Lawrence University News

Lawrence University Artist Series Presents Zukerman, Flutist, and Kondonassis, Harpist

The final performance of the 2005-06 Lawrence University Artist Series will be a performance by flutist Eugenia Zukerman and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis. The concert, which will feature works by Benedetto Marcello, Alan Hovhaness, Vincent Persichetti, and Jacques Ibert, will take place on Thursday, April 14 at 8:00 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Tickets for this event are available at the Lawrence University Box Office, 920-832-6749, and range from $15.00 for students to $22 for adults. The Box Office is located in the east entrance lobby of Brokaw Hall and is open from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Acclaimed by the Boston Globe as “one of the finest flutists of our time,” Eugenia Zukerman is a consummate musician. Her elegant sound along with her lyrical phrasing, extraordinary agility, and compelling stage presence, have contributed to her popularity as an international performer with orchestra, in solo and duo recitals, and in chamber music ensembles in North America, Europe, and Asia for over 25 years.

A versatile artist, Ms Zukerman is respected for her innovative programming as well as for her performances. She has been Artistic Director of the international Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains since 1998. The festival has grown artistically under her guidance, and includes residencies with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Dallas Symphony. The festival has presented such ensembles as eighth blackbird, the Shanghai Quartet, the Rossetti String Quartet, as well as such solo artists as Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Alisa Weilerstein.

Hailed by the New York Times as a harpist with “powerful playing and musicianly energy,” Yolanda Kondonassis is recognized as one of the world’s foremost harpists, performing both as a concerto soloist and recitalist throughout the United States, Far East, and Europe.

Since making her debut at age 18 with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, she has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Florida Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the New World Symphony, to name but a few. Other solo appearances include engagements at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Taiwan’s National Concert Hall. A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Kondonassis has performed at the Marlboro, Spoleto, Tanglewood, Bravo! Colorado, Bay Chamber, Strings in the Mountains, and Mainly Mozart Festivals. She has collaborated with members of the Alban Berg, Guarneri, Rossetti, Shanghai, and Vermeer string quartets.

Lawrence University Biology Student Awarded Leopold Scholarship

Ben Pauli has been named the recipient of the 2005 Aldo Leopold Memorial Scholarship. A junior from Madison majoring in biology, Pauli is the first Lawrence University student to win the award.

Established in 1993, the $500 scholarship is awarded annually by the Wisconsin chapter of the Wildlife Society, an international nonprofit organization of wildlife professionals, including researchers, teachers and administrators.

Named in honor of the renowned scientist, environmentalist, UW-Madison professor and author of the seminal book on conservation, “A Sand County Almanac,” the Leopold scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate student in Wisconsin who has maintained a minimum 3.0 grade point average while majoring in wildlife ecology, zoology, biology or a related area of study. Only one scholarship per year is awarded.

Lawrence University Brings Guster and Better Than Ezra to Appleton

Lawrence University’s SOUP (Student Organization for University Programming) is very excited to present Guster with special guest Better Than Ezra on Wednesday, April 27, at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., show at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 for Lawrence students with ID and can be purchased in person at the Lawrence University box office starting on Wednesday, March 30 at 12:30 p.m. Tickets for the general public are $30 each and will be available through the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center ticket office and by calling 920-730-3760 on March 30 as well.

Guster became one of the most successful bands to hit the United States’ East Coast scene in the late 1990s. The Boston trio developed a unique sound with two acoustic guitars and a bongo set and created their own catchy songs about love, suicide, and the absurdist rock star lifestyle. Ryan Miller, guitar and vocals, Adam Gardner, guitar and vocals, and Brian Rosenworcel, percussion, met in 1992 at Tufts University and played around the Boston area during college. Originally named Gus, the band adopted the appended Guster moniker after discovering several other national touring acts playing under the same name. They have released several albums together, including their latest Keep It Together, and are currently in the studio recording more future hits. Named the “Best Live Act” at the Boston Music Awards in 1997, Guster was hailed as one of the greatest independent successes of the 1990s, achieving a reputation as one of the most reputable under-promoted bands of the decade.

Special guests, Better Than Ezra, is a New Orleans trio that merges rock with melody and creates alternative rock for the masses. Their reissued album Deluxe spawned a sizeable radio hit with the track “Good” and helped push the album to platinum status by the end of 1995. Better Than Ezra’s newest album Before the Robots is to be released on April 26 of this year.

Two Lawrence University Seniors Named Recipients of $22,000 Fellowships for Year-Long Study Abroad Projects

Cross-cultural interactions — one musical, the other migratory — lie at the heart of two year-long study abroad adventures a pair of Lawrence University seniors will embark upon later this year as the college’s latest Watson Fellows.

Benjamin Klein, a music performance (tuba) and theory/composition major from Sheboygan, and Kelly Scheer, a biology major from Lisbon, Iowa, were among two of the 50 recipients of a $22,000 fellowship announced Tuesday (3/15) by the Providence, R.I.-based Thomas J. Watson Foundation. The fellowship supports a “wanderjahr,” a year of independent travel and exploration outside the United States on a topic of the student’s choosing.

Klein and Scheer were selected for the fellowship from 184 nominees representing 50 of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges and universities. They are the 63rd and 64th Lawrence students awarded a Watson Fellowship since the program’s inception in 1969.

Denied a request as a fifth-grader to take up the drums on the parental logic that they were “too loud,” Klein instead turned his musical interests to the tuba. Two years later as a seventh-grader, he secretly purchased a manuscript book and began composing music.

Today, as equal parts performer and composer, Klein wants to expand his non-traditional perception of what music is, a view that emphasizes interaction in any environment between the artists themselves or the artists and their audience. To that end, beginning in July, he will use his fellowship for trips to Amsterdam, Sydney and Hong Kong to explore innovating music by crossing cultural boundaries.

“These three cities are alight with new ideas,” said Klein. “Since the 1960s, Amsterdam has become a center for new music. The importance of music in the cultural life of Syndey is recognized throughout the world in the sail-like shells of its famous opera house, but it is little known that popular musicians are producing new and creative works for an innovative music theatre scene. And in Hong Kong, there is the collision of Western and non-Western, democratic and communist cultures, a dichotomy that has exploded into one of the world’s biggest and most dynamic metropolises.”

Klein plans to stir music’s melting pot by contacting numerous acclaimed tuba players and composers in the three locales as well as by establishing relationships with young and emerging musicians and artists through important international music festivals held in or near each city.

“I may meet a percussionist who specializes in Indonesian drumming and is looking for other musicians to start a new ensemble or a choreographer who needs music for a dance portraying the construction of a Chinese skyscraper or a sculptor who wants a sound installation made up of clinking metal to accompany a new exhibition of mobiles,” Klein said, explaining how he hopes to incorporate the element of “artistic interaction” to create musical innovations.

As a tuba player, Klein has performed with the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, jazz and wind ensembles and the Improvisation Group of Lawrence University. His work as a composer has been recognized with the Pi Kappa Lambda Composition Award and the James Ming Scholarship in Composition.

“Through my composition and my tuba performance, I have tried to realize music’s freedom,” says Klein. “I want to celebrate and share that freedom. As a restless musician, the orchestra or institution can not contain the interactions that I deem so important.

“My fellowship will enable me to discover the full import that contemporary music can have in the specific places where this music is having the most dynamic impact,” Klein added. “Working with emerging musicians with unique cultural perspectives will stretch my own creative boundaries.”

As a child, Scheer enjoyed learning about long and arduous journeys, whether it was American settlers working their way west on the Oregon Trail or the arrival of robins and redwing blackbirds each spring from some far-away place. She never lost that fascination with long-distance travels, especially for birds, and admits she still remains in awe of their migratory trips.

Scheer’s Watson fellowship will take her to the Far East for a year, where she will turn her interest with bird migration into scientific study of one of the world’s longest and most important migratory bird routes, the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Covering 20 countries and stretching from Russia’s Siberia to New Zealand’s south island, the flyway annually provides navigational guideposts for more than 50 species and an estimated five million individual migratory shorebirds.

During her year abroad, Sheer, like her study subjects, will travel the length of the 15,000-mile flyway herself. Along the way, she will visit the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary in the Phillipines, Moreton Bay near Brisbane in Australia, the sanctuaries of Firth of Thames and Firewell Spit along the coasts of New Zealand’s north and south islands, respectively, and the western coast of South Korea along the Yellow Sea. She will end her journey with a three-month stay at the Moroshechnoye Estuary on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. At each stop, Scheer will study not just the shorebirds themselves, but the habitat conservation efforts made in those countries as well.

“In each of these countries, I want to design field work and observational studies to investigate the various shorebird species and their migratory behavior,” said Scheer, who is spending the winter and spring terms in Costa Rica on an off-campus study program through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. “These studies may include a census of shorebird species to gather data on their diversity or the number of species in the community and their relative abundance. I also would like to execute surveys of the shoreline regions in order to examine the status of the existing habitat for these birds.”

One of the central aspects of Scheer’s project will be gaining an understanding through interviews with local scientists as well as local citizens as to the types of interactions the public and the birds have and the “sense of place” the shorebirds hold in each culture.

“I want to find out what conservation actions are in place to protect the birds and their habitat,” said Scheer, who undertook an independent summer research study of bat activity in Door County last summer. “I want to try to determine how the public responds to these conservation attempts and what role the birds play in the local culture. Do they have any religious or historical significance? Do the long-distance flights of these birds evoke a sense of awe and wonder in these people as they do me? ”
While age, experience and education have answered many of the questions Scheer playfully entertained as a child about birds, she says she is still “utterly enthralled” by birds’ self-propelled passages around the globe.

“Migratory birds are so incredibly in tune with their environment in ways that humans can not comprehend,” said Scheer. “They are truly global citizens, ignoring the artificial borders governments have delineated. I have always wondered what it must be like for a migratory bird and my fellowship project will provide me the closest glimpse possible.

“I am ready for the challenges, both mental and physical, this project will afford me,” Scheer added. “I’m eager to spread my own wings and soar.”

The Watson Fellowship Program was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM Corporation, and his wife, Jeannette, to honor their parents’ long-standing interest in education and world affairs. Watson Fellows are selected on the basis of the nominee’s character, academic record, leadership potential, willingness to delve into another culture and the personal significance of the project proposal.

Lawrence University Psychologist Examines Role of Ambivalent Attitudes in Gender Inequality

The role benevolent and hostile attitudes play in perpetuating gender stereotypes will be the focus of a Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium Thursday, March 10.

Peter Glick, professor of psychology at Lawrence, presents “Bad but Bold vs. Wonderful but Weak! Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Both Sexes Reinforce Gender Inequality” at 4:15 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 202. The event is free and open to the public.

In the address, Glick will share the findings of a 16-nation study he helped conduct that examined traditional attitudes towards men and women and how those attitudes related to gender inequality. He will discuss how traditional hostile qualities often associated with men, such as arrogance and hyper-competitiveness, can still reinforce the idea that men are likely to remain “in charge.” Conversely, he also will look at how traditionally benevolent attitudes toward women that tend to characterize them in a positive manner, such as pure and moral, reinforce the notion that women are the “weaker sex” in need of men’s protection.

As a social psychologist, Glick has conducted extensive research on both the subtle and the overt ways in which prejudices and stereotypes foster social inequality. He and his research associate, Susan Fiske of Princeton University, developed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, which has been administered to more than 30,000 people in 30 countries.

In 2004, Glick was accorded Fellow status by both the American Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association, the world’s largest scientific and professional organization, for his “outstanding contributions in the field of psychology.”

A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1985, Glick earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Oberlin College and his Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Human Rights Activist Discusses Rewards of Helping the Poor in Lawrence University Convocation

An internationally recognized advocate for the equitable medical treatment of people in impoverished communities around the world discusses the rewards of working alongside the poor and fighting the economic and political structures that cause and perpetuate poverty and ill health in a Lawrence University convocation.

Dr. Joia Mukherjee presents “On the Joy of Giving Back” Tuesday, March 8 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. In addition to her address, Mukherjee 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.

Board-certified in pediatrics, infectious diseases and internal medicine, Mukherjee is an attending physician for the adult and pediatric infectious disease units at Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and, since 1999, has served as the medical director of Partners In Health, a non-profit organization founded in 1987 that coordinates health policy initiatives on a global scale.

As medical director of PIH, Mukherjee directs a wide range of community-based clinical activities in Haiti, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Russia as well as in inner city Boston, focusing on the treatment of both multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

In Haiti, she helped establish the ground-breaking HIV Equity Initiative, which has become a model for the Millennium Development Goals, the World Health Organization’s 3 by 5 Initiative and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. As the first program of its kind in a third-world country, Mukherjee uses highly active antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV patients. Her work has been credited with forging new attitudes among the global medical establishment as to the possibilities — medically as well as socially — in remote and impoverished settings.

Mukherjee’s advocacy for health care access for the poor has taken her around the country and around the world. In 1989, she worked with the Hmong community in Minneapolis during a measles outbreak. Two years later she traveled to Kenya to provide outreach medical services for tuberculosis and leprosy patients. In the mid-1990s, Mukherjee spent time in Uganda where she helped design and implement an HIV prevention program for adolescents.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and molecular biology, Mukherjee earned her medical degree at the University of Minnesota in 1992 and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University in 2001. She has been a member of the faculty of the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School since 2000.

Address on U.S.-European Security Issues Opens Lawrence University International Studies Lecture Series

On the heels of President Bush’s recent (Feb. 20) trip to Brussels to meet with European leaders, Esther Brimmer, a specialist in transatlantic political and security affairs, will discuss the strategic issues and challenges facing the United States and its European allies in the opening address of Lawrence University’s four-part international studies lecture series “U.S. and European Security: Challenges and Choices.”

Brimmer, deputy director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, presents “New Dimensions in U.S./European Security Relations” Monday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

With the end of the Cold War, today’s major transatlantic security issues have shifted from guarding European territory to addressing global issues such as democracy, human rights, economic globalization, terrorism, weapons proliferation and environmental degradation. Brimmer will share her perspective on how well the transatlantic community is prepared to address these “new” security questions. She also will speak on whether the Bush administration and the European Union have a shared strategic outlook and if it is in the United States’ best interest for the European Union to have a larger role in international security.

During her distinguished international career, Brimmer has worked in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, focusing on the European Union, Western Europe, the United Nations and multilateral security issues and served on the U. S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. She spent four years as a senior associate at the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and worked on the U.N., peace-keeping, human rights and political-military issues as a special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 1993-1995. Brimmer earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from the University of Oxford.

Other scheduled speakers in this year’s lecture series include:

• April 13 — David Swartz, former U.S. ambassador to Belarus and chief of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Moldova, “Unfinished Business in Eastern Europe: The Role of the OSCE.”

• April 21 — David King, associate director of the Institute of Politics and lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, “The Activism and Optimism of American Youth: Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy.”

• May 9 — John Huber, professor of political science and director of graduate studies at Columbia University, “U.S. and French Perspectives on Foreign Policy Issues.”

The “U.S. and European Security: Challenges and Choices” 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.

Organic Farming Legislation Lecture Closes Lawrence University Series on Sustainable Agriculture

The influence of the U.S. consumer market on federal legislation pertaining to organic agriculture will be examined in the final installment of Lawrence University’s four-part environmental studies lecture series on sustainable agriculture.

Amy Kremen, a former assistant at the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, presents “Federal Legislation on Organic Farming and Food Labeling” Thursday, Feb. 24 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The address will provide a historic look at organic farming legislation at the federal level and the affects of that legislation in light of the October, 2002 transition to federal oversight of state and private organic certification of farms and food processors.

Kremen will share the results of a recent national survey of farmer’s market managers about the participation and eco-labeling strategies by, and consumer appreciation of, organic farmers at their markets. She also will discuss the meaningfulness of the organic label as compared to other marketing terms such as “natural,” which have become widespread in recent years.

A former chef at an organic foods restaurant and one-time manager of a farmer’s market herself, Kremen has worked as an assistant for the USDA’s Economic Research Service, tracking adoption of U.S. organic farming systems by crop and state. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in soil science at the University of Maryland, where her research is focused on nitrogen release from Brassica cover crops.

The sustainable agriculture lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

Lawrence University Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores as Admissions Requirement

Less is more when it comes to the use of standardized tests in college admissions as far as Lawrence University officials are concerned.

For students enrolling for the start of the 2006-07 academic year Lawrence will no longer require students to submit SAT or ACT scores for admission consideration college officials announced Thursday.

With its decision Lawrence becomes the only liberal arts college in Wisconsin and the first member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest — a consortium of 14 academically excellent, independent liberal arts colleges located in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado — to adopt a test-optional approach.

“We’ve basically decided to say ‘enough already,'” said Steve Syverson, dean of admissions and financial aid at Lawrence. “The recent introduction of the additional writing segments for both the SAT and ACT has further raised the level of confusion, angst and expense already associated with the admission process.”

The new version of the SAT, which will be administered for the first March 12, will feature three sections instead of two: a more difficult math section, critical reading replacing the verbal section and a new hand-written essay component. A perfect score on the test jumps from 1600 to 2400. The new ACT, with its optional writing exam, was administered for the first time Feb. 12.

While students will still have the option of submitting standardized tests scores, Syverson said Lawrence will continue to use its time-tested standard of “multiple intelligences” when reviewing a student’s application for admission.

“Lawrence has traditionally enrolled students that rank among the nation’s highest in standardized test scores, but we have found the quality of a student’s high school curriculum and the performance within that curriculum is really the best predictor of academic success here.

“We’re seeking intelligent, engaged, motivated students who have personal strengths in creativity and leadership or outstanding talent in areas like music, art, athletics, theater or specific academic disciplines. Those strengths and talents are not assessed well by standardized tests, but are usually discernible through a careful review of each applicant’s high school record, extracurricular involvement, writing sample and recommendations.”

A 20-year study conducted by Bates College and released last fall adds credence to the argument that standardized test scores are not necessary to be able to predict academic success in college. In its study on the effects of its own test-optional admission policy, in place since 1984, Bates found that there were no significant differences in academic performance or graduation rates between those who had submitted SAT scores and those that elected not to submit test results.

“A test score provides an additional piece of information about a student’s potential, but in our opinion, that added tidbit is not commensurate with the financial and emotional costs to students,” said Syverson, who has been directing admissions operations at Lawrence since 1983.

While it is hard to quantify the emotional toll standardized tests exact on 17- and 18-year-olds, it is much easier to quantify the monetary cost. Test preparation services and SAT/ACT tutors are becoming increasingly big business.

According to a February 2, 2005 Business Week article, the most intensive test-preparation programs can cost as much as $1,000, while personal tutors can charge $100 to $400 an hour. The addition of the new writing component, the magazine reported, has produced a major spike in new business for both the established test-preparation companies such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review as well as new players in the market.

In the Business Week article, Adam Newman, vice president for research and client services at Eduventures, a Boston-based company that tracks the education business, described the new writing components as a “pure marketing and expansion opportunity” for test-prep companies.

The growth of the test-preparation industry has helped fuel widespread criticism of standardized testing on the grounds that the tests put low-income minority and rural students at a disadvantage. Studies have shown that higher standardized test scores correlate strongly with higher family income, raising questions about their legitimacy in identifying academic potential.

“The increased emphasis on the tests further disenfranchises students from less-privileged backgrounds, which then interferes with higher education’s traditional mission to enhance socioeconomic mobility in America,” said Syverson.

In implementing a test-optional admission policy, Lawrence joins a number of other highly selective colleges across the nation that have made similar decisions. Among its peer nationally-ranked liberal arts colleges, Bates, Bowdoin, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Hampshire, Lewis & Clark, and Pitzer have all adopted test-optional admission policies.

“We strongly believe that our comprehensive review process allows us to identify the kind of great kids we want at Lawrence, regardless of whether or not they submit standardized test scores,” said Syverson.

“Students who feel their high school record is strong enough to merit admission without standardized test scores need not submit those scores. Ultimately, their choice of courses and record of achievement over four years of high school provides a much better indication of their ability to survive the academic rigors of Lawrence than do the results of a three-hour test taken on some Saturday morning.”

Lawrence University Hosts Town Hall Forum with Four Black Authors

Four distinguished writers will participate in a town hall style forum at Lawrence University Monday, Feb. 21 as part of the 2005 Black Author’s College Tour. The forum, focusing on issues that shape and impact the African-American community, will be held at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Participating in the forum will be authors Brandon Massey, Jamise Dames, Lois Benjamin and Yasmin Shiraz. Each will give a brief talk addressing a specific issue related to the African-American community and then take part in an open discussion with audience members.

A resident of Atlanta, Ga., Massey will address issues of the black man’s challenge in America. He self-published his first novel, “Thunderland,” in 1999 and a revised edition was republished in 2002 by Kensington Publishing. His second book, “Dark Corner,” a vampire novel set in rural Mississippi, was released in January, 2004, while “Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers,” was published last August. His latest work, the supernatural thriller “Within the Shadows,” is scheduled for release in June.

Dames, a published songwriter and former recording artist, will share her insights on the importance of sustaining self esteem in the black community. She is the author of the national best-seller “Momma’s Baby Daddy’s Maybe” (2003) and “Pushing Up Daisies” (2004). A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in English and an emphasis in creative writing, Dames is currently pursuing graduate studies.

Benjamin, a professor of sociology at Virginia’s Hampton University, will speak on the secrets of the black elite. She is the author of “The Black Elite: Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century,” for which she interviewed 100 prominent African-Americans. She also served as editor of the 1997 book “Black Women in the Academy,” a collection of essays written by 33 black female academics and administrators from around the country who discuss their experiences of working in higher education in America. Benjamin earned a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.

Shiraz, a journalist and empowerment speaker, will examine the impact of hip-hop culture on the African-American community. She is the author of the 2004 book “The Blueprint for My Girls” and is working on a sequel, “The Blueprint For My Girls In Love.”

As an entertainment reporter, Shiraz has written for a variety of publications, including Black Enterprise, Upscale, Impact and the Electronic Urban Report and has interviewed numerous celebrities, including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, singers Jay-Z, Queen Latifah and Brandy, actors Jada Pinkett-Smith and Martin Lawrence and attorney Johnnie Cochran, among others.

The Black Authors Tour program is sponsored by Lawrence’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and is part of the college’s celebration of Black History Month.