University Lectures

Monday, September 8

***CANCELED***

Chris Borysenko

Director, MCS Interdisciplinary Laboratories and Lecturer, MCS Dean’s Office and Department of Biological Sciences

How to Teach an Interdisciplinary Course to First-Year Students



Thursday, September 11

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

Giler Humanities Lecture

Sarah Igo, Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

The Averaged American: Citizens and Statistics in the 20th Century

Igo is the author of The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public (Harvard University Press, 2006), which explores the relationship between survey data, opinion polls, sex surveys, consumer research, and modern understandings of self and nation. Her research interests are in modern American cultural and intellectual history, the history of the human sciences, the sociology of knowledge, and the history of the public sphere. She is currently at work on a cultural history of privacy, examined through legal statutes, technological innovations, professional codes, and re-imaginings of domestic life.

Co-sponsored by the Humanities Scholars, Science & Humanities Scholars, the Global and International Relations Program and the Department of Statistics



Monday, September 15

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

Mark Palatucci, Doctoral Student, Robotics, Carnegie Mellon

100 Robots for 100 Kids: A grassroots project to inspire Pittsburgh’s children

Mark's research interests revolve around machine learning and pattern recognition. He works as part of the Brain Image Analysis Research Group, a team that develops machine learning techniques to analyze fMRI data. Specifically, he is working on machine learning problems that involve high dimensionality and very sparse training set data. He is also interested in transfer/lifelong learning, deep belief nets, and automatic feature synthesis.



Wednesday, September 17

4:30pm – Posner Center

CONSTITUTION DAY

Enjoy a light reception as we discuss one of the fundamental constitutional rights we get to exercise this November -- the right to vote. The Bill of Rights, an original copy on permanent loan to the University, will be on display.



Thursday, September 18

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Professor, Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania

What the Rhetoric of the 2008 Campaign Reveals and Conceals

The lecture will analyze the convention acceptance addresses and advertising aired between the conventions and the date of the Carnegie Mellon lecture.

Sponsored by Carnegie Mellon’s Department of English, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Heinz School of Public Policy, and The Humanities Center, and also the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Communication



Saturday, September 20

8:00am – 5:00pm, Duquesne University campus

RACHEL CARSON Legacy Conference (co-sponsored by CMU)

Green Chemistry: Solutions for a Healthy Economy

Registration information*: http://www.rachelcarsonhomestead.org

*Interested students should contact Cathy Ribarchak (x8-8677; cr2) in the Office of the Vice Provost for Education for free registration.



Wednesday, September 24

4:30pm – Gregg Hall, Porter Hall 100

Steven Greenhouse, Labor and Workplace Reporter, New York Times

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker

New York Times labor reporter, Steven Greenhouse, will discuss his new book which details how life has grown tougher for America’s workers, young and old, middle-class and low-wage, white collar and blue collar, male and female, and what this painful trend will mean in this fall’s elections. He also examines how much of the American workforce is working more but earning less. Wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has shriveled.



Thursday, September 25

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall (ROOM SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Harriet Fulbright, President, J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center

Toward a More Peaceful World

Harriet Mayor Fulbright is President of the J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center, a non-profit organization which serves to advance the work of Ms. Fulbright’s late husband, Senator J. William Fulbright, and to continue her own lifework. The purpose of the Fulbright Center is to promote world peace and nonviolent means of resolving conflicts through international collaborations and education programs. The Fulbright Center partners with higher education institutions and interested individuals — students, teachers, scholars, and leaders — throughout the world in a range of services from assisting in building enriched study abroad programs to actively engaging higher education institutions in international peace making. Her lecture will focus on the growth and strength of the Fulbright Program and international education as a whole. It will emphasize its importance and give specific examples of those whose lives were transformed by study abroad. She will also discuss some international programs that have created greater international understanding, laying the groundwork for a more peaceful world.