Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 12-19, 1999

Volume 27, Number 28

Conference to examine how life
has changed in Connecticut

How did life in Connecticut in the 1880s compare with life in the state today?

That question will be the focus of "Connecticut: Past, Present and Future," a conference being held on campus Saturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18. The event is sponsored by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences as part of its 200th anniversary celebration.

Among the featured speakers at the conference will be David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report and a Yale trustee; Joseph L. Dionne, chair of the board of McGraw-Hill Companies; and William Ferris, director of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In a series of short seminars, scientists, educators and historians will paint a portrait of Connecticut citizens and their communities and examine an array of economic, environmental, cultural and social issues. Among the featured speakers will be Yale professors Howard Lamar, Robert Gordon and Wendell Bell.

Saturday's sessions will be held 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery lecture hall, entrance on High Street; Sunday's sessions will be held 9 a.m.-noon in Kline Geology Laboratory, 210 Whitney Ave.

The content of these seminars is drawn from the "Towns Project," the academy's very first undertaking, in which a detailed questionnaire was sent to all 107 towns in the state, seeking information on their settlement and structure and the overall quality and characters of their residents' lives. This information was used to compile reports on the communities, which were published between 1810 and 1832.

Also highlighting the conference will be several special lectures. Gergen will share his thoughts on current societal challenges at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday; Dionne will speak on teaching and learning in the next millennium at 10:20 a.m. on Sunday; and Ferris will discuss the role of technology in the humanities in the 21st century at a reception and dinner being held at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Yale. The celebration will also include a dinner on Friday, April 16, at the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 114 Whitney Ave.

In conjunction with the conference, the academy will present special exhibits featuring documents, photographs, scientific instruments and other items from its archives at Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St.; the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St.; and the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave.

All the conference seminars and talks are open to the public free of charge. There is a fee for the dinners and other social events. For further information or to purchase tickets, call 432-3113, ext. 2.

Chartered in 1799, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences is the third oldest learned society in the United States. Its mission is to spread knowledge in a broad span of disciplines.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

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Endowed Professorship: Physicist Grober is appointed to Barton Weller chair
Policymakers to consider prospects for economic and social development . . .
Alumna Congresswoman to speak at AACC's anniversary event
Feminist Friedan will take part in 'Women and Freedom' conference
Conference to examine how life has changed in Connecticut
Music student recitals to be held off-campus