PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 7, Oct. 2, 2003

brief notes

Second Sunday concert
Chinese erhu master featured
One of the world’s foremost players of the Chinese erhu, Yang Ying, will perform a program of Chinese music, from ancient to modern, at the Oct. 12 WILL-FM Second Sunday Concert. The erhu, a fretless, two-stringed vertical fiddle, became popular in China during the Song Dynasty (AD 960 to 1279).
The free concert, which will be broadcast live on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign-Urbana), begins at 2 p.m. at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion in Champaign. Performing with Ying will be Tom Paynter, flute and keyboard; Jeff Magby, drum set; Russell Clark, bass; Chan Jingfei, piano; Chad Dunn, percussion; Loba Chaduck, flute; Jason Finkelman, percussion; and the Amasong Chorus.

Ying, now a resident of Champaign-Urbana, performed as a featured soloist in China’s premier traditional music and dance troupe for nearly 20 years. In addition, she started China’s first all-girl rock band, Cobra.

Shaw Brothers Studio examined
Film conference is Oct. 2-4
A conference focusing on the Shaw Brothers Studio, a path-breaking filmmaking enterprise that was founded in Shanghai, and later based in Singapore and Hong Kong, runs Oct. 2-4 on the UI campus.

All of the events, which are free and open to the public, are posted at www.history.uiuc.edu/shawbrothers.

According to Poshek Fu, the conference organizer and a professor of history and of cinema studies at Illinois, the Shaw brothers “dominated the film industries and entertainment businesses of the Pan-Chinese, or Asia Pacific, world from the 1950s to the 1980s, and still control the largest television network there.”

The biggest “star” of the conference, Fu said, is actress Cheng Pei Pei, who will “help bring the campus and community together with her public discussion.” Internationally known for her role in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Cheng will lead a public discussion about her role in that film from 2-4 p.m. in 407 Levis Faculty Center. All conference events will be held at the Levis Center, except for David Bordwell’s keynote address on “Trends and Traditions in Martial Arts Film Style: From the Shaw Contributions to Ang Lee,” which begins at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 3 in 101 Armory.

Fu, whose research expertise includes the politics of Hong Kong and Chinese popular cultures, said that conferees will examine the “early globalizing efforts of Chinese film cultures” with a lens on the Shaw brothers (Shao in Chinese), who began their pioneering Shanghai film studio in the 1920s.

The Shaw brothers, Fu said, would shape the “cinematic vision” of generations of filmmakers, including Ang Lee, the UI graduate who directed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Scholars and critics, many of them from Hong Kong and Singapore, will present papers on a variety of topics, including the “global imaginations” of the Shaw brothers. Six UI film scholars and historians also will weigh in, some of them focusing on the “Kung Fu connections” the Shaw brothers inspired.

The conference is sponsored by Illinois’ Unit for Cinema Studies and history department, with additional support from nine other units at Illinois and the Mellon Humanities in a Globalizing World Initiative.

ACDIS
Future of international conflict examined
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, UI’s Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security is hosting a forum on Oct. 4 to consider the future of international conflict.
The forum, free and open to the public, will take place from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in 356 Armory Building.

The forum’s panelists – who include current and former ACDIS faculty members – will ponder various scenarios, organized around the theme, “The Last International War?”

According to ACDIS director Clifford Singer, for discussion purposes, “major international war” is defined in this context as “one that involves the use of 50,000 troops or more to cross what has been a de facto line of actual control for a decade or more.”

Singer, a professor of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering, will present the forum’s opening remarks. Panelists and their topics are available through the ACDIS Web site.

A complimentary lunch follows, by reservation only. To make reservations, call 333-8331.

Measurement Issues and Challenges ’
Measurement symposium is Oct. 16-18
“Measurement Issues and Challenges in Aging Research” is the theme of the 10th Measurement and Evaluation Symposium, which this year will be at the UI.

The symposium begins at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 16 in 314A and B, Illini Union, with registration from 5-6:30 p.m. A pre-conference workshop is scheduled that day, from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., in the same location. The symposium concludes with a banquet at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Illini Union Ballroom.

According to kinesiology professor Weimo Zhu, one of the event’s planners, the symposium is organized every three or four years by the Measurement and Evaluation Council, one of 12 councils/societies in the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness; AAALF is one of six associations in the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. In addition to AALF and the UI, sponsors are the American College of Sports Medicine and Human Kinetics Publishers.

The symposium focuses on the interests of aging researchers, measurement specialists, disability researchers, exercise specialists, personal and athletic trainers, physical therapists and health-care providers. Zhu said the symposium will feature an “expert vs. measurement specialist” interaction format designed to create “a unique forum for outlining and debating methodological and philosophical challenges when quantifying human behavior.”

Participants will include world leaders in aging and measurement, among them, researchers from the UI.

More information, including registration, is posted online.

Free Community Medical School
‘The Human Senses’ focus of course
Area residents can enhance their knowledge of medicine and science by attending the Community Medical School, a program presented by the UI College of Medicine and Carle Foundation Hospital. The free, three-part course about the human senses begins Oct. 14 at the Carle Forum, located one block north of Carle Foundation Hospital, 611 W. Park St., Urbana, and continues each Tuesday through Oct. 28. Medical experts will conduct the sessions.

Lectures and demonstrations will teach a basic understanding of the sensory system. Prevention and treatment techniques of common disorders also will be presented as well as new technology for the restoration and healthy function of the sensory system.

The weekly topics: Oct. 14, 7-9 p.m. (with a pre-conference tour at 6 p.m.), “Seeing”; Oct. 21, 7-9 p.m., “Hearing”; Oct. 28, 7-9 p.m., “Taste.” Call 333-2787 to enroll or for additional information.

‘Harvard dean to speak
Inaugural Bazzani lecture is Oct. 15
Joseph S. Nye Jr. will deliver the Inaugural Craig S. Bazzani Lecture. His lecture, “The Paradox of American Power,” will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at 213 Gregory Hall. Nye is the Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy and dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Nye joined the Harvard faculty in 1964 and has combined public policy service, teaching, writing and public engagement ever since. His latest book, “The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone,” was published in 2002 to rave reviews.

The Craig S. Bazzani Lecture Series honors the long-time UI vice president for administration and comptroller. Bazzani served the UI for nearly 25 years. He came to the university from the Illinois Bureau of the Budget. Widely known for his strategic thinking and creative approach to business and financial issues, he holds three degrees from Illinois State University.

The Bazzani Lecture Series brings to campus leading researchers and commentators on the most important political and policy issues facing Illinois and the nation.

The lecture series is sponsored by the UI and is managed by the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration
Original Freedom Riders to speak
In May 1961, a group of six blacks and seven whites boarded buses in Washington, D.C., for the original Freedom Ride, designed to test the legality of “separate but equal” facilities in interstate public travel in the South. The riders would never reach New Orleans, their intended destination, as they would be stopped along the way by angry mobs, severe beatings and the firebombing of one bus.

Three of the original Freedom Riders will reunite on Oct. 18 to talk about those experiences and others related to the civil rights movement. Their panel discussion, “Dialogues With Original Freedom Riders,” will start at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Lincoln Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Among those participating in the panel will be the Rev. Ben Cox, a former teacher at Urbana High School, as well as in the university’s Principal’s Scholars Program and Office of Continuing Education. Joining him will be fellow riders Ed Blakenheim and Hank Thomas.

The discussion is part of a 35th anniversary weekend commemoration of Project 500, a university equal opportunity initiative that brought to campus more than 500 African-American and Latino students in 1968. It is also part of the campus’s Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ended legal segregation in public schools.

Cox, who lives in Tennessee, will remain in Champaign-Urbana through Oct. 24, giving presentations both on campus and in the community.

Updates on future events and activities related to the Brown commemoration can be found online.

Map shows land surface in unprecedented detail
Illinois topography map available
The Illinois State Geological Survey has published a new Illinois Surface Topography map that shows the state’s land surface in a never-before-seen level of detail. The map uses digital elevation data to create a three-dimensional visualization of the terrain of the entire state. Lighting, shading and color tinting techniques used in the map’s production allow readers to easily discern landscape features such as floodplains, hills, river valleys and glacial moraines. The map’s unprecedented level of detail has allowed scientists to identify regional structures and landforms that were too subtle to be recognized in the past on individual topographic maps.

“The map is a new look at the entire state’s spatial patterns and regional characteristics,” said Don Luman, the ISGS’ principal investigator for the project. “It is an excellent way of seeing landforms that topographic maps don’t express well.”

Because the vertical scale has been exaggerated 20 times, subtle landscape features can be seen on Illinois’ relatively flat surface (the state’s highest point is roughly 1,000 feet above its lowest point). For instance, the large sand dunes of Mason County and the prominent glacial end moraines in Bureau, Lee and McLean counties can be easily seen. An inset map of the state’s surficial deposits helps readers identify additional features.

Scientists viewing the Illinois Surface Topography map for the first time quickly identified many landforms that hadn’t been seen before, including unusual ridged topography along Interstate 39 in eastern Winnebago County. This landscape feature extends into southeastern Wisconsin, where drumlins, which are elongated hills of glacial drift, were formed by the continental glaciers that covered both states.

“The map affords the reader a three-dimensional perspective that reveals Illinois’ geological heritage,” Luman said. The 54- by 36-inch full-color map is especially of interest to educators, planners, scientists, businesses, farmers and municipal, county and state government bodies because it provides a visual record of Illinois’ geological history and how that history applies to societal issues such as flooding, siting and land use.

The 1:500,000-scale map may be ordered for $10 from the ISGS Information Office. Write 615 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL 61820-6964, call 333-4747 (TDD785-0211), or e-mail isgs@isgs.uiuc.edu.

The ISGS, a Division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, serves the citizens and businesses of Illinois by providing accurate, objective, relevant earth science information that helps to protect the state’s environmental quality, economic vitality and public safety.

NASA scientist donates collection
Dedication, panel discussion is Oct. 9
Officials at the University Library are celebrating the addition of the collection of pioneering NASA scientist John C. Houbolt with a dedication ceremony Oct. 9 at the Grainger Engineering Library. UI faculty and staff members and students are invited to attend the free event that begins at 1 p.m.
Houbolt (pronounced HUBB-olt), who is best known for developing and promoting the lunar-orbit rendezvous concept that allowed the United States space program to go to the moon on Apollo 11, will attend the dedication program. A UI graduate, Houbolt was chief aeronautical scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Joe Tanner, an astronaut and UI graduate, will moderate a panel discussion that will follow the dedication. The discussion will focus on how Houbolt’s genius and contributions impacted the U.S. and international space programs.

Houbolt’s collection, which will be managed by the University Archives, includes papers, manuscripts, models, designs and books. The books in the collection will be held in the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center.

A grant from NASA’s Langley Research Center will enable the University Library to process, index and preserve the collection, and to develop an electronic finding aid for the materials and online access to the documents.

Japanese culture explored
Kimono demonstration is Oct. 7
Magnificent colors adorn the ceremonial kimonos of Japan. A kimono dressing demonstration at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Spurlock Museum’s Knight Auditorium will show how these stunning costumes are worn. Toshie Kasada, a senior kimono specialist at the Hakubi Kyoto Kimono School, and Kimiko Gunji, professor of Japanese art and culture and director of the UI Japan House, will lead the demonstration.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of a series of kimono-related events held at the museum in conjunction with the exhibit, “Luxurious Layers: Kimonos of the Heian Court.”

For more information, call 244-3355 or visit the Web.

Nicotine/aging research
Smokers, non-smokers needed
A doctoral student in speech and hearing science is investigating the effect of advancing age and nicotine on an evoked brain potential, the auditory middle latency response (AMLR). The AMLR will be measured in Ron Chambers’ evoked potential laboratory, and the Veterinary Diagnostic laboratory will conduct urine analysis for nicotine content.

Smokers and non-smokers, aged 18-30 years and 55 years or older, in good overall health are needed for this study. Qualified applicants will be offered a free hearing test by a certified, licensed audiologist.

To participate, contact Ishara Ramkissoon, 244-7616, or go to online.

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