Airing This Month

Voices of the Class (September 2-8)

When high school seniors labor over their college essays, they never imagine that their words could end up on stage. The members of Spectrum Theatre (UVA) create skits, monologues, and musical numbers taken from college admissions essays and welcome nervous first-year students with a little theatre based on their own writing.

Also: Kathy Hosig (VT) has completed some preliminary studies showing that the "Freshman 15," the 15 or so pounds college students often gain in their first year at university, is more like the "Freshman 8," and that some students actually lose weight when they leave Mom's cooking.

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The Selling of 9/11 (September 9-15)

On Sept. 11, 2000, Wal-Mart sold about 6,000 American flags. The same day a year later, the day of the terrorist attacks, the mega-retailer sold 116,000 American flags -- almost 20 times more than the year before. Dana Heller (ODU) examines the role consumer goods, media outlets, and commercial advertising have played in shaping the cultural memory of a national tragedy.

Also: Jim Minick (RU) speaks about the concepts of need versus luxury in our consumer culture, taking his inspiration from the works of Henry David Thoreau.

Inventions that Changed History (September 16-22)

Why did Africans domesticate cattle and donkeys but not zebras? Why did the Aborigines invent the boomerang? What modern piece of office equipment helped foil a coup attempt in the Soviet Union in 1991? Bernard Carlson (UVA) has written seven-volumes on the history of technology that begins with the Stone Age and ends with the global economy.

Also: What if when your clothes got dirty you could just throw them away? Kim Guthrie (VCU) is researching the potential usefulness of disposable clothing.

And: Mounir Laroussi, (ODU) has created a hand-held device that can be used to disinfect wounds, and even to attack plaque-making bacteria in the mouth.

Harry Potter, Fantasy and Censorship (September 23-29)

Banned Books Week will be celebrated September 23-30, 2006. Using the example of the popular Harry Potter novels and some recent attempts to ban them, Warren Rochelle (UMW), talks about the dangers of limiting access to literature.

Also: Thomas J. MacDonald (LU) will read his essay “Like Father Like Daughter” from his upcoming book titled Essays to Farmville. He speaks about his relationship with his 14-year old daughter as they listen and talk about music while they share a daily car commute to rural Farmville from suburban Midlothian.

Jamestown: A Primer for the Pilgrims? (September 30-October 6)

Some have styled Jamestown in its early years as badly organized and poorly governed--peopled with scum-of-the-earth, quarrelsome, and occasionally riotous settlers. But this terrible reputation is misleading, says Karen Kupperman (left) of New York University. Jamestown was figuring out how to create a working society and effective government, through trial and error, and in part became a model for Plymouth. Joining the discussion are Crandall Shifflett (VT), who reveals that significant numbers of Puritans were operating freely in the Chesapeake by 1630, and James Whittenburg (W&M), who describes the rapid expansion of the colony at James Fort.

This is the fourth of five WGR programs--produced with special support from the Rosenstiel Foundation--devoted to "New Perspectives on Jamestown " and leading up to 2007 and the 400th anniversary of the founding of the settlement.