Lawrence University News

APPLETON, WIS. -- One of the world's most prominent theologians examines the dilemma created between fundamentalism and constructive religious practice, particularly in the Middle East, in an address at Lawrence University.

Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, presents "The Dilemmas of Fundamentalisms" Wednesday April 9 at 7 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. A question-and-answer session will follow the address. Free and open to the public, the program is a presentation of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters' Academy Evening series.

An ordained Lutheran pastor, Marty served parishes in suburban Chicago for a decade before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1963, teaching for 35 years in the Divinity School. When he retired in 1998, the Divinity School's Advanced Study of Religion, which he founded and first directed, was renamed the Martin Marty Center in his honor. The center is the major conference and program arm of the Divinity School, with a focus on public religion.

Marty has written more than 50 books, including "Righteous Empire," for which he won the National Book Award; the three-volume "Modern American Religion," 2005's "When Faiths Collide" and the forthcoming "World Christianity: A Global History," slated for publication later this year. In addition, he is the author of more than 5,000 book chapters, forewords, essays and scholarly articles.

During his distinguished career, Marty has been a member of two U.S. Presidential Commissions and received the prestigious National Humanities Medal in 1997 from President Clinton. He also has been the awarded the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Distinguished Service Medal of the Association of Theological Schools and been recognized with 75 honorary doctorate degrees. He is a former president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University has announced the appointment of Brian Pertl as dean of its conservatory of music. As the chief academic and administrative officer of the conservatory, Pertl will be responsible for the educational mission, curricular planning and development for the bachelor of music program, budget planning, recruitment and retention of faculty and faculty-administration relations. He will join the Lawrence administration July 1.

Pertl comes to Lawrence from Microsoft Corporation, where he has been the media acquisitions manager since 1998, overseeing a team of 40 employees, contractors and vendors and managing a $5 million budget. He first joined Microsoft in 1992 as an ethnomusicologist to select, caption and license music for the company's Encarta World Atlas product.

In addition to his management duties at Microsoft, Pertl serves as a state music scholar for the Smithsonian Institution's Museum on Main Street traveling exhibit "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music." He also has been a lecturer for Washington state's "Inquiring Mind Lecture Series" for the past 16 years, delivering more than 300 talks on a wide variety of subjects at venues throughout the state.

"Brian is not only a passionate scholar of music but a strong advocate of the liberal arts and of the importance of interactions across disciplines," said Lawrence President Jill Beck in announcing Pertl's appointment. "His creativity, vision and leadership will help enhance the position of Lawrence as a nationally prominent institution in the fields of music and music education."

A native of Salt Lake City, Pertl, 45, is a 1986 graduate of Lawrence, where he earned a bachelor of music degree in performance and a bachelor of arts degree in English. He also holds a master's degree in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University and has completed extensive additional coursework and research toward a doctorate degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington.

APPLETON, WIS. -- For the first time in its history, members of Lawrence International will stage two performances of its annual cabaret show celebrating music, dance and cuisine from around the world.

"Mosaic of Cultures," the theme for this year's event, will be performed Saturday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. with an encore performance Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m. Both will be staged in Stansbury Theatre, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton. Following Sunday's performance, a dinner featuring native dishes from Africa and the sub-continent will be served in Lucinda's in Colman Hall.

Tickets, at $10 for the performance and $15 for the performance and dinner, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749. Children six and under are free.

"The cabaret is a wonderful opportunity for our international students to share a piece of their native culture with the Lawrence and Fox Valley communities. They always perform with great passion and enthusiasm," said Tim Schmidt, coordinator of international student services.

More than 80 students from nearly 50 countries will entertain with a variety of performances. Cabaret favorites such as traditional African dances, the Dominican Republic's merengue and the Middle East's belly dance return. Also scheduled are two violin performances, Chinese singing and dancing, steel pan percussion from Jamaica and a fashion show showcasing traditional dress from around the world.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Harvey Kushner, professor of criminal justice and security administration at Long Island University, delivers the address "Radical Islam and What To Do About It" Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, 121. The event is free and open to the public.

An internationally recognized authority on terrorism and security matters, Kushner has lectured throughout the world, addressing governmental agencies, corporate entities and university think tanks, among them the FBI Academy's Behavioral Science Unit, the United Nations Congress in Vienna, Austria, and the U.S. Naval War College. He also has served as an trainer and advisor to the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Customs and Borders agency.

During a 30-year career, Kushner has served as an expert witness in several high-profile court cases involving international terrorism, including a civil litigation suit arising from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He is the author of the 2004 book "Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamist Terrorist Network in the United States" and the "Encyclopedia of Terrorism," which was recognized with the American Library Association's Best Reference Award.

He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Queens College and a Ph.D. in political science from New York University.

Kushner's appearance is sponsored by the Viking Conservatives student organization.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University freshman Greg Peterson knows his history. And his literature, science and fine arts.

Peterson has put all that knowledge to good use as the driving force behind a revival of Lawrence's once-dominant college quizbowl team.

Looking to return Lawrence to national prominence in the world of questions-and-answers competition, Peterson is off to a great start. After organizing a team last fall, he already has Lawrence heading to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments' (NAQT) Intercollegiate Championship, the nation's largest, most prestigious quizbowl event for college students.

Lawrence will be among 32 teams from around the country competing April 11-12 at the national tournament hosted by Washington University in St. Louis. Lawrence's four-person team will match wits against teams from such Ivy League powerhouses as Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth universities, as well as brainiacs from Swarthmore and MIT.

As a fledgling program, Peterson and his teammates will participate in NAQT's Division II tournament, which is reserved for undergraduate students on teams in either their first or second year of existence and who have not previously qualified for the national tournament.

"We won't be considered 'national champions' if we win because we're competing in Division II," said Peterson of Park Ridge, Ill. "But we could say we're the best 'new' quizbowl team in the country."

The current NAQT competition is a stepchild of the once-popular television program known as the "GE College Bowl," which was sponsored by General Electric and ran on national television from 1959-70. Originally hosted by Allen Ludden, the show was televised weekly on Saturdays and Sundays, pitting college teams from around the country. During the 1964-65 season, Lawrence was a five-time winner on the program -- the maximum number of appearances allowed -- returning to campus from New York City to a hero's welcome after earning a silver trophy, $10,500 in scholarship money and national recognition.

"I knew that Lawrence had done well on the old GE College Bowl program, but I couldn't figure out why no one had competed since then," said Peterson. "There was a buzzer system in place to practice and there was talent available on campus, but for some reason they just weren't being put together. Liberal arts colleges like Lawrence are perfect for quizbowl. The game covers so many different categories that you need well-rounded players who can answer questions on everything from biochemistry to Russian literature to prime-time TV."

Peterson was an obvious choice to restart Lawrence's efforts on the college quizbowl circuit. He participated in Illinois' "Scholastic Bowl" for two years in high school and last summer reached the finals of the teen tournament on the popular television show "Jeopardy!." Despite racking up an impressive two-day total of $38,600, he missed winning the teen tournament title by an agonizing $1.

Shortly after arriving on campus last September, he went searching for fellow students who shared his passion for the game. In October, Peterson represented Lawrence as a team of one at a tournament in Chicago, placing sixth all by himself out of 24 teams.

With the subsequent additions of fellow freshmen Richard Wanerman, Emily Koenig and Catherine Albright, Lawrence competed in four more tournaments between November and early March, finishing first in three of them. A five-way tie for first among 14 teams at a sectional tournament in early February at the University of Chicago earned Lawrence a ticket to the nationals in St. Louis.

Due to a conflict, Albright won't be able to participate at the national tournament. Sophomore Michael Schreiber will join Peterson, Wanerman and Koenig in representing Lawrence.

At nationals, the 32-team field will be divided into four pools of eight teams. The top two finishing teams in each pool will advance to the championship bracket.

"Some of the really strong schools from our region you would expect to be there, like Northwestern and the University of Chicago, won't be there because Lawrence took their spot," Peterson said with just a hint of gloating.

Quizbowl tournaments typically feature head-to-head competitions between two teams of four members each. "A 10-point "toss-up" question opens play, with the first team to answer correctly given the opportunity to answer a 30-point, multiple-part bonus question. A total of 20 toss-up questions are asked per game.

"My goal for the national tournament is to get into the championship bracket," said Peterson. "Knowing that we'll be competing against teams from Stanford, Cornell and Dartmouth, it will be tough, but I think we can do it."

APPLETON, WIS. -- Award winning American poet Lyn Hejinian and Russian poet Ilya Kutik will give a reading of their respective works Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence University's Wriston Art Center auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

Prior to their reading, Hejinian and Kutik will conduct a question-and-answer session Monday, April 14 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall 216. Both events are free and open to the public.

Hejinian is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including her autobiographical collection "My Life," "The Fatalist," "A Border Comedy" and "The Cold of Poetry" as well as numerous books of essays and two volumes of translations of works by Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko.

A professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley, Hejinian is a fellow of the Academy of American Poets and was elected a chancellor of the academy in 2006. Her numerous honors and awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship.

Kutik, one of the founders of the Russian poetic movement known as "meta-realism," teaches Russian literature at Northwestern University. He has published five volumes of poetry and translations, including "The Death of Tragedy," "Odysseus' Bow" and the "Pentathlon of the Senses." He also has written three books of essays and criticism. His most recent book, "Epic," is scheduled for publication this spring in Moscow.

Hejinian's and Kutik's appearance are supported by the Mia T. Paul Poetry Fund and the Stevens Lectureship Fund.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The American Brass Quintet, one of the country's oldest and most distinguished brass chamber ensembles, brings its breathtaking sound to the stage of the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton, Saturday, April 19 at 8 p.m. in the final concert of the 2007-08 Lawrence University Artist Series.

Tickets, at $20-22 for adults, $17-19 for seniors, and $15-17 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

In addition to their concert, members of the quintet will conduct a pair of master classes on Saturday from 12:30 -1:40 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. - 12 noon. Both will be held in the Chapel and are free and open to the public.

Hailed as the "Rolls Royce of brass quintets" by the Baltimore Sun, the American Brass Quintet has commissioned a prolific number of chamber brass works, premiered more than 100 pieces and recorded more than 50 albums since its founding in 1960. Their latest CD, "Jewels," is a compilation of the ensemble's favorite repertoire from earlier decades to more recent compositions.

"For nearly five decades, the American Brass Quintet has been famous for their unparalleled virtuosity and incredible musicianship," said Jeff Stannard, associate dean of the Lawrence conservatory of music and trumpet player with the Lawrence Brass. "They have commissioned, performed and recorded more music than any brass quintet in the world. This concert is sure to showcase their immense talents and range."

Internationally recognized as one of the premiere chamber music ensembles of this generation, the American Brass Quintet has performed in all 50 states as well as throughout the world, filling concert halls in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. The ensemble maintains a residency at both The Julliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

APPLETON, WIS. -- With the help of special 3-D glasses, planetary scientist Nick Schneider offers a unique look at the solar system in a slide-illustrated address at Lawrence University.

Schneider, associate professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado, presents "The Solar System in 3-D and the Latest News from Saturn" Monday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in Youngchild Hall 121. The event is free and open to the public.

Through a special collection of three-dimensional images, Schneider will reveal the inner workings of the major planets and most of their moons in our solar system, providing the sensation of actually visiting these distant objects. Schneider also will discuss the latest discoveries of Saturn, its rings and moons made by the Cassini spacecraft, which is currently orbiting the planet.

Schneider, whose research focuses on the escaping atmospheres of planets and moons, is a member of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the author of the astronomy textbook "The Cosmic Perspective." A native of Appleton, he is the son of Lawrence professor emeritus of English Ben Schneider.

His visit is sponsored by the Shapley Lectureship program of the American Astronomical Society. The lecture series honors Harlow Shapley, a pioneering American astronomer whose research helped place our solar system within the context of the galaxy and the universe.

APPLETON, WIS. -- In an edgy portrayal of blossoming romance in the seedy nightlife of late-1920s Berlin, Lawrence University Student Musical Productions presents the Tony award-winning musical "Cabaret."

The musical will be performed April 17-19 at 8 p.m. in Cloak Theatre of the Lawrence Music-Drama Center, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens, are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Set at the dawn of Hitler's rise to power, the musical reveals a tumultuous political atmosphere and the decadence of Berlin's Kit Kat Klub cabaret. The growing influence of the Nazi regime is viewed through the eyes of a young American writer, Cliff Bradshaw, whose love affair with one of the show's dancers, Sally Bowles, becomes increasingly threatened.

Directed by senior David Hanzal, the production features sophomore Chad Bay as Bradshaw, senior Danielle Cartun as Bowles and sophomore Nikko Benson as the emcee, the Kit Kat Klub's master of ceremonies of the Kit Kat Klub.

The original 1966 version of "Carabet" was honored with 10 Tony Awards, including best musical and best composer and lyricist.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Music historian Susan McClary presents "The Dragon Cart: The Femme-Fatale in 17th-Century French Opera" Wednesday, April 16 at 6 p.m. in Lawrence University's Harper Hall. A reception with the speaker will follow the presentation, which is free and open to the public.

McClary, professor of musicology at UCLA, will discuss two operas -- Jean-Baptiste Lully's "Armide" and Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Medee" -- in which sorceresses literally fly away at the end of the work, rather than be held accountable by society for their crimes. The talk will examine the conditions that allowed those works to defy the usual narrative and ideological conventions of the time, where plot tensions typically were resolved and the social order was restored.

A scholar of cultural criticism and critical theory of music, McClary has written widely on feminism and gender issues. In her 1991 book "Feminine Endings," she examines cultural constructions of gender, sexuality and the body in musical works ranging from early 17th-century opera to the songs of Madonna. She also is the author of "Conventional Wisdom," an exploration of the ways shared musical practices transmit social knowledge.

McClary, who earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University, was a 1995 recipient of the prestigious $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius grant" and is a former chair of the board of directors for the American Council of Learned Societies.

Her appearance is supported by the William A. Chaney Lectureship in the Humanities.

APPLETON -- Considering Lawrence University's quizbowl team didn't even exist six months ago, reaching the finals of the National Academic Quiz Tournaments' (NAQT) Intercollegiate Championship, was cause for celebration.

Competing April 11-12 in the nation's largest, most prestigious quizbowl event for college students at Washington University in St. Louis, Lawrence's four-person team finished eighth out of 32 teams.

"Everyone contributed and we reached our goal," said freshman Greg Peterson, Park Ridge, Ill., who organized the team late last fall and led the team to the tournament hoping to reach the eight-team championship bracket. "For a school that hasn't competed in a national quizbowl tournament before, to place eighth out of 32 is something to be proud of."

Lawrence cruised through the eight-team preliminary bracket, posting a 6-1 record, suffering its only loss to eventual overall champion Carleton College. Swarthmore College and Brandeis University were among the teams Lawrence defeated in advancing to the championship bracket.

In the finals, Lawrence lost to Western Ontario (240-190), Dartmouth (250-245), Truman State (285-230) and MIT (225-210) before rallying from an 85-point deficit to stun Cornell University 260-220. The team closed the championship round with a 245-190 loss to Princeton to finish 1-5 in the playoffs, 7-6 overall and eighth for the tournament.

"We just couldn't seem to keep firing on all cylinders for a full match," said Peterson of the finals. "The Cornell match was great, though. At one point, we were down -5 to 80."

Sophomore Michael Schreiber and freshmen Richard Wanerman and Emily Koenig joined Peterson in representing Lawrence, which finished the tournament ahead of teams from Carnegie Mellon, Grinnell, Harvard, Stanford and Washington University, among others. Peterson finished the tournament first individually among 134 Division II players with an average of 66.67 points per game.

APPLETON, WIS. -- A Lawrence University molecular biologist has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Fulbright Scholar Program to conduct research at the Karolinska Institutet outside Stockholm, Sweden.

Elizabeth De Stasio, associate professor of biology and Raymond H. Herzog Professor in Science at Lawrence, conducts research on muscle function, deftly manipulating pieces of DNA in C. elegans -- tiny worms about as long as the thickness of a dime. She will spend six months beginning next January investigating the role a protein called DAF-19 plays in regulating the function of various genes that in turn affect nerve function and maintenance.

The loss of connections between nerves -- synapses -- is believed to be a contributing factor in cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. De Stasio's research at the Karolinska Institutet will focus on the effects of mutant DAF-19 on synaptic protein expression. The study will determine if C. elegans could be successfully used as a model system for studying Alzheimer's disease-like decline.

"While a great deal has been learned from studying Alzheimer's disease in humans, much of the evidence is necessarily correlative in nature," said De Stasio, who conducted research in Uppsula, Sweden as a graduate student. "Only by also using model organisms for research can causation be determined fully.

"It was recently discovered that, just like human Alzheimer's patients, DAF-19 mutant animals that reach advanced stages of adulthood also have strongly reduced levels of synaptic proteins. It remains to be seen whether these worms have problems similar to those of Alzheimer's patients. One goal of my fellowship research will be to determine whether animals missing the DAF-19 protein have age-related defects in learning and memory relative to normal animals."

A 1983 summa cum laude graduate of Lawrence, De Stasio has previously collaborated with 2002 Nobel Prize winner H. Robert Horvitz on research into the ways nerves and muscles communicate.

She joined the Lawrence biology department in 1992 under the auspices of a $700,000 grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to establish the college's first program in molecular biology. A recipient of Lawrence's Outstanding Young Teacher award in 1996, she earned her Ph.D. from Brown University.

De Stasio was awarded her Fulbright Fellowship through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), which administers the Fulbright Scholar Program for U.S. faculty and professionals. She was selected from research proposals submitted in disciplines ranging from the sciences to the fine arts.

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Scholar Program provides grants for teaching and research positions in more than 120 countries worldwide. Fulbright grants are generally awarded for six-month periods.

APPLETON, WIS. -- The evidence for male circumcision as an effective health promotion and the questions raised by implementing a circumcision policy will be examined in Lawrence University's Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.

Robert Bailey, professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, presents "Male Circumcision: Genital Mutilation or Sound Public Health" Wednesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence's Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

According to Bailey, approximately 4,000 men and 4,500 women are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa every day. While an effective vaccine against new infections is years away, male circumcision has been likened to a vaccine, proving about 60% effective in preventing new HIV infections in adult heterosexual men. Circumcision also has been found to protect against urinary tract infections, some sexually transmitted diseases, penile cancer and cervical cancer in female partners of circumcised men.

Three clinical trials have produced compelling results and the World Health Organization and several UN agencies have recommended male circumcision be made widely available in regions it is not widely practiced and HIV prevalence is high.

Bailey will discuss several important questions raised by moving from research findings to policy implementation, including: will circumcision be acceptable to people in communities where it is not commonly practiced or will those who do get circumcised be stigmatized or discriminated against?; if circumcision is promoted as an effective HIV prevention measure, will men engage in higher risk sexual behaviors than they did before they were circumcised?; and will men use circumcision as an excuse not to use condoms, making it more difficult for women to negotiate safe sex?

The author or co-author of six books, Bailey serves as a consultant on matters relating to national and international health and disease prevention for the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and UNICEF, among others. A specialist on issues of peoples' health in Africa, he is leading efforts with the Kenya Ministry of Health funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide circumcision and counseling services for HIV prevention in western Kenya.

Bailey's appearance is supported by the Edward F. Mielke Lectureship in Ethics in Medicine, Science and Society. The lectureship was established in 1985 by the Mielke Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Edward F. Mielke, a leading member of the Appleton medical community and the founder of the Appleton Medical Center.

APPLETON, WIS. -- For the third year in a row, a Lawrence University student has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English abroad.

Nicki Dabney, a senior from Silver Spring, Md., has been named a 2008-09 Fulbright Scholar and awarded a $15,500 fellowship. Beginning August 1, Dabney will spend 11 months in Taiwan, teaching English and serving as a cultural advisor at either an elementary or middle school in Gaoxiong, a port city of 1.5 million people in southwest Taiwan.

She is the seventh Lawrence student named a Fulbright Scholar since 2001 by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Dabney, who will graduate in June with a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies, government and Chinese language and literature, spent a semester in Beijing in the fall of 2006 while on the Associated Colleges in China study-abroad program. Her experiences with daily Chinese life on that program prompted her to look for an opportunity to return to the Far East.

"I wanted to go back to either mainland China or a Chinese-speaking region to improve my language skills," said Dabney, who is fluent in Mandarin. "I applied for the Fulbright Fellowship thinking it would be a great way to combine my language and teaching skills. It worked out perfect. It's going to be a good challenge, but I'm excited and looking forward to it."

For the past four months, Dabney has been teaching Chinese to students at Green Bay's Aldo Leopold Elementary School. She also serves as an English as a Second Language tutor for Japanese students participating in the Waseda program, a study-abroad partnership between Lawrence and Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan that brings 15-20 Waseda students to Lawrence for a year of thematic and language study. She spent last summer as an intern for the China Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga., translating Chinese articles, writing media reports and analyzing Chinese news articles.

When her Fulbright appointment ends, Dabney hopes to pursue graduate studies in Asian languages and cultures.

"I eventually want to put my language skills to use in anything that improves cooperation between the United States and China and promotes cross-cultural exchange and understanding," Dabney said.

Created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, the Fulbright Program has become the U.S. government's premier scholarship program. Since its founding, the Fulbright Program has supported study, research and teaching opportunities for nearly 280,000 American students, scholars and other professionals in more than 155 countries. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, university presidents, professors and teachers. Thirty-six Fulbright alumni have earned Nobel Prizes.

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University senior Katie Peacock had barely returned from a recent 10-day field study trip to Germany when she found out she will be heading back there, this time for a 10-month stay.

Peacock became the second Lawrence student this spring, and the eighth since 2001, to be named a 2008-09 Fulbright Scholar. She was awarded a $11,250 fellowship plus round-trip air fair that will send her to Germany in early September, where she will spend 10 months as a secondary school English teaching assistant. Peacock's specific destination is yet to be determined.

A German and linguistics major at Lawrence, Peacock spent 10 days in Berlin during last month's spring break as part of a class on the German city. The field study explored Berlin's rich history and architecture through extensive daily walking tours. Shortly after returning to campus, she was notified she had been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.

"I was estastic," said Peacock of Bennington, Vt., after learning she had been named a Fulbright Scholar. "I love languages and wanted to teach and this seemed like a great opportunity to do that. Plus, it was a chance for me to go back to Germany."

For Peacock, the difference between ecstasy and agony was literally only a matter of hours. When she first explored the Fulbright last October, she discovered the on-campus application deadline was the next day. With the help of some gentle pleading, she received a short extension, but still had to write essays, collect faculty recommendations and track down transcripts in the span of a weekend.

"It was wild and I was freaking out a little bit, but everything worked out in the end," said Peacock, who was inspired to apply for the fellowship by two Lawrence classmates who earned Fulbright fellowships to Germany in 2006 and 2007.

Her teaching assistantship will be Peacock's fourth trip to Germany since 2004. In addition to the recent spring break visit, Peacock participated in a 16-week study-abroad program in Berlin in the fall of 2006 and spent a month at a language institute in Tubingen in southern Germany the summer following her high school graduation. Following her fellowship, Peacock hopes to pursue additional language study in graduate school.

"I eventually want to teach middle school or high school and help young people learn to love language as much as I do," said Peacock, who is currently tutoring an Appleton seventh-grade student in German twice a week. "I want to see that transformation that takes place when someone learns a new language."

Created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchanges, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's premier scholarship program. Since its founding, it has supported opportunities for nearly 280,000 American students, scholars and other professionals in more than 155 countries. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, CEOs, university presidents, professors and teachers. Thirty-six Fulbright alumni have earned Nobel Prizes.

APPLETON -- Five choirs comprising nearly 250 voices will join three guest soloists and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David E. Becker in a performance of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" Sunday, May 4 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, 510 E. College Ave., Appleton.

Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students, are available at the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Headlining the concert are guest artists Stephen King, baritione, Steven Paul Spears, tenor and Tamara Wilson, soprano. The chorus will include Lawrence's Concert Choir, Cantala women's choir and Viking Chorale, as well as 35 members of the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir chosen by audition and the 75-member, community-based White Heron Chorale.

A scenic cantata in five movements, "Carmina Burana" is based on 24 secular medieval poems written in Latin and old forms of German and French. The poems discuss topics ranging from drinking and gambling to the joys of spring. Orff's musical setting is a popular work on orchestral programs and is often heard in films and commercials.

King, an award-winning singer, has performed engagements from China to Italy and throughout the United States. Highly regarded as a vocal teacher, he holds positions at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University, the Houston Grand Opera Studio and the Aspen Music Festival.

Spears, assistant professor of music in Lawrence's voice department since 2004, has sung roles in concerts, opera companies and festivals across the United States including the Aspen Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Julliard Opera Theater.

Wilson, hailed for her voice of "steely beauty and great power" by the Houston Chronicle, won the 2005 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition and was a finalist in the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She currently performs with the Houston Grand Opera.

The White Heron Chorale, Lawrence Concert Choir and Viking Chorale are all led by Richard Bjella, director of choral studies at Lawrence. Phillip Swan, associate director of choral studies at Lawrence, conducts Cantala. Karen Bruno is the coordinator of the Academy of Music Girl Choir program.

APPLETON, WIS. -- A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian explores the stories behind a well-known 18th-century Puritan embroidery in a Lawrence University Phi Beta Kappa lecture.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University, presents "The First, Second and Last Scenes of Mortality: A Textile Mystery," Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m. in Youngchild Hall 121. Ulrich also will conduct a question-and-answer session Friday, May 2 at 10 a.m. in Main Hall Strange Commons. Both events are free and open to the public.

A specialist in early American social history, women's history and material culture, Ulrich will discuss a needlework stitched in 1783 by Prudence Punderson of Connecticut before her marriage that depicts three scenes of mortality: infancy, womanhood and death. Ulrich will challenge the conventional thinking that Punderson's work merely reflected typical New England Puritan obsession with death, arguing the work is "a dynamic portrayal of political and personal conflict in an age of revolution."

Ulrich, whose research focuses on the hidden lives of ordinary women who have enjoyed extraordinary lives, is the author of four books, including "Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Early New England, 1650-1750" and "A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard," which earned her the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for history and became the basis of a PBS documentary. Her most recent work, "Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History," was published in 2007.