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Disaster, biology, oil and art among topics of fall lectures at Illinois
Craig
Chamberlain, News Editor
217-333-2894; cdchambe@uiuc.edu
8/29/2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
Disasters and biological issues will get special attention this fall
among 13 lectures sponsored by the Center
for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
– along with topics as varied as Mexican politics, Caspian oil,
Senegalese art, indigenous rights and the nature of thinking.
Most of the fall lectures are part of the CAS MillerComm series, begun
in 1973 and supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment
and several co-sponsoring campus units. The MillerComm lectures provide
a forum for discourse on topics spanning the university’s many
disciplines.
Also part of the fall program is the CAS Annual Lecture, to be given
this year by Abigail Salyers, a CAS Professor of microbiology,
on the subject of antibiotics. Other lectures are sponsored by CAS
initiatives on globalization and mega-disasters.
All CAS talks are free and open to the public.
To receive notification on individual events, call 217-333-6729 or e-mail cas@uiuc.edu; indicate your preference
for postal mail or e-mail.
The first lecture of the fall semester will come Sept. 6 and is titled
“Culture and Politics in Mexico: The Symbolism Behind Political
Campaigns.” The speaker will be Larissa Adler Lomnitz, a researcher
emeritus of socio-cultural anthropology at the Universidad Autónoma
de México, in Mexico City. Lomnitz will offer an analysis of
the country’s current political culture, in the aftermath of recent
presidential elections, focusing on the political parties and the nature
of Mexican democracy. Her MillerComm talk begins at 7:30 p.m. on the
third floor of the Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
Subsequent lectures:
• Sept. 11, “How Our Genes Shape the Way We Respond to Our
Environment ,” by Avshalom Caspi, a professor of personality development
at King’s College, London, and a professor of psychology at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison. Caspi will discuss the mystery of
how an environmental factor such as pollution or life stress can get
inside the nervous system and, depending on a person’s genotype,
alter the elements of that system and generate the symptoms of a disordered
mind. His MillerComm lecture begins at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the
Beckman Institute, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
• Sept. 14, “Analogy as the Core of Cognition,” by
Douglas Hofstadter, director of the Center for Research on Concepts
and Cognition at Indiana University and the author of the 1979 bestseller
“Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.” Hofstadter
will argue that every concept in our minds arises from an accumulation
of analogies, and that thinking – the pinpointing of the right
concept at the right time – is the result of a relentless swarm
of unconscious analogy-makers competing with each other. His MillerComm
talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in the theater of Lincoln Hall, 702 S. Wright
St., Urbana.
• Sept. 25, “The 1994 Rwandan Refugee Crisis: Cultural Awareness
in Managing Natural Disasters,” by Tom Casadavall, Central Region
director for the U.S. Geological Survey. Casadavall will discuss the
refugee crisis that resulted from the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the
role earth scientists played in mitigating the volcano threat to 800,000
refugees who settled temporarily in Zaire. His lecture, part of the
“CAS Initiative on
Mega-Disasters,” begins at 7:30 p.m. on the third floor of the
Levis Faculty Center.
• Sept. 26, “The December 26, 2004, Sumatra Earthquake and
Indian Ocean Tsunami: Field Perspectives on the Impacts to the Peoples,
Cultures, Politics and Economies of One of the World's Most Vibrant
Regions,” also by Casadavall and part of the “CAS Initiative
on Mega-Disasters.” In this lecture, Casadavall will discuss the
role of earth scientists and the USGS in assessment and recovery planning
efforts following the disaster. His talk begins at 4 p.m. in the Knight
Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.
• Oct. 4, “Revenge of the Microbes: Are Antibiotics in Danger?”
the CAS Annual Lecture, given by Salyers, who is the Arends Professor
in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Illinois. Salyers will talk about
the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, the decline in research
to discover new antibiotics, the implications of these developments
in areas ranging from medicine to agriculture, and possible solutions
to the problem. Her lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in the ballroom of the
Alice Campbell Alumni Center, 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.
• Oct. 5, “Bioethical Challenges in a 21st-Century World,”
by Mark Siegler, director of the MacLean Ethics Center at the University
of Chicago. Siegler will explore current bioethical issues and the future
challenges facing modern medicine in societies around the world. His
MillerComm talk begins at 4 p.m. in the ballroom of the Alice Campbell
Alumni Center.
• Oct. 19, “The Globalization of Energy Resources: Tapping
Caspian Oil and Gas,” by Jonathan Elkind, an independent consultant
on energy, environmental and security concerns, and a former director
for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs on the National Security
Council. Elkind will examine the opportunities and challenges associated
with Caspian reserves of oil and natural gas, analyzing the involvements
and interests of oil companies and nations, and the economic and foreign
policy impacts of the globalization of energy resources. His lecture,
part of the “CAS Initiative on Globalization,” begins at
4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.
• Oct. 26, “Was the Bronze Age Volcanic Eruption of Thira
(Santorini) a Megacatastrophe? A Geological/Archeological Detective
Story,” by Grant Heiken, an independent consultant, author and
retired geologist for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Heiken will
discuss the eruption that destroyed the town of Akrotiri, on the Greek
island of Thira (Santorini) in the 17th century BCE, the evidence of
the inhabitants’ lifestyle that it preserved, and the effect the
eruption may have had on the island and across the Aegean Sea. His lecture,
part of the “CAS Initiative on Mega-Disasters,” begins at
7:30 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum.
• Oct. 30, “The Historical Origins of ‘Open Science,’
” by Paul A. David, emeritus professor of economics and a senior
fellow in the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford
University. David will talk about the movement from secrecy to “cooperative
rivalries” in the pursuit of scientific knowledge during the 16th
and 17th centuries, and its importance for the scientific revolution
and for the development of the modern world. His MillerComm talk begins
at 4 p.m. in the auditorium (Room 1122) of the NCSA Building, 1205 W.
Clark St., Urbana.
• Nov. 6, “Serene Shadows: Aura and Icon in Postcolonial
Senegal,” by Allen F. Roberts, a George A. Miller Endowment Visiting
Professor at Illinois and a professor in the department of French and
Francophone studies at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Roberts will present and discuss the vibrant arts of the Mourides, a
contemporary mystical Islamic movement in Senegal, focusing on imagery
associated with the Mourides' founding Sufi saint, Sheikh Amadou Bamba.
His MillerComm lecture begins at 4 p.m. in the 20th Century Gallery
of the Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign.
• Nov. 14, “Indigenous Rights in a Global Arena: Globalization
From Below,” by Luis Macas, president of the Confederation of
Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador and director of the Scientific Institute
of Indigenous Cultures in Quito, Ecuador. Macas will discuss the emerging
pan-global indigenous people’s movement and look at the challenges
and successes of similar movements across the Americas and beyond. His
MillerComm talk, given in Spanish with an English translation, begins
at 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.
• Nov. 29, “Chairman Mao, the Great Leap Forward and the
Deforestation Ecological Disaster in the South China Karst,” by
Peter Huntoon, emeritus professor in the department of geology and geophysics
at the University of Wyoming. Huntoon will discuss the massive deforestation
of the south China karst belt since 1958 and the starvation, poverty
and spread of desert that have resulted, along with the efforts to reforest
the area in the face of massive population growth. His lecture, part
of the “CAS Initiative on Mega-Disasters,” begins at 4 p.m.
in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum.
Those interested in attending CAS lectures should note that occasionally
a lecture must be canceled or rescheduled, and lectures may be added
later in the semester. For additional information, or to confirm details
prior to a lecture, check the events link on the CAS Web site.
Also, CAS now is making audio podcasts and streaming video of many
of its presentations available on the Web site, generally one to two
weeks after the event.
