CrossCurrents
2010 - 2011 Groups
Small Miracles: Turning Water into Beer
This is a propitious time for thinking about the role of water
in producing beer because Indiana, like much of the country, is now
going through a beer revolution. Small-batch, craft breweries
are now to be found all over the state. Some Indiana
breweries, such as Three Floyds in Munster, regularly attract
national attention for producing some of the highest quality and
most innovative beer in the country. Indianapolis, which once
had a rich culture of German brewing, saw its independent breweries
disappear with the rise of mass-produced beers like Pabst and
Budweiser in the 1950s. Indianapolis once again has an
independent brewery in Sun King, which opened last year, and the
city is likely to see more craft breweries start up in the next few
years.
A panel discussion will include participants from off-campus,
including local brewers, and Rita Kohn, whose book, True Brew:
A Guide to Craft Beer in Indiana, was published this summer by
Indiana University Press, moderated by a member of our group.
This panel discussion will address the chemistry of beer and the
steps needed either to eliminate or to enhance impurities in beer
making. The panel will also discuss the relationship between
beer and place, and the re-emergence of local craft breweries in
Indiana and across the country.
Titles:
- True Brew: A Guide to Craft Beer in Indiana, by Rita
Kohn The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1, by Mark S.
Smith
- Beer in America: The Early Years -- 1587 - 1840: Beer's
Role in the Settling of America and the Birth of a Nation, by
Gregg Smith
- Ambitious Brew: the Story of American Beer, by Maureen
Ogle
Faculty Participants:
Travis Ryan, Bill Watts, Chris Hess, Brynnar Swenson, and Brent
Hege.
Traumatic Recovery, Global Identities and Post-Memory
This interdisciplinary group takes up the transnational and
cross-disciplinary politics of memory in relation to the Holocaust
and other traumatic global events. Does the memory and
identity of one group block the memory and identity of another? Or
can both exist in a shared perspective of human history? How
do various models of cosmopolitanism contribute to our
understanding of how humans view history?
Titles:
- Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History,
by Cathy Caruth
- Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, by
Kwame Anthony Appiah Page
- Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in
the Age of Decolonization, by Michael Rothberg
Faculty Participants:
Hilene Flanzbaum, Siobhan Mc-Evoy Levy, Ania Spyra, and Bruce
Bigelow.
Critically Reflective Teaching
Critically reflective teaching happens when we identify and
scrutinize the assumptions we make regarding teaching and learning.
Examining these assumptions in a mutually supportive context helps
us determine how best to ensure student learning. We will also take
a close look at the assumptions and strategies of highly successful
college and university faculty members make in their approaches to
teaching. In the process, we hope to challenge and spur each other
on in becoming better facilitators of student learning.
Titles:
- Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, by Stephen
Brookfield
- What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain
Faculty Participants:
Jay Howard, Kate Morris, Bob Pribush, Liliana Goens, LuAnne
McNulty, Robin Turner, Sylvie Vanbaelen.