{"id":4868,"date":"2019-05-08T09:44:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ramapo.edu\/sshgs\/?page_id=4868"},"modified":"2019-05-10T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T13:12:36","slug":"salameno-center-for-british-studies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ramapo.edu\/hgs\/salameno-center-for-british-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Salameno Center for British Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Center for British Studies was created in January, 2012 by faculty from various disciplines to further the study of all aspects of British culture, support student and faculty engagement in this study, and enrich the intellectual life of Ramapo College students.<\/span><\/p>\n The Center ended its activities in May of 2019. This site is an archive of its activities during that period.<\/strong><\/p>\n Board Members: Patricia Ard, Roark Atkinson, Todd Barnes, Yvette Kisor, Ellen Ross, and Terra Vandergaw.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n On October 31, 2018, students, faculty and administration of the College joined together for an all-day reading of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein.\u00a0The Halloween event took place in the wood paneled York room of the Birch Mansion. Student Hannah Frascella observed that “the reading of a classic horror novel on Halloween, in the supposedly haunted Birch mansion, was truly a one of a kind experience.”<\/p>\n Visual and performing artist Melissa Bartley Chernowetz, Ramapo Alumna ’02, gave an artist’s talk on Friday, April 21st. This talk was followed by three, free puppetry workshops, which were offered twice per day on the 22nd and 23rd. Then, on Tuesday, April 25th, from 7-7:30pm in the Grove, students presented their puppets in a pageant. The pageant was followed by “Shakespeare Live,” from 7:30-10:30, an open mic\/performance party in BC 216. Students presented scenes, sonnets, soliloquies, music, and dancing. On Thursday, April 27th, Professor Todd Barnes opened up his “Shakespeare’s Plays” course to the public. Held in the Laurel Hall Screening Room, his lecture, “Richard II: Staging History, Staging Power,” focused on the controversial turning point in that play, Act 4, Scene 1, wherein Richard abdicates his throne to Henry Bolingbroke, who then becomes Henry IV. Throughout the lecture, Prof. Barnes also shared clips from the BBC’s recent series, The Hollow Crown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2017 marked the 200th<\/sup> anniversary of the death of British novelist Jane Austen. Literature Professor Patricia Ard, who teaches and publishes on Austen, spoke about the novelist\u2019s enduring appeal and status as a literary celebrity 200 years after her death.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n Melissa Anelli has been reporting on the Harry Potter phenomenon since 2001. As the webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron she has written and spoken for Harry Potter fans in media outlets worldwide. She graduated Georgetown University in 2001 and spent several years as a daily news reporter and features writer in New York City. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her ferocious cat, Moochka.<\/p>\n Her book, Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon tells the story of the Harry Potter phenomenon through a superfan’s eyes.<\/p>\n 2016 was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Thus, the British Studies Center sponsored numerous events relating to this important anniversary.<\/p>\n After six years in the Army and battling PTSD, Stephen Wolfert hoped off an Amtrak train deep in the mountains of Montana, wandered into a theatre and saw Shakespeare’s Richard III. <\/em>He was so moved by this experience that he left the Army and went to graduate school to become a classical actor. \u00a0Twenty years later, Wolfert relives his odyssey by seamlessly interweaving his story with the voices of William Shakespeare’s veterans in his tour de force solo show, Cry Havoc.<\/p>\n Cry Havoc dramatizes the way young, psychologically malleable men and women are recruited and “wired for war” but then, at the end of their military service, are not ” un-wired from war” or “re-wired” for society.<\/p>\n Cry Havoc is a thought-provoking, gut-wrenching, and yet shockingly funny evening of finely crafted theater.<\/p>\n Proceeds from Cry Havoc went to the Heroes for Heroes nonprofit and Ramapo Veterans Lounge.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n This event, sponsored by the Salameno Center for British Studies featured performances of various scenes, sonnets, and soliloquies by students. \u00a0Additionally Montclair University Shakespeare scholar Adam Rzepka joined professors Todd Barnes, Terra Vandergaw, Yvette Kisor, and Fulbright scholar-in-residence and director, Rafael Bianciotto, for a freewheeling discussion of how Shakespeare’s plays are performed today, taught, and incorporated into everyday life.<\/p>\n The Salameno Center for British Studies sponsored a talk from Professor Dean Chen on \u201cThe Ghost of 1842: China\u2019s\u00a0Insecurity and Occupy Central in Hong Kong\u201d on Wednesday 19 November.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n On April 16, the Center hosted Professor Ed Shannon\u2019s presentation on \u201cJoe Strummer\u2019s Transatlantic Rockabilly War: The Punk Politics and Folk Roots of The Clash.\u201d This well attended lecture, based on one of Professor Shannon\u2019s recent publications, drew fascinating connections between the life and work of Joe Strummer and folk traditions embodied by Woody Guthrie.<\/p>\nArchived Events<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Shakespeare At Ramapo 2019<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ramapo Reads: Frankenstein<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Shakespeare At Ramapo 2018<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
<\/a>The British History behind Game Of Thrones<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Shakespeare\u00a0At Ramapo 2017<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>The Joy Of Jane: Austen’s 200 Year Afterlife<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Talk by Web Mistress Melissa Anelli on Harry Potter<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/h3>\nShakespeare At Ramapo 2016 –\u00a0400th Anniversary<\/h3>\n
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<\/div>\n
<\/a>Cry Havoc!<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Shakespeare Day 2015<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Ghost of 1842<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Joe Strummer\u2019s Transatlantic Rockabilly War<\/h3>\n