Charlton Heston first
in speaker series lineup

The 1999-2000 Distinguished Speaker Series brings to University Park the man who played Moses, the filmmaker responsible for the IMAX film on Mt. Everest, a popular Latino actor, a debate on civil liberties and the host of "America's Most Wanted."

The series, funded by the student activity fee, is free to the public. Tickets are required for all lectures and will be made available before the events. The scheduled speakers are:

n Charlton Heston, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, in Eisenhower Auditorium. Heston, the legendary actor and outspoken political activist, is perhaps best known for his roles in "The Ten Commandments," "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and "Ben Hur," for which he won the Oscar for best actor. His published journal, titled The Actor's Life: Journals, 1956-1976, earned critical acclaim after its publication in 1978. In 1998 he became president of the National Rifle Association.

n David Breashers, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6, in Eisenhower Auditorium. Breashers has combined his skills in mountain climbing and cinematography to become one of the world's most-acclaimed adventure filmmakers. In the spring of 1996, he directed, photographed and co-produced the first-ever IMAX film on Mt. Everest.

n Edward James Olmos, at 8 p.m., Monday, Nov. 8, in Eisenhower Auditorium. Olmos spent 15 years performing in experimental theatre in his native Los Angeles before receiving a Tony nomination in 1979 for his performance in "Zoot Suit" on Broadway. Some of his most memorable roles include the soft-spoken Lt. Castillo on television's "Miami Vice" and math teacher Jaime Escalante in the film "Stand and Deliver."

n William F. Buckley Jr. and Nadine Strossen, at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, in Eisenhower Auditorium. Buckley, founder of the conservative journal National Review, will enter a lively debate on civil liberties with Strossen, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Buckley's column, "On the Right," appears three times a week in more than 300 newspapers around the world, and his weekly television show "Firing Line" is the longest-running television program in the United States featuring the same host.

Strossen, also a professor of law at New York Law School, has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College (1972) and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1975), where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

n John Walsh, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, in Eisenhower Auditorium. A tireless advocate for victims' rights and missing children, Walsh is the host of "The New America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back." But this career was not one he anticipated. In 1981 Walsh, then a partner in a hotel management company in Hollywood, and his wife Reve experienced tragedy with the kidnapping and murder of their six-year-old son, Adam.

It wasn't long after Adam's death that the Walshes turned their grief into positive energy to help missing and exploited children. Their work led to the passage of federal legislation aimed at helping missing children as well as the founding of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Additional speakers in the 1999/2000 series will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information or to express interest in co-sponsoring a speaker, call the Office of Student Activities at (814) 863-3786 or stop by 319 HUB.

Work, children and family are focus
of seminar series at University Park

The new Work, Children and Family Seminar Series, sponsored by the College of the Liberal Arts and the Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, begins this semester on Friday, Sept. 17, with a presentation by Shelley MacDermid, professor and director of the Center for Families at Purdue University.

MacDermid will discuss "What's Sexy about Size? Firm Size and Relationships Between Work and Family," from 3-4:30 p.m. in 174 Willard Building on the University Park campus.

Other talks in the series include:

n Paula Rayman, director, Radcliffe Public Policy Institute, who will discuss "Dignity at Work: A Work, Family and Community Framework for the 21st Century," on Friday, Nov. 12, from 1:30-3 p.m. in 102 Weaver Building; and

n Douglas Hyatt, professor at the University of Toronto, who will lecture on "Union Wage Impacts for Child Care Center Workers," on Friday, Dec. 10, from 1:30-3 p.m. in 102 Weaver Building.

For more information about the seminars, visit the Web at http://www.la.psu.edu/lsir/workfam/.

Arts lecture series begins Sept. 20

Janice Schimmelman, professor and chair of the Department of Art History at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., will give a lecture, "Art in the Early English Magazine, 1731-1799: An American Perspective," at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, in the Palmer Museum of Art's Palmer Lipcon Auditorium on the University Park campus.

Schimmelman's talk is part of the lecture series, "Drawing from the Past: Perspectives on Rare Books and Printed Materials in the Visual Arts." The lecture is free to the public.

The lecture series will discuss rare books and printed materials in the visual arts from the 16th century through the 19th century.

The series is sponsored by the Center for the History of the Book, the Department of Art History, the Art Education Program and the School of Visual Arts.

Battles over the Bible to be discussed

Between the Revolution and the Civil War, another major war was fought in the United States -- over the Bible.

Paul C. Gutjahr, assistant professor of American studies at Indiana University and author of An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880, will discuss the battles waged over the Bible during this time period at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, in the Fireside Room in The Nittany Lion Inn, University Park.

The lecture, titled "An American Antebellum Bible: Bullets, Bare Breasts and the Battle for the Good Book," is part of a series presented by the Center for the History of the Book.

Gutjahr is currently a Fellow at Princeton University's Center for the Study of American Religion. He is working on a book about 20th-century Protestant publishing.

For more information on the talk, contact James L.W. West III at (814) 865-0495 or e-mail jlw14@psu.edu.

Series to review academic innovations

VOICE Box, a series of luncheon lectures and workshops that examines academic innovations at Penn State, has a new lineup for fall. This semester, VOICE Box (Variations of Innovative Changes in Education) lunches, held every other week from noon to 1 p.m., will follow the theme of "Assessment, Testing and Feedback: The How Tos and What Nots." The talks, all scheduled to be held in 304 Rider Building II on the University Park campus, follow:

n Wednesday, Sept. 29: "Web-based Portfolios in Teacher Education: An Alternate Approach to Supporting Learning and Assessing Understanding" by Carla Zembal-Saul and Leigh Ann Boardman.

n Wednesday, Oct. 13: "The Student Learning Opportunities and Actions Questionnaire: A Student Evaluation of Innovative Teaching and Learning" by Dawn Zimmaro and Joanne Cawley.

n Thursday, Oct. 28: "SQT: Student Quality Teams in the Classroom" by Liz Kinland and a student panel.

n Thursday, Dec. 2: "Assessing Student Writing: The Problems and Some Solutions" by James Eisenstein and Marie Secor.

Participants should bring a lunch; drinks are provided. For more information, visit the Web at http://www.inov8.psu.edu/events.htm or e-mail inov8@psu.edu to be put on an electronic notification list.