2003 WCTCHA Conference

Washington Community and Technical College Humanities Association
23rd Annual Conference

Burning The Word by Barbara Earl Thomas

Idols and Icons

The 2003 WCTCHA conference was held on October 24-25, 2003
at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay, Vancouver, Washington.

Pictures from the conference are featured throughout this page. Please note that if you are on a dial-up internet connection, the pictures may take a couple minutes to all download.

Founded in 1981, the Washington Community and Technical College Humanities Association is a network of humanities teachers whose goal is to foster humanities instruction at the community college level and in the community outreach programs provided by most districts. Click here for links to our 2000, 2001, and 2002 conferences.

CONFERENCE THEME:
When Howard Nemerov was Poet Laureate of America, he noted that the world is now made up of pictures of the world. Today, as the page hastens toward the screen, as the artist increasingly supersedes her art, the Idols and Icons to whom we bow down will impact our culture in novel and wondrous ways—as will the iconoclasts and the idol-smashers. What then are the traditions that will or must prevail? What new faces and roles will the arts and the humanities assume in the 21st Century?

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Our keynote speakers this year are Barbara Earl Thomas and Sam Hamill.

photo courtesy of Mary Ingraham

Barbara Earl Thomas is a noted painter and writer. She grew up in Seattle and attended the University of Washington where she studied with Jacob Lawrence. Her work is included in a number of prestigious private and public collections such as the Safeco Corporate Collection, the Microsoft Corporate Collection, and the Seattle Art Museum’s permanent collection. Thomas is a two-time recipient of The Seattle Arts Commission Award for new non-fiction. Storm Watch, a book of her painting and writing, was published in 1998 by the University of Washington Press. She has been represented by the Francine Seders Gallery since 1984. Her painting, Burning the Word, 2003, graces the top of this web page.

Photo courtesy of Mary Randlett

Sam Hamill is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry including Poets Against the War (Nations Press, 2003), Dumb Luck (BOA Editions, 2002), Gratitude (1998), and Destination Zero: Poems 1970-1995 (1995), which won a Pushcart Prize; three collections of essays; and two dozen volumes translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese, and Chinese, most recently, Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese (2000). He has been the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards. He is Founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press and director of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM:

Friday, October 24:

8-9 am - Registration
9-9:15 am - Announcements and Introductions
9:15 - 10:15 am - Keynote Address: Baraba Earl Thomas

Barbara Earl Thomas

10:15 - 10:30 am - Coffee Break

10:30 am - Noon

SESSION ONE

“What Can We Get from Raymond Carver That We Can’t Get from Jerry Springer?”	Bob Mohrbacher and Jennifer Whetham
"Associate of Fine Arts Roundtable"	Jim O’Donnell (moderator)
“The Conciliation Project”	Maureen Freehill and Kabby Mitchell III
“Travel Icons”	Rosemary Powelson and Carolyn Norred

Noon - 1:30 pm

LUNCH

Ballroom

1:30 - 2:45 pm

SESSION TWO

“Wedding, War, and Wilding: Comedy Across Time and Culture”

Larry Blades and Susan Rich

“What Would Plato Do with His Existence Today?
The Real World and Its Images”

Larry Fike

“Idol Worship and Fallen Idols: What Do Instructors
Do When Students Confront Their Worldview?”

Sharon Mitchler

2:45 - 3:30 pm

COFFEE BREAK

Ballroom

3:30 am - 5:00 pm

SESSION THREE

“Breaking the Image Apart”	Susan Landgraf
“Iconoclasts and Idol Smashers: Complicity in Genocide”	Gerard Smith
“Exploring Literary Pairings in the American Canon”	Don Foran
“Humanizing Science?”	Tom Grimes and Dane McCartney