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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1978)
University prof gets India Fulbright award By JAS SAUND Of the Emerald Two years ago History Prof. Edwin Bingham applied for a Fulbriqht grant to teach in Spain; he didn’t get it. This year he wanted to teach in Taiwan but was offered a one-year teaching assignment in India instead, an offer he says he could not refuse. The switch from Taiwan to India came as a welcome surprise, because Bingham has been fas cinated by India ever since he was a kid. ‘When I applied for the grant two years ago, what I wanted to do was to get out of this country where I have been living all my life and go to a country with a culture strikingly different from my own,” he said. Bingham, 58, will teach American history to un dergraduate and graduate students at the state Uni versity of Mysore in southern India. "I will be...using American literature, American music, American drama and political theory to some extent in order to give the Indian students a better idea of what is happening to American society,” Bingham said. Bingham says that he does not know much about the current political situation in India. “I have tried to do some reading since I knew that I will be going there, but mostly it has been in history rather than in present political situation." Bingham was a pacifist when World War II began. “There were six of us, but in the end all of us except one joined the U.S. Armed Forces,” Bingham said. A lone dissenter was sent to a conscientious objector camp in Waldport, Oregon where he lost an eye in a logging accident, according to Bingham. “He went back to Los Angeles after the war was over and got a job working for the city park depart ment, he lost his job after it was discovered that he had been a pacifist during the war,” Bingham said. “After that I lost touch with him.” Meanwhile Bingham served in the U.S. Air Force intelligence as a private. He wanted to be a writer when he was young, but he felt that he didn’t have enough talent to make it as a free-lancer. So he became a history student instead and obtained a bachelor and a master of arts degrees from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles. He has served on the University faculty since 1949. Growing up in southern California was a good experience according to Bingham. “Southern California in my day was open and it was exciting; it was easy in spite of the depression. My father managed to keep a job, not the same one and then my mother went to work too; so I really did not feel the impact of the depression," he said. “Those were the days of beaches and dances. Frank Sinatra was just beginning his singing career when I was in high school; Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Cab Callaway -- all that wonderful period when music was civilized, in my view,” he reflected. Bingham thinks southern California is decaying. “It is simply over-crowded, and it is money hungry and money mad. In those days, there was a space for young people to grow," he said. “If you have to go 40 miles to get elbow room at the beach, there is some thing wrong,” Bingham is the author of a book entitled “Charles F. Lumis, Editor of the Southwest,” and co-author of a book entitled “The Frontier Experi ence: Readings in the Trans-Mississippi West.” Photo by Mary M. Massia Fulbright winner Edwin Bingham Easter Seals album seeking volunteers Around Christmas time, a locally produced record album will hit record stores around this area. All the profits from its sales will be used for Easter Seals projects in Lane County. The producers are hoping to hold the purchase cost down to a dollar and a penny, says project coordinator John Sharkey of Diamond Minds Productions. “We re trying to do as much of the work in Lane county as we can,” he adds. "The main theme of this album is trying to help each other. We re hoping to make be tween a penny and a dime on each album for Easter Seals.” Sharkey says the project needs volunteers for every aspect of the album’s production, from cover artwork to printing. And it’s not too late for local recording artists and songwriters to submit tapes. “We’re going to be paying royal ties for these original tunes,” he says. All music and artwork for the record must be about some as pect of Lane county, he stresses. The project is based on similar efforts started by Sharkey and others in California. He says the idea of recording a local album has produced good results for Easter Seals, and provided a break for amateur and profes sional musicians at the same time. Artists are especially needed, Sharkey says, and he hopes to “piece out” calligraphy work for the liner notes. Persons submitting tapes are encouraged to record at the high est quality possible, as the original recording may be used for the soundtrack. “Every tape will be lis tened to by at least three people,” Sharkey adds. Sharkey says the talent judges will include radio program direc tors from the major Eugene sta tions. Persons interested in contribut ing their time and talents to some DUFFY Duffy s Live Music Friday & Saturday Ron Lloyd every Tues. & Wed John Powell & Tom Greenough at Max's Tavern 13th & Alder Ladies night & Wine sale every Thursday phase of the album’s creation are encouraged to contact Sharkey at 344-5530. All tapes, artwork and photographs must be submitted by August 31, to Sharkey at 3366 Donald St., Eugene. CLASSES BEGIN Sept 30 MCAT .8/15. 9/13 Oct. 7 DAT .8/10, 9/10 Oct. 14 SAT...8/15, 9/13 Oct. 21 GRE .8/14, 9/19 Oct. 28 GMAT 8/27, 9/26 Nov. 4 SAT 8/26, 9/22 Dec. 2 LSAT .10/7, 10/24 Dec. 2 SAT 10/30 Dec 9 ORE. 10/15, 11/14 Free Orientation The Galleria. 600 S.W. 10th Portland 222-5556 l_
