PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 24, No. 18, April 7, 2005

brief notes

A harpist’s view
Thirty-five years of studio life
Harpist Skaila Kanga’s 35 years’ experience gives her a unique perspective on the issues that face students embarking on a career in the performing arts. Her career includes being a recording session musician, a principal harpist with the Nash Ensemble and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and head of the largest department of harp faculty in the world at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Kanga will perform selections from her vast repertoire as well as show examples of her studio work at 7:30 p.m. April 7 in the Music Building auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Opportunities for the UI
Community informatics explored April 8
On April 8, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science will explore community informatics, a new field of inquiry quickly gaining recognition around the world. The series, “Community Informatics: Local, National and International Opportunities for the University of Illinois,” begins at 10 a.m. in Room 126 of the LIS building. The event is free and open to anyone interested in learning more about community informatics, which helps communities apply information and communication technologies to address critical issues in areas such as health, cultural preservation, education, active citizenship, economic development and environmental protection. The goal of community informatics is to integrate research, action and policy to achieve social change.

Speakers include:

• Randal D. Pinkett, 10 to 11 a.m., “Community Technology and Community Building: Early Results From the Creating Community Connections Project.”
  
• Doug Schuler, noon to 1 p.m., “Community Networks and the Evolution of Civic Intelligence.”
  
• Panel discussion, 3 to 5 p.m., “Community Informatics Initiative: From Champaign to Chicago and Beyond.” The panel includes several members of the Community Informatics Initiative, who see the UI as a campus, regional, national and international hub for community informatics activities that include study, action and policy. Ann Bishop, co-founder of CII and UI professor of library and information science, will lead the discussion. Other panelists include CII advisers Michael Gurstein, an honorary professor at Central Queensland University in Australia; Joan Durrance, professor at the University of Michigan; and Doug Schuler, who teaches computer and science programs at Evergreen State College.

In addition, there will be a reception and open poster session from 5 to 6 p.m. Everyone is invited to bring posters and handouts to represent their community informatics activities.

For more information about the scheduled events and speakers, visit http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilab/cii. Bishop also can be e-mailed with specific questions at abishop@uiuc.edu.

Ada Doisy Lectures
Biochemistry lectures are April 21, 22
The 2005 Ada Doisy Lectures in Biochemistry will be at 4 p.m. April 21 and at noon on April 22 in the Medical Sciences auditorium.

On April 21, Peter Agre will give a lecture on “The Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine.” Agre earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1974. Starting in July, he will assume the position of vice chancellor for science and technology at Duke University Medical Center. Agre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003, (shared with Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University) for his discovery of aquaporins, proteins that function as water channels through the membranes of animal and plant cells.

On April 22, Douglas Rees will lecture on the “Structural Studies of Channels and Transporters.” Rees earned his doctorate in 1980 from Harvard University. He is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, as well as adjunct professor of physiology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Agre and Rees are widely recognized for their contributions to the understanding of membrane transport functions.

The Ada Doisy Lectures are the most distinguished lectureship in the department of biochemistry. The lectures were established by the late Edward A. Doisy in honor of his mother, Ada Doisy. Edward A. Doisy received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1943.

Environmental Council
Environmental Horizons is April 22
The Environmental Council will host Environmental Horizons from noon to 5 p.m. April 22 at the Illini Union.

At noon, Curt Meine, conservation biologist and Aldo Leopold’s biographer, will give the keynote address in Illini Room A. “Home, Land, Security: Conservation and the Common Good” will focus on the use of the word security to dominate the conversations, mindset and political discourse of Americans since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Meine argues that it is not possible to think about homeland security without thinking about the land itself. After his speech, there will be an open discussion, followed by a book sale/signing and reception.

From 1 to 3:30 p.m. a student poster session and art exhibition will be in Illini Rooms B and C.

Environmental Horizons will close with a symposium on integrating human dimensions and natural sciences for environmental research from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Illini Room A. Faculty members from the sciences, engineering and the social sciences will conclude with a panel discussion.

More information and a full agenda are available at www.environ.uiuc.edu.

College of Veterinary Medicine
Conference focuses on infectious diseases
Asian bird flu has killed at least 47 people in Southeast Asia, and although rabies in domestic animals is extremely rare, two cases have been reported in Illinois in the past four months.

These and other disease threats will be addressed when more than 100 international experts meet April 21 and 22 at the eighth annual Conference on New and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases at the Veterinary Medicine Basic Sciences Building.

Lynn Enquist, professor and chair of the department of molecular biology at Princeton University, will lead off the event with “Visualizing Directional Movement of an Alphaherpesvirus in Neurons.”

Sponsored by the Center for Zoonoses Research and the Environmental Council, sessions on April 22 will feature Marcia Castro, professor of geography at the University of South Carolina; David Williams, professor of biology at Illinois State University; Ana Calvo, professor of biology at Northern Illinois University, and Carmel Ruffolo, professor of molecular microbiology and bioinformatics at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Additional sessions on April 22, co-sponsored by the Center for Zoonoses Research and the Conservation Medicine Center of Chicago, will highlight global perspectives on avian influenza and rabies, and will feature Alessandro Mannelli on “Epidemiology and Control of Avian Influenza in the Main Poultry Production Area of Italy”; Peter Clyne on “Conservation Aspects of the Avian Influenza Outbreak in Asia”; Thomas Müller on “Fighting Rabies – a European Track Record”; and Stan Gehrt on “The Movement of Raccoon Rabies in Wild Populations and the Effect of Control Measures.”

More information can be found at www.cvm.uiuc.edu/idc.

College of Law
Civil rights lecture is April 19
“The European Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education” is the title of the College of Law’s spring David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. Bob Hepple, emeritus professor of law at the University of Cambridge and honorary professor of law at the University of Cape Town will speak at 4 p.m. April 19 in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium of the Law Building.

The lecture will highlight many of the direct effects the Supreme Court’s decisions and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had on the development of anti-discrimination law in Europe. In addition, Hepple will discuss the ways in which European law has gone beyond that of the U.S. in areas such as the proof of direct discrimination, and positive legal duties on public authorities to promote equality. Finally, he will reflect on some of the reasons for the different trajectories of U.S. and European law on the controversial subject of racial equality.

Hepple was chairman of industrial tribunals in England and Wales for 18 years. He also served as a Commissioner for Racial Equality. Hepple is a practicing barrister at Blackstone Chambers, London, specializing in the areas of international, EU and UK employment and discrimination law.

UI Concert Choir
WILL-FM Second Sunday Concert
The UI Concert Choir, under the direction of Chester Alwes, will perform at 2 p.m. April 10 for the WILL-FM Second Sunday Concert at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion in Champaign. The concert is free and open to the public, and will be broadcast live on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign-Urbana) with host Roger Cooper.

The group will sing 17th-century sacred music including “Psalm 127: Nisi Dominus,” by Claudio Monteverdi; “Hear My Prayer, O Lord,” by Henry Purcell; and “Selig sind die Toten,” by Heinrich Schütz. Other selections will include love songs by Brahms, Z. Randall Stroope, Morten Lauridsen, and “love is more thicker than forget,” by Chester Alwes.

The choir also will perform contemporary French music, including “Cantique de Jean Racine,” by Gabriel Fauré; “O Sacrum Convivium,” by Olivier Messiaen, as well as excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide.”
The choir is a mixed chorus of advanced undergraduate students performing a diverse regimen of accompanied and a capella literature. About two-thirds of its members are music majors in vocal performance or music education.

Krannert Art Museum
Petals and Paintings benefit is April 15-17
The University of Illinois Krannert Art Museum Council is hosting the 13th annual “Petals and Paintings” benefit April 15-17. The event supports the museum’s upcoming exhibitions and related educational programming.

Champaign florist Rick Orr is guest curator of the exhibition, which features floral arrangements created by regional floral designers, in response to works of art selected by Orr from the museum’s permanent collection.

The exhibition kicks off with a gala reception at the museum from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 15. Hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served while guests have an opportunity to view the floral displays. There also will be a raffle for an original painting by David M. Smith. The evening will include a silent auction with a variety of gift items, including a hot air balloon ride, a Heartland Spa package, a Sun Singer wine tasting party and many other packages. Tickets for the opening reception are available for purchase.

The exhibition may be viewed at Krannert Art Museum from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 16 and from noon to 5 p.m. on April 17.

More information about the event and tickets are available by calling Krannert Art Museum at 244-0516.

Support the Student Scholarship Fund
Women’s Club hosts spring luncheon
The UI Women’s Club will hold a spring luncheon on April 20 at Kennedy’s Restaurant in Urbana. A silent auction for the Student Scholarship Fund will be held at 11 a.m. followed by the luncheon at 11:30. Kathryn Anthony, professor of landscape architecture, will present the program. Reservations are required.

More details are at http://wc-uiuc.prairienet.org/.

UI president featured
White to lecture April 11
UI President B. Joseph White will deliver the 2005 Leighton Lecture at 4:30 p.m. April 11 in 141 Wohlers Hall.

The title of his talk is “Leadership, Integrity and Credibility: Lost and Found.” White became president and the James Towey Professor of Business and Leadership at the Illinois College of Business in February.
He had been the Wilbur J. Pierpont Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan and was the dean of the Michigan Business School for 10 years beginning in 1991.

In addition to his academic experience, White served seven years as a vice president at Cummins Engine Co.

The Leighton Lecture is free and open to the public.

Boneyard Arts Festival
Campus contributes to annual arts fest
Campus units and members of the UI campus community once again are lending their collective talent and support to the third annual Boneyard Arts Festival.

This year’s festival is planned over three days, April 15-17, with events at campus and other Champaign-Urbana venues taking place the first two days, and events in outlying Champaign County locations scheduled for the final day of the festival.

As in past years, the festival – which is organized by 40 West/88 North, the Champaign County Arts, Culture & Entertainment Council – will feature visual and performing arts at traditional and non-traditional venues and art spaces.

UI students and faculty and staff members are among the participating artists, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Program are among the campus units sponsoring festival activities.

A core event for this year’s festival will be the Boneyard Late Night Cabaret. Featuring jazz, progressive rock, “electronic atmospheres,” live video projections and art installations, the event is sponsored in part by the UI and Krannert Center. The cabaret will be from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. April 15 and 16 at Busey Center, 208 W. Main St., Urbana.

Among the more unusual venues this year will be the west façade of the Alpha Rho Chi fraternity house. The windows of the house will be become a makeshift canvas for “Everyman: Faces on the World,” an exhibition of 150 photographic portraits by James Warfield, UI professor emeritus of architecture.

More detailed information about festival venues will be available in local newspapers prior to the event and on the arts council’s Web site: www.40north.org/events/festival.html.

Luxembourg ambassador featured
EU Day is April 12
The state of the European Union will be considered during EU Day activities April 12 at the UI.
The main attraction will be the annual “State of the European Union Address” at 11 a.m. at the Levis Faculty Center. This year’s guest speaker will be Arlette Conzemius, ambassador of Luxembourg to the United States. Luxembourg currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency.

The ambassador’s talk is free and open to the public.

Conzemius, who has served as ambassador since September 1998, previously held posts as ambassador and permanent representative of Luxembourg to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. She also has served as deputy chief of mission at the Luxembourg Embassy in Washington D.C., and as permanent representative of Luxembourg to the European Communities in Brussels, Belgium.

Also on the EU Day program this year is a workshop on the challenges posed by the EU constitution and further expansion, from 2:30-4 p.m. in 407 Levis Center. Although geared primarily toward high school students and teachers, the workshop also is free and open to the public.

EU Day is organized each spring by the UI’s European Union Center, one of 10 centers established in 1998 by the European Commission and leading U.S. research universities to promote research, curriculum development and public education on the EU and its relations with the United States. The center also is designated as a National Resource Center in European Union Studies by the U.S. Department of Education.

Kieran Donaghy, a professor of urban and regional planning who serves as the center’s director, said he expects that Conzemius’ address will focus on several issues currently on the EU’s front burners. Among them are negotiations with Turkey and two other states seeking admission to the EU, which now includes 25 member states.

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