Higher profile for 'honorary members'

More people should know about one of UW's special honours, says the chair of the committee charged with finding the people who deserve to receive it.

"The Honorary Member of the University designation is the highest honour a staff member can attain at the University of Waterloo," says a terms-of-reference sheet that has just been approved. "It recognizes the individual for outstanding service to the university as a whole, not limited to one department or faculty. For faculty members it recognizes distinctive administrative service to the university."

The Honorary Members committee must be chaired by a staff member, and currently that's Tom Galloway, director of custodial and grounds services, who says the award — presented at convocation along with other UW honours such as "professor emeritus" status — isn't as widely known as it ought to be.

"Staff and faculty of the university and of its federated and affiliated colleges are eligible upon retirement," say the revised terms of reference, which were given approval in mid-February by the senate committee on honorary degrees, which oversees the program.

"The award is intended to recognize staff who, in addition to excellent departmental work, have contributed distinctive and distinguished service to the university as a whole and/or have made contributions beyond the university that have brought credit to the university. Involvements on multi disciplinary efforts or university-wide collaborations and committee work or significant contributions to outside associations would be examples.

"Members of the faculty should meet a higher standard than staff, in part because they are expected normally to assume a share of service activities on a regular basis. While the Distinguished Professor Emeritus designation is a higher award based on academic criteria, the Honorary Member award for faculty is intended to recognize outstanding administrative or other service.

"Any staff or faculty member can initiate a nomination process within their units. All nominations must be submitted in writing; the nomination package should include a letter of nomination signed by the senior executive of the nominee’s unit with particular reference to the stated criteria.  . . . Nominations approved by the Honorary Member Committee are forwarded to the Senate Nominating Committee for Honorary Degrees for consideration.

"The investiture ceremony will typically take place during a convocation ceremony and will consist of a citation and the placing of a green silk stole embellished with the University of Waterloo crest at each end. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, the recipient is expected to attend the ceremony." (Pictured above: Judy McCrae, former director of athletics and recreational services, is inducted as an Honorary Member at fall Convocation 2009.)

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Music prof launches Paraguay opus

A new multi-media piece with music by Carol Ann Weaver of Conrad Grebel University College will have its premiere tomorrow in a free concert in Grebel’s chapel.

“Paraguay Primeval”, starting at 12:30 tomorrow, will feature Weaver at the piano, with vocalist Rebecca Campbell, percussionists Kyle Skillman and Chris Snow, cellist Ben Bolt-Martin, Low German reader Henry Paetkau, and projectionist Myra Weaver.

The work stems from a recent trip and an ongoing collection of stories, Weaver says: “In July, my daughter Myra and I found ourselves going to Asunción, Paraguay, for the Mennonite World Conference. Witnessing various cross-cultural reconciliation commemorations on stage, eating meals in the mass cafeteria while speaking German to the man across the table and French to the woman beside me, participating in the massive communion service, were richly significant moments.

“Wending our way through the streets and byways of Asunción, Myra and I took many photos of this once proud city showing its earlier prominence, with its charm, as well as its struggle to stay on top of grinding poverty. I wanted to 'hear' the real Paraguay, so I began to record sound bites — ambient noises, the buzz of a sudden street rally, groups of Asunciónians chatting, a merchant selling pop music by looping its sounds into the vibrant city air.

“Our trek to the Chaco was possibly an even more profound experience. What stole my heart was a sense of the incredible dedication to this new land as displayed by these Mennonite colony people, many of whom had already survived impossible circumstances in Russia, or who had felt the need to leave Canada so they could continue their own schools. I was particularly moved by the statue of the woman with the plow, dedicated to the women's colony in Friedensheim (pictured). And the singing in the Filadelfia churches, both by the Mennonites and by the various indigenous groups, was gripping.

“Back in Canada, I began reading everything I could lay my hands on, and I put out a call for poetry, writings, information of any sort. Gradually, I began composing a set of pieces which would include a multi-media sonic soundscape of my recordings, plus vocal/instrumental songs and instrumental sections. Having already composed much music to poetry of American and Canadian Mennonite poets, I was hoping to find articulate and succinct poetry from these Chaco Mennonites describing their experiences.

“What I found were fascinating journal-entry stories by various writers from the Schoenbrunn Colony, as beautifully translated by Henry and Esther Regehr in their Schoenbrunn Chronicles. I allowed these stories to form rudimentary draft versions of songs. In September Rudy Wiebe's Blue Mountains (with its vivid and poetically written Paraguayan sections) became text for the first fully-completed songs, which Rebecca Campbell and I premiered in Winnipeg at the Mennonite/s Writing Conference in October. I had been told there might be no piano in the Winnipeg conference venue, so Chaco Christmas became an a cappella vocal setting, particularly effective for expressing the stark conditions faced by these staunch Mennonite colonists who faced unbearable heat, strange soil, scarce water, and deadly diseases. ‘Green Hell’ served as an apt description for this new land.

“Esther Regehr describes these writings as ‘raw, unfiltered, and straight from the horse's mouth, coming right from these people's own lives’. I was able to fashion a song about the Harms family members who died during the typhoid outbreak, about Uncle Hans who survived falling into a well, about the women's village at Friedensheim, about drought, heat and Chaco springtime. And from Dora Dueck's Under the Still Standing Sun, an opening song is fashioned, detailing the trek from Russia to Puerto Casado to Chaco land.

“The music attempts to catch the spirit of the text, allowing evocative percussion sounds to augment the other vocal/instrumental sounds and textures.  Writer Dora Dueck will travel from Winnipeg, and Henry and Esther Regehr will come from Waterloo to attend this premiere.”

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Research awards to five arts professors

by Janet Janes, office of research

Five faculty members have each received an award to further their research in the humanities and social sciences — ranging from performance-based research in early English theatre history to the investigation of Arab-Canadian migration and integration in the context of globalization.

The Robert Harding Humanities and Social Sciences Awards and the Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Awards were presented to the faculty members at a reception last week in which a welcoming address was provided by president David Johnston.

The awards were made from the Robert Harding Humanities and Social Sciences Endowment. This endowment was established in 2008 by Bob Harding, chair of the board of governors. Recognizing the value of humanities and social sciences research, as well as a need for funding in this area, Harding donated $1 million to launch the fund and the university matched it with another million. Harding also chose to honour Lois Claxton, the secretary of the university, for her visionary leadership and many years of dedication to Waterloo by having half of the awards made in her name each year.

The endowment will help researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and fine and performing arts improve their success in securing external grants and support small-scale or startup projects.

Recipients of the Robert Harding Humanities and Social Sciences Award:

• Guy Poirier, professor, French Studies, to establish a network of researchers as well as a digital archive and database of French missionary writing. These projects will serve as a foundation for his collaborative, international research on the impact of these writings on historical and current conceptions of the “Other.”
• Jennifer Roberts-Smith, assistant professor, Drama and Speech Communication, to support the multi-university project “Chester 2010: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy,” which examines performance-based research in early English theatre history.

Recipients of the Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Awards:

• Alice Kuzniar, professor, Germanic and Slavic Studies, to launch a new interdisciplinary project examining the potential contribution of the neglected Romantic Orphic tradition to current thinking about or relationship with the environment.
• Victoria Lamont, associate professor, English Language and Literature, to further her research on the genre of the popular western, specifically, examining the significant contribution of women writers in shaping this “male genre” in its early years.
• Bessma Momani, associate professor, Political Science and History, to complete a project investigating Arab-Canadian migration and integration in the context of globalization.

CAR

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