Award-winning public artist
to present slide lecture
Public artist Jody Pinto, whose designs for plazas, bridges, gardens and urban spaces have won numerous awards, will present a slide lecture on the topic "Public Art: Connections/Dissections" at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9 in Rm. 309 of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a discussion. The event is sponsored by the women's studies program and the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies.
Pinto, who lives in New York City, "has become known for designing user-friendly urban spaces and parks that feature functional elements -- including pedestrian bridges, seating and children's play areas," according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Among her current works-in-progress are a sculpture garden at Pasadena City College in California and a pedestrian bridge in Boston that links city streets, transit systems and the Charles River basin. "I try to make the person walking on the bridge aware of its shape so that the person becomes the very muscle and sinew of the bridge itself," she has said
of the project. Her other works include the continuation of Riverside Drive Park in New York City and an open park/plaza at Miami International Airport. She has been honored for her work by the American Institute of Architects, the National Endowment for
the Arts and the American Society of Landscape Artists, among other organizations and foundations.
Noted Harvard economist
to launch lecture series on Africa
Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), will present two talks at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) on Tuesday, Feb. 10. At 2 p.m., he will speak on "The East Asian Financial Crisis" in a lecture sponsored by YCIAS and the Economic Growth Center. It will be held in Rm. 203 of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. The second lecture, "Geography and Economic Growth in Africa," will be held 4-5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Luce Hall. It is sponsored by YCIAS' Council on African Studies. Both talks are free and open to the public.
Sachs is the Galen Stone Professor of International Trade at Harvard University and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has served as an economic adviser to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa. He has been most noted for developing programs for rapid marketization and privatization in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From 1986 to 1990 he served as an adviser to Bolivia, and helped that country stabilize inflation from 40,000 percent per year to the current rate of 10 percent. As director of HIID, he and his colleagues published a study titled "A New Partnership for Growth in Africa," released a year ago, which contributed to the reformulation of U.S. foreign assistance policies in Africa.
Lecture will explore debate
over public policy on wetlands
Jon Kusler, a lawyer, writer, educator, and executive director and founder of the Association of State Wetland Managers, will be the next speaker in the semester-long series "The Restoration Agenda: Water!" at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES). His talk, titled "Wetland Assessment: Conflicts Between Science and Public Policy," will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium of Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. Attendees are invited to bring a brown-bag lunch.
Kusler will discuss the debate over an appropriate federal regulatory definition of wetlands. Loss of wetlands in the United States continues at an estimated rate of 200,000 to 300,000 acres each year. According to Kusler, criteria may be adopted that not only are scientifically unsound and substantially reduce protection for the remaining wetland resources, but also are more confusing and costly to landowners and developers.
Kusler has 28 years of experience working with legal, science and policy issues in water resources management. He has published many articles, books and reports specializing in mitigation of natural hazards, wetland management and water resources planning, and has worked extensively as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, and to state and federal agencies.
Japanese art will be focus
of talks by museum curator
Barbara Ford, curator of Japanese art
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will present two talks on campus this week.
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, she will present
an Art à la Carte talk about the Asian art exhibition "From Tomb to Teahouse" at 12:20 p.m. at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. The talk is free, and the public is welcome.
The following day, Ford will talk about Japanese textile art at 4 p.m. at a master's tea in Jonathan Edwards College, 68 High St. This event, which is also free and open to the public, is being held in conjunction with an exhibit of kimono art in the master's house.
Ford has been on the curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum since 1981. She opened the first permanent galleries for Japanese art at the Met in 1987, and since then has organized semi-annual thematic installations. She has curated several exhibitions of Japanese and East Asian art, including the current show "Resonant Image: Uses of Tradition in Japanese Art," and has written extensively on subjects of Asian art, particularly Japanese ink painting and lacquer. She has taught at Princeton and Columbia universities and at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York.
Specialist on risky behaviors
in teens to talk at tea
Dr. Mary Ann Shafer, a pediatrician whose research has focused on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, will
be the guest at a tea on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. at the Calhoun College master's house, 189 Elm St. The event is free and open to the public.
Shafer, a 1973 graduate of the Yale School of Medicine, is professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco and associate director of adolescent medicine at the University of California. In addition, she is medical director at the Mission High School Clinic. Her academic and clinical activities have focused on the interrelationships among risky behaviors of adolescents and young adults, including such problems as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), alcohol abuse and eating disorders. She has studied the prevention of STDs using both a biological and behavioral approach and has been engaged in evaluating the application of new urine-based molecular techniques to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Shafer has developed STD and other risk prevention programs for high school students and military personnel and acts as a consultant to the Center for Disease Control, the military and the California State Department of Health regarding STD/HIV prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics awarded Shafer its Adele D. Hoffmann Award for her work in adolescent health.
Former New Haven city planner to talk at Law School
Attorney Meredith Kane '76, a commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, will speak on "Public-Private Partnerships in Times Square" on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 4:10 p.m. in Rm. 126 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
A former city planning official for the City of New Haven, Ms. Kane also served as the lead official of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since 1994, she has been a partner in the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She regularly handles issues related to real estate transactions, and has special expertise in the finance and development of complex public/private joint venture projects, including the redevelopment and restoration of Grand Central Terminal, the redevelopment of nine historic theaters in the 42nd Street Development Project and the development and financing of an office/hotel complex in Brooklyn.
Kane's talk is part of a speaker series on "Community Economic Development," sponsored by the Schools of Law and Management. Also speaking at the event will
be Marianne Castillo, director of Common Ground.
Social critic/author will give talks at campus events
Award-winning social critic Barbara Ehrenreich will present two talks during a visit to the campus Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 11 and 12. On Wednesday, she will present a Henry Luce Seminar on the topic "From Carnival to Revolution: Some Questions about the Politics of Ecstasy" at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. The following day, she will be the guest at a tea at
4 p.m. in the Ezra Stiles College master's house, 19 Tower Pkwy. Her topic will be "Blood Rites: A New Evolutionary Perspective on War." Both events are free and open to the public.
Ehrenreich's latest book, "Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War" (1997), was called "brilliant" by the New York Review of Books. Her other works include the collection of essays "The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed"; "Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class," which was nominated for a National Book Critics' Award in 1989; "The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment"; and "The American Health Empire: Power, Profits and Politics" (with John Ehrenreich). She has written for Time magazine since 1990, and her articles, essays and humor pieces have appeared in other magazines and newspapers throughout the world. Ehrenreich's numerous awards include a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Architectural historian
to discuss recent work
Dell Upton, a professor of architectural history at the University of California, Berkeley, will present several talks on campus as the second American Art and Material Culture Fellow. On Tuesday, Feb. 10, he will give a talk titled "Consuming the Sacred: Religion, Community, and Identity in the American Landscape" at 5:30 p.m. in Rm. 200 of 56 High St. On Wednesday, Feb. 11, he will present some of his recent work in a discussion titled "Experiential Cities: Rethinking Early Philadelphia and New Orleans" at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 200 of 56 High St. His final talk, "Engendering the Meetinghouse: The Oblong Friends' Meetinghouse, Duchess County, New York," will be given as part of the Material Culture Study Group luncheon at noon on Thursday, Feb. 12, at Ezra Stiles College, 302 York St. All of the events are sponsored by the Center for the Study of American Art and Material Culture, and are free and open to the public.
Upton is a specialist on vernacular architecture, colonial religious structures and ethnic identity in the built environment. He has written several books, including the prize-winning "Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia" and "Madaline: Love and Survival in Antebellum New Orleans." His forthcoming book is titled "Urban Cultural Landscapes in Antebellum Philadelphia and New Orleans."
For further information, contact Edward S. Cooke at 432-2724 or via e-mail at edward.cooke@yale.edu.
Thai princess will speak
at a master's tea
Her Royal Highness, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand will be the guest at a tea on Monday, Feb. 16, at 4:30 p.m. in the Morse College master's house,
99 Tower Pkwy. The event is free and open to members of the Yale community.
Princess Sirindhorn teaches history at the Chulachomkiao Royal Military Academy. In addition to her scholarly activities and numerous royal functions, she has focused much of her energy on education and social welfare issues. She has set up schools for underprivileged children and established daycare for preschool children. She also has been actively involved in environmental conservation, as well as in the conservation of her country's national heritage and the promotion of national welfare and development. In 1991, Princess Sirindhorn was given Thailand's Magsaysay Award, a national prize for public service.
For further information, call 432-9359.
Master's tea will feature the discover of the "Titanic"
Renowned marine scientist Robert D. Ballard, who discovered the remains of the sunken "Titanic" in 1985, will be the guest at a tea on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 4:30 p.m. at the Calhoun College master's house, 189 Elm St. The event is free and open to the public.
Ballard, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, used both manned and robot submersibles to locate the "Titanic," the luxury liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. He has also studied other shipwrecks found in the deep oceans, including the German battleship "Bismarck," the luxury liner "Lusitania," the hospital ship "Britannic" and ancient Roman vessels. He has been active in promoting natural science and exploration to children and adults alike through his involvement with television programs produced by the National Geographic Society and the adventure series "Seaquest." Ballard's books on his discoveries of the "Titanic" and "Bismarck" are worldwide bestsellers; he also wrote an autobiography titled "Explorations." Ballard has received many honors, including the National Geographic Society's most prestigious award, The Hubbard Medal.