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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Author Addresses Innate Urge to Party

Activist and best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich gave college students the words they wanted to hear this week: “We are hard-wired to be party animals.”

Could be a nice scientific excuse for them to remember the next time they’re late for class. Ehrenreich was discussing her latest book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, while visiting Willamette University to deliver the fall Atkinson Lecture.

In the book, Ehrenreich traces the history of the phenomenon she has dubbed collective joy, “an innate joy that comes from being with large numbers of other people in certain settings” and typically involves dancing, feasting or costuming. Ehrenreich argues in her book, and emphasized in her talk, that many of these public festivities don’t exist today. “They were stamped out, driven underground by the people in power, by the elites.”

These festivities posed a threat to people in power, who wanted to force people to work instead of play, and so they squelched the celebrations, Ehrenreich says. Today, she argues, they have been replaced by spectacles where people observe the festivities instead of participate. Think dance concerts or football games.

Dancing in the Streets is Ehrenreich’s 14th book. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a PhD in cell biology, but her interest in social change and activism led to a prolific career as a writer and social commentator. While on campus, she met with a small group of students and answered questions mainly relating to her most famous book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, about the plight of the working poor.

“I was very frustrated in the mid-90s that after welfare reform, people said very poor women would do fine. I said, ‘Wait a minute, what are these women getting paid?’”

In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich learned what it’s like to live on minimum wage by doing it herself, taking jobs as a waitress, hotel maid, housecleaner, nursing home aide and Wal-Mart salesperson.

“I certainly felt a lot of anger in many situations for the way these people were treated, most acutely in that housecleaning job. We were working in McMansions that were huge and had things like alabaster in the bathrooms, and I knew the women I was working with were struggling to eat.”

Ehrenreich gets frustrated when she sees people look down on the poor or say they must not be hard workers. “Poverty is not a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money. And the way that shortage of money chiefly comes about in this country is that the wages are too low.”

The next Atkinson Lecture is March 12 and features New York Times columnist Frank Rich.

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Barbara Ehrenreich at Willamette University

Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and the author of the million-copy bestseller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and the New York Times bestseller Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, will deliver the fall Atkinson Lecture at Willamette University Thursday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium.

Tickets for the campus community are available beginning Oct. 1. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID and subsequent tickets are $10 each. Tickets for the general public are $10 at the Information Desk in University Center beginning Oct. 12.

Ehrenreich’s articles, reviews, essays and humor have appeared in a range of national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Ms., Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The Nation and newspapers throughout the world.

In 2004, she received the Nation Institute Puffin Foundation Prize for Creative Citizenship, given annually to an American who challenges the status quo “through distinctive, courageous, imaginative, socially responsible work of significance.” Dancing in the Streets carries on this tradition by uncovering the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture and by reminding us of this crucial part of our distinctively human heritage.

Of her new book, Ehrenreich says, “It’s a sweeping book about festivities and ecstatic rituals: their roots in human evolution and the history of their repression by elites from ancient times to the present. I’m now researching for a book on what I call ‘the cult of cheerfulness,’ which requires Americans to ‘think positively’ rather than to take positive action for change.“

A book signing in Smith will follow her lecture.

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One of World’s Most Renowned Scientists at Willamette Thursday

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson, considered to be one of the world’s greatest living scientists, will speak tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University. His free lecture will address “The Future of Life.”

Wilson is one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. His groundbreaking research, original thinking, and scientific and popular writing have changed the way we think of nature and our place in it. Wilson is a research professor and museum curator at Harvard University. He has received many of the world’s leading prizes for his research in science, his environmental activism, and his writing. Wilson has been a leader in the fields of entomology, animal behavior and evolutionary psychology, island biogeography, biodiversity, environmental ethics and the philosophy of knowledge.

He has written groundbreaking books and articles on all of these subjects. Two of his non-fiction books, “The Ants” (1990, with Bert Hölldobler) and “On Human Nature” (1978), have won Pulitzer Prizes. “The Diversity of Life” (1992) and “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge” (1998), two of his more recent books, have been applauded for their graceful, creative and constructive approaches to challenging subjects. In “The Diversity of Life” and “The Future of Life” he conveys his deep concern for humanity’s degradation of our planet’s ecosystems. His commitment to protecting our natural heritage has brought him to the forefront of environmental activism.

Free tickets can be picked up between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Information Desk in the University Center on campus.

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Astronomy 101 Class Starts September 6th

Salem, Ore. - Learn how to identify the major constellations in the late-summer sky in a two-part class offered on September 6, 2007 and September 11, 2007.

Dr. Rick Watkins, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Willamette University, will provide a basic introduction to astronomy, focusing on identifying and locating major constellations and other celestial objects. The September 6th class runs from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Straub Environmental Learning Center, 1320 A Street NE, next to Olinger Pool, near North Salem High School. The time and place for the September 11th outing to view planets and stars through a telescope will be announced at the first class.

The program is part of the Amateur Naturalist Series. The class costs $5 and is open to the public. The program and series is sponsored by the Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center.

Registration is required. To register, call 503-391-4145.

The Friends of the Straub Environmental Learning Center is a Salem-based, non-profit organization dedicated to environmental education.

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March 2007 Atkinson Lecture Is One of a Kind

Two of the nation’s most gifted writers, one a poet and the other a playwright, will share the stage in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University March 20 where they will discuss the nexus of art and politics in America.

Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Pulitzer Prize recipient Tony Kushner will share the evening that closes out the 2006-07 Atkinson Lecture Series at Willamette.

Tickets will be available for faculty, students and staff at the Information Desk in University Center beginning March 1. The first ticket is free; subsequent tickets are $10 each. (Because we expect this lecture to sell out, we are not making tickets available to the general public.)

Tony Kushner’s plays are as complex as his own beginnings. The gay, Jewish socialist, raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia University and New York University, says he enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress. And his ideas have earned him high praise.

His plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline or Change. He wrote the screenplay for the Mike Nichols film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.

Among his many accolades, Kushner is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards for Best Play, three Obie Awards for playwriting, the Evening Standard Award, a Whiting Writer’s Fellowship, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Emmy. In 1998, London’s National Theatre selected Angels in America as one of the “ten best plays of the 20th century.”

Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997-00, has dedicated his career to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. He is the author of six acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently Jersey Rain. His collection, The Figured Wheel, was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and received the Lenore Marshall Award and the Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union.

He was elected in 1999 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and his poems appear in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Threepenny, American Poetry Review and frequently in the Best American Poetry anthologies.

Pinsky teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

The Atkinson Lecture series has welcomed world leaders, authors, actors, scientists and educators to campus since its founding in 1956.

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Su-en Wong: Simultaneous Voices (Cancelled)

New York artist Su-en Wong will visit Willamette University Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. as part of the university’s Hogue-Sponenburgh Art Lecture series.

Wong will give a free lecture about her recent work, entitled Simultaneous Voices. The event is in Cone Chapel on the second floor of Waller Hall.

Wong is a draftsperson and painter immersed in figurative concerns. Her works, made with colored pencil, graphite and acrylic on paper and panel, are sometimes playful and enticing, but more often reveal a disturbing side. Her vision is realized through a collection of pairs and groups of self-portrait figures that inhabit scenes of ambiguous space, often commenting on memories of emotional, physical and mental passages.

Born in Singapore in 1973, Wong received her master of fine arts degree in 1997 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of artist grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts (2000 and 2004), the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2000), the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation (1998), and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1997). Wong’s most recent solo exhibitions include Danese Gallery, New York; Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles; Deitch Projects, New York; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada.

The Hogue-Sponenburgh Art Lecture series, endowed by the late Janeth Hogue Sponenburgh and Mark Sponenburgh, enables Willamette’s Department of Art and Art History to bring a noted scholar, artist or curator to campus each year.

The Feb. 22 Sponenburgh Lecture at Willamette University featuring artist Su-en Wong has been cancelled. Wong had a personal emergency and cannot attend. Attempts will be made to re-schedule the event at a future date.

(update posted 16 Feb 2007, 9:12 a.m.)

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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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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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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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Atkinson Lecture Series Welcomes Ira Glass

Ira Glass, host and producer of the National Public Radio program This American Life, will deliver the spring Atkinson Lecture Saturday, April 22, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m.

Tickets for Willamette University students, faculty and staff will be available at the Information Desk in University Center beginning April 10. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID and subsequent tickets are $10. Tickets for the general public will be available beginning April 17 for $10 at University Center.

This American Life premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by an estimated 1.7 million listeners.

Glass began his career as an intern at NPR’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1978 when he was 19 years old and held virtually every production job on site. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Under his direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Award.

Glass, one celebrity who prefers to be heard and not seen, is a 1982 graduate of Brown University.

The 2005-06 Atkinson Lecture series opened in November with a lecture by Dr. Azar Nafisi, the author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.” [learn more]

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Atkinson Lecture Series Welcomes Ira Glass

Ira Glass, host and producer of the National Public Radio program This American Life, will deliver the spring Atkinson Lecture Saturday, April 22, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m. Ticket information will be released in March.

This American Life premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by an estimated 1.7 million listeners.

Glass began his career as an intern at NPR’s network headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1978 when he was 19 years old and held virtually every production job on site. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.

Under his direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including the Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Award.

Glass, one celebrity who prefers to be heard and not seen, is a 1982 graduate of Brown University.

The 2005-06 Atkinson Lecture series opened in November with a lecture by Dr. Azar Nafisi, the author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.” [learn more]

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Identity Theft Topic of Willamette Forum

State Attorney General Hardy Myers and Vice President and Investigator for Bank of America Dana Parks will discuss “Identity Theft and Corporate Responsibility: What’s in Your Dumpster?” Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland.

Myers and Parks will be joined by Drew Lianopoulos, attorney in charge of financial fraud and consumer protection at the Oregon Department of Justice.

The Breakfast Forum, co-sponsored by Willamette University and the Willamette Professional MBA program, is open to the public.

It begins with coffee at 7 a.m. and breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The breakfast meeting adjourns promptly at 8:30 a.m. Advance reservations are recommended. Register online at www.willamettealumni.com/forum, email alumni@willamette.edu or call 1-800-551-6794. The reservation deadline is Oct. 31.

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Award-Winning Author to Open Atkinson Lecture Series

Professor Azar Nafisi, author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, will deliver the fall Atkinson Lecture at Willamette University Tuesday, Nov. 15, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m.

Tickets for students, faculty and staff will be available Oct. 25 beginning at 8 a.m. at the Information Desk in University Center. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID; a second ticket may be purchased for $10. There is a two-ticket per person limit. Alumni and the general public may purchase available tickets beginning Nov. 7 for $10 per ticket also at University Center.

Reading Lolita in Tehran is an incisive exploration of the transformative powers of fiction in a world of tyranny. To date, the book has spent more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated in 32 languages. The book has also won diverse literary awards including the 2004 Non-fiction Book of the Year Award from Booksense, the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, the 2004 Latifeh Yarsheter Book Award, an achievement award from the American Immigration Law Foundation, as well as being a finalist for the 2004 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Memoir.

Nafisi is currently a visiting professor and the director of the SAIS Dialogue Project at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, where she is a professor of aesthetics, culture, and literature, and teaches courses on the relation between culture and politics.

Nafisi held a fellowship at Oxford University, teaching and conducting a series of lectures on culture and the important role of Western literature and culture in Iran after the revolution in 1979. She taught at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University, and Allameh Tabatabai before her return to the United States in 1997. She was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil in 1981 and did not resume teaching until 1987.

She has conducted workshops in Iran for women students on the relationship between culture and human rights. She has lectured and written extensively in English and Persian on the political implications of literature and culture, as well as the human rights of the Iranian women and girls and the important role they play in the process of change for pluralism and an open society in Iran. The professor has served as a consultant on issues related to Iran and human rights both by the policy makers and various human rights organizations in the US and elsewhere.

Nafisi has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Her cover story, "The Veiled Threat: The Iranian Revolution's Woman Problem" published in The New Republic (February 22, 1999) has been reprinted into several languages. She is the author of Anti-Terra: A Critical Study of Vladimir Nabokov’s Novels. She is currently working on two books, one tentatively titled The Republic of the Imagination, which is about the power of literature to liberate minds and peoples, and the other, The Pursuit of Happiness, about culture, history, and loss. She lives in Washington, D.C.

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WU’s Albaugh Forum Speaker

James Albaugh ’72, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense System (IDS), will be the featured speaker, Thursday, Sept. 29, at the Breakfast Forum at Multnomah Athletic Club co-sponsored by Willamette University and the Willamette Professional MBA program.

Albaugh, who earned his BS in math and physics at Willamette, heads IDS, a leader in military defense systems. The company, which employs nearly 80,000 people, is one of the largest suppliers for NASA and the International Space Station.

Coffee is served at 7 a.m.; breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The program adjourns at 8:30 a.m. To register, go to www.willamettealumni.com/events or call 503-375-5304 or 800-551-6794. Tickets are $15 and a corporate table of eight is $100.

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The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall to Close Annual Lecture Series

The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will present the Willamette University College of Law 2005 John C. Paulus Lecture on Monday, October 17, 2005. The subject of her presentation will be “Justice in Jeopardy: Whither Judicial Independence.”

Appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1999, Marshall is the court’s first female chief justice. Born and raised in South Africa, she obtained her B.A. in 1966 from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She went on to earn a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and law degree from Yale Law School. In 1992, Marshall was appointed vice president and general counsel of Harvard University; she was the first woman to hold the position.

Marshall will speak at 4:00 p.m. in the John C. Paulus Great Hall, room 201, of the award-winning Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center, which houses the College of Law. This event is free and open to the public.

Marshall ’s presentation is the final lecture in the College of Law’s 10th Annual Speaker Series. In addition to Marshall’s talk, the series has included lectures by Bruce Botelho, mayor of Juneau, Alaska, and Edith Brown Weiss, chair of the inspection panel of the World Bank.

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Cokie Roberts Speaks At Willamette University Feb. 3

Due to a conflict in her schedule, Cokie Roberts will deliver the Atkinson Lecture Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium, not Feb. 2. All tickets will be honored. Anyone who has purchased a ticket and requires reimbursement will be reimbursed at the Information Desk in University Center. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused Atkinson patrons. See you all Feb. 3.

Cokie Roberts, a political commentator for ABC news and senior news analyst for National Public Radio, will deliver the Feb. 3, 2005, Atkinson Lecture in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m. The title of her presentation is “The View From Inside Washington.”

Tickets for faculty, students and staff will be available at the Information Desk in the University Center beginning Jan. 17. Tickets for the general public will go on sale beginning Jan. 27. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID. The second ticket for campus community members is $10. Tickets for the general public are also $10.

From 1996-02 Roberts and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the weekly ABC interview program This Week. In her more than 30 years in broadcasting, Roberts has won countless awards, including two Emmys. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting.

In addition to her appearances on the airwaves, Roberts, along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, writes a weekly column syndicated in newspapers around the country by United Media. The Roberts are also contributing editors to USA Magazine, and together they wrote From this Day Forward, an account of their more than 35-year marriage and other marriages in American history. The book immediately went onto The New York Times bestseller list, following a run of half a year on the list by Cokie Roberts’ other book, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters. The number one bestseller is an account of women’s roles and relationships throughout American history. Cokie's new book, Founding Mothers, explores the wives, daughters, philosophers and others who influenced the men behind the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Founding Mothers is in the top ten of both The New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists.

Cokie Roberts also serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions and this year was appointed to the newly formed President’s Commission on Service and Civic Participation. She is the mother of two and grandmother of four.

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George Will to Deliver Fall Atkinson Lecture

George F. Will, syndicated columnist with the The Washington Post since 1974,and whose column now appears in almost 500 newspapers in the United States and in Europe, will present the fall Atkinson Lecture at Willamette University Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. He will discuss “Public Affairs, Public Policy and American Society.”

Tickets for the general public are $10 and are available at the Information Desk on the ground floor opposite the Bookstore in University Center.

Will has been a contributing editor of Newsweek magazine since 1976 and earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for newspaper commentary.

Seven collections of his Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent being “With A Happy Eye But…: America and the World, 1997-2002.” He has also published three books on political theory: “Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does,” “The New Season: A Spectator's Guide to the 1988 Election,” and “Restoration: Congress, Term Limits and The Recovery of Deliberative Democracy.”

In 1990, Will published “Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball,” which topped The New York Times bestseller list for two months. In 1998, Scribner published “Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball,” a best-selling collection of new and previously published writings on baseball. In July 2000, Will was a member of Major League Baseball's Blue Ribbon Panel, examining baseball economics.

In 1981, he became a founding panel member on ABC’s This Week.

Will, a native of Illinois, was educated at Trinity College, Oxford University and Princeton University, where he earned his PhD. He has taught political philosophy at Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Harvard University.

He served as a staff member in the United States Senate from 1970-72 and from 1973-76, he was the Washington editor of National Review magazine.

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Atkinson Series Announced

Willamette University announces the 2004-05 Atkinson Lecture series.

Washington Post columnist George Will will speak November 18 and National Public Radio analyst Cokie Roberts will speak February 2, 2005. Both lectures will be held in Smith Auditorium. Ticket information will soon be announced. Please save these dates.

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Benazir Bhutto at Willamette University

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan and the first woman to head the government of an Islamic state, will deliver the Willamette University spring Atkinson Lecture Wed., Feb. 18, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m.

Tickets will be available to Willamette University students, faculty and staff at the Information Desk in University Center beginning Feb. 4. The first ticket is free and the second ticket is $10. Any tickets not sold by Feb. 13 will be made available to the general public at the Information Desk for $10 each.

Benazir Bhutto was born in 1953 in Karachi, Pakistan, to a prominent political family. At age 16, she left her homeland to study at Harvard’s Radcliffe College. After completing her undergraduate degree, she studied at England's Oxford University, where she was awarded a second degree in 1977. Later that year she returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected prime minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and her father was imprisoned. In 1979 he was hanged by the military government of General Zia Ul Haq.

Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years and was detained for three years before being permitted to leave the country in 1984. She settled in London, but along with her two brothers, she founded an underground organization to resist the military dictatorship. When her brother died in 1985, she returned to Pakistan for his burial and was again arrested for participating in anti-government rallies.

She returned to London after her release and after martial law was lifted in Pakistan at the end of the year. Anti-Zia demonstrations resumed and Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in April 1986. The public response to her return was tumultuous and she publicly called for the resignation of Zia Ul Haq, whose government had executed her father.

She was elected co-chairwoman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) along with her mother, and when free elections were finally held in 1988, she herself became prime minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.

Only two years into her first term, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Bhutto from office. She initiated an anti-corruption campaign, and in 1993 was re-elected as prime minister. While in office, she brought electricity to the countryside and built schools all over the country. She made hunger, housing and health care her top priorities and worked to continue to modernize Pakistan.

At the same time, Bhutto faced constant opposition from the Islamic fundamentalist movement. Her brother, Mir Murtaza, who had been estranged from Benazir since their father's death, returned from abroad and leveled charges of corruption at Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Mir Murtaza died when his bodyguard became involved in a gunfight with police in Karachi. The Pakistani public was shocked by this turn of events and PPP supporters were divided over the charges against Zardari.

In 1996 President Leghari of Pakistan dismissed Bhutto from office, alleging mismanagement, and dissolving the National Assembly. A Bhutto re-election bid failed in 1997 and the next elected government was overthrown by the military. Her husband was imprisoned, and once again Benazir Bhutto was forced to leave her homeland. Today, Benazir Bhutto lives with her two children in London, where she continues to Advocate for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Ms. Bhutto is the author of "Foreign Policy in Perspective" (1978) and her autobiography, "Daughter of Destiny" (1989). She received the Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights in 1988 and the Honorary Phi Beta Kappa Award from Radcliffe in 1989.

(Profile information provided by the Academy of Achievement)

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Benazir Bhutto at Willamette University

Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan and the first woman to head the government of an Islamic state, will deliver the Willamette University spring Atkinson Lecture Feb. 18, 2004, in Smith Auditorium at 8 p.m. Ticket information will be released in January.

Benazir Bhutto was born in 1953 in Karachi, Pakistan, to a prominent political family. At age 16, she left her homeland to study at Harvard’s Radcliffe College. After completing her undergraduate degree, she studied at England's Oxford University, where she was awarded a second degree in 1977. Later that year she returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected prime minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and her father was imprisoned. In 1979 he was hanged by the military government of General Zia Ul Haq.

Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years and was detained for three years before being permitted to leave the country in 1984. She settled in London, but along with her two brothers, she founded an underground organization to resist the military dictatorship. When her brother died in 1985, she returned to Pakistan for his burial and was again arrested for participating in anti-government rallies.

She returned to London after her release and after martial law was lifted in Pakistan at the end of the year. Anti-Zia demonstrations resumed and Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in April 1986. The public response to her return was tumultuous and she publicly called for the resignation of Zia Ul Haq, whose government had executed her father.

She was elected co-chairwoman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) along with her mother, and when free elections were finally held in 1988, she herself became prime minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.

Only two years into her first term, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Bhutto from office. She initiated an anti-corruption campaign, and in 1993 was re-elected as prime minister. While in office, she brought electricity to the countryside and built schools all over the country. She made hunger, housing and health care her top priorities and worked to continue to modernize Pakistan.

At the same time, Bhutto faced constant opposition from the Islamic fundamentalist movement. Her brother, Mir Murtaza, who had been estranged from Benazir since their father's death, returned from abroad and leveled charges of corruption at Benazir's husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Mir Murtaza died when his bodyguard became involved in a gunfight with police in Karachi. The Pakistani public was shocked by this turn of events and PPP supporters were divided over the charges against Zardari.

In 1996 President Leghari of Pakistan dismissed Bhutto from office, alleging mismanagement, and dissolving the National Assembly. A Bhutto re-election bid failed in 1997 and the next elected government was overthrown by the military. Her husband was imprisoned, and once again Benazir Bhutto was forced to leave her homeland. Today, Benazir Bhutto lives with her two children in London, where she continues to Advocate for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Ms. Bhutto is the author of "Foreign Policy in Perspective" (1978) and her autobiography, "Daughter of Destiny" (1989). She received the Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights in 1988 and the Honorary Phi Beta Kappa Award from Radcliffe in 1989.

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David Sedaris at Willamette Oct. 23

David Sedaris, National Public Radio humorist and best-selling author of “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” will give the 2003 Atkinson Lecture Thursday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium.

Tickets become available Oct. 8 at the Information Desk in University Center. The first ticket is free with a Willamette ID. The second ticket is $10. This lecture is expected to sell out.

Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true job experiences as a Macy’s elf clad in green tights, reading his “SantaLand Diaries” on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Sedaris’ sardonic humor and incisive social critique have since made him one of NPR’s most popular and humorous commentators.

Sedaris is the author of the bestsellers “Barrel Fever” and “Holidays on Ice,” as well as collections of personal essays, “Naked” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” which immediately became a national bestseller.

Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name, The Talent Family, and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center and the Drama Department in New York City. These plays include “Stump the Host,” “Stitches,” “One Woman Shoe,” which received an Obie Award, “Incident at Cobbler’s Knob,” and “The Book of Liz,” which was published in book form by Dramatist’s Play Service. His essays appear regularly in Esquire and The New Yorker.

Sedaris’ original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ in Chicago. In 2001, David Sedaris became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was named by Time magazine as “Humorist of the Year” in 2001.

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African American Lecture Series Begins Feb. 7 at Willamette

Developmental psychologist Dr. Dalton Miller-Jones will discuss “Ethic Identity and Achievement: Educating the Black Child” at Willamette University Friday, Feb. 7, at 3:30 p.m. in the Montag Center.

The lecture opens the four-part African-American Lecture Series funded by a Hewlett Grant. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

Miller-Jones has conducted research is on the impact of culture on development and learning and reasoning, especially for African American children. He has studied reading acquisition and teacher's attitudes and responses to speakers of Black English during reading instruction. He is beginning work in the area of identity and learning with special emphasis on mathematics and science.

Miller-Jones received his master's degree in experimental psychology from Tufts University in 1965 and a doctorate in developmental psychology from Cornell University in 1973.

He taught at Cornell where he helped establish the Africana Studies and Research Center. He has also taught at the University of Massachusetts and Williams College. He moved to the City University of New York Graduate School in 1984 where he subsequently served as deputy executive officer for the Ph.D. program in psychology and as head of the developmental psychology subprogram.

He has been a professor of psychology at Portland State University since 1991, where he also served as vice provost for academic affairs for three years.

On Wednesday, Feb 26, at 3:15 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library, Julius Thompson, chair of Black Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia, will discuss “20th Century Black Intellectuals and Beyond.”

Thompson, who penned the biography of Broadside Press founder Dudley Randall, has focused his research on African American history in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a special concentration on the history of the South and Mississippi; the Black press; African American literary and social history; modern Africa since 1900; and African American literature with a major focus on Black poets since 1860.

On Friday, March 7, at 3:15 p.m. in the Montag Center, Bakari Kitwana, former editor of The Source Magazine and author of “The Rap on Gangsta Rap and the Hip Hop Generation,” will discuss “The Hip Hop Generation and Black Youth Culture.”

On Wednesday, March 19, at 3 p.m. in the Montag Center Den, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, chair of African American Studies at Hamilton College, will discuss “Blackness Sublime: Race Consciousness, the New Negro and the Feminist Origins of the Negritude Movement.”

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Molly Ivins Gives Atkinson Lecture

Irreverent, outspoken, hilarious, biting and brilliant are all words used to describe nationally syndicated columnist Molly Ivins. A thorn in the side of imposters and bureaucrats, Ivins has earned a reputation for poking fun at sacred cows and politicians who underestimate the intelligence of their constituents.

Ivins kicks off the 2002-03 Atkinson Lecture series in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. Tickets will be available to the campus community at the Information Desk at the University Center beginning Oct. 15. For students, faculty and staff, the first ticket is free and additional tickets are $10 each with a limit of three tickets per person. Tickets will become available to the general public for $10 beginning Oct. 24.

Ivins, a best-selling author and widely syndicated political columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, says politics, particularly in Texas, is great entertainment -- "better than the zoo, better than the circus, rougher than football, and even more aesthetically satisfying than baseball."

The speaker has written four popular books-- Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She?; Nothin But Good Times Ahead; You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years; and Shrub, which details George W. Bush’s road to the White House.

Ivins is the former co-editor of the liberal monthly Texas Observer and former Rocky Mountain bureau chief for the New York Times. She has also worked for the Houston Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Dallas Times Herald. Her column now appears in 113 newspapers besides the Star-Telegram.

Her freelance work has appeared in Esquire, Atlantic, The Nation, Harper's, the Progressive, Mother Jones, TV Guide and numerous other publications. She is a frequent guest on network radio and television shows.

Ivins has a B.A. from Smith College, a master's in journalism from Columbia University and studied for a year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris.

She served for three years on the board of the National News Council, is active in the Amnesty International's Journalism Network and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She writes about press issues for the American Civil Liberties Union and several journalism reviews.

She has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist three times, and has won numerous journalism awards, including a 1992 Headliner's Award for best Texas column. She was named Outstanding Alumna by Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1976, and was a member of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize jury.

Ivins says her two greatest honors as a journalist came when the Minneapolis police force named its mascot pig after her and when she was banned from the campus of Texas A&M.

Ivins opens the two-part Atkinson Lecture series, which concludes in April with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

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Atkinson Lecture Series Featuring Anna Deavere Smith

Playwright, actor, professor Anna Deavere Smith will deliver the Friday, Feb. 22, Willamette University Atkinson Lecture in Hudson Hall, Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center, at 8 p.m. A book signing will follow her lecture.

Hailed by Newsweek as "the most exciting individual in the American theater," playwright and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith uses her singular brand of theater to explore issues of race, community and character in America. In creating her shows, Smith combines the journalistic technique of interviewing subjects from all walks of life with the art of recreating their words in performance, ultimately, presenting controversial events from multiple points of view.

In 1996, Smith was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" Fellowship for creating "a new form of theater -- a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie." She is best known as the author and performer of two one-woman plays about racial tensions in American cities - "Twilight: Los Angeles 1992" (Obie Award-winner and Tony Award nominee) and "Fires in the Mirror" (Obie Award-winner and runner-up for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize). Both plays are part of her continuing series, On the Road: A Search for the American Character.

In her lectures, Smith presents selected characters from her plays, giving audiences rare insights into the attitudes and perceptions of ordinary people on race, class and gender.

In addition to her theatrical work, Smith has appeared in the films "Dave," "Philadelphia" and "The American President." The film version of "Twilight" premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently she has appeared on TV's "The Practice" and is often seen on "The West Wing."

In 1998, Smith founded the Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue based at Harvard. Founded in association with the Ford Foundation, the Institute's mission is to explore the role of the arts in relation to vital social issues.

Smith is a tenured professor in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, with an additional affiliation at the NYU School of Law.

For ticket information, please call 503-370-6300.

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Atkinson Lecture Series Featuring Author Amy Tan

Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club; The Kitchen God’s Wife; The Hundred Secret Senses; and The Bonesetter’s Daughter, will speak Thursday, March 7, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University as part of the University’s venerated Atkinson Lecture Series.

Tickets for the general public are $5 and will be available after Feb. 21 at the Information Center in Puttnam University Center open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations may also be made for will call tickets by calling 503-370-6300, also beginning Feb. 21.

The Joy Luck Club, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1989, became the longest running title on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list for that year. It also was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It received the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Club Gold Award. The book has been translated into 25 languages including Chinese, and became a major motion picture.

Tan's second novel, The Kitchen God's Wife, published in 1991, soon became the number one best-seller on the New York Times hardcover list. It also appeared on the Canadian, British, Australian, Danish, Spanish, Norwegian, and German best-seller lists.

The Hundred Secret Senses, published in 1995, immediately appeared on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly stated, "Again grounding her novel in family and the workings of fate, Tan spins the tale of two sisters, two cultures, and several acts of betrayal . . . no one will deny the pleasure of Tan's seductive prose and the skill with which she unfolds the many-layered narrative."

Tan's stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Grand Street, Lear's, McCall's, and other magazines, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her essay "Mother Tongue" was published in The Threepenny Review and was selected for the 1991 edition of Best American Essays. Her books are assigned reading in many high schools and colleges. The Joy Luck Club was selected for the literature portion of the 1992-93 Academic Decathlon, a national scholastic competition for high school students.

She has written two children's books, The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994). The latter is now being developed into a PBS children's television series and is part of a symphony program of words and music produced and conducted by George Daugherty. Her film work includes a screenplay of The Joy Luck Club, which she co-wrote with Ron Bass ("My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Snow Falling on Cedars” ).

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George Mitchell to Speak at Willamette University

Sen. George Mitchell, chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland and former senator of Maine, will speak at Willamette University on Monday, March 12, 2001 at 8 p.m. in Willamette University's Smith Auditorium.

Mitchell is the second and final speaker in the 2000-2001 Atkinson Lecture Series, Willamette University's premiere speaker series, established in 1956 to bring internationally prominent leaders to the University. Mitchell's lecture is entitled “An Evening with George Mitchell.”

Tickets will be available starting Monday, Feb. 26 through Mid-Valley Arts Council, 503-370-7469, and all FASTIXX outlets, 1-800-992-8499. Ticket prices are $5 each plus service charge. A book signing will follow Mitchell's lecture.

Mitchell was praised as the most trusted man in the U.S. Capitol through 14 years as a senator. He was instrumental in the passage of landmark legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and in the successful reauthorization of the Clean Air Act in 1990.

After retiring as Senate Majority Leader in 1995, Mitchell served as chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland. His leadership was instrumental in the drafting of a historic peace accord. For his service, Mitchell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor the U.S. government can bestow.

Mitchell has authored four books: Men of Zeal, co-authored with Sen. Bill Cohen of Maine; World on Fire; Not For America Alone: The Triumph of Democracy; and The Fall of Communism and Making Peace.

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Frank Mccourt To Speak At Willamette University

Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, will speak at Willamette University on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. McCourt is the first speaker in the 2000-2001 Atkinson Lecture Series, Willamette University's premiere speaker series, established in 1956 to bring internationally prominent leaders to the University.

Tickets for Smith Auditorium sold out in two days. Due to the overwhelming response regarding McCourt's appearance, a live feed of McCourt's lecture in Smith Auditorium will be played in the Cone Chapel and the rehearsal hall in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center, allowing for an additional 450 seats. General admission tickets for these two locations will be available for $3 and may be obtained at the University Center Information Desk, Putnam University Center, Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is a limit of two tickets per transaction. For additional information, please call 503-370-6267.

Frank McCourt is a former school teacher best known for his 1997 memoir Angela's Ashes, which has sold more than four million copies worldwide. Angela's Ashes recalls the adversity of McCourt's childhood in the Irish town of Limerick, where his family endured poverty, malnutrition and disease. In 1997, his memoir received the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Following its publication, Angela's Ashes was produced as a major motion picture. Frank McCourt has written and published a sequel to his memoir, entitled 'Tis.

The second speaker in the 2000-2001 Atkinson Lecture Series will be U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, whose leadership enabled the drafting of a historic peace accord in Northern Ireland. He will speak on Monday, March 12, 2001, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium. Ticket information will be available in the spring.

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