Nassau notes
Colley to present second President’s Lecture on biography and history
Princeton historian Linda Colley will speak on “Lives for Our Times: Biography and Global History” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, in McCosh 10, in the second event of this year’s President’s Lecture Series.
Colley will discuss how biography and family history can serve to illumine and add humanizing nuance to periods of global history. She will focus on her book “The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh,” a biography of an obscure 18th-century travel writer, which recently was named one of the 10 best books of 2007 by The New York Times. In the book, Colley explores the life and career of the “compulsively itinerant” Marsh to shed light on the history of the 18th century, a period in which connections between different regions and peoples increased at a previously unprecedented rate.
Colley, the Shelby M.C. Davis 1958 Professor of History, is an authority on British history since 1700. She is the author of “Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850,” which uses narratives written by Britons captured in North Africa, India and North America to investigate the complex dynamic between invader and invaded. Her other works include “Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837,” “Namier” and “In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-1760.”
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.
Jazz pianist Robert Glasper (photo: courtesy of McCarter Theatre Center)
McCarter presents jazz pianist Robert Glasper and his trio
Critically acclaimed jazz pianist Robert Glasper and his trio — featuring bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid — will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, at the McCarter Theatre Center.
Glasper’s work has been praised in The New York Times and in magazines such as Vibe, Time and People. His latest recording, “In My Element,” delves deeper into Glasper’s hip-hop and gospel roots. For more information and tickets, call the McCarter box office at 258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org.
Winter Festival planned at Frist
Students, faculty and staff are invited to celebrate at the Frist Campus Center’s annual Winter Festival from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, on the center’s 100 level. This year’s festival will include live music, a variety of desserts and beverages, a live cooking demonstration, classic holiday films, cookie and tote bag decorating, and a knitting circle.
Cookie and tote bag decorating will take place in the East TV Lounge. Both the East and West TV Lounges will be showing various family films, including “The Polar Express,” throughout the festival.
Knitters of all skill levels are invited to stop by the knitting circle near the West TV Lounge. Representatives from Pins and Needles, a local knitting and needlepoint store, will be on hand to provide instruction and advice.
Chef Rob Harbison, the culinary concept coordinator in Dining Services, will host a live cooking demonstration at 3:30 p.m., including samples and copies of the recipe. Starting at 4:30 p.m., guitarist Arturo Romay will perform a fusion of Spanish, Latin and contemporary jazz.
Frist also is serving as a collection site for the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank through Sunday, Dec. 16. Donations of food or personal hygiene items can be made near the Mazo Family Game Room on the 100 level.
The Winter Festival is cosponsored by the Department of Dining Services, the Davis International Center, the Office of Community and Regional Affairs, and the Undergraduate Student Government.
For further information, including a schedule of events, visit the Frist website at www.princeton.edu/frist.
Price to speak on education reform
Hugh Price, former head of the National Urban League, will discuss ideas on tackling academic underachievement among American youth at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Price’s talk is titled “Demilitarizing What the Pentagon Knows About Developing Young People: A New Paradigm for Educating Students Who Are Struggling in School and in Life.” He will examine attributes of U.S. military programs that contribute to academic success and how they might be incorporated into the American educational system.
Currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Price is a writer and commentator on issues related to education, civil rights, equal opportunity and criminal justice. He served as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League from 1994 to 2003, tripling the service agency’s endowment and launching its Campaign for African American Achievement. He also has been a member of the editorial board of The New York Times; a senior vice president of WNET/Thirteen in New York, the nation’s largest public television station; and a vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Price has written two books, “Achievement Matters: Getting Your Child the Best Education Possible” and “Destination: The American Dream.”
The lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
‘Israel Lobby’ authors discuss book
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt will discuss their book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
The book, published last fall, expands and updates the authors’ controversial article, “The Israel Lobby,” published in the London Review of Books in March 2006. The authors argue that the Israel lobby has pushed American foreign policy in the Middle East, and toward Israel in particular, in directions that often have been at odds with American national interests.
Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and co-director of the university’s Program on International Security Policy. He writes extensively about security issues and international politics. Walt, a former Princeton faculty member, is the Robert and Rene Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University. His research focuses on security issues, foreign policy and military strategy.
Robert Keohane, Princeton professor of public and international affairs, also will offer comments.
The event is part of the “Book Forum: Debate and Discussion” series sponsored by the Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Program in Near Eastern Studies and the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.
Talk focuses on preventing Iranian atomic bomb
Preventing an Iranian Atomic Bomb: Sculpting Effective, Acceptable Strategies” is the topic of a lecture by international security expert David Albright set for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Albright is the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. He has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear weapons programs throughout the world and recently has produced several articles and reports on Iran’s nuclear program.
Albright was an early critic of the Bush administration’s and intelligence communities’ statements about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In the 1990s, Albright cooperated actively with the International Atomic Energy Agency to analyze Iraqi documents and past procurement activities, and he was the first nongovernmental inspector of the Iraqi nuclear program.
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Science and Global Security are sponsoring this lecture.
“Sweet Sixteen” by Kyle Booten (photo: M. Teresa Simao)
Student work exhibited by Program in Visual Arts
The Program in Visual Arts is displaying student artwork in ceramics, sculpture and digital photography through Friday, Dec. 14, in the Lucas Gallery, 185 Nassau St.
Included in the exhibition is “Sweet Sixteen” by senior Kyle Booten, who created this piece by gluing copies of his academic papers into the shape of a dress.
‘Burma in Crisis’ is subject of activist’s lecture
Activist and author Edith Mirante will present a lecture titled “Burma in Crisis: Background and Update on the Saffron Revolution” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Myanmar has been engulfed in political turmoil as the country’s ruling military has detained hundreds of Buddhist monks who spearheaded pro-democracy demonstrations in a movement that some are calling the “saffron revolution,” referring to the color of the monks’ robes.
Mirante has been actively involved in collecting information on environmental and human rights conditions in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, since the early 1980s. She specializes in the conditions on Myanmar’s northern and western frontiers and has had extensive contacts with ethnic groups from those remote areas.
Mirante also is the founder and director of Project Maje, an independent effort to distribute information about Myanmar since 1986, and she is the author of “Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure.” She also has testified on Myanmar before the U.S. Congress.
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination are sponsoring this lecture.
CPUC meeting set
The Council of the Princeton University Community will meet from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, in Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture. All members of the University community are invited to attend.
Agenda items include an update on the work of the council’s Priorities Committee and recommendations on the University’s operating budget, and a discussion on campus sustainability efforts.
For more information, visit www.princeton.edu/~vp/cpuc.
Day care available at Dow Jones center
As part of efforts to provide child care assistance to University families, Princeton has reached an agreement with the Dow Jones Family Center in Monmouth Junction to enroll children of faculty and staff in day care at the center. A limited number of openings currently are available.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions operates the full-day program for children from 6 weeks to 5 years old, including a full-day kindergarten. The center is open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and is located in the Dow Jones & Co. complex on Route 1 near Ridge Road.
For more information, contact the center’s director, Sandy Alu, at 520-7501 or dowjones@brighthorizons.com, or visit centers.brighthorizons.com/dowjones.
For more information on other services for Princeton faculty and staff with children, contact the Office of Human Resources at 258-3302 or benefits@princeton.edu, or visit www.princeton.edu/hr/worklife/index.htm.
