Stander Symposium abstract book - University of Dayton

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
HISTORY
Topics in Contemporary Modern Africa
Presenter(s): Ian M Birthelmer, Patrick D Bittner, Annie R Christy, Lindsey E Cummings, Josh M Donohue,
Nicholas M Doyle, Joseph M Edmundson, Acheanyi Fomenky, Fernando E Fuentes, James Harless,
Patrick J Larkin, Micah J Lustig, Zachary D Morris, Leah R Mullen, Jessica
Advisor(s): Julius A Amin
History
1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Course Project, 12_SP_HST_337_01 Kennedy Union - 331
This session will address issues which inform our understanding of contemporary African society. Students placed in groups of four will research
a topic selected in consultation with the instructor and present their findings at the conference. Topics include genocide, women and development,
totalitarianism, resilience, traditions, religion, and many more. The presentations fit well with UD’s mission of engagement, excellence, and
internationalization.
MUSIC
An Investigation of Contemporary Assessment in Music Education
Presenter(s): Kelly A Connell
Advisor(s): Linda A Hartley
Music
2:40 PM-3:00 PM
Independent Research Kennedy Union - 311
Measurement and assessment are becoming increasingly important tools to all music educators. National education legislation such as No Child
Left Behind has recognized music as a core curricular subject. Since then, little has been done to assess music students to ensure that a set of basic
skills and knowledge is being achieved. While national and state music standards exist, these standards are usually not mandatory and merely
serve as a guide or recommendations for music educators to follow. While other core subjects endure severe oversight and rigorous testing at state
and local levels to measure whether or not students are attaining minimum standards, some music educators are pushing for national testing of
music students to demonstrate that music has an academically measurable component. Yet other music educators are fearful that assessment of
music education will have the same negative effects that other core subject high-stakes testing has had on schools. The purpose of this research is
to investigate the current debate on national music assessment and whether music education’s place in the core curriculum demands an increase
in oversight through standardized music assessment of students in music education classes.
PHILOSOPHY
“Poetry Is Ontology”: Tragedy and Sacrament in Rowan Williams’s Theology of the Arts
Presenter(s): Dennis M Cox
Advisor(s): John A Inglis
Philosophy
1:00 PM-1:20 PM
Graduate Research Marianist Hall Learning Space - 206
In a book on the theology of art, Rowan Williams--the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury--approvingly quotes Jacques Maritain, saying,
“Poetry is ontology.” The arts, according to Williams, are related to our knowledge of being--that is, at its best, art is concerned not simply with
abstract beauty or expressing the artist’s will, but with disclosing reality. Integrity in any artistic endeavor, then, is about the struggle of seeing the
connections that are there, of rendering some sense of those connections in another mode, and of facing--with unflinching honesty--the totality
of human existence, including its finitude and brokenness. After tracing several of Williams’s theological-aesthetic themes, this paper argues first
that this theology of the arts represents a significant aspect of the Archbishop’s thought, and second that his aesthetic is uniquely and importantly
attentive to questions of beauty and brokenness--that is, of discerning God’s goodness in a wounded world.
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