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Tales as old as time … yet we still love them

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 15:36:10 +0000

Tales as old as time … yet we still love them Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/04/2025 - 09:36

Rachel Sauer

With yet another Snow White adaptation currently in theaters, CU �鶹ӰԺ scholar Suzanne Magnanini reflects on the enduring appeal of fairy tales

Once upon a time—this time, in fact, and many of the ones that came before it—there was a story that never grew dull in its telling.

It possibly leaped the porous cultural and national borders of narrative, carried by caravans or ships or ethernet cables and planted in the ready imaginations of successive generations of story lovers—those who tell them and those who hear them.

Maybe it’s the story of a young person who ventures into the unknown, where they encounter magic and beasts of all sizes and a resolution specific to the tale’s time and place. Maybe there really even are fairies involved.

Suzanne Magnanini, a CU �鶹ӰԺ associate professor of Italian and chair of the Department of French and Italian, notes that fairy tales' malleability helps them remain fresh and relevant over centuries of retellings.

And we never seem to tire of hearing about them.

The recent theatrical release of Disney’s live-action Snow White—one of countless retellings of the tale over more than 400 years—highlights the place of honor that fairy tales occupy in cultures around the world and in the hearts of people hearing them for the first time or the thousandth.

One of the reasons they remain fresh through countless years and iterations is their malleability, says Suzanne Magnanini, a �鶹ӰԺ associate professor of Italian and chair of the Department of French and Italian. “The Italian author Italo Calvino, who also edited a seminal collection of Italian folktales, writes of fairy tales as being like a stone fruit, where you have that hard core center that is always the same—you’ll usually recognize a Sleeping Beauty story, for example—but the fruit can be radically different around that.”

Stories of time and place

As a researcher, Magnanini has published broadly on fairy tales, including her 2008 book Fairy-Tale Science: Monstrous Generation in the Fairy Tales of Straparola and Basile. She began studying fairy tales while working on her PhD, finding in them a fascinating dovetailing between her interests in monstrosity and otherness.

“As a scholar, I take what’s called a social-historical approach,” she explains. “I’m really interested in all those little details that link a tale to a very precise place in time where it was told, and I’ve written about the ways in which fairy tales are used to elaborate on and think about scientific theories of reproduction that hadn’t really been nailed down at the time—questions that were still being circulated about whether humans could interbreed with animals, for example, and would that produce a monstrous child?

“You look at a some variations of Beauty and the Beast, like Giovan Francesco Straparola’s story of a pig king, where it’s a magical version of these questions, and maybe what’s actually happening is that fairy tales are a way to think through the anxieties and interests of the time.”

Fairy Tales at CU �鶹ӰԺ

The ATU Index is one of the search elements that Suzanne Magnanini and her students are including as they develop the database for Fairy Tales at CU �鶹ӰԺ. The project aims, in part, to improve access and searchability of the more than 2,000 fairy tale collections that are part of the Rare Books Collection at Norlin Library.

The project is a partnership between undergraduates and graduate students under the direction of Magnanini and Sean Babbs, instruction coordinator for the University Libraries' Rare and Distinctive Collections, as well as Hope Saska, CU Art Museum acting director and chief curator, who has trained students in visual-thinking strategies. The project is supported by Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, the ASSETT Innovation Incubator, the President’s Teaching Scholars Program and the University Libraries.

Fairy Tales at CU �鶹ӰԺ will host a showcase of CU's fairy tale collection from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. April 16 in Norlin Library M350B. Learn more here.

Though fairy tales may be spun in response to what’s happening in a specific time and place, they also often address concerns that aren’t specific to one location or culture but are broadly pondered across humanity. “Andrew Teverson has written that fairy tales are literature’s migrants because they can move across borders, they can move across boundaries and then make themselves at home and assimilate to a certain extent in different cultures,” Magnanini says.

For example, the Brothers Grimm heard a tale called “Sneewittchen” (Snow White) from folklorist Marie Hassenpflug, as well as from other sources, and included it as tale No. 53 in their seminal 1812 Grimm’s Fairy Tales. However, says Magnanini, there was a similar tale called “The Young Slave” in Giambattista Basile’s 1634 work Pentamerone. In fact, Snow White is type 709 in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index), which catalogs and describes common motifs and themes in fairy tales and folklore around the world.

Not so happily ever after

The origins of many fairy tales can be traced as far back as ancient Greece, Rome and China, Magnanini says, which speaks to their ability not only to help people of particular times and places explore their anxieties and questions, but to address the feelings that have been central to the human condition almost since our species emerged from caves.

“When I think about fairy tales, I think about number of characteristics that make them really appealing across time and space,” Magnanini says. “If you think about it, the protagonists are almost always young people heading out into the world—much like our students are heading out—leaving home behind, having to make their way in world, facing challenges. That experience can be very transformational, so in a way these stories are all about metamorphosis and change.

“A lot of times that’s when you’re living your life in Technicolor and all the emotions are new. So, even if you’re no longer in that moment of life, fairy tales tap into experiences like the first falling in love, the first adventure from home. And they often end right after the wedding, so you don’t see someone having to do their taxes or being like, ‘Oh, my god, I’ve been in this relationship for 30 years and I’m bored.’ I think part of the reason we don’t get tired of fairy tales is because they capture this fleeting time in life.”

“If you think about it, the (fairy tale) protagonists are almost always young people heading out into the world—much like our students are heading out—leaving home behind, having to make their way in world, facing challenges," says CU �鶹ӰԺ scholar Suzanne Magnanini. (Photo: Disney Studios)

While fairy tales, particularly as they’ve been interpreted and simplified by Disney, are stereotyped as having “and they lived happily ever after” endings, fairy tales pre-Disney more commonly ended with justice served, Magnanini says. For example, the version of “Snow White” in the 1812 Grimm’s Fairy Tales ends with the evil queen being forced to step into a pair of red-hot iron shoes and dance until she dies.

“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, it’s the happy ending that’s the appeal of fairy tales,’ but it’s important to remember the vast majority of fairy tales end with the deliverance of justice—something really unjust has happened, someone has been discriminated against, there’s some evil in the world, and justice is delivered,” Magnanini explains. “People who study the formal aspects of fairy tales always talk about how the ‘happy ending’ is found in justice.

“Disney Studios has a tendency to remove the ambiguity from these tales and remove most of the violence—simplifying them in a lot of ways. If you read the French version of Beauty and the Beast, Charles Perrault’s version, there were other siblings in there; there was a complex family structure with complex interactions and a lot of really heavy issues—the family must deal with economic disaster.”

In fact, the field of fairy tale scholarship addresses everything from feminist interpretations of the stories to the ways in which children use fairy tales to help navigate psychosexual rites of passage. Generations of authors have told and continue to retell these familiar stories through different lenses of gender, sexuality, geography, racial identity, economic status and many, many others.

“What makes these stories different, and what I think is a big part of the appeal of fairy tales, is the magic or the marvel,” Magnanini says. “For it to be a fairy tale, scholars would say there has to be magic in there—not just the presence of magic, but magic that facilitates the happy ending by allowing the protagonist to overcome whatever obstacles are in the way of what they desire, maybe the marriage, the wealth, the happy ending. There’s something so satisfying about that, because it doesn’t happen in your quotidian day-to-day life. I mean, imagine if you met a talking deer.”

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With yet another Snow White adaptation currently in theaters, CU �鶹ӰԺ scholar Suzanne Magnanini reflects on the enduring appeal of fairy tales.

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Top image: Disney Studios

CU prof fighting to keep Latin classes alive through video storytelling

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:51:17 +0000

CU prof fighting to keep Latin classes alive through video storytelling Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/01/2025 - 09:51

Cody DeBos

For Reina Callier, learning Latin ‘is like lifting weights for your brain’

When a student in one of Reina Callier’s Latin classes said, “I came for the language, I stayed for the vibes,” she laughed, but the phrase stuck with her.

It captured something essential about Latin classrooms. Beyond conjugations and declensions, they offer students a haven for community, curiosity and a shared passion for the ancient world.

In recent years, though, that community has been shrinking.

Reina Callier, a CU �鶹ӰԺ teaching assistant professor of classics, notes that “Latin survives because people love it. And as long as we keep sharing that love, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Enrollment in Latin classes, especially at the secondary level, has largely been declining,” Callier explains. “During COVID, Latin classes were seen as non-essential, so they lost a lot of students. And they’ve been having a hard time bringing the numbers back up.”

For Callier, a teaching assistant professor of classics and the Latin Program Coordinator at the �鶹ӰԺ, this trend is more than an academic concern.

She wasn’t alone in her worries. In response to falling enrollment rates, the Colorado Classics Association (CCA) formed a committee dedicated to promoting interest in Latin classes.

The solution? A project that would convey the benefits of learning Latin to students in their own words.

A language in decline

Across the country, Latin programs have struggled to justify their existence in an education system increasingly focused on STEM fields and workforce development. In some districts, administrators have proposed cutting Latin entirely, forcing teachers and students to fight for their programs.

In collaboration with the CCA and local high school educators, Callier helped spearhead You Belong in Latin, a video project designed to remind high school students why Latin is worth learning.

“We finally came up with the idea for a video, because it’s something you can share easily. It’s more entertaining than just looking at a brochure that says, ‘Here’s why Latin is a good thing to take,’” Callier says.

The project quickly took shape as teachers across Colorado filmed interviews with their students, capturing firsthand accounts of what Latin means to them. They also collected footage of classrooms filled with laughter, animated discussions and moments of discovery.

“One of the things we noticed is that once students get into Latin class, they really love it,” Callier says. “You just have to get them in the door.”

The team secured a grant to bring the project to life, which allowed them to hire a former CU �鶹ӰԺ student who majored in film—and took several semesters of Latin with Callier—to professionally edit the videos.

Over the course of a year, the raw footage was transformed into a compelling series of short videos, each emphasizing a unique aspect of the Latin classroom experience.

Now available on YouTube, the You Belong in Latin videos are a vital resource for teachers, students and parents to share.

Latin is for everyone

A central theme of You Belong in Latin is the tight-knit community formed in Latin classrooms. Unlike more popular language programs, Latin classes tend to be small, allowing students to form deeper relationships with their peers and instructors.

“At CU �鶹ӰԺ, if you take Latin, aside from the first semester where there are two sections of Latin I, after that, everybody’s in the same class together,” Callier explains. “You continue to see the same instructors in the department as well. So you get to know them, and you get to know your peers in a way that’s not really very common at the college level.”

The same holds true in high schools, where Latin students often stay in one cohort across multiple years and gain a sense of unity and belonging.

The videos also seek to challenge the misconception that Latin is elitist—a subject reserved for Ivy League prep schools and aspiring academics.

“Latin actually isn’t elitist. Everybody’s starting from the same level when they walk into Latin class. There’s no barrier, and everybody can benefit from it in various ways,” Callier says.

And while Latin’s reputation as a “dead language” often turns students away, Callier argues that its benefits are very much alive. Latin gives students a foundation for English vocabulary, enhances their analytical skills and prepares them for careers in law, medicine and the sciences, she says, adding that it also provides direct access to Latin texts, “which is immensely beneficial to anyone who is enthusiastic about Roman literature or history.

“Latin actually isn’t elitist. Everybody’s starting from the same level when they walk into Latin class. There’s no barrier, and everybody can benefit from it in various ways.”

“Learning Latin is like weightlifting for your brain,” she says with a smile.

Keeping the momentum going

Now that the You Belong in Latin videos have been published, Callier is working to spread the word.

“We have been sharing our Colorado Classics Association YouTube channel with educators from around the country who are looking for different ways to promote Latin,” she says.

Feedback on the project has been encouraging for Latin educators who rarely receive recognition for their efforts.

“What we are doing as Latin educators is something that is really having an impact,” Callier says. “Students are getting a lot out of Latin in various ways, and they’re really appreciating what we bring to the table.”

At its heart, this project isn’t just about keeping Latin alive but also celebrating what makes it special. As Callier and her colleagues know, the language is only the beginning. The real magic comes from the people who learn and teach it.

Callier says, “Latin survives because people love it. And as long as we keep sharing that love, it’s not going anywhere.”

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For Reina Callier, learning Latin ‘is like lifting weights for your brain.'

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Schmooze-a-Palooza to celebrate community, song and Hebrew

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 19:19:24 +0000

Schmooze-a-Palooza to celebrate community, song and Hebrew Rachel Sauer Fri, 02/28/2025 - 12:19

CU �鶹ӰԺ event, now in its 11th year, will schmooze it up on March 12

For the past decade, Hebrew classes at the �鶹ӰԺ have hosted a novel event described as a rite of passage: the Schmooze-a-Palooza—part concert, part community building and part celebration of Hebrew and song.

The 11^th-annual Schmooze-a-Palooza will be held at 6:30 pm Wednesday, March 12, in UMC Room 235. Anyone with an interest in Hebrew is invited.

What: 11th-annual Schmooze-a-Palooza

When: 6:30 p.m. March 12

Where: UMC Room 235

Who: Anyone with an interest in Hebrew is invited.

Led by Eyal Rivlin, a teaching professor of Hebrew language in the Program in Jewish Studies and a professional musician, students in each class prepare a well-loved song in Hebrew—memorizing it, dressing up, creating a dance and performing it in front of their peers.

Having taught in different capacities for more than 30 years, Rivlin wanted to extend learning beyond the classroom, help the different classes connect and inspire lifelong friendships.

“When we show up in creative and expressive manners, with permission to embody our inner rockstar, a vulnerability is tapped which sets the groundwork for connecting at deeper levels,” says Rivlin. “It is clear to me that in 20 years from now, many of my students will remember singing with their friends, taking a risk and showing up together and having fun in the context of learning a language.”

Through the years, the concert has expanded and now, in addition to class performances, Jewish Studies faculty offer a song from the stage, some students volunteer to perform solos and duets of their favorite Hebrew songs and members of the local Hebrew-speaking community prepare a song as well. This year there is even talk about a flash-mob dance, Rivlin says.

Students have said that the event is a highlight of their CU journey. Songs are a great way to expand vocabulary and memorize sentences and expressions. They also offer the community a taste of different cultural themes and musical styles.

This annual live concert is free and an opportunity to meet new friends, learn some Hebrew expressions and cheer fellow Buffs, Rivlin says.

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CU �鶹ӰԺ event, now in its 11th year, will schmooze it up on March 12.

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Remains from CU's Medical School still in �鶹ӰԺ

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 20:20:38 +0000

Remains from CU's Medical School still in �鶹ӰԺ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/25/2024 - 14:20

Silvia Pettem

Cadavers used in anatomy classes were buried in unmarked lots in Columbia Cemetery

The University of Colorado Department of Medicine and Surgery opened in �鶹ӰԺ in 1883 with two students. By 1890, the medical school included more than a dozen students, two of them women. In order to graduate, each student was required to dissect an entire human body.

Records of these cadavers reveal a little-known cross section of life and death in �鶹ӰԺ County. The body parts were interred in unmarked lots, where they remain today, in �鶹ӰԺ's Columbia Cemetery.

Prior to the school's opening, Dr. Lumen M. Giffin moved to �鶹ӰԺ from New York to become professor of anatomy and physiology. In the early days, tuition for the three-year program was a one-time fee of $5 for in-state students and $10 for those from out of state. The courses included lectures, chemical laboratories and dissections.

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum Silvia Pettem is an acclaimed local historian and author of Separate Lives: Uncovering the Hidden Family of Victorian Professor Mary Rippon.

One of the bodies donated to Giffin's class was that of miner Frederick Nelson. He had sought refuge from a forest fire and suffocated in the shaft of the Bald Mountain Mine near the town of Sunset. His relatives were unknown, and no one claimed his remains.

Many of the deceased met similarly unusual or violent deaths. According to coroners' records, in 1909 Herman Schmidt's skull was crushed by a falling rock while he worked as a laborer on the construction of Barker Dam, below Nederland. Schmidt was a recent immigrant with no known family or friends.

No one knew anything about Michael Clifford at the time of his death except his name. He was murdered in a drunken brawl in the town of Marshall. The university also welcomed his body.

Few, if any, of the cadavers used in the classroom dissections were female until 1914, when Cyrus Deardoff donated the body of his 70-year-old wife, Ellen, who had been declared insane and starved herself.

Cyrus had, at one time, been a prominent gold miner in Ward. However, he died destitute a few months after Ellen's death. He saved the expense of a funeral and the stigma of being consigned to a pauper’s grave by agreeing in advance to give the university his body, as well.

The year was a busy one for the medical students. By then, CU had purchased its second cemetery lot, and bought a third one a couple years later.

Additional bodies came from people who died by suicide or from influenza or other infectious diseases. Some, like Thomas McCormick, died from an overdose of morphine in the county jail.

Then there was William Ryan, a farmer, who had suffered from chronic alcoholism and was found dead in bed. He had no family, but he did have a watch and chain and a horse and buggy. CU got those items, too.

In 1924, citing a lack of appropriate medical facilities, CU's medical school moved to Denver. In 2008, the school transformed itself again with a move to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

A year before the school left �鶹ӰԺ, Giffin died of a stroke at age 72. At the time, he was the oldest physician in �鶹ӰԺ. He, too, was buried in Columbia Cemetery—intact and in his own grave with family members. But while Giffin is resting is peace, the other bodies in Columbia Cemetery are resting in pieces.

Top image: Luman M. Giffin (center) and his class in the CU Medical School during the late 1890s. (Photo: courtesy Carnegie Library for Local History, �鶹ӰԺ)

Silvia Pettem is a CU �鶹ӰԺ alum (1969) and is the author of Separate Lives: Uncovering the Hidden Family of Victorian Professor Mary Rippon. This column originally appeared in the Daily Camera. She can be reached at silviapettem.com.

Cadavers used in anatomy classes were buried in unmarked lots in Columbia Cemetery.

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Talking politics with a side of pizza

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 12:08:46 +0000

Talking politics with a side of pizza Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/10/2024 - 06:08

New Politics & Pizza sessions give students and experts and space for productive and lively discussion of timely political topics

Today’s elections bear little resemblance to elections 50 or even 20 years ago. One key change: Digital and social media have become more central to how voters receive information—or misinformation—about candidates and issues.

For example, a recent Pew Research Center survey found that of those ages 18 to 29 surveyed, 48% use TikTok to keep up with politics or political news and 52% use TikTok to get news. Another recent Pew survey found that 54% of U.S. adults surveyed often or sometimes get local political news from social media.

If you go

What: Politics & Pizza, “The Role of Digital/Social Media in U.S. Elections”

When: 5:30-6:45 p.m., Monday, Oct.14

Where: Bruce Curtis Building (MCOL), W100 – CC

Free Cosmo’s pizza!

Learn more

The role of these new media will be the focus of the inaugural Politics & Pizza session, set for 5:30-6:45 p.m. Oct. 14. The aim of Pizza & Politics—which is being initiated by Glen Krutz, a professor of political science—is to “encourage productive, substantive deliberation of specific topics, rather than rancorous and ideological macro-thoughts.”

“These events are meant to help CU students sink their minds into key, specific political issues while they are sinking their teeth into delicious pizza!” Krutz says. “The other main goal is to have experts get the discussion started, but then to very much have a discussion between the students and one another and the students and the experts. The interaction piece is central, rather than a one-way information flow that sometimes we see at talks on university campuses.”

Politics & Pizza, which includes free Cosmo’s pizza, is modeled on similar sessions offered in Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. Each session will feature expert speakers who give a few introductory thoughts about the session’s topic, and then open the session to a question-and-answer with students.

The theme of the first Pizza & Politics event Oct. 14 is “The Role of Digital/Social Media in U.S. Elections” with speakers Stephen Frost, an assistant professor in the College of Media, Communication and Information Department of Media Studies; Vivek Krishnamurthy, an associate professor in the CU Law School and director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic; and Alexandra Siegel, an associate professor of political science.

The second Politics & Pizza is scheduled for Oct. 28 and will focus on the Electoral College and institutional reform. A third date is set for Nov. 18 and will offer an analysis of the election outcome and the upcoming transition.

Spring 2025 sessions will focus on the new U.S. Congress, business and politics, and state universities in America.

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New Politics & Pizza sessions give students and experts and space for productive and lively discussion of timely political topics.

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Finding ‘Better Days’ through art

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:23:47 +0000

Finding ‘Better Days’ through art Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/20/2024 - 09:23

Rachel Sauer

New CU Art Museum exhibit highlights the ways in which art meets challenging times and finds the sometimes-elusive silver lining

It began not with the more known Confederate battle flag—the infamous stars and bars—but with the lesser-known Confederate flag of truce, a white linen towel waved on April 9, 1865, by Confederate troops when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, ending the U.S. Civil War.

In 2019, textile and social practice artist Sonya Clark made the flag of truce the focal point of her work Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know, recreating the “cloth that brokered peace and represented the promise of reconciliation.” The University of Colorado Art Museum recently acquired Clark’s 2022 print, Confederate, surrender, which reconstructs the historical artifact.

"From Me, All Things Proceed and to Me, They Must Return," by Hollis Sigler (1991) is part of the "Better Days" exhibition now open at the CU Art Museum.

It was this interpretation of a lesser-known symbol that got curators and staff at the museum thinking: “(Clark) is taking this ongoing moment in history and, in many ways, elevating it with an act of repair,” says Hope Saska, acting director, chief curator and director of academic engagement in the museum. “That started us thinking about how do artists take these times that may be challenging and then use art to respond?”

The fruit of those discussions is “Better Days,” an exhibition on view beginning today and open through Oct. 26, highlighting how artists “respond to times of uncertainty” with “work that can help make sense of the world.” In the works in the exhibit, drawn from the museum’s collection, “some [artists] imagine a better world, encouraging viewers to find silver linings, while others reveal hidden aspects of conflict, sparking conversation… Collectively, they offer ways to contend with a complex world, urging viewers to celebrate our shared humanity, witness injustice and work to repair division and inequity.”

These themes are especially timely as the U.S. presidential race speeds toward election day and as events worldwide seem to create tumult and fracture rather than hope and healing, Saska says.

“In some of these artworks (in the exhibit), artists are taking stands about racial injustice and political and social conflict, or they’re making artworks related to the AIDS crisis,” she explains. “For the museum, in the climate we have today, taking on these topics kind of feels risky sometimes. We were thinking about all of these things as we curated the exhibit, so hopefully it is thought-provoking even in its challenging aspects. Our goal is that what people really get out of it is positive and reparative. We want them to come away with hope.”

If you go

What: "Better Days" exhibition

When: Aug. 20-Oct. 26; reopening February 2025. Opening celebration from 4-6 p.m. Sept. 12.

Where: CU Art Museum

More information

Daniella Fairley, a junior who is studying art history and ethnic studies with a minor in creative technology and design, completed an eight-week Art Buffs Collective internship with the CU Art Museum during the summer. As part of the internship, Fairley helped curate and create “Better Days.”

“I felt like this exhibit shows the perseverance of the human spirit and how we cope with tragedy,” Fairley says. “In seeing a lot of these art works and learning how they were made, what they represent, their stories, I feel like it's important to show how humans struggle and how we still live through it. Art connects us more than we think, and I hope that people can feel that connection or thread when looking at this show.”

Lead museum attendant Bella Mahlerbe, a student in the bachelor’s-accelerated master’s in art history, also provided curatorial labor for the exhibit. Malherbe worked with fellow Lead museum attendant Riley Ramsay to create a visitor feedback wall where visitors can share responses to the exhibition.

Top image: "Party Picture," by Laurie Simmons (1985) is part of the "Better Days" exhibition now open at the CU Art Museum.

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New CU Art Museum exhibit highlights the ways in which art meets challenging times and finds the sometimes-elusive silver lining.

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Students may learn ecology (and much else) in the wild

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 19:31:08 +0000

Students may learn ecology (and much else) in the wild Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/28/2024 - 12:31

Blake Puscher

CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Mountain Research Station is offering six field courses this summer, giving students the opportunity to study a wide range of disciplines in nature

This summer, some �鶹ӰԺ students will study topics ranging from field ornithology to bioinformatics in one of the most beautiful classrooms in the state.

The CU �鶹ӰԺ Mountain Research Station (MRS) is offering field courses including the Art and Environment Field School, Field Methods in Vegetation Ecology, Field Ornithology, Forest and Fire Ecology, Lake and Stream Ecology, and Bioinformatics in the Mountains.

In addition to a selection of classes, the MRS is also piloting a scholarship program for undergraduate field courses, in the hope of making them more accessible to students.

Scott Taylor, a CU �鶹ӰԺ associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is director of the Mountain Research Station.

The value of field experience

Scott Taylor, the station director, notes that most of the research station’s classes offer students the chance to build practical skills such as sample collection, field work and data analysis. For those who know what they want to do after graduation, this is a way to gain experience and employability, Taylor says, adding that it may clarify others’ interests and ambitions.

Because of its venue high in the Rocky Mountains, the MRS allows students to learn in ways that would not otherwise be possible, Taylor says. For example, the Art and Environment Field School helps students create art by exposing them to the natural beauty of the Front Range, and field ornithology allows them to observe bird activity in nature. Classes at the MRS give students access to what they are studying in its natural context.

“Not every university has its own field station that is just 45 minutes away,” Taylor says, adding that many students’ remote-learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the value of field studies.

Inspiring the next generation

A goal of the research station is to “inspire the next generation to care about and study the mountains, so we want to expand the number of ways people can engage with that—and that’s why there’s everything from art and the environment to bioinformatics to more classic ecological courses,” Taylor explains.

This further highlights an unusual aspect of MRS field courses, Taylor says: While all good classes impart students with knowledge and skills, many are limited by the constraints of the classroom. Field courses, however, are active learning experiences that are immersive and engaging, Taylor notes. The field courses offered at the MRS this summer bridge the gap between students and the inspiration of nature.

Students at the Mountain Research Station can study topics ranging from field ornithology to bioinformatics in a beautiful mountain setting. (Photo: Scott Taylor)

Because students also can stay at the MRS, they are immersed in an environment dedicated to ecology. According to Taylor, “you get to know your cohort of students and colleagues really well and be part of the Mountain Research Station community, which is not just students taking field courses; it’s also researchers who are out there for the summer studying various aspects of the mountains.”

Course information

Students can register for the Mountain Research Station’s summer field courses through the regular process once enrollment begins on March 11. Most classes are listed on the CU website as sections of EBIO 4100, but the bioinformatics class is EBIO 4460-750. Course credit is transferrable to other institutions and meets the application requirement for CU’s Environmental Studies program.

Each course is limited to 15 people, and courses may vary length, subject and prerequisites; all of this information is on the MRS website. Though they have different start and finish dates, the courses are all two or three weeks. Most classes have a prerequisite of either one year of course work in general biology or environmental science, or a general ecology course.

Tuition for these courses includes lodging in shared two-person cabins and meals at the MRS dining hall. Thanks to a recent generous anonymous donation, these additional costs will be covered for all field-course participants in 2024, which means that field courses at the MRS will be similarly priced to on-campus classes offering the same number of credit hours this summer.

Top image: Students, flora and fauna at the CU �鶹ӰԺ Mountain Research Station (Photos: Scott Taylor)

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CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Mountain Research Station is offering six field courses this summer, giving students the opportunity to study a wide range of disciplines in nature.

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New scholarship celebrates, supports ‘ANDers’

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 17:32:01 +0000

New scholarship celebrates, supports ‘ANDers’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/21/2023 - 10:32

Students who are passionate about 'ANDing' are encouraged to apply for the ANDer Scholarship by March 15

The College of Arts and Sciences uses “AND” as a verb, and new scholarship aims to support students who do, too.

“ANDing” takes the conjunction and makes it a verb, says Erika Randall, associate dean for student success and the college’s pre-eminent ANDing campaigner. “ANDing can be about cooking and mothering and evolutionary biology and race car driving—all of these things create the uniquenesses that are us,” she says, adding:

“In the College of Arts and Sciences, we want to bring attention and excitement to stories of people intentionally bringing together disparate interests, research, creativity, identities, hobbies and more. That alchemy is the creative engine stored within the ANDer Scholarship, and I'm fascinated to see what we discover about the humans who apply. I'm thrilled that the college is supporting ANDers in this way.”

Randall notes that when people are passionate about their interests and pursuing self-understanding, they’re happier. “ANDing and arts and sciences make room for tolerance, humility and acceptance. When students and faculty AND, they are more well-rounded, combine disparate interests and create synergistic connections across ways of thinking.”

The ANDer Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences is designed for students who:

Are incoming first-year, transfer or current undergraduates enrolled full-time with a declared major in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Experience ANDing as a verb.
Complete the CU �鶹ӰԺ General Scholarship Application.
Submit the scholarship application by the March 15 deadline on the Academic Works scholarship site.

As the scholarship description notes, ANDing emphasizes the connections that enliven university scholarship and creative expression. By ANDing, new ideas are sparked and space for multiple paths, voices and human stories are created. For example,

“I want to study biochemistry, and I’m also really into technical theatre and community outreach.”
“I’m going to be a philosophy major, I write poetry and I want to minor in geography.”
“I’m committed to social justice and plan to double-major in Spanish and integrative physiology with a minor in women and gender studies.”

Students applying for the scholarship will be asked to complete a short response to this prompt: “The ‘&’ between Arts & Sciences is a symbol that represents the many intersectional identities, disciplines and imaginations of the college. Please share with us how you embody the ampersand symbol, the ways you AND as a verb and how you enliven research and creative expression through the alchemy of ANDing.”

The scholarship award is $3,000 annually, and the College of Arts and Sciences plans to award approximately 25 in 2024.

Students who are passionate about 'ANDing' are encouraged to apply for the ANDer Scholarship by March 15.

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Learning culture through beautiful brush strokes

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 22:03:33 +0000

Learning culture through beautiful brush strokes Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/27/2023 - 16:03

Rachel Sauer

At an evening of Chinese calligraphy, CU �鶹ӰԺ students studying Chinese practiced an art whose history dates back millennia

Learning a language is not just a matter of memorizing vocabulary and verb tenses or, in the case of Chinese, using the correct tone. It is not merely a matter of time spent in the classroom.

“Language is also a part of culture,” says Yingjie Li, a �鶹ӰԺ teaching associate professor of Chinese and Chinese language coordinator in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations. “It’s living tradition.”

For students of Chinese, this means learning to write a body of characters whose history dates back more than 3,000 years, to oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty. Rather than letters, many of the characters were visual representations of what they expressed. Echoes of those original characters can be found in the modern ones that evolved from them.

Thursday evening, almost two dozen first-, second- and third-year Chinese students gathered to practice Chinese calligraphy, which elevates Chinese writing to art.

“This is a way for students to get deep into the culture,” Li says. “What we’re doing in the workshop relates to what they’re learning in class, but it’s a more hands-on way to learn a really important part of Chinese culture.”

Led by Runqing Qi, a CU �鶹ӰԺ teaching assistant professor of Chinese who began the workshop with, “Let’s learn something interesting together,” students first practiced with water on special paper that allows each brush stroke to emerge in vivid black and then gradually disappear. Then they graduated to ink.

“It looks simple, but it’s actually not,” said Claire Kennedy, a third-year advanced Chinese student who is majoring in psychology and speech, language and hearing sciences.

In written Chinese, each stroke has a name and the strokes in each character are written in a specific order. And to do that beautifully?

“I think I’m going to need a lot more practice,” said Gregory Del Bene, a first-year Chinese student and math and computer science major.

“This is something fun for students that’s also a tangible connection to Chinese culture,” said Yu Zhang, a teaching assistant professor of Chinese, adding that faculty in the Chinese language program organize activities throughout the semester highlighting various aspects of the culture. The next will be a Chinese board game night, including mahjong and Chinese chess, at 5 p.m. Nov. 11.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about Asian languages and civilizations? Show your support.

At an evening of Chinese calligraphy, CU �鶹ӰԺ students studying Chinese practiced an art whose history dates back millennia.

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Astronomy student wins major scholarship at Cambridge

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 15:55:32 +0000

Astronomy student wins major scholarship at Cambridge Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/12/2022 - 08:55

Spencer Hurt is one of 16 students to win a 2022-23 Churchill Scholarship, which supports a year of graduate study at Cambridge University

Spencer Hurt, a �鶹ӰԺ student, is one of 16 students nationwide to win a 2022 Churchill Scholarship, the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States announced today.

The Churchill Scholarship supports one year of study at Cambridge University, and it is given to students who have outstanding academic records, proven talent in research, originality, creativity and “outstanding personal qualities.”

Hurt is a senior from Fruita, Colorado, majoring in astronomy. At Cambridge, he plans to complete a master’s degree in astronomy. Hurt is the fourth CU �鶹ӰԺ student to win a Churchill Scholarship.

At the top of the page: Artist’s conception of a brown dwarf, featuring the cloudy atmosphere of a planet and the residual light of an almost-star (NASA/ESA/JPL). Above: Spencer Hurt is one of this year's Churchill Scholarship recipients.

Having never traveled outside of the United States, Hurt said he is excited to study abroad during the next academic year, conducting research with leading faculty at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy.

“I intend to focus my work on exozodiacal dust (debris located in the habitable zones of stars), which provide clues about the environment planets form and evolve within. Besides growing as a researcher, I am looking forward to meeting the other Churchill Scholars, all of whom are contributing to fascinating work ranging from pure math to medicine,” he said.

“I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has helped me along the way, including my research mentors, the faculty in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, and Deborah Viles at the Office of Top Scholarships.”

Viles said Hurt is a “truly remarkable young scholar.” She noted that in addition to the Churchill Scholarship, he has won the two most prestigious awards for science undergraduates in the last year: the Goldwater Scholarship and the Astronaut Scholarship.

“These awards recognize his research trajectory, academic performance and likelihood to be a future leader in astrophysics,” Viles said, adding: “His accomplishments bring great honor to CU, and I can't wait to see where his path takes him.”

Hurt works in the laboratory of Meredith MacGregor, assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences. She said: "It has been such fun to work with Spencer over the last year and a half since he came to CU. Given his accomplishments to date, we will be lucky to have him join the ranks of professional astrophysicists in the future. I'm honored to have helped mentor him as he starts out his career."

Hurt began his college career without any experience in astrophysics. “However, I enrolled in an astronomy class out of curiosity, and it wasn't long until we were spending nights in the campus observatory,” Hurt said last year.

“Whether staying up until 4 in the morning to image nebulae and galaxies or devising plans to capture a planet passing between us and its host star, I quickly realized I wanted to pursue a career in astrophysics.”

In his undergraduate research, he uses telescopes and observational data to detect and characterize planetary systems.

“This includes searching for exoplanets and brown dwarfs using radial velocities, transits and direct imaging. I also use radio telescopes to image and model circumstellar debris disks, the remnants of planet formation,” he said. “With these observations, we can conduct ‘planetary archaeology’ and piece together a system's dynamical history.”

His accomplishments bring great honor to CU, and I can't wait to see where his path takes him."

“Each discovery of a world beyond ours is thrilling on its own; however, as we uncover a more complete picture of the broader exoplanet population, we also begin to better understand the processes at play during planet formation and evolution. Ultimately, this helps us better understand the origins of our Solar System and life on Earth while exploring the prospects for habitability elsewhere in the universe.”

The Churchill Scholarship covers full tuition, a competitive stipend, travel costs and the chance to apply for a $4,000 special research grant.

The scholarship program was established at the request of Sir Winston Churchill as part of the founding of Churchill College, Cambridge. It fulfils his vision of deepening the U.S.–U.K. partnership to advance science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic, ensuring our future prosperity and security.

Churchill College was established in 1960 as a predominantly science and technology college and the National and Commonwealth memorial to Sir Winston Churchill. The Churchill Scholarship dates to 1963.

Students interested in this or other top scholarships and want more information are encouraged to contact Deborah Viles, viles@colorado.edu, in the CU �鶹ӰԺ Office of Top Scholarships.

Spencer Hurt is one of 16 students to win a 2022-23 Churchill Scholarship, which supports a year of graduate study at Cambridge University.

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