Kansas City Jazz Orchestra
7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, 2016 - Taylor Performing Arts Center
Admission: free
Featuring terrific new arrangements of classic rock songs made famous by British artists and songwriters, the 18-piece Kansas City Jazz Orchestra will take you back to the 1960s and 70s. Led by artistic director/conductor Clint Ashlock, the big band with two vocalists will feature such selections as “She’s Not There” by Santana, “Norwegian Wood” and “Nowhere Man” by the Beatles, “Paint It Black” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, “She’s Not There” by The Zombies, “It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, and “Downtown” by Petula Clark.
Through concert performances and educational endeavors, The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra strives to preserve the rich heritage of jazz, nurture its growth, and encourage the appreciation of America’s classical music as a viable art form. Tonight’s concert is one of its rare appearances away from Kauffman Center’s 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall, where the KCJO regularly performs.
10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
Growing up in post-World War II Britain included rationing, difficult economic times and the continuation of class division. For U.K. youth, the future seemed bleak, especially in the port of Liverpool, still devastated by German bombing, so coping included coffee houses, motor scooters, listening to American rock music and forming skiffle bands. Two prominent subcultures, the Mods and the Rockers, emerged reflecting and influencing reaction to these conditions. Economics, race and a very different path toward achieving popularity yielded music that brought heartfelt, edgy rock sounds back to U.S., a country that was enjoying a much different postwar period of growth. A series of unrelated coincidences propelled a group of charismatic and talented British musicians into the forefront of this phenomenon that came to be known as the British Invasion. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones like the new movie sensation James Bond offered Americans and British a chance to escape the harsh realities of the Cold War, the assassination of JFK, the Profumo affair and the Civil Rights struggle.
Dr. Gregory Jones serves as the chair of the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Department of Music following 28 years at Truman State University as professor of music. He holds music degrees from Florida State University, the University of North Texas, and a doctorate in music performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music. His wide variety of performance experiences as a trumpet player include the Kansas City Symphony, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Missouri Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Texas Baroque Ensemble, the Grand Teton Seminar Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis, Allen Vizzutti, Al Jarreau, Audra McDonald, Bill Conti, Joshua Bell, the Dallas Cowboys Band, and many others. He has recorded for National Public Radio and performs often as a soloist or conductor.
11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
In the midst of the counterculture, music in Britain and America was at the epicenter of a subcultural group that defined new attitudes toward society and behavior contrary to the dominant culture and its expectations. The “Hippies” defined this cultural shift with their manner of dress and appearance, sexual practices, use of drugs, and their reaction to consumerism and other practices. Innovative music from U.K. bands continued to be at the center of these cultural movements even as the 1960s ended and a new wave of individualism brought a mixture of theatre and escapism into popular music. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols became prominent voices commenting on the rapidly changing world. The impact of the 1960s and 70s would have a lasting impact on future generations, redefining attitudes towards music, sex, drugs, consumerism and gender. The Vietnam War, the resignation of the U.S. president and economic hardship in the U.K. combined with a series of developments within the counterculture swept away the optimism of the 1960s and replaced it with a bitter sense of entrapment spawning new music evoking escapism and resignation.
While at Truman State University, Dr. Gregory Jones developed a unique interdisciplinary study abroad course examining the British Invasion and the rise of the counterculture in 1960s in the U.K.
9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to marking declining numbers of pubs, foreshadowing what many see as the impending death of one of Britain’s critical social institutions. Indeed, Prince Charles has lent his support to the Pub is the Hub, a new organization dedicated to preserving pubs especially in isolated villages.
Throughout its history, the pub has confronted and survived enormous social changes, and this remains true today. The pub is not so much disappearing as undergoing a metamorphosis in which newer types of drinking establishments are appearing, having some major elements in common with the traditional “local.”
Dr. David W. Gutzke is a professor of modern British history at Missouri State University. He received his doctorate from the University of Toronto and his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He lived in Britain for four years while researching his Ph.D., and has since returned over 20 times for research during summer breaks.
Author of five books, Dr. Gutzke specializes in writing about alcohol, drinking habits, the brewing industry and transnational progressivism. He is currently completing a book on roadhouses in the late 1920s and 1930s.
12 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Masculinity, drinking in pubs and football are a well-understood, even revered, trinity in Scotland. What Scottish males drank served as a projection of their national identity, differentiating them from their main rival south of the border. For Scotland, the annual soccer match played with England loomed large in the male psyche, a moment in which a subjugated country could, at least briefly, regain pride and a sense of nationhood. Beer contributed to this perspective and also to fostering how Scottish males saw themselves. None of this had a parallel south of the border.
1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
Noël Coward was a composer, playwright, entertainer, raconteur, wit, and bon vivant. The glitterati in his vast circle of friends and acquaintances called him “The Master.” He once said, “My body has certainly wandered a good deal, but I have an uneasy suspicion that my mind has not wandered nearly enough.”
In this presentation, Dr. Jim Lile takes us on a wander with Noël’s mind through an overview of his life and career, and a sampling of his stories and songs.
Dr. Lile joined the Theatre Department faculty in 2004 and served as department chair for 12 years. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in theatre at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) and his Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism at Kent State University.
Equally at home in rehearsal or in the classroom, Dr. Lile brings a wealth of teaching, acting, directing, and design experience gathered over three decades from schools and theatres in Texas, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Sept. 13-17, 2016 - Bud Walton Theatre
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and non-MSSU students; two free tickets per MSSU faculty/staff member, one free ticket per MSSU student ID.
Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit at lightning speed and when he finished he was sure that the play was good and would succeed. He was not disappointed. Since its premiere in 1941, the play has remained a favorite among Coward’s works.
Novelist Charles Condomine, hoping to amuse himself while researching a book on the occult, invites the eccentric local medium, Madame Arcati, to conduct a séance at his home. Little suspecting her actual abilities, Charles suddenly finds himself haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, much to the displeasure of his second wife, Ruth!
Following the play’s initial production, the reviewer for The Manchester Guardian described the play as, “An odd mixture and not untouched by genius of a sort.” He was right.
11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Most people, when they hear the name Charles Darwin, think only of his research on evolution and natural selection. However, there was so much more to his life and work than his five-year voyage on The Beagle and publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin’s life will be told through the eyes of his wife, Emma (Wedgewood) Darwin, based on diaries and letters, in this multimedia presentation.
Dr. Vickie Roettger is a professor of biology at Missouri Southern State University. She taught evolution and genetics in England during spring 2007 as part of the Missouri London Program; she traveled to sites associated with Charles Darwin, including his birthplace (Shrewsbury), his home where he did much of his work (Down House), and his burial site at Westminster Abbey, London.
Dr. Roettger worked as a certified medical technologist for six years before pursuing her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She completed post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin and Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland before coming to MSSU in 1997. Dr. Roettger enjoys combining history with biology and conveying aspects of both in her teaching.
10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
As Americans grapple with issues of race, gender, and class in this year’s presidential election, they look as always to examples from the past – either those to break from or adhere to. Among those is Winston S. Churchill, half American by birth, honorary American citizen by act of Congress in 1963. More than 50 years after his death, one wonders how Churchill has reached near timelessness like Lincoln and Washington. Even by the standards of his day, Churchill was flawed, yet public interest in him remains positive and high. Many consider him the greatest leader of the 20th century.
But why should a college student in Missouri look to Churchill for relevant life lessons today? First, Churchill was a charismatic and courageous leader who demanded action with humanity, the sort of person Americans say they want in a president. Second, Churchill matters because words are still powerful – he won the Nobel Prize for literature. And Churchill remains relevant as time moves on precisely because history matters. As he put it, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Finally, Churchill matters because democracy still matters, and there never was a greater defender of democracy than Churchill.
After more than two decades of teaching across the U.S. at four colleges and universities, Dr. Jim Williams returned to his alma mater Westminster College in December 2014 to direct the National Churchill Museum, where he remained until April 2016. As director of the museum, Williams focused his scholarly work on the history and impact of Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech at the college in 1946; the history of the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library, since 2009 known as the National Churchill Museum; and the relationship between Churchill and President Harry S Truman.
As a student at Westminster College 30 years ago, Williams wrote his senior history thesis on the project that brought a bombed-out Christopher Wren church from London stone by stone to Fulton, Missouri, in the 1960s to create the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library on the campus of Westminster College. Churchill called this “an imaginative concept,” and it served essentially as the final chapter in the rich and varied relationship between him and Truman, who was an honorary chairman of the memorial project and outlived Churchill by almost eight years.
11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
A year after the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, most Americans remained detached from the war in Europe and Asia. However, a few Americans joined “the few” who participated in the Nazi blitz of England in the last months of 1940. Among these were the Eagle Squadrons, Americans who volunteered to fly in the Royal Air Force in the crucial defense of London. Many died, including a young man from Fulton, Missouri. Other Americans reported from London to Americans back home. These included William Lindsey White, son of William Allen White, the famous editor of the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette. Then there were the private connections, such as Betty Swallow’s correspondence from London to her pen pal in Kansas City, Helen Bradley. Swallow’s letters at the National Churchill Museum reflect her as “the epitome of English pluck: patriotic, practical, and romantic despite the bombs falling about her.”
And there was Noel Mander, a London fire warden who watched many churches burn on a terrible night in late December 1940. From that experience, Mander developed his own connection to the Midwest, first as the organ builder for the restored Wren church that is the Churchill Memorial in Fulton and later as the official representative of the memorial in the United Kingdom. These mostly ordinary, relatively anonymous people witnessed the destruction of the London blitz at the hands of the Nazis and ensured that Midwestern Americans would forever remember the “special relationship” that was forged between Britons and Americans in the war.
1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Across the globe in early 1946 millions wondered why Winston Churchill was traveling to “tiny” Fulton, Missouri, to deliver a lecture just months after losing an election that would have kept him as Britain’s prime minister into the postwar era. Visitors to Fulton, Missouri, for the past 50 years have asked the question, “Why Fulton for a Churchill museum?” In 1945 it so happened that Westminster College had an alumnus working on President Truman’s staff, and it was through his intervention that Truman endorsed the college’s letter to Churchill with an invitation to join Churchill on the trip to Missouri. From that improbability came one of Churchill’s finest speeches and a chain of events that is still playing out 70 years later. In 1961 the college president decided to embark on a Churchill memorial project, improbably hoping the college could secure a 17th-century Christopher Wren church, bombed in the London blitz in 1940, to disassemble stone by stone and reassemble on campus in Fulton. Dedicated in 1969 and now known as the National Churchill Museum, the story of the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College continues to be “an imaginative concept” wrapped in inspiration inside one layer of coincidence after another.
10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016 - Lion’s Den
Admission: free (while supplies last)
For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Located in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive upright stones placed in a circular layout. While many modern scholars now agree that Stonehenge was once a burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it served and how a civilization without modern technology – or even the wheel – produced the mighty monument.
Come to the Lion’s Den and have your photo taken in front of these historic ruins, courtesy of the Campus Activities Board.
9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
Dr. James R. Jackson will describe why he and his wife, Brenda, have visited The British Isles over 20 times and the benefit of deep tourism over broad tourism. Also, he will briefly describe the mystical, mythical Isles of: Skye, Man, Orkney, Shetland, Wight, Guernsey, Jersey, and the outer Hebrides.
Dr. James R. Jackson is a Missouri Southern State University biology professor emeritus. He taught biology at MSSU for 38 years. During this time, he received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Also, he received MSSU’s Outstanding Teaching and Faculty Advisor awards. Dr. Jackson was selected to be a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Wolfson College, while on sabbatical in England. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in physiological plant ecology and was born in Colorado.
1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016 - Phelps Theater in Beimdiek Recreation Center
Admission: free
This presentation will explore how Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, originally served to settle some of the differences between King John of England and the barons, his most prominent subjects. It reaffirmed traditional “liberties” of the Church and other corporate bodies. King John also pledged to end the arbitrary arrests, fines, and taxes he had imposed on his subjects.
We’ll see how this 1215 agreement proved a failure in the short run, but in the longer run, helped establish basic principles of government that would have a lasting legacy, and not just in England. Magna Carta made it clear that the King was not empowered to take whatever he thought he needed and was not at liberty to simply fine people without going through established legal procedures in the courts established by John’s predecessors. More than one English king faced resistance when he was accused of violating the terms of Magna Carta.
When some Englishmen began establishing colonies in America, they brought with them some of those basic ideas, such as the link between taxation and consent. In the events leading up to the American Revolution, some Americans expressly referred to Magna Carta when explaining their grievances against Britain.
The influence of Magna Carta can be seen today, in the British and American forms of government, in parts of the United States Constitution, and even in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, described as “the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere.”
Dr. Paul Teverow is a professor of history at Missouri Southern State University, where he has taught since 1982. His training was in 17th-century Britain and early modern Europe, but he teaches a variety of courses in European, United States, and world history. Dr. Teverow spent the Fall 2008 semester teaching in the Missouri London Program. He was recognized as MSSU’s Outstanding Teacher in 1995 and as Outstanding International Education Teacher in 2008. Dr. Teverow also co-sponsors MSSU’s Model United Nations Club, which has sent delegations to national conferences since 1985.
12 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
Remember the images of knights in gleaming armor; the rugged facades of medieval castles; thatched-roof cottages in bucolic, rural villages; meandering streams and country roads draped with bright green summer foliage? These images are real in the area of the Cotswolds located in upper Gloucestershire, Middlesex England. Approximately 100 kilometers west of London, this unique area of contemporary England contains quaint villages with quaint names that make every effort to remain as they were 500 years ago. The rural geography is similar to the fringes of our local Ozarks replete with twisted roads, twisted streams, and gently rolling hills. The area seems lost in time (often a welcome reprieve to modern tourists).
Toward the eastern edge of this mystical area sits the mighty Warwick Castle. This imposing edifice is a prototype of all major castles. Dating back to the time of the Norman Invasion (12th century), Warwick epitomizes how castles grew, changed, and functioned. It has become a major tourist attraction because it fulfills every stereotype – inside and outside – that one could have of a historic castle. Richard the Lionheart could easily step out of the shadows that linger. Original photographs combined with descriptive narration and segments of commercial films are combined in this presentation.
Dr. Conrad Gubera is a professor of sociology and international studies at Missouri Southern State University. He was named the university’s Outstanding International Education Teacher in 2006 and the Outstanding Teacher in 1996. He teaches courses in sociology and anthropology, secondary social science education, and international studies.
Dr. Gubera is entering his 50th year of teaching at Missouri Southern. He has been a faculty leader of 10 different student study abroad groups at MSSU, mostly recently teaching “The Sociology of Death and Dying” in London. During the past 25 years Dr. Gubera has engaged in extensive travel, visiting 35 countries. Most of his international travel has been the complement of being a fellow with the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii and the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, three separate Fulbright Awards, a Japan Foundation Award, and faculty grants through MSSU’s Institute of International Studies. In 2014, he traveled to Turkey through the Niagara Foundation and to the United Arab Emirates through the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Music Department students will guide the audience through British music from several centuries, including influential composers such as Henry Purcell, Benjamin Britten, and George Frederick Handel. This concert will focus on two quintessentially British forms of music: solo vocal and brass literature.
Through this concert, the Music Department will not only expose students to foundational music from the history of Great Britain, but also uncover little-known gems of English folk songs and Scottish Airs.
9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
While attending a seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the summer of 2015 at the University of Iowa, Dr. Rebecca Mouser worked to reproduce a medieval manuscript page (Cotton Nero A.x – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). Participants in the seminar were instructed in parchment production methods, preparing their own goat skins. They also learned introductory calligraphy and page-layout skills. The goal was to bring materiality back into their studies as medievalists. Dr. Mouser’s talk today will cover this process as well as discuss digitization and open access. Today, people have access to manuscript pages from libraries and collections around the world. However, this access does not allow them to encounter the materiality of the manuscript page, which is a great detriment. Dr. Mouser’s discussion will also include readings from Old English and Middle English manuscripts.
Dr. Rebecca Mouser received her Ph.D. in medieval literature from the University of Missouri – Columbia in July 2013 under the direction of Dr. John Miles Foley and Dr. Emma Lipton. She specializes in Old English literature and oral tradition. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow for the University of Missouri for one year, she accepted a position in July 2014 as assistant professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at Missouri Southern State University, where she currently teaches early British literature and linguistics as well as writing.
11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016 - Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Admission: free 
Biographies of William Shake-speare have always had to connect the dots by conjecture, given how little is actually known about William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon (1564-1616), who has long been credited as the author behind that pen-name. This slide presentation examines the case for Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), as the historical figure whose documented life, writing, and personality relate closely to specifics in the plays. The greatest body of work in the English language yields up new riches when we can tie textual allusions to known people and events of the Elizabethan era. The Shakespeare lover of any persuasion will gain fresh insights by looking with an open mind at evidence related to this persistent issue.
Felicia Hardison Londré, Curators’ Professor of Theatre at UMKC, recently completed a term as dean of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center. She was the founding secretary of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America (1991-93) and honorary co-founder of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival (1991). Dr. Londré’s 14 books include The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1929 (University of Missouri Press, 2007), which was awarded the Theatre Library Association’s George Freedley Memorial Award at Lincoln Center in New York City and Jackson County Historical Society’s Education Award. Her current projects are research on French and American theatre initiatives in the Great War, research on Jean-Louis Barrault for a book on great directors, and a book forthcoming from Methuen in January: Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1940s (Eugene O’Neill, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller).
1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016 - Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Admission: free
Shakespeare’s plays came to America almost as soon as the first English-speaking settlers landed here. Until the late 18th century, however, his plays were known not on the wicked stage but on the page. This anecdotal PowerPoint-illustrated lecture by Felicia Hardison Londré follows the trajectory from those earliest days in the 1600s to our vast contemporary network of American Shakespeare festivals. The story includes the glory days of the great touring stars with their Shakespearean repertoires as well as the popularity of Shakespeare on the frontier where many cowboys’ saddlebags carried copies of Shakespeare. Yes, Shakespeare was born in England and his great works were “made in England,” but the USA may be said to have led the way as his plays have conquered the world.
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
This faculty clarinet recital will feature the music of John Ireland, Arthur Benjamin, Joseph Horvitz, Gordon Jacob, and Elizabeth Maconchy. These composers reflect the English use of beautiful country scenic melodies with interesting uses of form. While all the music was composed in the 20th century, there is a wide variety of aural sounds that show the diversity of the English musical heritage.
Dr. Cheryl Cotter has been on faculty at Missouri Southern State University for 12 years as the woodwind area coordinator. Her degrees all come from the University of North Texas, where she not only sat as principal clarinet in the Wind Symphony under Eugene Corporon, but also recorded more than 30 CDs under the GIA, Klavier, and Citadel labels. Joining her will be vocalist Madison King, Rebecca Cutler on violin, Raul Munguia on violin, Chelsea Pfeifer on viola, Matthew Clark on cello, and Kathy Nenadal on piano.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, 2016 - Taylor Performing Arts Center
Admission: free 
The Missouri Southern State University Wind Ensemble, under the direction of conductor Ricardo Espinosa, presents a program dedicated to celebrating British wind ensemble music. Featuring the music of Malcolm Arnold, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gustav Holst, and more, this concert will be a faithful representation of British performance practice culminating in the idiomatic march, “British Eighth,” by Zo Elliott.
The MSSU Wind Ensemble is the premier wind band of the MSSU Music Department. The Wind Ensemble is guided by a philosophy that seeks to expose its students and audiences to the highest quality music written or transcribed for wind instruments representing all periods of music history.
9:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Great Britain, the focus of this year’s themed semester, came into being in 1707. Although England and Scotland had been ruled by the same monarchs since 1603, it was only a century later that the two united to form a single country. So the first question to answer is why it took so long to realize the project of unification first proposed by the ruler known in Scotland as James VI and in England as James I. The second is why, for the English, transforming the dynastic union into a political merger became a top priority in the early 1700s and how they made the Scots “an offer they couldn’t refuse.” From there we’ll look at how a distinctively British national identity emerged over the course of the 1700s. Other topics to be examined include the place of Wales and Ireland in this union, the failed 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, and the likely future of the Union.
Dr. Paul Teverow is a professor of history at Missouri Southern State University, where he has taught since 1982. His training was in 17th-century Britain and early modern Europe, but he teaches a variety of courses in European, United States, and world history. Dr. Teverow spent the Fall 2008 semester teaching in the Missouri London Program. He was recognized as MSSU’s Outstanding Teacher in 1995 and as Outstanding International Education Teacher in 2008. Dr. Teverow also co-sponsors MSSU’s Model United Nations Club, which has sent delegations to national conferences since 1985.
11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
The United Kingdom has traditionally had an awkward and tumultuous relationship with the European Economic Community (EEC), currently known as the European Union (EU). The U.K. applied to be a part of the EEC in 1961, only to be vetoed twice by the French government, led by Charles de Gaulle. It wasn’t until 1973 that the U.K., led by the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Edward Heath, joined the EEC shortly after General de Gaulle left office. In fact, the U.K. referendum on joining the Community in 1975 returned a strong majority of 67% in favor. As the 1970s came to a close, the Conservative and Labor parties reversed roles and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher began to rally against “a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.” Euroscepticism began to take hold as a powerful movement in the U.K., culminating with the eventual election of several members of the Eurosceptic U.K. Independence Party into the European Parliament, the only elected body of the EU.
Tensions in the Conservative Party led Prime Minister David Cameron to call for a referendum on whether to stay in the European Union – this was dubbed Brexit. The U.K. voted to leave on June 23, 2016, and the consequences are only starting to unfold. Cameron resigned and the process of exit has begun. The U.K. was a powerful voting member of the EU and a net contributor to the EU budget. However, the U.K. had also chosen to opt out of important EU integration initiatives. Its decision to leave is an unprecedented moment in international politics and European integration. This talk will discuss both the history and the future of the U.K.’s rocky relationship with the EU, with a focus on how EU integration will progress as the EU moves on without the United Kingdom.
Dr. Nicholas P. Nicoletti is assistant professor of political science at Missouri Southern State University. He received a Ph.D. in political science from the University at Buffalo, SUNY and also holds a master’s of international studies and an M.B.A. from St. John Fisher College. His research interests focus on the relationship between domestic political processes and international relations. He is also the organizer of the international conference, The European Union and World Politics: The EU, Its Member States, and International Interactions, and the editor of a published volume of the same name. Dr. Nicoletti has published recent work on the democratic peace in International Theory and co-authored a book chapter in a volume on moral psychology for Springer Press. He also teaches a course, The Politics of the European Union, and is the adviser to MSSU’s Model European Union Delegation.
9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Dr. Mike Hulderman presents a comparative analysis of the late 19th century Whitechapel Murders in the East End of London that have been attributed to the notorious, unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper and the late 20th century Footpath Murders in the small English village of Narborough perpetrated by the lesser-known, confessed serial killer Colin Pitchfork. The analysis emphasizes the English criminal justice process as illustrated by the Pitchfork case. Significantly, the Pitchfork case resulted in the world’s first-ever mass DNA screen and the first murder conviction and first person to be exonerated based on genetic fingerprinting.
Dr. Mike Hulderman currently serves as chair of the department of Criminal Justice Administration at Missouri Southern State University. He earned his B.S. and M.S in criminal justice from Missouri Southern State University and Northeastern State University, respectively, and his doctorate from Oklahoma State University. His interest in British serial killers stems from reading The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh and captivation with the Jack the Ripper mystery. Along with several students from Missouri Southern, he recently toured parts of the criminal justice systems of England and Scotland. The tour included a personalized Jack the Ripper walk led by a retired chief superintendent with the London Metropolitan Police Service and an interview with Ray Chapman, a senior forensic scientist with the MPS and a colleague of Sir Alec Jeffreys, who developed genetic fingerprinting in the 1980s.
10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
On Sept. 8, 1960, British film director and producer Alfred Hitchcock released Psycho. Shot on a small budget, and using the crew from the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Psycho was the culmination of three important cultural events: the serial killings of numerous women by Ed Gein in the mid 1950s; the publication of Robert Block’s book Psycho in 1959; and the rise of Momism in American society, which propagated the fear that boys were either excessively attached to or dominated by their mothers. This presentation will discuss how all three of these events coalesced to produce one of the most popular and enduring thrillers in film history.
Dr. Michael Howarth directs the Honors Program at Missouri Southern State University where he is an associate professor of English. In addition to chairing the Alfred Hitchcock panels at the annual Southwest Popular Culture conference, he is on the editorial board for Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy and on the advisory board for Mise-en-scène: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration. His critical text Under the Bed, Creeping: Psychoanalyzing the Gothic in Children's Literature was published in 2014 by McFarland Press. His young adult novel, Fair Weather Ninjas, is forthcoming from Lamar University Literary Press.
2:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free 
Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as “The Master of Suspense.” He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England’s best director.
The Campus Activities Board is showing Hitchcock’s classic, Psycho. Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller and was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel’s disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), and its aftermath.
Dr. Michael Howarth, who directs the Honors Program at Missouri Southern State University, will introduce the 109-minute horror thriller that is now considered one of the greatest films of all time.
10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016 - Lion’s Den
Admission: free (while supplies last)
Afternoon tea was introduced in England by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in 1840. The Duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess asked that a tray of tea, bread and butter, and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.
This pause for tea became a fashionable social event. During the 1880s upper-class and society women would change into long gowns, gloves and hats for their afternoon tea, which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock.
Take a break from your day and join the Campus Activities Board for Tea Time.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, 2016 - Taylor Performing Arts Center
Admission: free
The Southern Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Jeffrey Macomber and featuring violinist Erik Peterson, dedicates its November concert to the music of Great Britain. The program features Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite for string orchestra, Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, Op. 36, and Scottish Fantasy for solo violin and orchestra by Max Bruch, Op. 46.
Erik Peterson has been a member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and is concertmaster of the chamber orchestra Up Close and Personal. As an active performing chamber musician, he is often heard in performances with the Ivy Street Ensemble and Mendelssohn Trio. In addition to his work as a violinist, Peterson is artistic director of the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival in Corvallis, Oregon, and the Front Range Chamber Players, based in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has taught violin, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire at Colorado State University, Rocky Bridge Music Center, Denver School of the Arts, and Denver Young Artists Orchestra.
10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
When he started writing The Last Enchantments, Charles Finch was still a student at Oxford, working in a little carrel deep within the oldest continually open library in Europe. In this talk, he will discuss what it was like to go there as an American, unused to the university’s customs – never to walk on the grass, for instance, or how to get a free pint of beer at the Bear, a coaching inn founded in 1242 – unsure of himself at first, but soon falling into the intense friendships that would inspire his novel.
Along the way he’ll answer the crucial questions: What is it like to live in a foreign country? What is the difference between autobiography and fiction? And was there a real-life Sophie who broke his heart?
Finch is a novelist and literary critic. He grew up in New York City, then studied at Yale, where he won the class fiction prize, and Oxford, where he did graduate study on Shakespeare. He is the author of The Last Enchantments, about his golden years in England, and also the bestselling series of Charles Lenox mystery novels. He writes about books and travel regularly for The New York Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Lonely Planet, and Slate, and was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle award in criticism. He currently lives in Chicago.
9:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
In 1167, a group of scholars from the University of Paris decamped to a small English parish town to start their own university: Oxford. Nearly a millennium later, it still feels utterly medieval, a maze of stone-walled alleyways, irregular houses, and castle-like college buildings, rising into the mists. In this talk, Charles Finch will explore the enduring allure of the city where he lived for three years, and about which he wrote his novel The Last Enchantments, explaining the university’s odd traditions; what “real tennis” and bowler hats and punting and Mob Quad mean there; how to study there; and the long literary tradition of the city that inspired Brideshead Revisited, Tolkien, Narnia, Philip Pullman, Harry Potter, and Alice in Wonderland.
1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 - Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Admission: free
“It’s all in the art,” the famous British writer V.S. Pritchett once said. “You get no credit for the living.” Many of us have had unforgettable travel experiences. But how do you turn them into great travel writing? It’s one of the most beautiful and meaningful kinds of essay we have, yet also one of the trickiest to pull off, and in this talk Charles Finch, who has written widely about his travels in England, Africa, Greece, and elsewhere, talks about the rich tradition of travel writing, the pitfalls young writers should avoid, and his favorite expatriate novels and memoirs, from My Family and Other Animals to A Moveable Feast to Songlines.
11-11:50 a.m. and 1-1:50 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
8:30-9:15 and 11-11:50 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 - Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free
Author Charles Finch will sign your copies of The Last Enchantments and answer all your questions in these informal sessions.
