Faculty to give President’s Lectures

Princeton NJ — Three distinguished Princeton faculty members have been chosen to make presentations as part of this year’s President’s Lecture Series.

The series was started by President Tilghman in 2001 to bring together faculty members from different disciplines to learn about the work others are doing in a variety of fields.

Here is the schedule for the 2006-07 academic year:

• On Tuesday, Nov. 21, Simon Morrison, associate professor of music, will speak. His research interests include Russian and Soviet music (especially ballet and opera), French and Russian Symbolism, and neo-classicism. Morrison, who earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1997, has spent a considerable amount of time tracking down lost scores and choreographies as part of his research for a forthcoming monograph with Oxford University Press. In 2005, Morrison and colleagues re-created the choreography, costumes and elaborate mechanical set of one of the great lost ballets of the 20th century, “Le Pas d’Acier” by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. This spring, Morrison will be co-producing a staging of “Boris Godunov” featuring a Prokofiev score that has never been used for a live performance of Alexander Pushkin’s play. In 2007-08, he will be working with choreographer Mark Morris on a restoration of the ballet “Romeo and Juliet.”

• On Wednesday, March 28, Andrew Moravcsik, professor of politics and director of the European Union Program, will speak. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly publications on European integration, global human rights, transatlantic relations, U.S. and West European foreign policy, negotiation analysis, international organization, international relations theory, and defense-industrial globalization — also the subjects he teaches. His history of the European Union, “The Choice for Europe,” has been called “the most important work in the field” by the American Historical Review.

• On Wednesday, April 25, Elizabeth Gould, professor of psychology, will speak. Gould is a pioneer in dispelling the conventional view in neuroscience that animals — including primates — acquire no new neurons or nerve cells once they reach adulthood. Her research has shown that the brain continues to create neurons throughout life, a process called adult neurogenesis. Her recent work has focused on showing how parenting experience alters brain structure in the hippocampus and neocortex, regions important for cognition.

All lectures will begin at 4:30 p.m. at a location to be announced. They will be Webcast; for viewing information, visit www.princeton.edu/webmedia.