In 1633 Galileo Galilei appeared before the Inquisition in Rome. He was on trial for having supported the Copernican position of Heliocentrism, most recently in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Galileo’s trial and recantation have fascinated generations of scholars and have served as an archetype of conflict between science and religion. The astronomer’s earlier conflicts with the church will be considered but the focus will be on the implications of the trial.

Contact Matt Sylvain (x8682) for more information.

*Note: Original image of Galileo from NASA web site.

This will offer tips on how to organize andforpaper records, photographs and other audio-visual material, and digital records. We will discuss the organization of records, different formats of photographs, the basic rules of preservation, storage space, archival supplies, and the issues surrounding digital photographs and records.

Presented by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture

What: a Book Talk by Katherine Vaz, author of Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories, published by Nebraska University Press
Where: Browsing Area, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth (Park in Lot 13)
When: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 5 p.m.
Questions: Contact 508-999-8689 or email: fmpa-archives@umassd.edu
Free and open to the public

Presented by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the Claire T. Carney Library’s Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives.

Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories was awarded the prestigious Praire Schooner Book Prize for 2008. The stories evoke a complete world, one so richly imagined and finely realized that the stories themselves are not so much read as experienced. The world they portray is Portuguese-American, redolent of incense and spices, resonant with ritual and prayer, immersed in the California culture of freeway and commerce. Laced with lyrical prose and vivid detail, acclaimed writer Katherine Vaz conjures a captivating blend of Old World heritage and New World culture to explore the links between families, friends, strangers, and their world. From the threat of a serial killer as the background for a young girl’s first brush with death to the fallout of a modern-day visitation from the Virgin Mary; from an AIDS-stricken squatter refusing to vacate an empty Lisbon home to a mother’s yearlong struggle with the death of her daughter, these deft stories make their world ours.

Katherine Vaz, a Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard University (2003-9) and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute (2006-7), is the author of two novels, Saudade (St. Martin’s Press) and Mariana, which was published in six languages and selected by the Library of Congress as one of the Top Thirty International Books of 1998.  Her collection Fado and Other Stories won the 1997 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in The Harvard Review, Tin House, BOMB, Glimmer Train, Five Points, Ninth Letter, Pleiades, and numerous other magazines. She was on the six-person Presidential Delegation sent to the World’s Fair/Expo 98 in Lisbon, and the Portuguese-American Women’s Association named her 2002 Woman of the Year. The newspaper O Luso-Americano named her as one of the top 50 most influential Portuguese-Americans of the twentieth century, and she is the first Portuguese-American to have her work recorded for the archives of the Library of Congress (Hispanic Division).

Praise for Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories (from book cover):

“Vaz is a soulful writer who understands her protagonists’ complex lives, as well as the way religious beliefs can assert themselves most powerfully after leaving native soil.”—Publishers Weekly

“One comes away from these stories believing that it is possible to bargain with, sacrifice to, confront, divert, and even overcome adversity. In this wonderful collection, Vaz gives us characters who delight in the marvelous, which lurks, often undetected, just beneath the surface of our ordinary lives.”—Joyce Wilson, Harvard Review

“In Katherine Vaz’s new volume of short fiction, she demonstrates brilliantly that rare quality of truly fine writing—a deeply profound knowingness about the human condition. Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories will even more widely prove what is already clear to many: Katherine Vaz is a master of the short story.”—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“Katherine Vaz is an old-fashioned storyteller in the best sense. Her work is sensual, rich in detail and layered history. Her stories overflow with incident and feeling. Other writers present fruit plates. Vaz serves cornucopias.”—Allegra Goodman, author of Intuition and Kaaterskill Falls

“Katherine Vaz captures brilliantly the tragicomedy of people caught between ancient superstitions and modern values, people longing to cross over from one culture to another, from loneliness to love, from folly to grace. Her stories glow with a fairy-tale magic, yet they also feel uniquely and delightfully new.”—Julia Glass, author of Three Junes and The Whole World Over

Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, UMass Dartmouth
Prof. Frank F. Sousa, Director
http://www.portstudies.umassd.edu

Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth
Prof. Gloria de Sa, Faculty Director
Sonia Pacheo, Archivist, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives
http://www.lib.umassd.edu/archives/paa/paa.html

Peer tutors are trained to help students in all areas of writing from English 100 essays to seminar papers and everything in between.  Any subject, any audience, any format.

Tutors are also trained to help at any stage of the writing process: from understanding an assignment and brainstorming topics to citations and final drafts.

Peer tutors will be free to meet with students one-on-one, Sunday through Wednesday evenings in the Learning Commons (see the details below).

Sunday through Wednesday 7 pm to 10 pm

Appointments are recommended.

To make an appointment call the Learning Commons Help Desk at 508-999-8884

Or you can stop by either

• the Learning Commons Help Desk in the Claire T.Carney Library

or

• the Writing and Reading Center in LARTs 220A.

Finding your Portuguese Ancestors: A Genealogy Workshop
Workshop Presented By Professional Genealogists Cheri Mello and George Pacheco

When: October 31st, from 9:30 AM to 3:00 P.M.
Where: Prince Henry Society Reading Room, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

This workshop will teach you how to research your family tree using sources from the United States, Portugal and Cape Verde.

Cheri Mello of California is an author, lecturer, chat room host and DNA project participant.

George Pacheco of Rhode Island is a lecturer and researcher associated with the Family History Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Dartmouth, MA.

Workshop fee is $20, payable to the Claire T. Carney Library. Lunch and workshop materials are included. Pre-registration is required.

Please register by calling 508 999-8689 or mail in the attached form with the fee, to the Archives and Special Collections, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, N. Dartmouth, MA, 02747.

For directions to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, go to http://www.umassd.edu/directions/

Parking will be available in Lot 13.

Presented by the Portuguese-American Archives and the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and partially funded by

Who: James T. Griffith, Department of Medical Laboratory Science

Where: Library Browsing Area

When: Wednesday, October 14th at noon

Almost every university started to plan for the “great outbreak” of one or some flu during the fall semester. Does it matter which one? Will the not entirely tested vaccine work? So you get sick for a few days – is this just another case of media hysteria?

Contact Matt Sylvain (x8682) for more information.

Workshop on oral history by Dr. Betty Hoffman, President of the New England Association of Oral History

Please register by October 1^st by calling 508 999-8689.

When: Thursday, Oct. 8th, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Where: Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, Claire T. Carney Library, UMass Dartmouth
Directions: http://www.umassd.edu/vtour/

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth announces a workshop, “Recording Oral History: The Basics,” organized by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives in collaboration with the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the Claire T. Carney Library.

The event will take place on Thursday, October 8^th, from 1:00- 4:00 P.M. in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, located in the Claire T. Carney Library. 

The workshop is designed for individuals who are interested in interviewing people about their lives and about events that have shaped the history of our community, especially people and events related to the immigration and settlement of the Portuguese in this region.    

This free oral history workshop will give you a chance to work with expert oral historian, Dr. Betty Hoffman, president of the New England Association of Oral History, in learning the basic principles and techniques for collecting and preserving stories and memories that might otherwise be lost.  You will be introduced to the oral history process, including planning, interviewing techniques, equipment and release forms and will get the opportunity to practice some of the techniques learned.

Dr. Betty Hoffman is an anthropologist who has extensive experience in researching and recording local history.  She has been involved in many projects including, Witness to War: 1941-1945: The Soviet Jewish Experience, an oral history and photographic exhibition, which became the focal point for Military History Month at the Connecticut State Library and then traveled to venues throughout the country.

Her publications include: Jewish Hearts: A Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union, Honoring the Past, Building the Future: the History of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and Jewish West Hartford: From City to Suburb.

Please register by October 1^st by calling 508 999-8689.

For directions to the UMass Dartmouth campus, see http://www.umassd.edu/vtour/.

Workshop participants should use Parking Lot 7.  For handicapped parking, available adjacent to the library, use Parking Lot 13.

These sessions are geared to transfer students, but anyone is welcome to sign up.

This is your opportunity!

Please sign up for one of the upcoming sessions:

• Monday, Oct. 5,  2-3 pm
• Thursday, Oct. 8,  3:30-4:30
• Wednesday, Oct. 14, 10-11 am
• Monday, Oct. 19,  11am-12noon
• Tuesday, Oct. 20, 10-11 am
• Wednesday, Oct. 21  2-3pm

Look over the full schedule; You’re sure to find something of interest there!

The Ferreira Mendes Portuguese-American Archives are named for the pioneer Portuguese-language radio and newspaper personality, Affonso Gil Mendes Ferreira, whose daughter, Otilia Ferreira, is the Archives’ lead benefactor. The Archives house the largest collection of historical material documenting the experience of Portuguese immigrants and their descendants in the United States.

The pre-ribbon cutting colloquium will feature Mr. Pedro Bicudo, director of RTP Açores; Prof. Kimberly DaCosta Holton, associate professor and program director of Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at Rutgers University; and Prof. Andrea Klimt, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Crime and Justice Studies at UMass Dartmouth.

Mr. Bicudo will deliver a lecture entitled “Portuguese Ethnic-Media: Quest for Survival,” and Professors Holton and Klimt will discuss the book Community, Culture and the Makings of Identity:  Portuguese-Americans Along the Eastern Seaboard, a collection of essays edited by the two and recently published by the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture.

During the colloquium, Mr. Bicudo will present the Ferreira Mendes Portuguese-American Archives with a collection of television programs he produced for Portuguese Public Television (RTP) about the Portuguese in the U.S.

The colloquium is co-organized by the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the Claire T. Carney Library.

See full university press release for more details.

See the library’s Ferreira Mendes Portugese-American Archives web page for more information about the archives.