Princeton University
Princeton Weekly Bulletin April 23, 2007, Vol. 96, No. 24 prev next current
- Page One
- • World premiere production of “Boris Godunov”
- • Deepening the discourse on racial dynamics
- Inside
- • Program will create community of humanities scholars
- • Researchers combine efforts to help people of African savannas manage their land
- • Revised plan unveiled for arts neighborhood
- • On a quest for ancient coins, Steiglitz finds inspiration for a book and a course
- • Communiversity set for April 28
- Almanac
- • Calendar of events
- • Nassau notes
- • By the numbers
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- Editor: Ruth Stevens Calendar editor: Shani Hilton Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Eric Quiñones Contributing writers: Emily Aronson, Karin Dienst, Hilary Parker, Ushma Patel, Teresa Riordan Photographers: Denise Applewhite, John Jameson Design: Maggie Westergaard Web edition: Mahlon Lovett
Nassau notes
Deford to look at hype in sports
Prolific journalist, author and commentator Frank Deford will present a lecture on “Sports: The Hype and the Hoopla” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
Deford, a member of Princeton’s class of 1961, is one of the country’s best known sports journalists. He currently is a commentator on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” a correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” and a senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated. He has written 15 books, including “The Entitled,” a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball that will be published in May.
Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters and voted six times by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year. The American Journalism Review has cited him as the nation’s finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. He has received numerous other honors, including Emmy and Peabody awards for his broadcasting work.
The talk is part of the Jake McCandless Speaker Series sponsored by the Princeton Varsity Club.
The Shen Wei Dance Arts troupe at McCarter
The Shen Wei Dance Arts troupe will present its unique blend of dance, visual arts, music and lighting in “Connect Transfer” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the McCarter Theatre Center.
Chinese choreographer Shen Wei has created a performance that explores the relationship of movement, sound and light, set to music by Kevin Volans, Iannis Xenakis and Gyorgy Ligeti.
For ticket information, contact the McCarter box office at 258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org. (photo: Courtesy of the McCarter Theatre Center)
Gould to give final President’s Lecture
Elizabeth Gould, professor of psychology, will present the final talk in this year’s President’s Lecture Series on Wednesday, April 25.
She will deliver an address titled “Structural Plasticity in the Adult Brain” at 4:30 p.m. in McCosh 10.
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.
The lecture series was initiated by President Tilghman in 2001 to bring together faculty members from different disciplines.
Pulitzer winner discusses Al-Qaeda
Lawrence Wright, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. He will speak on “Al-Qaeda: Past, Present and Future.”
Wright’s book on Al-Qaeda, published in 2006, recently won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. It also won the Lionel Gelber Award for nonfiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. A staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992, he has won the National Magazine Award for Reporting as well as the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism.
The talk is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Program and Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and Council of the Humanities.
Reading examines Katrina aftermath
Author Randall Kenan, whose works focus on sexuality, class, race, religion and the American South, will read from new essays inspired by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, in the Chancellor Green Rotunda.
Kenan will read from “The Fire This Time,” a book of essays that will be published in May. In the wake of Katrina, Kenan invokes James Baldwin’s book of the civil rights movement, “The Fire Next Time,” to ask how much progress has been made toward overcoming what Baldwin called America’s “racial nightmare.”
Kenan’s other works include the novel “A Visitation of Spirits,” the story collection “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead” and the documentary book “Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the 21st Century.” He is an associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a frequent essayist on issues such as class, religion, being a gay African American and the failing perception that America has conquered racism.
The reading is sponsored by the Department of English, Center for African American Studies, University Center for Human Values, Program in Creative Writing and Council of the Humanities.
Top architect explores creative process
Thom Mayne, winner of the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession’s highest honor, will talk about the creative process in a lecture titled “Work in Progress #131” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in 101 Friend Center.
Mayne is the founder and design principal of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm Morphosis. He recently won a major international competition to design a new Paris skyscraper, the Phare Tower, which is due to be completed in 2012.
Mayne founded Morphosis in 1972 as a firm committed to the practice of architecture as an interdisciplinary and collective enterprise. The firm’s work ranges from residential, institutional and civic buildings to large urban planning projects. Its recent projects include the Science Center School in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati’s Campus Recreation Center and the Hypo Alpe-Adria Center, a vast office complex in Klagenfurt, Austria. Mayne’s work is displayed in museums throughout the world.
Mayne is a professor of architecture at the University of California-Los Angeles.
The talk is designated as a Stafford Little Lecture and is sponsored by the University Public Lecture Series.
“Roped Off,” a photograph by Dan Williams, among exhibited works
Art Museum show complements course: “History of African American Art”
Works representing the range and richness of modern and contemporary African American art are on display through May 13 at the Princeton University Art Museum in an exhibition titled “History, Identity or None of the Above: Regarding African American Art.”
This 1987 photograph by Dan Williams, “Roped Off,” is among the exhibited works, which reflect a diversity of periods, geographic regions, subject matter, media and techniques. The exhibition was organized to complement the spring course “History of African American Art” led by Rachael DeLue, assistant professor of art and archaeology. For more information, visit www.princetonartmuseum.org.
Orchestra presents contest winners
The Princeton University Orchestra will feature three co-winners of its 2007 concerto competition, along with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 27-28, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
The performances are the annual Stuart B. Mindlin Memorial Concerts.
Senior Ben Smolen will play the Concerto for Flute and Strings by Jean Rivier, senior Crista Kende will play Paul Hindemith’s “Mourning Music” for viola and strings, and sophomore Jocelyn Drummond will play Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1. After intermission the orchestra will close its regular season with the Mahler piece.
“This year’s concerto competition struck a rich lode, with five winners in all,” said conductor Michael Pratt, noting that the other two winners, seniors Jennifer Hsiao and Caroline-Ami Connolly, performed with the orchestra at its March concert.
“As always, the happenchance combination has yielded a delightful program — a combination of French, German and Russian works, ending with Mahler’s first ‘hit’ and still most popular work,” he said.
Tickets to the concerts are $18 for general admission, $15 for senior citizens and $5 for students. They are available at the Frist Campus Center and Richardson Auditorium ticket offices or online through University Ticketing at <www.princeton.edu/utickets>.
Lessons from Afghanistan war focus of talk
U.S. Department of State official Roland de Marcellus, a Princeton alumnus, will speak on “Lessons Learned From Military Reconstruction Operations in Afghanistan” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 23, in 16 Robertson Hall.
De Marcellus is deputy director of the Office of Development Finance in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. The office has led efforts to mobilize and coordinate post-conflict reconstruction assistance in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and East Timor.
De Marcellus previously served in various positions in the White House, the State Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and in that role oversaw more than 125 humanitarian infrastructure projects in Afghanistan during the post-Sept. 11 conflict.
De Marcellus earned his master’s in public affairs in 1990 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which is sponsoring the lecture.
Ex-adviser speaks on ‘Putin’s Russia and Beyond’
Putin’s Russia and Beyond: What Is the Model?” is the title of a lecture by Andrei Illarionov, a former chief economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, set for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in 219 Burr Hall.
Illarionov, one of Russia’s strongest advocates of an open society and democratic capitalism, also served as Putin’s personal representative to the Group of Eight industrial nations. He currently is senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
The talk, designated as the Cyril Black Memorial Lecture, is sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.