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Visiting Campus

Noted author champion of jazz music will read from his works

Albert Murray, who has based some of his writing upon the idiomatic features of blues and jazz music, will read from his works on Monday, April 14, at 4 p.m. in the lecture hall of Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St. The event, sponsored by the English department, is free and open to the public.

Mr. Murray, the author of fiction and nonfiction, claims to have been influenced as much in his writing by Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington as by Eliot, Hemingway, Joyce, Faulkner and Thomas Mann. In 1970, at the age of 54, he published his first book, "The Omni-Americans," a collection of essays and critical reviews challenging the social scientific approach to the study of black life in America. Among his other works of nonfiction are "South to a Very Old Place," a memoir; "The Hero and the Blues," "Stomping the Blues" and "The Blue Devils of Nada," collections of his lectures and essays on blues music, jazz and modernist literature; and "Good Morning, Blues," the autobiography of Count Basie as told to Mr. Murray. He has also authored three novels, a trilogy that includes "Train Whistle Guitar," "The Spyglass Tree" and most recently, "The Seven League Boots."

Mr. Murray is also a major figure in the institutionalization of jazz in the United States, which he champions as the American music of the 20th century. He has worked with the Smithsonian Institute and Lincoln Center as well as with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.

Senator's assistant to explore reaction to Israeli politics

David Luchins, senior assistant to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan D-NY and professor of political science at Touro College in New York City, will explore the question "Should American Jews Take Sides in Israeli Politics?" on Monday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sylvia Slifka Chapel, Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St. The event, sponsored by Yale Hillel, is free and open to the public.

Mr. Luchins has served as an assistant to Senator Moynihan for the past 16 years while also teaching at Touro College, where he has also been associate dean of students and chair of the political science department. He has traveled to Israel over 30 times in the last 20 years and met with every major Israeli leader as part of his Senate duties. He is an officer of the Orthodox Union and a board member of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council and the Jewish Fund for Justice. He has lectured widely on such topics as the future of Jerusalem, American Jewish political power, Jews and the political "right," and other topics.

'Redefining the Female Figure' is subject of sculptor's talk

Artist Nancy Fried, a sculptor who lives and works in New York, will present "Redefining the Female Figure," a slide show and discussion of her work, on Tuesday, April 15. Her presentation will begin at 4 p.m. in Rm. 309 of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.

Ms. Fried explores the emotions of fear, loss, grief, pride and hope in her autobiographical pieces on illness and recovery. Some of her most well-known sculptures are of models of herself with one breast, which she created after having a mastectomy. "My work is about the truthfully rendered middle-aged female figure," she has said of her creations. "Our culture says women should hide the 'flaws.' It says that we are no longer sensual, sexual beings when we start aging, get fat, wrinkle or lose a breast. But we're not Jane Fonda! My torsos stand proud and tall, without shame or apology for having developed rolls of fat or having lost a breast. My work is classical, definitely not trendy. I hope that it helps to redefine female beauty."

Ms. Fried's works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and she has exhibited widely. She has received a number of grants for her work. Ms. Fried's presentation is sponsored by the Research Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies, the Women's Studies Program and the history of art department.

Noted art historian to talk at Calhoun College master's tea

Art historian Nicholas Fox Weber M.A. '71, executive director of the Josef Albers Foundation in Orange, Connecticut, and director of the Josef Albers Stifflung? in Bottrop, Germany, will be the featured guest at a tea on Tuesday, April 15, in the Calhoun College master's house, enter through 189 Elm St. His talk, titled "Patron Saints - Five Rebels who Opened America to a New Art," will begin at 4:30 p.m. The public is invited; however, as space is limited, those wishing to attend should call 432-0740.

Mr. Weber is the author of the 1992 book "Patron Saints," published by Yale University Press, which won the L.L. Winship Book Award from The Boston Globe. His other volumes are "The Art of Babar," "Warren Brandt," "Leland Bell," "Louisa Matthiasdottir: The Small Paintings" which he coauthored and "The Drawings of Joseph Albers," also published by the Yale Press. He has also written numerous exhibition catalogs, most of which accompanied exhibitions of Albers' works. He has been the curator of a number of exhibitions, including retrospectives of Josef Albers and Leland Bell, held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., respectively. He also was curator of a retrospective of the work of Irving Katzenstein at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

Mr. Weber is currently a fellow of Saybrook College. He is a member of the advisory board of City Spirit Artists in New Haven and is a trustee of Outward Bound USA.

Celebrated Israeli painter to present talk at exhibit opening

Israeli painter Michael Kovner, who has been called " o ne of the most outstanding painters of the younger generation" by artist Philip Guston, will present a gallery talk on Tuesday, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. during the opening reception for an exhibition of his works at the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St. The reception will take place 5:30-8:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Mr. Kovner's paintings have achieved recognition throughout the world. His works appear in private as well as museum collections, including the Jewish Museum in New York, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum and the Haifa Museum. The son of the late Israeli poet Abba Kovner, the artist is known for his landscapes, which are distinguished by their brilliant colors and follow in the impressionistic tradition of Cezanne and Matisse. Mr. Kovner creates these landscapes outside because "Painting outside is not like painting what you see through a window. Outside nature engulfs you, you are part of it and it is part of you," he has said.

On exhibit at the Slifka Center is a collection titled "Eretz - Land," which features landscapes, still lifes and interiors. They will be on view through June 15 in the Slifka Center's Allan and Leah Rabinowitz Gallery. For more information, call 432-8528.

Actor to perform his critically acclaimed one-man show

Actor and playwright Lane Nishikawa will perform his critically acclaimed one-man show, "I'm on a Mission From Buddha," on Tuesday, April 15, at 8 p.m. in Sudler Hall of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. The performance, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Yale College Dean's Office as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

In the 90-minute "I'm on a Mission From Buddha," Mr. Nishikawa plays in 18 vignettes a repertoire of characters "ranging from a stand-up comic to a sushi-fearing redneck to a 442nd Nisei veteran" of World War II, according to publicity material for the show. The performer also weaves in autobiographical monologues about the ironies of growing up Japanese in America and "the manic frustrations of being an actor with an Asian face." Mr. Lane has toured around the country performing the show since it first opened in 1990 at San Francisco's Asian American Theater Company AATC . The show has also been broadcast nationally on PBS.

Described as a "Japanese Lenny Bruce" by CBS News and as a "Japanese Richard Pryor" by United Press International, Mr. Nishikawa is a former artistic director of the AATC and has been involved with the theater for the past 18 years as an actor, writer, director and dramaturg. His most recent play is "The Gate of Heaven," about a Japanese American soldier who liberates a Jewish survivor during World War II. His newest one-man show is "Mifune and Me," about Asian-American images in the media.

Rubella vaccine discoverer to give Horstmann Lecture

Dr. Stanley A. Plotkin, who invented the rubella vaccine currently in use, will deliver the sixth annual Dorothy M. Horstmann Lecture on Wednesday, April 16, at the School of Medicine. His topic will be "The World of Vaccines."

His address, which is open to the University community, is scheduled for noon in Fitkin Amphitheatre, Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. The lecture, presented concurrently as part of Pediatric Grand Rounds, is cosponsored by the medical school's departments of pediatrics and of epidemiology and public health.

This endowed lecture honors Dr. Dorothy M. Horstmann, the John Rodman Paul Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and of Pediatrics, for her distinguished contributions as a biomedical scientist, clinician and teacher. Dr. Horstmann, who is best known for her work on poliomyelitis and rubella, played a major role in developing and evaluating vaccines for these two diseases.

Dr. Plotkin currently serves as medical and scientific director of the Pasteur-Merieux-Connaught Corporation in Marnes-la-Coquette, France. He previously taught at the Wistar Institute and at the University of Pennsylvania. While at the latter post, he was also director of infectious diseases and senior physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Plotkin has chaired the American Academy of Pediatrics' Infectious Diseases Committee and the AIDS Task Force, and the National Institutes of Health's Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Research Committee. The recipient of numerous awards, he has written more than 450 articles and edited several books, including one on vaccines.

Vietnamese-American poet will read from recent works

Linh Dinh, a Vietnamese American poet and anthologist who lives in Philadelphia, will be the guest at a tea on Wednesday, April 16, at 4 p.m. in the master's house of Ezra Stiles College, 9 Tower Pkwy. Mr. Linh will read from his translations of Vietnamese proverbs, which were recently published in a Yale Southeast Asia Studies edition of "North Viet Nam Now: Fiction and Poetry from Ha Noi." He will also talk about his new collection of fiction from Viet Nam, titled "Night Again: Contemporary Fiction from Viet Nam." Mr. Linh, a former Pew Fellow in the Arts, has published his poetry widely. While on campus, he will also speak to students in the college seminar "Not a War: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry from Viet Nam and Vietnamese Americans," which is taught by visiting lecturer Dan Duffy, editor of "North Viet Nam Now: Fiction and Essays from Ha Noi."

Mr. Linh's visit is cosponsored by the Asian-American Cultural Center.

Post-Cold War strategy is lecture topic of U.S. foreign policy expert

Michael Mandelbaum '68, a noted authority on American foreign policy and international security issues, will deliver a lecture titled "Post-Cold War American Foreign Policy: The Basics" on Wednesday, April 16, at 4 p.m. in Rm. 203 of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. In his lecture, which is free and open to the public, he will assess the position of the U.S. in the world order since the end of the Cold War and outline some basic principles for American grand strategy. The talk is sponsored by International Security Studies.

Professor Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He also is director of the Project on East-West Relations at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York, and is a regular foreign affairs columnist for Newsday. In addition, he is the associate director of the Aspen Institute's Congressional Project on American Relations with the Former Communist World. He has recently been engaged in the public debate about NATO expansion, and has argued against the enlargement of the alliance to include the states of East-Central Europe.

Professor Mandelbaum is the author of seven books on nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy, U.S.-Soviet relations and Cold War politics. His most recent work is "The Dawn of Peace in Europe." He has taught at Harvard and Columbia universities and the U.S. Naval Academy.

'Culture and the Future' is theme of museum director's talk

Thomas Krens M.P.P.M. '84, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, will discuss the topic "Culture and the Future" on Wednesday, April 16, 6-8 p.m. in the General Motors Room of the School of Management, 55 Hillhouse Ave. The public is invited to attend the free event.

Mr. Krens has served since 1988 as director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversees the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. He serves as director of all three institutions. One of his major accomplishments since joining the Guggenheim has been the museum's major restoration and expansion project in New York, completed in 1992. Mr. Krens was responsible for overseeing the restoration of the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright building, the construction of a 10-story tower gallery and office building and the addition of a new storage and technical services facility, as well as the addition of the Guggenheim Museum SoHo. He is currently overseeing the construction of the new Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

Mr. Krens, who was formerly director of the Williams College Museum of Art, has organized numerous exhibitions of contemporary art that have traveled to museums throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has been a lecturer at the School of Management, where he taught a course on the "Management of Cultural Institutions." Among his other affiliations, Mr. Krens serves on the President's Committee on the Art Gallery and British Art Center at Yale.

U.N. official to deliver annual Rustgi Lecture

"Population Issues of South Asia" is the title of this year's Rustgi Family Fund Lecture, which will be given by Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA , on Thursday, April 17. Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 2 p.m. in Rm. 211 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St.

When she was appointed executive director of UNFPA in 1987, Dr. Sadik became the first woman to head one of the United Nations' major voluntarily funded programs. She also holds the rank of U.N. under-secretary-general. UNFPA is the world's largest source of multilateral assistance to population programs, providing assistance to over 140 countries and territories.

Dr. Sadik has called attention to the importance of addressing the needs of women and of involving them directly in making and carrying out development policy. More than 40 percent of the UNFPA professional staff are women, and the fund has promoted more women to leadership positions than any other part of the U.N. system.

A native of Pakistan, Dr. Sadik formerly directed the agency that carries out the national family-planning program in Pakistan. She joined UNFPA in 1971 and was chief of its programme division and assistant executive director prior to her current appointment. The recipient of numerous international honors and awards, in 1976 she became the first female to win the Hugh Moore Award for her leadership in the family planning field.

The Rustgi Lecture is sponsored by the the Committee on South Asian Studies and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. It is supported by a fund established in 1994 by the Rustgi family in honor of nuclear physicist Moti Lal Rustgi and his wife, Kamla. The fund seeks to enhance the teaching, research and dissemination of knowledge about South Asian studies and life.

Philosopher to explore the 'roots of hate'

"The Psychical and Social Roots of Hate" is the title of a lecture being given on Thursday, April 17, by Cornelius Castoriadis, a noted social and political philosopher at the Ecole des Hautes, Etudes en Sciences Sociales. The public is invited to attend the free talk, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. The event is cosponsored by the Woodward lectures, the department of comparative literature and the Twentieth Century Colloquium.

Mr. Castoriadis was born in Greece but has lived in Paris since 1945. In addition to teaching, he is also a practicing psychoanalyst.

Growing up in Greece, Mr. Castoriadis was a member of a communist youth group, but he broke with the Communist Party in 1942 to join the Greek Trotskyist movement. Upon his arrival in France, he joined the French Trotskyist Party. However, he opposed the Trotskyist view of Russia as a "degenerated workers' state," instead describing Russia and similar nations as "countries of total and totalitarian bureaucratic capitalism." He left the Trotskyist Party in 1948 and founded a group and magazine called "Socialism and Barbarism," which was published until 1965.

Mr. Castoriadis is the author of more than 15 books, including "Crossroads in the Labyrinth," "The Imaginary Institution of Society," the three-volume "Political and Social Writings" and "Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy." His newest works, "A World in Fragments" and "Castoriadis Reader" are to be published this summer. While his earlier work has mainly been a critique of totalitarian bureaucratic capitalism, his more recent writings have focused on an analysis of the crisis of today's world society. He is presently preparing a multi- volume work titled "The Human Creation."

NEC Corporation president to deliver Sheffield Address

Tadahiro Sekimoto, chair of the board and president of Nippon Electric Corp. NEC , will present the first Sheffield Fellowship address at Yale by an international fellow. Titled "Sustainable Growth, Where Will Technology Take Us?", his talk will be on Thursday, April 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Sudler Auditorium of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. It will be followed by a reception at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Both events are free and open to the public.

Mr. Sekimoto, who has served as NEC president since 1980, became chair of the board in 1994. He joined NEC in 1948 and has held various positions with the company, including executive vice president with responsibility for domestic sales, switching, transmission and terminals operations. He was appointed to the company's board of directors in 1974. In 1965, he completed two years of research on satellite technology at COMSAT, a U.S. communications satellite company.

Mr. Sekimoto holds significant posts in various private and government-related organizations in Japan, most significantly as vice chair of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations. He has received numerous honors, including the Purple Ribbon Medal and Blue Ribbon Medal from the Emperor of Japan, and awards from the French and British governments, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The Sheffield Fellowship was established in 1996 to honor the Sheffield Scientific School, which was founded in 1852 but was absorbed into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the mid-1940's. The fellowship brings to campus leaders and innovators in business, industry and government.

Award-winning architect to share his philosophy about his art

Samuel Mockbee, an award-winning architect who advocates more "socially responsive" architecture, will be the guest at a tea on Thursday, April 17, 4:30 p.m. in the Calhoun College master's house, enter at 189 Elm St. His talk, titled "Rural Studio in Greenboro, Alabama," is free and open to the public; however, as space is limited, those wishing to attend should call 432-0740.

Mr. Mockbee is a professor of architecture at Auburn University, where he directs the Rural Studio. The Rural Studio, located in Hale County, Alabama, is a community-based program that focuses on an architect's social, technical and artistic responsibilities to a rural community's 'cultural voice,' Mr. Mockbee has said. He has described his own philosophy by saying, "Architecture, much more than any other art form, is a social art and must rest solidly on the social and cultural base of its time and place. An architect's primary connection is always with place, and for those of us who design and build, we must do so with an awareness of ... a more socially responsive architecture to our own backyards. ... the theory and practice of architecture is not only interwoven with one's community, but with the responsibility of ... breaking up social complacency and energizing one's own local culture."

Mr. Mockbee has been practicing architecture since 1977. His firm has won numerous national and regional awards, including a 1994 American Institute of Architects AIA Honor Award, a 1987 Progressive Architecture Award, a 1991 Architectural Record Award and a 1995 Education Honors Program Award from the AIA.

Narratives on illness will be explored in Warren Lecture

Anne Hunsaker Hawkins, associate professor of humanities at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, will present the Robert Penn Warren Lecture, titled "Myth, Literature and the Experience of Schizophrenia," on Thursday, April 17. Her talk, part of the Program for Humanities in Medicine lecture series, will begin at 5 p.m. in the Beaumont Room of the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. The public is invited, free of charge.

Ms. Hawkins is the author of "Reconstructing Illness." In her talk, she will extend her investigation of the mythic patterns and deep structure underlying narratives of illness. She will turn her attention from bodily to mental disease, especially schizophrenia, finding narrative patterns that recur from Celtic folktales to the work of authors such as Dante or Shakespeare.

National Head Start Association leader to speak at Bush Center

Sarah Greene, chief executive officer of the National Head Start Association in Alexandria, Virginia, will talk about the role of her organization in promoting a quality Head Start program on Friday, April 18, at noon in Rm. 410 of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, corner of Grove and Prospect streets. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy.

The National Head Start Association is a membership organization representing the parents, teachers, directors and staff of more than 2,000 individual Head Start programs in the United States. Ms. Greene began her career as a Head Start teacher in Hampton, Virginia, in 1969. Moving to Bradenton, Florida, she rose quickly through the ranks from teacher to director to become, in 1983, executive director of both the local community action agency and the Head Start program in Manatee County. She was selected as chief executive officer of the National Head Start Association in 1991.

Ms. Greene serves as a board member and adviser to a number of organizations concerned with young children, including the Child Care Action Campaign, the National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development and the Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. She has also traveled abroad as an ambassador for Head Start, participating in educational exchange programs to Australia, China, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

For further information, call 432-9935.

Former Pierce Lab scientist to give Hardy Lecture

Eleanor R. Adair, who was a member of the John B. Pierce Laboratory staff 1966-96 and is currently a senior scientist in electromagnetic radiation effects at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas, will return to the campus to deliver this year's James D. Hardy Memorial Lecture. The lecture, on Friday, April 18, will begin at 4 p.m. in Rm. 101 of the Jane Ellen Hope Building, 315 Cedar St. Immediately following her lecture, a reception will be held at the Peter B. Gordon Memorial Library of the Pierce Laboratory, 290 Congress Ave. The public is invited to attend.

Ms. Adair formerly joined the Yale faculty in 1959, and collaborated with psychobiologist Neal E. Miller on studies of animal learning and motivation. Later, during her tenure at the Pierce Laboratory, her work concentrated on quantifying the mechanisms involving the space regulation of body temperature in both humans and nonhuman primates exposed to a wide variety of imposed stimuli.

The James D. Hardy Memorial Lecture, inaugurated in 1986, honors the fourth director of the Pierce Laboratory. Hardy, who is best known for his application of physical principles to the understanding of thermal physiology, served in that post 1961-74, and was a consultant to the lab until his death in 1985. At the Pierce Laboratory, Hardy researched calorimetry and body temperature regulation and built an internationally renowned research team.

A dinner banquet will conclude events connected with the Hardy Lecture at 7 p.m. in the Presidents Room of Woolsey Hall, corner of Grove and Prospect streets. The public is invited to attend. For additional information or to make reservations, call Catherine Maresca at 562-9901.


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