Endowed Scholar-in-Residence

List of 14 items.

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  Eula Biss - Jan. 15 - Jan. 17, 2019

  Award-winning non-fiction author and essayist
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  The Bishop's School welcomed award-winning non-fiction author and essayist Eula Biss to campus in January 2019.
  
  Ms. Biss has won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. 
  
  She has authored three books: “The Balloonists,” “Notes from No Man’s Land” and “On Immunity: An Inoculation,” her essays have also appeared in The Believer, Harper’s and The New York Times Magazine.
  
  She worked with students in their English classes during her three days on campus on a variety of non-fiction writing workshops and discussions of essays from "Notes from No Man's Land" on both content and process.
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  Ambassador Caroline Kennedy — February 1 & 2, 2018

  United States Ambassador to Japan 2013 - 2017.
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  The Bishop’s School was honored to have Ambassador Caroline Kennedy as our 2018 Endowed Scholar-in-Residence, on campus for a two-day residency on Feb. 1 and 2. During her time with us, Ambassador Kennedy met with history classes; spoke in an all-school assembly and in an evening community lecture; and spent time with students, faculty and staff.
  
  

  Ambassador Caroline Kennedy is an attorney who served as the United States Ambassador to Japan from November 2013 – January 2017. During her tenure, she helped realize the United States military's return of land on Okinawa to the Japanese government, the largest land transfer since 1972, and President Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima.

  
  Ms. Kennedy is the author or editor of 11 New York Times best-selling books on law, civics and poetry. She is honorary president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and honorary chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Institute of Politics. From 2002 – 2011, Ms. Kennedy was vice chair

  of the Fund for Public Schools, dedicated to engaging the private sector in school reform and encouraging New Yorkers to volunteer in public schools.

  
  Ambassador Kennedy shared fond memories and stories of her family, her experience as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, the nature of U.S. diplomacy in Asia, and encouraged students to answer the call to public service by participanting in their communities through meaningful projects and opportunities.
  
  
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  Juan Felipe Herrera — January 23 - 27, 2017

  Poet laureate of the United States
  
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  The School welcomed poet laureate of the United States, Juan Felipe Herrera, to campus as the 2017 Endowed Scholar-in-Residence, the week of January 23 - 27, 2017. Watch the community lecture here. 

   

  In June 2015, Mr. Herrera was appointed as the 21st poet laureate, and he was re-appointed in April 2016 for a second term. Mr. Herrera is the first Mexican-American to hold the position and growing up in California as the son of migrant farmers shaped much of his work.

   

  Mr. Herrera is the author of 30 books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children. From 2012-2014, he served as California’s poet laureate and created the i-Promise Joanna Project, an anti-bullying poetry project. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Mr. Herrera has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the University of California at Berkeley, the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, and the Stanford Chicano Fellows Program.

   

  In addition to participating in classes and meeting with students and faculty, the Endowed Scholar-in-Residence Program provides an opportunity for scholars to share their work with the greater community. 
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  Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D. — February 2016

  Presidential historian and bestselling author
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  Dr. Douglas Brinkley has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “America’s new past master,” and the late Stephen E. Ambrose called him “the best of the new generation of American historians.” He is the author of a number of award-winning and best-selling books, including The Great Deluge, Tour of Duty, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, Parish Priest, and, he edited the number one New York Times best-seller The Reagan Diaries, the personal diaries kept by Ronald Reagan during his time in the White House. His recent book, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, was an instant New York Times bestseller and won a National Outdoor Book Award in the History-Biography category. 
  
  

  Brinkley is a professor of history and Baker Institute Fellow at Rice University. He completed his bachelor's degree at Ohio State University and received his doctorate in U.S. Diplomatic History from Georgetown University in 1989. He then spent a year at both the U.S. Naval Academy and Princeton University teaching history. While a professor at Hofstra University, Brinkley spearheaded the American Odyssey course, in which he took students on numerous cross-country treks where they visited historic sites and met seminal figures in politics and literature. Brinkley's 1994 book, The Magic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled his first experience teaching this innovative on-the-road class which became the progenitor of C-SPAN's Yellow School Bus.
  
  

  Before coming to Rice, he was the Clark professor of history and director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University. Prior to that, he served as Stephen E. Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. He is contributing editor for Vanity Fair and American Heritage. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic Monthly, he is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

   
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  Paul Greenberg — February 2015

  Marine environmentalist and bestselling author

   

   
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  Paul Greenberg is the author of the James Beard Award-winning New York Times bestseller "Four Fish" and the recently published, "American Catch." He is a regular contributor to The New York Times. He has also written for National Geographic Magazine, GQ, The Times (of London),Vogue, and lectures on seafood and the environment around the world. He is currently a fellow with The Safina Center and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. 
  
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  Corina Campos — November 2014

  Choral Conductor
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  Corina Campos is the professor of choral conducting and score analysis at the Conservatory, “Amadeo Roldan” in Cuba. This university integrates the national working groups for the development of choral music, and she supervises and evaluates students who are doing their juries.

  
  For 17 years Ms. Campos directed the Cuba National Opera choir, and the choir of the great theatre of Havana. She has an extensive repertoire of symphonic choral, operas, operettas and zarzuelas. Ms. Campos has conducted workshops in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Guatemala, Germany and Cuba. She was also part of the choral Cuba-United States Exchange, which occurred in 2012 at the State University of Washington and Lutheran Pacific University.

  
  In 1997, Corina organized and selected the choir that accompanied the tenor, Luciano Pavarotti at a special concert held at the Mayan ruins of Chitchen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. In 1999, she directed the Choral Conference in Barcelona, which featured Latin American music and dance with prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso. She also took directed the National Choir of Guatemala for six months.

  
  Under her direction, the chamber choir, “Vocal Leo” has received many awards and prizes. They received first prize in polyphonic, acapella and folk music, at the Cantonigros International competition. The group has also been awarded two gold medals in choral acapella and popular music, at the World Olympiad of choirs in Bremen, Germany. She graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arts in Havana, majoring in choral conducting. 
  
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  Nicholas Kripal — February 2014

  Sculpture Artist 
  
  
  
  
  
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  Through the Endowed Scholar-in-Residence Program, Nicholas Kripal made a presentation to members of the Bishop’s and greater San Diego communities. Offered without charge, this event took place at 7:00 p.m. on February 25 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla. This event included an exhibition of art created by Bishop's students. Attendees were also  able to view the museum's current Cristo exhibition.
  
  A practicing artist, Nicholas Kripal utilizes the ceramic medium as a source for sculptural installations, and creates site-specific/site-related installations that explore architectural iconography. During his residency at Bishop’s, Mr. Kripal will meet with students and faculty and learn about the School’s history and the architectural significance of the campus as he considers a piece of original art that he will create for installation on the campus in 2014. He will also instruct and work with Bishop’s students to create botanical markers for the School’s gardens.
  
  

  Mr. Kripal is a professor, chair of the crafts department, and head of the ceramics area at the Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia. He earned a B.F.A. Ceramics and M.S. Art Education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and an M.F.A. Ceramics at Southern Illinois University.
  
  

  Web links:

  http://www.nicholaskripal.com/index.html

  http://inliquid.org/complete-artist-list/kripal-nicholas/
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  Luis Alberto Urrea — February 2013

  Author, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Professor
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  Luis Alberto Urrea , a writer of memoirs, poetry, novels, and non-fiction, was born in Tijuana and grew up in San Diego. He attended the University of California, San Diego, where he earned an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. During his week at Bishop’s, Mr. Urrea will teach middle and upper school classes and meet students and faculty. He will also speak in chapel to the juniors and seniors.

   

  Mr. Urrea’s ability to explore the human element behind the tragic and intimate stories he tells of Mexican immigrants has won him much praise in the literary world. His first book, Across the Wire, which draws from his experiences working with Tijuana garbage pickers as a missionary in his early 20’s, was named a New York Times Notable Book.

   

  In 2000, Mr. Urrea was voted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame after publishing his award-winning memoir Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life. Among his most celebrated works is The Devil’s Highway, a revealing non-fiction account of 26 Mexican immigrants lost in the torrid, desolate Arizona desert. The book was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for non-fiction and a Kiriyama Prize winner.

   

  His fiction writing includes the heavily researched historical novels, The Hummingbird's Daughter and Queen of America, and Into the Beautiful North, which was recently selected as a Big Read title by the National Endowment for the Arts.

   

  Mr. Urrea is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
  
  

   

   
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  Petr Onufer — February 2011

  Writer, Journalist, Translator
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  Petr Onufer (born 1976) is a Czech critic, translator and journalist. He studied Czech and English at Charles University in Prague and the University of Texas at Austin. Petr currently works as the editor-in-chief of Plus Publishing, an imprint of the largest Czech publishing group Albatros Media, and contributes to Revolver Revue, a leading Czech literary journal. His translations include novels by William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac and Michael Chabon; poetry collections by Richard Wilbur and Robert Frost (forthcoming), books of literary criticism and theory by Terry Eagleton and Wolfgang Iser. Petr is the editor of the first Czech anthology of American literary criticism, published in 2010. Searching for Contexts of Anglo-American Literature is Onufer’s most recently published book of essays on American literature which will be published by Charles University Press in 2011.
  
  

  Profession
  Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Department of English and American Studies
  
  

  Education
  Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
  2004–present: Ph.D. Studies, Department of English and American Studies, to complete in 2010.
  1994–2001: M.A. (summa cum laude), Department of Czech Language and Literature
  1994–2000: M.A. (summa cum laude), Department of English and American Studies
  January 2000 – June 2000: University of Texas at Austin; courses taken: American Novel after 1920; Contemporary American Short Story; Communication Theory
  January 2004 – June 2004: University of Texas at Austin; courses taken: Modernist Poetry: Crane, Bishop, Wilbur; Conference Course in Czech Fiction; Literary Theory; Central Europe in the 21^st Century

  
  Teaching
  2003– present: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Department of English and American Studies (courses taught include: Selected Chapters of American Literary Criticism; The Beat Generation; Is Dylan Poetry?; Early American Literature)
  2000–2007: College of Journalism, Prague (selected courses taught: Media English, Modern Anglo-American Literature, Literary Translation, Media Reflection of Music)

  
  Writing & Journalism
  1996 – present: contributor to a wide range of journals and reviews including Revolver Revue, Souvislosti, Literární noviny. See Appendix 1/Bibliography.

   

  The Movie:

  Walking Too Fast: A Film by Radim Špacek
  
  The major event of the 2010 Czech cinema, and the most critically acclaimed Czech film of the last two decades. Set in 1982, in the grey, dull timelessness of the Communist regime, the film tells the story of Antonin Rusnak, agent of the almighty secret State Police who suddenly feels “breathless,” much like the protagonist of the famous 1960 Godard movie, getting bored and disgusted with everything around himself, including his work and family life. On the job, spying on young, innocent Klara, he becomes obsessed with her; although, he knows all too well he could never be with her. His burning obsession turns him against himself as well as against the system and the world. With its omnipresent sense of anxiety and menace, the story is not a political one; in spite of its setting, it speaks a universal message. 
  
  

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  Edward B. Burger, Ph.D. — January 2010

  Mathematician
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  Edward B. Burger’s research interests include algebraic number theory, Diophantine analysis, p-adic analysis, geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fraction. He teaches abstract algebra, “The Art of Creating Mathematics,” and Diophantine analysis. He has taught or been a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, Westminster College, James Madison University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the Macquarie University in Australia.
  
  Mr. Burger has been honored for his innovative work in developing educational and entertaining mathematics electronic textbooks. He has been a keynote speaker, invited special session speaker, or the conference chair at a number of Mathematical Association of America and American Mathematical Society conferences. Burger has written 12 books and has had more than 30 papers published in scholarly journals. With Michael Starbird, he coauthored The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking, for which they won a 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award, and Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz, a humorous look at mathematics filed under both math and humor in the Library of Congress catalog. Burger is also an associate editor for the American Mathematical Monthly and a member of the Editorial Board for [AK Peters Publishing].
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  Byron J. Smith — January 2009

  Music Director, Associate Professor of Music and Founder of The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles
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  Byron J. Smith is a native of Los Angeles born June 1960. He received his B.M. from California State University, Long Beach and his M.M. from California State University, Los Angeles.  He is an associate professor of music at Los Angeles Harbor College where he specializes in commercial music, teaching music industry courses such as “The Business of Commercial Music,” Song Writers Workshop, Choir and Commercial piano and voice.
  
  

  Byron is the Music Coordinator, organist and director of the Grant A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles.  He is a member of many performance organizations including AFM, AFTRA, ASCAP, SAG, NAMM and Chorus America .  He is the Western Regional Director of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc and is the Ethnic/Multicultural R&S Chair of the Western Division of  the American Choral Directors Association.
   
  The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles
  Byron Smith’s professional choir, The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles has toured the world and received international acclaim for their choral excellence and recently released their second CD project, “I Surrender All." They have also been featured on many movie soundtracks and television shows.
  
  

  The Spirit Chorale has celebrated over 14 years on a journey of preserving music of African-American composers; especially the Negro spiritual. Director and founder, Byron J. Smith has the pleasure of working with some of the most sought-after voices in Los Angeles to make up this dynamic choral ensemble.
  
  

  The Spirit Chorale prides itself on the preservation of the Negro spiritual and programs compositions by some favorite composers including Jester Hairston, Hall Johnson, Undine Smith Moore, Moses Hogan, Richard Jackson and more. Director Smith, known for many outstanding gospel arrangements, provides these and many more uplifting arrangements to complete the program.
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  Beth Henley — February 2009

  Playwright, Sceenwriter & Actress
  Wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Crimes of the Heart
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  Beth Henley, Playwright, Sceenwriter & Actress

  Wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning play, Crimes of the Heart

  
  

  Beth Henley (born Elizabeth Becker Henley on May 8, 1952 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American screenwriter, actress and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. She attended Southern Methodist University.
  
  

  Her most famous play, Crimes of the Heart, was her first produced professionally. It opened at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and then moved to New York. Crimes of the Heart won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the award for Best American Play of 1981 from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. The play also earned Henley a Tony Award nomination, and her screenplay for the film version of Crimes of the Heart was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay.
  
  

  Other plays by Henley include The Wake of Jamey Foster, produced first in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1982 and later that year on Broadway; The Debutante Ball, first produced in Costa Mesa, California, in 1985; The Lucky Spot (1987); and Abundance (1989). More recent plays include Signature, Control Freaks, and L-Play. Her most recent play, Impossible Marriage, debuted off-Broadway in 1998. Written while Henley was pregnant with her first child, the play is set in Savannah, Georgia, and tells of a young bride named Pandora whose upcoming wedding is opposed by nearly every other character, including her older, very pregnant sister, Floral, played in the 1998 production by actress Holly Hunter, who had appeared onstage (and in the film Miss Firecracker) in six previous Henley plays.
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  Richard Steinert — March-April 2009

  Artistic Director of Ballet Pensacola
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  Richard Steinert  began his training at the famed Joffrey Ballet in New York. There he was spotted by international choreographer Tom Pazik and joined him at the Atlanta Ballet.
  
  

  Richard’s choreographic works have been sanctioned by such funding organizations as the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. He has held seats on the Board of Directors of the Mid American Arts Alliance, the SWRBA, the Alcoa National Choreographic Awards, and was appointed by then Governor Bill Clinton to act on his Arts in Education program in Little Rock, Arkansas.
  
  

  He was Artistic Director of the Connecticut Contemporary Ballet Theatre, as well as Ballet Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut
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  Robert Dallek, Ph.D. — December 2007

  Highly regarded historian of American history and of the U.S. presidency
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  When a donor’s foresight combines with Bishop’s vision of campus and community education, inspiration turns to deed. The Bishop’s School’s first Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Robert Dallek, was on campus December 3-7 engaging students and teachers through lectures and discussions. Dr. Dallek is one of the most highly regarded historians of American history and of the U.S. Presidency. The Scholar-in-Residence program is endowed through an anonymous gift to the School.
  
  

  Dr. Dallek, whose specialization is American presidents, is the author of acclaimed books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. His latest effort, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, was released in spring 2007.
  
  

  During his residence at Bishop’s, Dr. Dallek covered a range of topics including a historical look at the contemporary presidency, presidential leadership, the craft of biographical writing, archival research, and the film “JFK.” Planned into the week-long program were many opportunities for students to be with and learn from Dr. Dallek, including seminars, large-group lectures, classroom talks, and a “Meet the Author” session. On the evening of December 6, the School sponsored a lecture for the community at Sherwood Auditorium.
  
  

  The goal of the Scholarship in Residence program is to give students direct contact with nationally recognized experts in their fields. Faculty members are actively involved and can present candidates for consideration each year. Bishop’s History Department Chair Rich del Rio put forth Dr. Dallek’s name, noting the topic of presidential leadership would be particularly timely given the upcoming elections.