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N A S S A U N O T E S
Wouk to describe latest novel on supercollider
Herman Wouk, the acclaimed author of "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Winds of War," will deliver the physics department's 29th Donald Ross Hamilton Lecture at 8 p.m. Monday, April 26, in A02 McDonnell Hall.
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Wouk will talk about his new novel, "A Hole in Texas," which was inspired by the history of the superconducting supercollider, a particle accelerator that was under construction in Texas when Congress ended its funding in 1993.
The novel tells the story of a fictional physicist, Guy Carpenter, whose quiet life becomes upended when he is drawn into an international controversy over the discovery of a fundamental subatomic particle. Wouk combines science, international intrigue and political commentary in a humorous piece of fiction that has a real-life story of physics at its root. Princeton physicists aided him in writing the book.
Wouk, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and whose first novels drew on the experience, is known for his ability to combine rigorous historical research with compelling plots and humor. Wouk received the Pulitzer Prize for "The Caine Mutiny," which also became a classic film.
Donald Ross Hamilton was a member of Princeton's class of 1935 and went on to become the University's Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics and dean of the Graduate School. The public lecture series was established in Hamilton's honor after his death in 1972.
Writer Chabon here April 28
Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon will speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 for his third novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," will discuss that book in a lecture titled "Golems and Charlotte Russes." A sweeping, epic tale of the adventures of two boys through New York City's cultural and commercial life in the 1930s and 1940s, the novel was inspired by comic books and contains everything from golems to magic.
Chabon's first novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," originally was written for his master's thesis at the University of California-Irvine and became a national bestseller. His second novel, "Wonder Boys," also was a bestseller and was made into a film featuring actors Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire. He has written a number of screenplays and teleplays, including the screenplay for the second "Spiderman" film due out this summer.
The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies-Perelman Institute. It is designated as the 26th Carolyn L. Drucker Memorial Lecture.
Ryan discusses death penalty
George Ryan, former governor of Illinois, will speak on "The Debate Over the Death Penalty: Would You Flip the Switch?" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 26, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
He was elected governor of Illinois in 1999 and, in January 2000, became the first state chief executive to place a moratorium on any further executions while an intensive study of the capital punishment was undertaken. After a study documented flaws in the Illinois capital punishment system, he commuted the sentences of all 167 inmates awaiting execution to life in prison just days before leaving office in 2003. He was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on this issue.
The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Princeton Justice Project.
War and Supreme Court is topic
The Effects of War on the Supreme Court of the United States" will be the topic for the fourth annual Walter F. Murphy Lecture in American Constitutionalism at 8 p.m. Monday, April 26, in 104 Computer Science Building.
Lee Epstein, the Edward Mallinc-krodt Distinguished University Professor of Political Science and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, will examine how constitutional doctrines have changed in the wake of Sept. 11. Walter F. Murphy, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton, is expected to be in attendance.
Epstein has written numerous articles and 12 books, including the "Constitutional Law for a Changing America" series, "The Supreme Court Compendium," "The Choices Justices Make" and the fifth edition of "Courts, Judges and Politics" (with Walter F. Murphy and C. Herman Pritchett). Over the past decade she has received eight grants from the National Science Foundation to conduct research on various topics pertaining to law and courts, including interest group participation in litigation and strategic interaction among judges on collegial courts.
The event is sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. For more information, visit <Web site>.
Head of Sept. 11 fund to speak
A lecture on "The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund: Private Grief and Public Compensation" will be presented by Kenneth Feinberg at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Feinberg was appointed special master of the fund by the U.S. attorney general in 2001. It was established by the federal government to provide compensation to victims' families for lost wages, pain and suffering, and other monetary damages in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Feinberg developed and promulgated the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the program.
One of the nation's leading experts in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, he is founder and managing partner of The Feinberg Group. He has served as court-appointed special settlement master in major litigation involving Agent Orange and asbestos. He also was one of the three arbitrators selected to determine the fair market value of the original Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination and was one of two arbitrators selected to determine the allocation of legal fees in the Holocaust slave labor litigation.
The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.
Constitutional adviser to groups in Iraq presents series on nation building
Three lectures on the theme "The Ethics of Nation Building: What We Owe Iraq" will be presented at 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, April 26-28, in McCosh 50.
The speaker will be Noah Feldman, assistant professor of law at New York University. The titles of his lectures are:
• Monday -- "Nation Building: To What End?";
• Tuesday -- "Trusteeship, Paternalism and Self-Interest"; and
• Wednesday -- "The Magic of Elections and the Way Home."
Feldman will examine the concrete policy problems engaged by the United States' continuing nation building efforts in Iraq through the lens of ethics, international law and political theory. The lectures will include personal reflections from Feldman's experiences in Baghdad as a constitutional adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority and to members of the Iraqi Governing Council.
Feldman received his A.B. summa cum laude in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D.Phil. in Islamic thought from Oxford University in 1994. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1997, and served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Associate Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Feldman's talks are designated as Walter E. Edge Lectures in Public and International Affairs and are part of the University's Public Lectures Series.
Lecture explores constitutionalism
Democratic Constitutionalism: Practice and Theory" is the title of the James A. Moffett '29 Lecture in Ethics scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 29, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
John Ferejohn, the Carolyn S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, will speak. Also a regular visiting professor at New York University Law School, Ferejohn has written on empirical and theoretical topics including social choice theory, electoral processes, theories of legislatures and of legislation, and about political institutions more generally. His current interests are in jurisprudence and political theory and in understanding rational choice explanations of social phenomena.
A reception in the Shultz Dining Room will follow the lecture, which is sponsored by the University Center for Human Values, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics and the Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. For more information, call 258-4798 or e-mail <values@princeton.edu>.
University Art Museum
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"Music from the Land of the Jaguar," an exhibition of rare and unusual musical instruments from the major cultures of the ancient Americas that flourished from 1000 B.C. to the beginning of the Spanish conquest in A.D. 1519, will be on view at the University Art Museum through Sept. 5. Drawn primarily from the permanent collection, the exhibition unites musical instruments of extraordinary rarity with their depictions in different mediums, and explores the connections between musical and ritual iconography in ancient Mesoamerican art. This ceramic figure, "Wheeled Animal Whistle in the Form of a Jaguar," is from pre-Columbian Mexico.
Conference set on election problems
A symposium on "Will Everyone's Vote Get Counted? Voting Rights and Election Reform in New Jersey and the Nation" will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 26, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Rep. Rush Holt and other speakers will discuss the denial of voting rights, reliability of electronic voting machines, partisan management of voting lists and other problems with elections. He will be joined by others well versed in the technical and legal aspects of the voting process, including: Ingrid Reed, director of the Eagleton New Jersey Project at Rutgers University; Lionel Leach, director of the National Voter Project of the NAACP; and Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of a conference series established by the Sandra Starr Foundation, a private nonprofit charitable organization that seeks to support the improvement of community life and development of progressive community leadership in the Princeton-Mercer County area. For more information on the conference, visit the Starr Foundation's Web site at <www.sandrastarr.org> or e-mail the University's Office of Community and State Affairs, the co-sponsor of the event, at <pucsa@princeton.edu>.
Artists discuss role of faith
Three artists will reflect on the role of faith in their practice during a discussion, "The Love Supreme: Spirit in Music, Dance, Theater," at 7 p.m. Monday, April 26, in the Hagan Dance Studio, 185 Nassau St. Participating will be: Anthony Branker, senior lecturer in music and conductor of University Jazz Ensembles; Ze'eva Cohen, head of dance studies (whose choreography for "Rainwood" is pictured above); and playwright Erik Ehn, who is a Stewart Fellow in Theater and Dance this semester. The event is sponsored by the Program in Theater and Dance and Office of Religious Life.