Law School alumnus to speak on telecommunications regulation
William J. Byrnes, LAW '65, who is currently of counsel to the Washington, D.C. communications law firm of Irwin, Campbell & Tannenwald," will discuss the topic "Telecommunications Regulation: Something Old and Something New - A Revolution a Hundred Years in the Making" at a brown bag luncheon on Monday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. in Rm. 120 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. His talk is free and open to the public.
Mr. Byrnes has been a leading advocate of competitive telephone service for 25 years. In the "Execunet" litigation from 1975 to 1978, he helped break AT&T's monopoly on domestic long- distance service and establish rights of equal access to local telephone company facilities. He previously was a partner in the firm Haley, Bader & Potts, where he was active in a broad variety of communications common carrier and mass media law issues and handled hundreds of interrelated cases directed to changing the structure of the telecommunications industry from a monopoly to a competitive industry. With a background in physics, he was also involved in the introduction of a variety of technical innovations in the communications industry. His clients have extended from large corporations to small "mom-and-pop" broadcast stations and non- commercial entities ranging from the University of California to small Indian tribes.
Mr. Byrnes earlier career experience includes working as a manager for the Communications Satellite Corporation and as an attorney for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
Defender of First Amendment rights to present Dean's Lecture
Frank Wilkinson, who has devoted his career to the preservation of Americans' civil rights and is now executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, will present a talk as part of the Law School's 1996 Dean's Lecture Series on Tuesday, Oct. 15. His lecture, titled "Revisiting Wilkinson v. United States," will take place at noon in the faculty lounge of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
Mr. Wilkinson is known for his First Amendment challenge of the State and House Committees on Un-American Activities HUAC in 1953. He had been subpoened by HUAC while defending civil rights activists who had been called before the committee, and spent a year in prison after narrowly losing the case. In the early 1950s he was named secretary of the Los Angeles-based Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms, which had been organized to defend victims of HUAC, and in 1960, after serving his prison sentence, he was named executive director and field organizer of the National Committee to Abolish HUAC. The government's committee was not abolished until 1975; however, during Mr. Wilkinson's years as leader of the effort to abolish HUAC, he also became involved in numerous successful campaigns to preserve civil liberties. The National Committee to Abolish HUAC later took the name the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation NCARL .
In 1980, NCARL filed suit against the FBI in a California federal court, a case titled NCARL Wilkinson v. the FBI. In a 1987 ruling in NCARL's favor, the court ordered termination of the FBI's 38-year- long surveillance of and interference in NCARL. In 1985 Mr. Wilkinson became executive director of the First Amendment Foundation to carry on his defense of civil liberties with prime focus on the First Amendment. He has received numerous national awards for his work, including one from the National Lawyers Guild.
Scholar to explore role of food in making of American identities
"Not By Bread Alone: Immigrant Adaptation to America and the Emergence of Ethnic Food Ways" is the title of a lecture being presented on Wednesday, Oct. 16, by Hasia Diner, the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University. In her talk, Professor Diner will draw upon her interest in comparative ethnic women's history to explore the role of food in the construction of American identities. The lecture, which is supported by the Rose and John Fox Lecture Fund, will take place at 4 p.m. in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. It is free and open to the public.
Professor Diner is a specialist in the history of American immigration and ethnicity, women's history, American Jewish history and the history of American religion. She is the author of several books: "In the Almost Promised Land: American Jews and Blacks," "Erin's Daughters in America" and "A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration," which is the second volume in the series "The Jewish People in America."
Her lecture is sponsored by the Program in Judaic Studies in cooperation with the Program in American studies.
Business-NGO interactions is lecture topic of Asia Society executive
Marshall Bouton, executive vice president of the Asia Society, will discuss "Business-NGO Interactions: The Case of the United States and Asia" on Thursday, Oct. 17, 11:45-1 p.m. in Steinbach Lounge of the School of Management SOM , 52 Hillhouse Ave. His talk, part of the International Business Roundtable series at SOM, is free and open to the public.
Mr. Bouton, a specialist in South Asian affairs, was named to his current post in 1990. He oversees all operations of the Asia Society and coordinates the work of all program and administrative staff. He served as the society's vice president for program, planning and external affairs for three years and was director of its contemporary affairs department for six years.
Prior to working for the Asia Society, Mr. Bouton was director of policy analysis for Near East, Africa and South Asia international security affairs in the U.S. Defense Department. During the Carter administration, he was a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to India, Robert F. Goheen.
Mr. Bouton has participated in Council on Foreign Relations study groups on Indochina and on Soviet policy in Asia. He was a member of a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace task force on non-proliferation and South Asian security and, in 1994, he took part in a study group sponsored by The Asia Society and the Center for India-U.S. Education to assess the progress of India's economic reforms, in addition to exploring the opportunities and obstacles facing investors. That same year he also toured South Asia as part of a study mission.
Mr. Bouton has a special interest and expertise in Korean affairs and is coauthor of "Korea at the Crossroads: Implications for American Strategy," the result of a 1987 study sponsored by the Asia Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also coedited three editions of "India Briefing" and is author of "Agrarian Radicalism in South India." He is a regular commentator on CNN Business Asia.
Holocaust museum director to be guest at master's tea
Dr. Walter Reich, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., will be the guest at a tea on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Calhoun College master's house, 434 College St. The tea is free and open to the public; however, since space is limited, those interested in attending should contact the master's office at 432-0742. Mr. Reich's talk is cosponsored by Davenport College.
Dr. Reich is also a physician, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, lecturer in psychiatry at Yale, professor of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Also a contributing editor of The Wilson Quarterly, he was for many years a senior research psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Reich has written widely on the Holocaust, psychiatry, and national and international affairs. He is the author of "A Stranger in My House: Jews and Arabs in the West Bank" and the editor of "Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind." His articles and essays have appeared in scholarly publications as well as in major newspapers and magazines.
For over 20 years, Dr. Reich has worked for the protection of human rights around the world. He is the chair of the Committee on Human Rights of the American Psychiatric Association and cochair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, which fosters the human rights of scientists and physicians in all countries. He has also worked to protect human rights as a member of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1982-83, on behalf of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Reich organized an effort by psychiatrists and psychologists to advice the U.S. Memorial Council on ways of designing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum so as to present material on the Holocaust most effectively to children and the general public. The museum serves as the nation's official memorial to the Holocaust.
Dr. Reich, who completed his psychiatric residency at the Yale School of Medicine, is an associate fellow of Davenport College. He has won many awards for his work as a psychiatrist and his efforts on behalf of human rights.
Catalyst vice president to speak on work family business initiatives
Marcia Brumit Kropf, vice president of Catalyst in New York City, will present a talk titled "Work Family Business Initiatives: History and New Directions" at noon on Friday, Oct. 18, in Rm. 410 of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, corner of Grove and Prospect streets. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy.
At Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that works with business and the professions to effect change for women, Ms. Kropf is responsible for research focusing on work and family issues. She currently serves as the principal researcher for Catalyst's study "The reorganizing of work: Effective strategies for a changing workforce," funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In addition, she has led the project team responsible for creating Catalyst's guide to implementing flexible work arrangements, "Making Work Flexible: Policy to Practice," published this year. She was also a principal researcher for Catalyst's study of corporate-sponsored, center-based child care and is the primary author of two Catalyst reports: one focusing on child care in corporate America, the other on flexible work arrangements.
Ms. Kropf also helps organizations develop strategies to achieve business objectives related to women in the workforce and advises corporate policy planners, task forces and human resource professionals on issues such as women's career development, workplace flexibility and managing gender diversity in the workforce.
For further information, call 432-9935.
Equality Now director to discuss individual activism
"Shocking the Conscience: The Power of Individual Activism" is the title of a lecture being presented on Monday, Oct. 21, by Surita Sandosham, executive director of Equality Now, during a tea at 4 p.m. at the Pierson College master's house, 231 Park St. The event is free and open to the public.
Equality Now is an organization promoting the civil, political, economic and social rights of women around the world. Ms. Sandosham, a barrister-at-law, is qualified to practice law in London, Singapore and New York state. She has practiced civil law in all three jurisdictions since 1982. In 1990 she joined Amnesty International USA as a legal and policy adviser and went on to serve as the organization's deputy executive director for finance and administration.
Scholar will visit as American Art and Culture fellow
Robert Blair St. George, an associate professor in the department of folklore and folklife at the University of Pennsylvania, will visit the University as the first of four American Art and Culture Fellows of the Center for the Study of American Art and Culture. Known for his interpretive work on 17th-century New England architecture and interior space, Professor St. George will present a talk titled "Afterthoughts on 'Material Life in America': Household Spaces in Boston, 1670-1730" on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 4:30 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. The event is free and open to the public.
Professor St. George will explore in his lecture the concept of "material life" and metaphors associated with it. He will offer a critique of material life by examining newly discovered property maps, house plans and domestic strategies in Boston, Massachusetts from circa 1670 to circa 1730.
Professor St. George holds degrees in art history, early American culture and folklore and folklife. He has taught at the College of William and Mary and Boston University and served as a consultant and field researcher at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he was a contributing author and photographer for the museum's catalog and exhibition "New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century." His books include "The Complete Writings of Daniel Gookin," "Conversing By Sings: Performance and Place in Early New England Culture" and the forthcoming Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in Early America." He is editor of and a contributing author to "Material Life in America, 1600-1860," which won the Fred Kniffen Prize for best work in material culture for 1989. Another work he edited, "American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730: An Interpretive Catalogue of the Winterthur Collection," won the 10th annual George Wittenborn Award of the Art Libraries Society of North America and the Charles F. Montgomery Essay Prize.