website: http://ondiversity.com/

Diversity in Organization, Communities & Nations A knowledge community, international conference, scholarly journal, and book series.

MA Professor Leslie Korn will be doing a book reading and signing of Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature and the Body at Lesley University in Cambridge on April 24th at 5 pm. Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Leslie-E.-Korn/e/B009EA3Y32

Did you catch the news story about UI&U? We were listed in the top 5 progressive colleges found online. I would say the Master of Arts is a driving force for this recognition, wouldn't you?

http://www.geteducated.com/elearning-education-blog/top-progressive-colleges-online-for-old-hippies-and-new-hipsters/

Top Progressive Colleges Online for Old Hippies and New Hipsters | GetEducated.com The top 6 progressive colleges online picked by Get Educated to be the best option for Hippies and Hipsters.

It is with great sadness that I must report the passing of our own Professor Patricia Monaghan. Pat Monaghan was an important teacher in the Master of Arts Program and will be greatly missed by all who knew her. This is one of her poems:

The Poised Edge of Chaos

Sand sifts down, one grain at a time,
forming a small hill. When it grows high
enough, a tiny avalanche begins. Let
sand continue to sift down, and avalanches
will occur irregularly, in no predictable order,
until there is a tiny mountain range of sand.
Peaks will appear, and valleys, and as
sand continues to de...scend, the relentless
sand, piling up and slipping down, piling
up and slipping down, piling up - eventually
a single grain will cause a catastrophe, all
the hills and valleys erased, the whole face
of the landscape changed in an instant.

Walking yesterday, my heels crushed chamomile
and released intoxicating memories of home.
Earlier this week, I wrote an old love, flooded
with need and desire. Last month I planted
new flowers in an old garden bed -

one grain at a time, a pattern is formed,
one grain at a time, a pattern is destroyed,
and there is no way to know which grain
will build the tiny mountain higher, which
grain will tilt the mountain into avalanche,
whether the avalanche will be small or
catastrophic, enormous or inconsequential.

We are always dancing with chaos, even when
we think we move too gracefully to disrupt
anything in the careful order of our lives,
even when we deny the choreography of passion,
hoping to avoid earthquakes and avalanches,
turbulence and elemental violence and pain.
We are always dancing with chaos, for the grains
sift down upon the landscape of our lives, one,
then another, one, then another, one then another.

Today I rose early and walked by the sea,
watching the changing patterns of the light
and the otters rising and the gulls descending,

and the boats steaming off into the dawn,
and the smoke drifting up into the sky,
and the waves drumming on the dock,

and I sang. An old song came upon me,
one with no harbour nor dawn nor dock,
no woman walking in the mist, no gulls,
no boats departing for the salmon shoals.

I sang, but not to make order of the sea
nor of the dawn, nor of my life. Not to make
order at all. Only to sing, clear notes over sand.
Only to walk, footsteps in sand. Only to live. --Patricia Monaghan

Health and Wellness Concentration Professor Leslie Korn’s book has recently been published. Written for practitioners and students interested in integrating the insights of complementary/alternative medicine and 21st-century science, Rhythms of Recovery provides effective, time-tested tools for alleviating the destabilizing effects of traumatic events. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415807500/

Rhythms of Recovery: Trauma, Nature, and the Body (Paperback) - Routledge Rhythm is one of the most important components of our survival and well-being. It governs the patterns of our sleep and respiration and is profoundly tied to our relationships with friends and family. But what happens when these rhythms are disrupted by...

A day of voting is a good opportunity to think about the nature of democracy and how it can work better at the local level. Professor Woden Teachout was interviewed on C-Span regarding the principles to find our own process through inclusion, deliberation, and empowerment.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SlowD

[Slow Democracy] - C-SPAN Video Library Author Woden Teachout talked about her book, co-authored with Susan Clark, [Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home], in which the authors discuss how citizens can successfully govern themselves on a local level. C-SPAN's Local Content Vehicles (LCVs) made a st...

History and Culture professor Woden Teachout’s new book is making a media splash. Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home can be liked on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/slowdemocracy. The authors will be interviewed Tuesday, Oct. 16th on VPR's Vermont Edition, noon and 7 pm. Call in and ask interesting questions! Their C-SPAN interview will air on C-SPAN 2 at noon on Nov 2nd and 3rd.

Our own Professor Woden Teachout was quoted in French newspaper, Slate, regarding historical accounts of burning the American flag. You may need to brush up on your French to follow the article.
http://www.slate.fr/story/61807/drapeau-americain-brule-pakistan-afghanistan-yemen

Depuis quand brûle-t-on des drapeaux américains? | Slate Depuis plus d'un siècle aux Etats-Unis, mais seulement 30 ans à l'étranger.