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High school students to get "cutting-edge" view of UB through lecture series
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The College of Arts and Sciences again will reach out to local high school students this spring by presenting the "Cutting Edge Lecture Series," a series of Saturday-morning seminars in which top UB scholars in the arts and sciences, as well as successful alumni, give presentations aimed at increasing public awareness of rapidly advancing fields.
The program—along with the Poetry Contest, which was held earlier this month—is the brainchild of CAS Dean Uday Sukhatme, who initiated both programs while serving as interim vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sukhatme brought the lecture series and poetry contest with him when he came to UB in 2002 to assume the post of CAS dean, and they were successful when both were held for the first time at UB last spring.
The programs are designed to introduce prospective students to CAS and to UB, as well as help them explore new areas of knowledge.
"We have to get the public to visit the campus, relate with the faculty and get an idea of what cutting-edge research mean," Sukhatme says. "People in the Buffalo area have to take greater pride in UB and start thinking of it as 'their university.'"
Last year's lecture series—which was attended by about 500 students from 31 different Western New York high schools—featured presentations by CAS faculty members in the fields of sociology, art, classics and geology, as well as a lecture by Pamela S. Benson, BA '76, senior producer of national security for CNN.
Benson also will speak on March 27 during the 2004 edition of "The Cutting Edge Lecture Series." Her lecture is titled "The Global Media and the CNN Effect: Observations of a Veteran News Producer."
The remainder of the schedule for 2004:
March 6: "Real-time Interactive Computer Music Systems," Cort Lippe, associate professor, and Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman, adjunct assistant professor, both in the Department of Music. This lecture will examine how the use of computers in music has gone beyond just producing sounds and synchronizing electronic events with a musical part played by a musician. Computers can be used to measure much of what we call "musical expression," making it possible to arrive at assumptions about how a performer is interpreting a piece of music. These assumptions can be used to influence the electronic part of a composition, in much the same way that one performer's musical expressiveness influences other players in a musical ensemble. A dynamic relationship among performers, musical material and computers can enrich the musical level of a performance for composers, performers and listeners alike. Compositions can be fine-tuned to the individual performing characteristics of different musicians, and musicians readily can sense the consequences of their performances and musical interpretations.
March 13: "Groundwater Detectives: Tracking Groundwater Contaminants Flowing Within the Earth," Richelle Allen-King, associate professor, Department of Geology. In the first part of a two-part presentation, King will discuss how contaminants move from their origin at the ground surface and travel within the earth. During the second part of the program, participants will use their groundwater detective skills to consider the scientific evidence—and its limitations—in the landmark Woburn, Mass., case of groundwater contamination that was the subject of the popular novel and movie, "A Civil Action."
March 20: "Rituals of Resistance," Jason Young, assistant professor, Department of History. This interactive presentation will explore the music, dance, rituals and even martial-arts traditions of slaves and focus on the ways that enslaved Africans in the U.S., the Caribbean and South America fought back against slavery—not only with their fists, but also with the power of their culture.
April 3: "Traditional Shamanic Healing and the Spirits of Chilean Modernity," Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, assistant professor, Department of Anthropology. This multimedia presentation will look at the shamans, or sacred specialists of the Mapuche indigenous people of Southern Chile, and how they combine traditional beliefs with modern technologies, Catholicism and politics.
All lectures will take place from 10-11:30 a.m. in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Registration will be held at 9:30 a.m., and light refreshments will be served. The lectures and parking are free. While the lectures are geared toward high school students, they also are open to the general public.