Westmont's Formal Garden after the Tea Fire

The Westmont College Student Association hosts a free community reception, “One Year Later: A Tea Fire Commemoration,” Friday, Nov. 13, from 3:30-5 p.m. at the Voskuyl Prayer Chapel. Danny Clapp, Emerson Hall residence director, says there will be light refreshments, prayer and worship along with a video and photo display.

The wildfire started Nov. 13, 2008, destroying 210 homes in the Montecito and Santa Barbara communities. The blaze demolished eight Westmont buildings and 15 faculty homes, displacing 62 students, 18 faculty and nine staff members.

Family, friends and neighbors held a rededication ceremony Nov. 1 at Las Barrancas, where 14 faculty homes that were destroyed in the Tea Fire have been rebuilt.

Paul Willis

Paul Willis, Westmont professor of English, will read from his new book of poems, “Rosing from the Dead,” at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The reading will take place in Hieronymus Lounge in Kerrwood Hall on the upper campus.

Westmont senior Shannon Hickey of Moorpark, Calif., will also share some of her work. The event is free, and Willis’ book will be available for sale and signing.

“Rosing from the Dead is about resurrection—the times it seems possible, and the times it does not,” Willis says. “Each poem investigates the emergence or denial of hope that we may feel in each small turn of our lives. Along the way, the poems visit forgotten corners of family history, college classrooms, and mountain meadows. Once in a while, a dog or two come sniffing along.”

“Visiting Home,” Willis’ first full collection of poetry, was published in 2008. Poems from this volume were featured on Verse Daily and read by Garrison Keillor on “The Writer’s Almanac.”

Beauty Bomb

“Beauty Bomb,” a creative combination of dance and theater, explores the ancient Greek mythology about Pandora, the first woman, Nov. 19-21 at 8 p.m. in Westmont’s Porter Theatre. General admission is $10, $5 for students and seniors. For tickets or more information, please call (805) 565-7040.

Lila Rose Kaplan, Westmont theater arts instructor, directs the play that was written by Westmont alumna Diana Small ‘09. “The play examines issues of curiosity, fashion and what it means to be a woman today,” Kaplan says.

Jenny April Kaplan is guest choreographer for “Beauty Bomb,” which features first-year students Felisha Vasquez and Kelsey Knox; sophomores Kelsey Kasten, Misha Matsumoto and Emily Auman; juniors Hannah Rae Moore, Rachel Nesseth, Megan Juliot and Jasmine Guerrero; and seniors Marie Ponce and Laurie Niesen.

Lila Rose Kaplan, who teaches playwriting and mentors undergraduate playwrights at Westmont, earned a master of fine arts degree at the University of California, San Diego, where she studied with Naomi Iizuka.

Reinhard's book, "The Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology"

Ken Reinhard, associate professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, discusses the ethics and theology of the neighbor in a world fraught with religious divisions in a lecture “The Infinite Neighbor: Philosophy, Religion and Mathematics” on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 3:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Hieronymus Lounge. The Erasmus Society lecture is free and open to the public.

Reinhard received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the history of critical and aesthetic theory, contemporary critical theory, and Jewish studies. He has co-authored several books, including “The Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology,” “After Oedipus: Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis” and is writing a book about the ethics of the neighbor in religion, philosophy and psychoanalysis.

He directed the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies from 2000-2004 and received a $2.5 million National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant for the development of a new program at the center in Jewish civilization. He received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to run an interdisciplinary Sawyer Seminar about “The Ethics of the Neighbor” in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and secular modernity. In 2004, he founded the University of California Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory and coordinated the seminar “Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Event” last summer. He received a grant from the NEH in 2006 to complete his book, “The Political Theology of the Neighbor.”

Susan Penksa

Susan Penksa, Westmont professor of political science, was an invited speaker for the workshop “Building a Strategic U.S.-EU Partnership on Defense and Security Aspects,” hosted by the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., Oct. 21. Penksa, a Fulbright Scholar to Bosnia Herzegovina in 2007, spoke to about 60 U.S. and European policy makers and experts about improving U.S.-EU cooperation in global conflict resolution and crisis stabilization.

The workshop, organized by the Atlantic Council, was part of the Project on Forging a Strategic U.S.-EU Partnership.

“The aim of this project is to develop policy recommendations to create a more strategic U.S.-EU relationship in the face of 21st century challenges,” Penksa says. “We also discussed non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, arms control, defense markets, security challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa, and the future of U.S. and EU relations with NATO and the United Nations.”

She says a project report by the workshop organizers will be released in Washington, D.C., in advance of the 2010 U.S.-EU Summit and will include recommendations on security and defense, energy, the environment and economics.

Penksa has spoken at two previous conferences hosted by the Presidency of the EU and at the European Parliament in 2008. She has provided policy advice for the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels and done consulting work for USAID in Pakistan.

Penksa, who received her doctorate in political science from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, has more than 15 years of applied research and consulting experience in global security. She is an expert on transatlantic security and defense, EU external policy, civil-military relations, conflict prevention, post-conflict stabilization, organized crime and terrorism, and security system reform.

"Passing By" by Mary Lee Bendolph, 2006

An exhibition of “Gee’s Bend Quilters: Selections from Paulson Press,” on display in Westmont’s Reynolds Gallery Nov. 12 through Dec. 18, celebrates the work of four African American women from rural Gee’s Bend, Alabama. An opening reception Thursday, Nov. 12, 4-6 p.m. in the gallery is free and open to the public.

The quilters, Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana Bendolph, Loretta Pettway and Lorretta Bennett, worked side by side with printmakers at Paulson Press in Berkeley to create softground etchings from their original quilt designs. Descended from slaves on the Pettway plantation, residents of Gee’s Bend developed a tradition of colorful handmade quilts that have been exhibited to critical acclaim in museums across the nation, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Corcoran in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Whitney in New York and the High Museum in Atlanta. The 17 prints on display show the rich colors, textures and graphic abstract designs that are the hallmark of Gee’s Bend quilts’ uniquely American aesthetic.

This exhibition opens concurrently with the Dan Patterson Sculpture Garden, the latest in Reynolds’ annual series highlighting local sculptors, which will be on display through May 8, 2010. Patterson’s large abstract creations explore the twists and turns of Tourette’s syndrome, an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder. Eight sculptures will be placed throughout Westmont’s campus, including an interactive light installation. The artist will be present at the Nov. 12 reception.

Reynolds Gallery is located just inside the lower entrance to Westmont’s campus, 955 La Paz Road in Montecito. The gallery is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sundays and college holidays. For directions or information, contact (805) 565-6162 or visit www.reynoldsgallery.org.

Rick Pointer

Richard Pointer, Westmont acting provost and Fletcher Jones Foundation professor in the social sciences, discusses how Native American life affected settlers in early America at a free, public talk, “Going Native: How Indians Changed Europeans in Early America,” Thursday, Nov. 12, at 5:30 p.m. at University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street.

Pointer says historians have long been aware that the encounter with Europeans affected all aspects of Native American life, but few have focused on the impact Indians made on the newcomers’ ways in these cross-cultural meetings. “My studies have shown that the religious encounter and flow of cultural influence between Indians and Euro-Americans was more often reciprocal than unidirectional,” Pointer says.

An American historian, Pointer has written two books, “Encounters of the Spirit: Native Americans and European Colonial Religion” and “Protestant Pluralism and the New York Experience,” as well as many articles. He joined Westmont’s history department in 1994 and was chosen social science division Teacher of the Year in 1997 and 2003. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, he has served as president and vice president of the Conference on Faith and History, an organization of Christian historians, and as associate editor for the Christian Scholar’s Review.

He graduated from Houghton College and earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

The lecture is part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations About Things that Matter, a lecture series sponsored by the Westmont Foundation, reaching out and engaging the larger Santa Barbara and Montecito communities.

Westmont Orchestra

The Westmont Orchestra’s 60 student musicians celebrate their season premiere with music spanning more than two centuries at the Fall Orchestra Concert Friday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. Both performances take place at First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave., and tickets are $10 general admission; students are free.

The concert marks an historic moment for Westmont as Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship, conducts the college’s first complete student orchestra. “After a four-year cycle of intentional program development, the Westmont Orchestra arrives this year at its full and intended strength of 60 student musicians,” Shasberger says.”

Shasberger says he intentionally selected colorful music that allows the ensemble and soloists to shine. Highlights include Haydn’s “Violin Concerto in C” with featured student soloist Daniel Sheasby and Manual DeFalla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” with student pianist Rachel Teranishi. Popular orchestral favorites on the program include the overture to Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “Planets” and Bedrich Smetana’s powerful “Moldau.”

Northern Trust Bank is generously sponsoring the Westmont Orchestra season, as do the gifts of Westmont’s supportive music patrons.

Scott Anderson

Scott Anderson, assistant professor of art, displays a collection of original illustration paintings, posters and other design work in a solo exhibition, “Illustrative: Graphic Arts by Scott Anderson,” at The Arts Fund Gallery, 205C Santa Barbara St., Oct. 30-Dec. 4. The gallery holds an opening reception Friday, Oct. 30, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Anderson, recipient of The Arts Fund’s 2008 Individual Artist Award in Print Design, says the goal of the exhibition is to illuminate one approach to the challenges of commercial work. Graphic works included in the show will be accompanied by a series of didactic panels, covering topics such as poster, invitation, brochure and event design. The exhibition also features an instructional video demonstrating how to design a CD cover.

Mai Pham

Mai Pham, world-renown Thai and Vietnamese chef and restaurateur, will sign cookbooks, offer special tastings and hold cooking demonstrations Thursday, Oct. 29, from 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. in Westmont’s Dining Commons. The guest appearance is courtesy of Sodexo, which is contracted by Westmont’s dining services.

Pham, owner and chef of nationally acclaimed Lemon Grass Restaurant and Lemon Grass Asian Grill and Noodle Bar in Sacramento, writes for national publications, conducts cooking classes and seminars, and serves as a consultant to various food organizations throughout the U.S. She recently launched Star Ginger, a fast casual concept that features southeast Asian street and comfort foods, to UC Berkeley.

Pham is the author of “The Vietnamese Table,” which received a prestigious James Beard Award nomination, and “The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking,” which was featured on Martha Stewart Living and NPR’s Fresh Air. She is currently writing and editing the forthcoming “Flavors of Asia,” a collaborative book with the Culinary Institute of America that showcases seven Asian cuisines.

In 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, she came to the United States with her family and completed a degree in journalism at the University of Maryland. Following a seven-year career as an on-air correspondent for a number of ABC news affiliates and later as a speechwriter for the then governor of California, she returned to her love of food and launched Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento.