Random acts of Kindness Day

Random Acts of Kindness Day is a wonderful occasion that encourages people to spread love, compassion, and positivity through small, unexpected acts of kindness. The acknowledged day is Feb. 17, but we will have a table in KC beginning Feb. 14. It will be filled with cards and stickers to keep for yourself or hand out to someone else and brighten their day. We will also have a board set up for you to write your favorite inspirational quote.

Posted on Saturday, February 10, 2024 by Melissa Sommers (msommers@albion.edu)

Transpacific Traces: Cold War Taiwan and its Visual-Material Afterlives, Thursday, Feb. 15, 1 p.m.

Dr. Joseph Ho will give the Faculty Lecture on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 1:00 p.m. in Bobbitt Auditorium. Everyone is welcome.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and the Chinese Nationalist government’s retreat to Taiwan put into motion a diasporic movement of refugees and foreign expats to the island. As connections between global institutions and local groups were severed or transformed, visual materials related to participants in this exodus represented nostalgic perceptions of lost historical possibilities. In “freezing time,” these materials mediated imagined hopes for communities traumatically split by the Chinese Civil War and Cold War realignments in East Asia. In this talk, Dr. Ho will explore recently-uncovered rare visual sources produced by an American Jesuit priest and Chinese refugee families caught up in transitions from Mainland China to new Taiwan-based roots.

Posted on Friday, February 09, 2024 by Ellen Wilch (ewilch@albion.edu)

History of Cinema in the 1910s and 1920s, Monday at 4:15 p.m.

Far from Hollywood: Class, Respectability, and the Transformation of American Mass Culture is the topic of a talk by Dr. Sam Backer, Monday, Feb. 12, 4:15 p.m. in Robinson 203. Dr. Backer is a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Digital Humanities, and is a candidate for assistant professor of history at Albion College. He is interested in themes of race, capitalism, gender, technology, and class, centered around American popular culture in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Please join the History department to hear how locally-organized negotiations around class, respectability, and gender in communities around the country shaped Hollywood’s motion picture industry in the 1910s and 20s. This event is free and open to the public.

Posted on Friday, February 09, 2024 by Ellen Wilch (ewilch@albion.edu)

“Ashes to Go” (Traditional and Glitter) in the KC

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent that leads up to Easter, starts Wednesday, Feb. 14, this year. Lent is a season of reflection, repentance, and re-centering. In collaboration with Spiritual Life, local United Methodist clergy will provide ‘ashes to go’ in the Kellogg lobby from 1 to 3 p.m., Ash Wednesday, including traditional palm ashes and glitter ashes. Why ashes? Ashes symbolize mortality, grief, and repentance. Why glitter? Ashes mixed with biodegradable glitter represent LGBTQ affirmation and inclusion. They are also a public acknowledgement of the divine worth of each human being, including those who have often been marginalized. Together, they invite us to view Lent–and life–in a new way. For more information, email media@umcmarshall.org.

Posted on Friday, February 09, 2024 by Laura Todd (ltodd@albion.edu)