Category Archives: Ames Highlights

“The Sovereign Colony: Puerto Rico in the Olympic Movement”

Dr. Antonio Sotomayor

Assistant Professor, Historian, and Librarian for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Beckman Auditorium – Monday, 28 September, 4pm

Ceded to the United States unde
r the terms of the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American War of 1898, Puerto Rico has since remained a colonial territory. Despite this subordinated colonial experience, however, Puerto Ricans managed to secure national Olympic representation in the 1930s and in so doing nurtured powerful ideas of nationalism. By examining how the Olympic movement developed in Puerto Rico, Antonio Sotomayor illuminates the profound role sports play in the political and cultural processes of an identity that developed within a political tradition of autonomy rather than traditional political independence. Dr. Sotomayor’s talk describes the surprising negotiations that gave rise to Olympic sovereignty in a colonial nation, a unique case in Latin America, and uses Olympic sports as a window to view the broader issues of nation building and identity, hegemony, postcolonialism, international diplomacy, and Latin American–U.S. relations. Dr. Sotomayor’s lecture is part of the 2015-16 University Theme “A Nation(s) Divided?” For more information on this event, please contact Prof. Carmela Ferradáns cferrada@iwu.edu

Are nations constructed of arbitrary borders traced on a map, or are they more purposeful, formed around kinships and collectives, representing common values, ideals, and epistemologies? Can a nation or nations be truly united, or do the forces that shape human meaning-making stem from the differences that parse us one from another?

Did you know that in addition to checking out some physical books for reading for fun (popular reading collection on the entry level) you can check out a Kindle and borrow books electronically?

Use this form to reserve a Kindle and use this form to request a Kindle title if you don’t see one you’re interested in reading. For Kindle titles, allavailable titles can be browsed/searched through Amazon. The maximum price for a requested Kindle title is $20.00.

We’ve got over 300 titles available on Kindle – here are some of the newest titles.

New Popular Books:

FORGOTTEN ROOM                        LINCOLN CHILD

TRAUMA                                             MICHAEL PALMER

LUCKY LIFE INTERRUPTED             TOM BROKAW

WATER KNIFE                                    PAOLO BACIGALUPI

IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT                JUDY BLUME

FINDERS KEEPERS                            STEPHEN KING

PRESIDENT’S SHADOW                  BRAD MELTZER

SICK IN THE HEAD                            JUDD APATOW

KILLING MONICA                             CANDACE BUSHNELL

SEVENEVES                                         NEAL STEPHENSON

BRADSTREET GATE                          ROBIN KIRMAN

LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE                      JESSICA KNOLL

GO SET A WACTHMAN                  HARPER LEE

SMOKEJUMPER: A MEMOIR       JASON RAMOS

PRETTY BABY                                      MARY KUBICA

ALERT                                                    JAMES PATTERSON

TRUST NO ONE                                 PAUL CLEAVE

BEST OF ENEMIES                            JEN LANCASTER

DOG MASTER                                    W. BRUCE CAMERON

CIRCLING THE SUN                          PAULA MCLAIN

WHO DO YOU LOVE                        JENNIFER WEINER

LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP              NINA GEORGE

X                                                             SUE GRAFTON

GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB           DAVID LAGERCRANTZ

UNDERCOVER                                   DANIELLE STEEL

LAST BUS TO WISDOM                   IVAN DOIG

Kindle Titles:

Epilogue: a Memoir                         Will Boast

Pitch Perfect                                      Mickey Rapkin

Execution                                            Dick Wolf

Leaving of Things                             Jay Antani

Last Flight of Poxl West                 Daniel Torday

Animals                                                Christian Kiefer

Night Crew                                         Bryan Haig

Dark Lure                                             Loreth White

Fourth of July Creek                       Smith Henderson

Tinseltown                                          William Mann

Glass Kitchen                                     Linda F. Lee

Heiresses                                            Sara Shepard

Ross Poldark                                      Winston Graham

One Second After                            William Forstchen

Hello, Titans! This weekend the campus was shocked by intolerance, but together we will stand against it. As you transition back to campus, don’t hesitate to stand up for your peers,
call out poor behaviors, and to display respect for your colleagues and classmates.

As a reminder, Ames Library is open normal semester hours now, so come in whenever we’re open – take a break between classes, check out our photobooth, get IT help at the IT Help Desk, or hang out in some of our comfy seating.

We’ve got a new project room reservation system available, so you no longer have to call to make a reservation. Check it out at http://libcal.iwu.edu/booking/rooms. Call x3350 or visit the Library Services Desk (formerly known as Circulation) if you have any questions.

What’s going on in Ames this week?

Instruction Lab

• Monday, 2pm – Economics 400
• Wednesday, 8am – Spanish 201
• Wednesday, 9am – Prof. Flores-Rodriguez’s Gateway
• Wednesday, 10am – Spanish 201
• Wednesday, 1pm – Spanish 201
• Thursday, 8am (all day) – Spanish 201
• Thursday, 7pm – Music 14x
• Friday, 11am – Gateway

Meeting Room 214

• Wednesday, 11am – Theatre Recruitment

Beckman Auditorium 

• Tuesday, 8am (all day) – Nursing pre-clinicals
• Thursday, 8am (all day) – Nursing pre-clinicals

Help@Ames has been a great combination of library and IT services for the past three years, and now it’s adapting to better serve you.

You’ll now find ITS support on the third floor of The Ames Library. Come by and check out the new digs in the Thorpe Center. You can still call 3900 and enter your own call at help.iwu.edu, but you’ll want to email helpdesk@iwu.edu if you need help with technology.

Research support services can be found at the Library Service Desk on the entry level, previously known as the Circulation Desk. Have a question about renewing a book or getting started with research? Call us at 3053, email us at circ@iwu.edu, or stop by. You can always email a librarian directly. We’re here from 8-4, Monday through Friday until classes start in August.

Has The Ames Library installed a new abstract art piece on the entry level? Maybe we should call it Thinking Outside the Chair.

This isn’t the only strange thing you’ll see in Ames Library this summer. Furniture will mysteriously relocate, shelves will disappear, project rooms will move…You just wait and see what we have in store for the fall.

If you’re around this summer, we’re open Monday – Friday, from 8am until 4pm. Come check out what we’re up to, or prepare to be surprised in the fall.

Erin Moodie, assistant professor in the Languages and Cultures Department at Purdue University, will present “Religion in Ancient Mediterranean Comedy: Character, Context, and Content” on Tuesday, May 19th at 3pm in the Beckman Auditorium.

This talk will provide a broad introduction to the religious contexts of Greek and Roman comedy, as well as the comic genres’ depiction of deities and religious practices. From the Dionysia festival in Athens to Jupiter’s deus ex machina in Plautus’ Amphitryon, religion is central to ancient comedy, providing structure, atmosphere, and significance to events on and off the stage. Sponsored by Greek and Roman Studies.

Bicycling was the most popular sport in America from 1890 until 1930, and cycling had a direct impact on social progress in race, class and gender.

Illinois Wesleyan University Information Literacy Librarian Chris Sweet will explore this largely forgotten history, particularly Illinois’ importance as home to several bicycle manufacturers. Sweet will present “The History of Cycling in Illinois” May 14 as part of the Lunch-and-Learn series offered in partnership by McLean County Museum of History, Illinois Wesleyan and Collaborative Solutions Institute.

Sweet is currently working on a scholarly history of cycling in Illinois and will discuss some of his preliminary findings during the presentation. In a blog post, Sweet writes that cycling’s popularity as a sport around 1900 was rivaled only by baseball. “Bicycle racers were well-paid celebrities and races routinely attracted thousands of spectators. The social elite were members of cycling clubs with private clubhouses.”

Yet cycling’s popularity cut across class lines. Sweet writes that the Memorial Day weekend Pullman Road Races in Chicago in the 1880s were reported to have attracted 100,000 spectators. And in terms of equality, the bicycle gave women “a greater measure of independence and contributed to important advances” in women’s rights. In addition, “a few great early bicycle racers were African Americans who advanced racial equality through sport,” Sweet writes.

The session begins at 12:10 p.m. in the Governor Fifer Courtroom, McLean County Museum of History. Attendees are encouraged to bring a brown-bag lunch to the free event.

By Mallika Kavadi ’15

A 10-man bicycle (circa 1900). Photo courtesy of chicagology.com