Evidence suggests whitewashing of the composer’s legacy As probably very few of you outside the music department know, the Fargo-Moorhead area is currently in the throes of something called Beethovenfest. This is basically a community-wide celebration of Beethoven’s life and works. For those readers not very familiar with classical music, it’s pretty cool. Lovely, lovely…
I am reminded this week of the February 11, 2005 issue of The Concordian: the top headline is “STUDENT APATHY” (capitalized, I assume, for journalistic panache). The subject of the article is the fact that the Student Association – as student government was then called – had only one team running for executive office. The…
I was pointed to the article “Culture Clash or Expensive Field Trip” after reading Dawn Duncan’s response. I don’t intend to add on to the heap, but this is too important to me and countless other students to not say something as well. To begin, using a week-long study abroad, while a great opportunity, as…
I made four new friends this week. At least, I think I did. I hope I did. I’d like to discuss that uncertainty. I was walking to my table in DS on Tuesday when I caught a group of strangers, twenty feet away, staring at me. They did the standard look-away as soon as I…
It may be old news, but “50 Shades of Grey,” with main characters Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) and Christian (Jamie Dornan) hits the big screen on February 12th — just a couple days before Valentine’s Day. The book itself was finished in 2011, with two sequels following in 2012. British author E.L. James originally self-published “50…
I was going to rant about girls. I’m not proud of it, but there we are. It was going to focus on girls I didn’t know, people I’ve met passing through the Atrium every Wednesday or sitting down to meals a few tables away, and the moments where they’ve met my gaze or haven’t. I…
The 2010’s are an exciting time to attend college. Since I enrolled at Concordia, armies of technocrats have forecast the demise of the American university. In the wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s fame and fortune, the “UnCollege” movement, which encourages young people to question the necessity of higher education, “create[d] a place where people who are…
In his latest editorial in The Concordian, Sean Plemmons argued that studying abroad in English-speaking countries does not constitute a true study-abroad experience. He provides as support his own one-week experience in England. I take issue with his assessment. As an expert in Irish Studies, one who has lived in Ireland and has made her…
After reading the article titled “Culture Clash or Expensive Field Trip” by Sean Plemmons, I must say that I was disappointed. Not only by the point of view, but how undeveloped and blanketed the opinion was. Certainly there are people who have similar feelings, but the premise that students who study in English-speaking countries learn…
Defending the Seemingly Meaningless: A Response To “Culture Clash or Expensive Field Trip” I studied in Ireland, and greatly value that experience. It’s hard to measure or define what one learns abroad, and even harder to do so if you have never experienced an extended period of time abroad. Saying an English speaking country is…