Category: Events

New Deal Service Days at RU

Every spring, Roosevelt students, faculty, and staff get together in groups and fan out over the city and NW suburbs to engage in a variety of service activities. I’ve done this several times over years, sometimes with my small kids in tow — and it’s always a fun and rewarding experience. Here’s a letter to faculty and students from NDSD organizers Yvette Garcia and Tara Hawkins:

New Deal Service Days, Roosevelt’s largest community service event of the year, is now entering its ninth season. Mark your calendar for this year’s event, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 8-9 in the Northwest suburbs and Saturday, April 9 in Chicago.

This event offers unique opportunities for you to further social justice and the mission of the University. We encourage you to mention the event and the opportunities for volunteering during your classroom discussions with students and faculty.

This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to work together in honor of the University’s mission by helping the needy in our communities. Years from now, it is unlikely that you will remember your Fridays and Saturdays filled with chores and other personal demands. However, you will remember New Deal Service Days and the positive difference being made in the lives of those who need  our help the most.

For details on how to register, the schedule of volunteering opportunities, FAQs, etc., check out the NDSD website.

Free Old-Time Music Concert at RU, Feb. 11

This coming friday, my friend and RU colleague Greg Reish is giving his annual recital in Roosevelt’s historic chamber music concert space, Ganz Hall, at 8pm. This is a free concert, and not one to be missed! Greg is an accomplished guitarist and banjo player, as well as a music historian / musicologist who is a recognized authority on American folk, country, and blues music. Check out his website, and better yet, see him in person if you’re free on Friday night!

RU Lecture by Activist Eli Clare on Feb. 8

Join the Roosevelt University community for a discussion with writer, speaker, and activist Eli Clare, author of Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. In his presentation “Stolen Bodies, Stolen Lands,” Clare will offer a fresh take on how environmental justice issues are connected to ableism, heterosexism, racism, and classism.

When/Where:
Tuesday, February 8th, 4:30 – 6:00pm
Congress Lounge (2nd floor), Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

For more information please e-mail Prof. Ellen O’Brien at eobrien@roosevelt.edu

This event is co-sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Social Justice Studies Program, the Department of Economics, Feminist United, RU Proud, the Delta Gamma Pi Multicultural Sorority, and the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation.

Midwest Real Food Summit 2011

Here’s another great opportunity to learn about sustainable food issues and systems, with a special focus on urban food production and consumption. This one’s to be held at Northwestern University in Evanston.

Midwest Real Food Summit 2011: Urban Food Systems in Development
Northwestern University, Evanston IL, Feb. 18 – 20.

Food is culture, food is community. It is what unites us, sharing a meal together. However, the system that produces and distributes and controls food in this country is flawed. The Midwest is the epicenter of our commodity food system and as students learning in midwest institutions we have the responsibility and the power to educate ourselves and those around us about the issues in the modern U.S. food system. That’s where this summit comes in!

For details and registration (students can attend for $25), see the Food Summit’s website.

Register Now for the Wild Things 2011 Environmental Conference

The Wild Things conference is a fun and educational all-day event sponsored biannually by the Chicago Wilderness organization and other partners, and covers a vast array of topics related to urban ecology, conservation, gardening, wildlife, science, politics, and environmental activism. Some of the presentations and workshops have more of a scientific bent; others are directed toward environmental policy; but many have a humanities component to them (such as how we represent and conceptualize the natural environment, apply concepts of “wilderness” to urban landscapes, think about environmental ethics, etc.).

Advance registration is required (the deadline is Jan. 30th for early online registration, which features a cheaper rate). Students can attend inexpensively for $15 — cheap for an event of this topic and quality. The conference will be a great potential source of ideas about urban ecology and other matters related to sustainability, wilderness, etc., and is also a cool networking opportunity. Professors Mike Bryson and Carl Zimring will be in attendance as well as co-presenting a talk at 4pm (session D6) on RU’s new Sustainability Studies program. In particular, we highly recommend the keynote address at 9am by Curt Meine, a terrific presenter who will discuss the life and legacy of Aldo Leopold, one of the most important American environmental writers (as well as an ecologist) of the 20th century. That talk will include a preview of a new film about Leopold, who exemplified the integration of science and the humanities in his engagement of the natural world.