Randall Robinson to deliver annual Louis L. Redding talk
Randall Robinson, founding president of TransAfrica Inc. and the TransAfrica Forum, will deliver the annual Louis L. Redding Lecture at the University of Delaware at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 15. Robinson will speak on “Race, Class and Economics: Their Impact on Equality” in Multipurpose Rooms A and B of the Trabant University Center. He is replacing Lawrence Otis Graham who was originally scheduled to speak but had to cancel due to illness.
Also at the lecture, the University of Delaware Library will be honored with the third annual Louis Redding Diversity Award given annually to an individual or group that demonstrates outstanding contributions to racial and cultural diversity at the University. Past recipients have been the UD RISE program and the Office of Residence Life.
Robinson is an internationally respected advocate for human rights and democracy. His efforts have been influential in shaping U.S. foreign policy, in ending apartheid in South Africa and in the return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti.
The lobby TransAfrica Inc. is dedicated to shaping popular opinion in the U.S. to achieve more progressive U.S. foreign policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. The TransAfrica Forum provides educational programs and events on Africa and the Caribbean.
Robinson frequently testifies before both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also is known for staging massive daily protests for more than 400 days in front of the South African Embassy during the apartheid era, and his 1994 hunger strike to protest U.S.-Haiti policy and U.S. treatment of Haitian refugees.
Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Union University and a doctorate from the Harvard Law School. He has published two books and his writing is widely published in newspapers such as USA Today, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Louis L. Redding, the first African-American attorney in the state of Delaware, was an alumnus of Brown University and of the Harvard Law School. He is known for his pursuit of justice and for his unrelenting struggle to accord human and civil rights to people of color. He helped desegregation efforts at the University in 1949.
For information, call 831- 8735.
St. Patrick’s Day events set March 16 in Perkins Center
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, the Perkins Student Center will offer a number of free programs–with prizes and food–on Thursday, March 16, in the Perkins Student Center.
At noon, Irish dancers will perform in the Scrounge, and from 9 p.m.-midnight, music by Urban Celtic also will be featured in the Scrounge.
A number of green bakery products and green ice cream will be sold on March 16, and a traditional Irish meal will be served on the Cafe Features line. Some students will have the “luck of the Irish”–if they find a shamrock, they will get $1 off their purchase.
The University Bookstore will offer 25-75 percent off selected UD apparel and 40-60 percent off selected trade books. Buyers also will get a Women’s History Month brass bookmark free with a $20 general book purchase. There will be a special sale on men’s and women’s baseball shirts and caps, and the bookstore also will offer a wide selection of St. Patrick’s Day gifts and cards.
Anyone wearing green will get a half-price discount at the Copy Center.
These Perkins Student Center special programs are being offered by the student center, the Robert Wood Johnson project and the Irish Club.
International film series Sunday nights in Trabant
Featuring 35mm prints exclusively, the University’s Spring 2000 International Film Series will present a number of celebrated foreign films, all free and open to the public, at 7:30 p.m., Sundays, in the Trabant University Theatre.
Foreign language films will be shown with subtitles.
This spring’s schedule includes:
March 12–My Son the Fanatic, United Kingdom, 1998. The latest film written by Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Launderette) inverts the usual formula: in the north of England, Parvez listens to jazz records while his son becomes a religious fundamentalist. The tensions simmering in this Pakistani family soon boil over.
March 1–The Stuntwoman, (Ah Kam), Hong Kong 1996. Director Ann Hui (Boat People) combines melodrama, comedy and martial arts in this film about the life and loves of a stunt performer.
April 9–Strawberry Fields, U.S. 1997. In the early 1970s, 16-year-old Irene is filled with inchoate rage after the death of her young sister Terri. Terri’s ghost leads Irene from Chicago to the Arizona desert where she makes some important discoveries about her family’s past in World War II internment camps.
April 16–The Limey, U.S. 1999. Two icons of the 1960s collide when Terence Stamp’s ex-con comes to Los Angeles to track down the man responsible for his daughter’s death, a rich record producer played by Peter Fonda.
April 23–The Saragossa Manuscript, Poland 1965. Out of circulation for more than 30 years, The Saragossa Manuscript has achieved legendary status based on the enthusiasm of fans ranging from the late Jerry Garcia to author Maxine Hong Kingston.
April 30–West Beirut, France/ Lebanon 1998. Writer/director Ziad Doueiri (a camera operator for Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Robert Rodriguez’ From Dusk ‘til Dawn) directs his younger brother in an autobiographical tale set in 1975, as Beirut gradually becomes a warzone.
May 7—Genesis, France/Mali 1999. The tale of Jacob is transposed to West Africa 300 years after The Flood. International pop star Salif Keita portrays Esau, who plots against his brother Jacob; the biblical story becomes an allegory for contemporary tribal conflicts.
The series is sponsored by the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the University Honors Program and the Department of English film program.
Call 831-4066 or check the web site at <http://www.english/ udel.edu/ifs>.
Marine scientist to discuss deep ocean exploration
In January, Craig Cary, marine studies, led an international team of scientists on Extreme 2000–the first deep-sea expedition of the century–to underwater geysers called hydrothermal vents more than a mile deep in the Sea of Cortés, off Mexico’s west coast.
On Tuesday, March 14, at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Cary will report on the expedition and its discoveries in a special luncheon presentation, “A Voyage to Life’s Extreme: The Deep Sea.” The lecture, which includes lunch, is the third in a four-part series sponsored by the College of Marine Studies and the Sea Grant College Program.
During the 11-day expedition, funded by the National Science Foundation, Cary and his team took turns submerging to the seafloor in Alvin, the submarine that discovered the wreck of the Titanic. With Alvin’s help, the scientists explored the super-hot vents and their bizarre community of organisms, from weird 4-foot tubeworms to intriguing new bacteria.
Hydrothermal vents are of great interest to scientists because they are among the most extreme environments on Earth. Water as hot as 750° F and a stew of toxic chemicals rockets out of the vents.
The marine organisms that inhabit vent sites not only thrive in these high-temperature, chemical-rich conditions, but they also can withstand the tremendous pressure from the weight of the vast ocean above them and live in total darkness.
Cary said he got hooked on marine science at the age of 15, thanks to a teacher with a special interest in marine biology. To share the Extreme 2000 expedition with middle- and high-school students and the public, he worked with outreach staff at the college and with PBS station WHYY-TV, who developed a resource guide, video and web site for the project.
Video clips, photos and journals of the scientists’ findings were uploaded daily to the web site, <www.ocean.udel.edu/deepsea>. A highlight of the expedition was a conference call among students in 11 schools in Delaware, New Jersey and California and Cary as he worked on the seafloor in the submarine.
A member of the UD faculty since 1994, Cary conducts research in the deep sea to coral reefs, as well as mid-Atlantic waters, where he is investigating the toxic microbe Pfiesteria. He received his bachelor’s degree from Florida Institute of Technology, his master’s degree from San Diego State University and his doctorate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The lecture, which includes lunch, begins at noon. The cost is $10 per person and advance reservations are required. To make reservations, call 831-2841, or send an e-mail to <MarineCom@udel.edu>.
Lecture set on political implications of prophecies
Paul S. Boyer, Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, will speak on “Looking for the Antichrist: The Political Implications of Bible Prophecy Belief in Modern America” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 16, in 125 of Clayton Hall.
The free, public talk is the University’s annual Hutchmacher Lecture, funded by the J. Joseph and Marilyn Hutchmacher Memorial Fund and by the Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events.
Boyer is a distinguished scholar of American history and culture. His many books include Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, which won the American Historical Association’s John H. Dunning Prize; Urban Masses and Moral Order in America 1820-1920; By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age; and When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture.
Editor-in-chief of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to United States History and author or coauthor of two college-level U.S. history textbooks and one high school textbook, Boyer has written articles, essays, reviews and encyclopedia entries and lectured widely at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe.
For more information, call 831-8413.
Geochemist warns against ‘tampering with climate’
Wallace S. Broecker, Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, will talk about “Surprises in the Greenhouse,” at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 16, in 101 Brown Laboratory. The talk is free and open to the public.
A National Medal of Science winner and a geochemist, Broecker has spent four decades studying how the sun, the oceans, the land, the atmosphere, ice and vegetation work together to shape the Earth’s climate. He long ago concluded that human produced greenhouse gases “disturb the climate system.” Broecker once said, “The climate system is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks.”
Broecker pioneered research that shows sharp, rapid warmings and coolings of the climate could affect the global climate in a human lifetime or even a decade. In 1984, he discovered that, during the Ice Age, a deep ocean current added 30 percent more heat to the North Atlantic than what comes from the sun. He linked that phenomenon to the abrupt shifts back and forth between stable states of the ice age climate and concluded that unusual fluctuations of climate could cause drastic global changes.
Broecker received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has authored or coauthored Chemical Equilibria in the Earth, Chemical Oceanography, Tracers in the Sea, How to Build a Habitable Planet, The Glacial World According to Wally and Greenhouse Puzzles.
The American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, the European Geophysical Union and the Desert Research Institute have awarded him medals of honor.
Part of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars Program, his UD talk is sponsored by the honor society and the Department of Geology. As part of the lecture series, Broecker also will lecture to UD faculty and students at 9 a.m. Friday, March 17, in 206 Robinson Hall and via television to additional faculty and students at the College of Marine Studies in Lewes. Topic of that presentation will be “Paleoceanography and Climate Change.”
For more information, call 831-2926 or access the geology department web site at <http://www.geology.udel.edu/ lecture.html>.
School House Rock Live! in Mitchell Hall March 21
School House Rock Live!, the Emmy-Award-winning educational cartoon series, will burst to life on stage at UD with Troupe America Inc.’s School House Rock Live! at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 21, in Mitchell Hall. The show features the popular songs “Conjunction Junction” and “My Hero, Zero.”
Part of UD’s Family Performing Arts Series, the show is $6 for UD students and children, $8 for UD faculty, staff and alumni and senior citizens and $10 for the general public.
The success of the television show led its creators to adapt their work for the stage in a piece that is both nostalgic and contemporary. A cast of six and a three-piece band present Tom, a young teacher, who has just received his degree and is about
to teach his first class. His apprehension and nervousness are brought to life by five characters from his imagination who help him solve his dilemma of how to approach his new students.
The energy and variety of songs will charm kids, first-timers and Generation X-ers. Creative choreography, innovative staging, colorful costumes and silly props further enhance the fun.
For more information, call 831-2204.
Opera, ballet studytrips to be offered this spring
The Division of Continuing Education will offer spring opera and ballet studytrips to the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet.
Trips are scheduled to see the operas Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on Saturday, March 18, and Giulio Cesare on Saturday, May 6. A trip to see Tschaikovsky’s renowned ballet The Sleeping Beauty is scheduled for Saturday, May 20.
Designed to provide a convenient, hassle-free way to see world-class performances, all studytrips feature leadership by UD faculty, orchestra seats for matinee performances and round-trip motorcoach transportation.
Opera trip participants are provided with advance study notes so they can learn about a work prior to seeing the performance. The opera trip schedule provides independent time for dining, visiting museums or shopping. The ballet trip includes a special backstage tour and a visit to the costume warehouse.
Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is one of the major operas of the 20th century. It was originally intended to be the first of four operas devoted to Russian women but Joseph Stalin banned the opera, reportedly because one scene ridicules the police.
Handel’s Giulio Cesare will feature performers Sylvia McNair, Jennifer Larmore, Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels and Brian Asawa.
The Sleeping Beauty, which the New York City Ballet premiered in 1991, is the most elaborate production ever presented by the company. It features more than 100 dancers and 250 costumes.
For more information on any of the studytrips or to enroll, call 831-3063 or send e-mail to <mjarden@udel.edu>.
‘The Law and You’ lectures on Fridays in Gore Hall
The Law and You,” a lecture series offered this spring by UD’s Legal Studies Program, includes talks on capital defense work and victims of crimes. The free, public lectures are offered from 12:20-1:10 p.m., Fridays, through May 12, in 104 Gore Hall.
Future programs include:
March 17–Carl Schnee, U.S. attorney in Wilmington, will give a talk on “The Changing Role of the U.S. Attorney”;
March 24–Mary McDonough, director of the long-term care residents division for the state of Delaware, on “A Public Sector Law Career”;
April 7–Randy Holland, justice for Delaware Supreme Court, on a topic to be announced;
April 14–Sheldon Pollack, accounting faculty member and practicing law attorney, on “You and Your Taxes”;
April 28–Jane Brady, attorney general for the state of Delaware, on “Victims of Crime”; and
May 5–Dan Atkins, community legal aide, Jan R. Jurden, Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, and Susan Miller, sociology and criminal justice, on “The Violence Against Women Act.”
May 12–Program to be announced.
For information, call 831- 1236.
Learn about guiding teens
A workshop on “Teenagers Come Without Instructions” will be presented for employees from noon-1:30 p.m.,Tuesday, March 21, in 130 General Services Building by Yvonne Nass, parent education coordinator at Child Inc.
This workshop will focus on understanding this stage of a young person’s development and learning what’s “normal.” Participants will explore new ways of communicating with and being supportive of youngsters. The workshop is sponsored by the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program.
To register, send e-mail to Julie Skeen at <jskeen@ udel.edu> or call 831-2414 by March 14. Participants may bring lunch; beverages and dessert will be provided.
Independent film set for March 15
The independent film Puddle Cruiser, featured at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, will be shown for the first time in the state at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 15, in the Trabant University Center theatre.
Set on a college campus, Puddle Cruiser is a playful, romantic comedy that offers a fresh take on the familiar. Low budget, with a cast of newcomers, the film triumphantly combines lowbrow humor with careful insight into the current state of campus dating rituals.
The movie revolves around the charming Felix Bean and his motley group of friends. When Felix spots Suzanne at a party, he decides to pursue her. A romance of sorts ensues, though Suzanne remains involved with her old boyfriend as well. Felix tries to play it cool, often distracted by his friends. A hopping sound track accentuates the film’s college feel. The showing is sponsored by Student Center Programs Advisory Board. Tickets for the film, which is open to the public, are $1.
Students get chance to win trip with David Spade ticket
For one lucky UD student, a ticket to the David Spade show at The Bob on Thursday, March 23, will mean more than a night of comedy–it also will mean he or she will soon be flying off on a free trip–for a special Spring Break or vacation.
Through a special promotion with UD Travel, every UD student who buys a ticket to the Spade performance is automatically entered in a drawing to win two, free airline tickets good for travel any where within the 48 contiguous United States, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Nassau. The winner must be booked and ticketed by Dec. 31, and travel must be completed by Jan. 30.
To participate in the drawing, UD students must buy their tickets from the box offices in the Bob Carpenter Center or the Trabant University Center. Students who already have purchased tickets for the David Spade show at those locations have been automatically entered in the drawing.
Spade stars in the current television hit Just Shoot Me and was a popular cast member on Saturday Night Live for several years. In 1990, he was named Hot Stand-Up Comedian of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. His recent films include Tommy Boy, Blacksheep, Senseless and Lost and Found.
Tickets for the March 23 show are at $20 for students.
For more information, call UD1-HENS.
Energetic Caribbean dancers to share their folk heritage
Choreographic artistry and the undeniable energy of folk dance will blend together when the Caribbean Dance Company of the Virgin Islands performs at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 11, in Mitchell Hall.
Part of the Performing Arts Series, the show is $6 for UD students and children, $10 for UD faculty, staff and alumni and senior citizens and $15 for the general public.
Founded in 1977 by artistic director Monty Thompson, the Caribbean Dance Company seeks to research, teach, perform and preserve the rich heritage of diverse folk dance forms from throughout the West Indies. With this unique mission, the company performs for thousands of residents and visitors at home in the Caribbean each year in major and smaller performances. To enrich its authentic traditional repertoire, the company regularly hires prominent folk choreographers from the region. The company regularly tours off-island to North America, the Middle East and Europe.
For more information, call 831-2204.
Student concerto winners to perform on March 19
The University of Delaware Department of Music will present the 2000 Student Concerto Winners Concert at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 19, in Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.
The concert’s free and open to the public. Winners of this annual competition perform as soloists with a symphony orchestra composed of players from major regional orchestras. The conductor is Hekun Wu, director of the University Orchestra.
The seven vocal and instrumental soloists were chosen in December in a competition judged by an outside panel of musicians. This year’s winners are mezzosoprano Rebecca Arnold, soprano Kelly Blanchard, baritone Jeff Chapman, alto saxophonist Harry Cherrin, percussionist William Duncan, soprano Kathryn Prouty and pianist Roberta Watts.
The annual UD Student Concerto Competition was begun nearly two decades ago so outstanding student performers in the Department of Music could perform as soloists with a symphony orchestra. Although the winners are always very talented and experienced young musicians, nearly all are used to performing with piano accompaniment. Nothing quite prepares them for the incredible experience of playing or singing with a 40-person orchestra.
For more information, call 831-2577.
Foreign languages lecture in Trabant Center tonight
The Distinguished Scholars Series, sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, will feature Sander L. Gilman, Henry R. Luce Distinguished Service Professor of the Liberal Arts in Human Biology and Chair of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago, at 7:30 p.m., tonight, in 209-211 Trabant University Center.
Gilman will present a lecture with slides on “Making and Unmaking Bodies: Weimar Culture and Aesthetic Surgery.” The talk will focus on what happened to the idea of the human body after WW I in Weimar Germany, which was the site where modern cosmetic surgery had its first widespread acceptance. The program also will view the question of how our own sense of our bodies has been shaped by the Weimar experience.
Gilman is an author and editor of more than 60 books, the most recent being Love + Marriage = Death.
This is the 28th public lecture in the series. Partial funding has been provided by the University Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events.
Wellness events to celebrate Nutrition Month
A number of Wellness programs have been scheduled during March, which is National Nutrition Month.
Employees can have their eating habits analyzed and receive practical suggestions on how to improve them under the “Rate Your Plate” program. Participants will record what they eat for three days–following instructions and forms–and will receive a nutritional analysis. A special price of $5 Wellness Dollars is being offered through the end of the month. To register, call 831-8388.
“So, You Have High Cholesterol... Now What?” is a cholesterol education program scheduled from noon-1 p.m., Wednesday, March 15, in 303 Gore Hall. The cost is $10 Wellness Dollars, and attendees will be entered into a drawing for a Bennigan’s dinner-for-two-gift certificate. To register, call 831-8388 or visit the web site at <www.udel.edu/wellness>.
Worried about radon? Ramnsey Koul from the state of Delaware Office for Radon Protection will present information on where it is found, what it can do and how to test for it. “The Dangers of Radon: Is Your Home Safe?” will be held from noon-1 p.m., Wednesday, March 22, in 318 Gore Hall. Cost is $10 Wellness Dollars. Call 831-8388 or visit <www.udel.edu/wellness>. |
