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November 3, 2008
Advance Notice

Presidents to discuss ‘Taking a stand’
Should universities take stands on social issues? Three presidents of Atlanta area universities will tackle this question at a public forum titled, "Taking a Stand: The Role of the Ethically Engaged University" at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6 at the Center for Ethics.

Joining President Jim Wagner on the panel are Robert M. Franklin Jr., president of Morehouse College and Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College. The discussion will be moderated by Paul Root Wolpe, director of Emory's Center for Ethics.

The president's panel is the first in a series of events at Emory's Center for Ethics that will look at the role of ethics at a university and the posture that universities should take when faced with ethical issues, says Wolpe.

"We thought that one good way to begin this series is to invite university presidents to answer two related questions," he says. "First, what is the proper role of a university in taking a stand on social issues? Next, what is the role of a university president in taking a stand?"

Conversation with ‘Ophelia’ creators
In anticipation of the world premiere of “Ophelia’s Gaze,” the creators of this new chamber opera, Steven Everett and Natasha Trethewey, will be featured in a Creativity Conversation set for Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. in the Carlos Museum Reception Hall. Vice President and Secretary of the University Rosemary Magee moderates.

Everett, associate professor in the Department of Music, wrote the music with text from Pulitzer-winning poet and Emory Creative Writing Program faculty member Trethewey’s poem “Bellocq’s Ophelia.” The world premiere is Saturday, Nov. 15.

Creativity Conversations are sponsored by the University’s creativity and arts initiative.

Debut lecture on decisions, brain
The first major lecture by the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture features Patricia Smith Churchland on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. in the Winship Ballroom of the Dobbs University Center with a reception immediately following.

Churchland, President’s Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego, will speak on “Decisions, Responsibility and the Brain.”

Her work explores the impact of scientific developments on our understanding of consciousness, the self, free will, decision-making, ethics, learning, and religion, and issues concerning the neurobiological basis of consciousness, the self, and free will.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Wallace-Sanders on ‘mammy’ image
Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, associate professor in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts and the Department of Women’s Studies, is the upcoming speaker in the Life of the Mind series.

Her topic is “Southern Memory, Southern Monuments, and the Subversive Black Mammy” and she will speak Thursday, Nov.13, at 4 p.m. in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library.

Wallace-Sanders said her focus will be on the chapter from her book, “Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender and Southern Memory,” published in June, on the way the mammy figure has been represented. Her presentation will feature visuals of African American women engaged in the care of white children, including some never before seen together. She also said the topic will extend into her upcoming project.