Columnist Frank Rich to Speak at Willamette

Op-ed columnist Frank Rich of The New York Times will present the spring 2008 Atkinson Lecture at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University. He will discuss the intersection of culture and politics.

Tickets are available beginning Monday, March 3, at the Information Desk in Putnam University Center. For Willamette faculty, students and staff, the first ticket is free with a Willamette ID, and subsequent tickets are $10 each. Tickets for the general public are $10.

A former film and television critic at Time magazine and The New York Post, Rich began working for The New York Times in 1980, and during the years has served as chief drama critic and political commentator. His op-ed columns have been a regular feature of the Times since 1994. In 1999 he was given the additional duty of senior writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Rich's weekly essays on the intersection of culture and news helped inaugurate the expanded opinion pages that the paper introduced in the Sunday Week in Review section in 2005. From 2003-05, Rich was the front-page columnist for the Sunday Arts & Leisure section.

Among other honors, Rich received the George Polk Award for commentary in 2005. His latest book, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina,” was published by the Penguin Press in 2006. His childhood memoir, “Ghost Light,” was published in 2000 by Random House. The film rights to “Ghost Light” have been acquired by Storyline Entertainment. A collection of Rich’s drama reviews, “Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993,” was published by Random House in October 1998.

Born in 1949 in Washington, D.C., Rich is a graduate of its public schools. He graduated magna cum laude in 1971 from Harvard College, earning a bachelor of arts degree in American history and literature. At Harvard, he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson, an honorary Harvard College scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of a Henry Russell Shaw traveling fellowship. Rich has two sons and lives in Manhattan with his wife, author Alex Witchel, who is a reporter for The New York Times.

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Willamette University Honors Wartime Students

Japanese-American students at Willamette University during World War II were forced to say an abrupt goodbye when federal prosecutors rounded them up for a trip to an internment camp. In February, Willamette invites them to return for a series of events in their honor.

Japanese-American alumni from the time period, their families and the general public are invited to campus Feb. 19, the 66th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066 authorizing the removal of people deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland.

Oregon Poet Laureate Lawson Inada and friends will present “Revisiting Willamette: A Sentimental Journey,” an evening of poetry and jazz, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall. Inada, a nationally noted poet and the author of five books, is an emeritus professor of writing at Southern Oregon University who was sent to an internment camp as a young boy. Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed him Oregon’s fifth poet laureate in 2006. The program also will include 1940s–era music performed by jazz musicians Larry Nobori, Rick Homer, Andre St. James, Nola Bogle and Gordon Lee. This event is co-sponsored by the Portland Japanese American Citizens League.

Earlier in the day, Shizue Seigel, author of “In Good Conscience,” will discuss cross-racial alliances to protect civil liberties during wartime in a lecture at 4 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. Siegel’s book offers portraits of two dozen citizens who spoke out against internment and examines how ordinary people can become advocates for justice and compassion.

Two films, “From 9066 to 9/11” and “Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story,” will be presented Feb. 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Paulus Lecture Hall at the College of Law. The event will include a discussion with the filmmakers and local Japanese-Americans affected by Executive Order 9066. Ralph Lazo was a Latino teenager who boarded a train to a World War II camp so he could join his Japanese friends.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Michelle Maynard at (503) 370-6031.

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Community Invited to World AIDS Day Summit

The Willamette University chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign will host a two-day summit Nov. 29–30 on campus in honor of World AIDS Day.

Community members of any age are invited to attend the events, which begin with a free educational panel about the AIDS pandemic at 7 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. Events on Nov. 30 include a rally at noon in Jackson Plaza, and a dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to midnight in Sparks Athletic Center to raise money for Partners in Health, a global health organization with a proven track record of preventing the spread of HIV and delivering life-saving health care to those in need.

This is the second year Willamette’s Student Global AIDS Campaign has hosted a summit for World AIDS Day, which is Dec. 1. SGAC is a national grassroots movement, the largest student network committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide.

All events are free, although those wishing to participate in the dance-a-thon are asked to register their fundraising efforts at www.willametteworldaidsday2007.weebly.com. For more information, call (503) 370-6593.

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Noted Author to Discuss Religious Literacy

Religion scholar and best-selling author Stephen Prothero will address “Religious Literacy and Cultural Understanding” in a free lecture Nov. 15 at Willamette University.

The event is at 7:30 p.m. in Paulus Great Hall at Collins Legal Center, 245 Winter St. SE.

Prothero’s New York Times bestseller, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t, received the 2007 Quill Book Award and was named an “editor’s choice” this summer in the New York Times Book Review. Prothero has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to discuss the book, which notes that religious illiteracy in the U.S. has led to many politicians, pundits and general citizens misinterpreting religious rhetoric in policy arguments.

Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University, also wrote American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. He has been a commentator on CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox and PBS, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Salon, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

The event is sponsored by the Willamette University Center for Religion, Law and Democracy, and the Lilly Project. For more information, call (503) 370-6213 or (503) 370-6732.

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New York Times Editor Reveals “Why We Publish Secrets"

Since 9/11 citizens and journalists have found it increasingly difficult to obtain public information, with government officials citing national security as a rationale for blocked access. In 2005 the New York Times broke a story about the Bush administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, which authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on citizens without their knowledge and without warrants.

Phillip Taubman, who serves as associate editor and national security correspondent for the Times, said that prior to the story’s publication, he and other Times editors had been invited to the White House — through the back door — for a private meeting with President Bush, who warned the article would put citizens at risk.

In response, Times reporters quietly gathered more evidence, uncovering dissension on the issue among top policy makers. (Their sources risked their careers and are still under investigation and threat of jail time.) “Our deliberations were extremely cautious and deliberate,” Taubman said. “These are the most difficult decisions editors make. I’m not agnostic about the threats to the nation or the need for protection — I lived close to the Trade Towers at the time of the 9/11 attack — but we must do so in accordance with American liberties.

“The story’s publication generated an explosive public debate about the limits of presidential authority and the balance between security and liberty,” the Times editor said. “Many people were upset about the encroachment on protected rights, and the controversy still rages, with Congress debating the program even this week.” The reporting won a Pulitzer Prize.

Not everything is fit to print, Taubman said, especially in wartime. And when Thomas Jefferson said that American liberties must be protected by the freedom of the press, he and other founders could scarcely have envisioned how to apply that principle in a modern complicated world. “But a free press is essential to maintaining the equilibrium between government and citizens. That’s a social compact that’s animated American democracy since the beginning of the country.

“One of the largest threats to the press right now is that the 24-hour news cycle has now been reduced to the 24-second news cycle,” said Taubman. “People are attracted to celebrity tabloid news, where Britney Spears is more important than the U.S. relationship with Russia. It’s a regrettable pattern in news reporting. We need information to make decisions as citizens.”

The lecture was sponsored by the Associated Students of Willamette University in partnership with USA Today’s Collegiate Readership Program.

Taubman covered the first turbulent years of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the NYT bureau chief in Moscow and broke the story about the tangled finances of Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carter’s budget director, in an article for Time magazine. Author of Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America’s Space Espionage, Taubman has received two George Polk Awards for investigative reporting.

See a related story by Tatiana Mac ’08 in the Willamette student newsletter, the Collegian (Oct. 24).

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Swedish gardener and scientist Magnus Lidén at Willamette

In celebration of the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, Willamette University announces a rare opportunity to hear distinguished Swedish gardener and scientist Magnus Lidén, curator of the Uppsala Botanic Garden and the Linnaeus Garden. Lidén will give two free talks Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Paulus Lecture Hall, Room 201, Collins Legal Center at Willamette University.

Lidén travels internationally as a scientist and speaker; he is a knowledgeable gardener and collector, and has published widely on species concepts and plants in the Fumariaceae, especially those in the genus Corydalis. This primarily Asian genus is a native of Oregon and is a relative of Pacific bleeding hearts. Lidén has written books and numerous papers on plants. Visit his website, which includes his biography, main research projects, and spectacular photos.

The evening talk is especially for the gardening audience, whereas the first talk focuses on Linnaeus, who served on the faculty of medicine at Uppsala University, the site of the largest Swedish collection of plants cultivated and described by Carl von Linné. Refreshments will be served after the evening lecture.

The event is sponsored by Willamette University, Uppsala University, Northwest Perennial Alliance, the Salem chapter of Native Plant Society of Oregon and the Hardy Plant Society.

• 4:15 p.m. Taxonomy and the Legacy of Linnaeus
• 7 p.m. Hunting Corydalis on the Top of the World

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Philip Taubman to Lecture

Philip Taubman, associate editor and special correspondent for The New York Times, will discuss “Why We Publish Secrets” Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University. Admission is free and the public is invited.

The lecture is sponsored by the Associated Students of Willamette University in partnership with the Collegiate Readership Program.

Taubman became associate editor for The New York Times in March. National security is his special correspondent assignment. Prior this latest post, he had served as the paper’s Washington bureau chief since August 2003.

Taubman was deputy editor of the editorial page from 2002 and assistant editorial page editor from 1994-02. He was deputy national editor from 1993-94 and deputy Washington editor from 1989-92. He was based in Moscow from 1985-88, covering the first turbulent years of Mikhail Gorbachev’s tenure as Soviet leader. He served as Moscow bureau chief from 1986-88.

He joined The Times in 1979 as a reporter in the Washington Bureau, initially covering the Justice Department and working on investigative projects and later specializing in national security and intelligence issues.

In 1970, Taubman became a correspondent for Time magazine in its Boston bureau. From 1973-76, he was a staff writer and the sports editor in Time’s New York office and from 1976-77, he worked in the magazine’s Washington bureau, covering labor and economic policy stories. His reporting in this assignment led to an article in Time, which exposed the tangled finances of Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carter's budget director. In 1977, he left Time to become a writer at Esquire magazine.

Taubman has received two George Polk awards – the first in 1981 (shared with Jeff Gerth and Seymour M. Hersh) for national reporting about two former C.I.A. employees who provided aid to Libya, and the second in 1983 for foreign affairs reporting for coverage of American policy in Central America.

He graduated with a B.A. degree in history from Stanford in 1971 and was editor of the campus newspaper, The Stanford Daily. He was a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1978-82.

He is the author of “Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America’s Space Espionage,” (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

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New Students Welcome Sir Salman Rushdie

Be brutal with the idea but respectful of the person who holds it was a primary message offered by Sir Salman Rushdie during the late August Opening Convocation at Willamette.

Packed with new students and their parents, the audience in Smith Auditorium responded to the internationally respected author with two standing ovations and enthusiastic applause as he discussed with wit and insight his formative years as a student — first at boarding school and then as an undergraduate.

“There are three mistakes you can make in boarding school,” said Rushdie. “Be clever, be foreign and be bad at games. I hit the trifecta.” While boarding school was not a positive experience for Rushdie, he found a much more inviting and positive experience at Cambridge University where he attended King’s College beginning in 1965.

“University is that moment when you come away from the stricture of high school and have the first adult experience of your life. In University, you work out who you are. You experiment with yourself and try on different skins. Through this process you work out what you will be and won’t be. It is your portal to the adult world. You are a migrant and university is where you begin to make your way.”

He added, “The thing I learned most at Cambridge was that you should be as brutal as possible toward ideas but as courteous as possible to the people who hold them. The undergraduate experience is transforming. You learn to be tolerant and open to new ideas. You learn that scholarship doesn’t seek self — it seeks the work.”

It’s clear that Rushdie credits his experiences at Cambridge more than he credits his degree in history. He managed a good natured tease when he said, “Throughout my life, no one has ever asked me what kind of degree I got or even if I’ve got one at all. I have to say it’s been useless.”

Rushdie is the author of such international best-sellers as Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses. The latter was deemed sacrilegious by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against Rushdie in 1989. Despite this proclamation, and the international controversy that followed, Rushdie went on to produce some of his most compelling work, including The Moor’s Last Sigh and The Ground Beneath Her Feet while living under the constant threat of death. His most recent novel, Shalimar the Clown, was an international best-seller and a nominee for both the Man Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize.

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Ecopoetry Reading to Support Focus the Nation

Ronault Latang Sayang Catalani and Alicia Cohen will be featured at a free ecopoetry reading to support Focus the Nation March 13 at 7 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Ecopoetry is a form a poetry that focuses on ecology. Focus the Nation is an educational initiative coordinating teams at colleges, universities and high schools across the U.S. to engage in an interdisciplinary discussion about global warming solutions. The reading is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow in the lobby of the museum.

Catalani, a veteran activist and attorney, performs djatung, a rhythmic essay style. He is the Green World Project Manager for Focus the Nation and a 1983 graduate of Willamette University’s College of Law. Catalani has organized civil rights and cultural defense impact litigation for more than 20 years in three West Coast states, is a human rights advocate and political asylum attorney in Southeast Asia, and is an essayist for The Asian Reporter, El Hispanic News, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Wisconsin Public Radio. He has been an International Court of Justice Fellow at Hague Institute for Human Rights and a William Stafford Fellow at the Oregon Literary Arts Council.

Cohen is a poet who writes about the intersection of poetry and ecology. She lives in Portland, where she helped establish the artist-run gallery and show space Pacific Switchboard in 2000. Her book of poems, bEAR, was published by Handwritten Press, and she recently wrote, directed and produced a multimedia opera and gallery installation titled “Northwest Inhabitation Log.” Her work has recently appeared in Ecopoetics, How2, Bird Dog and Traverse. She has shown her installation, video and performance work nationally, and she teaches at Portland State University.

The reading is sponsored by Willamette University Department of English and the Center for Sustainable Communities. For more information, call 503-370-6026, email ksand@willamette.edu or visit www.willamette.edu/~ksand/ecopoetics.html.

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Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Willamette University

Holocaust survivor Guy Geller will speak Monday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. The event is free and the public is welcome.

Born in 1936, Geller was the only child of a Hungarian writer and French-born American mother. His family was respected in Budapest and considered “privileged,” but the onset of World War II caused a dramatic change in circumstances.

The German Gestapo arrested his father on Geller’s fourth birthday. With help, the boy was taken to France, where he hid from 1942 to 1946. Geller didn’t hear of his father’s death in the Auschwitz gas chambers until 1996.

Today Geller is a retired business executive. In his retirement he wrote “Journeys to Freedom,” about his war experience. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and was a guest of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1997 Geller began a weekly column, “Armchair Ponderings,” in the Magnolia Gazette. The commentary column won a top award in 1998 from the Mississippi Press Association.

For information contact Olympia Vernon, Hallie Brown Chair of Writing at Willamette University, at 503-370-6290.

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Psychology Scholar Visits Willamette University

Barry Schwartz, the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action in the psychology department at Swarthmore College, will give two free public presentations March 8 at Willamette University.

Schwartz will discuss “Practical Wisdom: What It Is, Why We Need It, and Why It’s Hard to Get” at 11:30 a.m. in Cone Chapel, on the second floor of Waller Hall. He will present “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less” at 7:30 p.m. in the John C. Paulus Great Hall, room 201, Collins Legal Center.

Schwartz has received several National Science Foundation grants as well as a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation, and has published widely in various scholarly journals and popular media, including the New York Times, Parade magazine and Slate. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. Schwartz has written or co-written four textbooks and three books for popular audiences about the psychology of learning and memory.

He is Willamette’s Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for 2007. Phi Beta Kappa is an honors organization that recognizes excellence in the undergraduate liberal arts and sciences.

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An Evening with Brian Keith Jackson

Critically acclaimed author Brian Keith Jackson will give a free reading Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University.

Jackson moved from Louisiana to New York in 1990 to pursue a career in the arts. Frustrated by images of black men in the media and their portrayal on stage and screen, he began writing plays, which were performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. For his efforts, he received fellowships from Art Matters, the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Jerome Foundation.

Jackson’s debut novel, “The View from Here,” won the First Fiction Award from the American Library Association Black Caucus and received a fellowship from the Millay Colony for the Arts. “The View from Here,” about an African-American wife and mother trying to keep her family together in the face of prejudice and economic hardship, was a bestseller in South Africa. The New York Times Book Review wrote that Jackson’s prose had “visceral pungency,” while People magazine likened him to Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, calling the book a “triumph.”

Jackson’s second novel, “Walking Through Mirrors,” is about a New York photographer who returns to his Louisiana roots and comes to terms with the flaws of his family. Kirkus Reviews wrote that it was “an intriguing and variant contribution. A lean and nicely told story.” Paper Magazine wrote, “Jackson’s prose prompts responses from both the head and the heart … via delivery that is clearly thoughtful, yet never contrived.”

His third novel, “The Queen of Harlem,” won the Distinguished Writers Award from the Middle Atlantic Writers Association. The book is about a young African-American man raised in the suburbs who retreats from wealth and privilege to discover his true self.

Jackson has written about art and culture for The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Observer in London, Paper, Nylon magazine and Vibe magazine, and he has contributed to several anthologies and gallery and museum catalogs. He is currently working on his fourth novel, “SIC.” He lives in Harlem.

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Columbia River Tribal Leaders to Speak at Willamette on Founders Day

Tribal leaders Carol Craig of the Yakama Nation and Louis Pitt of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation will speak Thursday, Feb. 1, at Willamette University about “Ancestral Rights and Responsibilities.”

This free public event is at 7 p.m. in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center and is preceded by a 6 p.m. reception. The dialogue takes place on Willamette’s Founders Day and is part of the Indian Country Conversations series.

Craig and Pitt will offer an introduction to the history of Columbia River tribes and the treaties negotiated with the U.S. government in the 19th century. They will discuss the ongoing responsibilities — shared by the tribes, the federal government and the public — implied by these treaty rights, particularly to protect salmon habitat.

Craig is the public information manager for the Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife Resource Management Program in Washington. In 2002, she was one of four finalists for Portland-based Ecotrust’s Buffet Indigenous Leadership Award in recognition of her efforts to educate the public and tribal communities about native people’s traditions, cultures and treaty rights. That same year, she was given the Spirit of the Salmon Award from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for her public outreach education throughout the Pacific Northwest. Craig has been widely recognized for her achievements in Native American journalism and public affairs.

Pitt is the director of government affairs and planning of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. He works with state and federal officials and is on the communications team for the proposed Bridge of the Gods casino project. A former Columbia River Gorge commissioner, Pitt has served as a tribal appellate judge, as a member of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s transition team, and on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Committee.

This event is on Willamette’s Founders Day, recognizing the university’s founding by Jason Lee and other Methodist missionaries who came to the Willamette Valley in 1834 to open an Indian mission school. In 1842, Lee and the missionary community established a school for children of settlers called the Oregon Institute; this marked the founding of what is now Willamette University. Two years later, the original Indian Manual Labor School was closed.

On Founders Day 2005, Willamette held a Ceremony of Renewal with regional tribes to acknowledge its Indian mission legacy and begin a new chapter in the mutual history of Oregon’s tribal communities and the university. At the ceremony, President M. Lee Pelton announced the establishment of a lecture series to bring guests from Indian country to the campus and the broader Willamette Valley for dialogue, teaching and learning.

The Indian Country Conversations series is sponsored by the President’s Office and the College of Liberal Arts dean, and is coordinated by associate professor of anthropology Rebecca Dobkins in consultation with the university’s community-based Native American Advisory Council.

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Native American Elders Discuss Northwest Fishing Rights

Native American elders Billy Frank Jr. and Hank Adams will meet Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. in Cone Chapel at Willamette University to discuss “Lessons for Future Generations from the Struggle for Northwest Treaty Fishing Rights.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Frank, a Nisqually tribal member, and Adams, who is Assiniboine-Sioux, are recipients of the national American Indian Visionary Award and are long-time activists for salmon restoration and treaty rights. The conversation will be moderated by Elizabeth Woody, director of Ecotrust’s Indigenous Leadership Program.

Frank and Adams were on the front lines when the battle over treaty-guaranteed Indian fishing rights erupted in the 1960s and ’70s. As the current chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Frank has worked to achieve a number of key agreements between the tribes and various local, state and federal officials that further strengthen treaty-guaranteed fishing rights and environmental protection laws.

In the 1970s, Adams served as a leader behind the famous Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington and the subsequent Indian occupation of the BIA headquarters building. He also served as the last expert witness in the court case that eventually upheld treaty fishing rights for Northwest tribes, the so-called “Boldt Decision.”

This forum is supported by Indian Country Conversations, a Willamette University series that brings people together to discuss issues of interest to Native Americans. The Indian Country Conversations Series is sponsored by the Office of the President and the College of Liberal Arts.

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An Evening with Lewis Nordan

Critically acclaimed author Lewis Nordan will give a free reading Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University.

Nordan is emeritus professor of creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include almost 100 short stories in various journals and anthologies and seven books of fiction, including two collections of short stories and five novels. He also published a memoir. Olympia Vernon, Willamette’s Hallie Brown Ford Chair of Creative Writing, is sponsoring the event.

Nordan, born in 1939, grew up in Itta Bena, Miss., a small town in the Mississippi Delta. After high school, he attended Delta State College for one year before going into the Navy. He served aboard several ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, where he worked as a journalist.

Publishers Weekly wrote that “Nordan’s engaging, wise, delightfully wry stories sound a melodious, bittersweet yawp, pulsating with love, grief, rage and a thirst for redemption.” Nordan’s novel “Music of the Swamp” was cited by the American Library Association (ALA) as Notable Book of the Year and won a Best Fiction award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. The book includes ten stories focusing on a boy growing up in a Mississippi Delta town and his love for his alcoholic father.

Nordan’s novel “Wolf Whistle” is based on the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. It won the ALA Notable Book Award, the Mississippi Authors Award for Best Fiction, the New York Public Library Award for Best Book for the Teen Years, and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for best book. Library Journal wrote that “‘Wolf Whistle’ displays some of Faulkner’s lyricism and Flannery O’Connor’s surreal humor ... [Nordan] emerges as a unique and powerful Southern storyteller in his own right.”

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Lectures to Address Cultural Heritage Controversies

Two lectures on cultural heritage issues will be given in October as part of an international Cultural Heritage Conference held at Willamette University. Both lectures are free to the public.

Kwame Anthony Appiah will give a lecture titled, “Who Owns Culture?” Thursday, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall in the Rogers Music Center at Willamette. Appiah is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. His books include Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.

“Thieves of Baghdad: The Investigation into the Looting of the Iraq National Museum” will be presented by Matthew Bogdanos Friday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall. Bogdanos served as deputy director of the Joint Interagency Coordination Group that led the investigation into the 2003 theft and looting of the Baghdad museum. Under his direction, a U.S. multi-agency task force was deployed to Afghanistan, the first time a U.S. team had gone into a war zone. Although 7,000 to 10,000 artifacts are missing, including major pieces considered irreplaceable, the team has recovered thousands of priceless antiquities. A slide lecture will outline the flourishing black market in stolen antiquities that is funding the insurgency in Iraq.

Cultural Heritage Issues: The Legacy of Conquest, Colonization and Commerce is open to the public and brings internationally recognized experts in archaeology, anthropology, museum studies and law for a critical dialogue about the legal and ethical dimensions of cultural heritage issues.

“The 2003 looting of the Iraqi National Museum generated international discussion about the policies of cultural heritage management,” said Ortwin Knorr, coordinator for the Salem branch of the Archaeological Institute of America and classical studies professor at Willamette. “There has also been intense debate about the disposition of artifacts acquired by the Nazis during World War II, the repatriation of classical treasures like the Elgin Marbles, the final disposition of the 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man skeleton and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,” Knorr said.

Other conference speakers include James Pepper Henry, an associate program director with the National Museum of the American Indian and tribal member of the Kaw/Muscogee Nation; John Jelderks, the judge who wrote the decision in the Kennewick Man case; Richard Leventhal, director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; leading experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. State Department; as well as numerous scholars, legal experts and museum curators from Australia, Canada, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Nigeria and the United States.

Registration for the conference is free for members of the Archaeological Institute of America and Willamette students, faculty and staff. For all others, registration is $90 for the entire conference, including receptions and lunches. Registration per day is $20, or $35 with lunch. Interested community members are invited to attend. Registration is due Oct. 9. For information go to www.willamette.edu/events/chc/ or contact Knorr at 503-370-6029.

This conference is made possible with the generous support of the Archaeological Institute of America; the Oregon Council for the Humanities; Willamette University’s Lilly Project, College of Law and College of Liberal Arts; and a Willamette University Canadian Studies Program Enhancement Grant.

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Joan Didion Opens Atkinson Series at Willamette

Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Joan Didion will deliver the fall 2006 Atkinson Lecture at Willamette University Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium.

Tickets for University students, faculty and staff are available Oct. 16 at the University Center. The first ticket is free with a University ID, and subsequent tickets are $10. Tickets for the general public are $10 and will be available at the University Center on campus beginning Oct. 26.

In May 2005 Didion received the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is the highest honor the academy awards to a writer and is given once every six years. She was awarded the 1996 Edward MacDowell Medal and the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award. In 2005 she won the National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking, which is now in its 20th printing.

Didion’s novels include Run River (1963), Play It as It Lays (1970), A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996). Her nonfiction includes Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1978), Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), and Where I Was From (2003).

Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, co-authored the screenplays The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Play It as It Lays (1973), A Star Is Born (1977), True Confessions (1982), Hills Like White Elephants (1990) and Up Close and Personal (1995). She has lectured at colleges and universities across the country including the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Bard, Yale and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Didion currently lives in New York and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker. Her latest book, The Year of Magical Thinking, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2005. She is now adapting the book for Broadway.

She was born in Sacramento and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Olympia Vernon Reads at Friends of the Library Event

New Hallie Ford Chair Olympia Vernon will read from her novels Monday, Sept. 18, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library at Willamette University. Light refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. The reading is free to the public.

Olympia Vernon’s raw and formidable talents are on arresting display in earlier novels, “Eden" and “Logic.” Her third novel, “A Killing in This Town,” is a taut, poetic masterpiece that exhumes a horrific epoch from the annals of the American South.

There is a menace in the woods of Bullock County, Miss., and not only for the black man destined to be lynched when a white boy comes of age. The white men who work at the Pauer Plant are in danger, too, but they turn a deaf ear to the black pastor’s urgent warning that the factory is slowly killing them. They are determined to carry on as they always have. Adam Pickens, a white boy on the eve of his 13th birthday, isn’t sure he wants to wear the garb being readied for him by the Klan seamstress or participate in the town’s ugly ritual. It is only when Gill Mender, a man haunted by past sins, returns to town that redemption seems possible.

A pivotal work of fiction, “A Killing in This Town” exposes the fragile hierarchy of a society poisoned by hatred, and shows the power of one individual to stand up to the demons of history and bring the cycle of violence to an end.

“Olympia Vernon’s new novel, a fever-dream evocation of a small Mississippi town” shows “brutal echoes of Emmett Till in the central recurring image,” wrote the The New York Times Book Review. “Vernon ... intimate[s] how cyclical violence in a town finds a way of seeping poisonously into its blood and stunting its growth.”

Kirkus Reviews wrote, “This is a powerful, difficult work by a writer absolutely determined to see,” and according to Publishers Weekly, the “fugue of folk idiom, blues, biblical diction and surreal imagery makes for lots of atmosphere.”

Olympia Vernon’s first novel, “Eden,” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she is the winner of the 2004 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2005 she received the Louisiana Governor’s Award for Professional Artist of the Year.

For more information contact Olympia Vernon at overnon@willamette.edu or 503-370-6290.

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Breakfast Forum Features Portland Icon

Gertrude Boyle, matriarch and chairwoman of the board of Columbia Sportswear, and Kerry Tymchuk, state director for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, will share the microphone at the Thursday, Sept. 28, Willamette University Breakfast Forum at the Multnomah Athletic Club in downtown Portland beginning at 7 a.m.

Boyle has been hailed by Working Woman magazine as one of America’s Top 50 Women Business Owners and named one of 1994’s “Best Managers” by Business Week. Since she and her son, Tim, began managing the company, Columbia Sportswear Company has gone from near bankruptcy to become one of the world’s largest outerwear manufacturers and the leading seller of skiwear in the United States. Columbia’s sales have soared from $12.9 million in 1984 to $1.1 billion in 2004, and the company continues to forge ahead with product diversification and innovation.

Throughout her career, Boyle has been a leader in the Portland community. She has received many honors recognizing her business savvy and philanthropic endeavors, including Oregon’s prestigious First Citizen Award in 2005.

Tymchuk, who graduated from Willamette University with an undergraduate degree in 1981, also graduated from Willamette’s College of Law in 1984.

He has served as press secretary and legal counsel for former U.S. Congressman Denny Smith, and as director of speechwriting for Elizabeth Dole when she served as U.S. Secretary of Labor and later as president of the American Red Cross. Later he served as legal counsel and director of speechwriting for then Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole.

Tymchuk returned to Oregon in 1997 to work for Sen. Smith. Recently, he partnered with Boyle to co-write her autobiography, “One Tough Mother.”

The Breakfast Forum begins with coffee at 7 a.m., breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and the program at 7:45 a.m. Tickets are $15 per person or $100 for a corporate table of eight. Reservations are required. Register online at www.willamettealumni.com/events, email alumni@willamette.edu or call 1-800-551-6794. The reservation deadline is Sept. 22.

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Chinese Zither Concert Combines Old and New Traditions

Canadian musicians Mei Han and Randy Raine-Reusch will present a concert of music for the zheng, or Chinese long zither, Friday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall at Willamette University. They will also present a lecture-demonstration, “Zheng: The Chinese Zither,” at 4 p.m. that afternoon in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. Both events are free.

Han and Raine-Reusch collaborate to take the zheng and Chinese music in radical new directions, combining 5,000 years of Chinese musical traditions with new music, world music and jazz. Their performances, which have been described as stunning and energetic, draw on two cultures: Chinese virtuoso Han’s deep roots in traditional music and the modern innovations of Raine-Reusch. Han is a rare blend of virtuoso performer and scholar, who has performed on five continents. Her performances have been broadcast nationally in China and Canada, and are included in CDs sold around the world. Raine-Reusch is a composer and performer who has collected more than 700 world musical instruments. Specializing in compositions that utilize instruments from around the globe, he has worked with some of the world’s most prominent artists in numerous genres, including Pauline Oliveros, Aerosmith, Yes and The Cranberries.

Han and Raine-Reusch’s recent CD, “Distant Wind,” reached the top spot on the Canadian College World Music charts, was nominated for a Juno (Best World) and for the West Coast Music Awards (Best Global, Best Instrumental.)

The zheng can be traced back to the 6th century B.C. The instrument has a wooden tube body, 21 plucked strings and movable bridges, and is usually tuned to a pentatonic scale. The zheng is the parent instrument of the Asian long zither family, which includes the koto of Japan. Its sound can be hauntingly melodic, as in much traditional Chinese music, but also expansively contemporary, well adapted to vigorous improvisation and modern soundscapes.

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Journalist to Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy

Mark Danner, a nationally recognized politics and foreign policy journalist who focuses on war and conflict, will deliver two lectures at Willamette University in late April.
 
On Wednesday, April 26, Danner will discuss “Human Rights in a Dark Time: From Salvador to Iraq and the War on Terror” in Cone Chapel at 7:30 p.m. On Thursday, April 27, he will discuss “The Age of Frozen Scandal: Power and the Press After 9/11” also in Cone Chapel at 12:45 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
 
Danner is a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights, Democracy and Journalism at Bard College. In 1999 Danner was named a MacArthur Fellow.
 
He has covered Central America, Haiti, the Balkans, and Iraq and the Middle East. He is the author of The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War; The Road to Illegitimacy; Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror; and The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History.
 
Since 1990 Danner has been a staff writer at The New Yorker and is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. His work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times, and Aperture among others.
 
He has co-written and helped produce two hour-long documentaries for the ABC News program Peter Jennings Reporting. He has received a National Magazine Award, three Overseas Press Awards and an Emmy.
 
His Willamette appearance is sponsored by the Lilly Project at Willamette and the departments of history, politics and Latin American studies.

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Ambassador Wilson at Willamette University

Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, author of "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity” and “What I Didn't Find in Africa,” a book that accuses the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq, will speak at Willamette University, Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. The title of his talk is “Speaking Truth to Power: The War in Iraq and the WMD Lie.”

Wilson will also take questions from the audience after his presentation and will be available for book signing. The event is sponsored by the Willamette University Events Board and the Office of the President.

With a Willamette ID, the first ticket is free and subsequent tickets are $5 beginning March 27. Tickets for the general public are $5 beginning March 29. Tickets are available at the Information Desk in University Center.

Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998, Wilson was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was one of the principal architects of President Clinton’s historic trip to Africa in March 1998.

Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger; Lome, Togo; the State Department Bureau of African Affairs and Pretoria, South Africa.
From 1988 to 1991, Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During “Desert Shield” he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.”

Wilson graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1972), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French.

He is married to the former undercover CIA operative, Valerie Plame, and has two sons and two daughters.

Please note: due to a scheduling conflict, Former Ambassador Joe Wilson will be unable to participate in the book signing noted above.

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Speaker Exposes Tax Myths

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston, author of “Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else,” will speak at Reed College Monday, Feb. 6, in the Vollum Lecture Hall at 7 p.m.; at Willamette University in Salem Tuesday, Feb. 7, in Cone Chapel at 7 p.m., and at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m. All lectures are free and open to the public.

The title of the lecture is: “Stealing from the Future: Tax Cuts for the Super Rich—Debt for You.”

The series is sponsored by the Willamette Valley Forum, Reed College Krause Fund for Economics Lectures, Willamette University and Oregon State University.

In an interview with Forbes.Com, Johnston said, “Most Americans believe what turns out to be a myth—that we heavily tax the highest-income Americans to subsidize the poor. What the government’s data show is that the middle class and upper middle class—people making $30,000 to $500,000 per year—are subsidizing the highest-income taxpayers. Tax rates on the middle and upper middle classes are rising, the government’s data show, but for the people who make millions per year, effective tax rates are falling dramatically.”

The New York Times hired Johnston in 1995 to conduct a running investigation of how our tax system actually operates, as opposed to what politicians say about it. His work has shut down tax dodges valued by Congress at $258 billion.


Johnston’s investigative reporting captured the Pulitzer in 2001; he has been a finalist for that award three times since 2000, a record unmatched by any other journalist.

“Perfectly Legal” a New York Times bestseller, was honored as Investigative Book of the Year by Investigative Reporters and Editors, an association of 5,000 journalists.

In 1968, at age 19, Johnston became the youngest reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, and went on to report for the Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer before joining The New York Times in 1995.

What other writers say about “Perfectly Legal”:
“My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston of The New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for reporting on the terminally unsexy topic of taxes. His book ‘Perfectly Legal…,’ "is the single best work on public policy of recent years, I think.” Molly Ivins, nationally syndicated political columnist.


“David Cay Johnston is one of this country’s most important journalists. A nine-year veteran of the tax beat for The New York Times, Johnston combines the best of Eliot Spitzer and Seymour Hersh. He’s an old-fashioned crusading reporter who mines the internal revenue bureaucracy and comes up with potent, pertinent reports on tax fraud and other financial shenanigans…Johnston’s stories always have steam coming off them. Now, he’s poured that decade's worth of hard-won expertise into book form, arguing the tax system itself deserves much of the blame for America’s growing economic inequality.” Nicholas Thompson, senior editor at Legal Affairs and a Washington Monthly contributing editor.

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Free Poetry Reading At Willamette University

Carlos Martinez and Kelli Russell Agodon will give the Hallie Ford Poetry Reading Thursday, Sept. 29, beginning at 8 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library at Willamette University. The event is free and open to the public.

Carlos Martinez teaches creative writing and literature at Western Washington University. Martinez, who holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles, has published two poetry collections, Unendurable Love and The Cold Music of the Ocean.

He recently held a Jack Straw Foundation Fellowship, is the recipient of an Americas Review poetry prize and was a featured poet in PoetryMagazine.com. His poetry has appeared in national journals including Poet Lore, Verse Daily and Cranky, as well as in the anthologies Vox Populi and The Sound Close In.

Kelli Russell Agodon has had her poetry selected by Garrison Keillor for both Writers Almanac on National Public Radio and his anthology Good Poems For Hard Times. Her book Geography won the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Competition, and her poems were anthologized in the Pontoon Anthology of Washington State Poets. Her second collection of poetry is titled Small Knots.

She has received the James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review, the Carlin Aden Award from the Washington Poets Association, and two Washington Artist Trust grants. She serves as poetry editor of Margin: Modern Magical Realism, and her own work has been published in such journals as Prairie Schooner, American Poetry Journal, and Calyx.

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Catholic Theologian to Lecture

Professor David Tracy, the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, will discuss “Our Traditions in Fragments” in Cone Chapel at Willamette University Monday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Tracy is a major voice in ecumenism and in inter-religious dialogues. He was featured in a cover story of The New York Times Magazine in 1986.

Religious historian Martin E. Marty has called David Tracy “the most original of today’s Catholic theologians, and the one with whom other theologians, Catholic and Protestant, have to reckon.” He said Tracy “is shaping the future of theological inquiry and of Catholicism because as a thinker of the first order he influences not only the seminary professors who teach tomorrow’s priests but also professors at secular colleges.”

Tracy completed his theological studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoody, New York, and was ordained a priest for the diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., in 1963 before earning his Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1964. From 1967-69, he taught at the Catholic University of America before assuming his current post at the University of Chicago.

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Peace Lecture Oct. 23 at Willamette

Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, an organization dedicated to building people-to-people partnerships around the world, will discuss "Terrorism and the Erosion of Human Rights at Home and Abroad" at the 13th Annual Peace Lecture, Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Cone Chapel in Waller Hall at Willamette University. Admission is free and open to the public.
In addition to the lecture, each year the event honors an individual or couple who have been active in peace and justice issues in the Salem area. This year Verne and Rosemary Cooperrider will be honored for their many years of dedication and activism.

Benjamin will also discuss “Corporate Irresponsibility” at Willamette University’s Convocation Thursday, Oct. 24, at 12:45 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

For more than 20 years, Benjamin has supported human rights and the causes of social justice around the world. She has been an outspoken advocate for Afghani civilians who have lost relatives during the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

Benjamin was the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from California in 2000. Her run for U.S. Senate succeeded in mobilizing Californians around issues such as living wage, schools-not-prisons, and universal healthcare. She has been a key figure in the anti-sweatshop movement, having spearheaded campaigns against the giant sports shoe company Nike and clothing companies such as the GAP.

She is author of eight books, including "Bridging the Global Gap, The Peace Corps and More," and the award-winning book "Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart."

Medea received a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a master’s degree in economics from the New School for Social Research. For 10 years, she worked as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America and Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy.

Tax-deductible contributions to support the work of the Annual Peace Lecture are welcome and should be made payable to Peace Plaza.

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Public Safety Lecture At Willamette University

M. Ray Mathis, who recently stepped down as executive director for the Citizens Crime Commission, an affiliate of the Portland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, will discuss “Public-Private Partnerships: Social Services, Security, and Public Safety/Terrorism” Thursday, Oct. 24, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Kilkenny Lecture Hall, Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University. A reception will follow.

Mathis is a member of numerous public safety committees including the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council, Homeless Youth Oversight Committee, Over-representation Committee, Sheriff’s Advisory Committee, and the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee.

He is past president and board member of the National Association of Crime Commissions and a former officer of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.

An FBI Special Agent until 1989, Mathis worked in the criminal, intelligence and counter-terrorism areas as both an investigator and manager. His last assignment in the FBI was as branch chief of personnel security, counter-intelligence/terrorism for NATO in Brussels, Belgium. Subsequently, he was recruited by PANAM Airways to reorganize their overseas security in the aftermath of the bombing of PANAM 103.

Mathis is also past president of Alert Management Systems, an airport security company whose 2,200 employees screened passengers at airports in the U.S. and Europe.

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Lecture to Focus on Ill Health and Culture

Dr. Cecil Helman, senior lecturer with the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences at the Royal Free and University College Medical School of London, will discuss “Cross Cultural Concepts of the Body, Mind and Self” Thursday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. in Cone Chapel at Willamette University. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Helman will discuss how in different societies “body” and “self” are not necessarily seen as the same thing, how the borders of the body are not only the skin, and how in some groups one can have several “bodies” at the same time. He will also talk about fundamental changes in our body image that have resulted from recent advances in medical and surgical technology.

A native South African, Helman is a primary care physician, noted author, poet and sociologist with a particular interest in medical anthropology. How people from different cultures explain ill health is the focus of his book, “Culture, Health and Illness: An Introduction for Health Professionals.” He also wrote “The Body of Frankenstein’s Monster: Essays in Myth and Medicine” which examines the socio-cultural mythology of the body and disease.

Helman has lectured at more than 60 universities including Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford. His appearance at Willamette University is made possible by support from the Hewlitt Grant and Professor Emeritus Charlie Bowles I.

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“Pressure Points” Lecture

Enrique Chagoya, an assistant professor of art at Stanford University and one of the featured artists in the "Pressure Points" exhibit now at Hallie Ford Museum, will present a slide lecture on his work Thursday, Nov. 29, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall on the second floor of the Museum. The lecture is free and open to the public. The museum is located at the corner of State and Cottage streets in Salem on the campus of Willamette University.

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Jim Wallis Speaks at Salem Area Peace Lecture

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and peace and justice activist for more than 30 years, will deliver the 12th annual Salem Peace Lecture Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 in Cone Chapel at Willamette University. This year the 2001 Peace Lecture honors Salem resident and community activist Polly Hare for her lifelong dedication to peace and justice The lecture, “Deny Them Their Victory; A Religious Response to Terrorism,” is also the title of an interfaith statement he helped create and circulate after the events of September 11. It has subsequently been signed by hundreds of religious leaders across the nation.

Wallis is also the convener of Call to Renewal, a national federation of churches, denominations and faith-based organizations that work to overcome poverty and revitalize American politics. He speaks at more than 200 events a year, and his columns and comments appear in such media as the Washington Post, LA Times, MSNBC, and Beliefnet. His most recent book is Faith Works: Lessons From the Life of an Activist Preacher. He also teaches a course at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government on “Faith, Politics and Society.”

In the last several years, Wallis has led countless town meetings, bringing together pastors, civic and business leaders, and elected officials in the cause of social justice and moral politics. Time magazine named Wallis one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.” His books include The Soul of Politics, and Who Speaks for God, A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility.

The Peace Lectures bring to the community a variety of thought-provoking lectures exploring pathways to achieving social justice, peace and harmony and non-violent dispute resolution at home and throughout the world. Lectures honor the lives and achievements of past and present peace and justice advocates. Earlier in the day Wallis will participate in a panel on religion and politics at 11:30 a.m. a the University Convocation, also in Cone Chapel, cosponsored by Willamette’s Politics Department and its Institute for Public Policy. Both presentations are open to the public at no charge.

For more information, contact Charles Wallace at 503-370-6213.

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“PressurePoints” for Adults and Children

Dr. Sue Taylor, assistant professor of art history at Portland State University and contributing editor for Art in America, will present an illustrated slide lecture called “Figure/body, mind and memory” Friday, Nov. 9, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art Willamette University, Salem.

Her lecture will focus on the work of several generations of artists represented in the Museum’s “Pressure Points” exhibit that runs from Nov. 10 through Jan. 5. The exhibit features 54 prints from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan & Mina Schnitzer Foundation of Portland. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Also as part of the “Pressure Points” exhibit, the Museum will offer a printmaking workshop for children in the lobby of the Museum on Saturday, Nov. 17, from noon to 4 p.m. The children will explore different types of printmaking processes with the help of Willamette University graduate students. Refreshments will be served throughout the day and gallery admission will be free.

"Pressure Points" has been made possible by a major grant from The Jordan & Mina Schnitzer Foundation, with additional support provided by the Oregon Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Salem's Transient Occupancy Tax Funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at the corner of State and Cottage streets in Salem. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens and students age 13 and older. Admission is free to children under 13 and for Willamette University faculty, staff and students, as well as Museum members and school groups by appointment. Admission is free on Tuesdays. On Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the run of the exhibition, State of Oregon employees will be admitted for free with proof of ID.

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Architecture Lecture

Architect Richard Pierce will discuss "A Journey in Time on Ireland's Waterways," Monday, Nov.5, at 7:30 pm in the Paulus Lecture Hall, Room 201, Willamette University Law School, and "The History of the House in Fermanagh Since the Plantation," Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 pm, Roger Hull Lecture Hall, Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Both lectures, sponsored by the Willamette University Department of Art and Art History, are free and open to the public.

Pierce, an architect from Northern Ireland, has designed numerous structures throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He has a special interest in Ireland's architectural history and will use slides of historic structures in both lectures.

For more information, call James Thompson, professor of art, 503-370-6137.

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NASA Astronaut to Speak at Willamette

Dr. George "Pinky" Nelson, astronaut and NASA Mission specialist, will speak at Willamette University on Wednesday, June 20 at 7 p.m. in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center.

Nelson's lecture, "So what's it like in space anyway? An insider's take on space flight," is free and open to the public. Nelson was a NASA astronaut from 1978 to 1989. During that time, he logged more than 400 hours of space time during three Space Shuttle missions.

Nelson is now director of Project 2061 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The goal of this project is to improve the teaching of science in the public schools.

Nelson's lecture is sponsored by Willamette University and the Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers, a national science foundation project.

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