CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two Pulitzer Prize-winners are among the speakers scheduled to participate in this fall’s Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm lecture series at the University of Illinois.
The series, begun in 1973 and supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment and various co-sponsoring campus units, provides a forum for discourse on a wide range of topics spanning the university’s many disciplines. CAS/MillerComm talks are free and open to the public.
The fall series opens Wednesday (Aug. 30) with a lecture by Marta Kutas, professor of cognitive science and neuroscience at the University of California at San Diego. Kutas’ talk, titled “From the Senses to Sense: An Electrophysiological View on the Human Brain Activities,” is set for 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana.
Subsequent lectures scheduled include:
Sept. 11, 7:30 p.m., 407 Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana, Serge Schmemann, deputy foreign editor, New York Times, and the author of the book “Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village.” Schmemann will discuss “Russia’s Fate: A Journalist’s Personal Encounter With His Native Land.”
Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m., third floor, Levis Faculty Center, Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and the Paul and Ann Krouse Visiting Scholar at the UI. Heschel will address the topic “When Jesus Was an Aryan: Collisions Between Jewish and Christian Theologians in Modern Germany.”
Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m., 407 Levis Faculty Center, Donald Kohn, professor of pediatrics, and molecular microbiology and immunology, University of Southern California, and the director of the John Connell Gene Therapy Program, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. Kohn will discuss “The Ethical and Social Implications of Human Medical Genetics.”
Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m., Wagner Education Center, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations Building, 504 E. Armory Ave., Champaign. Amy Dean, the president of the Labor Council of South Bay, AFL-CIO, San Jose, Calif. Dean will talk about “Renewing Democracy, Revitalizing Our Communities: Labor’s Call for Sharing Prosperity in the New Economy.”
Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., Smith Hall, 805 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, Arjun Raina. A dancer, actor and writer, Raina will give a lecture-demonstration on “Dancing Across Boundaries: Kathakali, Shakespeare and Folk Performances.”
Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., Beckman Institute auditorium, Kevin Dunbar, professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory for Complex Thinking and Scientific Reasoning, McGill University. Dunbar’s talk is titled “Inside the Scientific Mind: How Scientists Think, Reason and Generate New Knowledge.”
Oct. 2, 4 p.m. third floor, Levis Faculty Center, John Dower, the Elting E. Morison Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.” Dower, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction this year for “Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II,” will discuss “War and Memory in Japan.”
Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m., third floor, Levis Faculty Center, Rickie Solinger. An independent scholar and author, Solinger has titled her talk “Beggars and Choosers: Politics of Choice and Women’s Dignity.”
Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m., 407 Levis Faculty Center, Carolyn Dinshaw, professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University. In her talk, titled “Pale Faces,” Dinshaw will consider the roles of the following: Christians under duress from the East in Chaucer’s texts; 19th century British editors of Chaucer’s texts (working in and around India); and her own contributions as a South Asian American medievalist and reader of Chaucer.
Oct. 20, 4 p.m., 314 Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana, Lourdes Beneria, director, Gender and Global Change Program, and professor of city and regional planning and of women’s studies, Cornell University. Beneria will address “Changing Employment Structures and Economic Insecurity: A Global Gender Perspective.”
Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m., third floor, Levis Faculty Center, Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology, University of California at Berkeley. Gopnik’s talk is titled “The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn.”
Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., Music Building auditorium, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana, John Collins, professor of music, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon. Collins will discuss “The Copyright Consequences of Paul Simon Meeting West Africa’s Highlife Muse: Yaa Amponsah.”
Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m., Lincoln Hall Theater, 702 S. Wright St., Urbana, Jared Diamond, professor of physiology, University of Los Angeles. Diamond is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of the National Medal of Science; his talk, “Guns, Germs and Steel,” borrows its title from his 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book.
More detailed information about the speakers and their topics is available on the Web at www.cas.uiuc.edu or by calling the Miller Events Line, 333-1118.
