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Spring 2010 Lectures

Spring semester Signature Course students are required to attend one of the campus-sponsored talks below in order to fulfill the Signature Course’s Lecture Series requirement. Undergraduate Studies is sponsoring You Were Right and Your Parents Were Wrong, and campus faculty have proposed the other talks. Times and locations will be added as they become available.

You Were Right and Your Parents Were Wrong: Why High School Social Life Really Does Matter in the Future
Dr. Robert Crosnoe, College of Liberal Arts
February 1, 7 p.m. Avaya Auditorium, ACE 2.302
Download Dr. Crosnoe’s power point document
Watch Dr. Crosnoe’s presentation
From a vantage point decades removed from their own high school years, parents and teachers often downplay or dismiss teenagers’ concerns about navigating social ups and downs. High school is not supposed to be about positive and negative experiences with friends, dating worries, or the stresses of fitting in. Isn’t it academics—not socializing—that really matters in the long run?

On the contrary: social worries and disruptions in high school not only have short-term effects on teenagers’ academic progress, but can eventually filter out beyond high school into long-term consequences for work, family, and health. Macro-level changes in the demography of the U.S., the curricular organization of schools, information technology, and the structure of the global economy are converging to create this historically unique situation. Dr. Robert Crosnoe, an Associate Professor of Sociology, will draw on data from high schools across the country as well as right here in Austin to explain just how social experiences in high school can matter years after high school is over and how educational policies need to adapt to recognize this new reality.

A Conversation with Aaron Williams, Director of the U.S. Peace Corps
Monday, March 1, 5 p.m., Etter-Harbin Alumni Center’s Connally Ballroom
As the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps approaches, Ambassador Gregory W. Engle (Ret.), Associate Director of the Strauss Center and a former Peace Corps Volunteer, will engage Mr. Williams in a conversation about the role of the Peace Corps in the world today and his vision for the years to come.

Aaron Williams became the 18th Director of the Peace Corps on August 24, 2009. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1967-70, and upon completing his service became the coordinator of minority recruitment and project evaluation officer for the Peace Corps in his hometown of Chicago. Mr. Williams’ career has focused on the development and implementation of worldwide assistance programs. He was a vice president for International Business Development with RTI International and a senior manager at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he attained the rank of Career Minister in the U.S. Senior Foreign Service. He also served as executive vice president of the International Youth Foundation. As USAID Mission Director in South Africa, Mr. Williams led a billion dollar foreign assistance program during President Nelson Mandela’s administration. In addition, he has extensive experience in the design and management of assistance programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

This event is free, but seating limited. You must get a ticket at the Texas Union Event Center (Room 4.300), the LBJ School of Public Affairs Dean’s Office (Room 3.384), or the International Office (600 W 24th St.). For more information, please visit the Strauss Center website.

American Shakespeare Center’s “Rough, Rude, and Boisterous Tour”
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Saturday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the Texas Union Theater
The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Francis Beaumont, Sunday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Texas Union Theater
Staunton, Virginia’s American Shakespeare Center comes to UT to perform two Renaissance plays. Tickets are $5 for students or UT ID holders and $10 for general admission. For ticketing information please visit Shakespeare at Winedale.
Download the tour poster

10th Annual Africa Conference: Women, Gender and Sexualities in Africa
March 26-28
Academic discourses on women, gender and sexualities in Africa have increased by leaps and bounds since the 1980s, when they first began to establish root as veritable professional, systematic, and academic fields. While some researchers and scholars see women, gender, and sexuality as three distinct subjects of inquiry, others emphasize interconnectivity and seek to put them into a single, coherent, all-embracing dialogue.

Neither of these methods of inquiry is faulty, and the centrality of issues around women, gender, and sexualities to the African experience will continue to configure and reconfigure discourses. Read more

23rd Annual Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights
Sidelined: Racial Politics at Predominately White Institutions
April 14-17
The symposium will examine modern day issues that affect students of color at predominately white campuses. Programs will examine the proposed changes to the Top 10% Policy, the racial climate on campus, and the intersection of race, gender, and sports. Read more

Environmental Science Institute: Hot Science—Cool Talks
Hot Science—Cool Talks provides a means for leading researchers from the University of Texas and other prominent universities to communicate their research to the public in general and the K-12 educational community in particular. Read more

  • Antimatter, Particle Physics, and Armageddon
    Dr. Sacha Kopp
    February 19, 2010
  • Smart Grids and Austin’s Energy Future
    Panel discussion on the Pecan Street Project
    March 26, 2010
  • Remarkable Creatures
    Dr. Sean Carroll
    April 30, 2010: pre-lecture activities start at 5:45 p.m., lectures begin at 7 p.m.

The 2010 Lozano Long Conference—The Challenges of Violence: Globalization, Criminality and Terror in Contemporary Latin America
March 4-5
Santa Rita Room (3.502), Texas Union
The conference will host panels on topics such as gender violence; intimate violence; organized violence; the trafficking of humans, weapons, and drugs; political, state, and para-state violence; structural violence, including poverty, forced migration, racism, and discrimination; and the responses to violence, including representations of violence in the media, literature, films, and public discourse. Read more

Plan II Perspectives on the Future
Wednesdays, January 27-March 10, 7-9:15 p.m. Calhoun 200
We think about the future all the time—from the moment we wake up and consider the day before us to the moment we to go sleep and wonder what tomorrow will bring. The Perspectives course, led by the director of Plan II, brings together a panel of faculty members from various disciplines to discuss their views on a given topic.

The American Connection: American Music presented by students from the UT Butler School of Music
April 15, 7:30 p.m. Jessen Auditorium, Homer Rainey Hall
Not sure you like classical music? Scared by opera singers with big costumes? Didn’t even know there was such a thing as ‘American Music’? Join students from the Butler School of Music as they present a potpourri concert especially for Research Week 2010. Featuring beloved works by Samuel Barber, William Bolcom, Leonard Bernstein, and more, the performers will provide oral descriptions of the music’s history, significance, and performance-research challenges, followed by performances of the works.

The Austin Forum on Science, Technology, & Society
The Austin Forum is a monthly speaker series that hosts distinguished industry professionals and leaders who share their knowledge and experience about the confluence of science, technology, and society in the 21st century. This speaker series and networking event provides a unique venue in the Austin community for introducing new knowledge and ideas, education, and encouraging collaboration among Forum participants. For more dates and speakers, please visit the Austin Forum website.

  • Supercomputing: Why It’s Super for Austin… and You!
    Jay Boisseau, Director of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)
    Tuesday, February 2, 2009, 5:45 p.m. – Networking Reception, 6:30 p.m. – Lecture at the AT&T Conference Center, room #204