Campus Currents

National Library Week is April 23-29! The Whittemore Library will be hosting several events:

(For more information, including Zoom links and registration details, visit the Whittemore Library online calendar)

Monday 4/24: Annual Literary Cake Decorating Contest: Our annual cake decorating contest returns! Turn your favorite book or character into a tasty baked treat and bring it down to the Library. Patrons will get a chance to vote on their favorite cakes, which will be set up in the library lobby near the Red Barn Café. All cakes must be submitted by 9:00am on 4/24 and the winner will be announced at 12:30pm! Don’t forget to stop by after winner is announced to taste all the delicious cakes! For more information, please email Colleen Previte (cprevite@framingham.edu).

Tuesday 4/25: Outdoor Fun on Larned Beach 12:30pm to 2:30pm: Did you know that, in addition to our great books, databases, and academic resources, the Whittemore Library also has a great selection of outdoor and board games that you can check out? Join us as we share some of those great games outside on Larned Beach! What if it’s raining? Join us inside where we will have our board games (that you can check out, too!) and items from our Rams Renew Space available for you to try out. For more information, contact Kathleen Barnard (kbarnard@framingham.edu).

Wednesday 4/26: Library Careers Presentation 1:30pm on Zoom: Co-sponsored with the Career Center. Ever wondered what it’s like to work in a library? Curious about what career opportunities exist in the library field? Think you have to have a specific major to even consider becoming a librarian? Join the librarians and staff of the Whittemore Library as we talk about our varied paths through the library field. We’ll talk about different types of libraries, which jobs require grad school and which ones don’t, and we’ll dispel that myth (once and for all) that you must have an English degree to work in a library (hint – ALL majors are welcome). This presentation will take place on Zoom.  For more information, contact Kathleen Barnard (kbarnard@framingham.edu).

Thursday 4/27: Breathwork with Susan Clark 1pm in UM-14 and Zoom: Susan Clark, Reiki master from Heal from Within, will lead a hybrid session on exploring the power of breath and its healing potential to increase self-awareness, reduce stress and anxiety, build resilience and cultivate greater vitality. She will share mindful breathing techniques such as alternate nostril breathing and triangle breathwork. 

Friday, April 28, 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
In Front of May Hall

Participants of all ages are welcome!

Use telescopes to observe the Moon, Venus, Mars, and the Pleiades star cluster!

McAuliffe Center staff are available to answer your questions about telescopes and our Universe.

The NEH-Sponsored Invited Lecture Series on Race + DH Presents:

Mapping Marronage: Toward a Transatlantic Visualization of Freedom

Thursday, April 27, 2023
4:30-5:30 p.m.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83136544721#success

Mapping Marronage is an interactive visualization of the trans-Atlantic networks of intellectual,
creative and political exchange created by enslaved people in the 18th and 19th centuries. It
traces the geographic reach, crossings and intersections of letters, testimonies and financial
exchanges by enslaved people of African-descent. This talk will examine the digital
visualization’s possibilities as both a research and teaching tool. As a resource for research, the
visualization presents information on the overlaps and intersections in the lives, movement and
work of different enslaved people who may not initially appear to be connected. As a teaching
tool, Mapping Marronage allows students to engage in hands-on collaboration that bridges
that gap between often-solitary archival work and collaborative project work.

About the Speaker 

Annette Joseph-Gabriel is an Associate Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University. Her research focuses on race, gender, and citizenship in the French-speaking Caribbean, Africa, and France. She is the author of Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire (University of Illinois Press, 2020), which was awarded the Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book and Honorable Mention for the Eugen Weber Award for best book in modern French history. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Small Axe, Slavery & Abolition, Eighteenth-Century Studies and The French Review, and her public writings have been featured in Al Jazeera, HuffPost, and the Washington Post. She is a recipient of the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics, and serves as senior editor of Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International.

The Inauguration of President Nancy S. Niemi is scheduled for the last day of classes on Friday, May 5th, and there are many celebrations and activities on tap.

Things kickoff the with Inauguration Ceremony at 10 a.m. in DPAC. Join faculty, staff and college delegates from around Massachusetts as we officially inaugurate Dr. Niemi as President and hear her thoughts and vision for the future of Framingham State.

The annual Sandbox Celebration runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. along State Street, which will be closed to traffic. This is the BIGGEST event of the year put on by the Framingham State Activities Board! There will be axe throwing, food trucks, giveaways, a mechanical bull, and much much more. Come celebrate the year before heading home for the Summer!

Finally, the CELTSS sponsored Student Conference on Research and Creative Practice will be running in the McCarthy Center throughout the day!

Finals are around the corner, which means it's time to Pause for Paws.

Come relax with pet therapy dogs, and get some stress & sleep tips and free giveaways!

Monday May 1st, and Wednesday, May 3rd
Alumni Room, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Food and Nutrition Department and President Niemi are in the kitchen cooking up some fun! Join us for a special Inauguration Week session of FSU Cooks where the President will be baking chocolate chip cookies!

Originally invented by FSU alumna Ruth Graves Wakefield, this perfected recipe comes from former FSU staff member and alumna Laurie Carr who famously made these cookies for colleagues and students during her 34 years of dedicated service here at FSU.

Monday, May 1, 2023, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. in Hemenway Hall 209

Space is limited to 20 participants, registration is required.