Library Speaker Series & Special Events Copyright (c) 2013 Western Kentucky University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events Recent documents in Library Speaker Series & Special Events en-us Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:19:42 PDT 3600 A Few Honest Words: the Kentucky Roots of Popular Music http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/113 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/113 Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:05:10 PDT On the evening of March 7, 2013 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, Kentucky, WKU Libraries’ “Kentucky Live!” series featured Jason Howard, James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky. He presented his newest book “A Few Honest Words: The Kentucy Roots of Popular Culture,” which illustrates how the land and culture of Kentucky have shaped American music through the years. Among those profiled include: Naomi Judd, Matraca Berg, Dwight Yoakam and Skinny Deville of Nappy Roots.

]]> Jason Howard Alaska and the Yukon: North to the Future http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/112 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/112 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:31:33 PST WKU Libraries’ “We’ve Been Everywhere” series featured Connie Foster, Dean of Libraries, on the morning of February 26, 2013 in Room 100, Helm Library. She shared her trip and adventure in Alaska and the Yukon with her fellow library employees.

]]> Connie Foster Patti's 1880s Settlement Restaurant http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/111 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/111 Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:57:47 PST Chip Tullar, the proprietor of Miss Patti’s 1880’s Settlement Restaurant, spoke in the Kentucky Live! series on Thursday, February 21, 2013 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

In 1977 Bill and Patti Tullar, with their son Chip and his partner Michael Grimes, openedHamburger Patti’s Ice Cream Parlor in Grand Rivers, Kentucky which would later become Patti’s 1880’s Settlement Restaurant. The restaurant today is famous for its 2-inch thick pork chops, great rib-eye steak sandwiches, homemade potato chips, and its bread baked in flower pots served with strawberry butter, the latter inspired by a dream Patti had one night. The extraordinary desserts raise dining at Patti’s to a whole other level with mile high meringue pies in coconut, pineapple and chocolate, “Miss Patti’s Three Day Coconut Cake”, and their popular “Boatsinker Pie” with its corn syrup, chocolate, sugar, and eggs.

With its beautifully landscaped gardens, wedding chapel, water wheels, petting zoo, gift shops, and boutique stores, including one called the “Pink Tractor”, Patti’s has become more than simply a restaurant, it’s an experience which draws more than 300,000 customers to this small town (population 350)perched on a peninsula between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.

]]> Chip Tullar Buenos Aires: City of Immigrants http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/110 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/110 Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:24:06 PST On the evening of February 14, 2013 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Dr. John Dizgun, Assistant Director of KIIS, WKU, told WKU and Bowling Green attendees to the WKU Libraries-sponsored talk series Far Away Places about his experiences in Argentina. The focus of his talk was on the rich immigrant tradition in the vibrant South American city of Buenos Aires.

John’s interest in Argentina and Buenos Aires developed over a decade ago after hearing an Israeli professor speak at McGill University about Jewish immigration to Buenos Aires.

He made his first trip there in 1999 and has returned numerous times since, including a two-year stint (2001-2003) as an Organization of American States Graduate Research Fellow.

This past summer, he took a group of students there as part of Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS) Argentina program. One of the highlights of his trip was catching a Boca Juniors soccer game at the famed La Bombonera stadium in the heart of Buenos Aires’ historic Italian quarter.

]]> John Dizgun Butler County (Images of America) http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/109 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/109 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:45:27 PST WKU Libraries' Kentucky Live! talk series presentation, taking place in Morgantown Public Library, Kentucky on October 25, 2012, focused on the history of neighboring Butler County published in the Images of America series in September by Arcadia Press. The book includes many never before seen photographs of Butler County’s rich historical culture, its religious and educational institutions, and ordinary family life. The coauthors are Roger Givens and Nancy Richey.

Givens is a Butler County native who has held a variety of occupations from barber, to coal miner, to power plant worker. He and his wife founded the Butler County Banner which they later merged with the Green River Republican, and which today is the county’s leading newspaper.

Richey is a native of Mt. Hermon, Kentucky. She’s currently the Reference and Image Librarian for the Department of Special Collections at Western Kentucky University. She serves on the board of the Janice Holt Giles Society and gives frequent workshops on Kentucky genealogy.

]]> Roger Givens et al. A Rare Titanic Family: The Caldwells’ Story of Survival http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/108 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/108 Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:39:02 PST On the evening of November 15, 2012, at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, KY, WKU Libraries featured Professor Julie Hedgepeth Williams in its Far Away Places talk series. She talked about her book A Rare Titanic Family: The Caldwells’ Story of Survival and told the story of how her great uncle Albert Caldwell’s family were one of the few to survive the sinking of the Titanic. The event was concluded with book signing.

]]> Julie Hedgepeth Williams The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/107 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/107 Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:59:36 PST Rick Redman, VP for Corporate Communication for Hillerich & Bradsby talked about the history of the "Louisville Slugger" at Barnes and Noble on the evening of November 8, 2012.

]]> Rick Redman Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/106 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/106 Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:21:53 PDT Dr. Patrick Pranke from University of Louisville spoke about “Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism” for Far Away Places Series on October 18, 2012 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Dr. Pranke is the assistant professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Humanities where he teaches Asian religions with a focus on Theravada Buddhism and Burma. He is a native of Minnesota and grew up in a farming family. He was influenced by stories of far away places and far away times and wanted to be an archaeologist. He attended schools in Forest Lake, Minnesota. After high school he attended the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin where he studied anthropology and South Asian Studies. Pranke received his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan in 2004. He has conducted research and worked in Burma and northern India for a number of years and is affiliated with the Buddhist academy, Thitagu Kaba Buddha Takkathol, in Sagaing, Burma, where he has served as an instructor and translator. His research interests include Burmese Buddhist monastic history and historiography, Sangha-state relations, Buddhist scholasticism, and Burmese popular religion. His interests in north India include village Hinduism, pilgrimage and the geography of sacred sites. In the United States he examines immigrant Buddhism and the dynamics of integration. Pranke’s articles have appeared in Buddhism in Practice, the Encyclopedia of Buddhism, and the Journal of Burma Studies.

]]> Patrick Pranke Blood Shed in This War http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/105 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/105 Sat, 13 Oct 2012 08:17:22 PDT WKU Libraries hosted Michael A. Peake for the presentation of his new book Blood Shed in This War on October 11 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Bowling Green, KY.

This presentation provides an overview of German participation in the Civil War with the First German 2nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry as the prime example of the more than 50 German infantry regiments that served the Union during the war. It also includes original war period artwork created by regiment officer Captain Adolph G. Metzner who created a notable collection of over 120 sketches, drawings, and paintings during his service period with the 32nd Indiana in the Western Theater from August 1861 through September 1864.

]]> Michael Peake Wonder: The Lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/104 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/104 Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:33:58 PDT Morgan Atkinson, writer and producer of Wonder, gave a presentation at the Kentucky Building in the WKU Libraries Kentucky Live! talk series on the evening of September 27, 2012. The presentation was a 20 minute preview of his new film about the lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard first premiering in November, 2012. Anna and Harlan Hubbard led their lives as few people in modern times have – representing the pioneers of sustainability. Living in a boat house they built, sustained by food they raised or caught, supported by no electricity, the Hubbards, found their way without modern conveniences.

]]> Morgan Atkinson We've Been Everywhere: Tangier Island http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/103 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/103 Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:03:36 PDT WKU Libraries professor and coordinator of Glasgow Regional Center Library Katherine Pennavaria talked about her trip to Tangier Island. It turned out to be “the strangest place you’ve never heard of,” as we learned from her presentation. Kath said she had been attracted to the island by the quaint accent the island people spoke. A crowd of her colleagues were her fascinated and amused audience in Helm Library Room 100 today, September 25, 2012. Her presentation was part of the Libraries’ “We’ve Been Everywhere” talk series, where library employees share with their own their experience outside the United States.

]]> Katherine Pennavaria Beyond the Ties of Blood http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/102 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/102 Sat, 22 Sep 2012 05:39:17 PDT Florencia Mallon, Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, spoke in WKU Libraries’ Far Away Places Series at Barnes & Noble on the evening of September 20, 2012. She read from her book, discussed it in the context of Chilean history, and answered questions from an overflow crowd. Mallon signed copies of her book following her presentation.

]]> Florencia Mallon Ghosting http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/101 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/101 Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:10:58 PDT WKU Libraries featured Kirby Gann for the 2012/13 season of Kentucky Live!. Gann talked about his new book Ghosting to a to a diverse university and community audience. The talk concluded with a book signing by the author.

His newest novel “Ghosting” published in 2012 by Ig Press is set in Lake Holloway, a crime-ridden, poverty-blighted area in “Pirtle County” Kentucky, the kind of place where people often disappeared from. To quote the reviewer for the New York Times“Ghosting offers a high-low cocktail of lovely prose and cruel deeds.” The reviewer forKirkus writes “this is a tale of love and loyalty, family and duty, naïveté and duplicity, played out on an amoral landscape of drugs and violence.” It adds this is “hillbilly noir as literary fiction of the first order.”

]]> Kirby Gann et al. Kentucky Travel Writer Gary P. West http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/100 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/100 Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:46:05 PDT Leading Kentucky travel writer Gary P. West shared his travel secrets Bowling Green, Kentucky community audience and signed his books in the “Kentucky Live! Series” at the local Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Thursday, April 19, 2012.

Retiring in 2006 West has devoted himself to writing. He writes a syndicated column for seven Kentucky newspapers and is the author of eight books. His latest: Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association: The Real Story of a Team Left Behind was published by Acclaim Press in 2011. Two of his most popular books include Eating Your Way Across Kentucky: 101 Must Places to Eat (updated edition in 2006) and Shopping Your Way Across Kentucky (2008).

]]> Gary P. West Big Game Parks of South Africa http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/99 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/99 Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:42:18 PDT The last of the 12th series of “Far Away Places” talks featured Dr. Michael Trapasso, who has been teaching Geography at WKU since 1980. He shared his research experience in South Africa where he ventured into several of its natural parks and had numerous encounters with exotic and sometimes dangerous animals. The talk happened on Thursday, April 12 at Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Bowling Green, Kentucky. “Far Away Places” talk series are organized by WKU Libraries. Between mid-May and early June of 2011 he visited Kruger National Park, Shuslui Umfolozi National Park and the Mpumalanga (Crocodile) River and “lived to tell about it.”

]]> Michael Trapasso Ernest Hemingway and Spain: Or How a Land Can Attract a Man http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/98 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/98 Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:43:01 PDT Ricardo Marin Ruiz, Professor of English at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, talked in our “Far Away Places series” about “Ernest Hemingway and Spain: Or How a Land Can Attract A Man” on Thursday, April 5 at Barnes & Noble Bookstore. His talk explores the relationship that Ernest Hemingway had with Spain, paying special attention to bullfighting and his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.

]]> Ricardo Marin Ruiz Where's Wallace: Searching for Alfred Russell Wallace in London and Brazil http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/97 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/97 Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:51:32 PDT The March 2012 literary outreach program “We’ve Been Everywhere” sponsored by WKU Libraries featured Dr. Charles Smith, science librarian at WKU, who gave a talk on his research trip to London and Brazil. His research focused on Alfred Russell Wallace, a Darwin scholar.

]]> Charles H. Smith Buffalo Trace Distillery http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/96 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/96 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:40:28 PDT This March 2012 "Kentucky Live!" talk series sponsored by the WKU Libraries at Barnes & Noble Booksellers featured Amy Preske, PR and Events Manager of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Franklin County, Kentucky. She gave an introduction to the nation’s oldest continuously operating distillery with the supplement of a video clip. She also brought bourbon candies for tasting and a basket of whisky and cigar as a door prize.

]]> Amy Preske To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/95 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/95 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 07:08:06 PST Professor Jid Lee from Middle Tennessee State University was invited by WKU Libraries to speak about her book To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Bowling Green, Kentucky on February 16, 2012. The book is a personal narrative of her girlhood in a traditional South Korean family against the traumatic events of recent Korean history including the Japanese occupation. The event was one of the "Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names" international talk series that features monthly a scholar researching in international themes.

]]> Jid Lee Georgia Powers: A Grassroots Civil Rights Leader in Kentucky http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/94 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ul_events/94 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:29:00 PST Anne Onyekwuluje, Associate Professor of Sociology at WKU, spoke about her book titled Georgia Powers: A Grassroots Civil Rights Leader in Kentucky on Thursday, February 9 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Former Senator Powers was present at the event. She spoke to the audience and answered their questions. The event concluded with a book signing by both speakers.

Elected in 1966, Senator Powers was the first woman and the first African-American to serve in the Kentucky Senate. She refused to be defined by labels, sponsored a number of important pieces of legislation during her 21 years of service, and had an enormous and continuing effect on Kentucky society. Onyekwuluje will be discussing her new biography of the Senator, Historical Influence: Reading Georgia Powers as a Grassroots Civil Rights Leader in the Rough Business of Kentucky Politics.

]]> Anne Onyekwuluje et al.