COACHTALK: THE HIDDEN MESSAGE OF POST-GAME COMMENTS — Following every men’s college basketball game during the NCAA tournament, reporters will likely look to the coaches to explain the outcome. To help explain the coaches’ comments, the media can turn to John Llewellyn, Wake Forest University associate professor of communication. Llewellyn has researched coaches’ post-game comments for nearly two decades. “After a while, if you listen to enough coaches, you begin to think you’ve heard it all,” Llewellyn says. “The odds are you have.” Llewellyn analyzed the professional vocabulary of NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coaches for “Coachtalk,” a chapter in the book “Case Studies in Sport Communication.” He says there is a pattern in what winning and losing coaches say after each game that reveals an underlying respect for each other and the world of athletics. An expert on rhetoric, Llewellyn is accustomed to interacting with broadcast and print media. He is available for interviews about his research and to analyze coaches’ comments during March Madness. Contact Llewellyn directly at llewelly@wfu.edu or 336-758-4511.
Contact: Maggie Barrett, barretmb@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
SOCIOLOGISTS TRACK N.C. WINE INDUSTRY — The number of wineries in North Carolina has more than tripled in the past decade. Ian Taplin and Saylor Breckenridge, sociologists at Wake Forest, have documented the rapid growth of retail wineries and commercial wine production in a study to be published in the 2005 issue of Research in the Sociology of Work. They visited wineries in the Yadkin River Valley and across the state to find out how the wine industry has taken root in North Carolina. They looked at how good grape-growing soil and climate conditions, the decline of tobacco, and a few pioneering entrepreneurs have given the fledgling industry its start.
Contact: Cheryl Walker, walkercv@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
WFU IRISH FESTIVAL RUNS THROUGH MARCH 18 — The 8th Annual Wake Forest Irish Festival, hosted by the Wake Forest University Press, continues March 17 with a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, featuring an Irish Poetry Recitation from 11 a.m. to noon in Shorty’s in Benson University Center. The public is encouraged to come listen or recite poetry. At 7:30 p.m., Reynolda House Museum of American Art hosts the festival’s Irish Poetry Reading. Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, one of Ireland’s most prestigious poets, will read from her work. A reception and booksigning will follow the reading. The festival concludes at Wake Forest March 18 with a colloquium from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in DeTamble Auditorium in Tribble Hall titled “‘A Green Leaf of Language’: The Poetry of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin.” This roundtable discussion will include several prominent Irish scholars. A full story with information about all activities is available on the Web at http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/2005/021405i.html.
Contact: Pam Barrett, barretpm@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
ETHNICITY AND DIVERSITY ALIVE AND WELL AT WFU — Wake Forest will hold Diversity Days, a four-day celebration of ethnicity and diversity, March 17-20. The celebration will include programs and events that reflect different cultural heritages and highlight ethnicity and diversity on campus and in the community. All events are free and open to the public. Diversity Days begins with an International Festival from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 17 in the lobby of Scales Fine Arts Center. The festival will include students dressed in ethnic costumes, international music, ethnic foods plus an international fair, featuring various student organizations. From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the program “An Evening of Diversity” will be held in Annenberg Forum in Carswell Hall. The program will feature singer Sheila Burnett of the 1960s group The Royalettes; 2005 Rhodes Scholar and Wake Forest senior Rebecca Cook; retired businessman Frank Barbelace; and actress Kimberly Brooks. The International Fair continues from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 18 in Scales Fine Arts Center with live musical performances and a belly dance troupe from Asheville. Complete event details are available on the Web at .
Contact: Pam Barrett, barretpm@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
‘U.S. CHALLENGES IN IRAQ AND IN THE MUSLIM WORLD’ — Charles “Hank” Kennedy, professor of political science at Wake Forest, will discuss the challenges to the United States and the new Iraq as the two attempt to relate to other Middle Eastern states at 7 p.m. March 17 in Scales Fine Arts Center, Room A102. The discussion will address issues such as how the war in Iraq and its new government will impact the Middle East and how the new Iraq will relate to its neighbors and regional partners. This event is free and open to the public. It is part of Winston Salem’s Great Decisions 2005, a six-week citizens forum on current foreign policy issues, sponsored by Wake Forest’s Center for International Studies.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
EINSTEIN EXPERT TO SPEAK IN HONOR OF WORLD YEAR OF PHYSICS — Clifford Will, one of the world’s leading authorities on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, will speak at Wake Forest at 8 p.m. March 17 in Pugh Auditorium in Benson University Center. The free, public event is sponsored by Wake Forest’s physics department. It is part of the 2005 World Year of Physics, a world-wide celebration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s five papers that influenced all areas of modern physics. Will, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Physics and a member of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., is known for his expertise in physics and his ability to make the subject understandable to the average person. He says Einstein’s ideas led to the creation of several technologies we use every day, as well as an increased understanding of the world in which we live.
Contact: Maggie Barrett, barretmb@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
U.S. AUDIENCE TO GET RARE LOOK AT BRITISH DOMESTIC POLITICS — David Coates, the Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies in the Wake Forest political science department and co-author of the 2004 book “Blair’s War,” says his 4 p.m. lecture March 17 will give the local community a chance to be briefed in depth on the domestic politics and policies of the United Kingdom. “(The lecture) is a chance to discover why Tony Blair, though so popular (in the United States), has become so unpopular at home, and yet why paradoxically his party is still likely to win a third term when he calls the next general election, which will probably come in May,” Coates said. “It is also an opportunity to brief an American audience on the seriousness of New Labour’s third-way politics, and to draw parallels with, and lessons for, the Democratic Party here in the U.S. as it struggles to find the appropriate voice and policy to win back power in 2008.” The free, public talk is titled “‘Campaigning in Poetry, Governing in Prose’: Tony Blair and New Labour Britain.” It is part of the annual Hubert McNeill Poteat Lecture Series.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
WFU BAHA’I STUDENT GROUP TO HOLD NEW YEAR CELEBRATION — The Wake Forest Baha’i Association will host its second annual Naw Ruz (Baha’i New Year) celebration at 7 p.m. March 18 in the university’s Benson University Center, Room 401. The event is free and open to the public. The event features the West Coast hip-hop group Justice Leeg, who will be coming to Wake Forest directly from a concert with Clay Aiken and Counting Crows. The Wake Forest Gospel Choir will perform, and a free international buffet will be offered as part of the event. The buffet is in observance of the end of the Baha’i 19-day fast. The goal of the Baha’i association at Wake Forest is to create a sense of community, since unity is among the stated principles of the Baha’i faith. For more information, call 336-758-6570.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
WFU STUDENTS TO CLEAN UP PORTION OF BRUSHY FORK STREAM — On March 19, more than 50 Wake Forest students, who are members of the LEAD Program (Leadership Excellence Application and Development), will be cleaning up the Brushy Fork stream in the Castle Heights neighborhood. Students will depart from the front of Benson University Center at 9:30 a.m. The LEAD Program members chose this project from a number of service opportunities that were submitted to the program. In addition to cleaning up debris, students will put storm drain markers on catch basins and set out door hangers that tell residents how to protect water quality. Clean up begins at 10 a.m. and will continue into the afternoon. Board members of Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful will work along with the students.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
EXPERT ON AFRICAN HEALTH AND HEALING TO SPEAK AT WFU — Steven Feierman, an expert on the history of health and healing in Africa, will present the Clonts Lecture in History at 6 p.m. March 21 in Scales Fine Arts Center, Room 102. One of the top African historians in the United States, Feierman has written several books including “African History” and “Peasant Intellectuals.”
Contact: Cheryl Walker, walkercv@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
LONGTIME WFU CHAPLAIN TO RECEIVE DIVINITY SCHOOL AWARD — Edgar D. “Ed” Christman, who retired as Wake Forest’s chaplain in 2003 after serving in that role since 1969, will receive the first Divinity School Distinguished Service Award during the university’s weekly worship service in Wait Chapel at 11 a.m. March 22. Christman, who has had a strong affiliation with the university for more than 50 years, was chosen as the first recipient of this award by the faculty of the Divinity School. The award recognizes individuals who have offered “distinguished service” in the university, the church and the world.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
NATIONALLY-RENOWNED ETHICIST TO SPEAK AT WFU — William F. May, a nationally-renowned ethicist and a former member of President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics, will participate in two public events involving faculty and students from Wake Forest and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center March 22-23. Both events are free and open to the public. May, an emeritus professor of ethics at Southern Methodist University in Texas and a Presbyterian minister, will deliver the keynote address “The Public Obligation of the Professional” at 7 p.m. March 22 in Wait Chapel. The lecture will explore the professions — medicine, law, politics, engineering, media, ministry, business, academia — as they struggle with their double identity as a means to a livelihood and as a common calling in the spirit of public service. May will also participate in a 4 p.m. panel discussion on March 23 in Benson University Center, Room 401. The discussion will focus on topics raised during May’s keynote address and includes faculty participants from the undergraduate college, the Divinity School, the law school, the medical school and the Babcock Graduate School of Management.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
POET, WFU GRADUATE A. R. AMMONS FOCUS OF WFU LECTURE — Roger Gilbert, professor of English at Cornell University, will discuss “From Whiteville to Ithaca: A. R. Ammons’ Scenic Route” at 7 p.m. March 23 in Wake Forest’s Scales Fine Arts Center, Room 102. A reception in the main lobby of Scales will follow the free, public event. Gilbert, who recently edited a special issue of the literary magazine Epoch that was devoted entirely to the life and work of Ammons, is working on a critical biography of the North Carolina-born poet and 1949 Wake Forest graduate. Gilbert has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to help with completion of the biography.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TO SHARE MEMORIES — Nesse Godin, a survivor of a Lithuanian Ghetto, the Stutthof Concentration Camp, four labor camps and a death march, will present a free, public lecture at Wake Forest at 7:30 p.m. March 23 in Pugh Auditorium in Benson University Center. Godin has dedicated her adult life to teaching about the enormity and horror of the Holocaust and sharing her personal memories. She is available for advance interviews, and media are invited to attend the lecture. Seating is limited. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Contact: Pam Barrett, barretpm@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Events, Research, Speakers
Headlines
Wake Forest in the News
Wake Forest regularly appears in media outlets around the world.