Lecture Notes
Feb. 11-24, 2008
'The Collective Construction of Scientific Memory: the Einstein-Poincaré Connection and its Discontents, 1905-2005'
Feb. 11, 12-1 p.m., Goodbody Hall 107, Bloomington -- Commemorations often reactivate old debates that had been forgotten or lay dormant. While this is obvious for political commemorations, it is no less true of scientific commemorations, and the UNESCO international year of physics in 2005, celebrating Einstein's annus mirabilis of 1905, revived the old ghost of Poincaré's contribution to relativity. Yves Gyngras of the University of Quebec Montreal will talk about the "Einstein-Poincaré connection." For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/BrownBag.shtml.
'Giving Patients a Voice through Photography in Health Sciences Research'
Feb. 11, 12 p.m., Lilly Medical Sciences Library, Room IB 301, 975 W. Walnut St., Indianapolis -- Lynn Pike, IUPUI professor of sociology, will present results from studies in which patients with various conditions and illnesses (e.g., pregnancy, breast cancer, Huntington's disease, AIDS) were asked to express their feelings and identities through taking and/or reacting to photographs. For more information, call 317-278-1669.
Andrea Koppel
Feb. 11, 7 p.m., Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Bloomington -- Andrea Koppel, an award-winning, international journalist with more than two decades of experience, will kick off the School of Journalism Spring Speaker Series. For the last 14 years Koppel worked as a correspondent for CNN reporting from diverse posts, from Africa to China, covering three secretaries of state and two presidents. Previously, Koppel had served as the network's Beijing bureau chief and correspondent, reporting on more than half of China's 30 provinces. For more information, visit https://journalism.indiana.edu.
'Setting Plato Straight: The Hermeneutics of Homosexuality in Bruni, Erasmus, and Rabelais'
Feb. 12, 5:30 p.m., College Arts and Humanities Institute, 1211 E. Atwater Ave., Bloomington -- Writing as a Christian-Humanist, Rabelais was positioned in an intellectual and cultural framework in which the issue of reading or re-reading Platonic same-sex sexuality could not be avoided. When Rabelais engages with Plato and the Neo-Platonic tradition, he can be viewed as commenting not only on ancient sexuality, but also on how Platonic sexuality has been and should be read. Todd Reeser, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, will focus on how hermeneutics and Platonic sexuality function together in three Renaissance texts: Leonardo Bruni's 15th-century translation of the end of the Symposium (the first Renaissance translation of the text), Erasmus's Adages and the prologue to Rabelais's Gargantua. For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~college/.
'Immigrant Families: Striving to Stay Together'
Feb. 12, 7-8:30 p.m., Monroe County Public Library Auditorium, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington -- The current immigration system and intensified immigration enforcement have caused the separation of family members, economic hardships, and traumatic experiences among the immigrant communities. Join El Centro Comunal Latino and IU's La Casa for a panel discussion on the historical, legal and social challenges and barriers faced by Latino immigrant families in the US. For more information, contact lacasa@indiana.edu.
'Constitutions and Capabilities: History of an Idea'
Feb. 12, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Chemistry 122, Bloomington -- Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher and influential intellectual from the University of Chicago Law School, presents her first of two Patten Lectures. What are people able to do and to be? How have the basic constitutional principles of a nation, together with their interpretation, promoted or impeded people's abilities to function, in some central areas of human life? Does the interpretation of constitutional entitlements yield real abilities to choose and to act, or are the document's promises more like hollow verbal gestures? This lecture investigates the roots of this idea in Aristotle and the Stoics, maps its influence on 18th-century thinkers such as Smith and Paine and, thence, on the American Founding and the U.S. tradition of constitutional law. For more information, visit https://patten.indiana.edu.
'Can Science and Religion Coexist?'
Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Administration Building, The Grille, South Bend -- Speakers from IU South Bend and the community will speak to the compatibility of faith and scientific inquiry. They also will answer questions from the audience. Everyone is welcome to bring a lunch, and we will have a cake to celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin, who would be 199 years old. For more information, contact jmvander@iusb.edu.
'Triangulation of the Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Writers in America'
Feb. 13, 12-1 p.m., Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, Bridgwaters Lounge, Bloomington -- As part of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series, Sara Bagby presents "Triangulation of the Diaspora: Afro-Caribbean Writers in America." For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~afroamer.
Cognitive Lunch
Feb. 13, 12:10 p.m., Psychology 128, Bloomington -- Daniel Hickey, Indiana University, will present "Formative assessment and transfer in educational multi-user virtual environments." For more information, visit https://bl-psy-appsrv.ads.iu.edu:8080.
'When School Reform Goes Wrong'
Feb. 13, 4-5:30 p.m., Wilkie Auditorium, Bloomington -- The Drs. Beatrice S. and David I. Miller Education Seminar Series presents Nel Noddings of Stanford University. Most reform movements have had flaws. Current reform under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has a wide range of defects -- moral, intellectual and democratic. After discussing some of the flaws in NCLB, Noddings will make some suggestions for more humane education. For more information, visit https://site.educ.indiana.edu/.
'Characterizing quantum mechanics'
Feb. 13, 4-5 p.m., Swain West 119, Bloomington -- 'Why the quantum?' was one of John Wheeler's 'really big questions.' Can we identify physical principles that demarcate a quantum world from a classical world, and also from a superquantum world, with hypothetical correlations that are stronger than the correlations of entangled quantum states, but consistent with a 'no signaling' constrain? Jeff Bub will attempt to make this question precise and propose a partial answer. For more information, contact wsnow@indiana.edu.
"Two Dogmas About Quantum Mechanics"
Feb. 14, 4-6 p.m., Ballantine 003, Bloomington -- Jeff Bub, University of Maryland, will argue that the intractable part of the measurement problem -- the 'big' measurement problem -- is a pseudo-problem that depends for its legitimacy on the acceptance of two dogmas. Bub will show how both dogmas can be rejected in a realist information-theoretic interpretation of quantum mechanics. For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/Colloquium.shtml.
"Capabilities and Today's Supreme Court"
Feb. 14, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Chemistry 122, Bloomington -- Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher and influential intellectual from the University of Chicago Law School, presents her second Patten Lecture. This lecture maps the decline of this "capabilities approach" in the recent jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on a group of cases from the 2006 Term, involving employment discrimination, abortion and affirmative action. Nussbaum argues that a type of obtuse formalism is in the ascendancy on the Court, displacing a realistic and historically informed focus on what people are actually able to do and to be. For more information, visit https://patten.indiana.edu.
East Asian Colloquium Series-- 'Power vs. Culture in U.S.-Japan Relations Since Commodore Perry'
Feb. 15, 12 p.m., Ballantine 004, Bloomington -- George Wilson, IU professor emeritus of history and East Asian languages and cultures, presents "Power vs. Culture in U.S.-Japan relations since Commodore Perry." For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~easc/eaq/index.htm.
'Bertrand Russell and the Jews'
Feb. 15, 12 p.m., the IMU Distinguished Alumni Room, Bloomington -- Join Professor Louis Greenspan for a Jewish Studies Faculty Workshop. Louis Greenspan is professor emeritus of religious studies at McMaster University and former director of the Bertrand Russell Editorial Project. He is the author and editor of numerous works, including Incompatible Philosophies: Bertrand Russell on Science and Religion and Russell on Religion. For more information, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~jsp/.
Animal Behavior Colloquium -- 'Understanding the Clocks that Time Us: Signals that Engage the Clockwork'
Feb. 15, 12:15 p.m., Psychology 128, Bloomington -- Martha U. Gillette of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will present "Understanding the clocks that time us: Signals that engage the clockwork." For more information, visit https://bl-psy-appsrv.ads.iu.edu:8080.
'Naming the Comic Hero: Examples in Italian Renaissance Literature'
Feb. 15, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Ballantine 004, Bloomington -- Indiana University Bloomington Associate Professor Massimo Scalabrini will focus on the names of several comic characters in diverse genres such as the novella, the comedia and the satire. Scalabrini will examine several cases of comic heroes whose names are expanded or contracted, modified or altogether changed. For more information, visit https://www.informatics.indiana.edu/events/.
'Your Desk in Your Pocket: The Pluses and Minuses of Mobile Computing'
Feb. 15, 3-4 p.m., Lindley Hall 102, Bloomington -- Computers have been shrinking since their invention. At each smaller size the software is initially primitive but then matures to match and improve on that of the larger sizes. Vaughan Pratt of Stanford University and Tiqit Computers will discuss how "big-machine" operating systems will look on tiny machines. For more information, visit https://www.informatics.indiana.edu/events/.
Michael Eric Dyson
Feb. 19, 7 p.m., the IMU Alumni Hall, Bloomington -- Michael Eric Dyson, professor at Georgetown University, will cover a wide range of topics including race, social class and hip-hop music in the Union Board's annual Black History Month lecture. From personal experiences of struggle and hardships, Dyson is one of the most sought-after speakers in the country. Often referred to as "the Hip-Hop Intellectual," Dyson has written a total of 14 books ranging on the topics of issues in the African American community. For more information, contact ubpr@indiana.edu.
Cognitive Lunch -- 'Workload Capacity Space: A Unified Methodology for Response Times'
Feb. 20, 12:10 p.m., Psychology 128, Bloomington -- Ami Edels, Indiana University, will present "Workload capacity space: A unified methodology for response times." For more information, visit https://bl-psy-appsrv.ads.iu.edu:8080.
'From Sputnik to Edino8: Blaming schools for crises real and imagined'
Feb. 20, 1:30 p.m., the IMU Dogwood Room, Bloomington -- The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy chat presents Gerald Bracey, an associate of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. Bracey's presentation "From Sputnik to Edino8: Blaming schools for crises real and imagined" will highlight education policy initiatives from the cold war through present day. The lecture will also highlight education as an issue in the 2008 campaign for the presidency. For more information, visit https://ceep.indiana.edu.
'The Full Mottness: Hidden Charge 2e Boson in High-temperature Superconductors'
Feb. 20, 4-5 p.m., Swain West 119, Bloomington -- One of the general organizing principles that emerges from the Periodic Table is that metals are characterized by an electronic band, which is partially full. Insulators, by contrast, have no unfilled levels. However, a wide class of materials such as the high-temperature copper-oxide superconductors have partially filled levels but insulate nonetheless. Such materials known as Mott insulators cannot be understood within the standard band picture. Their physics lies in the strong interactions between electrons. In this Joseph and Sophia Konopinski Colloquia, Philip Philips will show that from the strong interactions in Mott insulators emerges a new collective excitation, which has charge 2e and is not made out of the elemental excitations. For more information, contact wsnow@indiana.edu.
Marie-Hélène Côté -- 'On the Variable Nature of Syllabification'
Feb. 21, 5:30 p.m., IMU Maple Room, Bloomington -- Marie-Hélène Côté, associate professor and chair of the department of Linguistics at the University of Ottawa (Canada) will discuss categorical syllabification and how it is at odds with experimental results as well as native speakers' direct intuitions. For more information, contact jauger@indiana.edu.
Animal Behavior Colloquium -- 'A Circadian System for Finding Food (and Other Rewards?)'
Feb. 22, 12:15 p.m., Psychology 128, Bloomington -- Ralph Mistlberger of Simon Fraser University presents "A circadian system for finding food (and other rewards?)." For more information, visit https://bl-psy-appsrv.ads.iu.edu:8080.
'Representation and Response'
Feb. 22, 3-4 p.m., Informatics 107, Bloomington -- Information technologies are often designed based on a metaphor of one-to-one correspondence between internal representations and the world of human activity. This metaphor structures commonly chosen strategies for design -- i.e. to sense, represent, and manipulate symbolic states corresponding to real-world entities. Using examples from what Boedker terms 'third wave' HCI research, Phoebe Sengers, Cornell University, will explore the implications for HCI of explicitly and systematically shifting from a metaphor of representation to one of response. For more information, visit https://www.informatics.indiana.edu/events/.
Christopher Hogwood
'The Past is a Foreign Country: They Do Things Differently There'
Feb. 22, 4 p.m., Auer Hall, Bloomington -- Christopher Hogwood is a distinguished conductor, keyboardist and musicologist and one of the greatest proponents of the early music movement, as well as a renowned conductor of 19th- and 20th-century works. His lecture, "The Past is a Foreign Country: They Do Things Differently There" will survey the important changes in musical perceptions that have occurred with the advent of the historically informed performance movement. He will also consider the present dilemmas for performers and listeners, the difficulties of reconciling past practices with present day economic needs and the disappearance of interest in amateur music making or private performance. For more information, contact patwise@indiana.edu.
'The Sorceress, the Servant, and the Stays: Sexuality, Race, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain'
Feb. 22, 5:30 p.m., Morrison Hall 007, Bloomington -- The Kinsey Institute is pleased to present a lecture by University of Illinois historian Dana Rabin and a gallery tour for ArtsWeek 2008. Rabin will discuss her research in a talk titled "The Sorceress, the Servant and the Stays: Sexuality, Race and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain." A guided tour of the "Women of Pleasure" exhibition in the Kinsey Institute Gallery will follow the lecture. "Women of Pleasure" explores the depiction of women in 18th and 19th century European erotic art and literature, using artworks, photographs and books from the Institute's extensive collections. For more information, visit https://www.kinseyinstitute.com.
For more lectures around the state, visit https://events.iu.edu.
