Could not complete log in. Possible causes and solutions are:
Cookies are not set, which might happen if you've never visited this website before.
Please open https://avalon.lib.virginia.edu/ in a new window, then come back and refresh this page.
An ad blocker is preventing successful login.
Please disable ad blockers for this site then refresh this page.
Oral history interview with H. Lane Kneedler, class of 1969, lecturer, and former UVA Law assistant dean and professor. Kneedler discusses the events surrounding the UVA student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War, and his participation in events as a Law School administrator.
Oral history interview with Hillary Taylor, class of 2016, via Zoom, on March 7, 2024. Taylor discussed her time as a member and president of UVA Law’s chapter of Lambda Law Alliance, highlighting the group’s activities and events.
Oral history interview with Janet I. Warren regarding her involvement with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy starting in 1981. She discusses her work providing training on conducting forensic evaluations for the courts, serving as the UVA liaison to the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit, and conducting research for the Boy Scouts of America. She is now Professor Emerita of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at UVA.
Oral history interview with Jim Carpenter, a photographer who worked for the newspaper The Daily Progress, in Charlottesville, VA, from 1968-1988. Carpenter discusses his experiences from May 4-11, 1970, photographing events surrounding the UVA student strike.
Oral history interview with John Petrila, class of 1976, regarding his work as ILPPP’s first mental health law fellow. Petrila discusses the founding years of the institute and its impact on his career.
Oral history interview with UVA Law professor John T. Monahan regarding his work with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. Monahan, a psychologist, was hired to teach at the Law School in 1980 and has worked closely with Richard J. Bonnie and ILPPP since then. He has directed two research networks for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation related to mental health law.
Oral history interview with Kenneth Williams, class of 1986, via Zoom, on March 11, 2024. Williams discussed his time as a member and president of UVA Law’s Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, which later became UVA Law’s chapter of Lambda Law Alliance. He detailed events and activities during his tenure, including a successful campaign for the Law School to have an official sexual orientation nondiscrimination policy.
An oral history interview with Dr. Linda R. Thompson, conducted via Zoom by the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library on November 15, 2021. This interview is part of the Medical Alumni Stories Oral History Project, a joint effort of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and the UVA Medical Alumni Association and Medical School Foundation.
Linda Ruth Thompson was born in 1941 in Bristol, Tennessee. She attended King College (now King University) in Bristol, TN, and graduated Magna cum Laude in 1962. Thompson attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine and graduated from medical school in 1966; she was one of three women who graduated in the Class of 1966. After graduation, Thompson completed a rotating internship at the State University of Iowa Hospital in 1967, and then returned to UVA for a residency in psychiatry (1967-1971). She served as the Chief Resident during her final year of residency and also as an Instructor in Psychiatry (1970-1971). Following her residency, she worked as a staff psychiatrist at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Fairfax, VA, before going into private practice in the Washington, DC, area.
Dr. Thompson pursued psychoanalytic training at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and graduated from the psychoanalysis program in 1983. In 1984, she moved to the Tri-Cities area of northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, where she has maintained a general psychiatric practice since 1984. Thompson also worked as a consultant until 2014, primarily with regional mental health centers, and she attended psychiatric patients at local community hospitals. In 2016, Thompson published a book about her experiences with breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with and treated for in 2007 and 2008. She continues to practice medicine part-time in Bristol, TN, and writes about issues in modern healthcare. In addition to her book Surviving Breast Cancer, Thompson is the author of two additional books: Return to Asylums: A Prescription for the American Mental Health System, published in 2016, and Old School Medicine: Lower Tech Care to Improve the High Tech Future of Healthcare, published in 2018.
This is a shortened version of the oral history interview conducted with Dr. Thompson in November 2021. The full length interview remains restricted until 2047.
Oral history interview of Manal Cheema, class of 2020, via Zoom, on February 7, 2022. Cheema discussed issues and challenges regarding diversity within Virginia Law Women (VLW). Cheema also discussed VLW programs and activities supporting women law students’ education and career interests, as well as VLW administration issues.
Oral history interview of Mary Jane McFadden, class of 1974, via Zoom, on October 23, 2020. McFadden discussed her undergraduate experience at Ohio State and how she chose UVA Law. Review of her role in establishing Virginia Law Women and early VLW recruitment efforts. Discussion of gender-based inequity of UVA Law admissions in the early ‘70s and VLW efforts to improve women admission rates. Reminisces of VLW activities and Frances Farmer of the Law Library.
An oral history interview with Dr. Maurice Apprey, conducted on May 12, 2022. This interview is part of a joint effort of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and the UVA Medical Alumni Association and Medical School Foundation.
Maurice Apprey was born in Ghana, West Africa. He received a B.S. in Psychology, Philosophy, and Religion from the College of Emporia, Kansas, and graduated in 1974. Dr. Apprey was one of a small number of students who trained under Anna Freud at the Hampstead Clinic in London, from which he graduated in 1979. After studying phenomenological psychological research and hermeneutics with Amedeo Giorgi at the Saybrook Institute in San Franciso, CA, Dr. Apprey received a Ph.D. in Human Science Research. He later pursued a doctorate in Executive Management from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
In 1980, Dr. Apprey joined the faculty of the UVA School of Medicine in the department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. In 1982, he was appointed Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. His work with current and aspiring medical students continued for two and a half decades, and he was later appointed the Associate Dean of Diversity at the School of Medicine (in 1992) and the Associate Dean of Student Support (in 2003). During these years, Dr. Apprey was highly effective in increasing the number of students from under-represented backgrounds at medical school through initiatives like the Medical Academic Advancement Program (MAAP). He taught undergraduates, medical students, residents in psychiatry and psychology, and hospital chaplains, among others. In 2007, Dr. Apprey was invited to become Dean of the Office of African-American Affairs for the University of Virginia. He accepted and served in that role until his retirement in 2022.
Oral history interview with Michael Allen, class of 1985, via Zoom, on February 29, 2024. Allen discussed the formation and early activities of UVA Law’s Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, which later became UVA Law’s chapter of Lambda Law Alliance.
Oral interview of Michael Graetz, class of 1969, alum and former professor at UVA Law. Graetz discusses his time as a student and professor at the Law School.
Oral history interview with Neil McBride, class of 1970, over Zoom in Charlottesville, VA, and Knoxville, TN. McBride discusses the UVA student strike in May 1970 over the Vietnam War, and his participation as a legal marshal.
Oral history interview with Paul Appelbaum regarding his work with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. Appelbaum founded the Law & Psychiatry program at the University of Massachusetts in 1985 and has worked closely with ILPPP since that time. Appelbaum is now the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law and director of the Division of Law, Ethics and Psychiatry at Columbia University.
Oral history interview with Paul Taddune, class of 1971, in his law office in Aspen, Colorado. Taddune discussed his time attending UVA Law School and the impact of the Vietnam War on students.
Oral history interview with UVA Law alum (1969) and professor emeritus Richard J. Bonnie in which he recalls the early years of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy and the budding field of mental health law during the 1970s.
Oral history interview with Robert W. “Bob” Olson, class of 1970. Olson discusses the events surrounding the UVA student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War, and his participation in the events as a legal marshal.
Oral history interview with Robert “Bob” (Elmo) Schwartz, class of 1980, in-person, on June 21, 2024. Schwartz discussed his experiences as an openly gay student at UVA Law prior to the founding of Lambda Law Alliance; his work as treasurer of the undergraduate school’s Gay Student Union; and his memories playing for the North Grounds Softball League.
Oral history interview of Rosemary Daszkiewicz, class of 1986, via Zoom, on November 22, 2021. Daszkiewicz discussed Virginia Law Women (VLW) recruitment, as well as programs and activities supporting women law students in their studies and employment searches. Daszkiewicz also gave her views on sexism, diversity, and inclusivity at the Law School during 1980s, as well as diversity within VLW at the time.
Oral history interview of Sujaya Rajguru, class of 2022, via Zoom, on March 28, 2022. Rajguru discussed VLW programs and activities supporting women law students’ education and career interests, as well as VLW administration issues.
Oral history interview with W. Lawrence Fitch regarding his work with the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the institute’s impact on the field of mental health law. From 1982-1994, Fitch served as an associate professor at UVA Law and director of the Forensic Evaluation Training and Research Center at the institute.
Growing enthusiasm in medicine and in the population at large for early diagnosis has engaged many doctors in a systematic search for abnormalitites in persons who are well. While physicians, patients, and the press tend to focus on the potential benefits, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch in his work has exposed the often-ignored harm associated with this practice: overdiagnosis. Diagnoses of a great many conditions, including high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes (and prediabetes), and even cancer, have skyrocketed in recent years, yet many individuals so labeled are destined never to develop symptoms, much less die, from their conditions. They are overdiagnosed. And overdiagnosed patients as Dr. Welch points out in the Medical Center Hour, cannot benefit from treatment since there is nothing to fix. But they can be harmed. Understanding the trade-offs involved is critical, Dr. Welch argues, so that health care systems don't further narrow the definition of "normal" and, ironically, turn more and more well persons into patients.
Co-presented with the Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine; the Sadie Lewis Webb Program in Health Law, School of Law; and the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, UVA
Over the last half-century, pain medicine has been defined by controversy: when is pain real? Does too-liberal, overly compassionate relief create addiction? Is chronic pain a legitimate basis for disability claims and long-term benefits? What should we do when end-of-life pain care resembles physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia? Professor Keith Wailoo explores the political and cultural history of these complex medical and social debates, examining how pain medicine emerged as a legitimate yet controversial field; how physicians, patients, politicians, and the courts have shaped ideas about pain and its relief; and how the question “who is in pain and how much relief do they deserve?” has become a microcosm of broader debates over disability, citizenship, liberalism, and conservatism in American society.
Co-presented with History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series and
the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, UVA
History of the Health Sciences Lecture
Primum non nocere--"first, do no harm"--is a fundamental principle of medical practice, expressing both the hope and humility of physicians. It cautions doctors that even with the best intentions may come unwarranted consequences. One present-day application of this principle has to do with efforts to eliminate hospital-acquired infections. When we define such infections as inevitable if regrettable collateral damage wherever complex care is provided to very sick patients, we create a rationale for paying for them and institutionalize their harm. And we may lose sight of their tragic human and economic costs, and of clinicians' own involvement. The annual Richardson memorial lecture addresses the human toll of medical error and calls for improved patient safety. In this Richardson lecture, Dr. Richard Shannon challenges the academic medical center not only to create safer systems that prevent bloodstream infections but also to invest every frontline worker with the capability and responsibility to see and solve problems before they propagate into error. Importantly, this is about more than safety. It is about culture change, creating a culture of habitual excellence in everything we do. Safety is simply the unassailable starting point. Another foundational medical principle applies: Cura te ipsum--"physician, heal thyself."
Co-presented with the Patient Safety Committee, UVA Health System
Hospitals and clinics and safety-net organizations across the U.S. are increasingly challenged to provide medically appropriate care to undocumented and uninsured immigrants. These "patients without passports" do not qualify for public benefits that finance health care for low income persons and often lack other means to secure care for themselves and their families. In this Medical Center Hour, Nancy Berlinger, co-director of The Hastings Center’s Undocumented Patients project, explores the ethical and practical dimensions of health care access for this cohort of immigrants, drawing on data from Virginia and other states and on her work with New York City policymakers to improve health care access for vulnerable populations. UVA emergency medicine physician David Burt offers a local perspective.
A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
Co-presented with Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life
The mission of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission is to guide the orderly growth and development of the City through the preparation and maintenance of a Comprehensive Plan; preparation of the City’s annual Capital Program and Budget based on this comprehensive plan; and recommending action on zoning legislation, code amendments, and regulations concerning the subdivision of land.
Beginning in 2008, the Commission began work on its “Integrated Planning and Zoning Process.” It is composed of three interrelated components: zoning code reform, the preparation of a new citywide comprehensive plan, and the creation of the Citizens Planning Institute. In April 2013, the City Planning Commission was awarded the American Planning Association’s National Planning Excellence Award for a Best Practice for this work.
This lecture will describe Philadelphia’s Integrated Planning and Zoning Process, including lessons learned.
This movie is an animated flythrough of the 3D point cloud data documentation of the Pine Grove Rosenwald School, Cumberland County, Virginia, ca. 1917. Data was collected by ARH 5600 Fall 2021 class students Zhang Jie, Natalie Chavez, Matthew Schneider, Chris MacDonnell. Equipment used included (2) X 130 and (1) S120 FARO Focus 3D laser scanners. Data was collected in support of community preservation efforts - more info at https://www.ammdpinegroveproject.com/.
Have you ever received an unsolicited email from a publisher you’ve never heard of inviting you to submit a paper to a journal with a generic-but-believable-sounding name or a conference abroad or at an airport hotel? These publishers may advertise their journals as “open access” and promise to make your work visible to well-known indices; they may claim “impact factors” and editorial board members who are leaders in their field. All that’s required of you is a modest fee—an "author’s processing charge"—and these publishers can deliver the lifeblood of any academic career: a peer-reviewed publication. There’s just one catch: the journals are fake.
These journals are labeled "predatory," and they are sometimes associated with the broader open-access movement. This Medical Center Hour tours the strange world of predatory publishing and describes some of its more outrageous excesses. But, as Brandon Butler will argue, the fake journals are just a distraction. The academy today faces more serious challenges as it wrestles with how best to share research and knowledge. How should academia confront the predatory moves of its most well-established publishing partners and take better advantage of open access?
A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
In a year that has seen gun violence in the U.S. escalate even more—consider the almost-daily gun deaths on the streets of Chicago or the recent Las Vegas massacre—this Medical Center Hour looks anew at this urgent public health problem. Distinguished bioethicist Steven Miles presents a comprehensive status report on gun deaths (homicides and suicides), including issues of gun supply, the relevance of mental illness, race, and poverty to firearm deaths, the effects of gun law reforms, and the prospects for better prevention of gun violence.
A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
Opiate abuse and addiction in the U.S. population have reached epidemic proportions, with one result being that primary care practices increasingly see patients for whom addiction is the presenting, or exacerbating, problem. But are primary care practitioners actively engaged in treating addiction? Unfortunately, no, says Dr. Hughes Melton, a primary care physician and Virginia's Chief Deputy Commissioner of Public Health and Preparedness. They lack the practical training and helpful mindset to approach addiction, but, also, addiction is more than a medical problem, with multiple stakeholders beyond patient and family, doctor, and clinic.
In this Medical Center Hour, Dr. Melton and two Generalist Scholars--students preparing for careers in primary care--consider what primary care practitioners need in order to care effectively for this urgent population health problem: practical skills and informed attitudes, to be sure, but also the will and nuanced capabilities to be robust social leaders in the community.
A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
Co-presented with the Generalist Scholars Program and the Department of Public Health Sciences in observance of Primary Care Week at UVA
John Hong, AIA LEED AP, introduces the recent work of his firm SsD through the rubric of ‘Psychedelic Architecture.’ By reflecting on the radical social shifts of the 1960's and early 1970's he draws uncanny parallels with the environmental and cultural changes taking place today. Where Metabolist and Situationist architecture of the '60's offered alternative forms of practice and discourse however, Hong calls for a current and more deeply engaged look at form and allegory (as opposed to form and function), that meets the global challenges of today.
Over the last decade, the number of reports urging American universities to expose their health professional students to interprofessional education (IPE), so that those who will practice together may learn together, has exceeded the number of actual IPE experiences in most nursing and medical students' entire curricula. In 2013, strong new calls for interprofessional education came from the Institute of Medicine and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. What does this mean for the University of Virginia's Schools of Nursing and Medicine, our students, our health systems, and the patients and families we serve? If we were to push the envelope on IPE, where might we best focus our efforts? How might we lead in preparing the next generation of nurses and physicians for better collaboration and team-based care?
The Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture, School of Nursing
Randall Griffin was born and raised in 1967 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and spent time as a young child in Lanett, Alabama, where his mother’s family worked as sharecroppers. Griffin discusses his Cherokee roots in Standing Rock, Alabama, and his early memories of growing up in public housing in Tennessee. His father was a musician in Tennessee with a band called the Fabulous Battalions. Griffin joined the Navy and was stationed in Norfolk in 1986. Following his time in service, Griffin worked as a manager at a Fertilizer plant in Chesapeake when he lost his left hand in a workplace accident, which disabled him permanently. He later went on to work for the Parks and Recreation Departments in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth. In this oral history interview, Griffin discusses his experience often being the first Black person in these departments and his experience with workplace discrimination. He discusses the importance of rec centers in young people’s lives. This interview was conducted in the Cavalier Manor Recreation Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, where Griffin serves as the Recreation Program Specialist.
Ray Smith was born in Douglas Park, Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1954. His father worked in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and when the city of Portsmouth built the interstate in Douglas Park, his family and other residents were forced to relocate to the Mount Hermon neighborhood. When the city of Portsmouth announced the closure of I.C. Norcom, a historically Black high school in 1972, Smith and others organized a walkout in protest. I.C. Norcom was saved and eventually rebuilt in 1999, when Smith served on the school board. Smith became involved in city politics working for governor and presidential campaigns and served as the President of the Civic League, a community organization dedicated to improving conditions for the Portsmouth community of Cavalier Manor, of which he was a resident for 45 years. In this interview, Smith discusses the ways that recent tolls in Portsmouth have impacted Portsmouth residents and how the city dealt with Hurricane Isabel.
Sarnitz, August, Last, Nana, Diamond, Cora, Crane, Sheila
Summary:
Event held in conjunction with the exhibition Reconstructing Wittgenstein. The Architecture of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
In direct comparison to contemporary Viennese works by Behrens, Hoffmann, Frank, Loos or Prutscher, the intriguing qualities of the Stonborough-Wittgenstein House (1926-1928) are highlighted by the radical nature and modernity of its architecture. Today, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is credited with being the architect of the Stonborough-Wittgenstein House in Vienna, in collaboration with Paul Engelmann. The exhibition extends beyond the Viennese context and emphasizes a broader cultural environment, considering the positions of Emerson, Alois Riegl, Schmarsow, Schinkel, Bötticher, Wagner, Behrens, Mies van der Rohe and Perret. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s fundamental structuralism in creating architecture transcends cultural conventions of his age and demonstrates liberation of contemporary modern architecture with the aid of the collage. The exhibition was curated by August Sarnitz, Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and organized as a travelling exhibition with support from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It includes material provided by the Stonborough Family and the Archives of the City of Vienna, as well as new photographs by Thomas Freiler.
Reconstructing Wittgenstein as an Architect - Ludwig Wittgenstein and Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein
August Sarnitz, Professor, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Wittgenstein: Language, Space and Architecture
Nana Last, Associate Professor in Architecture, UVa School of Architecture
Wittgenstein: Some Continuities and Discontinuities
Cora Diamond, philosopher and Professor Emerita, UVa Department of Philosophy
Scenes of Inhabitation: Freud/Wittgenstein
Sheila Crane, Associate Professor in Architectural History, UVa School of Architecture
Presented by Esther Lorenz, Lecturer, UVa School of Architecture
Supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum, Washington
Health care information can confuse doctors and patients alike. What are the risks and benefits of mammograms, of aggressive blood pressure control, of EKGs, of lung cancer screening, of heart stents? When patients can’t accurately answer these questions, they find it difficult to have sensible conversations about their health care with their doctors. And lack of comprehensible medical information not only interferes with shared decision-making between physician and patient but can also lead to over-screening and over-treatment, with deleterious consequences for patients as well as for the health care delivery system and medical reform.
In this Medical Center Hour, internist Andy Lazris and scientist Erik Rifkin assess this challenging situation and then present, as one solution, a novel decision aid called a Benefit Risk Characterization Theater (BRCT). When health care information is conveyed simply, factually, and in a non-numerical format, true shared decisions become possible. They offer BRCTs to explain the risks/benefits of some common medical interventions and demonstrate how this approach can improve health care delivery, lead to greater patient satisfaction, and result in less over-treatment, one of the main drivers of low-value health care cost.
Co-presented with the Department of Medicine
In September 1925, while the family of English composer, Herbert Howells, was on vacation in the English countryside, their son, nine-yer-old Michael Howells fell ill with polio and died in London three days later. Howells channeled his grief into the composition of the "Requiem," which drew heavily on an earlier, unpublished work. In this Medical Center Hour, fourth-year medical student and musician Rondy Michael Lazaro explores the historical context of polio in the 1930s and how the loss of Howells's young son played out in the composer's music. Mr. Lazaro conducts a chamber chorus in the performance of two movements from Howell's "Requiem."
Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
Animation of the barn at River View Farm, Ivy Creek Natural Area, Charlottesville, VA; data collected with FARO Focus 3D laser scanners by students of ARH5600:3D Cultural Heritage Informatics during the Fall semester of 2022; Data was processed with FARO Scene v.2022; Animation was rendered with Autodesk ReCap v.2023;
This is an animation from the 3D data collected by University of Virginia ARH5600 during Fall semester 2023; data was collected using FARO Focus 3D laser scanners, processed with FARO Scene v. 2022 and edited and optimized with Autodesk ReCap v. 2023; the animation shows sections through the barn at River View Farm, Ivy Creek Natural Area, Charlottesville, Va;
This is an animation from the 3D data collected by University of Virginia ARH5600 during Fall semester 2023; data was collected using FARO Focus 3D laser scanners, processed with FARO Scene v. 2022 and edited and optimized with Autodesk ReCap v. 2023; the animation is a flythrough of the Carr-Greer farmhouse at River View Farm, Ivy Creek Natural Area, Charlottesville, Va;
RN-MD collaboration in health care (or the lack thereof) is one of the more vexed issues facing our struggling health care system. Yet it rarely gets addressed in a substantive and purposeful way. The problem begins with the training of nurses and doctors. Nursing schools have seldom taught the nuts and bolts of working with physicians. Medical schools have taught future doctors almost nothing about working with nurses. Often the result in clinical practice is that each group finds the other difficult. Even so, nurse-physician collaboration is what makes health care possible, and good collaboration makes high quality care much more likely. In this Medical center hour, nurse and author Theresa Brown considers new, potentially revolutionary initiatives in health professional education, including at UVA, that bring nursing and medical students together as learners. Will interprofessional education lead to better RN-MD collaboration in practice and, as a result, to better patient care?
The Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture
Co-presented with the School of Nursing
The Ten of Swords Becky Brown
the house of the mother of the Heather Mease
Artemisia Ben Luca Robertson
The Mirrors of Uqbar Juan Carlos Vasquez
~ Intermission ~
nothing but nothing Alex Christie
A mexican intervention Ernesto Guzmán
to be performed once and never more,
on very traditional old european devices,
at any usonian educational entity.
I. La escritura|bordes|huellas de un cuerpo.
II. Anthem/end of the line.
III. (Go to I)
Masking Songs Daniel Fishkin
Science Ficta
An ensemble of viola da gamba virtuosi (Doug Balliett, Kivie Cahn- Lipman, Loren Ludwig, and Zoe Weiss), Science Ficta tackles the thorniest polyphonic challenges, old and new. Longtime collaborators and friends, in 2016 the four were inspired to form an ensemble dedicated to music at least as difficult to play as it is to listen to (and hopefully more so!). Science Ficta's arcane but rewarding repertory is comprised both of new commissions and a wealth of little-known sixteenth century works that have been unjustly neglected by modern performers and listeners.
Science Ficta's performances seek points of contact between contemporary music and the diverse experimental musical traditions of the late Renaissance pioneered by composers including Christopher Tye, Ferdinando de las Infantas, John Baldwin, and Johann Walter. Science Ficta has premiered new works by Molly Herron, Doug Balliett, and Cleek Schrey and members of the ensemble have performed and collaborated with composers including Donnacha Dennehy, Nico Mulhy, George Benjamin, Ted Coffey, and numerous others. Recent residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Cornell and Princeton Universities have allowed Science Ficta to work closely with student performers and composers.
Program Notes & Biographies
The Ten of Swords
The Ten of Swords is a card in the Minor Tarot. It depicts a prone man, ten swords buried in his back, a swath of red draped over his lower body (which could be interpreted as a robe, or his blood, or both). He faces away from the viewer, looking out over a dark lake, towards a distant sunrise.
Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works across the multimedia spectrum. She focuses on narrative, emotional exposure, and catharsis, with a vested interest in using technology and the voice to deeply connect with an audience, wherever they are.
the house of the mother of the
The House of the Suicide and The House of the Mother of the Suicide are a pair of architectural structures by John Hejduk erected in tribute to the 1969 self-immolation of the Czech dissident Jan Palach whose death was in protest of the 1968 Soviet invasion.
Heather Mease makes sound and video! Heather Mease is often both dry and greasy at the same time! What a nightmare!!
Artemisia
In Artemisia, the composer employs an extended system of 11-Limit just intonation to model the phenomenon of “stretched” octaves and other spectral non-linearities. Contrasting with the simple, harmonic proportions exhibited by most stringed instruments (including the Viol da Gamba), we generally associate such inharmonicity with bells, gongs, and various metallic percussion. However, through the inclusion of high-order just intervals, one may construct ‘hybrid’ sonorities which embody traits of both harmonic and inharmonic timbres. Here, stretched octaves exhibit intervallic displacement equivalent to at least three forms of just commas (81/80, 45/44, 33/32). The cumulative effect for this mode of inharmonic distortion suggests the perception of an altered or otherwise ambiguous fundamental frequency—thus eliciting a sense of movement analogous to ‘Tonal Flux.’ So as to afford the precise transformations in pitch and spectra necessary in generating these phenomena, performers use custom software to process the signals from two electric instruments within the consort. Commensurate to electronic processing, the ensemble also alters the positions of frets on their instruments to accommodate new tuning schemes. From these procedures emerge a continually evolving set of 28 distinct sonorities, which constitute the structure of the piece.
Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co- founder of the independent record label, Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes, landscape, and biological systems—often supplanting narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning structures, and microtonality. Ben’s current research focuses upon the intersection between actuated string instrument design and just tuning practices. Growing up in the inland Pacific Northwest, impressions of Ponderosa pine trees, channel scablands, basalt outcroppings, and relics of boomtown decay continually haunt his work. Ben holds an M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University, a B.A. from the Evergreen State College, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. In the Summer of 2015, he was appointed to a guest research position at the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interactions (TAUCHI) in Finland and recently collaborated with biologists from the University of Idaho to sonify migratory patterns of Chinook Salmon in the Snake River watershed. Ben’s work has been featured at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Sound-Music Computing Conference (SMC), Northwest Public Broadcasting, MOXsonic, New York Re- embodied Sound Symposium, Third Practice, Magma-fest, and Olympia Experimental Music Festivals.
The Mirrors of Uqbar
The Mirrors of Uqbar is a piece based on the metaphor of mirrors found in the short story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Jorge Luis Borges. In this story, Uqbar was a fictional society where mirrors were feared in an allegory to hyperrealism, aka a simulation that takes over reality. In the piece “The Mirrors of Uqbar”, the electronics reflect and modify the melodic acoustic materials, creating a progressively independent world.
Juan Carlos Vasquez is an award-winning composer, sound artist, and researcher. His electroacoustic music works are performed constantly around the world and to date have premiered in 28 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Vasquez has received grants and commissions by numerous institutions, including the ZKM, the International Computer Music Association, the Nokia Research Center, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, the Arts Promotion Centre in Finland, the Finnish National Gallery, and CW+ in partnership with the Royal College of Music in London, UK. As a researcher, Vasquez’s writings can be found in the Computer Music Journal (MIT Press), Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press), and the proceedings of all the standard conferences of the field (ICMC, CHI, SMC, and NIME). Vasquez received his education at the Sibelius Academy (FI), Aalto University (FI), and the University of Virginia (US). He has taken workshops with Robert Normandeau, Miller Puckette, Marco Stroppa, Steven Stucky, William Mival, Jonty Harrison and the Eighth Blackbird Ensemble, among others. Vasquez’s music is available in the catalog of Naxos, MIT Press (US), Important Records (US) and Phasma Music (Poland).
nothing but nothing
I prefer the space of uncommonly occupied hours.
Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess”, and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day”. He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the design of power structures, systems of interference, absurdist bureaucracy, and indeterminacy in composition.
Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, light, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. Alex has performed and presented at a variety of conferences and festivals whose acronyms combine to spell nicedinsaucesfeeeemmmmmmnortfogascabsplot.
Alex serves as faculty, Director of Electronic Music, Director of Composers Forums, and Academic Dean at the Walden School of Music Young Musicians Program. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia.
A mexican intervention
In the second Trattado de Glosas by the composer and music theorist Diego Ortiz (Rome 1553 ca.) probably discovered later by the African- American songwriter J. Alan Bland, an ancient practice of appropriation is depicted as being common for the Viol Consort repertoire. It is a compositional strategy consisting of taking the melody of an anthem and imposing different lyrics. Such technique has been practiced in many of the regional anthems and state songs throughout The Country. A former president of Avon Products removed the lyrics from a traditional song — where a Canadian declares his love to the daughter of the Oneida Chief Shenandoah — replacing them to make the Virginia Regional Anthem. In later apocryphal studies, it is known that in this anthem–as in the one using the phrase Sic Semper Tyrannis–some verses have been lost or omitted. Following this implanting tradition, these forgotten or forbidden verses are used here to create and add a piece to the body of composed anthems for Viola Da Gamba.
Ernesto Guzmán is an award loser composer. Strangely and recently intrigued about borders. As if they sculpted the political topographies of objects. Like a form resulting from many exclusions whose objectives do not correspond with the function of the object in question.
Masking Songs
Contrary to the masking of external sounds, it is possible to abolish the perception of tinnitus sounds by pure tones of a similar intensity regardless of their frequency (Feldmann, 1971). This proves that “masking” of tinnitus does not involve a mechanical interaction of basilar membrane movements, does not depend on the critical band principle and, therefore, has to occur at a higher level within the auditory pathways. Consequently, the elimination of the perception of tinnitus by another sound should be labeled suppression rather than “masking,” as is commonly used. Unfortunately, Feldmann’s fundamental discovery has been widely disregarded, resulting in focusing attention on masking rather than suppression and in producing tinnitus instruments tuned to the dominant perceived pitch of tinnitus.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, Pawel Jastreboff, 2004
Daniel Fishkin: I build instruments because I want to live in sounds, with music—I don’t want the music to stop at the end of the concert. I daydream of new machines as if they were melodies crossing my mind's ear. I don’t often sell my instruments, though I do share them with my trusted collaborators. I live with my instruments; I am responsible for my creations, and I am always thinking about how much space they take up in my life, as I carry them with me to and fro. I hear their songs ringing in my ears, even as they rest silently across the room.
Since its creation in 1999, the same year the Institute of Medicine issued its landmark report, To err is human, the Richardson Memorial Lecture has sparked and sustained conversation at the University of Virginia on the sensitive subject of medical error. The annual lectures ever since have brought to UVA noted experts on medical mistakes, communication about error, and the importance of clinicians' attending carefully to patients as persons. Collectively, the Richardson Lectures have provided opportunities for students, clinicians, educators, and administrators to learn better how to prevent medical errors, communicate about them when they do happen, improve quality of care in complex clinical systems, and assure patients and families of the best possible care and outcomes. The 2013 Richardson Lecturer is internationally known patient-safety expert Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, whose scientifically validated checklist protocol, developed at the Johns Hopkins University, is improving patient safety in health care institutions across the US and the world.
Co-presented with the Patient Safety Committee, UVA Health System
Part one. Law professor Jack Greenberg's class discusses executive governmental determination of states of emergencies, such as in South Africa during Apartheid and in the United States during Japanese-American internment in World War II. In 1987 states of emergency are called regularly in South Africa to detain people without reason in the name of public safety, to maintain the status quo, and to suppress the majority. Part two. What happens to democracy when the government alone has the power to declare a state of emergency? The class discusses the use of states of emergency as a way to suppress people and deny rights, preventative detention as an abuse of human rights, and using the courts in South Africa to fight the injustices of the states of emergency. Part three. How much does a democratically elected government insure adherence to human rights? The class also talks about the rights of the white minority in a future democratic South Africa. Part four. Examples of transitions to democracy.
Social and cultural factors, as well as biomedical ones, shape the way we understand and react to diseases. In the case of a disease associated with sex, social and cultural factors figure especially prominently in its history. Since moral and religious views influence almost everything connected with sex, including sexually transmitted infections (STI), syphilis can be an excellent case study to help us appreciate disease in a broader human context. This Medical Center Hour delves into the story of syphilis in America, from colonial times to the present; it looks back too at the origins and spread of the disease in Europe. How did medical science come to understand syphilis and develop treatments for it? What about public health protections against this socially stigmatized STI from prevention campaigns and quarantine of infected persons (usually, women only) to mandated reporting of infections? To what extent does syphilis's identity as an infection popularly associated with sex and sin complicate our response to it and to persons who contract and suffer with it? Finally, how might American social and cultural stigmas around syphilis have contributed to the intentions behind and conduct of the U.S. Public Health Service's unethical research studies at Tuskegee (1932-1972) and in Guatemala (1946-1948)?
Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
Sharon Johnson is a lifelong resident of Norfolk, Virginia. She has lived in the Bruces’ Park neighborhood in midtown since 1954.
Track 1: This interview discusses Johnson’s life and family, including her grandfather who was a Black contractor in Norfolk in the early part of the 20th century. It takes place in Johnson’s historic home, built by her grandfather.
Track 2: In this oral history, Johnson describes her memories of downtown Norfolk in the 1950s, and key moments including President Kennedy’s assassination and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Johnson graduated from Maury High in Norfolk in 1970, and reflects on the changes precipitated by integration, and her observations on race and discrimination while she lived in Boston. She discusses her participation in marches in Washington with the Service Employees International Union. The interview also includes a walking tour with Johnson as she describes the changes that have occurred in the neighborhood since the 1980s.
Central Spokesperson for Palestinian people and author of This Side of Peace discusses the moral imperative for obtaining a central and recognized place for Palestinians. She focuses on her commitment to social justice and diplomacy in her home country.
Professor of criminal Law at Vanderbilt University discusses the significance of the verdict of OJ Simpson Trial; the larger cultural context of racial politics in the L.A. police department; and the lack of focus on domestic violence.
Anne Firor Scott, Professor at Duke University, writer, activist and pioneer in the history of women, discusses her work and the importance of the African-American women activists and their part in the expansion of the "Black Middle Class."
Student leaders discuss the history of Take Back the Night beginning in the 1970s, and the importance of protesting against general violence and reclaiming safe spaces.
Bella DePaulo, professor of social psychology, has focused on the field of study of day to day lies. In this episode she discusses Bill Clinton scandal and lying.
Doctor Bernice Sandler, whose focus has been on the "chilly climate" of women in society discusses the gendered interactions in every day lives that lead to domestic violence.
Doctor Bernice Sandler discusses her the issues underscored in her literature: The Chilly Classroom Climate: A Guide to Improve the Education of Women, with others and Sexual Harassment on Campus: A Guide for Administrators, Faculty, and Students. She focuses on the improvements made on overt practices of sex discrimination on campuses, and the subtle behaviors of the treatment of students.
Special Agent Candice DeLong, profiling coordinator at the San Francisco division of the FBI, discusses criminal profiling for investigations of violent and sex crimes.
Chinta Gaston, graduate of Virginia Law is discusses her role in the United States Attorney's Office, and her role in Kroll Law Firm with bringing justice in the lawsuits dealing with sex discrimination.
Derek Nystrom discusses his dissertation for the English department at the University of Virginia on men's involvement in feminism and class identity in American film in the 1970s.
Elisabeth Ladenson, professor of French and comparative literature at Columbia University, discusses her book Proust's Lesbianism that focuses on the metaphors and symbols in Marcel Proust's novels.
Ellen Contina Morava, program chair of Linguistics at the University of Virginia, discusses the origin, stigmas, and the importance of considering Ebonics as a valid form of communication.
Ellen Contini Morava, program chair of linguistics and professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia, discusses the different feminist moral stands on the Clinton White House's controversy.
Ellen Fuller discusses her doctoral research focusing on women working in an American corporation in Japan and how they are adapting to cultural changes as well as the different choices that are a result of this new hybrid of American and Japanese culture in the workplace.
Ellen Phipps is a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist and the Director of the Adult Day Care at Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) in Charlottesville discusses how caring for an elderly adult is a women's issue in regards to assistance as well as care giving.
Erin Davis discusses her dissertation focusing on the lives of people living in a different a gender from the one assigned to them at birth, and further explains the newer term of transsexuality.
Doctor Eugene A. Foster discusses his role as the organizer of the chromosomal research on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings to determine the paternity of her children.
Farzaneh Milani, professor of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Virginia, discusses her latest op-ed piece for The New York Times and the experience of women in a Islamic conservative Iran.
Franny Nudelman, professor at the department of English at the University of Virginia, discusses her book John Brown's Body focusing on masculinity and the representation of martyrdom during the Civil War.
Gene Brosok, music critic and program host of Listening of Women and Men for WOMR, discusses the exclusionary practices in the hiring of women and racial minorities in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
