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Princeton Weekly Bulletin   April 9, 2007, Vol. 96, No. 22   prev   next   current


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  • Editor: Ruth Stevens

    Calendar editor: Shani Hilton

    Staff writers: Jennifer Greenstein Altmann, Eric Quiñones

    Contributing writers: Emily Aronson, Chad Boutin, Cass Cliatt, Teresa Riordan, Steven Schultz

    Photographers: Denise Applewhite, John Jameson

    Design: Maggie Westergaard

    Web edition: Mahlon Lovett

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Nassau notes

Sachs to discuss climate change

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, will speak on the need for improved international climate change initiatives at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in 222 Bowen Hall.

Sachs’ talk, designated as the 2007 Taplin Environmental Lecture, is titled “Negotiating the Post-Kyoto Climate Change Framework.” He will discuss the failures of the Kyoto Protocol, a proposed framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among industrialized nations, and call for a new, long-term agreement among all countries to prevent potentially catastrophic climate change.

Sachs, an acclaimed international economist, is a leading voice for combining economic development with environmental sustainability. He is a special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was a special adviser to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, an international initiative to reduce extreme poverty, disease and hunger by 2015.

Sachs has written or edited many books, including the best-selling “The End of Poverty.”

The lecture is sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Institute.

Talks accompany ‘Godunov’ play

Scholars of Russian history, literature, theater and music will convene Thursday through Saturday, April 12-14, for a series of scholarly events accompanying Princeton’s production of “Boris Godunov,” the famed Russian play by Alexander Pushkin.

The “Godunov” production, which runs April 12-14 in the Berlind Theatre, is the culmination of a multifaceted project that has involved Princeton scholars, students, artists and theater professionals from across campus. Directed by Tim Vasen, the production is inspired by Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold’s unrealized version of Pushkin’s historical play and will feature a score by Sergei Prokofiev that was commissioned by Meyerhold but never used for a live performance of the play. The “Godunov” project is managed by Caryl Emerson, chair of the Slavic languages and literatures department, and Simon Morrison, associate professor of music.

The scholarly events, which are open to the public, begin with a keynote address on “Meyerhold and His World (1929-1940)” by independent scholar Leonid Maximenkov at 4:30 p.m. April 12 in 101 McCormick Hall.

From 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 13, an international symposium will be held in McAlpin Auditorium, Woolworth Center of Musical Studies. Topics will include Russian modernist theater and set design, the challenge of translating a play such as “Godunov” into English for a contemporary audience, and Prokofiev’s incidental music for stage and film.

The symposium will include three panels, featuring Vasen with specialists on Meyerhold’s theater and the arts of the Stalin era, “Godunov” translator Antony Wood with other experts on Pushkin’s drama, and leading Prokofiev scholars from the United States and abroad. Texas A&M University historian Chester Dunning will deliver a lecture titled “The Pretender Dmitrii in History and the Use of History in Pushkin’s ‘Comedy.’”

From 9 a.m. to noon April 14, a series of scholarly talks on topics related to Meyerhold and Prokofiev — conducted only in Russian — will be held in the Graduate Seminar Room of the Mendel Music Library, Woolworth Center.

Tickets for the “Godunov” production have sold out. If seats become available through last-minute cancellations, they can be purchased at the McCarter Theatre Center box office prior to show times, which are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday with 2 p.m. matinee Saturday.

For more information on the events and the “Godunov” project, visit silvertone.princeton.edu/boris/.

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Photographs show Mississippi coast after hurricane

This photograph demonstrating how an 18-wheeler container can become a projectile during a storm surge is part of an exhibition, “Lessons From Hurricane Katrina,” on view at the EQuad Café through Friday, May 11.

The photographs were taken by Yin Lu “Julie” Young, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and her colleagues during their field visits to the Mississippi coast following the hurricane as part of a National Science Foundation-funded research initiative.

An opening reception for the exhibition is set for 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 11. (Read more about the project in this issue.)

Ghana’s liberation is panel topic

A panel of scholars will discuss the relevance of Ghana’s independence to post-colonialism in Africa and the African Diaspora at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, in 219 Burr Hall.

The event, “Forward Ever, Backward Never: A Panel Discussion on the 50th Anniversary of Ghana’s Liberation,” will focus on various aspects of liberation, post-colonialism and development.

The panelists are: Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton; Abena Busia, a professor of English at Rutgers University; Kevin Gaines, the director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies and a professor of history at the University of Michigan; and Renée Neblett, a former Black Panther and the founder of the Kokrobitey Institute in Ghana, an international academic and cultural learning center.

The discussion will be moderated by Abdellah Hammoudi, a Princeton professor of anthropology and the founding and former director of the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

The panel is sponsored by the Center for African American Studies, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, University Center for Human Values, Department of Anthropology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Keohane reflects on leadership

Crossing the Bridge: Reflections on Women and Leadership” is the subject of a lecture to be delivered Wednesday, April 11, by Nannerl Keohane, who joined the Princeton faculty in 2005 after 11 years as president of Duke University.

The talk is set for 4:30 p.m. in 106 McCormick Hall.

Keohane is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Affairs and the University Center for Human Values. She served as president of Duke from 1993 to 2004 and as president of Wellesley College from 1981 to 1993.

Keohane’s current research focuses on leadership and inequality, including gender issues. She has written extensively in the fields of political philosophy, feminism and education.

The talk is sponsored by the Program in the Study of Women and Gender.

Bush adviser to speak on security, high technology

David McCormick, a Princeton graduate alumnus who serves as President Bush’s deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, will speak on “High Technology and National Security” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in 16 Robertson Hall.

McCormick was appointed in August 2006 to his current position, which focuses on policies that protect national security and promote trade. He previously served as undersecretary of commerce for industry and security.

McCormick earned his MPA in 1994 and his Ph.D. in 1996 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, which is sponsoring the talk.

McCormick is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the Gulf War.

Stem cell policy is focus of talk

Stem Cell Challenges in Biology and Public Policy” is the topic of a lecture Tuesday, April 10, by Douglas Melton, a cellular and molecular biologist at Harvard University and co-director of its Stem Cell Institute. The talk is set for 8 p.m. in McCosh 50.

Melton has testified in Congress against current restrictions on the use of federal funds to support human embryonic stem cell research. He also is working on a method of producing stem cells that does not require human embryos.

Melton also is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focuses on the developmental biology of the pancreas. One of the primary goals of his work is to understand how human embryonic stem cells differentiate into insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. An understanding of this process has implications for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, but the research has been limited by the number and quality of available human embryonic stem cell lines.

The talk is the Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture and is sponsored by the University Public Lecture series.

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Exhibition of historic maps and European explorers’ narratives

“To the Mountains of the Moon: Mapping African Exploration, 1541-1880,” an exhibition of historic maps and European explorers’ narratives from the University Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, will open at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 15, in Firestone Library’s main gallery. The show, which runs through Oct. 21, includes this version of a 1541 woodcut map by German geographer Martin Waldseemüller showing the southern tip of Africa, along with several drawings, including one of the king of Portugal in the lower right riding a bridled sea monster. The exhibition will be preceded by a talk by geophysicist Pasquale Scaturro, who led the historic Nile First Descent Expedition, at 4 p.m. in 101 Friend Center, with a simulcast in 104 Computer Science. (Read more about the exhibition in this issue.)

C.K. Williams to read from new collection

Acclaimed poet C.K. Williams will read from his recently published “Collected Poems” and some new works at 4:30 p.m. Friday, April 13, in the Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Williams has published several collections of poetry and received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2005 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for “Repair” and the 2003 National Book Award for “The Singing.”

Williams is a lecturer with the rank of professor in the Program in Creative Writing, which is sponsoring the event as part of its Althea Ward Clark Reading Series.

Travel camp sign-up available

Registration is now available for the Office of Campus Recreation’s summer travel camp for children ages 10 to 14.

The camp begins July 9 and runs through Aug. 10. Campers will participate in trips to the Jersey Shore, a New York Yankees game, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Delaware River for tubing and more.

The cost is $325 per week for University employees or $400 per week for others.

For more information, e-mail reccamps@princeton.edu or visit www. princeton.edu/ ~campusre/ facilities/daycamp.html.

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