Princeton University

Princeton Weekly Bulletin February 12, 2007, Vol. 96, No. 15 prev next current

Inside
• Two win Sachs award to study in Europe
• Mix of interests opens doors for student on campus and abroad

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Editor: Ruth Stevens
Calendar editor: Shani Hilton
Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Eric Quiñones
Contributing writers: Cass Cliatt, Karin Dienst, Hilary Parker
Photographers: Denise Applewhite, John Jameson
Design: Maggie Westergaard
Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

Nassau notes

Fischer to discuss Europe and Israel

Joschka Fischer, former German minister of foreign affairs and currently a visiting professor in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, will deliver a lecture on “Europe and Israel” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.

Fischer is serving a one-year appointment as the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Professor of International Economic Policy in the Wilson School, teaching courses on international crisis diplomacy and trans-Atlantic alliances.

Fischer was Germany’s foreign minister during the administration of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. He earned international attention in 1998 when he urged that Germany send troops to Kosovo during the NATO-led intervention there and in 2003 when he advised against Germany supporting the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

In addition to his teaching at Princeton, Fischer is serving as a senior fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and a fellow at the European Union Program. He also has an appointment with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The lecture is sponsored by the Wilson School, Program in Judaic Studies and Liechtenstein Institute.

“Clouds Over Olana,” by Frederic Edwin Church

University Art Museum exhibits works by Frederic Edwin Church

“Clouds Over Olana,” an 1872 work of oil on paper by Frederic Edwin Church, is part of an exhibition that runs through June 10 at the Princeton University Art Museum. “Treasures From Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church” features 18 paintings never before exhibited together outside the artist’s Hudson Valley estate. In the tradition of academic painting, Church routinely sketched in pencil and oil outdoors and returned to his studio to paint finished landscapes. The freshness and immediacy of his oil sketches in this exhibition, such as “Clouds Over Olana,” provide insight into his artistic brilliance, and often relate directly to his more famous works.

Wigderson to present ‘computational’ worldview in series of three lectures

Computer scientist and mathematician Avi Wigderson will deliver a series of three lectures titled “A Worldview Through the Computational Lens” at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Feb. 13-15, in McCosh 50.

Wigderson is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study and has served as a visiting lecturer at Princeton, where he earned his Ph.D. in computer science in 1983. His research focuses on complexity theory, algorithms, randomness and cryptography.

The lecture series will focus on the algorithm as the key to understanding phenomena throughout nature, structures in mathematics and the limits of computer technology. The talks will cover the following topics: “Algorithm: A Common Language for Nature, Man and Computer”; “Time, Space and the Cosmology of Computational Problems”; and “Cryptography: Secrets and Lies, Knowledge and Trust.”

Wigderson was a faculty member at Hebrew University before joining the Institute for Advanced Study in 1999. He received the International Congress of Mathematicians’ Nevanlinna Prize in 1994 for his work on computational complexity.

The talks are designated as the Louis Clark Vanuxem lectures and are sponsored by the University Public Lecture series and Princeton University Press.

Talk focuses on Democrats and religion

Are Democrats Really ‘Anti-Religious?’” is the topic of a lecture by Richard Parker, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University, set for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, in 16 Robertson Hall.

Parker, a University of Oxford-trained economist, has written extensively on economics and public policy. He was co-founder of Mother Jones magazine and has served as a consultant to several Democratic U.S. senators and as an economist for the United Nations Development Program.

Parker currently is a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a senior fellow of its Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Parker’s most recent book, “John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics” is the first authorized biography of the famed economist. Parker also wrote “The Myth of the Middle Class” and “Mixed Signals: The Future of Global Television News.”

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Center for the Study of Religion as part of the “Crossroads of Religion and Politics” series.

Moore, Wolitzer to read from work

Fiction writers Lorrie Moore and Meg Wolitzer will read from their work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Moore is the author of the short story collections “Self-Help,” “Like Life” and “Birds of America,” and the novels “Anagrams” and “Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?” Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Paris Review and many other publications. Her short stories frequently have been reprinted in anthologies, including “The Best American Short Stories of the Century” edited by John Updike and “Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.” She is the Delmore Schwartz Professor in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wolitzer is the author of several novels, including “Sleepwalking,” “This Is Your Life,” “Friends for Life,” “Surrender, Dorothy,” “The Wife” and “The Position.” Her short story “Tea at the House” was featured in 1998’s “Best American Short Stories” collection. She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, at Skidmore College and at Columbia University.

The event is part of the Althea Ward Clark Reading Series sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing.

Feb. 12 lecture explores legal traditions in Islam

A lecture titled “God, Nature or Man: Whose Law for a Free People? The Experience of Islam” is set for 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in 104 Computer Science Building.

David Forte, the Charles R. Emrick Jr.-Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University, will deliver the talk.

During the Reagan administration, Forte served as chief counsel to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and alternate delegate to the Security Council. He also has consulted with the State Department on human rights and international affairs issues. He is the author of “Studies in Islamic Law: Classical and Contemporary Applications” (Austin & Winfield, 1999), which explores the intricate issues involved in Middle Eastern legal studies.

The lecture is part of the “America’s Founding and Future” series sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The series began in 2002 to offer insights into founding and fundamental principles of American republicanism, and to explore their application to current social, political, legal and cultural issues.

Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador to speak on security

Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, will present a lecture on “Pakistan’s Central Role in Promoting Security and Progress in South Asia and the Islamic World” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in 16 Robertson Hall.

Akram has been Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since 2002, following seven years as representative to the U.N. office in Geneva. He has held many senior diplomatic positions since joining Pakistan’s foreign service in 1967 and has served as the country’s representative to numerous U.N. bodies and international conferences.

The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination.

A scene from “The Situation” directed by Philip Haas.

Iraq war film screening and discussion set for Feb. 15

A screening of “The Situation,” a dramatization of the war in Iraq, is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, followed by a panel discussion featuring Princeton faculty members. The film is directed by Philip Haas, who is teaching screenwriting and documentary filmmaking at Princeton this spring.

The screening and discussion will be held at the Montgomery Cinemas, 1325 Route 206, in Skillman. They are sponsored by the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.

“The Situation,” the first U.S. feature film to deal with the occupation of Iraq, stars Connie Nielsen, Damian Lewis and Mido Hamada in a dramatization of the human stories behind the headlines of the war.

The panel discussion will be moderated by P. Adams Sitney, a film historian and professor of visual arts. It will include two Princeton faculty members, bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams, along with Pulitzer-winning journalist and longtime foreign correspondent Chris Hedges.

Tickets for screening and discussion are $9 for adults and $6 for children and senior citizens. They can be purchased in advance at the Montgomery Cinemas box office, 924-7444.

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