PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 26, No. 16, March 15, 2007

brief notes

College of Veterinary Medicine
Open House is March 31
More than 300 students at the College of Veterinary Medicine will host the annual open house, a behind-the-scenes view of the state’s only veterinary college. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. March 31. Free parking is available at 2001 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.

The event provides an opportunity to learn about veterinary careers and admission to veterinary school.
The open house includes more than 50 exhibits and demonstrations for all ages. The focus is on the art and science of veterinary medicine and animal-related areas, including demonstrations of dogs using the rehabilitation program’s underwater treadmill, obedience and police dog demonstrations, the Wildlife Medical Clinic’s birds of prey, and exhibits from area breed rescue clubs.

For a list of exhibits and a map, go to www.cvm.uiuc.edu/.

Guest lecturer
The physics of superheroes discussed
James Kakalios, a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota, will discuss physics and comic-book superheroes during a talk March 15 at the UI.

Kakalios’ talk, “The Uncanny Physics of Superhero Comic Books,” begins at 4 p.m. in the auditorium (Room 141) of the Loomis Laboratory of Physics. The talk is free and open to the public.

Kakalios’ professional life centers on teaching and research in condensed matter physics. His freshman seminar, “Everything I Needed to Know About Physics I Learned From Reading Comic Books,” led to his book, “The Physics of Superheroes.”

His presentation is appropriate for a non-technical audience.

Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival
Single-film tickets on sale April 6
The list of films selected for the ninth annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival, April 25-29, should be posted soon on the festival Web site: www.ebertfest.com.

Additional updates on the festival – including the film schedule, guests, panel discussions and other events – also will be posted on the site over the next few weeks, according to festival organizers.

Tickets for individual films will go on sale April 6 through the theater box office; phone 217-356-9063; fax: 217-356-5729. The price will be $10 each for regular admission and $8 each for students and senior citizens.

Ebert is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-hosts “Ebert & Roeper,” a weekly televised movie-review program. He also is a 1964 Illinois journalism graduate and adjunct professor.

Ebert selects films for the festival that he feels have been overlooked in some way, generally by critics, distributors or audiences. Guests connected with the selected films are invited to attend, and many appear on stage with Ebert for informal discussions after the screenings.

The 1,000 festival passes, covering all 12 screenings, went on sale Nov. 1 and sold out within two weeks. It marked the third year in a row that passes were sold out before the films were announced.

All of the featured films will be screened, as usual, in the 1,500-seat Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign, with other events on the UI campus.

The festival is presented by the College of Communications.

Krannert Art Museum
Secrets Shared = Secrets Revealed
Do you have a secret? Share it in an exhibition called “Secrets Shared = Secrets Revealed” at Krannert Art Museum. Secrets can be anything – inspired by fear, regret, humiliation, anger, confession, kindness, desire or disloyalty – as long as they are true.

The museum is accepting anonymous postcards with secrets in image and text form on one side of the postcard. They will be on display from April 18 to May 13 in a student-initiated and coordinated exhibition. The deadline to submit secrets is April 4.

Use an index card, print out a postcard at home or pick one up one at Allen Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Illini Union (near Serendipity on the south side of the building) or Palette Café in the lobby of the Krannert Art Museum. Postcards may be mailed to or dropped off at the museum.

This exhibit is inspired by Frank Warren’s Web site (www.postsecret.com) and his books. There is no limit to the number of secrets that can be submitted. As Frank Warren says, “Be Creative. Be brief. Be legible.”

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Colby to speak on foundation giving
The Foundations Relations Office of Campus Development will present a seminar on “Understanding Private Foundation Giving: A View From The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation” from 10-11:30 a.m. March 28 in Room 317A of the Illini Union. David Colby, interim vice president of research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will give an overview of grantmaking at the foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropic organization devoted to improving the health and health care of all Americans, then describe the foundation’s priorities and decision-making process. To reserve a space in the seminar, contact Cinda Dalton at 335-5322 or cdalton@uiuc.edu by March 23.

Statements of Economic Interest
Forms due to Ethics Office by April 23
The Office of the Secretary of State has sent notification letters and forms to UI employees required to file a Statement of Economic Interests under the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. All completed Statements of Economic Interests must be submitted to the university Ethics Office by April 23 for review. The ethics officer will review and forward all completed statements received by April 23 to the Office of the Secretary of State by the May 1 deadline.

Send completed forms through U.S. mail to University Ethics Office, Human Resources Building, Room 20, One University Plaza, Springfield, IL 62703-5407. Do not send through campus mail.

Employees with questions about the criteria for filing may call the Ethics Help Line at 866-758-2146 or consult the University Office of Human Resources Web site at www.uiuc.edu/goto/economicinterests or the University Ethics Office Web page at http://ethics.uillinois.edu/statements/.

Questions about the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act should be directed to the Office of the Secretary of State at 217-782-7017.

Biomedical Research Seminar Series
Cross-species research discussed
Chand Khanna, a senior scientist who heads the tumor metastases section of the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Oncology Branch, will discuss a comparative approach to cancer biology and therapy at noon March 19 in the Small Animal Clinic Auditorium.

The Comparative Oncology Program of the National Cancer Institute was recently created to help translate research discoveries arising from naturally occurring cancer models into novel therapeutic options for the management of human cancers.

Khanna’s laboratory uses a comparative approach across mouse, dog and human models to identify and evaluate genes associated with metastasis in the pediatric solid tumor, osteosarcoma. Pulmonary metastases occur frequently, even in treated patients. Their work suggests that ezrin, a cytoskeleton linker protein, plays a role in metastasis of osteosarcoma in all three species.

The talk is part of the Translational Biomedical Research Seminar Series, hosted by the College of Veterinary Medicine. Metered parking is available in Lot F-27 at 2001 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.

For the schedule of talks in the series, which highlights fundamental research discoveries with potential to directly benefit human and animal health and society, visit: www.cvm.uiuc.edu/trbioseries.html.

I-Space
Two new exhibitions on display
Two new shows will be on view through April 7 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI.

“Gerda Meyer Bernstein: Bearing Witness” features two installations by the Chicago-based artist who frequently draws inspiration from her personal experience. Meyer Bernstein was among the Jewish children afforded safe passage out of Nazi Germany to England and ultimately to the United States, by means of kindertransport, the rescue effort that moved thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940.

The exhibition includes “Phoenix,” a 1994 installation that incorporates shards of black and white glass scattered on a floor. A searchlight creates reflections on the walls as it pans the glass. Another mixed media installation, “River” – a container of 10,000 vials of blood-colored liquid – sheds light on the injustices associated with the spread of HIV/AIDS.

A catalog accompanies the exhibition and features essays and documentation of Meyer Bernstein’s work on view simultaneously at I space, the Rockford Art Museum and the Chicago Cultural Center.

“Nicholas Sistler: In a Lonely Place” showcases the work of another Chicago-based artist. Sistler’s series of small, exquisitely detailed paintings – inspired by 1930s-50s film noir – evokes a sinister mood. Into his images of brightly colored domestic scenes, the artist inserts photographic-style images, rendered in monochromatic tones reminiscent of film stills.

The gallery, located at 230 W. Superior St., Chicago, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Office of Training for Business Professionals
Professionals Day Breakfast is April 25
The Office of Training for Business Professionals is organizing a breakfast to recognize the many contributions made by administrative professionals at the UI. The Biennial Administrative Professionals Day Breakfast is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and will be from 7:30-10:15 a.m. April 25 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign. This year’s event will coincide with the 2007 celebration of National Administrative Professionals Day (formerly National Secretaries Day). The program will feature Jana Stanfield, a nationally known motivational speaker, songwriter and recording artist, whose topic will be “If I Were Brave.” The breakfast has been designated as a university-approved event, which allows assistants and others to attend the event without taking annual leave. The cost is $39 per person. This year, tables of eight are available for $312. For more information or to register, go to www.T4B.uiuc.edu or call 333-8342. 

Rainbow Families
Parenting Conference is May 19
The 2007 Rainbow Families Parenting Conference will be 5:30-8 p.m. May 19 at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Normal, Ill.

“Last year’s event, the first we’d ever held, was a great source of information and encouragement for gay and lesbian parents and their families, and we expect this year’s conference to be even better,” said Ramona Faith Oswald, a UI professor of family studies and coordinator of the event.

Although the organizers are still working on programming, ideas being considered include a session for couples considering adding a baby to their family plus information on school issues, legal issues, second-parent adoptions, and a panel of gay and lesbian grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.

The conference is targeted toward lesbian and gay parents and their children, but all interested persons are invited. Older children will find programming suitable for their age groups, and younger kids will be able to explore the museum’s exhibits with members of the Illinois State University Pride group.

To register, contact Oswald at roswald@uiuc.edu or 333-2547. The conference is free and donations will be accepted.

Seven Wonders of Illinois
UI attractions nominated for honor
Two UI attractions have been nominated to be one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois. Allerton Park and Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion are among several sights from Central Illinois featured on the www.enjoyillinois.com Web site.

Consumers can log onto the site and click on the Seven Wonders logo to vote on nominated attractions from all over the state. The field will be narrowed down weekly until two contenders remain in each region. The winning Seven Wonders of Illinois will be announced April 30 along with themed travel packages, downloadable videos for each wonder and more.

Check the Enjoy Illinois Web page each week during March to vote on nominated attractions. Participants may vote for one wonder per region, once a day.

In mid-March, visitors to the Web site also can order the new Illinois Travel Guide.

Thulin Lecture
“The Church and Politics” discussed
A controversial Catholic theologian and priest will deliver the 2007 Thulin Lecture at the UI.

Charles E. Curran, the Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, will speak at 8 p.m. March 29 in the Knight Auditorium of the Spurlock Museum.

The title of Curran’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is “The Church and Politics.” He said he plans to discuss various roles of the church – as teacher and motivator, provider of direct services to the poor, moral model and advocate for the poor.

He also will be a guest on “Focus 580” on WILL-AM (580) on March 29.

Over a nearly 50-year career, Curran has disagreed with official church teachings on a variety of issues, including abortion, contraception, divorce, homosexuality and moral norms.

In 1986, after years of clashes with church authorities, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, decided that Curran was unsuitable to be a professor of Catholic theology. As a result of Curran’s condemnation by the Vatican, he was fired from his teaching post at Catholic University of America. No Catholic university since that time has hired him.

Curran, a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., is the author, co-author or editor of more than 40 books, the most recent of which, “Loyal Dissent: Memoir of a Catholic Theologian,” was published last year.

The UI Program for the Study of Religion sponsors the Marjorie Hall Thulin Lecture. For more information, contact Robert McKim, director and a professor of religious studies and of philosophy, at 244-5832 or rmckim@uiuc.edu.

March 29-31
‘Gender Matters’ conference
The UI will host the 2007 Mellon State-of-the-Art conference, “Gender Matters: Re-Reading Violence, Death and Gender in Early Modern Literature and Culture,” March 29-31 at various sites on campus.

The conference will feature a plenary address, “The Figure of Judith in the Early Modern Imagination – Liberator, Murderer, Seductress.” The address will be delivered by Mellon Distinguished Visiting Professor Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, professor of German literature at Oxford University. Other presentations will be made by scholars from the UI and from across the United States, Canada and Germany. Conference presentations will be held at the Illini Union and the English Building.

In addition to the lectures, the conference will feature two concerts: “Gravitación,” from 7-8:30 p.m. March 29 at St. John’s Catholic Chapel, and “Arte Bella,” from 1-2:15 p.m March 31 at Smith Memorial Hall.

Gravitación is a group from Millikin University that will perform a concert of 16th- and 17th- century funeral music. Arte Bella is a trio that performs music of the Baroque.

The conference and concerts are free and open to the public.

For more information about the conference, or to register for it, e-mail professor Mara Wade, mwade@uiuc.edu. For a listing of participants and topics, visit www.germanic.uiuc.edu/events/genderconference.html.

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