Princeton University

Nassau notes

Times editor Keller to speak

Princeton NJ — Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, will deliver a talk titled “American Media: Still the Fourth Estate?” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Keller was named executive editor of the Times in July 2003 after nearly two decades as a reporter and editor with the newspaper. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for his coverage of the Soviet Union.

Keller previously served as the Times’ bureau chief in Johannesburg, South Africa, foreign editor and managing editor. He also was an op-ed columnist for the newspaper and senior writer for The New York Times Magazine. Prior to joining the Times, Keller was a reporter for The Dallas Times Herald, the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report and the Oregonian.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Program in Law and Public Affairs and Council of the Humanities. It is part of a series of events celebrating the Wilson School’s 75th anniversary.

Meeting includes open forum on arts

Members of the campus community will have an opportunity to offer their views on the future of the creative and performing arts at Princeton during the Monday, Nov. 14, meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community.

The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. in 101 Friend Center.

Last winter President Tilghman appointed a task force to provide an assessment of various options that could enhance academic programs in the creative and performing arts at Princeton. Tilghman will lead a discussion about the work of the task force and more generally about the future of the creative and performing arts at Princeton.

The agenda also includes a presentation on the Diversity Working Group, which issued its report this fall.

Noted mountain climber here

Erik Weihenmayer, who overcame the loss of his sight early in life to become one of the foremost mountain climbers in the world, will speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.

Weihenmayer became the first blind person to climb the world’s highest mountain when he reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 25, 2001. He also has reached the peaks of the “Seven Summits,” making him one of about 100 people who have climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

Born with retinoschesis, which gradually causes the retina to deteriorate, Weihenmayer had partial sight through his childhood before losing his vision completely at age 13. Now 37, he has spent the time since losing his sight compiling an extraordinary record of achievement.

He has been a successful wrestler, a wrestling coach and a teacher. He works for the American Foundation for the Blind on its national literacy campaign. He is also a marathon runner, skydiver, long-distance cyclist, rock climber, ice climber and skier.

Weihenmayer’s speech is part of the Princeton Varsity Club Jake McCandless Speaker Series, named for the man who coached Princeton to the 1969 Ivy League football championship. Ed Weihenmayer, Erik’s father, is a 1962 Princeton graduate. He was the captain of the 1961 Princeton football team and played freshman football for McCandless in 1958.

Fields Center art exhibit

“Double Dutch,” an acrylic and enamel work on canvas, will be included in an exhibition of new art by Rhinold Ponder, a member of Princeton’s class of 1981, on Sunday, Nov. 20. The exhibition will be on view from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Fields Center, which is sponsoring the show.

Buruma to present two lectures

Author and journalist Ian Buruma will present two lectures on campus on topics ranging from democracy to nationalism.

Buruma, the Henry Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College, will discuss “Is Democracy a Universal Value?” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, in McCosh 50. His topic at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in 202 Jones Hall will be “A Poisoned Legacy: Nationalism in China, Korea and Japan.”

Buruma has written numerous books on topics including Japanese war guilt, Chinese intellectuals, German war memory, Zionism, European literature and, most recently, North Korea. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, the Financial Times, The Guardian and other publications. He won the Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage in 2003.

His presentations are sponsored by the Program in East Asian Studies’ Henry Wendt III Lecture Fund with support from the University Public Lecture Series Stafford Little Fund.

Wisse to give Bowen Lecture

Ruth Wisse of Harvard University will speak on “The Great Jewish Political Experiment: Did the Diaspora Save or Doom the Jews?” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in McCosh 50.

Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard. A leading authority on modern Jewish literature, she is the author of many books, including “The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Literature and Culture,” which won a 2003 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship. Her latest book is “If I Am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews.”

The talk is designated as the William G. Bowen Lecture, presented annually by the Center for Jewish Life. This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Program in Judaic Studies.

Senior thesis production

The Program in Theater and Dance will present Lileana Blain-Cruz’s senior thesis production of the award-winning play “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 17-19, at the Matthews Acting Studio, 185 Nassau St. Ntozake Shange’s 1974 work offers a portrait of women of color in 20th-century America. Tickets are available at the Frist Campus Center box office at 258-1742. (Marisol Rosa-Shapiro)

Talk focuses on ’05-’06 elections

Josh Earnest, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, and Tracey Schmitt, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, will discuss the 2005 elections and look ahead to 2006 in a talk scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in 16 Robertson Hall.

David Lewis, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs, will moderate the discussion, which is titled “Recapping Election 2005 and Strategizing Election 2006.”

The event is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Woodrow Wilson Political Network.

Pakistani rock star performs benefit concert

Salman Ahmad, one of the most famous rock musicians in Pakistan and India, will visit campus Thursday, Nov. 17, to participate in a forum on tensions between religion and artistic expression and to perform a benefit concert for earthquake relief.

A documentary film presentation and discussion will be part of an event titled “When Art and Religion Collide” at 4:30 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall. It will begin with a screening of “The Rock Star and the Mullah,” which chronicles Ahmad’s investigation of conflicts between clerics and musicians in his native Pakistan. The screening will be followed by a talk by Princeton faculty member Stanley Katz, director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, and a question-and-answer session with Katz and Ahmad.

At 8 p.m. in the University Chapel, Ahmad and his band Junoon will perform an acoustic concert to benefit relief efforts in Pakistan following the country’s recent earthquake. Suggested donations are $10 for University ID holders and $25 for the general public.

The Rev. Paul Raushenbush, associate dean of religious life and one of the event’s organizers, said he and Katz had been “looking for a way to hold a discussion at Princeton focused on the balance between respect for religious beliefs and freedom of artistic expression. Salman Ahmad is both a musician and a person of faith, and his documentary is respectful while provoking many of these important questions.”

Ahmad is a well-known activist for peace in South Asia and has been appointed a U.N. goodwill ambassador for HIV/AIDS. His band, Junoon, has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide and in 2001 became the first rock act to perform at the U.N. General Assembly.

The events are sponsored by the Office of Religious Life, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Department of Music, Council of the Humanities, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and Committee for South Asian Studies.

Babbitt to call for land use policy

Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will deliver the 2005 Taplin Environmental Lecture at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, in 104 Computer Science Building.

In an address titled “Cities in the Wilderness,” Babbitt is expected to make the case for a new national land use policy to combat resource exploitation and out-of-control development. He served as secretary of the interior during the Clinton administration, and was governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987.

The lecture is sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy.