Posted on May 19, 2000

Shaul
Bakhash, professor of history at George Mason University and an authority
on modern Iran, will deliver a talk titled “Iran: John Locke and
Liberalism in an Islamic Republic” on Wednesday, May 24, at 8 p.m. in
Memorial Chapel.

The lecture, part of the Frederic E. Miller Lecture
Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat, is free and open to the public.

Bakhash specializes in Iran, modern Middle East and
modern Islamic political thought.

He is author of Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and
Reform Under the Oajars, 1858-1896, The Politics of Oil and Revolution in
Iran and Reign of the Ayotollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution.

He frequently writes for The New York Review of
Books. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington
Post, and the New Republic.

He worked for many years as a journalist in Iran,
writing for Tehran-based Kayhan Newspapers as well as the London Times,
Financial Times and The Economist.

He taught at Princeton University, and has been a
Guggenheim Fellow.

He has been awarded fellowships at the Institute of
Advanced Study at Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, and the National Humanities Center.

His current research deals with Islam and political
sensibility.

Posted on May 12, 2000

With faculty voting on a proposal to adopt a
two-semester academic calendar, Terese McCarty, chair of the faculty
executive committee, is reminding members that e-mail ballots and those
not in the provided envelopes will be declared invalid.

Ballots are to be counted at noon on Friday, May 19.

Posted on May 12, 2000

April 24, 2000

1. The minutes of April 17 were approved.

2. The committee discussed the semester calendar
proposal submitted by the subcommittee on the Calendar. One member brought
up some concern of the 1½ course credit given for 6-8 thesis advisees.
However, the footnote in section 6b indicates that departments wishing to
reformulate arrangements already in place can apply for courses credit
pursuant to the conditions spelled out in the “Guidelines for Senior
Theses/Projects.”

3. A motion to bring the semester system proposal to the
faculty was unanimously approved.

May 1, 2000

1. The Guidelines for Participation in Intercollegiate
Athletics were discussed with Dick Sakala and Cheryl Rockwood and
finalized. A vote for their approval will take place at a future meeting.

2. Five courses were approved:

– MLT 34 – Cinema, Crimes & Punishment

– MLT 30 – Magnificence, Mayhem & Mafia

– RUS 139 – In the Twentieth Century Russian Culture

– EE/CS/ECO 011 – Infotech and Society

– BIO 50 – Conservation Biology

3. The timing of the implementation of the proposed
semester system was discussed.

Posted on May 12, 2000

Imagine a meeting of Pablo Picasso and Albert
Einstein in a bar in Paris in 1904 — when both men were in their
twenties — and the resulting examination of science and art and their
impact on a rapidly changing society.

Written by Steve Martin, one of the great comedic actors
of our generation, Picasso at the Lapin Agile is Martin's
poker-faced — and very funny — riff on the birth of the modern
century.

Director is Jon Galt.

Shows are Thursday, May 18 through Saturday, May 20 at 8
p.m.; Sunday, May 21, at 2 p.m.; Thursday, May 25, through Saturday, May
27, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, May 28, at 2 p.m.

Admission is $7 (students/seniors $5). For tickets and
information, call ext. 6545.

Posted on May 12, 2000

Chris Duncan, associate
professor of visual arts, is displaying a 10,000-pound piece of abstract
sculpture this May at Pier Walk 2000 in Chicago. His work, “Suzhou,”
is a concrete and steel piece constructed during a month-long fellowship
residency at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota last summer. Part of
his inspiration for the piece came from a 1997 term abroad experience in
China, where he studied many of the large “standing stones”
typical of classical Chinese gardens. Duncan also is to exhibit small
bronzes in “On the City: Urban Realities and Fantasies,” curated
by art critic Irving Sandler for the New York Studio School Gallery in New
York City. Earlier this year, Duncan's maquettes — small studies for
large work — were shown at the Mayor's Design Forum Maquette
Exhibition in Saint Paul, Minn., and at the Pierwalk 2000 Maquette
Exhibition at the State of Illinois Building, Chicago. In November, Duncan
was visiting artist at West Virginia University, where he delivered a talk
on his work. He showed sculpture and drawings in “Linear
Variation” at Troy's RCCA Gallery, and in the “Art of the
Millennium/Downtown Windows” installation project in Albany.

George Gmelch, professor of
anthropology, is the author of “Rules and Respect: The Culture of
Professional Baseball” in the winter issue of the Anthropology of
Work Review. The article looks at some of the values and cultural
characteristics of professional baseball, and at the development of
ballplayers' social identity as professionals.