Engagement is theme of University Lectures 2005-06 seasonMay 11, 2005Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu
Now entering its fifth year, University Lectures continues its tradition of bringing the world’s best-known artists, intellectuals, and activists to the SU community. This year, University Lectures has embraced as its theme the idea of engagement, reflecting one of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s guiding initiatives for the University.
While University Lectures has always given students, faculty and community members unique opportunities to engage with accomplished individuals representing a diverse range of interests and backgrounds, this year’s speakers exemplify the powerful impact reaching out to new worlds can have.
“This year, University Lectures features speakers and topics that demonstrate the importance of reaching out and engaging the community and the world,” says Vice Chancellor Deborah A. Freund. “All of this year’s speakers have in one way or another stepped out of their comfort zones to engage worlds that were new to them and changed them for the better. They are exactly the kind of people our students should get to know.”
The 2005-06 lineup includes:
George Wolfe-director, writer, producerEngagement through the Arts Oct 11, 7:30 p.m. Hendricks Chapel
Director, writer, and producer George C. Wolfe has had a distinguished career in the theater on and off Broadway, winning two Tony Awards in the process. In addition to directing such important works as Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” which won the 2002 Pulitizer Prize for Drama, Wolfe has also written a number of plays and musicals, several of which have had successful runs on Broadway, including “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,” which earned his second Tony award in 1996. In 1993, he became principal producer and artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Joseph Papp Public Theater, making him one of the most influential voices in American theater.
Wolfe studied theater at Pomona College in California. One of his early plays, “The Colored Museum,” won the admiration of New York Shakespeare Festival director Joseph Papp, who invited Wolfe to be a resident director at the Public Theater in 1990. In 1993, Tony Kushner asked Wolfe to direct the Broadway production of his much-acclaimed AIDS drama, “Angels in America: The Millennium Approaches.”
While serving as artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater, Wolfe’s goal was to create a theater that “looks, feels and smells like America”. To do that, he reached beyond the Public Theater’s traditional “uptown white” clientele to attract black, Asian, and Hispanic audiences as well. Wolfe left the Public Theater in 2004 to pursue opportunities in film direction. His first film project, “Lackawanna Blues,” was received enthusiastically at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005 and was later broadcast on HBO.
William H. Foege-physician, epidemiologistEngaging the Developing WorldOct 25, 7:30 p.m. Hendricks Chapel
Dr. William Foege is an epidemiologist who became chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Smallpox Eradication Program; he was appointed director of the CDC in 1977. He joined the Carter Center as its first executive director in 1986 and became a senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999, where he is now an emeritus fellow.
Foege has championed many health-related issues, but child survival and development in the developing world are his special interests. In 1984, he and several colleagues formed the Task Force for Child Survival, which has successfully managed childhood immunization programs around the world.
Foege holds numerous honorary degrees and was named a fellow of the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1997. The author of more than 125 professional publications, he attended Pacific Lutheran University, received his medical degree from the University of Washington, and his Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University. This month, Dr. Foege will receive the Public Welfare Medal, the National Academy of Sciences’ most prestigious award. Foege was honored for his dedication to eradicating global disease and his leadership in redefining the scope of public health policy in the United States.
Anne Garrels-broadcast journalistEngaging Actualities Nov 10, 7:30 p.m. Hendricks Chapel
A roving foreign correspondent for NPR’s foreign desk, Anne Garrels earned international recognition in 2003 as one of 16 U.S. journalists to remain in Baghdad during the initial invasion of Iraq. Her vivid, around-the-clock reports from the city under siege gave listeners remarkable insight into the impact of the war on Baghdad and those left in the city.
As U.S. and British forces advanced on the city, Garrels remained at her post, describing the scene on the streets and reactions from those she encountered. Her experiences in Baghdad are chronicled in her book, “Naked in Baghdad” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,2003). For her work in Iraq, Garrels in, 2003, was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Garrels combines experience in the field with a sharp understanding of the policy debates in Washington, D.C. Her reporting has earned her numerous awards, including the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1992 for coverage of the first Gulf War. Before joining NPR in 1988, Garrels was the State Department correspondent for NBC News.
William Schulz-executive director, Amnesty InternationalEngagement for Human DignityFeb 28, 7:30 p.m. Hendricks Chapel
William F. Schulz has served as executive director of Amnesty International (USA) for more than 10 years. During that time, he has worked tirelessly in support of Amnesty’s mission to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Schulz joined Amnesty International after serving for 15 years with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, including eight years as president of that organization. Schulz’s commitment to human rights has taken him to trouble spots around the world, including El Salvador, Romania, Northern Ireland and the Middle East. In 1997, he led an Amnesty mission to Liberia to investigate atrocities committed during the civil war there.
Schulz is a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. He is quoted widely in newspapers and magazines and is a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows. His latest book, “Tainted Legacy: 9-11 and the Ruin of Human Rights,” was published by Nation Books in 2003.
Henry Petroski-engineer, authorEngagement by DesignMarch 7, 7:30 p.m.Hendricks Chapel
Henry Petroski has made a career of making the sometimes-arcane world of engineering and technology accessible to popular audiences. Petroski, the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University, has written on a vast array of engineering-related matters, including design, success and failure, and the history of engineering and technology.
His books are appreciated by professional engineers and general readers alike and include “To Engineer Is Human”(St.Martin’s Press, 1985), which was adapted for a BBC television documentary, and “Design Paradigms” (Cambridge University Press, 1994), which was named by the Association of American Publishers as the best general engineering book published in 1994. Since 1991, he has been writing the engineering column in the bimonthly magazine American Scientist, and now also writes a bimonthly column on the engineering profession for ASEE Prism.
Before moving to Duke, Petroski was on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin and on the staff of Argonne National Laboratory. He is a professional engineer licensed in Texas and a chartered engineer registered in Ireland. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Humanities Center.
Wilma Mankiller-rights activist, Cherokee Nation chiefEngagement for the CommunityMarch 21, 7:30 p.m.Hendricks Chapel
Spirituality is the key to the public and private life of Wilma Mankiller, who has become known not only for her community leadership but also for her spiritual presence. Mankiller was the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
Mankiller gained national attention through the success of the Bell project, in which community members were mobilized to revitalize their community on their own. She has demonstrated that native and non-native Americans truly can learn from each other, and that, by understanding the interconnectedness of all things, non-natives too can appreciate the value of native wisdom, culture and spirituality.
Mankiller has a bachelor’s degree in social services and has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the International Women’s Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. She is a trustee of the Ford Foundation and the Freedom Forum’s Newseum. She co-edited “A Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History” (Houghton-Mifflin, 1998),co-authored, “Mankiller:A Chief and Her People”(St. Martin’s Press, 1993). Her latest book, “Every Day is a Good Day”, was published by Fulcrum Press in the fall of 2004. She is one of only a few Native Americans to have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Luis Rodriguez-writer, urban activistEngagement through Literature April 4, 7:30 p.m.Hendricks Chapel
Luis J. Rodriguez has emerged as one of the leading Chicano writers in the country with eight nationally published books in memoir, children’s literature and poetry. Rodriguez’s poetry has won a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, and Foreward magazine’s Silver Book Award, among others. His two children’s books have won a Patterson Young Adult Book Award, two Skipping Stones Honor Awards and a Parent’s Choice Book Award, among others.
Rodriguez achieved national prominence for his 1993 memoir of gang life, “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A” (Curbstone PRess, 1993), which was written as a cautionary tale for Rodriguez’s then 15-year-old son Ramiro. An accomplished poet, Rodriguez is the author of three collections of poetry:”Poems Across the Pavement” (Tia Chucha Press, 1989), “The Concrete River” (Curbstone Press, 1991) and “Trochemoche” (Curbstone Press, 1998). His books for children, “America is Her Name”(Curbstone Press, 1998) and “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way”: A Barrio Story”(Children’s Book Press, 1999) are published in both English and Spanish.
Rodriguez is also known for helping start a number of prominent organizations, such as Chicago’s Guild Complex, one of the largest literary arts organizations in the Midwest, and Youth Struggling for Survival, a Chicago-based not-for-profit community group working with gang and non-gang youth. In May 2001, Rodriguez was recognized as one of only 50 Unsung Heros of Compassion by the Dalai Lama. His first novel, Music of the Mill(Rayo Books/Harper Collins) was published this month.
About the University Lectures
The University Lectures reflect Syracuse University’s commitment to intelligence-in-action, integrating discovery, learning, and public engagement. This cross-disciplinary lecture series brings to the University individuals of exceptional accomplishment in the areas of architecture and design; the humanities and the sciences; and public policy, management and communications. The series is supported by the generosity of the University’s Trustees, alumni and friends.
More information on the upcoming University Lectures speakers can be found by visiting http://provost.syr.edu/lectures/current.asp.
