Nassau notes
1,400 expected to attend Alumni Day program
Some 1,400 alumni and parents of current undergraduates are expected on campus for a day of lectures, ceremonies and other events Saturday, Feb. 23.
Highlights of the annual Alumni Day and Parents’ Program, coordinated by the Office of the Alumni Association, include:
• A lecture at 9:15 a.m. by James Madison Medalist Lawrence Goldman, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Goldman, who earned graduate degrees from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1969 and 1976, will deliver a talk titled “Should the Arts Have a Social Agenda? Not Just Yes. Hell Yes.”
• A 10 a.m. conversation with University Architect Jon Hlafter in McCosh 50. Hlafter will discuss Princeton’s long-term campus planning efforts, including plans for the creation of a new arts and transit neighborhood.
• An address at 10:30 a.m. by Woodrow Wilson Award winner John Rogers, who is chairman, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Ariel Capital Management, the nation’s largest minority-run mutual fund firm. Rogers, a 1980 Princeton graduate, will speak in Richardson Auditorium on “A Rude Awakening for the American Dream: Is a Comfortable Retirement Still a Reality for All Americans?”
• A 12:15 p.m. Alumni Association luncheon and awards ceremony in Jadwin Gymnasium.
• A 3 p.m. service of remembrance in the University Chapel to honor deceased Princeton alumni, students and University faculty and staff members.
• A 4:15 p.m. panel discussion in Richardson Auditorium on “The Arts and Society.” Moderated by Nolan McCarty, acting dean of the Wilson School, the panel will include Goldman; Paul DiMaggio, professor of sociology; Tamsen Wolff, assistant professor of English; and Emily Mann, artistic director of the McCarter Theatre.
The event will conclude with a 6:30 p.m. dinner honoring Goldman. During the day, a variety of other presentations are planned on topics ranging from “Global Warming: Deal With It” to “What Is Islamism?” to “Perils of Prejudice: Universal Biases in Brain, Mind and Culture.” A number of programs are scheduled for families, including one on “Navigating the College Admissions Process” for students in grades 9 through 11, “Flame, Fog, Colors and Light: The Chemistry of Magic” and a “Guyot Hall Dinosaur Tour.”
While the Alumni Day and Parents’ Program is not open to the general public, faculty, staff and students are invited to attend the lectures, panels, workshops and service of remembrance.
For a complete schedule, call the Office of the Alumni Association at 258-1900 or visit alumni.princeton.edu/main/goinback/alumni_day/.
Open house planned on arts and transit neighborhood
An open house on the University’s proposed arts and transit neighborhood is set for 4:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, at the University Store, 36 University Place. For more information, see full story in this issue of the PWB.
Princeton’s changing times
”Times They Are A-Changin’,” an exhibition opening Friday, Feb. 22, at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, looks back on a transformative era in Princeton history — the years between 1958 and 1983 — featuring themes such as coeducation, political activism and the vast physical changes to the campus.
Among the items pictured in the exhibition are: members of the classes of 1957 and 1958 competing in a “cane spree”; 1983 alumna Lynn Jennings, a Princeton cross-country star and three-time Olympian; an overhead view (pictured) of the construction of Fine Tower and Jadwin Hall in 1965; and students marching down Prospect Avenue after U.S. troops entered Cambodia in 1970. Courtesy of Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Ambassador from France to speak
“The Role of Diplomacy in Today’s World” is the subject of a talk by Pierre Vimont, France’s ambassador to the United States, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in 16 Robertson Hall.
Vimont was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in August 2007. He previously served as chief of staff to the minister of foreign affairs since 2002. Vimont was ambassador and permanent representative of France to the European Union from 1999 to 2002.
This event is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Dance festival features work of renowned choreographers
The annual Spring Dance Festival on Feb. 22-24 will feature student performances of works by world-renowned choreographers Mark Morris and Susan Marshall, alongside pieces by Princeton’s head of dance, Ze’eva Cohen, faculty member Edisa Weeks and guest choreographer Marianela Boan. For more information about the festival, see the full story in this issue of the PWB.
Anthony Roth Costanzo, a 2004 graduate, starred in the senior thesis production “The Double Life of Zefirino,” which is documented in Gerardo Puglia’s film. (photo: Gerardo Puglia)
‘Zefirino’ documentary to be screened
“Zefirino: The Voice of a Castrato,” an award-winning documentary about a senior thesis performance by 2004 Princeton graduate Anthony Roth Costanzo, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, in 10 East Pyne.
The film demonstrates how Costanzo assembled a remarkable production to portray the lives of the castrati, male singers in 18th-century Italy who were castrated before puberty to maintain their soprano singing voices. Costanzo conceived of, co-wrote, produced and starred in the production, titled “The Double Life of Zefirino,” as his senior thesis project.
The performance, which included Costanzo singing six 18th-century arias, had costumes designed by acclaimed film director James Ivory, sets created in Milan and two professional dancers who helped convey the story of the castrati.
The film won a 2007 director’s choice award at the international Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Filmmaker Gerardo Puglia directed and photographed the 23-minute film, which took two years to make. It was produced by Gaetana Marrone-Puglia, a Princeton professor of French and Italian who taught Costanzo. Wendy Heller, associate professor of music, was his thesis adviser.
The screening is sponsored by the Department of Music and the Department of French and Italian.
Dan Zanes (photo: Arthur Elgort)
Dan Zanes coming to McCarter
Dan Zanes, a Grammy Award winner for best album for children and former leader of the rock band The Del Fuegos, will bring his rollicking music for listeners of all ages to the McCarter Theatre Center for two performances Saturday, Feb. 23. For ticket information, call the McCarter box office at 258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org.
Former U.S. poet laureate to read
Former U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass will read from his work, including his National Book Award-winning collection “Time and Materials,” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in 101 McCormick Hall.
During his 1995-97 tenure as poet laureate, Hass drew concerted attention to the relations between American writing and local ecologies. Ranging from encouraging local literary societies to “adopt” their native waterways to fostering new scholarship on American literary landscapes, Hass’ efforts changed awareness of the interplay between culture and nature.
Hass’ books of poetry include “Sun Under Wood,” “Human Wishes,” “Praise” and “Field Guide.” His work also includes “Twentieth-Century Pleasures,” a study of contemporary poetry that won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley, where he teaches courses in English and American literature and environmental studies.
Hass is a noted translator whose long collaboration with Czeslaw Milosz brought the Polish Nobel laureate’s work into English. He also has published several anthologies of his Washington Post columns on the life of poetry.
The event, designated as a Spencer Trask Lecture, is sponsored by the Department of English, the Prince-ton Environmental Institute and the University Public Lectures Series. It is cosponsored by the University Center for Human Values and the Program in Creative Writing.Mossberg looks at cell phones’ future
Technology columnist Walt Mossberg, a leading observer of the high-tech industry, will speak about the role of cell phones in shaping the next generation of the Internet at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in McCosh 10.
Mossberg, who has written the “Personal Technology” column for The Wall Street Journal since 1991, has become a highly influential voice in the technology field through his reviews, analysis of trends and consumer advice. Wired magazine wrote in 2004 that “few reviewers have held so much power to shape an industry’s successes and failures.”
In addition to his writing, Mossberg co-hosts a major annual conference, “D: All Things Digital,” which features talks by industry leaders such as Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp. and Steve Jobs of Apple Inc.
In his Princeton talk, titled “The Next Stage of the Net and the Future of the Cell Phone,” Mossberg will discuss the potential for cell phones to function as important wireless computing devices and the power of large wireless carriers in determining how and whether that potential is realized.
The talk is sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Policy.
Museum marks milestone
“Headdress,” (pictured) an elaborate work from Nigeria, is part of a new exhibition celebrating the Princeton University Art Museum’s 125th anniversary. The exhibition, which opens Saturday, Feb. 23, is titled “an educated eye: Princeton University Art Museum Collections.” See story in this issue.
First lecture set in series on China
Political economist Fei-ling Wang will present a talk titled “The Rise of China and Its Implications” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18, in 16 Robertson Hall.
It is the first lecture in a series hosted by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program.
Wang is a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include comparative and international political economy, U.S.-East Asian relations, and East Asia and China studies.
Wang previously taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was an adjunct/honorary professor of the Renmin University of China and Anhui Normal University in China.
The Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, founded in 2005, provides fellowships to young scholars who study both China and foreign affairs.
Event marks public school integration
A celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the integration of New Jersey public schools will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.
“Then and Now: Celebrating 60 Years of Integration in New Jersey Public Schools” will be hosted by Gov. Jon Corzine and Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, who will offer introductory remarks. The event will mark the New Jersey constitutional mandate adopted in 1947, which prohibited segregation in the public schools and the state militia.
The celebration is co-sponsored by the Center for African American Studies, the Fields Center, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Teacher Preparation. Nearly 400 students from high schools across the state have been selected by their teachers to attend the celebration.
The keynote address will be given by Bernard Freamon, professor of law at Seton Hall University and author of “The Origins of the Anti-Segregation Clause in the New Jersey Constitution.”
The address will be followed by a panel featuring: Angel Harris, Princeton assistant professor of sociology and African American studies; Shirley Satterfield, a former student at the once-segregated Witherspoon School in Princeton; and a group of New Jersey high school students who will discuss race relations in schools today. The panel will be moderated by Penelope Lattimer, assistant director of the Rutgers University Institute for Improving Student Achievement and former assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education.
Giles Wright, director of the Afro-American History Program at the New Jersey Historical Commission, will give the closing remarks.
