Justin Martino
EDMOND — Edmond residents and University of Central Oklahoma students will get a chance this fall to stamp their passport to Egypt without ever leaving the city with a program at UCO.
UCO’s “Passport UCO” program will focus on Egypt this year, with movie showings, lectures and at least one play that is being translated and performed in English for the first time.
The Passport program began in 2004 and has previously focused on Italy and India.
“What we want to do is increase global awareness among the students, and we feel the best way to do that is to deal with one country at a time in depth,” said Susan Spencer, UCO professor and coordinator of the Passport program.
The university chose Egypt this year for various reasons, including current events and a desire to include various continents in the program.
“As a result of the increasing conflict in the Middle East, there is a growing interest in the wide history and culture of countries such as Egypt,” she said.
“Another motivator for focusing on Egypt this year is to tie in with the major exhibition of ancient Egyptian artifacts that will be on display at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art this fall.”
Spencer said the highlight of the program for many people would be two presentations by Bob Brier, an expert on mummies who hosts The Learning Channel’s television program “Pyramid’s, Mummies and Tombs.”
“He’s kind of a superstar in Egyptology,” Spencer said.
Brier will give two different presentations. The first will be about when he and a colleague mummified a cadaver that had been donated to science by using techniques from Egyptian texts.
“They learned an unbelievable amount about it,” Spencer said. “A lot of things that people thought were mystical are actually just practical.”
Brier’s other speech will be about the theory that King Tutankhamen was actually murdered. The theory began when a CT scan found something like a contusion on the mummy’s skull, Spencer said, though later evidence discovered that it wasn't.
“The textual evidence does still point in that direction, even though the physical evidence doesn’t seem as strong as it did,” she said.
Dr. David von Minden, a professor in UCO’s chemistry department, also will speak about King Tut. His presentation will be about the forensic examination of the mummy.
There also will be a variety of plays and movies, starting Sept.. 5 with a showing of Control Room, a documentary on media coverage and the war in Iraq from the contrasting points of view from Al Jazeera journalists and representatives of the U.S. military media center. UCO will be showing the film at 6 and 8 p.m. at UCO’s Pegasus Theater.
“The movie played last year at the Museum of Art and created quite a splash,” Spencer said. “A lot of people were upset they missed that, so we purchased the rights to show it.”
On Sept. 7, UCO and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will team up for a showing of the 1934 film “Cleopatra,” which also will serve as the kick off for the 2006 Film Preservation Festival.
For people who’d prefer to see live action, the program will have two showings of “The Writer’s Honeymoon,” by playwright Ali Salim, on Oct. 12 and 13. The play is being translated by Dr. Waleed Zaghoul, who was a professor at UCO, and James Dolph of UCO’s English department.
“As far as I know, it’s the first time it has ever been performed in English,” Spencer said. “They’ve done a draft, but it will be done pretty soon. They worked on it for this program.”
UCO students have an extra incentive to attend the events. Each will be given a passport which will be stamped at the events. After receiving 10 stamps, students will be entered into a drawing for three hours of credit toward tuition.
“We’re hoping they’ll be interested on their own, but that little incentive helps,” Spencer said.
For more information about the program or a complete listing of events, visit the Web site at www.ucok.edu/passport.
(Justin Martino may be reached via e-mail at jmartino@edmondsun.com.)
