Expressions, Fall 2014 San Jose State University, College of the Humanities and the Arts

San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts) College of Humanities and the Arts Fall 2014 Expressions, Fall 2014 San Jose State University, College of the Humanities and the Arts Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/expressions Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation San Jose State University, College of the Humanities and the Arts. "Expressions, Fall 2014" Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts) (2014). This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Humanities and the Arts at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts) by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SJSU College Of Humanities & the Arts EXPRESSIONS Vol.4 Fall 2014 Featured Stories LUNAR Award Apple, Cisco, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Dell, DKNY, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, National Design Award Goes Kimberley Clark, Motorola, Nike, Pepsi, Phillips, to SJSU Alumnus Rubbermate, Seagate, Siemans, Sony, Steelcase, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox. How can your SJSU Industrial Design degree land you at the White House? Funny you should ask. Clearly the physical proximity to Silicon Valley made an impact on their attractiveness to tech clients. Because that’s what happened to alumnus But beyond the geography there were other factors Gerard Furbershaw when the Cooper-Hewitt, that lured LUNAR to their projects. As Furbershaw Smithsonian Design Museum announced that his notes: “There was a difference to the Silicon Valley firmLUNAR had won their National Design design because most of these tech projects were Award for Product Design. for new products—they came with few visual precedents.” This freedom was like catnip for a Besides landing the prestigious honor, the design bunch of maverick designers and prompted their world’s equivalent of an Academy Award, there “distinctly American, Californian” aesthetic. were other perks. “It was the weirdest experience. I rounded a corner in the White House and there Ironically, this aesthetic had grown out of the she was….” She, meaning Michelle Obama. “It LUNAR founders’ admiration for European was incredibly emotional. She’s such a warm and designers like Hartmut Esslinger and Bill Moggridge. unassuming person, and she has this aura about her “We were blown away by their work and kept that makes you feel completely accepted.” wondering ‘How do they get their clients to let them do these designs?’” When the three California The presenter at the actual awards ceremony entrepreneurs founded their own firm, their guiding noted, “For thirty years LUNAR has been a beacon ethic was not money. “It was all about great design.” of progress in design. They carved a niche that wasn’t there—a design that is distinctly American, Ecobee PosterIn the course of thirty years of Californian, and approaching technology objects in a successful practice, however, it’s safe to say that completely new way.” money has been made as a by-product of this devotion to “great design.” Today, Furbershaw has As with most success stories, the end result lies in a decided to share some of it with his alma mater. beginning confluence of people, timing, and place. The award-winning alumnus discusses why he chose to give back to the university by becoming a donor: Gerard Furbershaw, Jeff Smith, and Robert Brunner “I owe San José State a lot. When I went back to had worked together at a Palo Alto product campus to give a talk twenty years after I graduated, development firm. They became frustrated with I noticed the students were still using the same their employer’s traditional approach and founded desks that had been there when I was in school— LUNAR in 1984—a pivotal year in the Silicon Valley and already at that time they were old—they looked that saw the debut of the Macintosh computer and like they’d been there since the Civil War!” HP’s first laptop. Brunner, another SJSU Industrial Design graduate, later left the company to become Some details only a product designer would notice. Director of Industrial Design at Apple Computer. Please see our Gerard Furbershaw profile for more But at their LUNAR start-up, Furbershaw, Smith, details, and watch the video to hear his story. and the staff in their San Francisco office would go on to create award-winning designs for the next by Cathleen Miller thirty years. They amassed a list of dream clients: Featured Stories Linguistics Grant LLD Secures a Grant for $1.1 Million! Can language save the world? Some of the tasks the two cohort schools will be working on together are creating a written Apparently the U.S. State Department thinks language and reference grammar for Pahari, a it certainly can help, because they have language from Kashmir. Other projects include awarded $1.1 million to SJSU’s Department revising curricula in linguistics and applied of Linguistics and Language Development. linguistics, research collaboration, and a faculty According to department chair and proposal exchange to enrich both groups’ outlook and an author Dr. Swathi Vanniarajan, the grant understanding of one another’s culture. Lastly, aims to facilitate U.S./Pakistani relations and our San José State team will seek to impart the develop better understanding between the two concepts of American values and American nations. In this vein the LLD faculty from SJSU culture to their Pakistani counterparts. have been working with faculty and graduate students from the University of Azad Jammu The backstory to this success is one of and Kashmir in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. perseverance by Dr. Swathi Vanniarajan. He applied for the State Department grant last Our campus has already welcomed four visiting year but was turned down. Learning valuable faculty from Azad Jammu, two men and two lessons from that experience, he applied again women. They were intrigued by our model of this year and beat out numerous universities student-centered education, where much of from around the nation. He feels SJSU was the content of coursework is driven by student an attractive choice for the mission because ideas and interests. This method in turn serves our LLD program “has always believed as a model for participatory democracy, which in globalization. Our Applied Linguistics is one of the State Department’s goals. curriculum offers TESOL and a focus on World Englishes. We feel there is no one standard During this visit, Dr. Vanniarajan presented on English; there are many, for example Standard his specialty of second language acquisition. American English, Standard Indian English, and Other faculty participants included Daniel so on. Each has its own flavor, and they must be Silverman on phonology and Roula Svorou on recognized as equals.” syntax and semantics. One of the great gifts of this award, however, is that all instructors in Apparently this global and democratic the department will play a role in working with perspective was attractive to the State their Pakistani cohorts, providing the entire Department’s award committee, realizing that LLD faculty an opportunity for professional English—while becoming the lingua franca of enrichment and offering unique learning the planet—needs skilled messengers to spread opportunities for their students. the word(s). Other benefits of the grant are that LLD has by Cathleen Miller developed a synergetic relationship with the State Department, including consulting work on English as a Second Language. The Linguistics and Language Development faculty also have welcomed Fulbright scholars to campus who are working in their discipline. Activities like these are placing the department in a globally prominent position. Featured Stories Humanities Honors: After Sixty Years “A liberal arts education experience at a large, Since 1954, the program has morphed into public university”—those are the words used to something with a more global focus. As describe San José State University’s Humanities Rostankowski states, “We have become more Honors Program. On October 3, the program diverse, especially in the past fifteen years. celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. Founded We are all part of the world. How do we see in 1954 by four Humanities professors—Rex ourselves in that community?” Burbank, Jack E. Fink, O.C. Williams, and Richard Tansey—the Humanities Honors Program Debby Ng, a junior Liberal Studies major was designed as a multi-disciplinary academic intending to enter the field of elementary experience that would be team-taught in both education, echoes Rostankowski with her lecture and seminar settings. Over the years, experiences. “The Honors program is the best the program has evolved into the current four- part of my major because it gave me a broad semester experience that enables students in the sense of the world.” Ng’s favorite Humanities program to fulfill general education requirements Honors course, Hum 1A, reflects the program’s while bonding with both peers and professors in global-centric curriculum: “We went all around a close-knit group experience. the world and learned about all of the ancient civilizations. It gave me a really good overall Members of Humanities Honors are the cream introduction to the beginning of humanity.” of SJSU’s crop. To apply, students must have a 3.0 unweighted GPA in high school and one of The Honors program coursework is not the only the following: a 550 or above on the SAT Critical element that engages pupils. Because students Reading, a 24 or above on the ACT Verbal, a 3 or in the program take the same classes, they begin higher on the English AP exam, or a 150 or above to bond with each other, developing a close-knit on the English Placement Exam. The program group that can form friendships for life.

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