welcome to the marylhurst blog.
by Jo Jenner
Faced with the diagnoses of infertility, my sister’s solution was to remove daily doses of toxins. Her hormones did return to natural levels, which facilitated her successful pregnancy and birth of my nephew. These success stories of regained health are common and attributed to limiting the chemicals brought into the home and, ultimately, our bodies.
by David Denny
The critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated Zero Dark Thirty directed by Kathryn Bigelow has generated a firestorm of commentary and debate surrounding the depiction of torture as the cause of finding Osama bin Laden. The debate can be summed up in the following way: Either the film is A), a brilliant cinematic feat in boldly and unsparingly telling the story of the killing Osama bin Laden in the vein of a detective procedural that takes that genre to a new level of sophistication, especially in terms of the way it utilizes cinema-verite (a documentary, hand held camera) to dramatize the story, or B), the film deploys these same cinematic techniques to captivate the viewer, to keep us on the edge of our seats, for the purpose of not necessarily informing us of ‘what really happened’ but of entertaining us, and therein effectively, even if perhaps unwittingly, endorsing the use of torture as a necessary means to a triumphant end.
by BreeAnna Bender
The year 2008 was a very difficult year for me and my young family. My husband was injured at work, which made me the sole provider for my family. In addition to raising my two young children and working full-time, I decided it was time to change my life. Only I didn’t know how.
I had always wanted a college education, but I felt it was out of my reach. My reality was filled with children, work and everyday life. How on earth was I going to find time to go back to school? As if someone was reading my mind, a commercial for Marylhurst University came on the television. It spoke of a university that catered to the needs of working-adult students who lead busy lives, but that wasn’t what made me jump on my computer as soon as the commercial was over.
They had a degree in English Literature and Writing.
by Sean Michael Morris
| How can I hear my own voice unless it bounces off of yours?
This is the question with which Anna Smith begins her Digital Writing Month blog post, “Your Voice in Mine.” And it is the driving question behind audience in the digital world. Unlike print publishing, when an audience is not always assumed, digital composition relies on audience at the level of its very conception. When we write online, we never write to ourselves. Rather, we write as part of a massive flow of information and culture (information that is also culture, indistinguishable from it). We write — whether we do so for an active audience, a passive one, or an unknown one — as part of something larger that’s being written all the time all around us. Finding our place in it is often a matter of discovering who’s listening to us, whose voices our own voices bounce off.
by Eileen Schiffer
I often think of my role in the educational process. I take my responsibilities seriously and am firmly committed to making a meaningful contribution to the university and to my students. At least equally, though (probably more), I’m cognizant of how very much I gain, personally and professionally, from my relationships with the school, my colleagues and my students. While it may seem obvious that each of us in this triad has an impact on the others, in the midst of the daily demands of teaching and learning, we likely take few opportunities to consciously reflect on our reciprocal responsibilities and benefits.
by Simon Tam
I play bass in what’s often known as the first and only all-Asian American dance rock band in the world. We perform at many of the largest Asian cultural festivals in North America. We’ve been featured in and on over 1,500 radio stations, websites, magazines, and tv shows talking about the Asian American experience. My band members and I often facilitate workshops on cultural diversity, racism, and stereotypes about Asian and Asian American culture. In fact, when you look up information on the band, it’s hard to find anything that doesn’t associate us with Asian American culture, which is why when the U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said that our band was disparaging to persons of Asian descent, I was rather shocked.
by Barry Bennett
At 9:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, after almost a year of Congressional avoidance and posturing, we skidded to a stop at the very edge of the fiscal cliff. Or at least an agreement of sorts was reached. Having averted the possibly catastrophic alternative, we can look back from the edge and marvel at our political system’s astonishing ability to turn the trivial into the phantasmagoric, as it did when it debated which tiny number of Americans—families making over $250,000, $600,000, or $1,000,000—should be subject to a modest tax increase. The magic figure of $450,000, together with various other compromises, led to a deal at the not-quite eleventh hour.
by John Caruso
American Director Quentin Tarantino’s latest offering, Django Unchained plays out as a spaghetti western revenge fantasy set in the antebellum Old South instead of the Wild West. Like Tarantino’s other work, this film seems to be primarily concerned with demonstrating its own coolness, from its sharply witty dialogue, to its everything-goes soundtrack, to its lovingly shot cinematography, to its slow-motion explosions of graphic violence. As its several Oscar nods testify, the larger-than-life spectacle of Django Unchained represents precisely the type of film that puts butts in seats, even with a Christmas Day opening.
Here at Marylhurst we are curious, passionate, mindful and engaged. We care about the world’s affairs and our place amongst them. We value thoughtful, provocative conversations about sustainability, politics, and pop culture. We don’t shy away from potentially controversial topics. Because they’re important. The Marylhurst Blog is a space to engage and discuss the relevant, [...]