Notes from the Coulters: Dec. 2020, Jan. 2022

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December 2020 Newsletter

January 2022 Newsletter





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Making the most of every opportunity

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 Spring semester at GIAL has a slightly more relaxed pace for me than the fall. My teaching load includes a number of distance-based classes, individualized directed studies with students, and supervising master's students as they write their theses. I don't have daily classroom teaching and preparation. This gives me time to focus on other important tasks, such as research, writing, speaking, and school committees. This month I was honored to be invited to Simpson University, in Redding, California, to spend time with several classes. Over just a couple of days, I spoke to four different classes. In those presentations, we looked at poetry by Emily Dickinson and Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpts from Shusako Endo's novel Silence , and ideas gleaned from Japanese American artist Makoto Fujimura. Those passages and concepts framed our story of working in Papua New Guinea for over 12 years, and the bigger picture of music and arts in missions. We pray that some of those stude...
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The power of providing food: Researching the world's culinary arts

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Photo by Lou Stejskal This semester I’ve been working with our first World Arts student who’s writing a master’s thesis. Previous graduates have opted for the comprehensive exam option. Increasing the department’s capacity to mentor students through thesis writing is one of the reasons I was brought onto the faculty a couple of years ago. The faculty at that time were overloaded with teaching and administrative duties and couldn’t have taken on thesis supervision. This thesis is the first of four that I am currently working with, covering a range of fascinating topics and innovative, practical research. What is a World Arts thesis about? The one I’ve been spending time with this past week is a very interesting look at culinary arts and cooking in West African epic traditions. The student noted in her West African studies that a widespread epic story includes a number of key moments of cooking and eating. Scholarly study of this epic tends to focus on the ...
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Meeting the Prime Minister

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Yesterday was (going to be) an exciting day. Peter O'Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, was visiting the Eastern Highlands Province, and as part of his visit he was planning to stop at our airstrip! All of us in the directorate planned to go out and meet him. We went to the airstrip at 8 a.m. to await the Prime Minister's arrival. By 10 a.m., he had not left Port Moresby yet. And by noon, he had decided not to stop at our airstrip after all. Here is (almost) the picture I expected to be posting to the blog, of me shaking hands with the Prime Minister: Somewhat disappointing, but it was still an interesting way to spend a Friday. Always nice to get out of the office. Waiting for the PM, with Eastern Highlands Province Governor Julie Soso
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