Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. -- Actor, author and journalist Ben Stein, who earned cult status as the boring high school teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and hosted the Emmy-winning game show "Win Ben Stein's Money," presents "How to Ruin Your Life" Wednesday, May 9 at 7 p.m. in an address at the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College. Ave., Appleton.

Based on his best-selling humor self-help book of the same name, the address is free and open to the public, but tickets will be required. Tickets for the general public will be available through the Lawrence University Box Office (832-6749) beginning Wednesday, April 25. There will be a limit of four tickets per person.

Stein, 63, who holds a degree in economics from Columbia University and a law degree from Yale University, has enjoyed an exceptionally diverse career, including stints as a civil rights activist, an attorney, a law professor, a speech-writer for presidents Nixon and Ford and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. A frequent guest commentator on "CBS Sunday Morning," Stein has written more than a dozen books, among them "Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: The Diary of a Mad Screenwriter," "Tommy and Me: The Making of a Dad" and 2004's "Can America Survive?"

But it is as an actor that Stein is perhaps best known. In addition to his turn as a boring economics teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," he has appeared in nearly two dozen other films, among them "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," and "Honeymoon in Vegas." He also has had roles in more than 20 television shows, including "The Wonder Years," "Full House" and "Murphy Brown."

In 1997, he launched his own quiz show, "Win Ben Stein's Money," which ran for five years on Comedy Central and won seven Emmy Awards, including one for Stein as outstanding game show host.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Drawing upon her extensive personal experiences in Kenya, a Columbia University political scientist examines the growing problem of internally displaced people in the third installment of Lawrence University's Povolny International Studies Lecture Series "Africa Today: Problems and Solutions."

Jacqueline Klopp, assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia, presents "Violence, Land and Dispossession: The Problems of International Displacement in Africa" Tuesday, April 10 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence's Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Fueled by civil war and political instability, the numbers of internally displaced people (IPDs) in recent years has surged past the number of refugees worldwide. From an estimated five million displaced persons in the 1970s, that number had mushroomed to 25 million by 2002. With at least 13 million, Africa alone accounts for more IPDs than the rest of the world combined according to a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Klopp, who spent several months working as an advocate with the Kenyan IPD Network in 2002, will address the root causes and dynamics associated with human displacement. She also will examine the gaps between new international ideas on responsibilities towards the displaced and actual actions by international agencies, governments, local civil society and the IDPs themselves to fight against violent displacement.

While both groups suffer from coerced displacement, because IPDs, unlike refugees, stay within the boundaries of their own countries, Klopp says "they have, even in theory, no international legal protection. Displacement is most often linked to violence by precisely the state actors who are tasked with protecting citizens, which deeply complicates the problem of how to assist and protect the displaced."

Klopp, who has visited Kenya seven times since 1988, including a two-year stay on a Michael Rockefeller Fellowship, has written widely on political issues confronting Kenya, including the chapter "Kenya's Internally Displaced: Managing Civil Conflict in Democratic Transitions" in the 2006 book "East Africa and the Horn: Confronting Challenges to Good Governance."

She has taught at Columbia since 2001 and currently serves as the interim director of the economic and political development concentration at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

In 2003, Klopp was invited to participate in the Kenya Support Group, a network of judges, journalists and scholars, as part of the Robert Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights.

She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University and a master's and doctorate degree in political science from Toronto's McGill University.

John Roome, operations director with the World Bank, will conclude the series May 14 with the address "The World Bank's Role in Development."

The "Africa Today: Problems and Solutions" lecture series is sponsored by the Mojmir Povolny Lectureship in International Studies. Named in honor of long-time Lawrence government professor Mojmir Povolny, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on issues of moral significance and ethical dimensions.

APPLETON, WIS. -- While the United States is preoccupied with the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former national intelligence officer and scholar on East Asia warns that China poses a more significant challenge to the United States' status as a world super power.

Robert Suettinger, who is spending most of Term III as Lawrence University's Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor of Government, presents "U.S. - China Relations: Forward and Back," Thursday April 12 at 7 p.m. Lawrence's Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

Suettinger, a 1968 graduate of Lawrence who served as director for Asian affairs for the U.S. National Security Council in the mid-1990s, will examine four major challenges that China poses to the United States: military, economic, diplomatic and moral.

China has the world's largest army, with missiles capable of striking the United States or any of our allies, a formidable submarine force and a defense budget that is growing at a double-digit pace. Compounding the military challenge are two potential flashpoints -- North Korea and Taiwan -- either of which could quickly and easily erupt into an armed confrontation.

China's economy has been growing at a rate of nearly 10 percent per year for the past 15 years and holds $1 trillion of U.S. currency. Ubiquitous "Made in China" labels contribute to a trade surplus with the United States of nearly $200 billion in 2006.

On the diplomatic front, beyond Asia, China is rapidly gaining influence throughout Africa, Latin America and Europe by dispensing foreign aid and building "strategic partnerships" with countries whose support the United States once took for granted.

Morally, China remains a one-party dictatorship, repressing political dissent and freedom of religion, the press and artistic expression.

In an attempt to explain how this situation developed, Suettinger will examine recent U.S. policy toward China and discuss what options are available to respond to these challenges.

Author of the 2003 book "Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989-2000," Suettinger came to Lawrence from Centra Technology, Inc., an Arlington, Va., consulting firm that provides national security research and analysis, where he is an analytic director.

In addition to serving as director for Asian affairs for the National Security Council in the mid-1990s, Suettinger served two separate stints on the National Intelligence Council for East Asia, first as a deputy national intelligence officer (1987-94) and later as a national intelligence officer for East Asia (1997-98). He also spent 12 years with the Central Intelligence Agency.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Suettinger earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in political science from Lawrence in 1968, undertook Chinese language study at Princeton University and Middlebury College and earned a master's degree in comparative politics at Columbia University.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Author Kevin Brockmeier, hailed as one of the most innovative young writers of this generation, will conduct a reading of his fiction Thursday, April 12 at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence University Wriston Art Center auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow the reading. The event is free and open to the public.

A resident of Little Rock, Ark., Brockmeier is the author of both adult ("The Truth About Ceila") and children's novels ("City of Names") and also has written a collection of short stories.

His most recent work, "The Brief History of the Dead" (2006), was honored with an O. Henry Award, one of three he has earned. In the story, Brockmeier explores relationships of people as they pass through life and into the after life through a thought-provoking tale about an isolated wildlife specialist struggling to survive at an Antarctic research station while a deadly pandemic virus spreads across the planet.

For his 2003 collection of short stories, "Things that Fall from the Sky," Brockmeier drew inspiration from fairy tales and science fiction. The New Yorker called the collection "a curiosity shop, stuffed full of finely made whimsies." The story "Space" from the collection was selected for The Best American Short Stories.

Brockmeier's work also has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, The Georgia Review, The Year's Best Fantasy, Horror and multiple editions of the O. Henry Prize Stories anthology.

In addition to his three O. Henry Awards, Brockmeier also has been the recipient of the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award and a James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship.

He attended the University of Iowa and graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997.

APPLETON, WIS. -- A social psychologist specializing in gender stereotyping discusses his role as an expert witness in sex discrimination cases and how those cases subsquently influenced his own research in an address at Lawrence University.

Peter Glick, professor of psychology at Lawrence, presents "Why the Glass Ceiling Hasn't Shattered: Tales from the Lab and the Courts from a Researcher Turned Expert Witness" Wednesday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102.

Hired as an expert witness in six cases, Glick will examine the role of an expert witness, what kind of testimony is allowed and how complicated research findings can be effectively communicated to a jury. The talk will include examples from two specific cases Glick worked on, including a recent class action lawsuit that settled for $15 million the day before the trial was to begin.

He also will discuss how his work on one particular case provided new research insights into the subtle ways in which female leaders are penalized for not living up to prescriptions for feminine "niceness" and modesty. He will examine the case that inspired his research, his findings and their practical implications for addressing discrimination, especially the "glass ceiling," in the workplace.

Glick's scholarship focuses on the subtle and the overt ways in which prejudices and stereotypes foster social inequality. In research he co-authored, he introduced the concept of "ambivalent sexism," asserting that not just hostile, but subjectively benevolent views of women as pure, but fragile, reinforce gender inequality. According to Glick, such "benevolent sexism" rewards women for conforming to conventional gender roles and results in hostile attitudes toward women who fail to do so.

His research was recognized with the Gordon W. Allport Prize in 1995 for the best paper on intergroup relations. In 2004, he was elected a fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, the two largest and most prominent professional organizations in the field of psychology.

Glick joined the Lawrence faculty in 1985 after earning his Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Minnesota.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The remarkable career of Earnest Hooten, a 1907 graduate of what was then Lawrence College who became one of the country's most prominent cultural anthropologists, will be examined in a Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium.

Eugene Giles, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Illinois, presents "Penterating Insight and Malice: E. A. Hooten and American Physical Anthropology" Tuesday, April 10 at 4:30 p.m. in Science Hall Room 102. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Born less than 20 miles from Appleton, Hooten was one of the country's first Rhodes Scholars. After earning a bachelor's degree from Lawrence, he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin before spending three years at Oxford University on his Rhodes scholarship, where his academic interests shifted from classics to anthropology.

Hooten began a distinguished teaching career in 1913 at Harvard University, where he spent more than 40 years on the faculty. His research focused on early man and primates and he was the author of a half dozen books, including "Ancient Inhabitants of the Canary Islands," "Up from the Ape," and "Apes, Men and Morons." Fifty years ago, the Post-Crescent hailed Hooten, who died in 1954, as "Lawrence's most famous native son."

Giles, a former president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, was a member of the Illinois anthropology department from 1964-99. He also spent four years teaching at Harvard during that time.

His research interests focused on the origin and diversity of the indigenous populations of Melanesia. He also has conducted genetic research in Yucatan and osteological research in Australia, where he was twice a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.

Since retiring from active teaching, his research has centered around the history of physical anthropology in the United States, of which Hooton was a dominant figure.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, an award-winning chorus with a well-earned reputation for musical excellence and adventurous programming, will share its message of understanding and awareness in a performance Saturday, April 14 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 209 S. Allen Street, Appleton (two blocks west of campus).

The concert, at 6 p.m. in Trinity's main sanctuary, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the performance.

Formed in 1981, the 140-member chorus, which presents messages of hope and unity through music, was named "Best GLBT Music Group" in 2003 by Lavender Magazine. The chorus also has been recognized with the Brian Coyle Equality and Leadership Award for Education and Outreach by the Human Rights Campaign Minnesota.

The Twin Cities Men's Chorus added the word "gay" to its title in 1991 and has since grown to be the fourth largest gay men's chorus in the country. A member of GALA (Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses), the organization was founded on the mission of building community through the pursuit of musical excellence in performance.

As an organization that celebrates diversity and uses music as a way to transform, educate and heal, the chorus works towards the elimination of homophobia and intolerance through community outreach.

The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus' appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence University Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Diversity Center.

APPLETON, WIS. -- A scholar and historian of American musical theatre shares insights from his distinguished career as an "insider" on the current and future state of the art form Tuesday, April 17 in a Lawrence University convocation.

Ted Chapin, president and executive director of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, presents "A Life in the Musical Theatre...and the Lawrence Connection that Mattered" at 11:10 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

Since 1981, Chapin has been affiliated with the New York City-based Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Founded by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to protect a variety of entertainment copyrights, including those for such musical classics as "South Pacific" and "Oklahoma," the organization has come to represent and promote the works of more than 100 songwriters and authors, including such luminaries as Jerome Kern, Andrew Lloyd Webber and W. Somerset Maugham, dozens of stage musicals and concert works and more than 3,000 songs.

As R & H president and executive director, Chapin oversees all the divisions within R & H, including Williamson Music, the Irving Berlin Music Company, R & H Theatricals and the R & H Concert Library.

Chapin's influence on American musical theatre extends well beyond his affiliation with R & H. He a member of the Tony Award Administration Committee, serving as a Tony Awards nominator, and has been chair of the advisory committee of the "Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert" series at New York's City Center since its inception, a series he helped create.

Lawrence played a role in launching Chapin's career in theatre. As a first-year student at Lawrence in the late 1960s, Chapin participated in the last production of LU theatre professor Ted Cloak's legendary career before his retirement.

Chapin went on to complete his bachelor's degree at Connecticut College, where as a 20-year-old undergraduate, he landed a job as a production assistant on the set of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical smash "Follies."

While working behind the scenes on "Follies," Chapin kept a journal of his experiences. Thirty years later, Chapin used those firsthand observations on how a Broadway musical comes to life as the basis for the 2003 book "Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies.'" In it, he chronicles agonizing casting decisions, tumultuous rehearsals and the thrill of an opening night on Broadway.

Early career highlights also include working as a production or directorial assistant on Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" at the Kennedy Center, "Candide" at the Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Operas, "The Rothchilds" in New York and serving as musical director for the National Theatre of the Deaf's production of "Four Saints in Three Acts."

APPLETON, WIS. - The world premiere of the commissioned work "The Dark Hours" highlights a concert by award-winning bassoonist Peter Kolkay Saturday, April 21 in the final artist series concert of the 2006-07 "Performing Arts at Lawrence."

Kolkay, with accompaniment by pianist Alexandra Nguyen, performs at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton. Tickets for the concert are $22 and $20 for adults, $19 and $17 for senior citizens and $17 and $15 for students. Tickets are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

As the recipient of the Peter and Carlos Surinach Prize, awarded by the BMI Foundation and Concert Artists Guild, Kolkay was able to commission a new work specifically for himself. Composer Judah Adashi's "The Dark Hours" takes its title and inspiration from an early poem by Rainer Maria Rilke. According to Adashi, the poem's encapsulation of Rilke's sensibilities is both "an apt metaphor for the creative process and a natural fit for the rich, dark sound world of the bassoon."

A 1998 graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Kolkay has quickly established himself as one of the leading musicians of his generation. In 2002, he became the first solo bassoonist awarded First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in the 51-year history of the competition. Two years later he became the first artist on his instrument to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

He has toured nationally as a featured guest of the chamber ensemble Concertante and has performed at numerous chamber music events including the Savannah Music Festival and La Musica Festival of Sarasota, Fla. He appeared in the New York premiere of Harold Meltzer's "Likes and Unlikes" and performed a "Concerto for two Bassoons and Strings" with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin.

The San Francisco Classical Voice hailed Kolkay as "star ascendant"...His reputation is blossoming at a remarkable rate, perhaps not so surprisingly considering his many virtues."

His career highlights also include his solo debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, "Peter and the Wolf" at New York's 92nd Street 'Y', as well as recitals presented by Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY.

Kolkay has appeared as guest soloist with numerous orchestras around the country, among them the Rochester Philharmonic, Green Bay Symphony, Flint Symphony, the Southwest Michigan Symphony and his alma mater's own Lawrence Symphony Orchestra.

A native of Naperville, Ill., Kolkay joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina in 2006 as an assistant professor of bassoon. After earning a bachelor's degree from Lawrence, he earned a master's degree from the Eastman School of Music and completed his doctoral studies at Yale University.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Award-winning poet and fiction writer Alan Parker will conduct a reading of his works Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University's Wriston Art Center auditorium. A book signing and reception with the author will follow the reading.

Prior to his reading, Parker will discuss his writing in an open forum Tuesday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence's Main Hall, Room 104. Both events are free and open to the public.

The author of five collections of poems, Parker is perhaps best known for "Love Song with Motor Vehicles," in which he uses wit and irony to explore music in places poetry seldom visits. The collection earned "Notable Book of the Year" honors from the National Book Critics Circle in 2003. One of the poems from the collection, "The Cat," was awarded the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.

The National Book Critics Circle also recognized his first collection of poems, "Days Like Prose," as a "Notable Book of 1997."

His most recent work, 2005's "Cry Uncle," is a novel of small-town politics, racism and love in which a man discovers what really matters in life.

The recipient of a prestigous Pushcart Prize, Parker recently was named a finalist for the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize, a $40,000 biennial prize that honors a visionary creative work in process.

His poems have been published widely, appearing in The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Pleiades, and The Yale Review, among others. He serves as editor of The Imaginary Poets, co-editor of The Routledge Anthology of Cross-Gendered Verse and editor for North America of Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry.

Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is professor of English and director of creative writing. He also holds a faculty appointment at Queens University.

His appearance is sponsored by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund. Established in 1998, the endowed fund brings distinguished poets to campus for public readings and to work with students on writing poetry and verse.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University sophomore Kyle Traska will reprise his winning performance Sunday, April 22 for Wisconsin Public Radio's Neale-Silva Concert of Young Musicians at Madison's Chazen Museum of Art after earning first-place honors in the recent 12th edition of the annual competition.

The concert will be broadcast live statewide as a special edition of "Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen" from 12:30 - 2 p.m. on the WPR's classical music network.

Traska, a percussionist from Oregon, Wis., was named one of five winners in the WPR-sponsored competition. Finals were conducted Saturday, March 31 in Madison. It was the seventh time in the past nine years that a Lawrence student has won or shared top honors in the event.

The competition is open to instrumentalists and vocal performers 17-26 years of age who are either from Wisconsin or attend a Wisconsin college. This year's competition attracted 25 soloists and ensembles. Eleven individuals and one ensemble were invited to perform as finalists.

Playing the marimba, Traska performed Aldir Guinga's "Unha & Carne" and "Melodia Branca," Federico Chueca's "Los Paraguas," and "Mvt. 1" by Toshimitsu Tanaka in the competition finals. He is a student of Associate Professor of Music Dane Richeson. In addition to the radio broadcast, Traska received $300 for his winning performance.

Seven other Lawrence musicians joined Traska in the competition finals. Sophomore pianist Jestin Pieper advanced as did sophomore Garth Neustadter, who competed in two categories, violin and voice. The Lawrence wind quintet of juniors Sheri Muneno (flute) and David Meichle (horn) and sophomores Charles Ging (clarinet), Robert Furlong (bassoon) and Cayden Milton (oboe) also qualified as finalists.

Joining Traska as 2007 first-place winners were percussionist Daniel Paul Pingrey, UW-Madison, vocalist Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, Manhattan School of Music, pianist Erik Saunders, UW-Madison and Shorewood High School student Yisha Chen, who plays the Chinese guzheng.

The Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition was established to recognize young Wisconsin performers of classical music who demonstrate an exceptionally high level of artistry. It is supported by a grant from the estate of the late University of Wisconsin Madison professor Eduardo Neale-Silva, a classical music enthusiast who was born in Talca, Chile and came to the United States in 1925.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The works of two aspiring student composers highlight the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir spring concert "Phenomenal Woman" Sunday, April 22 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Two performances will be staged at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Tickets, at $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Allison Shinnick, a junior at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, will perform her work, "Colors of the Land," a composition she wrote for piano and violin. A member of the Bel Canto choir as well as a pianist, Shinnick has been writing music since the age of seven. She will be accompanied by violinist Yuliya Smead.

Appleton North High School senior Hillary Reynolds, will give both a solo singing and playing performance of her piano composition "Lost for Hours," a work that seeks to capture the excitement of a summer romance. The piano evokes the "butterflies in the stomach" feeling while the lyrics stir memories and emotions of a summer love.

Reynolds, who will attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., this fall, spent eight years in the Girl Choir program prior to the 2007 semester.

In addition to Shinnick's and Reynolds' compositions, the concert will feature music written by women spanning both centuries and the globe, including a medieval French troubadour song, a piece by Clara Schumann, wife of German composer Robert Schumann, a work by American composer and pianist Amy Beach, a song written by Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, a Ukrainian folk song frequently sung by farm women as well as several works by contemporary composers.

"'Phenomenal Woman' is a celebration of women composers, young women singers, women who are mentors and the women who wrote the texts for many of the songs," said Karen Bruno, director of the Cantibile and Bel Canto choirs. "This concert commemorates all the compositions and life stories of the 'phenomenal women' in music."

The concert will feature performances of all five choirs of the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir: Primo, Allegretto, Intermezzo, Cantabile and Bel Canto. The Girl Choir program includes 270 girls representing more than 50 Fox Valley schools, from Oshkosh to Green Bay and Waupaca to Brillion.

APPLETON, WIS. -- One of the country's leading scholars on the history of environmentalism examines the movement's "development as a secular faith" in an address at Lawrence University.

Thomas Dunlap, professor of history at Texas A & M University, presents, "Environmentalism as Reform and Religion" Tuesday, April 24 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence's Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

Providing a historical context to the rise in environmental awareness 40 years ago, Dunlap will discuss how environmentalism went beyond mere reform, seeking to change people's hearts as well as society. According to Dunlap, as environmentalism attempted to provide answers to ultimate questions of human existence -- what are humans, what is this world around us and how are we related to it -- it ventured into religious territory, not in terms of churches, denominations and creeds but as humans' attempts to find their right relation to the universe.

Dunlap has written widely on environmental issues and is the author of four books, including 2004's "Faith in Nature," in which he makes the argument that environmentalism is a form of religion. Among his other works are "Saving America's Wildlife" and "Nature and the English Diaspora." He's been a three-time recipient of the Forest History Society's annual Theodore Blegen Award for the best article in forest and conservation history.

A 1965 graduate of Lawrence, where he earned a degree in chemistry, Dunlap joined the faculty of Texas A & M in 1975 after completing his Ph.D. in history at the University of Wisconsin.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The Lawrence University student organization Greenfire pays homage to Mother Earth with its ninth annual Earth Day Festival Saturday, April 21.

The day-long event includes a variety of volunteer activities, educational opportunities and live music, beginning with a pancake breakfast at 8:30 a.m. in the Sustainable Lawrence University Garden (SLUG) at the bottom of Union Hill, followed by a debris clean-up along the banks of the Fox River.

From 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., the Main Hall Green will host a variety of child-oriented activities (face painting, climbing wall, tie-dying, "solar oven" cookoff) and earth-friendly information booths from student and community environmental organizations, including the Wind River Animal Rehabilitation Center and The Fire, a local paint-your own pottery and mosaic studio.

Associate Professor of Biology Bart De Stasio will provide information on research he is conducting on invasive species in the Fox River and representatives from the Fox River Navigational System Authority will be on hand to discuss the reopening of the historic Fox River locks system.

Interested participants are encouraged to volunteer from 1-4 p.m. in the SLUG, helping prepare it for spring planting.

Live music provided by several Lawrence University student bands will perform throughout the afternoon. The festival concludes with an Earth Night Dance in the trees on Main Hall Green beginning at 9 p.m.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Objectivist author Craig Biddle discusses the principles of "rational egoism" and why those principles provide the cornerstone to personal happiness and social harmony in an address at Lawrence University.

Biddle presents "Ayn Rand's Morality of Selfishness: An Introduction to Objectivist Ethics" Friday, April 27 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event, rescheduled from a previously announced March appearance, is free and open to the public.

A Russian-born novelist and philosopher, Rand, in the 1960s, began outlining a life doctrine she called Objectivism. According to Rand, morality of selfishness -- rational egoism -- is the only moral code that provides a system of principles to guide an individual's choices and actions in pursuit of life-serving goals and values. It also provides a foundation for the protection of individual rights and ultimately the establishment and maintenance of a free and civilized society.

The address will examine the tenets of rational egoism, provide real-life examples of it and explain why it should be embraced by anyone who wants to live happily and freely.

Biddle is the author of the 2002 book "Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It." He also serves as the editor and publisher of The Objective Standard, a quarterly journal of culture and politics. In addition to lecturing on ethical and epistemological issues from an Objectivist perspective, he is working on a second book that examines the principles of rational thinking and the fallacies that are violations of those principles.

His appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence University Objectivist Club.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Four separate choirs and two renowned guest soloists, all backed by the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, will combine talents in a tour de force performance of Johannes Brahms' musical masterpiece "A German Requiem" Saturday, April 28 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

The concert will include performances by the Lawrence Concert Choir, Cantala and Viking Chorale as well the community-based White Heron Chorale. In addition, baritone William McGraw and soprano Winifred Faix Brown will be featured as guest soloists.

Rick Bjella, director of choral studies at Lawrence, will conduct the 220 voices singing the work as well as the orchestra playing it.

Tickets for the concert, at $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens/students, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, or by phone at 920-832-6749. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the box office beginning one hour before the concert.

Completed in 1868 after the German composer had spent 11 years working on it, "A German Requiem" was performed publicly for the first time on Good Friday of that year, with Brahms himself conducting. It is considered by many music scholars to be his "magnum opus."

"There is not a choral orchestral work from the 19th-century that is more popular than Brahms' 'A German Requiem,'" said Bjella. "Next to Handel's 'Messiah,' this is the most performed choral orchestral work today."

Unlike the traditional Catholic Church requiem service for the dead, Brahm's requiem offers comfort and hope for the living as well as remembering the departed. According to Bjella, Brahms once wrote that he wished he had the courage to call his work a "Human" Requiem, rather than a German Requiem.

"Brahms indicated that this was not intended to be a liturgical presentation of a theological argument but a human, non-dogmatic, personal document," said Bjella. "He clearly revealed that his intent was to write for all humankind."

McGraw, who will be making his first appearance as Lawrence, is a professor of vocal studies at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. He has performed nationally and internationally, singing with the Greater Miami Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Boston Opera and Opera of Maracaibo, Venezuela, among others. He also has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in conjunction with the New York Choral Society. His extensive list of roles include Figaro in "The Barber of Seville," Marcello in "La Boheme," the title role in "Rigoletto," and John Proctor in "The Crucible."

Brown, who performed as a guest soloist in Lawrence's production of Verdi's "Requiem" several years ago, is an internationally acclaimed soprano who has performed throughout Europe, North, Central and South America since the age of 17. She has been guest artist of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera, as well as theatres in Berlin, Paris and Rome. She performs as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Brown also founded and serves as artistic director of CandleOpera and N.O.V.A. -- the New Organization for Vocal Artistry in Chicago.

In addition to their performances in "German Requiem," McGraw and Brown both will conduct master classes at Lawrence. McGraw will teach Thursday, April 26 at 11:10 a.m. in Harper Hall, while Brown will lead a class Friday, April 27 at 3:10 p.m. in Shattuck Hall, Room 163.

APPLETON, WIS. -- In the absence of God, are all human lives meaningless and no action considered morally wrong or obligatory?

Erik Wielenberg, associate professor of philosophy at DePauw University, examines the relationship between God and human virtue in the Lawrence University address "God and the Distortion of Morality" Monday, April 30 at 7 p.m. in Riverview Lounge. A question-and-answer session will follow the talk, which is free and open to the public.

According to Wielenberg, attempts to provide a theistic foundation for objective morality "are flawed in that they tend to distort morality in various ways and suggest that objective morality does not require an external foundation at all." The absence of God, Wielenberg argues, "does not entail the absence of genuine values and moral obligations."

A scholar in ethical theory and the philosophy of religion, Wielenberg is the author of the 2005 book "Virtue and Value in a Godless Universe" and the forthcoming book "God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell," which is scheduled to be published later this year.

A 1994 graduate of Lawrence, where he earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy, Wielenberg holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He joined the faculty at DePauw in 1999.

Wielenberg's appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence Philosophy Club.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University sophomore Callie Bates has been named the winner of the 2007 Nick Adams Short Story Contest sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, a 14-member consortium of private liberal arts colleges in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado.

Bates' winning entry, "The Swans at Roxleigh," a tale of a declining English country house in the days just after World War II, was selected from among 45 stories submitted by ACM students for the 35th edition of the annual contest. Bates, an English major from Mercer, received a first-place prize of $1,000. Lawrence senior Steve Ringman, Park Forest, Ill., joined Bates as one of the contest's six finalists for his story "Next Exit."

"Each ACM campus submitted several stories for this year's contest, so to have two students from Lawrence make it into the top six is a major accomplishment and says a lot about the level of creative writing going on here," said David McGlynn, Lawrence assistant professor of English, one of two ACM faculty members to serve as initial readers for the contest. "To have one of our students win the competition means that at least one bright literary star is starting to shine."

Antonya Nelson, an award-winning novelist and author of five short-story collections, served as the judge of the contest's six finalists. She called Bates' story "a lovely meditation on loss and lostness."

"It places the reader so thoroughly in another place, another time, with such authority," Nelson commented. "The story reminds the reader that people have endured suffering, caused suffering and survived it for as long as time itself. I felt both transported by and utterly invested in this wonderful piece."

Bates says she has been "making up stories" for as long as she can remember. She didn't start writing them down until the summer she turned 10, but has been doing so ever since. She hopes to travel more in the next few years and hopes to visit the place where "The Swans at Roxleigh" was set.

The Nick Adams Short Story Contest, named for the young hero of many Hemingway stories, was established in 1973 with funds from an anonymous donor to encourage young writers.

APPLETON, WIS. -- A university criminologist examines attitudes toward free speech and tolerance on American college campuses in an address at Lawrence University.

Mike Adams, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, presents "The Constitutional Crisis in Higher Education" Wednesday, May 2 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence's Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

An outspoken critic of what he calls "academia's hypocritical stance towards diversity," Adams will discuss the issues of classroom bias, the free interchange between students and professors and the use of "speech codes" in higher education that he argues often "fly in the face of the Bill of Rights."

Adams, author of the 2004 book "Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel: Confessions of a Conservative College Professor," has appeared as a guest on Fox's "Hannity and Colmes," and "The O'Reilly Factor" as well as MSNBC's "Scarborough Country." He serves as a national columnist for Townhall.com, a conservative news and information website, where some of his recent columns have included "Dennis the First Amendment Menace," "Legislating Morality" and "My Conversion to Radical Islam."

A member of the UNC-Wilmington faculty since 1993 and a two-time recipient of the university's "Faculty Member of the Year" award, Adams recently filed a lawsuit against the university claiming his civil rights were violated after being denied a promotion to full professor in 2006.

The lawsuit, filed April 10 in U.S. District Court against the UNC-Wilmington Board of Trustees on Adams' behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, alleges Adams was turned down for promotion to rank of professor because of his conservative views.

Adams earned both a bachelor's degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in sociology/criminology from Mississippi State University.

His appearance is sponsored by Students for Academic Freedom.

APPLETON, WIS. -- One of the country's leading authorities on Central American politics examines the role of independent election observers in the region's ongoing movement toward democratization in an address at Lawrence University.

Thomas Walker, professor emeritus of political science and director emeritus of Latin American studies at Ohio University, presents "International Electoral Observation: A Tool for Democratization and Peace in Latin America" Monday, May 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Lawrence's Main Hall, Room 201. The event is free and open to the public.

Starting with the Nicaraguan elections of 1984 and progressing to the present, Walker will trace the evolving role, techniques and importance of international observation in Latin America elections. Throughout this period, electoral observation has been conducted by a variety of international organizations, including the British Parliament, the Latin American Studies Association and more recently, the Carter Center, the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

International observations, according to Walker, serve to reassure voters that the world is watching as well as preserve peace during and following tense electoral contests.

Walker has served as an electoral observer with the Latin American Studies Association in Nicaragua in 1984, 1990 and 1996 and for the Carter Center in Venezuela in 2004 and Nicaragua in 2006. He is the author or co-author of eight books, including "Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle" and "Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion and Regime Change."

His appearance is sponsored by the Lawrence University Department of Spanish, Lawrence University's Distinguished Visitor Grant and the Center for Latin American Studies at UW-Milwaukee.