March 17 , 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY
Summary: Calvin will present half a dozen events in April as part of Dutch Heritage month.
Full story, including complete schedule, see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/dutch-month.htm
Calvin College will celebrate Dutch Heritage month in April with a slew of activities sponsored by the college's Dutch department and the Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture.
Calvin professor Henk Aay, the first holder of the Meijer Chair, said that with deep roots in the Netherlands, Calvin College is ideally suited to promote academic and community engagement with Dutch language and culture.
"The Netherlands is an important part of Calvin's heritage," he said, "but we have changed in many ways in recent years with students and professors with a much greater diversity of backgrounds. And that's great. In addition, through off-campus interims and semesters abroad our students have the ability to study in numerous countries. Their international understanding and experience has expanded, which is also great. Yet I believe that better understanding where the college came from will help us stick to and further articulate our educational and scholarly mission."
Aay said one of the highlights of the month will be a Tuesday, April 8 public lecture at 7:30 pm in the Commons Lecture Hall on "The Legacy of the New Netherland Colony for the United States" by Janny Venema, associate director of the New Netherland Project.
The project was established under the sponsorship of the New York State Library and the Holland Society of New York and its ambitious objective is to complete the transcription, translation, and publication of all Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland.
Aay said the resource has already proven invaluable to scholars in a wide variety of disciplines, and it serves to enhance awareness of the major Dutch contributions to America over the centuries and the strong connections between the two nations.
Contact Henk Aay at 616-526-7033
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Received on Mon Mar 17 23:00:39 2008
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