N A S S A U   N O T E S

	Tom Paulin

Poet Tom Paulin will read

Poet Tom Paulin will read from his work at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St. He won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1977 for his first collection of poetry, "A State of Justice." His recent collection is titled "The Invasion Handbook." The reading is sponsored by the Fund for Irish Studies.

Writers to hold reading

Writers Andrea Ashworth and Marlys West will read from their work at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.
    The two are this year's Hodder Fellows in the Humanities Council (see related story on page 3). They will be introduced by faculty members Joyce Carol Oates and James Richardson. The event is part of the Program in Creative Writing's Althea Ward Clark Reading Series.

Author of 'Naked Economics' to speak

A lecture titled "Naked Economics: Reflections on the Role of Govern-ment" will be presented at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, in 016 Robertson Hall.
    Charles Wheelan, the director of policy and communications for Chicago Metropolis 2020 and former Midwest correspondent for The Economist, will speak. Chicago Metropolis 2020 is a business-sponsored nonprofit group that conducts long-range planning for the Chicago region.
    Wheelan is the author of "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science," published by W.W. Norton & Co. in September 2002. He also has written freelance articles for The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. He received a master's degree in public affairs in 1993 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which is sponsoring the lecture.

'The Third World novelist' is topic of scholar's talk

A talk entitled "You Who Read Me, Friend or Enemy: The Choices of the Third World Novelist" will open the 2002-03 Southeast Asia Lecture Series on Thursday, Oct. 3.
    Benedict Anderson, the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies Emeritus at Cornell University, will speak at 4:30 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall.
    Anderson is widely known for his seminal work on the origins of nationalism, "Imagined Communities" (1983). His writings on nationalism have crossed disciplinary boundaries and have been read in fields as diverse as anthropology, literature, history, law and politics.
    His early work examined revolution in Indonesia and was published as "Java in a Time of Revolution" (1972). His most recent work comprises several essays ranging broadly across Southeast Asian politics and has been published as "The Spectre of Comparisons" (1998). Anderson is the recipient of numerous honors including the 1998 Association for Asian Studies Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship on Asia.
    This lecture is cosponsored by the Center of International Studies, the Program in East Asian Studies, the Council on Regional Studies, Foreign Policy in Focus and the Southeast Asia Society.

Lawyer to discuss protection of human rights in Colombia Oct. 3

Rafael Barrios-Mendivil, Colombian lawyer and human rights defender with the Lawyers' Collective "Jose Alvear Restrepo," will present a lecture, "Protecting Human Rights in Colombia: Local Action and International Collaboration," on Thursday, Oct. 3. He will speak at 4:30 p.m. in 016 Robertson Hall.
    The Lawyers' Collective litigates human rights cases nationally in Colombia and internationally. Barrios-Mendivil has been with the collective since 1988, and has been addressing Colombian issues before the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in Geneva, as well as before the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, since 1995. He currently heads the collective's Washington, D.C., office, working with the OAS and UN.
    The lecture will be given in Spanish with a translator. It is cosponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Program in Latin American Studies.

Festival showcases Latin American and Spanish documentary films

Afestival focusing on documentary films from Latin America and Spain is planned for Saturday through Wednesday, Oct. 5-9. Most events will take place in the Frist Performance Theater on the third floor of the Frist Campus Center.
    Subtitled "Crossing Borders," the Princeton Documentary Festival will explore connections between countries and cultures, fact and fiction, and information and experience.
    "Documentary production in Latin America and Spain has never before shown such vitality and diversity, reflecting -- in surprising ways perhaps -- the moment of crisis and change on many fronts that these societies are facing," said Andrés Di Tella, an Argentine filmmaker and the director of the festival. "All manners of relations and limits are being redefined, as filmmakers cross the borders of convention and genre, challenging long-held beliefs about reality and fiction."
    The films selected for the festival illustrate one of the latest developments in the genre: the personal investigation. These are films in which the story under investigation becomes inextricably mingled with the experience of the individual carrying out the investigation.
    Films to be shown include "La televisión y yo" ("Television and Me"); "Viva Sao Joao!" ("Hooray St. John!"); "Um Passaporte Hungaro" ("A Hungarian Passport"); "En construcción" ("Work in Progress"); and "La batalla de Chile" ("The Battle of Chile"). All films are in Spanish or Portuguese with English subtitles.
    There also will be a workshop for graduate students and a discussion with Di Tella and Brazilian filmmaker Sandra Kogut. For the complete schedule, visit www.princeton.edu/festival.
    The festival was conceived by Ricardo Piglia, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures at Princeton. It is being sponsored by the Department of Spanish Languages and Cultures, the Program in Latin American Studies, the Council for Regional Studies, the Council of the Humanities and Wilson College. For more information, e-mail festival@princeton.edu or call 258-7180.

Hit the classroom before the stadium

The Alumni Council is once again offering Tiger football fans a chance to hit the classroom before they hit the stadium.
    The council has organized a series of lectures this fall that precede each home football game. The lectures are free and are open to alumni, family members, faculty and staff.
    Here is the schedule:
    •Saturday, Oct. 12 (Colgate game): Simon Morrison, assistant professor of music, "How to Listen to a Movie," 10 a.m.
    •Saturday, Oct. 19 (Brown game): James Gould, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, "Animal Behavior," 10 a.m.
    •Saturday, Oct. 26 (Harvard game): Anthony Appiah, the Laurance Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, "Being Yourself: Race and Individuality," 10 a.m.
    •Saturday, Nov. 9 (Pennsylvania game): Lee Mitchell, the Holmes Professor of Belles-Lettres and professor of English, "Does Reading Good Books Make You Better?," 10 a.m.
    •Saturday, Nov. 23 (Dartmouth game): William Howarth, professor of English, "Earth Islands: Darwin and Melville in the Galapagos," 10 a.m.
    All will take place in 10 Guyot, and space is limited. For more information, contact Christine Hollendonner at the Alumni Council at 258-5854 or chollen@princeton.edu.

The University Library has acquired a new addition to its extensive collection of Islamic manuscripts.

William J. Trezise, a New York businessman, has donated his collection of Arabic calligraphy to the library's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Selected pieces of the William J. Trezise Collection of Arabic Calligraphy will go on display in the Firestone Library lobby Oct. 1.

A 9th- or 10th-century leaf of the Qur'an in Kufic script from the William J. Trezise Collection of Arabic Calligraphy.

    The collection illustrates the principal forms of Arabic script, chiefly through more than 100 leaves from handwritten copies of the Qur'an. These leaves date from the 9th to the 19th century, when the Qur'an finally began to be printed in the Islamic world.
    The calligraphy expands the University Library's collection of more than 11,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and other languages of the Islamic world. Princeton owns the largest collection of Islamic manuscripts in the Western Hemisphere. Approximately two-thirds of the holdings constitute the 1942 gift of Robert Garrett, a member of the class of 1897. Carefully built over the course of more than a century, Princeton's collection continues to grow by gift and purchase.
    The Qur'an leaves displayed in Firestone illustrate the special place of calligraphy and luxurious rendering of the sacred word in the Islamic world, according to Don Skemer, curator of manuscripts in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
    "After the Prophet Muhammad's death in A.D. 632, the revelations that constitute the Qur'an were organized into 114 Suras or chapters, and then written down in the Meccan script, a local North Semitic script that had been derived from Nabatean script," he said. "Reading from right to left, Arabic script was used to render 28 letters (based on 18 basic letter shapes, with letter pointing). Over the next 12 centuries, the Qur'an was disseminated by means of scribal copies."
    Until the 12th century, ornamental Kufic script was most often used to copy the Qur'an; thereafter Naskhi cursive script became most common. Other styles of fine calligraphy represented in the Trezise Collection are Thuluth, Nastaliq and Maghribi. The work of Persian and Ottoman Turkish calligraphers was particularly well known.
    "The elegant formation of written characters was enhanced by beautiful page design, the use of glazed or hand-polished Arabic paper, and embellishments in gold, lapis lazuli and other colors," Skemer said. "Through conquest and conversion, Arabic script spread from the Arabian peninsula to all parts of the Near East, then to Africa, Spain, the Ottoman Empire (into the Balkans), the Indian subcontinent and parts of Central and East Asia.
    "Through its association with religion, calligraphy became an art form that had a status not easily appreciated by most people in the West, where mechanical reproduction and electronic communication are so important," he continued. "While occupying an honored place in the arts of the Islamic world because of its role in disseminating the Qur'an, Arabic calligraphy influenced all areas of intellectual life and artistic decoration."
    For more information, contact Skemer at 258-3184 or dcskemer@princeton.edu.

Exhibition devoted to art conservation

"Beyond the Visible: A Conservator's Perspective," an exhibition devoted to art conservation organized by University Art Museum conservator Norman Muller, will be on view at the museum through Jan. 5. The exhibition focuses on the techniques and materials of nine old master paintings in the museum's collection. It will present documentary material and technical photographs that describe the examination process of each work preceding actual conservation treatment. Two of the paintings on view have never before been exhibited due to their fragile condition. The infrared reflectogram digital composite pictured here shows a detail of the underdrawing on an oil painting, "Adoration of the Magi," by an anonymous 16th-century artist. The painting was based on the work of 15th-century Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes.
    Poet Tom Paulin will read from his work at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St. He won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1977 for his first collection of poetry, "A State of Justice." His recent collection is titled "The Invasion Handbook." The reading is sponsored by the Fund for Irish Studies.

September 30, 2002
Vol. 92, No. 4
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Contents

Page one
•Committee proposes program for four-year residential colleges
•Pioneer of modern genetics named director of institute

Inside
•Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding dedicated
•Library acquires Arabic calligraphy collection to add to extensive holding
•Budding journalists report successful experience

People 
•New director, scholars join Society of Fellows
•Council celebrates golden anniversary with sterling faculty
•Spotlight, briefs

From HR
•Annual retiree open enrollment is Oct. 7-Nov. 1

Sections
•Nassau Notes
•Calendar of events
•By the numbers 

Editor: Ruth Stevens
Calendar editor: Carolyn Geller
Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Steven Schultz
Contributing writers: Marilyn Marks, Evelyn Tu
Photographer: Denise Applewhite
Design: Mahlon Lovett, Laurel Masten Cantor, Margaret Westergaard
Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

 
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