Nassau notes

Rwandan president Kagame to speak

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a central figure in ending the African country’s 1994 genocide, will discuss Rwanda’s progress in a lecture scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in McCosh 50.

Kagame’s address is titled “Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development in Africa: The Rwandan Experience.”

In July 1994, Kagame led the guerrilla army Rwandan Patriotic Front in capturing the capital of Kigali and ousting the extremist Hutu government, which had organized the killing of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days. The tragedy recently was depicted in the film “Hotel Rwanda.”

Kagame became Rwanda’s vice president as part of an agreement ending the Rwandan strife in 1994, then became president in 2000 when Pasteur Bizimungu resigned the post. In 2003, Kagame won a seven-year term in Rwanda’s first presidential election since the killings, running on a platform of national unity, economic growth and strengthened governance and justice.

Kagame was born in central Rwanda in 1957 but fled to Uganda in 1960. He became involved in the Ugandan army and received military training in the United States.

The event is being organized by Akwaaba, the African students assocation at Princeton, and is co-sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Program in African Studies, International Center and Bobst Center for Peace and Justice.

Murphy to deliver Constitution Day lecture Sept. 19

Walter Murphy, Princeton’s McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus, will deliver a Constitution Day lecture titled “The Constitution, Dead or Alive?” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Murphy will examine important constitutional questions facing the United States today, including whether current policies justified as necessary to wage a war on terrorism are preserving and enhancing the Constitution or harming its fundamental values.

Murphy, considered one of the most distinguished constitutional scholars of the 20th century, joined the Princeton faculty in 1958 and transferred to emeritus status in 1995. He has received numerous honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association’s Law and Courts Section. His books include “Wiretapping on Trial,” “Elements of Judicial Strategy” and “Congress and the Court” as well as works of fiction that explore political and religious themes.

The lecture is the initial event in this year’s series of Alpheus Mason Lectures in Constitutional Law and Political Thought, titled “The Quest for Freedom,” which is sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the Pace Center and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

According to a 2004 federal law, educational institutions that receive federal funds are required to hold programs about the U.S. Constitution on the anniversary of the document’s signing, Sept. 17, or in the preceding or following week.

Israel-Lebanon crisis is focus of talk

Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt and a visiting professor at Princeton, will present a lecture titled “Arabs and Israelis: ‘The Summer Vacation War,’” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Kurtzer, an expert on the Middle East and the region’s efforts toward peace, was in Israel in July when fighting broke out between the Israeli military and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. During his time there, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to discuss the conflict.

Kurtzer served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005 and ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001. He is now the S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which is sponsoring the lecture.

Expanding role of EU explored

Europe as Empire: The Nature of the New EU” is the subject of a lecture by Oxford University political scholar Jan Zielonka scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, in 16 Robertson Hall.

Zielonka is the Ralf Dahrendorf Fellow in European Politics at St Antony’s College at Oxford. His research deals with the evolving nature of the European Union and the process of its eastward expansion. His books include “Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union,” “Europe Unbound: Enlarging and Reshaping the Boundaries of the European Union” and “Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe.”

The discussion will be chaired by John Ikenberry, Princeton’s Albert Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs. Andrew Moravcsik, professor of politics and director of Princeton’s European Union Program, will provide commentary.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the European Union Program.

University Art Museum

The evolution of Modernism from the 1880s to the 1940s comes alive at the University Art Museum in two side-by-side exhibitions, featuring more than 50 works on paper from the collections of the museum and the University library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

“Fin de Siècle” and “Modernist Art: Prints, Drawings and Photographs” are on view through Jan. 14. Pictured, Max Kurzweil’s 1903 woodcut, “Der Polster” (The Cushion), is part of “Fin de Siècle,” which presents the interwoven influences of Symbolist art, Secessionist movements and the rise of elite camera clubs.