On June 18, 1964 a white hotel owner in St. Augustine, Florida, poured acid in a swimming pool filled with black and white youth conducting a civil rights demonstration. Photographs of this horrific incident were on the front page of every major newspaper around the world and broke the filibuster in the Senate allowing President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law. With rarely seen news footage and revealing interviews, “Dare Not Walk Alone” uncovers the untold story of the St. Augustine movement that led to this historic legislation. But far from a history lesson, the film also looks at the aftermath of desegregation and the grim realities of life today on streets where those campaigns were fought, in a place that symbolizes what Barack Obama has called “the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our time.” This film has been called the “Civil Rights film for the modern age” and in the end we see signs of hope and reconciliation as well as a challenge to take the next step forward.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An award-winning film, “Dare Not Walk Alone” has screened at numerous festivals, including the Atlanta Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Jacksonville Film Festival, Sarasota International Film Festival, Connecticut Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and the Western New York Black Film Festival. The film received the Audience Award from Deep Focus Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975.  Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

The film is the first in the series. Addition films will be shown at the museum in October and November. The spring tour will take place at Austin Peay University. While all films are free, donations will be accepted for this and other film programming. Vanderbilt University is also participating in the Southern Circuit Tour. Their first screening is September 17th at 7 pm with the film “Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and B.Y.O. Records.”

The Customs House Museum is located at 200 South Second Street in Historic downtown Clarksville. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission to the museum is $5 adults, $4 senior citizens, $2 college students, $1 ages 6 to 18, and under 6 free. Information on exhibits and events can be found at www.customshousemuseum.org.

Nashville – The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will present Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, opening Sept. 10, 2009, in the Upper-Level Galleries. The show, which offers a unique perspective on Surrealism by examining the intersection of documentary photography, manipulated photography and film, will be on exhibition through Jan. 3, 2010, when it will travel to the International Center of Photography in New York followed by the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga.

Ilse Bing. Danseusue-Cancan, Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1931. Gelatin silver print, 14 in. x 11 in. Zabriskie Gallery. © Ilse Bing Estate/Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

Guest Curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D., New York-based art historian and photography scholar, has organized the exhibition, working with Frist Center Curator Katie Delmez.

The exhibition of more than 150 works, which features a preponderance of photographs but also includes films, books and period ephemera, explores the city of Paris as the literal and metaphoric base of Surrealism in the wake of the World War I. It was believed by the Surrealists that unconscious dreams, chance encounters and actions and automatism freed “pure thought,” from all constraints imposed by conscious thought, reason or morals.

The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Frist Center will partner  with Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University’s International Lens and the school’s French and film departments to present a Surrealism film series which will include the classic Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog) directed by Luis Buñueland Salvador Dalí and several other rarely screened period films.

Paris was a hotbed of creative activity at the dawn of the 20th century, attracting artists and writers to its vibrant and wildly fertile art scene. Numerous galleries flourished during this period, fueling the immigration of many of the world’s most talented artists.  During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of photographers associated with Surrealism, including Man Ray, Brassaï, André Kertész, Ilse Bing and Germaine Krull, turned their lenses on the city of Paris with its dance halls, cafés and characters.  These seemingly ordinary people and places not only had social histories but also became psychologically charged “found objects.”  In exploring the city’s commonplace as well as its monuments, these photographers used unusual viewpoints, manipulative lighting techniques and innovative technical processes to expose and examine “the marvelous” in the everyday.

As Dr. Lichtenstein writes, “The images in Twilight Visions form a collection of views of various urban spaces, filled with cultural artifacts.  The viewer is invited to slowly contemplate the city—its architecture, its monuments, its public spaces and its denizens— as an ephemeral ruin, at once both of the past and the present.”

The Exhibition

Eugène Atget. Rue du Figuier, 1924. Albumen print, 9 in. x 7 in. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.

Twilight Visions comprises five sections: images of the city at night and in the day, the transformation of well-known public monuments, the influence of Eugène Atget on the Surrealists; Parisian nightlife after hours and surreal figures.

The first section, Marvelous Encounters, includes photographs of city streets, shop windows, ordinary people and found objects that invite viewers to discover “the marvelous” in common objects and familiar places. Many of the works in this section look both familiar and strange, as subjects were photographed from unexpected angles, using dim lighting, soft focus and abstracted views to create dreamlike images.  Among the works in this section are photographs by Brassaï, Man Ray, Ilse Bing, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Dora Maar and Joseph Breitenbach.

The second section of the exhibition, entitled Photography’s Transformation of the Monument, looks at the monuments of Paris, particularly the Eiffel Tower, to examine the ways they shape connections to past and future. Included in this section are works by André Kertész, Ilse Bing, Germaine Krull and Man Ray.  The Eiffel Tower, constructed from 1887–1889, was designed to serve as the entry to the Paris World’s Fair commemorating the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution.  The skeletal iron structure also was designed to be a radio transmitter and a beacon for commercial advertisements in the form of illuminated signs.  In 1931 Man Ray created a series of photographs that were reproduced in a portfolio by the Paris Electric Company for an advertising booklet called Èlectricité, which was used to promote personal use of electricity.  That same year, he photographed the tower at night and used the image as the basis for La Ville (The City, 1931), a multiple-exposure print and one of the images used in Èlectricité.  The Eiffel Tower, built as a utilitarian homage to the past, is transformed.  The magic of electricity makes the tower visible at night, but in so doing, renders it unstable and non-architectural.  Ray’s photograph turns the magnificent Eiffel Tower into indecipherable electrified text. In addition to Man Ray’s work, there are photographs by Ilse Bing, Georges Hugnet, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Raoul Ubac and various postcards of the city that interrupt traditional heroic views of the monument.

Section three, entitled Looking at Atget, examines the powerful work of Eugène Atget, a photographer who was “discovered” in the 1920s by Man Ray.  Following a stint as a sailor, a brief career as an actor and an attempt at becoming a painter, he turned to photography. Working quietly and modestly, Atget documented the loss of “old” Parisian culture after the turn of the 20th century.  But in so doing, his “poetry of the everyday” also became a personal expression of nostalgia for the world that was disappearing before his lens.  His work was straightforward yet magical.  Works include Pont Neuf (1902–1903), The Wine Seller), 15 Rue Boyer (ca. 1910) and Boulevard de Strasbourg (1926).

Section four, Portraits After Hours, explores the Bohemian avant-garde culture of Paris.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the cafés and cabarets of Montparnasse and Montmartre were a part of the transition to modernity taking place in the city. The antibourgeois, often seedy places that were the comfortable haunts of Parisian artists and intellectuals were becoming tourist destinations… fetishized places of fantasy and desire. As these locales metamorphosed into tourist sites where “regular” folk could rub elbows with Parisian characters, increasingly, these locales became stage sets where the “actors” relived the past for the cameras of the tourists.  Ilse Bing’s photographs of Cancan dancers at the famed Moulin-Rouge capture the color, flourish, nostalgia and exhilaration of the dance.  Photographers represented in section four include: James Abbe, Ilse Bing, Brassaï and Man Ray.

Mutable Mirrors, the fifth section of the exhibition, investigates the subject of shifting identities that was a part of the Surrealists’ desire to alter consciousness and transform concepts of personal, social and group identity.  Issues of gender and sexuality and the roles of masquerade and play are examined in the works of Lee Miller, Nusch Eluard, Dora Maar, Claude Cahun, Raoul Ubac, Hans Bellmer, Georges Hugnet, André Kertész, Man Ray and Brassaï who experimented with techniques of doubling, distorting, multiplying and fragmenting their images.

Included in this section are André Kertesz’s Distortions (1933) a series of photographs of nude women reflected in distorting mirrors that transform them into dreamlike creatures.  The series was commissioned by the editor of the Parisian humor magazine, Le Sourire (The Smile).

About the Guest Curator

Dr. Therese Lichtenstein is author of Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer (University of California Press, 2001). This book accompanied an exhibition she curated of the same title at the International Center of Photography (awarded Best Photography Exhibition of 2001 by the International Critics Association). She also curated and wrote the essay for the exhibition Andromeda Hotel: The Art of Joseph Cornell (2006).

Catalog

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog published by the University of California Press.  The catalog will include essays by Dr. Lichtenstein; British historian Colin Jones,  Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London and author of Paris: The Biography of a City; American art historian Whitney Chadwick, Professor

Emerita of Art History at San Francisco State University and author of Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks (UC Press) and Women, Art, and Society; and British art historian Julia Kelly, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and the author of Art, Ethnography and the Life of Objects, Paris c. 1925–1935.

Exhibition Sponsors

Publix Super Markets Charities and Publix is the Sponsor of programs for Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris.

Surrealism Film Series

In conjunction with Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, the Frist Center is partnering with Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University’s International Lens and French and film departments to offer Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film. This three-part series of Surrealist and Poetic Realist films will feature artists such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Vigo.

Frist Center

When: Friday, September 25th at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Frist Center for the Visual Arts
What: Un Chien Andalou; Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, and L’Atlante; Jean Vigo
Price: Free

Dudley Andrew, the R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature and co-chair and director of graduate studies of film studies at Yale University, will kick-off the series with an introduction to these two films.

About the films:

Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog)

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí worked collaboratively to produce this well-known and influential Surrealist film. The film follows no conventional plot, but takes the viewer through a seventeen-minute dreamlike narrative.  Scenes, such as the slicing of an eyeball with a razorblade, a young man bicycling down a calm urban street wearing what appears to be a nun’s habit and a locked box around his neck, and a couple (seemingly dead) buried in sand up to their shoulders, take viewers on a fantastical journey from the wayward minds of two important Surrealists. About their approach to the film, Buñuel said, “Our only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted.” Directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, 1928, 17 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

L’Atalante

This Poetic Realist film begins with the marriage of a young barge captain, Jean, and a village girl, Juliette, who barely know each other. Juliette begins her married life by moving onto the barge. With only her husband for company, as well as his sailor friend named Jules, a cabin boy, and at least six cats, Juliette soon finds that she has no real place on the barge. What ensues are specific moments in the life of this newlywed couple, including an unforeseen separation, that illustrates the turbulent nature of learning to live with the one you love. L’Atalante focuses on the dream of love and presents realistic yet magical images of peasant and working class life. Directed by Jean Vigo, 1934, 89 minutes. Not Rated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Belcourt Theatre

When: Tuesday, October 6th at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Belcourt Theatre
What: Hotel du Nord; Marcel Carnè, and Le Crime de Monsieur Lange; Jean Renoir
Price: Free

Introductions by Andrea Mirabile, assistant professor of Italian, Vanderbilt University.

About the films:

Hotel du Nord

This Poetic Realist film by Marcel Carnè opens immediately with a fantastic collision of idealism and normality. As two young lovers, Renée and Pierre, attempt to carry out a mutual suicide and are sharing one last moment of life together in one of the Hotel du Nord’s rooms, the hotel staff members are throwing a party. Pierre eventually begins to carry out the suicide pact and shoots Renée, but lacking the courage to follow through with their plan, he flees from the scene. As the film continues, the contrasts between ideas of normality versus romantic idealism develop into an incredible story of passion, adventure, rejection and the destructive powers of love.
Directed by Marcel Carnè, 1938, 95 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange

In this film, Jean Renoir cleverly intertwines the common theme of good versus evil with an anti-capitalist message relevant to the political mood of his time. He does so by telling the story of a simple, hard-working group that trumps a corrupt and powerful system. As the film opens, the manager of a publishing company, Monsieur Batala, who is swollen with debt, makes one last attempt to escape the reach of his creditors by absconding with company funds. In his effort to flee his responsibilities, he fakes his death and begins playing the part of a priest. Later when one of his old employees, Monsieur Lange, and his partners start a co-operative and are wildly successful, Monsieur Batala makes a return hoping for an opportunity to reap the benefits of the groups’ talents and achievements.   Directed by Jean Renoir, 1936, 80 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vanderbilt University

When: Wednesday, October 14th at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Vanderbilt University’s International Lens at Sarratt Cinema
What: L’Age d’Or; Luis Buñuel, and Under the Roofs of Paris; Rene Clair
Price: Free

Introduction by Paul Young, associate professor of English and director of film studies at Vanderbilt University

About the films:

L’Age d’Or

L’Age d’Or, which began as a collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (Dalí would abandon the project at an early stage), was seen by the artists as a challenge to make a film equally as bold as Un Chien Andalou. Combining Surrealism and an anti-bourgeois attitude to shocking effect, this film instigated wild protests worldwide. Though it was released in 1930, the U.S. did not have an official premier for the film until 1979. With this first solo film Buñuel made quite an impression. L’Age d’Or is said to be as disgusting as it is comic with scenes such as a father cheerfully playing with his son before shooting him a moment later and a Catholic priest and stuffed giraffe being thrown out a window. Directed by Luis Buñuel, 1930, 60 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Under the Roofs of Paris

Noted as one of the most successful French films of the 1930s, Under the Roofs of Paris is not only monumental for its pioneering use of sound and interesting camerawork, but for portraying Paris in a distinctive light. Using poetry and romanticism to reveal the humdrum life of poor, ordinary citizens in Paris, René Clair creates a charming atmosphere that brings the spirit of the city to life. In a working-class part of town, a love triangle develops between a young street performer named Albert, a Romanian woman named Pola, and a mobster named Louis. As this youthful and lively film develops, Clair gives viewers a unique look at Paris through the eyes of kindly working-class heroes, a realistic set, and captivating street songs.  Directed by René Clair, 1930, 96 minutes. DVD. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Exhibition Credits

Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris was organized for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tenn., by guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D.

About the Frist Center

The Frist Center

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features 21 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and under and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military, and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday and Friday evenings, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays, 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

“This study provides new insight into the opinions of small business owners across Tennessee and shows their preferences for health care reform issues,” says Craig Anne Heflinger, professor of human and organizational development in Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development and a coauthor of the report.

Key findings from the report include:

• 79% report they are “really struggling” to afford the cost of health coverage.
• 61% believe that reforming health care now is a step to getting the economy back on track
• 73% report everyone should have a choice between quality, affordable public and private plans
• 88% report that it will be a significant challenge in the future to offer health insurance coverage to employees
• 70% want more public oversight of private insurers
• 61% agree that the government should play a stronger role in guaranteeing access to quality, affordable health care.

“Historically, small businesses lead the way out of recessions. But they can’t perform this vital function for our economy when they’re paying, on average, 18 percent more in healthcare premiums than large corporations,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit organization that does extensive scientific research on small business owners’ perspectives on healthcare reform. “It will be almost impossible to provide relief to small businesses, and in the process dig our way out of this recession, without reforming the healthcare system first.”

Most Americans (59.3%) receive health insurance coverage through their employer. With the economic downturn taking a large toll on small businesses’ bottom line, many can’t afford to continue offering health insurance. Nashville small business owners Chris and Becky Link remain concerned that, if nothing is done, they will eventually have to drop all of their employees’ medical coverage due to rising costs. “We pride ourselves in taking care of our employees because we believe that it is the right things to do and because it helps us recruit and retain the best talent in Tennessee,” the couple said. “If we don’t see relief from ever-increasing health care costs it will be impossible for us to continue to provide health benefits.”

The report was released at a Nashville press conference that also served as the kickoff event for the Tennessee Small Business Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan coalition that was formed to give a voice to small business owners who are adversely impacted by America’s current health care system. “Some kind of reform legislation is going to pass by the end of this year,” said report co-author Lori Smith of the Tennessee Small Business Coalition. “We don’t have time to waste, because the impact of that legislation on our businesses and ultimately on all Tennesseans will be determined by how much we voice our opinions and preferences to our leaders.”

The survey was conducted by Craig Anne Heflinger, Marielle Lise Lovecchio, and Jill Robinson, of the Peabody Center for Community Studies, and Lori Smith of Tennessee Small Business Coalition. The research was funded by the Small Business Majority and “Consumer Voices for Coverage,” a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Community Catalyst.

A copy of the report is available online at:
http://www.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Center_for_Community_Studies/CCS_Research_Project_Reports.xml

If you or someone you know is a small business owner who wants to speak up in favor of reform, contact the Change That Works campaign at 615-244-9791 or by email at .

Illustration by Liz Asher

Clarksville, Tenn., a city of 125,000 on the Tennessee–Kentucky border, is best known for its proximity to the sprawling Fort Campbell Army Base. The town takes pride in attracting new industry and bills itself as the “Gateway to the New South.”

But Clarksville is also a place that “represents the perfect circle of classical studies,” says Professor Barbara Tsakirgis, chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Classical Studies. “Throughout the years I’ve been at Vanderbilt, we’ve had a steady stream of high-school students come to us from Clarksville.”

What is it about Clarksville and classical studies? “There are five Latin teachers there,” Tsakirgis says, “and we trained four of them.”

Anonymous, Italian (Etruria), Head of a Maenad, from an Antefix, sixth century Polychromed terracotta Vanderbilt Art Association Acquisition Fund

One of those teachers, Ed Long, BS’88, MAT’90, estimates that about a dozen of his students alone, during the 18 years he’s taught in the Clarksville public schools, have gone on to study classics at Vanderbilt. Long’s wife, Laura Lindsey Long, and another married couple, Grady Warren (BA’68) and Kaye Phillips Warren (BA’67, MA’71, PhD’76), are the other Vanderbilt-trained Latin teachers who so often inspire students there to devote their college years—and sometimes their careers—to the ancient world.

“Grady Warren was one of the most dedicated and motivated teachers I have ever had,” says Dr. John Frattarelli, BA’89, who went on to double-major in classics and general biology at Vanderbilt, became an Army doctor, and now directs the largest in vitro-fertilization center in Hawaii.

“I think there were two other classics majors from Clarksville in my year,” says Elizabeth Brown, BA’01, “so the department should probably give Mrs. Warren and the others a recruitment fee.” Brown, a double major in classics and economics, went directly into investment banking after graduation and is now in London as the head of finance at Virgin Galactic, the company that is developing the world’s first commercial space-tourism business.

What would the ancients think about Brown, or anyone else, creating a vacation in outer space? Most of us wouldn’t know exactly, but a classics major probably would have a pretty good idea, having spent her college years trying to get inside the heads of everyone from Homer, the Greek historians Thucydides and Herodotus, and philosophers Plato and Aristotle to Roman writers such as Virgil, Lucretius and Ovid.

When asked what inspired them to study the classics at university, almost everyone points to a high-school Latin teacher, explains Daniel Solomon, senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt. “Of all my high-school teachers, the Latin teacher was by far the most enthusiastic, the most dedicated. This is a teacher who would collapse and break down in tears when reading Greek tragedy or about the victims of Roman imperialism. We were just intrigued by what made this material so compelling to her,” recalls Solomon, an American who grew up in Italy.

Barbara Tsakirgis’ archaeological digs in ancient Sicily and Athens provide insights into how patterns of human behavior have been repeated over time.

There came a time in the 1970s when high-school Latin teachers in the United States were crying for a different reason, as society started to question the relevance of Latin in the curriculum and schools moved to replace Latin teachers with those who taught “living” languages.

“But here in the South, and especially in Tennessee, there was less of that pressure,” says Tsakirgis. “I don’t know why. Perhaps because of some conservatism among educators here. But in fact, while high-school Latin programs in some other parts of the country were reduced in size, that didn’t happen in the Southeast.”

At the university level, however, Tennessee was not immune from the winds of change. Buffeted by accusations that Greco-Roman civilization was both the root of and the justification for our own white-male-dominated world, “classics in general was in danger of disappearing in the ’70s,” says Solomon. “And since then we’ve had to claw our way back year by year.”

A Broader View

But let’s start at the beginning, a few centuries ago, when the study of the classical world was considered in the West to be the very foundation of a good education, when it was the foundation of the United States thanks to our classically trained Founding Fathers, and when, later, it was indeed the foundation of Vanderbilt University.

Vanderbilt started life in 1873 with 10 professors, two of whom were professors of classical studies. “That number, and that percentage, expressed very well how classics was regarded from the foundation of Vanderbilt and of universities across the country,” says Tsakirgis. She points to a framed photograph she keeps in her office of Milton Humphreys, a professor of Greek who was considered to be one of, if not the finest scholar among the 10.

Despite a strong start, however, the growth of classical studies did not keep pace with the growth of Vanderbilt, and by the end of World War II the department was languishing—a victim perhaps of larger forces such as the Great Depression and the war.

The Haverford Painter, Apulia (present-day Italy) Red-figure bell krater, ca. 330–320 B.C. Terracotta – Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery purchase

Then in the early 1950s, Vanderbilt brought in H. Lloyd Stow from the University of Oklahoma, basically to re-found the department. During the next two decades, Stow steadily grew the department and the faculty until, by 1969, it had six tenure-stream professors.

The secret to Stow’s success was a modern, broad view of classics. “His training at the University of Chicago made him believe that classics was not just the language and literature, as Milton and his colleague had taught, but also the history and the material culture,” explains Tsakirgis. “He hired ancient historians and the first classical archaeologist here. It’s really his vision of a broader classics department that resulted in what we are today.”

To understand the breadth of the discipline now, consider the definition of classics, which is the study of the culture, in a very broad sense, of the lands of classical antiquity. That included everywhere Greeks lived, where people worshiped the Greek gods and spoke the Greek languages—an area that stretched from parts of Spain, France and Italy to Greece, Turkey and Egypt. Ultimately, at the height of the Roman Empire, it included everywhere from Britain to North Africa and from Spain to Iraq.

These civilizations—which lasted from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. before gradually giving way to the Middle Ages—are studied through their written culture; through the massive body of literature, philosophy, drama and science that survives them; and, nowadays, through their material culture, the art and architecture, as well as objects of everyday life.

“If you view classical antiquity solely through the lens of what was written down,” says Tsakirgis, “you’re talking about [elite, male Greeks and Romans]. But if you broaden your focus, you’re looking at men and women, young and old, free and enslaved, and at all the people in the lands that the Greeks and Romans came in contact with.”

Comparisons among various types of evidence allow you to get a sense, says Solomon, “not only of how the intellectual elite lived, but how the other 99 percent of Greek and Roman society fared, of what was going through their minds.”

As a classical archaeologist, Tsakirgis spends her summers sifting through material culture at the houses around the Agora, the town square of ancient Athens, on a site that Americans first started digging in 1931.

Daniel Solomon supervises Vanderbilt’s Latin language program and teaches a variety of Latin courses from introductory through graduate seminars.

“I’m interested in the way that people lived in antiquity,” says Tsakirgis. “I have been looking at Greek houses across all the lands where the Greeks lived, considering how they built and lived in their houses. While I’ll grant that temples are wonderful, I think houses ultimately are more valuable for informing us about daily life—in particular about the lives of women, who don’t get much of a voice in literature.”

Abigail Humphrey, BA’03, a double major in classics and French, cites Tsakirgis’ class in Egyptian art and architecture as one reason she was particularly drawn to art history, and to the multidisciplinary aspect of the classics major. “My first course in classics went straight to the heart of my intellectual curiosity for the big picture,” she says. “I decided rather quickly afterward to major in it, as it offered me the opportunity to learn about the philosophies, artistic movements, historical moments, languages, and even the sciences and economic trends that were all great contributors to the centuries that followed, even to how we think today.”

New Answers to Old Questions

While classical studies had begun to reinvent itself, its biggest challenge was yet to come. In the late 1960s and 1970s, as students began to question authority and tradition with a vengeance, classics became a particular target.

It was a reaction against 2,000 years, but especially against 200 or 300 years, of colonial teaching of the classics, says Solomon. The British, in particular, used the classical world to prop up their own empire, to justify their exploitation of their colonies. Many believed that Americans were starting to do that, too, in the 20th century. And the reaction against the inherited American tradition translated into a reaction against the classical tradition, which was largely seen as responsible for many of these international abuses as well as for inequalities in American society.

So classical studies was pushed further toward the precipice and further toward reinvention. “The crisis in which classics found itself was something of a godsend for us,” argues Solomon, “because it really prompted our entire profession to question ourselves and reevaluate not just how we went about our jobs but what classics meant to us. For the first time in 2,000 years, we were giving new answers to those questions.”

For Kathy Gaca, associate professor of classics and director of graduate studies in the Department of Classical Studies, the change couldn’t come fast enough. “I found classics rather overly focused on dead white males when I was an undergraduate and graduate student,” she says. “I stayed in the field partly because I saw great opportunities for reshaping our awareness of women’s history by staying in classics and retrieving women’s experience in antiquity.”

In this effort Gaca got more than she bargained for, as she started studying the impact of warfare on women and children (and girls in particular) in antiquity. “A lot of evidence indicates that they were specifically targeted for exploitation.

“One still has to deal with lots of dead white males to elicit this parallel universe,” she says. “One of my brothers gave me a picture he put together of a woman sitting and looking bemused partly on top of and in the midst of a collage of a bunch of Greek male statues. It’s on my office desk. I’m her!”

Anonymous, Greco-Roman from Hellenistic East Head of a Young Girl or a Goddess, 1 B.C–1 A.D.
Marble – Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Wilson

Beginning in the 1980s, enrollment in classical studies gradually recovered and grew each year at Vanderbilt. Yet as goes the zeitgeist, by the 1990s there was a growing backlash. Pundits and politicos—mostly conservative though occasionally liberal—lamented the broad, multicultural approach, arguing that universities had gone too far in marginalizing the canon, the writings that are the pillars of Western culture.

Solomon himself agrees with that assessment—to a point. “Most teachers in the last 30 years have gone too far in the opposite direction. Most have taken it upon themselves to emphasize the more destructive aspects of classical civilization, particularly of Roman civilization.

“I think this was necessary at the time to balance, to redress the inequities, in classical education previously. But now, a generation later, I think we’re in a better position to take a more nuanced view. My understanding is that most younger professors in particular are more open to the idea of weighing up the pros and cons.”

Solomon promises in his own Roman Civilization course description that “throughout this semester we will try to abstain from passing value judgments, whether on the excesses of Roman cruelty or on the benefits of Roman empire.”

As for Gaca, “I think there is a creative tension between the two approaches [traditional vs. broad],” she says, “and classics is the stronger for it.”

One for the Parents, One for the Heart

For years Romans had been portrayed as the bad guys in Hollywood movies. But classical studies got a boost from pop culture in 2000, when the more sympathetic portrayal of them in the film Gladiator sent students rushing to Latin classes and pushed up enrollment in Roman Civilization at Vanderbilt by 50 percent.

The spell cast on young readers by the Harry Potter series hasn’t hurt, either. As The New York Times suggested last October in an article titled “Latin Returns from the Dead,” “The resurgence of a language once rejected as outdated and irrelevant is reflected across the country as Latin is embraced by a new generation of students … who seek to increase SAT scores or stand out from their friends, or simply harbor a fascination for the ancient language after reading Harry Potter’s Latin-based chanting spells.” American students are signing up to take the National Latin Exam in increasing numbers.

That trend is reflected at Vanderbilt, which has increased the number of upper-level Latin courses each of the past three semesters. The department is also in the process of adding a new tenured position—the first since 1969—which will bring the faculty total to seven tenure-track professors and one senior lecturer.

The department now has an average of 30 to 35 majors and four to seven master’s students each year. The vast majority of undergraduate students are double majors—“One major they do to keep the parents happy; the other is for the heart,” says Solomon.

Professors describe the typical classics major as a self-aware, mature student who takes a long-range view of his or her education. No one comes to classics as the easy option, as Vanderbilt expects classics majors to read both Greek and Latin at the intermediate level in order to be able to investigate these ancient cultures on their own terms.

In fact, a few years ago when the department added a third major (along with classics and classical languages) with less stringent language requirements, they expected mass defections from language classes. But it didn’t happen. “I give full credit to Vanderbilt students,” says Solomon. “They made the choice, and they didn’t want to be shortchanged.”

Most classics majors do go on to further study, many to law or medicine, realizing there aren’t necessarily jobs available for them to teach Latin at the high school or college level, says Tsakirgis.

Clarksville Latin teacher Ed Long was not the only person interviewed for this article who said his parents were a bit disappointed at first when he decided to major in classics, wishing he had chosen something more marketable. They have since told him repeatedly that they are proud of his career choice.

“I love it,” he says. “I can’t see myself doing anything else. And as a bonus, I get to take students to Italy and Greece every two or three years to show them where it all began.”

Kathy Gaca’s research in Greek and Roman philosophy includes social justice and the effects of warfare on women and children.

Marilyn Reinhardt, BA’71, MAT’73, teaches Latin at Memphis University School, a prep school with three Latin teachers and more than 150 members in the Latin Club. Reinhardt says she originally had planned to be an English teacher, but had such a great professor at Vanderbilt, John Zarker, that she changed her mind.

She also calls her semester abroad in Rome at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies—to which Vanderbilt encourages all majors to apply—“one of the best experiences of my life.”

At least one student majoring in classics went on to graduate work at Vanderbilt and classics teaching positions at the university level before switching tracks: Lynne Ballew, BA’68, MA’74, PhD’75, who now runs a hotel for the homeless in Anchorage, Alaska.

Many majors admit they have no intention of a career in classics. “I just studied it for the enjoyment and intellectual challenge,” says space-tourism pioneer Elizabeth Brown. She says this background has paid off more than expected in the world of British high finance.

“It helps to counteract some negative stereotypes about Americans from the South,” she says. “You don’t expect a redneck to like Cicero!”

Thomas Greener, BA’86, who majored in classical studies and minored in religious studies, is now the minister of a 1,000-member United Methodist Church in Durham, N.C. “Classical studies teaches the most foundational elements of thinking in Western civilization, and those broad themes still influence us today,” Greener says. “It’s hard to watch the current financial collapse and not think about Greek tragedy and hubris in its truest sense. It’s hard to listen to various speakers and not hear echoes of Cicero and Plato.”

“The 21st century is not the first time humans have experienced an explosion of communication, trade, environmental degradation, resource shortage or ideological conflict,” notes Richard Davis Jr., BA’96, who teaches Latin and Greek at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. “I hope my students learn some sense of how to encounter other cultures inquisitively, respectfully and critically. And I hope they come away with a critical mass of knowledge, as I did, that informs everything else they do—from recognizing a mythological reference in a commercial to reading literature to rhetorically dissecting an inaugural address.”

That is exactly what the Vanderbilt Department of Classical Studies strives for. It trains students to be excellent researchers and writers—which is invaluable in almost any career—but most of all, it trains them to be critical thinkers.

For example, those who have taken Solomon’s classes may find themselves turning to his teachings in Epicurean philosophy during these trying times precipitated by greed and excess.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus and his followers were not addicted to luxury, as often has been the interpretation through the millennia, but were instead concerned with maximizing pleasure in life without becoming either addicted or inured to it. They taught that you should never lose sight of why something is giving you pleasure in the first place.

“The idea is to first begin a complete self-evaluation from top to bottom,” says Solomon. “Rethink everything anyone has ever told you, question every single one of your authority figures. And once you have a better sense of who you are, then you can re-relate to the outside world.”

Not a bad prescription for our times, straight from the classical world.

About this article

Janus rising was written by Taylor Holliday and is ©2009 Vanderbilt University – Originally published in Vanderbilt Magazine in their Spring 2009 issue, the article was republished here with permission| Photo credit(s): Daniel Dubois, Steve Green

Dr. Bruce Barry will conduct the presentation at 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 31, in the Woodward Library. Barry is the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Professor of Management and a Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.
Barry’s presentation will address restrictions on freedom of speech and other civil liberties faced by adults at work, the law’s lack of protection for basic civil liberties in workplaces and the complexity of free speech rights on university campuses.  Barry’s talk will also deal with related aspects of free expression inside organizations and develop an argument that more expansive rights to free speech in workplaces and universities need not conflict with the pursuit of organizational goals.

Barry joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1991 and was director of the Owen School’s Ph.D. program in management from 1998-2004. He has taught at the University of North Carolina and Duke University and has been a visiting professor at the Melbourne Business School and the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. He is president of the board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and is a contributing writer on political, economic and social issues for the Nashville Scene and its blog on politics and media, “Pith in the Wind.”

Barry’s current research explores intersections between ethics and emotion and connections between social identity and judgments about unethical behavior. He studies the psychology of motivation in situations where individuals pursue long-term goals, spanning not just years, but decades.  Additionally, he is examining free expression and workplace rights from legal, managerial and ethical perspectives. His book on this subject is “Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace,” published in 2007 by Berrett-Koehler.

For more information about this and other Library Athenaeum events, contact the Woodward Library, (931) 221-7346 or visit, library.apsu.edu/events/athenaeum.htm.

Clarence Sinclare. Bull American (1895-1979) Greta Garbo, 1931. Gelatin silver print 33 x 25.4 cm.

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents a special three-part photography lecture series, featuring expert speakers who will each address a different aspect of the medium. The series is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition, The Best of Photography and Film From the George Eastman House Collection. Lectures will take place Nov. 6, Nov. 20 and Dec. 11, 2008 in the Frist Center auditorium at 6:30 p.m. The series is free to the public.

Part I, Thursday, November 6: “Kingdom of Darkness, Kingdom of Light: The Invention of Photography and Victorian Culture”

Most people don’t associate photography with the Victorian era, yet it was during this period-in 1839-that the medium of photography was introduced. Guest speaker Morna O’Neil, Mellon assistant professor of 19th century European art at Vanderbilt University, discusses the extraordinary proliferation of photography in the Victorian era, including Victorian photographs featured in the George Eastman House exhibition.

Joe Rosenthal. American (1911-2006). OLD GLORY GOES UP MT. SUIBACHI, IWO JIMA 1945. Gelatin silver print 34.5 x 26.7 cm. Gift of Associated Press

Part II, Thursday, November 20: “Is the Medium the Message?”

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan declared that the “medium is the message.” Susan H. Edwards, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of the Frist Center and photography scholar, examines his claims in the context of the history of photography.  She discusses how images produced by photochemical processes immediately altered perceptions of time and space. Her talk confirms that the medium of photography changed the course of police work, medicine, journalism, the visual arts and material culture. In the digital age, even the social consequences of photography are changing. What is the message of this medium? How is the digital divide changing society?

Part III: Thursday, December 11: “Civil War Photography”

Guest speaker Brooks Johnson, consultant to the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Va.), explores the work of photographers of the Civil War and iconic photographs on view in The Best of Photography and Film from the George Eastman House Collection. In addition, he explains the various photographic techniques used during this time period.

William Wegman, American (b. 1942) IN 1993. Color print, internal dye diffusion transfer (Polacolor) print. 65.5 x 52.2 cm.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5-9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sundays, 1-5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org <http://www.fristcenter.org/>.

Gregg Steinberg

Key “sports psychology” into the search field on YouTube.com, and Gregg Steinberg’s image is among the top video results.

Steinberg, an associate professor of health and human performance at Austin Peay State University, is a noted sports psychologist and frequent media personality on national television networks such as CNN and the Golf Channel to speak about the mindset of an athletic champion.

He will do the same Oct. 28 when he appears on ABC’s hit competition show, “Dancing With the Stars,” to analyze the mental toughness of the remaining contestants. Steinberg said the show’s producers contacted him two weeks ago after discovering him through a YouTube Web site search of sports psychology experts.

“I will be analyzing objectively by listening to what the contestants say, paying attention to body language and watching the performance,” he said. “I’ll be discussing why the dancers got kicked off the program and make recommendations for the dancers still in the contest.”Steinberg, a faculty member at APSU for the past 11 years, most recently provided analytical commentary for Fox News during the 2008 Summer Olympics, especially on the performance of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who went a perfect 8-for-8 in Beijing to break Mark Spitz’s single-Olympic Games record for gold medals.

In addition to being a guest on several broadcast outlets, Steinberg, 45, is the author of two books, “Mental Rules for Golf” and “Flying Lessons.” His third book, “Full Throttle,” is scheduled for release in 2009. He also has written a newspaper column, “The Head Coach,” for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville and continues to publish extensively in academic journals.

A sports psychology consultant for more than 10 years, Steinberg has worked with many professional and college athletes, including teams at Vanderbilt University, APSU, Belmont University, Tennessee State University and the University of Florida.

A native of Los Angeles, Steinberg earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, master’s in education psychology from Florida State University and doctorate in human performance from the University of Florida.

For more information, contact Steinberg by telephone at (931) 221-6113 or by e-mail at .

NASHVILLE – The Southern Festival of Books is just two weeks away and organizers are gearing up to welcome more than 20,000 patrons and an all-star lineup of authors, cooks and musicians this October 10-12, on Nashville’s War Memorial Plaza.

From beloved authors and first-timers, to former U.S. Congressmen and Pulitzer Prize winners, the 20-year old festival features more than 200 authors from around the nation and in every genre for interactive presentations, readings, panel discussions and book signings.

You can even hear from David Wroblewski, the author of the Oprah’s Book Club pick, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, from Noon-1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12 at War Memorial Auditorium (no advance reservations required, first come – first served seating). A free book signing follows the reading.

A handful of this year’s writers and works include:

• Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
• Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown
• Stephen L. Carter, Palace Council
• Tony Earley, The Blue Star
• Clyde Edgerton, The Bible Salesman
• Bill Ivey, Arts, Inc
• Ben Jones, Redneck Boy in the Promised Land
• Billie Letts, Made in the U.S.A.
• David Maraniss, Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World
• Honor Moore, The Bishop’s Daughter: A Memoir
• Susan Orlean, Lazy Little Loafers ­
• Ann Patchett, Run
• Richard Price, Lush Life
• Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge
• Mark Winegardner, The Godfather Returns

This Festival also boasts an impressive lineup of children’s and young adult authors including Alexie, Orlean, Helen Hemphill, Susan McBride, William Sleator, Susan Vaught and Charles Ghigna. View the full children’s and YA schedule here: www.humanitiestennessee.org/festival/children.php.

More than a dozen local and regional songwriters including Les Kerr, Satan and Adam, Suzanne McDermott, Tommy Womack and Davis Raines will perform live as featured acts on Southern Festival of Books Café Music Stage, sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Get your fill at the live cooking stage hosted by Nashville’s own Saucy Sisters, Barbara Nowak and Beverly Wichman, and featuring regional and local cookbook authors and chefs including Julia Reed, Rick Rodgers and Kay West. There will also be plenty of local food vendors on hand including Provence Breads and Café, Mas Tacos, Por Favor, Fleur De Lis, Dee’s Q and Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish.

The Southern Festival of Books is presented by Humanities Tennessee, a non-profit organization that promotes humanities education across Tennessee. The Festival is proudly sponsored by the National Endowment for Humanities, the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, Ingram, Tennessee Arts Commission, the Frist Foundation, Davis Kidd Booksellers and Vanderbilt University. View the full Southern Festival of Books event schedule at http://humanitiestennessee.org/festival/sessions.php

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sofestofbooks.

The format for the debate will consist of policy and platform questions concerning the economy, foreign policy, health care, the environment, civil liberties, the federal budget, reproductive rights, international trade, gun rights, campaign finance reform, immigration, education and race and gender.  Each candidate will be given two minutes to make introductory statements and then one or two minutes per question to answer policy and platform questions.  The debate will end at 8:30pm with a candidate’s reception to follow in the lobby of the Stephenson Center.

For more information about the Presidential Candidate’s Alternative Debate visit their web site.

Attending this event will be Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party, Brad Lyttle of the US Pacifist Party, Frank McEnulty of the New American Independent Party, Brian Moore  of the Socialist Party, Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party and  Gloria La Riva  of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.  Bruce Barry  will serve as moderator for this event.

Debate Format:

7:00 PM:    Introduction and Opening Statements (2 Minutes Per Candidate)
7:15 PM:    Policy and Issue Questions (1 or 2 Minutes Per Candidate)
8:20 PM:    Closing Statements  (1 Minute Per Candidate)
8:30 PM:    Debate End and Candidate’s Reception

Ground Rules: Candidates are encouraged to keep within time limits announced. A time keeper will present placards to candidates showing time limits of response. Once over time moderator has discretion to close comments and move on to next candidate.  Moderator has discretion to clarify candidate’s response and encourage dialogue between candidates.

Topic List: (Data Source: Project Vote Smart)

The Economy: Americans are concerned about the safety of their retirements, pension and ability to obtain a mortgage.  The value of the dollar is dropping and investor confidence is at an all time low, what will you do to improve our nation’s economy?  What will you do to reduce our national indebtedness and in doing so restore world confidence that investing in America is a good option?  What is your solution for the thousands of Americans who are facing foreclosure or have lost their housing? Do you support increased funding for national job-training programs that retrain displaced workers or teach skills needed in today’s job market?  Would you support an increase in the federal minimum wage?  What are your feelings about the rights of workers to form unions?

Federal Budget: Americans want to know where their candidates stand on the federal budget.  The allocation of funds for federal programs is one of the most important roles the president plays in shaping public policy.  How would you have voted on a federal bailout of Wall Street?  What conditions would you attach to such a bailout?  What are your budget priorites on federal issues such as defense, education, the environment and health care? Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year?  Please indicate your plans for the social security system?  Would you work to ensure the viability of the social security system?  Would you raise the retirment age for individual eligibility to receive full benefits?

Foreign Policy: What is your foreign policy agenda for the United States?  Would you support an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan?  What would you do if elected President regarding US relations with Iran?  What are your feelings about pre-emptive use of military force as an instrument of national policy? Do you support long-term use of National Guard troops to supplement the armed forces in assignments overseas?  Should the United States provide leadership in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?  Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state?  Do you support greater economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea?  Finally, should the United States be involved in peace keeping activities in countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Burma?  Do you support the United States granting aid to countries when extraordinary circumstances cause disaster and threaten civilian lives?

Health Care: The issue of access to quality, affordable health care is a concern for many voters.  Nearly fifty million Americans do not have access to health care but at the same time some people advocate that the United States has the best health care system in the world.  What are your thoughts on the issue of access to health care?  Do you support universal single payer health care? What would you do to reduce the costs of prescription drugs for Seniors? Do you support the legalization of medical marijuana?

Education: Please indicate your policy platform on the issue of education. Would you support increased funding of our nation’s k-12 public schools. What are your feelings about mandatory standards and testing requirements for students?  What are your feelings about the use of vouchers?  What will you do regarding federal funding and support for our nation’s public college students? Do you support increased or decreased funding for pell grants for college students?

Abortion and Reproductive Rights: Many Americans have strong feelings about issues related to reproductive rights and abortion. Do you feel that abortion should always be legal, should only be legal within the first trimester, when the woman’s life is endangered, in the case of incest or rape, or should always be illegal?  How do you feel about federal subsidies being used on abortion procedures? Do you support federal funding for research on existing embryonic stem cell lines?  Do you support federal funding to create lines of stem cells from new embryos?

Same Sex Marriage: What are your feelings regarding the issue of same sex marriage?  As a candidate for federal office, do you believe that same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions?  Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry or do you support a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman? Should sexual orientation be included in federal anti-discrimination laws?

Crime and Punishment: More Americans are incarcerated now than at any point in our history, what role do you believe the federal government should play on issues of crime and punishment?  Do you support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released?  Do you support mandatory jail sentences for selling illegal drugs?  Do you support programs to provide prison inmates with drug and alcohol addiction treatment?  Would you support the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of marijuana? How do you feel about reduced prison sentences for those who commit non-violent crimes? Do you support the elimination the use of the death penalty for federal crimes?

Race and Gender: Race and gender continue to be defining issues in federal policy.  As a candidate do you believe the consider race and gender in government contracting decisions?  Do you support affirmative action in public college admissions?

Campaign Finance Reform: As you know, campaign finance reform has continued to be an issue of importance to voters.  Currently seven states have adopted some form of campaign finance reform which involves the allocation of public dollars for candidates.  On the federal level one candidate has said that the current system of public campaign finance is broken, while another candidate has accepted campaign finance limits.  How do you feel about the issue of campaign finance reform and elections?  Do you support campaign finance reform of the current election financing system? If elected would you support public taxpayer funding for candidates who comply with spending limits?  Do you support instant runoff voting or election day as a national holiday?

The Environment: What would you do regarding the environment and energy policy?  Please indicate your policy issues regarding offshore oil drilling and drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.  What will you do to move America towards a clean energy future?  Do you support strengthened fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel powered engines?  Do you support the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel?  What will you do to increase development of alternative energy?  Do you consider nuclear energy to be an alternative energy source that needs to be developed for national energy security? Do you support international mandatory emission targets to limit global warming?

Gun Rights: Please indicate your position on the issue of the second amendment.  Do you believe that Americans should be allowed to carry conceal weapons?  Should current enforcement and restrictions on the purchase of guns be strengthened?  Should individuals be allowed to carry guns on college campuses?  Do you support a ban on the ownership of handguns except by law enforcement or other government officials?

Immigration: Please indicate your policy platform on the issue of immigration.  Would you support amnesty for undocumented workers who are already working in the United States?  Do you believe that undocumented workers should be offered a path to citizenship?  Do you support harsher punishments for employers who knowingly hire immigrants who are not in this country legally?  Do you believe that people who are not here legally should be returned to their countries of origin, even if it means breaking up their families?

International Trade: Please indicate your position on matters of trade?  Do you support economic globalization and free trade agreements such as NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT?  Would you work to withdraw the US from international free trade agreements?  Would you support the continued participation of the United States in the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank?  Do you support the United States imposing economic sanctions on China for human rights abuses?

Civil Liberties: Civil liberties are of the utmost concern to many Americans.  The Bush administration has argued that there must be a balance between respect for civil liberties and the need to fight the terrorists.  Should law enforcement agencies have greater discretion to monitor domestic communications?  Do you support a repeal of the patriot act?  What role should the department of Homeland Security play in national affairs?  Would you support the creation of a federal level Department of Peace?

For more information contact Chris Lugo, 615-593-0304, ; Elizabeth Barger, 931-964-2119, ; or Eric Schecter, 615-414-4572, .