(Posted October 17, 2017)

Pictured above: Judith Benz, associate professor of German and international studies, is organizing events with additional coordination from Deb Roney, assistant professor of English and director of the College’s Language in Motion program.

Pictured above: Judith Benz, associate professor of German and international studies, is organizing events with additional coordination from Deb Roney, assistant professor of English and director of the College’s Language in Motion program.

Huntingdon, Pa. – Thanks to a grant from the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., Juniata College will be hosting a German Campus Week in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Activities range from a poster and art exhibition to presentations and a film screening. Most events are free and open to the public; only the photo contests and high school visit are not.

Running from Oct. 24 through Nov. 13, the “Here I Stand” exhibition in Beeghly Library is the centerpiece of the commemoration. It will feature 30 posters showing Luther and scenes from the Reformation era and information about the outcomes of the Reformation. It will also include 3D objects that model items Luther would have used; collectors’ objects from the time period are also on loan from Robert Wagoner, professor of philosophy emeritus, and Don Braxton, J. Omar Good Professor of Religion. Relevant holdings from the Beeghly Library collection and books and materials from the German program holdings will also be on display.

On Oct. 25, as part of the College’s Diversity and Democracy series, a panel of “Agents of Change” will be held at 4:30 pm in Sill Boardroom, 2075 von Liebig Center for Science. The panel will feature Nitya Chagti, a junior at the College; Matthew Damschroder, vice president for student life and dean of students; Charlotte Ridge, lecturer in politics; James Roney, I. Harvey Brumbaugh Professor of Russian and International Studies; Martina Thomas, post-doctoral fellow in anthropology; Abby Waldorf, a senior at Juniata; and Rebecca Weldon, assistant professor of psychology. 

“The panel is focusing on ‘Agents of Change,’ which is what Martin Luther was, and we want to expand people’s ideas of who can make change and how such changes may have surprising and long-lasting consequences,” says Deb Roney, assistant professor of English and director of the College’s Language in Motion program. Roney is co-organizing the German Week events with Judith Benz, associate professor of German and international studies.

On Oct. 31 at 7 p.m., the 2003 film Luther, directed by Eric Till and starring Joseph Fiennes, Alfred Molina, Jonathan Firth, Claire Cox, and Sir Peter Ustinov, will be shown in the College’s newly renovated Alumni Hall, Brumbaugh Academic Center. Belle Tuten, Charles A. Dana Professor of History, will lead a discussion following the film.

On Nov. 1, the outreach component of German Week will be highlighted as Juniata hosts approximately 60 high school students from Huntingdon Area High School and Juniata Valley High School, who will take in the “Here I Stand” exhibition, participate in photo and poster contests and engage with the Language in Motion program.

In addition, on Nov. 2, James Goodale, associate professor of history at Bucknell University, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Neff Lecture Hall, von Liebig Center for Science. Titled, “Successes and Failures as an Agent of Change: Martin Luther as Theologian and as Reformer,” Goodale’s lecture will offer an intellectual and cultural introduction to Luther, one that presents him and his theology as far more embedded in the late-medieval world than in the “modern era” and seeks to explain why Luther was so successful as a world-altering theologian. The discussion following the talk will be led by Robert Miller, Rosenberger Professor of Christian and Religious Studies.

On Nov. 5 at 3 p.m. in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts, the Juniata Concert Choir’s fall concert will feature “The Mighty Fortress,” a Lutheran Hymn. 

The commemoration also includes three photo contests for which submissions are being solicited starting Oct. 23 from three separate categories of people: one for the high school students participating on November 1, one for prospective students (those students considering enrolling at Juniata and visiting campus during the commemoration) and one for members of the College community: students, staff, faculty, alumni and emeriti. Photos must be of a scene where a “Little Luther” PLAYMOBIL® figurine is posed creatively around campus or in town.

The German Week series of events has been curated to raise awareness for the German program at the College and in the community, especially for high school students who might be interested in studying German language and culture in college. For more information about Juniata’s academic programs in world languages and cultures, visit: www.juniata.edu/wlc. To learn more about the work being done by the German Embassy, follow them on social media using @GermanyinUSA. 

 

--Written by Isabella Bennett ’20—

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.