Last modified: Thursday, October 6, 2005
Lecture notes, Oct. 10-23, 2005
"Brewing Biodiversity: Birds, Ants and Beetles in Coffee Farms"
Oct. 10, 4 p.m., Myers Hall 130, Bloomington -- Ivette Perfecto, associate professor of natural resources at the University of Michigan, will present "Brewing Biodiversity: Birds, Ants and Beetles in Coffee Farms." Perfecto's current research investigates the role of biodiversity in the coffee agro-ecosystems of Southern Mexico. In particular, this research focuses on top-down processes associated with reduction of herbivory by vertebrate and invertebrate predators, and their impact on coffee yield. She is also a co-author of the book A Breakfast of Biodiversity: The Political Ecology of Rain Forest Deforestation. Her areas of teaching include tropical conservation and agro-ecology. This is the James P. Holland Memorial Lecture. For more information, contact the Biology Department at asmattin@indiana.edu.
"Kant on Transcendental Laws"
Oct. 14, 4 p.m., Ballantine Hall 003, Bloomington -- Professor Eric Watkins, Department of Philosophy, University of California San Diego, will describe several features of Kant's account of transcendental laws, explaining how it differs in its essentials from Humean and Necessitarian positions. He also will consider how the Kantian account can respond to objections that are based on foundational discoveries in geometry and physics, arguing that Carnap's notion of the relativised a priori does not ultimately constitute a distinct alternative to Humean accounts. For more information, contact parobert@indiana.edu in the IU Department of History & Philosophy of Science.
"Roots of Shiite Power in Iraq"
Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m., Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St., Bloomington -- Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle East and South Asian history at the University of Michigan, will present the annual Wadie Jwaideh Lecture in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Cole, also author of Sacred Space and Holy War (IB Tauris, 2002), will explain the rise of the religious Shiite parties in modern Iraq, which are increasingly capturing power in the country, and the underpinnings of the ghetto movement of radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr. He will discuss the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which won nine of 18 provinces in the January elections, and the secretive Dawa Party, which now holds the office of prime minister and which has cells all over the south. He also will discuss how these parties interact with the authority of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the highest spiritual authority for the community. For more information, contact the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at 812-855-5993 or nelcmesp@indiana.edu.
"Talkin' Ads and Pornography"
Oct. 19, 3:30 p.m., Frangipani Room, Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St., Bloomington -- This is a presentation by Natalia Deeb-Sossa and Matt Ezzell of the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using frank discussion and examples of visual imagery, Ezzell and Deeb-Sossa, both anti-violence educators and rape crisis advocates, will discuss the state of sex and gender found in our cultural landscape. Specifically considering mainstream advertising and mainstream (heterosexual) pornography, what messages are we being sold about men and women, sexuality, and race? How do these messages affect us? Where do they come from, and what can we do? For additional information, contact Helga Keller at the IU Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at htkeller@indiana.edu.
"Human Measures"
Oct. 21, 5:30 p.m., Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Room 015, 1201 E. Seventh St., Bloomington -- This lecture will be presented by artist John Dubrow. The painted image of the human figure still holds power over people. "Human Measures" is a survey of eight contemporary American painters who work with the figure perceptually. Artists Michael Ananian, John Dubrow, Ann Gale, Philip Geiger, Tim Kennedy, Eve Mansdorf, Scott Noel and Katherine Schneider make fiercely personal work, executed without the filters of technology or theory. Working within a representational framework, these painters command the uses of form and structure, the sensations of light and color, and the visceral execution of their medium to inform and expand the figurative tradition. For additional information, go to https://sofa.fa.indiana.edu or e-mail sofa@indiana.edu.
"Zionism as International Nationalism"
Oct. 23, 7:30 p.m., Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, 6501 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis -- Michael Brenner is professor of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich and an expert in modern European Jewish history. Brenner earned his doctorate from Columbia University and has taught at Brandeis University and Indiana University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany (1992), The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany (1996), the co-edited German-Jewish History in Modern Times, which won the 1997 National Jewish Book Award for Jewish History, and Zionism: A Brief History (2002). For more information, contact the IU Jewish Studies Program at mdeckard@indiana.edu or visit https://www.indiana.edu/~jsp/calendar.htm.
