Seven Indiana University Bloomington faculty have received 2009 Summer Instructional Development Fellowships from the offices of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs to develop specialized and innovative courses. They are Sonya Atalay in anthropology; Colleen Ryan-Scheutz and Kelly Sax in French and Italian; Beth Samuelson in literacy, language and culture education; Kalpana Shankar in informatics; Kay Connelly in computer science; and Rex Sprouse in Germanic studies and second language studies.

Peter Bondanella, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of comparative literature, film studies and Italian at Indiana University, has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Recipients of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award this year are Marco Arnaudo, French and Italian; Beth Gazley, Public and Environmental Affairs; Scott Herring, English; Ted Striphas, Communication and Culture; and Haixu Tang, Informatics. Each has received $14,500 to support his or her research and creative activity.

Albert Valdman, Rudy Professor emeritus of French, Italian and linguistics, has been honored by the government of Quebec Province in Canada for his work to foster better understanding of the use of the French language in North America.

In this edition of Lecture Notes, March 17-30, meet New York Time's political columnist William Safire and enjoy some quality time in the garden with the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center.

Classically trained actor Mace Perlman will bring to life the traditional masked characters of the Italian commedia dell'arte in a performance on the IU Bloomington campus on March 4. The Department of French and Italian and the Department of Theatre and Drama are sponsoring the performance, which is free and open to the public, at 6 p.m. in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center's Grand Hall.

Celebrate Black History Month, explore the Supreme Court in two Patten Lectures by Martha Nussbaum and meet the daughter of ABC anchor Ted Koppel in this edition of Lecture Notes.

Visit the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center for the opening of "Bridgwaters Family Photographs" and celebrate the beginning of Black History Month in this edition of Lecture Notes.

Jenna Sherry, a senior in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, has been selected as a Marshall Scholar for 2008 by the British government. Sherry is from New Orleans and is completing a bachelor's of music in violin performance with Mark Kaplan, professor of music in the Jacobs School. As a Marshall Scholar, she will study at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama with violinist David Takeno starting in September 2008.

IU Bloomington professors Alexander Rabinowitch and Albert Valdman may be retired, but they are hardly resting on their laurels. Rabinowitch, professor emeritus of history, and Valdman, Rudy Professor emeritus of French and Italian, have been named recipients of highly selective Andrew W. Mellon Emeritus Fellowships for 2007-08.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index--a new survey which uses faculty research and scholarly activity from more than 350 universities as a measure--has recognized and ranked 14 programs at Indiana University Bloomington and two at the IU School of Medicine.

Peter Bondanella, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian in the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver the IU Bloomington 2006 Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture, "Fellini and Fantasy," on March 22 at 3 p.m. in Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union on the Bloomington campus. He also will provide a survey of the often surprising influences upon Fellini's works.

What does "America" mean to people of different cultures? How can we explain both the fascination with and the contestation of the "American myth" throughout Europe? These questions and others will be addressed at an international conference, "America Seen Through Foreign Eyes," which will be held Friday through Sunday (March 25-27) at Indiana University Bloomington.