Campus Activities

• Dr. Kellie Archer, a researcher in biostatistics, will speak Thursday, Nov. 1, at 4 p.m. in Ruffner 356 on “The Importance of Integrating Knowledge of Biology, Statistics, and Computer Science in High-Throughput Genomic Research” in the Mathematics & Computer Science Colloquium Series. Dr. Archer is assistant professor in the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Biostatistics. A reception will be held from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in Ruffner 300A.

• Students who participated in the Slovakia Scholars Program during 2006-07 will make a formal presentation Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in Hiner Auditorium.

• Moolaadé, a film about genital mutilation in a West African village, will be shown Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in Greenwood Library 147 as part of the General Education Film Series. The 2004 film focuses on four young girls in a Muslim village in Burkina Faso who refuse to take part in the traditional circumcision ceremony. It has been called a “feel-good drama” which, despite its serious subject matter, is “also a warm-hearted and wryly observed take on village life.”

• The Camerata Singers, the Chamber Singers and the University Choir will present their fall concert Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall. The three choirs will perform a variety of choral literature including works by Purcell, Monteverdi, Lauridsen, Rossini and Moses Hagan. One of the featured works will be the Magnificat by English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, featuring the Chamber Singers with guest soloist Jennifer Capaldo, who joined the voice faculty this year. Guest performers also will include two other members of the music faculty, Dr. Lisa Kinzer (piano) and Mary Ann Archer (flute).

• The Longwood Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony and dinner will be held Saturday, Nov. 10, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Lee Grand Dining Room of Dorrill Dining Hall. The cost is $75, and interested persons should contact Chris Neal by phone (395-2081) or e-mail (nealca@longwood.edu). The members of the 2007 Hall of Fame class are Dennis Hale ’91 (baseball), Charlaine Coetzee Hirst ’95 (golf) and Kevin Jefferson ’90 (basketball).

• Dr. William Dorrill, Longwood president emeritus and a China specialist, will present a “China Update” on Monday, Nov. 12, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Nance Room in Dorrill Dining Hall. Lunch will be provided; however, reservations are required. To make a reservation, phone 395-2395 or e-mail calhounli@longwood.edu. Dr. Dorrill will speak on new developments in China’s politics, economic development and foreign policy, including the recently completed 17th Party Congress. He has visited China more than 20 times, most recently in October 2006, and before serving as Longwood’s president (1988-96) was an analyst for the U.S. government, a political scientist for the RAND Corporation, and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s East Asian Center. The program is part of the Brown Bag lunch discussion series and International Awareness Week.
  

• The piano trio Triple Helix of Boston will present a Chamber Music Series concert Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall. The trio consists of violinist Bayla Keyes, cellist Rhonda Rider and pianist Lois Shapiro. The group formed in 1995 and has been in residence at Wellesley College since 1999. The Boston Globe has described their work as “the liveliest live music in town,” with “wildly imaginative, emotionally charged virtuoso playing” that is “sophisticated in musical detail, wholeheartedly interactive, uninhibited in emotion, and touched by a special grace.”

• A talk on “Indigenous Farmers and Carbon Credits: How the Maori of New Zealand are Earning Income by Saving the Planet” will be given Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. in Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall. The program, part of International Awareness Week, will be presented by Jason Funk, a Ph.D. student at Stanford University who is part of a research project that helps Maori landowners on New Zealand’s North Island reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by reforesting their land. “At the same time, they earn income by selling the ‘carbon credits” produced when they provide this environmental service,” said Funk, who has spent about 15 months in New Zealand.

•  Longwood Theatre will present Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt from Nov. 14-17 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium. Peer Gynt, written in 1867, has been called a bittersweet play about a Norwegian anti-hero. The production is directed by Dr. Gene Muto, professor of theatre. Tickets, which go on sale Nov. 6, are $8 general admission, $6 for faculty/staff and non-Longwood students, and $4 for Longwood students. The Jarman Box Office (phone: 395-2474) is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 3 to 5 p.m.

• Dr. Esther Godfrey, assistant professor of English, will speak Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 3:15 p.m. in Greenwood Library 147B on “Sexed Bodies and Sexual Beings: 19th-Century Art & Literature” as part of the Wednesdays With Women’s and Gender Studies series. Dr. Godfrey will be joined by Niki Swann, a senior, and Cheryl Adams Rychkov, a graduate student, both of whom are doing theses directed by Dr. Godfrey.

• Pan’s Labyrinth, an Oscar-winning Spanish film about a young girl’s attempts to escape fascist Spain through fantasy, will be shown Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in Greenwood Library 147 as part of the General Education Film Series. Set in the 1940s of Franco’s Spain, the 2006 film is an allegorical fairy tale about a lonely, dreamy girl who “creates a world of fantastical creatures and secret destinies.” It was nominated for six 2007 Academy Awards and won three, including the best cinematography award.

• The 31st anniversary of the Great American Smokeout will be celebrated Thursday, Nov. 15, by the American Cancer Society (ACS). The ACS's South Atlantic Division is again promoting the Great American Smokeout web site www.smokefreeyou.org to link visitors to the latest information and materials surrounding this event. The third Thursday in November has since 1976 marked the Great American Smokeout, spotlighting the health dangers of tobacco use and the importance of quitting smoking to improve individual health and promote better, safer communities.

• “Free Speech, Free Writers, Free World,” a program to increase awareness of crimes against free speech, will be held Thursday, Nov. 15, on Lankford Mall. The program, sponsored by the Student Editorial Board of the Dos Passos Review and the Creative Writing program, will feature a mock presentation of an “imprisoned writer” in the stocks (for 10 minutes) every hour until 5 p.m. Members of the Student Editorial Board and other student organizaions will distribute information throughout the day.

• The Grand Illumination of the Holiday Tree will be held Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 5:30 p.m. in the Rotunda in Ruffner Hall.

• The Longwood Percussion Ensemble will present its fall concert Nov. 27 at 8 p.m. in  Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall. The concert will feature freshman Katie Hancock on a transcription of Sabre Dance and junior Natalia Halsey on an arrangement of Ave Maria. In addition to several solos by members of the percussion studio, the concert will close with Head Talk, a piece featuring five percussionists “beating, tapping, rolling and chucking drum heads all over the stage,” said Mike Schutz, an adjunct instructor who is director of the Percussion Ensemble.

• “Incinerate Intellectual Incarceration,” a demonstration to raise awareness of free speech and the dangers of the Patriot Act, will be held Wednesday, Nov. 28, from noon to 4 p.m. on Lankford Mall. The demonstration is sponsored by the Student Editorial Board of the Dos Passos Review and the Creative Writing Program. Members of the Student Editorial Board will read excerpts of great speeches on the subject of freedom.

• Sicko, Michael Moore’s documentary film about the American health care system, will be shown Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. in the LCVA lower level as part of the General Education Film Series. The film, which opened in June, has been called Moore’s “strongest documentary film so far, with a decent mix of laughs, human interest and stunts.”

• Dr. Marcus Pendergrass, an applied mathematician who is a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Hampden-Sydney College, will speak Thursday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m. in Ruffner 356 in the Mathematics & Computer Science Colloquium Series. A reception will be held from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in Ruffner 300A. Pendergrass taught as an adjunct member of Longwood’s Department of Mathematics & Computer Science from 2004-06.