South Coloradan

Dr. Benson Opens Faculty Lecture Seires

Nicole Plowright

Robert G. Benson, Ph.D., associate professor of biology and of earth sciences and director of the Edward M. Ryan Geological Museum, lead off the fall 2009 faculty lectures. Dr. Benson’s lecture was the first of six lectures that will be held in Porter Hall room 130. All lectures are held at both 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. of their scheduled dates.  They are free, and everyone is welcome to attend.
Dr. Benson’s lecture was about The Economic Geology of Africa. Economic Geology is “the study and analysis of geologic bodies and materials that can be utilized profitably by humans, including fuels, metals, nonmetallic minerals, and water; the application of geologic knowledge and theory to the search for and the understanding of mineral deposits.” As Dr. Benson explained in his lecture, Economic Geology focuses on the natural minerals a society has and how it can use those minerals to generate money.  For example, Africa has gold, diamonds, platinum group metals, titanium, bauxite, chrome and uranium. These are all minerals that are used every day and mining them may bring economic growth. Dr. Benson explained that Africa is in an ideal geological setting, where it is easy to harvest these minerals.  It has highly deformed metamorphic and granite rocks with sediments and basins on top of the area. This geologic setting also comes with the necessities that the deposits need, which are a host, a source, a structure, “the right stuff” and something unusual. Economic geologists must find areas where these minerals are located and where they have not already been mined.
Dr. Benson said choosing this topic was easy, it is his passion. He has both his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Economic Geology. He also has years of field experience in mining and looking for these minerals.
The next faculty lecture will be “Lincoln: Race and Slavery” given by history/government/philosophy department chair Dr. Ed Crowther. This will be on September 23 in Porter Hall room 130.

Dr. Sean Carrol Headlines Autumn at Adamns

Dodie Day

The keynote address for Celebrating Darwin’s Legacy 2009 will be “Remarkable
Creatures:  Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species,” and will be held on Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00 pm in ES 103.  All students, faculty, and community
members are welcome to attend the event.  Light refreshments will be served.
The speaker will be Dr. Sean Carroll, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin.  Dr. Carroll’s research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity.
Dr. Carroll is the author of “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species”, which is available at various distribution sites around campus at no charge.  Students, faculty, and community members are encouraged to take a copy, read it, and pass it on to others.
Dr. Carroll will also host a lecture, discussion, and book signing in the 2nd floor
Commons of Nielsen Library at 3:00 pm on Tuesday, September 15.
Dr. Carroll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 2007) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He has received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Shaw
Scientist Award of the Milwaukee Foundation, and numerous honorary lectureships.
Dr. Carroll was named one of America’s most promising leaders under 40 by TIME Magazine in 1994. 
Dr. Carroll lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife, Jamie, and two sons.

CSU Media Studies

Professor Speaks Tonight

Jesse Medina

Adams State College is glad to welcome Dr. Brian Ott for an evening as special guest speaker on September 10 in the ES building, room 103 at 6 p.m. 
Dr. Ott is professor of media studies at Colorado State University and will be analyzing the film, “Lost in Translation”.  The event is brought to us by the Adams State Theater and Communications Department and is free of cost.
Professor Ott will speak on connection environment and experience using Sophia Copella’s award winning film “Lost in Translation”.  The title of the talk is “Cinema and Choric Connection: Environment and Experience in ‘Lost in Translation’”. 
Dr. Ott will delve into the movie, as well as the role film has as being more than media. It is a combination of environment and experience simultaneously.  His essay illustrates the duel states of symbolism and the semiotic chora. Symbolism (artistic imitation suggesting immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible states) has been prized over the semiotic chora (existence, reality, influencing feelings and emotions).
In the past most media scholars tended to ignore this connection and focused on the quality of symbolism, but are now beginning to recognize the two as both being essential to media as a unique experience. The film is unique in that it prefers to highlight the semiotic chora experience and stays away from the otherwise dominant use of symbolism which lends itself to the essay quite well.
The experience of the main characters causes the viewers to connect in the choric state, both of the main characters connecting with the audience through their various situations and reactions to these particular situations.  Symbolism takes back seat to the connection made through life experiences which are more accessible to the audience. 
Professor Ott follows up the essay with analysis of the value of this information for use in media and its future place and identity.
Professor Ott has won awards for his teaching and his contributions to postmodernism work on television and film which are widely published in national and international journals.
He is currently editor of the Western Journal of Communication, a journal whose objective is to enhance the understanding of human communication.
Professor Ott also has several books published including “The Small Screen: how Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age”,”Critical Media Studies: An Introduction: (co-authored with Robert Mack), and “It’s Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post Television Era”(co-authored by marc Leverette and Cara Buckley).