Lectures
Penn State Intercom......November
8, 2001
Industry leader to discuss
hospitality business 
Valerie Ferguson, regional vice president and managing director of Loews Philadelphia Hotel, will deliver the Penn State Forum lecture at noon Wednesday, Nov. 14, at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Her topic is "'Hospitality' in Our World."
Ferguson arrived in Philadelphia in 1998, with a mandate from Loews Corp. to direct the $115 million conversion of the landmark Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building into the luxury, convention-driven Loews Philadelphia Hotel.
The Forum is a lunchtime speaker series offered by the Faculty Staff Club and is sponsored in part by the Penn State Bookstore. It is open to the public. Tickets are $10 for members and $12 for non-members and include lunch. Reservations can be made by mail or by stopping by the Faculty Staff Club office at 103 HUB-Robeson Center. Tickets will be on sale at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the speech and a question-and-answer session at noon.
For information, call (814) 865-7590.
Lecture topic will be
collision of black holes 
A free public lecture, titled "When Black Holes Collide," will be given at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, in 100 Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
Pablo Laguna, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and physics, is the speaker for the second of the 2001-2002 Friedman public lectures sponsored by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
This year the theme is "Black Holes and Time Warps."
Laguna is a co-investigator and associate director of both the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry and the new Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, recently established at the University by the National Science Foundation. He has been on the faculty since 1992.
Quantum mechanics in
everyday life examined 
Anthony J. Leggett, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present the 2001 E.W. Mueller Memorial Lectures in Physics on Nov. 14 and 15 on the University Park campus. The series of two lectures is sponsored by the Department of Physics and the Eberly College of Science.
The first lecture, titled "Does the Everyday World Really Obey Quantum Mechanics?" is intended for a general audience and is free to the public. It is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in 117 Osmond Laboratory. The second lecture will be a Department of Physics colloquium, "Superfluidity, Phase Coherence and the New BEC Alkali Gases," at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, in 117 Osmond Laboratory.
Leggett is a theoretical physicist whose overall research program focuses on superconductors, superfluids, glasses and other condensed-matter systems. His work has shaped the understanding of normal and superfluid helium.
The Erwin W. Mueller Memorial Lecture in Physics honors the late Erwin W. Mueller, who was a member of the Department of Physics from 1952 until his death in 1977. For his numerous achievements, he was the first person at the University awarded the National Medal of Science.
Lecture looks at black
power, sickle cell anemia
Alondra Nelson will give a lecture, titled "Spin Doctors: The Black Panther Party and Sickle Cell Anemia," at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, in 111 Wartik Building on the University Park campus.
The discussion is part of the "Contemporary Issues in Science and Technology Studies" series, sponsored by the Science, Technology and Society Program.
Nelson is a doctoral candidate in the American Studies Program at New York University and the Ann Plato fellow in American studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
Symposium looks at
wireless, Internet advertising
Analysis and discussion of the potentially powerful opportunities that exist for wireless and Internet advertising provide the focus for the 2001 Donald W. Davis Symposium, scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in the HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium on the University Park campus.
The symposium features three panelists who bring different perspectives regarding the growing area of advertising at the convergence of the Internet and wireless telecommunications.
Panelists include: Perry Allison, vice president of strategic alliances for SkyGo, a wireless marketing company; Owen Davis, founder of Sonata Inc., a venture-based wireless company; and Pamela Parker, who manages several publications covering the Internet advertising and marketing sector. Katie O'Toole of WPSX-TV serves as moderator for the event, which is free to the public.
The Donald W. Davis Symposium, sponsored by the College of Communications, was established to provide an opportunity for the discussion of current issues related to advertising and its impact on society.
Belle of Amherst to be
discussed at public lecture
Tim Dean, associate professor of English and interpretive theory at the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana, will give a lecture, "Normalizing Emily Dickinson," from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, in the Penn State Room at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
A reception follows the lecture.
Dean's talk will explore the extent to which the poetry of 19th-century American cultural icon Emily Dickinson has been mainstreamed at the expense of its sexual subversiveness.
This is the second lecture of "Millennium, Approached: Queer Literary Studies in the 21st Century: A Lecture/Discussion Series," organized by the Department of English. The series coincides with the Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity's 10th anniversary events, held this October, with the theme "A Decade of Pride: A Milestone on the Road to Equity."
For a schedule of upcoming speakers, go to http://english.la.psu.edu and check under "Forthcoming Events."
The lectures are free to the public. For information, call Vincent A. Lankewish at (814) 865-4383.
'Digital divide' talk leads
off coffee hour series
Jorge Schement, professor of communications, will discuss "From Universal Access to Universal Service: Americans and The Digital Divide," at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9, in 301 Steidle Building on the University Park campus.
Schement's lecture is part of the Department of Geography Coffee Hour Speaker series.
Other speakers are:
* James McCarthy, assistant professor of geography, who will discuss "Globalization, Scale and Democratic Participation in Environmental Governance," at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, in 301 Steidle Building; and
* Henry Giroux, director of the Waterbury Forum in Education and Cultural Studies, who will discuss "Youth, Domestic Militarization and the Racial Politics of Zero Tolerance" at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, in 301 Steidle Building.
The hour begins with coffee and tea at 3:30 p.m.
Animal emotion topic
for literature series
Marie Secor, associate professor in the Department of English, will speak on "Emotion and Rhetoric: Darwin's Earthworms and the Expression of Emotion in Animals" Nov. 19 as part of the Comparative Literature Luncheon series.
The luncheon is a weekly, informal lunchtime gathering of students, faculty and other members of the University community. The events begin with lunch from 12:15 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. in 102 Kern Building on the University Park campus. Participants may bring their own lunch or buy something in Kern Cafeteria. Coffee and tea are provided. The speaker will begin at about 12:40 p.m. The events are free to the public.
For more information, e-mail Daniel Walden at dxw8@psu.edu.
Topic is biostimulants in
turfgrass management
Gordan Kauffman, doctoral candidate in agronomy in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, will discuss "Biostimulants: What are they and where do they fit in Turf-grass Management?" from 3:35 to 4:25 p.m. Nov. 9 in 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, University Park. For information, call (814) 863-1601.
ArtSTOR to be explained
in Nov. 15 library talk
Donald J. Waters, program officer for scholarly communications for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will speak about "The Development of ArtSTOR," from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, in the Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library on the University Park campus.
Under development by the Mellon foundation, ArtSTOR is an independent, not-for-profit organization that will develop, store and electronically distribute digital images and related scholarly materials for the study of art, architecture and other fields in the humanities. With an advisory board led by Neil L. Rudenstine, former president of Harvard University, ArtSTOR's mission will be to provide access to high-quality digital images and other relevant materials for teachers, students and scholars at educational and cultural institutions.
Waters will describe the origins, mission, collection goals, legal issues, technical interface, metadata approach and related issues associated with this project. He also will demonstrate some of the features of the proposed system and discuss future prospects. Background information on ArtSTOR is available on the Web at http://www.mellon.org/.
The presentation, which is open to the public, is sponsored by the University Libraries' Visual Image User Study (VIUS) with assistance from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For information, call Jim Frost at (814) 865-6697 or e-mail jfx17@psu.edu.
Examine barriers to
Web-based instruction
Faculty and staff may attend an informal luncheon discussion on "Barriers to Adopting Web-Based Instruction," facilitated by David L. Passmore, professor of education and faculty fellow of Center for Educational Technology Services, and Pat Hinchey, director of the Royer Center. The luncheon will be held at noon Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the Faculty/Staff Club suite in the lower level of The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Possible thoughts for seeding a discussion about Web-based course delivery include reasons for using or not using, benefits and costs, personal and institutional resources needed to implement, rewards and incentives, and consideration of the University's new "Courseware" policy. The policy can be found on the Web at http://guru.psu.edu/policies/RA17.html. Before the lunch, participants are urged to check the Web at http://classrooms.cets.psu.edu/TLClunch/.
The conversation series is an initiative between The Teaching and Learning Consortium and the Faculty/Staff Club to promote thoughtful discourse. It is held at noon on the second Wednesday of each month in the Faculty/Staff Club suite. The series is open to all faculty and staff, including non-club members. Lunch is $7 for the hot buffet and $5.50 for soup, salad, and sandwich (beverage, tax and gratuity included). Non-club members will be charged $2 additional over the club-account lunch price.
For information or to register, contact Tammy Homan at fsclub@psu.edu or (814) 865-8563 by 9 a.m. Nov. 14.