Lectures
Penn State Intercom......November
7, 2002
New York firefighter to be
speaker
Chief Richard Picciotto, the highest-ranking firefighter to survive the World Trade Center collapse and the last fireman to escape the devastation, will speak at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, at Eisenhower Auditorium on the University Park campus.
Picciotto's appearance is part of the University's Distinguished Speakers Series.
The event is free to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets are now available at the Eisenhower ticket office.
Recruiting talk shows
what companies are seeking
The University Libraries' William and Joan Schreyer Business Library is sponsoring "Company Recruiters' Top Seven Career Essentials for College Students," a presentation by Robert Orndorff, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, University Park.
Orndorff, associate director of Career Services and affiliate assistant professor, will discuss what companies look for in recent college graduates, including the experience, skills and qualities that leading companies consider essential. Based on in-depth nationwide research, Orndorff will provide an inside look into corporate recruiting and effective job-searching strategies for the 21st century.
The event is free to the public.
For information, call Diane Zabel at (814) 865-1013 or e-mail dxz2@psu.edu.
Literature speaker to
discuss exile writing
The Comparative Literature Luncheon, a weekly informal lunchtime gathering of students, faculty and other members of the University community, has announced the next speaker in this semester's series.
Sophia McClennan, assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Illinois State University, acting associate director of the Women's Studies Program at Illinois State University and visiting associate professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, will speak Monday, Nov. 11. Her topic is "The Dialectics of Exile Writing: The Crisis of Representing Cultural Identity After 1960."
The event begins with lunch from 12:15 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 event is free to the public.
For information, e-mail Daniel Walden at dxw8@psu.edu.
Professors to discuss
new design initiative
Simone Osthoff, assistant professor of art, and Carlos Rosas, associate professor of art, will present the lecture, "Emitto.net: Webcasting, Experimentation and Outreach," and discuss their participation in two international design conferences at a brown bag luncheon held by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, in 102 Kern Building on the University Park campus.
The lecture is free to the public.
Osthoff and Rosas traveled to Brasília, Brazil, to participate in a four-university conference launching the Sustainable Urban Design and Community-Based Resource Management project. The Penn State team was lead by Michael Rios, assistant professor of architecture and director of the Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance. This four-year interdisciplinary and international outreach project addresses environmental and urban poverty issues, emphasizing problem-based learning, community engagement and reflective practice. Over the next four years, this higher education consortium between the United States and Brazil will grow to include study-abroad opportunities for 48 students. The State University of New York at Syracuse, Universidade de Brasilia and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul also are participating in the project.
Waterbury Forum
investigates corporate media
Robert W. McChesney will present the Waterbury Forum Lecture in education, "Media and Democratic Politics: The New Imperatives," at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in 112 Kern Building on the University Park campus. The event is free to the public.
McChesney's lecture will debunk what he calls the four "Big Lies" of the corporate media system: the journalism that results from a capitalist media system is the most democratic journalism imaginable; the competition-based commercial media system "gives the people what they want;" that the private U.S. media system is natural part of making a profit and that government involvement is unnatural and dubious; and the Internet will set us free -- new communication technologies will solve any problems with the commercial media system. Only by debunking these four myths, McChesney says, can we see the corporate media system's true intent and understand why we must change it if we really want democracy.
McChesney is research professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This event is part of a series of critical thought presentations funded by the College of Education. For more information, call Henry Giroux at (814) 865-2214.
Speaker to note
University's musical heritage
Anthony Leach, associate professor of music and music education, will reflect on the University's musical tradition in the next lecture in the Huddle with the Faculty series from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Leach, director of the University Choir and founder of the Essence of Joy choir, will talk about "Choral Singing at Penn State -- A Proud Tradition of Excellence."
The event is free to the public. A complimentary continental breakfast is served at 8:30 a.m. Parking in the Nittany Deck is free for participants.
For information, call (814) 865-5466.
Molecular biologist to
present genome seminar
Joseph Ecker, an authority on the molecular biology and genetics of plants and professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., will present a seminar at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, in 108 Wartik Laboratory on the University Park campus.
The seminar, titled "Weeding out the genes: genome-wide functional analysis in Arabidopsis," will be videoconferenced to Lecture Room D at the College of Medicine at Hershey.
Ecker is a principal investigator in the multinational effort to sequence and functionally characterize the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, a small plant. He also is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on how the gaseous hormone ethylene regulates a variety of basic plant processes.
Discussion centers on
forest buffer inventory
Ray Crew, a master of science candidate in soil science, will give a presentation from 3:35 to 4:25 p.m. Nov. 8 in 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building on the University Park campus.
His topic is "Riparian Forest Buffer Inventory and Analysis for the Commonwealth of Virginia Using a Geographic Information Systems Approach."
The host is the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
For information, call (814) 863-1601.
Lecturer's topic is
Charleton Heston's films
Charles Brock, a lecturer in religious studies at Penn State Erie and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, will present "The Two American Dreams of Charleton Heston" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in Smith Chapel on the Erie campus.
Brock, the director of the Institute on the American Dream, will present an analytical talk illustrated with film clips from portions of Heston's films.
The event is free to the public.