February 26: Arch & Vine - Upcoming Events, Deadlines & More!

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Important Announcements
2. Upcoming Events/Deadlines
3. Calls for Papers

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Arch & Vine Question of the Week
  Answer the Question of the Week here! Your answers will help DSPT serve you better! his week’s topic: the Faith in Human Rights Symposium. Each week that you answer the Question of the Week, you will be entered in a raffle for some great prizes! Raffles will be held once or twice a month (more frequently the more people respond). Thank you to everyone who responded to last week’s Question of the Week! Your answers will help us greatly as we plan for this year’s summer session.
• Student Job Opening: Facilities Assistant
  DSPT is looking for a student to assist with Facilities. This job would entail assisting with the cleaning and maintenance of DSPT. A detailed job description and application are available from Elissa at the front desk. Applications are due February 27, 2009 to Jeremiah Loverich! If you have any questions, please email them to Jeremiah at jloverich@op.dspt.edu.
• Lose Your Bike?
  A blue and silver bike has been locked to our bike rack since before the semester started. If this is yours, please move it soon so that other people can use the space – at times the rack gets full and other people have no room to lock their bike because this one is being stored here! If the bike is not moved soon, we will have to assume that it has just been "dumped" here and take measures to remove it, which may not be good for your bike or your lock!
• DSPT Grants and Scholarships
  If you are interested in receiving DSPT grants or scholarships for the 2009-2010 academic year, please note that applications are due in the Admissions Office by March 15, 2009. Even if you have already been awarded grants or scholarships, you must apply again each academic year. Students must be in a DSPT degree program and take at least 9 units each semester to be eligible for grants and scholarships. Questions? Stop by the Admissions Office!
• Lenten Six-Week Series at Newman Hall: “A Pearl of Great Price”
  Experience a deeper dimension of Christian life, teaching and prayer that has often been overlooked and neglected – a practical introduction to meditation in the Christian tradition and the significance of this practice for one’s life and faith. The one-hour candlelight meeting will include quiet music, a short teaching, and 25 minutes of silent meditation, followed by a question period for those who wish. This series will take place on six Monday evenings, beginning on March 2, 2009, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Chapel at Newman Hall/Holy Spirit Parish (2700 Dwight Way, Berkeley). This series is free of charge! For more information, call Jeannie Battagin at 510-849-2181.
• Volunteers Needed for Help with the Jean Porter Lecture on Thursday, March 12
  DSPT needs student volunteers to assist with set up, clean up, and photography at the Jean Porter Lecture on March 12. There will be a sign up sheet posted by the kitchen – please sign up if you can help! Questions? Contact Pete at pmacleod@dspt.edu.
• DSPT Recycles: Ink and Toner!
  In an effort to reduce waste, DSPT is recycling ink and toner cartridges! So, if you have any empty ink or toner cartridges from your printers at home, you can bring them to DSPT to be recycled! Bring your empty ink and toner cartridges and deposit them in the bin with the green lid next to the copy machine or give them to Elissa at the front desk. If you have any questions, e-mail Elissa at emccormack@dspt.edu.
• On Facebook?
  So are we! Join the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology group!

UPCOMING EVENTS/DEADLINES

• Thursday, February 26
  
  Faith in Human Rights Workshop: Dialogue and Discussion about the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
  Time: 7:30 p.m.
  Location: Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parish (2700 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA)
  Panelists: Imam Faheem Shuaibe (Masjid Waritheen, Oakland, CA), Pastor Phillip Lawson (East Bay Housing Organization; Jones Memorial Church); Deena Aranoff (Center for Jewish Studies, GTU); and William O’Neill (JSTB)
  Opening Narrative and Respondent: Ella Baker Center (The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is a strategy and action center working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Based in Oakland, California, they promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration through our four cutting-edge campaigns.)
  
  
• Tuesday, March 2
  
  DSPT Mass & Lunch
  Time: 11:10 a.m.
  
  Theology of the Body Study Group
  Time: 7:30 p.m.
  Location: DSPT Conference Room
  For more information, contact Ed Hopfner at ehopfner@oakdiocese.org.
  
  
• Thursday, March 5
  
  “Destination Ashkenaz": Jewish Identity and Cultural Tourism in Eastern Europe
  Time: 2:00 p.m.
  Location: Dinner Board Room, GTU Library, Second Floor
  Join us for an afternoon symposium in which scholars will examine the complex heritage of Ashkenazi Jewry and the boundaries of Jewish tourism to Eastern Europe, a region too often reduced to a post-Holocaust cemetery. Panelists include Erica Lehrer (cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor in History at Concordia University in Montreal), Shana Penn (visiting scholar at the GTU Center for Jewish Studies), and Karen Underhill (Ph.D. candidate in Polish Literature and Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago). The panelists will present their research and experiential projects, which challenge and aim to transform the conventional Jewish tourism narrative from a singular focus on how Jews died in the Holocaust to how Jews lived for hundreds of years and created an enduring culture that shapes Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora today. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. R.S.V.P. to 510-649-2482 or cjs@gtu.edu.
  
  Human Rights Film Festival: Redemption: Stories of the West Oakland Recycling Community
  Time: 4:30 p.m.
  Location: 111 Fairmount Avenue, Oakland, CA (Map/Directions)
  Film screening followed by a conversation with the director and people in the film as well as testimony for the Poverty Truth Commission of the Graduate Theological Union.
  
  
• Friday, March 6
  
  Human Rights Film Festival: Where the Water Meets the Sky
  Time: 7:30 p.m.
  Location: DSPT Classroom 1
  On behalf of the Faith in Human Rights Project you are cordially invited to the March 6th screening of Where the Water Meets the Sky. We are showing this film in conjunction with Camfed, an organization that is dedicated to fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS in rural Africa by educating girls and investing in their economic independence and leadership once they complete school.Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman, and written by Jordan Roberts (March of the Penguins), Where the Water Meets the Sky tells the inspiring story of 23 women from a remote region of northern Zambia who are trained in film making.. In one of the poorest areas of the country, where women rarely have a chance to speak out, this courageous group produces a film about an issue that no one will discuss: the plight of young women orphaned by AIDS. Inspired by the strength of Penelop, a young woman who agrees to share her story on camera, the group becomes a force for change, showing how a single story can unite an entire community.
  Please join us for this important event and help us spread awareness concerning the important issues the film raises!
  
  
• Sunday, March 8
  
  "Threads That Bind": A Symposium on International Textiles by Women
  Time: 4:30 p.m.
  Location: DSPT Classroom 1 & Galleria
  In conjunction with the Picturing Paradise exhibit (on display in the DSPT Galleria from January 26 to March 20), and in celebration of International Women’s Day, a symposium called Threads That Bind will be held on Sunday, March 8 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. A panel of presenters will speak on the diverse expressions of women’s textiles from representative regions of the world and the evidence of spirituality manifested through these textiles by women in their Threads That Bind.Visit the website for the Faith in Human Rights Symposium for more information.

See the DSPT Academic/Events Calendar here: http://www.dspt.edu/docs/news/calendar_list.asp

CALLS FOR PAPERS

• Call for Graduate Student Papers: The 5th Annual University of Chicago Divinity School Ministry Conference
  “From the Ends of the Earth: Christianity and the 21st Century”
  Conference date: May 1-2
  Location: University of Chicago Divinity School
  Keynote speakers: Kwok Pui Lan (William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School); William Dyrness (Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary); Betta Mengistu (President of the International Bible Society in Africa)
  - This conference will feature an all-student panel on Saturday. Student presentations will be fifteen minutes each, and Q & A will follow the presentations. This is an exciting opportunity for graduate students to reflect on ministry in an academic/seminary setting and to interact with recognized scholars and church leaders on issues of Christianity, globalization, localization, contextualization and ministry.
  - We are interested in papers in the following four areas: 1. The Bible and Spirit in 21st Century Christianity 2. How Christianity affects and is affected by globalizing political and economic forces 3. "Authentic," "original," "local" or "indigenous" Christian expression and theology 4. How do/ought forms of Christian belief and practice around the world influence and affect one another? How is local belief and practice in the U.S. affected by other Christian belief and practice around the world? How should it be?
  - Abstract and CV deadline: March 1 Please email CVs and a 300 word abstract of your paper to ministryconference@gmail.com (some bibliographic info would be helpful but is not required). The deadline for submission of your final presentation will be April 20.
  - Conference Description: Christianity is no longer a religion dominated by the West. It is estimated that by 2050, at least four-fifths of the world's then three billion Christians will be of non-European descent. The implications of such statistics call for focused attention in the 21st century. With this conference we hope to address issues that arise from contemporary transformations in Christianity. How is the co-incidence of the post-colony with the failures of nationalism influencing new forms of Christian leadership? How, in turn, do developing practices of Christian organization demand and resist new approaches to cooperation and unity? Finally, how do these things influence and even produce new self-understandings for Christians in America? While building on important efforts of social scientists and missiologists, the 5th Annual Ministry Conference of the University of Chicago Divinity School will approach these topics with specifically ministerial and ecclesiological lenses. This conference seeks (1) to help deepen understanding of certain realities and potential futures of being Christian around the world for ministers, students and lay-persons as well as professional academics and (2) to equip the same with resources for engaging the issues of the conference further. Featuring speakers from a broad ideological and geographical spectrum, please join us for this engaging and provocative two-day event!