Saint Martin's, Panorama City launch sixth year of Minds on the Millennium Lecture Series

Jan. 15, 2005

Lacey, Wash. – Saint Martin’s College and Panorama City begin the sixth year of Minds on the Millennium, a free public lecture series, Feb. 10 with insights on Appalachia by Olivia Archibald, a member of the college’s English faculty.

The lecture series – launched in 2000 to promote intellectual conversation and a lively exchange of ideas based on historical, philosophical and literary topics – has grown to be a familiar favorite in the area. This year, the series will be broadened to include three area scholars speaking in the areas of their expertise.

Lectures will be at 1:30 p.m. at Panorama City’s Quinault Auditorium, 1835 Circle Lane. For more information on Minds on the Millennium VI, please call the college at (360) 491-4700. Here is the spring program:

Feb. 10: “Life in Appalachia”
Olivia Archibald, Ph.D., Saint Martin's College English faculty

One of the most remote parts of the United States is the area within the Appalachian Mountains, a mountain range much older and at one time much higher than that of the Rockies. “Life in Appalachia” focuses on Archibald’s personal experiences growing up in the Appalachians of Southern West Virginia. She will present a series of narratives about people, the language, the land and the world she discovered when she moved away from those ancient mountains.
Archibald, whose doctorate is in the personal essay and Anglo-Saxon literature, directs Saint Martin’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program and teaches writing, literary criticism, sociolinguistics and Women’s Studies. She has been invited to read her personal essays in more than a dozen cities.

Feb. 24: “The Nuremberg War Crime Trials: Justice or Victor’s Vengeance?”
Robert Harvie, Saint Martin's College criminal justice faculty

In this look at the history of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Prof. Robert Harvie, Ph.D., will examine the trial’s legal theory and the verdict, focusing on whether the trial was justice or merely the vengeance of World War II’s victors. He also will discuss the trial’s impact on current war crime prosecution.
Harvie, who has a law degree from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, taught at the University of Illinois and Montana State University and now chairs Saint Martin’s criminal justice program. His research interests include legal history and comparative constitutional law.

March 10: “Kings in Your Ancestry?”
Niels Skov, Ph.D., Panorama City

Finding out about yourself through genealogy, the study of family pedigrees, can be an intriguing pursuit. Niels Skov will discuss what can be extracted from a name, with a view to history, resources and reliability.
In World War II, Skov spent four death-defying years as a saboteur – or terrorist – in the Danish anti-Nazi underground. He came to the United States in 1947 as an immigrant. After a career in corporate management and founding a successful international consulting firm, he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Oregon State University. From 1972 to 2002, he taught at The Evergreen State College. He is the author “Letter to My Descendants,” which recounts his experiences in the Danish underground.

March 24: “Early Man in Washington State”
Richard Daugherty, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Washington State University

Four of Washington’s most significant archaeological sites date from 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Richard Daugherty will talk about the sites, which are Grant County’s Lind Coulee site, Franklin County’s Marmes Rockshelter site, Clallam County’s Manis Mastodin site and Grant County’s Clovis site in Grant County.
Daugherty brings vast archeological experience and expertise to the subject. Since the beginning of his career in 1947, he has conducted and directed numerous archeological excavations and investigations into the prehistory of Washington, other Northwest states and North Africa. There, he performed archeological surveys in areas involved in dam construction on the Nile River. Daugherty taught and directed archeological research at Washington State University from 1950 to 1985. In 1967 President Lyndon Johnson appointed him as an original member of the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

April 14: "The Life and Times of Napoleon Bonaparte: His Loves, His Adventures, His Triumphs and His Mistakes"
J. David Markham, Napoleonic scholar and author

In this spirited, often humorous presentation, lecture-goers will learn everything they ever wanted to know about Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he the dreaded ‘Ogre of Corsica’ responsible for countless deaths in the so-called Napoleonic Wars? Or was he the spirit of enlightenment, a progressive force that swept away the regressive old regimes of Europe and laid the groundwork for the modern era, including the European Union? Did he divorce his great love, Josephine, to marry a younger woman, or was much more at stake? And in the end, was the world better or worse off having experienced Bonaparte?
Internationally acclaimed Napoleonic scholar, historian and lecturer J. David Markham is the author of “Napoleon's Road to Glory: Triumphs, Defeats and Immortality” and ”Imperial Glory: The Bulletins of Napoleon’s Grand Armee,” winner of the 2003 International Napoleonic Society “President’s Choice Award for Napoleonic Literature. He has organized and/or lectured at International Napoleonic Society conferences in several countries, including the July 2005 conference in Dinard, France. In 1999, he was the first American scholar to present at the Borodino Conference in Russia. He has a personal Napoleonic library of some 1,000 volumes and a renowned collection of Napoleonic memorabilia.

April 28: "Literature as History in Toni Morrison’s 'Beloved'"
Jeff Birkenstein, Ph.D., Saint Martin's College English faculty

“The winners,” we have been told, “write the history.” But what happens when history is just plain wrong? Focusing on Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Beloved,” and the “true” history behind it, as well as his own experiences in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region – site of the horrible events depicted in the novel – Jeff Birkenstein will challenge the notion that history, once written incorrectly, cannot be changed. Birkenstein’s multimedia presentation will use slides, literature and personal experience to show that rewriting history can be a good thing.
Before coming to Saint Martin’s, Birkenstein taught courses at the University of Kentucky on the short story, survey of American literature, African American literature, argumentative writing/composition and business writing. His major interests are in composition, post-1865 American literature, American and world short story, the short story sequence and narrative theory. He has published several papers in academic journals, as well as book reviews, commentaries, essays and a short story. At the University of Kentucky, he coordinated English-as-a-Second-Language programming in the Writing Center and taught at Kentucky Virtual University.

Deanna Partlow
Office of Communication
360-438-4541; dpartlow@stmartin.edu