Nassau notes
Page gives first talk in President’s Lecture Series
Lyman Page, the Henry De Wolf Smyth Professor of Physics, will deliver the first talk in the 2007-08 President’s Lecture Series at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, in 101 Friend Center.
Page’s lecture, titled “Observing the Birth of the Universe,” will cover a wide variety of methods used to study the contents and history of the universe. Page will discuss recent results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite experiment, a collaboration between NASA and several institutions including Princeton.
Page and other members of the WMAP research team have used the satellite to examine the oldest light in the universe and gather evidence for what happened within its first trillionth of a second, when the universe underwent a massive growth spurt 13.7 billion years ago to drive the period of expansion known as the Big Bang.
Page’s talk is the first of three scheduled for this year’s President’s Lecture Series. The others, also set for 4:30 p.m., are:
• “Lives for Our Times: Biography and Global History” by Linda Colley, the Shelby M.C. Davis 1958 Professor of History, on Tuesday, Dec. 11, in McCosh 10.
• “‘Because It Was He, Because It Was I’: Friendship and Its Place in Life” by Alexander Nehamas, the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, on Tuesday, March 4, in 101 Friend.
The lecture 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.
The talks will be webcast; for viewing information, visit www.princeton.edu/webmedia.
“Burmese Monk With Begging Bowl” by Mary Cross
“Burmese Days”: Images of timeless icons and daily life
“Burmese Monk With Begging Bowl” is part of an exhibition of photographs by Mary Cross, titled “Burmese Days,” on view through Jan. 11 in the Bernstein Gallery, Robertson Hall.
As part of her investigations of different cultures around the world, Cross traveled to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 2004 and captured images of both timeless icons and daily life in the once-peaceful country, which recently has been engulfed in political turmoil.
Frist to speak on global health
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, currently a visiting lecturer at Princeton, will present a lecture on “Global Health as a Currency for Peace” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
Frist, a 1974 Princeton graduate, is the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Visiting Professor of International Economic Policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Since leaving the Senate, he has been involved in numerous global health and development initiatives. He recently was appointed by President Bush to serve as a director of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government enterprise designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world.
Frist was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 1994, becoming the first practicing physician to serve in that body since 1928. He was elected majority leader in 2002 and stepped down in January 2007, having pledged to serve only two terms in the Senate.
Frist currently is affiliated with several nonprofit organizations, including Africare, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience and the Clinton Global Initiative’s Global Health Working Group. He also is chair of Save the Children’s global “Survive to 5” campaign, which seeks to provide basic health interventions that can save more than 6 million children around the world each year. In 2003, Frist received Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an undergraduate alumnus or alumna.
The lecture is sponsored by the Wilson School, the Princeton AIDS Initiative, the Center for Health and Wellbeing and the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
Rather to host panel on church and state
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather will host a panel discussion on “Church and State: Separation Anxiety” at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, in the Rockefeller College Common Room.
The event will be taped for broadcasting on “Dan Rather Reports,” his program on the HDNet television network. It is open to the public, but tickets are required. Doors will open at 5 p.m., and final seating is at 5:30 p.m.
The panelists will discuss the history of the religion clauses of the First Amendment and give their opinions about how government should interact with religion. The panelists are:
• Princeton Provost Christopher Eisgruber, a leading constitutional scholar and co-author, with Lawrence Sager, of “Religious Freedom and the Constitution.”
• Richard Garnett, associate professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School, who served as a clerk to former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
• Holly Hollman, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee, an organization serving 14 Baptist denominations that advocates free exercise of religion and minimal state connection to religious institutions.
• Michael McConnell, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and one of the country’s foremost constitutional law scholars.
Tickets for students, faculty and staff with Princeton University ID cards will be available starting Monday, Dec. 3, at the Frist Campus Center ticket office. The office is open weekdays from noon to 6 p.m. Campus community members may bring up to two PUIDs, but can only pick up one ticket per PUID.
Tickets for the general public, with a limit of two per person, will be available from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at the Richardson Auditorium box office while quantities last.
The discussion is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the University Center for Human Values, the Center for the Study of Religion and the Department of Religion.
James Stephens and Isaac Garret Sinclair Newman (as Tiny Tim) (photo: Frank Wojciechowski)
McCarter presents “A Christmas Carol”
James Stephens plays Ebenezer Scrooge and Isaac Garret Sinclair Newman is Tiny Tim in the McCarter Theatre Center’s annual production of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale, “A Christmas Carol.”
The critically acclaimed performance runs through Dec. 23. For more information and tickets, call the McCarter box office at 258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org.
Rise of left in Latin America is conference focus
Scholars, politicians and policymakers from the United States and Latin America will convene for a conference on “Globalization and the Rise of the Left in Latin America” Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 6-8, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Conference participants will examine the identity, origin and future of left-wing power in Latin America, focusing on its implications for economic freedom and democratic institutions. Speakers will include Arturo Cruz, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the United States; Ricardo López Murphy, Argentina’s former defense and economic minister; Paulo Paiva, Brazil’s former labor minister; and Sergio Ramírez, Nicaragua’s former vice president.
The conference is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Witherspoon Institute. Sessions are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Dec. 6; 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 7; and 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 8.
More information can be found on the Witherspoon Institute’s website at www.winst.org.
Young, Zenith present readings
Poet and translator David Young and translator Richard Zenith will read from their work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.
Young has written 10 books of poetry, including “At the White Window” and “The Planet on the Desk: Selected and New Poems.” He also is a well-known translator of Chinese poetry and a Pushcart Prize winner.
Zenith’s translations of Portuguese works include those by António Lobo Antunes and Fernando Pessoa. He has won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.
The event is part of the Althea Ward Clark Reading Series sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing.
Ex-Army interrogator reads from work
Playwright Joshua Casteel will read from his work “Returns,” based on his service as a U.S. Army interrogator at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, in the Matthews Acting Studio, 185 Nassau St.
“Returns” is Casteel’s first play, in which he reflects on his experiences during and after his service in Iraq. The play begins with Casteel’s arrival in Iraq, which came eight months after the release of the infamous photographs depicting mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Casteel’s play tells the stories of people he interrogated and of his U.S. military colleagues.
Following the reading, Casteel will participate in a panel discussion with Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union; David Gothard, director of “Returns”; and Emily Mann, artistic director of the McCarter Theatre Center. Michael Cadden, director of Princeton’s Program in Theater and Dance, will moderate.
The event is sponsored by the Program in Theater and Dance and McCarter Theatre.
