TransAfrica founder to be guest at master's tea
Randall Robinson, the founder of TransAfrica, will discuss his book "Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America" on Tuesday, April 28, during a tea at 1:30 p.m. in the Davenport College master's house, 271 Park St. The event is free and open to the public.
TransAfrica has spearheaded the movement to influence U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. Since Robinson founded TransAfrica in 1977, it has grown from a two-person, one-room organization to a national lobby with more than 15,000 members and international influence. It became the galvanizing force behind the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the efforts to secure the release of Nelson Mandela and the fight to reinstate President Aristide and restore democracy in Haiti.
In his memoir "Defending the Spirit," Robinson chronicles his journey rising from a poor childhood in the segregated South to become an influential figure in Washington politics. He has appeared on such nationally televised news and current affairs programs as "The Today Show," "Good Morning America" and "The Charlie Rose Show."
Former Chinese prisoner to inaugurate Bernstein Lecture
Former Chinese prisoner Wei Jingsheng will present the inaugural Robert L. Bernstein Lecture on Tuesday, April 28, 4-6 p.m. in Levinson Auditorium of the Law School, 127 Wall St. His lecture, titled "Human Rights in China: Challenges Ahead," is free and open to the public. The event is part of the Dean's Lecture Series and is cosponsored by the Law School and its Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights.
Wei will be introduced by Robert Bernstein, a human rights activist and former chair, president and chief executive officer of Random House Inc. Bernstein founded both the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers and the organization Human Rights Watch, which he still chairs.
The Chinese government released Wei to the United States in 1997 after almost continuous imprisonment since 1979. Wei was originally imprisoned for his writings, which were critical of Deng Xiaoping and advocated democracy. Wei's release came two weeks after Bernstein issued a challenge to the human rights community to work for the Chinese prisoner's release.
At the event, Bernstein will also announce the first recipients of the Law School's Robert L. Bernstein Fellowships.
Benedictine monk to lead Christian meditation
Father Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk of the Monastery of Christ the King in Cockfosters, London, will present "A Teaching on Christian Meditation" at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, in Saint Thomas More Catholic Center at Yale, 268 Park St. The meditation, to which the public is invited, is hosted by the Saint Thomas More Christian Mediation Prayer Group.
Educated by the Benedictines at Oxford University, Freeman became a monk after a brief career in the business world. He assisted Father John Main in establishing the first Christian Meditation Centers in London and Montreal. After Main's death, Freeman succeeded him as director of the World Community of Christian Meditation. In that role, he travels the world teaching meditation. The diverse groups he has worked with have ranged from a Trappist monastic community in Kentucky to Mother Teresa's community of sisters in Calcutta, India. His books include "Light Within," "The Selfless Self," "Christian Meditation," "Your Daily Practice" and "Web of Silence."
Scholar to discuss work of surgeon-turned-writer
Mahala Yates Stripling of Texas Christian University, who is a scholar on the writings of former Yale surgeon Richard Selzer, will deliver the next talk in the Program for Humanities in Medicine series on Thursday, April 30. Titled "Richard Selzer: Poet of the Body," her talk will take place at 5 p.m. in the Beaumont Room of the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. The event is free, and the public is welcome.
Stripling wrote her 1997 doctoral dissertation on Selzer and has authored numerous articles about the former Yale faculty member, who is now a full-time writer. She is currently preparing "Richard Selzer: The Pen and the Scalpel," which combines biography, literary criticism and bibliography. Her articles on Selzer have appeared in Medical Humanities Review, The Journal of Medical Humanities and Studies in Psychoanalytic Theory, among other publications. Stripling has also served as editor and assistant editor of Descant, Studies in Psychological Theory and "A World of Ideas."
Artist Eva Hesse will be the topic of curator's talk
Elisabeth Sussman, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, will give a talk titled "Eva Hesse: Rope as Line and Form" on Friday, May 1, at
5:30 p.m. at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. Her talk is the final event in the series of lectures by leading art historians in conjunction with the gallery's exhibition "Then and Now and Later: Art Since 1945 at Yale." A 5 p.m. reception precedes the lecture, which is free and open to the public.
Before going to the Whitney Museum in 1991, Sussman was curator and then in-terim director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, where she organized exhibitions by such artists as David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Anselm Kiefer and Jackson Pollock. Most recently at the Whitney she was curator of last year's Keith Haring retrospective and the mid-career retrospective of Nan Goldin. In addition to the catalogues for many exhibitions she has organized, Sussman has contributed to numerous European and American arts publications.
Talk explores challenges faced by Palestinian Christians
"Trying to Be a Christian in the Holy Land: A Reflection on Palestinian Christians Caught Between Islam and Judaism" is the title of talk being presented on Tuesday, May 5, by J. Martin Bailey, who served recently as communications consultant with the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem. His talk, sponsored by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC),
will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the OMSC,
490 Prospect St. A discussion period and refreshments will follow. The public is invited to attend, free of charge.
While consulting for the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem., Bailey lived in Bethlehem, where he witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by Christians living in the Holy Land. He was formerly associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States and was editor of A.D. Magazine, a joint publication of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and the United Church of Christ. He serves as chair of the OMSC's board of trustees.
Radio personality to give keynote speech at medical library
John H. Lienhard, the M.D. Anderson Professor of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston and author and voice of the daily national public radio series "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," will present the keynote address at the 50th annual meeting of the Associates of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library on Wednesday, May 6. His lecture, titled "The Lesion Within: What Happened to Medicine When 19th Century Ingenuity Seized upon an 18th Century Perception?" will be at 4 p.m. at the School of Medicine's Medical Historical Library, 333 Cedar St. The event is free and open to the public.
The following morning, at 8:30 a.m., Lienhard will be the featured guest at medical grand rounds in Fitkin Amphitheatre, 310 Cedar St. He will speak on the topic "Two-D Screens and Three-D Reality: The Future of Ingenuity in Engineering and Medicine."
Lienhard has presented more than 1,300 episodes of "The Engines of Our Ingenuity." For his ongoing work on the series, he recently received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Ralph Coates Roe Award for contributions to the public understanding of technology. He also won the 1991 Portrait Division Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.
Known for his research in the thermal sciences as well as cultural history, Lienhard is the author of four books and approximately 300 journal articles and other publications. His other honors include the University of Houston's highest faculty accolade, the Esther Farfel Award for excellence in research, teaching, and professional and community service.
Multimedia lecture will focus on computer model of ancient site
The Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale will present a multimedia lecture on the UCLA/Getty Model Project -- a computer model of the ancient Forum of Roman Emperor Trajan (A.D. 98-117) -- on Friday, May 8, 3-4:30 p.m. in the lecture hall
of the Yale University Art Gallery,
1111 Chapel St. Speaking at the event will be James E. Packer, professor of classics at Northwestern University, who will be assisted by William Jepson, director of computing in the department of architecture and urban design at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The lecture, titled "Restoring Trajan's Forum: A Three Dimensional Approach for the Early Twenty-First Century," is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Yale Art Gallery Sculpture Hall.
Packer is the author of the 1997 book "The Forum of Trajan," in which he analyzes archival documents and archaeological materials about the ancient site, which is considered one of ancient Rome's greatest architectural achievements. In a collaboration with staff at the Getty Museum and UCLA, Packer helped reconstruct a three-dimensional computer model of the forum, helping to reveal, for the first time, the true character of the structure.