Classics professor profile

Classics professor keeps Athens in mind while globe-trotting

by Dwayne Steward
Speakeasy
Staff Writer
Mon, Sep. 25, 2006

Tom Carpenter hasn’t made it around the world in 80 days like the famous Nellie Bly, but he’s definitely gone around the world, studying in England, living in Paris and teaching in Rome, just to name a few.

Yet, Carpenter, an Ohio University Classics and World Religion professor, yearns for the comforting Athens atmosphere when he’s away and always coming back for more.

“I have three homes,” he said. “One’s at Oxford where I went to get my doctorate, one’s in Rome, where I do most of my research, and then there’s Athens.”

Carpenter, a nationally prominent author on classical Rome, spent his summer finishing up his research on southern Italy. He’s even received international fame with his book¸ “Arts and Myth in Ancient Greece” (1991) which is printed in French, Spanish, Korean and most recently Greek and Turkish.

He’s been published in classics research magazines all over the world, including the “American Journal of Archeology,” the “Oxford Journal of Archeology,” and “Classical Philology.” Carpenter’s research on south Italy should be published in 2007.

International travel is as much a part of Carpenter’s life as his wife is. Lynne Lancaster, who travels just as much as her husband, is also a Classics and World Religion professor at OU, focusing her research on ancient Roman architecture.

Lancaster received her bachelor’s in architecture and had planned on working on blue prints during the school year and researching in Rome during the summers; however, the tight job market and unemployment guided her into her new passion.

In the summer 2005, Lancaster published “Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome.” Like her husband, her many publications have recognized her in the field of classical archeology.

“We met when I was studying to be an architect in Virginia,” she said. “Because of traveling, we spent the first year of our marriage apart, because I went to study at Oxford, but the next year he took a sabbatical and came to England.”

Opposite traveling schedules has made things somewhat difficult, Lancaster admits, but the benefits are often extraordinary.

“Whenever one of us is off researching overseas the other has an excuse to go back to Rome, so they definitely benefit,” she said, laughing.

The couple came to Ohio University 10 years ago to take on a somewhat new initiative; The Charles J. Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities. Carpenter became one of the three Charles J. Ping Professor of Humanities at OU and the director of the institute.

“Our charge is to promote teaching humanities at the secondary and collegiate level,” Carpenter said. The organization coordinates workshops and conferences where humanities teachers from all over Ohio can network, hone their craft and discuss ways to better teach humanities.

“The Classics and World Religion department collaborates, cooperates and participates in many of the programs the Ping Institute provides,” said William Owens, Classics and World Religions department chair. “Tom is a really great guy, he’s nationally recognized; people overseas know of OU’s classics department because they know of Tom Carpenter.”

Carpenter said his research helps to bring new ideas to his teaching strategy. Pictures of his and his wife’s research in Rome and stories from his digs in Italy help bring the subject to life.

“He’s an extremely sought after professor, yet he chooses to work with us at OU,” Owens said. “He pushes the students, making them achieve more then they ever thought they could.”

Carpenter can’t imagine his life any differently or better.

“I couldn’t stay in Athens year round, that might be to daunting,” he said laughing. “But the fact that I can be in Rome part of the year and Oxford the next, makes Athens a great place to come home to. It’s safe and quiet, and I love coming back to my students.”

Ohio University Literacy Center

Literacy Center: Southeast Ohio’s best kept secret

By Dwayne Steward
Speakeasy
Staff Writer
Tue, Sep. 19, 2006

The sixth annual Literacy Center Kickoff Event at
Baker University Center Ballroom drew over 200 participants,
the largest crowd yet for the kickoff.

Ohio University played host to one of the largest regional events for the development of low literacy adult teachers on Friday, Sept. 15 in Baker University Center.

The 2006 Literacy Center and Central Southeast Ohio ABLE Resource Center Kickoff saw a record number of over 200 participants, all in the name of low adult literacy.

A $10,000 budget and the seven dedicated individuals who comprise The Edward W. Stevens Center for the Study and Development of Literacy and Language coordinated the region-wide effort. Themed “Learning Together: A Literacy Community,” the kickoff featured students who had excelled in the program in their morning ceremony and teacher development workshops that afternoon, coupled by industry consultants and educators.

The eight-hour conference included a keynote speech by Lynn Selmser, a policy consultant for the Commission on Adult Basic Education and former member of the House Committee on Education and Labor. Her speech, entitled “The State of Literacy in the U.S.—Advocacy and Congress” was given at a packed luncheon at Baker.

Robin Schwarz, session presenter and literacy educator consultant in Columbus, taught kickoff participants what not to do when teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages adults, using a simulation to reinforce her point. She began her session entitled “Practices that Help or Hinder Learning of ESOL Adults” by starting before everyone had seated, giving unclear instructions and randomly calling on participants to present their “work” to the “class.”

After ending the simulation she said, “I set you all up to fail. There are many classrooms where I have observed where teachers use teaching practices that set their students up for failure,” she said. “As teachers we must never engage in such destructive behavior.”

Other sessions included “Marketing Your ABLE Program,” “Fundamentals of Mediation” and “Dialogue Reading: An Interactive Approach for Tutors to Model Good Reading.”

Lois Knadler, 12-year ESOL educator, said the kickoff was extremely diverse in the sessions it offered, making it a much more eclectic and a more helpful experience.

“I just enjoy talking to different people,” she said. “That’s how you get your best ideas.”

OU’s own Marvin Nichols, a grounds maintenance employee with facilities management spoke at the event detailing his success and future endeavors in the program.

“Marvin is a special case, we actually tutored him here at the Literacy Center,” said Sharon Reynolds, coordinator of the Central/Southeast Ohio ABLE Resource Center.

Jeff Fantine, the center’s director, has been with the center for nearly six years. He said he thought the conference was a resounding success, which built lasting bridges and helped further the center’s core goals.

“I thought the kickoff was fantastic, every year it gets bigger and better,” he said.

Fantine said a better relationship was cultivated with the university this year, in the program’s sixth year.

“We’ve always been so isolated from the university in years past,” he said. “This year we felt we really made a connection with the university community.”

The center, hidden in the third floor of McCracken Hall, offers six major literacy projects, including the pilot GED Scholars Initiative, a one of a kind program, currently housed in Lancaster, which will help GED graduates transition into college learning.

“We hope to have the program [the GED Scholars Initiative] up and running on all the campuses by next year,” Fantine said.

The center caters to all of Southeast Ohio’s literacy needs and one of their grants has statewide jurisdiction.

The center’s Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABEL) Resource Center, is one of only six in the state and specializes in adult literacy resources and special needs, including state of the art assistive technology for students with disabilities. Its resources can be used by students or anyone within the field of literacy

“The ABLE project has 30 programs operating within the region,” Reynolds said. Three other major projects comprise the center and have the arm just as far into the community.

AppalCORPS, a school-aged tutoring project, has 27 AmeriCORPS members at 20 schools, serving about 750 children in grades K-6 who are struggling with reading. The program operates in public schools in Athens, Scioto, Belmont and Monroe counties. America Reads has approximately 12 teachers at area elementary schools and Appalachia Reads focuses on promoting literacy awareness, specifically in Athens and neighboring counties. Projects are usually filled with work study positions or volunteers, for more information go to http://www.ohio.edu/literacy.

Besides the GED Scholars Initiative, the center is also offering new projects, including the Library Literacy and Teacher Education Project, to promote library usage amongst college students, and the Literacy on the Road Project, which is a mobile classroom that travels around Southeast Ohio promoting and improving literacy at grade schools.

“We’re continually trying to expand our programming,” Fantine said. “Our mission is to promote research and study of literacy and language on a national and global level and we also have a commitment to improve literacy in the Southeast Ohio and Appalachian region.”

Visiting author transcends genres

Visiting author transcends genres

by Dwayne Steward
Speakeasy
Staff Writer
Sun, Sep. 10, 2006

Most writers devote their lives to conquering their given genre. Names such as John Grisham, Maya Angelou and Mel Brooks, immediately come to mind with genre labels. However Carla Harryman has devoted her life to conquering them all, creating genres of her own.

Harryman, a visiting creative writing professor for fall quarter, has published 12 books ranging and inter-changing from poetry and critical/literary essays to experimental novels to playwright and performance writing. She even collaborates with musicians to bring an audio/visual aspect to her writing.

“I don’t ever write for one genre,” Harryman said. “I have philosophical questions that are experiences that inspire me and I just start writing; genre is never my motivation.”

California born and bred, Harryman has devoted her life to the pursuit of interdisciplinary arts. Taking her literary bachelor’s degree and interdisciplinary arts master’s degree, she’s taking on the world of writing through collaboration and inter-genre writing.

Harryman spent last fall in Germany working one her performance piece, “Middle Play”, a political and philosophical motif, and spent her summer in France and Berlin doing the same.

“When I write something that will be performed I like to leave a lot of things open so the ensemble working on it can take it and make it their own,” she said. “I almost never put in stage directions, or other strict instructions.”

Her works include “Percentage” (1979), “Vice” (1987), “Under the Bridge” (1990), “There Never was a Rose Without a Thorn” (1995), “Gardener of Stars” (2001) and most recently “Baby” (2005). In early 2007 she’ll be releasing “Open Box”, a collection of poems structured in four line stanzas to represent the open-ended conversation she wants to have with her readers.

“I like my work to have an active audience,” she said. “’Open Box’ is basically a 48-page poem, it’s really the first one I’ve written.”

Harryman said she’s going in a new direction in the future by publishing her work on CDs. The improvised music scene and avant-garde jazz is something she said she has always been interested in.

“I’ve been talking with some musicians about creating something artistic that can be recorded,” she said. “It’s something I’ve never done, but I’ve always been interested in many different types of art and many of the musicians think just as I do, and can’t fit their works into a certain genre.”

Her writing process is as eclectic as ever. While, pursing this new line of artistic expression, she has been working on a more poem-like work entitled “Adorno’s Noise” that she hopes to finish next summer and another collection of essays for the distant future.

It has been nine years since Harryman found what she calls one of her greatest forms of inspiration at Wayne State University: teaching.

“I’ve been introduced to a whole new world that I didn’t know possible through the interaction with my students,” she said.

After spending only a week at the university she said she has already fallen in love with Athens.
“I love the pedestrian-friendly environment,” she said. “I’ve only used my car once.”

Harryman will be teaching a creative writing: non-fiction course and a graduate creative writing seminar this quarter before she returns to Detroit in the winter.

HD Radio

Radio's new wave
With HD, listeners get better sound -- and stations can offer more programming

By DWAYNE STEWARD
The News Journal
Monday, September 4, 2006

Move over satellite radio, a new bull's in town and he's in high definition.

Like its cousin HD TV, HD radio's clearer, CD-quality sound is predicted to be the future of radio airwaves. Many analysts compare it to the effect the DVD had on the VHS market.

The technology originated with iBiquity Digital Corp., which the Federal Communications Commission has made the sole licenser for HD radio in the United States.

HD radio offers free digital AM/FM radio, unlike XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, which require subscriptions.

Under what is called multicasting, which allows stations to have up to four channels, a local pop station could offer their usual programming on one channel, country on another and a talk show on the next.

To listen to radio stations in high definition, however, you must have an HD radio, and like early DVD players, HD radios are relatively expensive.

Prices start at $199, and some consumers are paying $500 to $600 for better quality units.
But the price is coming down, said Jonathan Magasanik, the general merchandise manager for Tweeter home entertainment.

Boston Acoustics "Recepter" tabletop model ($300)

"We started selling HD tabletop receptors back in March, and they were going for $499," he said. Tweeter sells tabletop models produced by Boston Acoustics, for $299. It also offers car units by Alpine for $199.


The Boston Acoustic model is being sold at major retailers such as Radio Shack, Tweeter, Crutchfield and Amazon.com.

"We're changing the way people listen to radio but we're not making the old version obsolete," said Todd Baker, Boston Acoustics product manger. "All stations come through on the HD radio, but you'll be able to hear the difference of those with the HD technology."

Polk Audio last month also came out with a tabletop home entertainment system that includes HD Radio. The iSonic, at $599, includes HD digital, satellite, AM/FM radio, a DVD and CD player, iPod downloading capabilities and more.

Radio Shack started offering the radios in May in areas with high saturation of HD radio stations. The units are not for sale at stores in Delaware, which has only two stations using the new technology.

"Our stores in Philadelphia are selling the new technology but right now it's on a trial basis," said Charles Hodges, Radio Shack spokesman. "We will be introducing our own branded HD digital radio in October for $199, and once more stations start using the technology we will begin selling them in more of our stores."

FCC regulations require radio stations and manufacturers to purchase a license for the technology from iBiquity.


JVC KD-SHX900 car model ($600)

Pop music station WSTW 93.7 FM, in Wilmington, paid $200,000 for rights, a broadcast license, HD transmitter and multicast capabilities. But, Bob Mercer, owner of Delmarva Broadcasting, thinks it was worth it.

"It's like you're sitting in the studio listening to the speakers here," said Mercer. "It's a whole new world. In four years, all 11 of our FM stations should be switched over."

The technology that allows stations to "multicast" -- that is, broadcast two or more programs simultaneously -- is relatively simple. Traditional radio is sent out on one analog signal per channel. But with digital broadcasting, analog and digital are bundled together and the digital signal is compressed, using less capacity. The smaller size of the signal allows more than one packet of information to be sent.

WRTX 91.7 FM, in Dover, has been using HD technology for about a year. Executive Director Dave Conant said he hopes to have all 12 stations in the group's network running on multicast digital systems by the end of the year. Conant said it costs $100,000 per station to make the switch to HD technology.

Across the nation, 959 stations have made the switch, and 100 offer multicasting. More than 2,000 are in the process of switching.

"I think digital radio is what AM/FM is evolving into," Magasanik said. "It's going to become the standard for ... radio."