News
Briefs
-
Reading and book signing to be held
Nadia Shahram, a matrimonial attorney and adjunct faculty member in the UB Law School, will read from her new book, “Marriage on the Street Corners of Tehran,” at 4 p.m. Nov. 11 in 509 O'Brian Hall, North Campus.
The reading, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Gender Institute and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy.
Shahram’s novel, set in Iran, is; based on true stories of women’s experiences with the interpretation of Islamic family and criminal law as they currently are being practiced in modern Iran. It focuses in particular on the practice of “temporary marriage,” which Shahram calls a form of “religiously and culturally sanctioned prostitution justified by a misinterpretation of the Quran.”
Sharam also will discuss her research on family and criminal law, the Quran and Muslim women.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase; refreshments will be served.
Law School hosts annual trial competition
A drug-addled, suicidal rock star, a vengeful band mate charged with murder and a greedy son seeking to cash in on a million-dollar life insurance policy make up the cast of characters in the case problem for this year's Buffalo Niagara mock trial competition hosted by the UB Law School on Nov. 11-14 in the courtrooms of Buffalo City Court.
In this year's competition, 128 student advocates representing 32 law schools from 15 states will try both sides of either the criminal case of People v. Thomas Osiski, or the civil case of the Hartfeldt Insurance Co v. Zak Nugent Siriusz before local judges and attorney evaluators.
“This is the first combination criminal-civil competition of its kind,” says Erie County Court Judge Thomas P. Franczyk, competition coordinator and case author.
In the criminal case, the defendant, Thomas Osiski, is accused of shooting Martin Lewis Siriusz in the head as he was recording his final song, “Hanging at Death’s Door” not long after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Siriusz had cancelled a reunion tour of his former band, SirOsis, causing his debt-ridden partner, Osiski, to miss out on a million dollars in much-needed income.
The prosecution will argue that Osiski murdered Siriusz out of vengeance. The defense will contend that Siriusz either committed suicide or was murdered by his disaffected, grunge rocker son, Zak Nugent Siriusz, the sole beneficiary under his father’s life insurance policy.
In the civil case, the parties will spar over the Hartfeldt Insurance Company’s refusal to pay out on the policy on the grounds that Siriusz killed himself or was murdered by his son.
Legendary Buffalo guitarist Willie Schoellkopf and his band Stone Bridge (aka “Soriasis,” a SirOsis cover band), will play a variety of songs, including Sirosis hits “It’s So Schizo” and “Hanging at Death’s Door” with help from local musician Michael “Bly” Santa Maria—a 1999 UB Law School trial teamer—at the competition awards banquet Friday night at the Avant/Embassy Suites.
Local actors will play the part of the witnesses, Zak Nugent Siriusz, Detective Stephen Tyler, Thomas Osiski and Lee Vaughan Helm, a defense expert who will claim that Siriusz’ death was a suicide.
The participating schools are Akron University, American University, Barry University, Brooklyn Law School, Catholic University, Chicago-Kent, Thomas Cooley Law School, Creighton, Duquesne, Faulkner, Florida Coastal, Florida State, Fordham, Georgia State, Georgia, Illinois, John Marshall, Michigan State, Northern Kentucky, Nova, Pace, Pacific McGeorge, South Texas, St. John’s, St. Mary’s of Texas, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, Villanova, Widener (Del.), Widener (Pa.) and Wisconsin.
Lebrecht to lecture on new book
Cultural commentator and award-winning novelist Norman Lebrecht will discuss his most recent work, “Why Mahler?” a new interpretation of the most influential composer of modern times, at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus.
The lecture, which will be free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Music and the UB Arts Management Program.
Lebrecht will deliver the lecture again at 7 p.m. at Denton Cottier & Daniels, 460 Dodge Road, Getzville.
Lebrecht is the author of 12 books about music that have been translated into 17 languages. Among them are “The Life and Death of Classical Music,” “Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power,” “Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers, and Corporate Politics” and “Covent Garden: The Untold Story—Dispatches from the English Culture War,1945-2000.”
Lebrecht’s first novel, “The Song of Names,” won a Whitbread Award in 2003. His second, “The Game of Opposites,” was published in the U.S. by Pantheon Books. A third is in preparation.
Golove to perform with ‘A Musical Feast’
UB faculty members Jonathan Golove and Alison D”Amato among the musicians performing in the first concert of the season for “A Musical Feast,” the resident musical ensemble of the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
The concert will take place at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 in the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium in the Burchfield, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, on the campus of Buffalo State College. The concert, co-sponsored by the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music at UB, is the final event of RendezBlue, a four-day mini festival of art, poetry, performance and music at the Burchfield.
Golove, cello, and Claudia Hoca, piano, will perform Debussy’s Cello Sonata. Golove and Hoca also will perform Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise and Joseph Achron’s Hebrew Melody, with Golove playing on the rarely heard theremin cello.
Flutist Barry Crawford and pianist D’Amato will play Philippe Gaubert’s French romantic masterpiece the Sonata in A major.
Violinist Charles Haupt will join Hoca and Golove for a performance of Paul Schoenfield’s Café Music, the most popular contemporary American work for piano trio.
Admission is free, but seating is limited. For reservations, call 878-6011.
-
Chiesa to deliver HI seminar
Laura Chiesa, assistant professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, will speak on “Italian Futurism: Performances in Intermedial Spaces” as the second speaker in this fall’s New Faculty Seminar Series presented by the Humanities Institute.
The lecture will take place at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in 830 Clemens Hall, North Campus. The seminar is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served.
In her lecture, Chiesa will present her work-in-progress on the intermedial spatial theatricality of Italian Futurism.
A specialist in modern and contemporary Italian studies, critical theory and architecture, film and visual arts, Chiesa received a PhD in comparative literature from UCLA.
The New Faculty Seminar Series, now in its fourth year, features the work of four new colleagues in the humanities at UB, two each semester. In bringing together scholars from a variety of fields, the seminars are designed to initiate and encourage the development of interdisciplinary conversations.
-
UB Women’s Club plans activities
The UB Women’s Club is holding its 25th annual holiday poinsettia and wreath sale to raise money for the Grace Capen Academic Awards Fund.
The deadline for ordering is Nov. 29. Wreaths and poinsettias will be available at the club’s “Soups On” luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 9 at the Center for Tomorrow.
The luncheon is another annual fundraiser for the Grace Capen fund. The menu will feature albacore tuna with sweet pickles on focaccia bread and roast beef and brie with horseradish on a baguette. The sandwiches will accompany, chicken Creole gumbo and creamy mushroom soups. Beverages and cookies also will be served. The cost is $20.
The club’s other fundraising activities also include sale of a cookbook titled “Here’s What’s Cookin’ for $5 and coupon books for the Bon Ton Community Day on Nov. 13 for $5.
To order a poinsettia or wreath, make a luncheon reservation or purchase the cookbook or Bon Ton coupon book, contact Joan Ryan at 626-9332.
The UB Women's Club is a service organization to the university. Members participate in educational and charitable activities that benefit the Grace Capen Academic Awards.
Membership is open to anyone who has a commitment to the university and the purposes of the club.
Reader Comments