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Friends' Newsletter Spring
2006 vol. 4 no. 1
| Director's Column | Documentary
Discs | The Landscape of Cultivation | Miracles of the Spirit |
| Polkabilly | News From Iowa | Announcements |
Director's
Column: "Cheers!"
By Joe Salmons
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Jim in action at Ingraham Hall classroom. Photo by Jeff Miller © UW Communications |
Another academic year is coming to
a close, and it’s been another good one for CSUMC. (By the
way, if a linguistic aside isn’t out of order, the efforts
to make an acronym out of that monstrous abbreviation continue:
‘CSUMC’ is now pronounced ‘kuh-soompk’
by some.) We’ve seen significant continued progress on our
core projects, almost all of them in collaboration with various
partners. We’ve continued to win competitive grant funding
– most recently from the National
Endowment for the Arts. And those efforts are recognized:
Ruth Olson’s article on the Miss Annie Mae’s Hats exhibit is featured on the cover of the Winter 2006 issue of the Wisconsin Academy Review. A whole set of ‘finding aids’
for key collections of folklife materials from around our region
will be going up soon. Even our initial public events for the Wisconsin
Englishes Project generated a surprising amount of attention.
But sometimes overdue recognition comes at a very
appropriate moment: Just as I was beginning to write this column,
CSUMC co-director Jim Leary was given the 2006 Chancellor’s
Award, one of the very select group of University-wide Distinguished
Teaching Awards. We congratulate Jim on this richly deserved award,
especially so since he’s officially stepping down as co-director
after this semester. The word “officially” has to
be stressed, though, since he’s promised to continue to
play a major role in CSUMC. Jim’s been offering classes
through UW Folklore Program since 1983, in addition to founding
and running our Center. He’s long overdue for a break, and
he’s also promising that he’ll take a sabbatical.
After he returns from that, we’ll switch off
as directors, so it’s not a real departure in any sense,
but it’s still a big moment for us: The idea for CSUMC was
Jim’s, and every major step in our development has been
driven by Jim’s energy and vision (two things that are in
woefully short supply in our world). Today, while most of the
daily activity is carried by our ace staff, Jim’s presence
is everywhere.
The end of this year brings other changes too. With
the end of the semester, our newsletter editor Jocelyne Bodden
is finishing her degree in the School of Library and Information
Studies and moves on to the ‘real world’. It’s
been great working with you, Jocelyne!
So, thanks, Jim. "Cheers!" and here’s
hoping that you keep that promise to stay actively involved ...
Onward!
Joe
Joseph Salmons is Professor of
German at UW-Madison, and Co-Director of Center for the Study
of Upper Midwestern Cultures.
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