Nassau notes

“International Eye,” an exhibition of photographs from across the globe taken by Princeton undergraduates, will be on view in three residential colleges this spring. The display showcases students’ participation in international study, internships, service and research.

Junior Noah Arjomand, a major in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, won “Best in Show” and first place in the landscape/nature category for his photo “A Plague of Locusts,” taken near Karliova in the Bingol Province of eastern Turkey, where he was conducting research.

The exhibition was created through an international photo contest sponsored by the Office of International Programs this past fall. Thirty-nine photographs were selected from close to 500 submissions taken in 64 countries by students concentrating in 25 departments. Many of the experiences depicted in the photos were funded by Princeton programs and departments.

“Over the past several years, Princeton has seen an increase in the number of students studying and working abroad,” said Nancy Kanach, senior associate dean of the college and director of the Office of International Programs. “We are excited to have this opportunity to celebrate the talents of the students whose photographs bring home to us the richness and diversity of the world beyond Princeton’s gates. We are inspired by their sense of adventure and by their perspective on the world.”

Undergraduates were asked to submit photos that told a story about their time abroad or lent a fresh perspective on the monuments, cityscapes and landscapes they encountered. First and second prizes were awarded in four categories: cityscape/architecture; abstraction; landscape/nature; and people. Another 31 images received honorable mention.

Senior Veneka Chagwedera, a Wilson School major, won first place in the architecture/cityscape category for “Conformity,” taken on a subway in Hong Kong, where she studied for a semester.

Photographer and filmmaker Andrew Moore, lecturer in visual arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts, selected the winning photographs with assistance from Giorgio DiMauro, associate director of the Study Abroad Program, and Martina Anderson, communications and outreach coordinator in the Office of International Programs.

“Selecting the winners was difficult, but it was fun and genuinely interesting,” said DiMauro. “You get caught up in the students’ evident excitement and curiosity. The contest invites students to think about other countries not as destinations, but as places of shared human experience. A person’s hand on a ferry in Vietnam, a richly patterned ceiling in Poland — these scenes communicate the mixture of day-to-day familiarity and wonder that comes with spending extended periods exploring new places.”

The exhibition will be on view through March 31 in the Firestone Lounge in Rockefeller College. (A companion exhibition of photos taken by Mathey College students while abroad will hang in the Mathey Common Room during the same time.) The display will be on view in April in the Wilcox Hall Commons in Wilson College and in May in the Guggenheim Gallery in Whitman College. An online version of the exhibition is available at www.princeton.edu/oip/home/gallery/contest2008.html.

Thelonious Monk biographer Kelley to deliver talk

Historian Robin D.G. Kelley will discuss his forthcoming biography of jazz legend Thelonious Monk at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, in 101 McCormick Hall.

Kelley’s lecture, titled “Monk and Nellie: A Love Story,” will cover his research into the life of Monk, the influential pianist and composer, and his wife Nellie, who was his personal manager and musical consultant. The book, titled “Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original,” is due out in the fall.

Kelley, whose work focuses on African American culture, is a professor of American studies and ethnicity and history at the University of Southern California. He is a short-term visiting fellow at Princeton this spring with the Council of the Humanities, which is sponsoring the lecture with the Center for African American Studies.

Mayhew inaugurates political lectures

David Mayhew, the Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, will inaugurate the Princeton Lecture Series in Politics and Public Affairs with three talks at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, March 9-11, in Robertson Hall.

The new lecture series will feature outstanding scholars of American politics and policy speaking on topics of pressing concern for the United States. Mayhew’s talks are:

• “Congress and the Presidency: Dissonance in their Electoral Bases?” on March 9 in Dodds Auditorium;
• “What Happens to White House Legislative Proposals?” on March 10 in Dodds Auditorium; and
• “Reform as a Property of the System” on March 11 in 16 Robertson Hall.

Mayhew’s research concerns U.S. legislative behavior, political parties and policymaking. His most recent book is “Parties and Policies: How the American Government Works.”

The lecture series is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University Press and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. The talks will be compiled into book form and published by Princeton University Press.

Painter Chris Martin will discuss his work

“Seven (For T.G.)” by Chris Martin (photo: Chris Burke)

Painter Chris Martin will discuss his work at noon Tuesday, March 10, in Room 219 of 185 Nassau St. as part of the spring lecture series hosted by the Program in Visual Arts in the Lewis Center for the Arts. Martin’s works, including the painting “Seven (For T.G.)” shown here, are investigations in color, form and texture — ranging from bold and graphic to gestural and expressionistic. Their surfaces are often distressed or collaged, with elements including shellacked Wonder bread, broken vinyl records and papier-mâché forms.

Writers Kohler, Ping to read from work

Authors Sheila Kohler and Wang Ping will read from their work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Both authors draw inspiration for their writings from the tumultuous political times of their childhoods. The South African-born Kohler, a lecturer in creative writing at Princeton, is the author of six novels. Her novel “Cracks” (1999) was chosen one of the best books of the year by Newsday and by Library Journal. Her most recent novel, “Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness” (2007), was described by author Lyndall Gordon as “a terrific achievement — more graceful, more searching, more truly dramatic than most current fiction.” Kohler also has written three books of short stories and is known for troubling, vivid tales of people trapped in perverse and abusive relationships.

Wang, born in Shanghai, spent a turbulent childhood on a small island in the East China Sea, witnessing China’s cultural revolution. She has published two short story collections; a novel, “Foreign Devil” (1996); two poetry collections; a cultural study, “Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China” (2000); and a traditional Chinese folk tale, “Emperor Dragon” (2006).

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

Women’s global leadership is focus of alumna’s address

Cedar Crest College President Carmen Twillie Ambar, a Princeton graduate alumna, will deliver the keynote address at an American Council of Education Network event on women’s leadership scheduled for 8 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 13, in the Multipurpose Room B of the Frist Campus Center. The theme of the organization’s fourth annual Women of Color Breakfast is “Modeling and Advancing Women’s Leadership in the Age of Globalization.”

Ambar earned a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and served as the school’s assistant dean of graduate education. She was named president of Cedar Crest College in 2008 after serving as dean of Douglass College at Rutgers University.

A $25 registration fee is required to attend. To register, e-mail Barbara Gaba at gaba@ucc.edu.