Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 15, 2008|Volume 36, Number 18

Visiting on Campus

Islamic studies scholar to deliver Terry Lectures

Ahmed Dallal, associate professor and chair of Arabic and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, will be the next Terry Lecturer.

Dallal will present a series of talks titled “Islam, Science and the Challenge of History,” beginning Tuesday, Feb. 19. Dallal will give four lectures on Islam and science, including “Beginnings and Beyond,” on Feb. 19; “Science and Philosophy,” on Feb. 21; “Science and Religion,” on Feb. 26; and “In the Shadow of Modernity,” on Feb. 28. All lectures will take place at 4 p.m. in Rm. 102, Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St., and will be followed by a reception. The talks are free and open to the public. For more information call (203) 432-2317 or visit www.yale.edu/terrylecture.

Dallal’s research covers the history of exact and traditional sciences in Muslim societies as they relate to the development of thought in Islam and its movements. His books and articles focus on the history of science, Islamic revivalist thought and Islamic law. His most recent work, soon to be completed, is titled “Islam Without Europe: Traditions of Reform in 18th-Century Islamic Thought.”

The Terry Lectureship brings to Yale speakers to discuss religion and its application to human welfare in the light of scientific knowledge and philosophical insights. The lectureship was established in 1905 by a gift from Dwight Harrington Terry of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

‘Making Men Moral’ author to visit the campus

The Yale Forum on Faith and Politics and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute will host a visit by Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, on Wednesday, Feb. 20.

George will speak on “Democratic Pluralism, Public Reason and Religious Faith” at 1:45 p.m. in the Jonathan Edwards Dining Room, Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, 409 Prospect St. All are welcome to attend.

George is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and as a judicial fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States.

He is the author of “Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality” and “In Defense of Natural Law,” and editor of “Great Cases in Constitutional Law,” “Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays” and “Natural Law, Liberalism and Morality.” George’s most recent books include “The Meaning of Marriage,” edited with Jean Bethke Elshtain, and “The Clash of Orthodoxies.”

Zigler Center lecture to explore ‘great schools for all’

Alex Johnston, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), will speak in the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy lecture series on Friday, Feb. 22.

Johnston’s talk, titled “Great Schools for All: A Practical Plan Connecticut to Close the Country’s Largest Achievement Gap,” will be held 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Rm. 116, William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. The talk is free and open to the public and no reservations are necessary. For further information, e-mail sandra.bishop@yale.edu or call (203) 432-9935.

As ConnCAN’s first employee, Johnston was responsible for launching the organization in 2005 and currently leads its effort to bring parents, educators, businesspeople, public servants and community leaders together in a common effort to make quality public schools available to every child in Connecticut.

Inspired by the breakthrough success of a number of Connecticut’s urban public schools in dramatically raising student achievement, ConnCAN seeks to raise awareness, empower parents and build consensus for change. In an effort to achieve these goals, the organization offers resources such as web-based parent friendly report cards on more than 1,000 public schools across the state, as well as a series of research reports and issue briefs supporting a “Great Schools for All” policy agenda for closing Connecticut’s worst in the nation achievement gap.

Noted composer is next Poynter Fellow

Music critic and composer Kyle Gann will give a public lecture on Thursday, Feb. 21.

Gann will speak at 2:30 p.m. in Rm. 207, William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. A reception will follow in Rm. 106, 143 Elm St. The free talk is sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism and the Department of Music.

Author of “American Music in the 20th Century” and “Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice,” Gann was new-music critic for the Village Voice from 1986 to 2005. He currently writes the “American Composer” column for Chamber Music magazine and since 1997 has taught music history and theory at Bard College.

Gann’s music is often microtonal, using up to 36 pitches per octave. His rhythmic language, based on differing successive and simultaneous tempos, was developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni and Pueblo Indian musics.

His music has been performed on the New Music America, Bang on a Can and Spoleto festivals, and his major works include “Sunken City,” “Transcendental Sonnets” and “The Planets.”

His writings include more than 2,400 articles for more than 45 publications, including scholarly articles on La Monte Young (in Perspectives of New Music), Henry Cowell, Mikel Rouse and other American composers.

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

Geneticist cited for research on hypertension

Researcher focuses on heredity in quest to understand . . .

Exhibit traces linkages on the ‘Tree of Life’

‘Rolling’ offers honest, sometimes shocking, look at life in a wheelchair

Study: Older women more likely to suffer depression than older men

Researchers seeking new test for detecting kidney injury . . .

Yale Rheumatic Diseases Research Center awarded $3.2 million . . .

One Law Clinic, Two Cities

Conference will look at issues surrounding nuclear disarmament

Former Yale architecture dean to give Chubb Lecture

Study gives high marks to use of bypass surgery for those in their 90s

Yale Ob-Gyn researchers discussed current work . . .

Several Yale Ob-Gyn presentations are awarded honors at meeting

Judith Resnik wins prestigious honor for her ‘outstanding scholarship’ . . .

Lectures explore mythmaking in Hollywood westerns

Panel will explore ways to promote diverse faculties

‘Images 2008’ exhibition includes works by three Yale staff members

Memorial service for Dr. Barry Goldberg

Yale affiliates to be honored guests at benefit event for LEAP

Campus Notes