Visiting on Campus X
Culture and genetics is focus of Race, Health and Medicine talk
The Race, Health and Medicine series will feature a lecture by Priscilla Wald, associate professor of women's studies and
English at Duke University, on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Titled "The Race for Genomics: From Epidemiology to 'African Eve,'" Wald's lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Gordon Parks Seminar Room, Rm. 313, 493 College St. The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, e-mail lindsey.greene@yale.edu.
A 1980 graduate of Yale College, Wald is a specialist in innovative interdisciplinary studies focusing on intersections among law, literature, science and medicine. She is also an affiliate of Duke's Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities.
In 2002, Wald coedited an issue of the journal American Literature (with Yale faculty member Wai Chee Dimock) on the themes of literature and science.
The author of "Constituting Americans: Cultural Anxiety and Narrative Form," Wald is presently at work on two books: "Cultures and Carriers: From 'Typhoid Mary' to 'Patient Zero,'" which deals with contagion, culture and the evolution of the outbreak narrative, and "Clones, Chimeras and Other Creatures of the Biological Revolution: Essays on Genetics and Popular Culture," a collection of essays about how the language, narratives and images of genomic science in the popular media shape public understanding of the science.
Wald is the recipient of several grants and fellowships, including an award from the National Institutes of Health to study representations of genetics in literature, film and popular culture.
Novelist Gregory Maguire will visit the campus on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Maguire will speak at 4:30 p.m. at
the Calhoun College master's house, 434 College St. The talk is free and open to the public.
Maguire has written four novels for adults and more than a dozen for children.
His adult novels include "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," praised by John Updike in the New Yorker as "an amazing novel"; "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," "Lost," and "Mirror Mirror."
"Wicked" was developed into a Broadway musical and "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" was filmed for ABC/Disney.
Maguire's work for adults and for children has been published in England, Ireland and Australia, and various works have been purchased for translation into numerous languages.
His children's novels include "The Hamlet Chronicles," a projected seven book series including, to date, "Seven Spiders Spinning," "Six Haunted Hairdos," "Five Alien Elves," "Four Stupid Cupids," "Three Rotten Eggs" and the forthcoming "A Couple of April Fools."
Though he is best known as a fantasy writer, Maguire has also written picture books, science fiction, and realistic and historic fiction. He has also contributed articles and essays in journals such as the Boston Review and the Christian Science Monitor.
Since 1986 he has been codirector and founding board member of Children's Literature New England Inc., a nonprofit group that focuses attention on the significance of literature in the lives of children.
Lee M. Silver, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, will visit the campus on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
Silver will speak to the "Technology and Ethics" Working Research Group in a lecture titled "Challenging Mother Nature: Biotechnology in a Spiritual World" at
4:15 p.m. in Rm. 128 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. A dinner and discussion period will follow from 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carol Pollard
at (203) 432-6188 or e-mail carol.pollard@yale.edu.
Silver is the author of "Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family," which was published in 15 languages.
In 1993, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1995, he received a 10-year National Institutes of Health MERIT award.
He has published over 160 scientific articles in the fields of genetics, evolution, reproduction and behavioral science, among others.
Silver has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including NBC's "Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," the Jim Lehrer PBS "News Hour," ABC's "Nightline," ABC's "World Report with Peter Jennings," "60 Minutes" and NPR's "Talk of the Nation."
Silver is currently writing a book that explores the influence of spiritual beliefs on the public acceptance of biotechnology, and the future impact of biotechnology on spiritual views concerning human and non-human organisms and the biosphere as
a whole.
On Thursday, Oct. 7, Canadian author and commentator Irshad Manji will give the first lecture in the International Security Studies' Grand Strategy Lecture Series focusing on "The United States and the Islamic World."
"Women as the Key to Reforming the Muslim World" is the topic of her talk, which will take place at 4 p.m. in Rm. 101, Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St.
Manji is the bestselling author of "The Trouble with Islam," which is being published throughout North America and Europe.
Manji currently hosts "Big Ideas," a television program co-produced by public education channel TVOntario and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. Aimed at college and university students, "Big Ideas" showcases innovative thinkers from around the world.
A frequent guest on NPR, FOX and the BBC, Manji has written for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Glamour.
In a review of Manji's book for The New York Times, Time magazine journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote, "If we survive this current war without unthinkable casualties, it will be because Irshad Manji's kind of liberalism didn't lose its nerve. Think of Manji as a nerve ending for the West -- shocking, raw, but mercifully, joyously, still alive."
Oprah Winfrey recently honored Manji with her first annual Chutzpah Award for "audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction." Ms. magazine named Manji a "Feminist for the 21st Century." In June, she received the Simon Wiesenthal Award of Valor.
Ambassador Hiroyasu Ando, consul general at the Consulate-General of Japan in New York, will speak on campus as part of the Council on East Asian Studies Colloquium Series.
"Japan and the U.S.-Japan Relations" is the title of Ando's lecture, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Henry R. Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave. A reception will follow in the second floor common room. The talk and reception are free, and the public is invited to attend.
Ando assumed the post of consul general of Japan in 2003.
During his career, Ando has served at Japan's embassies in London and Washington, D.C., as well as at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo's Southeast Asia Division, Economic Affairs Bureau and Asian Affairs Bureau.
Previously, he was director-general of the Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo.
Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will deliver the next Yale Center in Child Development and Social Policy lecture on Friday, Oct. 8.
His talk, titled "From High Stakes Testing To Authentic Assessment and Accountability," will be held at 11:30 a.m. in
Rm. 102, Becton Center, 15 Prospect St. The event is free and open to the public. For further information, call (203) 432-9935.
By placing special emphasis on eliminating the racial, class, gender and cultural
barriers to equal opportunity posed by
standardized tests, FairTest works to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.
Neill has directed FairTest's work on testing in the public schools since 1987. He has led national coalitions of education, civil rights and parent organizations to work toward fundamental change in the assessment of students and in accountability.
Neill is co-author of "Failing Our Children," a new report analyzing the federal No Child Left Behind Act. He led the National Forum on Assessment in developing Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems, signed by over 80 national and regional education and civil rights organizations. He also is the author of Implementing Performance Assessments: A Guide to Classroom School and System Reform and Testing Our Children: A Report Card on State Assessment Systems, the first comprehensive evaluation of all 50 state testing programs.
Jack Greenberg, professor of law at Columbia University, will speak at a master's tea on Friday, Oct. 8.
Greenberg's talk will begin at 4 p.m.
at the Morse College master's house,
99 Tower Parkway. The talk is free and open to the public.
Greenberg, who has been on the faculty at Columbia University Law School since 1984, is the author of numerous books and articles on civil rights and capital punishment, including "Race Relations and American Law" and "Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution."
Throughout his career he has remained active in civil rights and human rights causes, and in 2001, was honored by President Bill Clinton with a Presidential Citizens Medal. President Clinton said of him, "In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century."
Greenberg argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 40 cases, including Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. He is the former director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and continues to serve the NAACP as a member of the executive committee of the board.
The founder of the Earl Warren Legal Training Program and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Greenberg was awarded the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Award
in 1996.
Naomi Chazan, founder of Israel Women's Network and Israel Women's Peace Net, will speak on campus on Sunday, Oct. 10.
Chazan will discuss "The Future of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State: Prospects for Peace" at 7 p.m. at the Slifka Center,
80 Wall St. Sponsored by Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Meretz-USA, Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale and Yale Friends of Israel, the talk is open to the public free of charge.
Chazan, whose career in activism in the spheres of government, civil society and academia has spanned 30 years, has focused her efforts on advancing the status of women in Israel. In 1984, she co-founded the Israel Women's Network and in 1989, the Israel Women's Peace Net. A leader of Israel's Women's Peace Movement, Chazan served as a member of the Israeli Delegation to the U.N. Conference on Women in Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995).
Chazan is perhaps best known for her 10 years in the Knesset as one of Meretz Party's most effective legislators. She was first elected to the Knesset in 1992 and served that organization as deputy speaker. In addition, she has chaired the Committee to Combat Drug Abuse, and was a member of the committees on Foreign Affairs and Defense, and Immigration and Absorption, among others.
A professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Chazan's area of expertise is African studies, and she has authored eight books and over 50 articles on the subject.
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