President’s Lecturers to Discuss Varied Topics

President’s Lecturers to Discuss Varied Topics

RICE NEWS
September 16, 1999

The 1999-2000 President’s Lecture Series will bring to the Rice campus significant contributors to society, in keeping with founder William March Rice’s commitment to contribute educational opportunities to the broader community.

The series is sponsored by the Office of the President with support from the J. Newton Rayzor Lecture Fund.

Nawal El Saadawi, Oct. 25

Speaking on “Creativity and Dissidence: Integrated of Knowledge,” El Saadawi will draw on her experience as a writer and psychiatrist, focusing on the rights of women in the Middle East.

As a result of her three decades of literary and scientific writings, El Saadawi faced numerous difficulties, including imprisonment by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In 1991, the government closed down the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association over which she presided and handed over its funds to another association. From 1988 to 1993, her name was on death lists issued by fanatical terrorist organizations.

This lecture is dedicated to the memory of J. Newton Rayzor Sr., who founded the lecture series, and to his son, J. Newton Rayzor Jr., who continued his father’s legacy of generosity.

Moira Gunn, Nov. 17

Moira Gunn, who will speak on “Technology 2000,” is the producer and host of “Tech Nation … Americans & Technology,” syndicated on National Public Radio and distributed worldwide by Armed Forces Radio International. The program features guests who represent the past, present and future of technology and its impact on lives.

Gunn has interviewed such notables as Buzz Aldrin, Carl Sagan, Ralph Nader and Sir Edmund Hillary as well as corporate CEOs, technology pioneers, scientists, educators, environmentalists, futurists and watchdog reporters. Her background as a NASA engineer and scientist and her experience in business and education have enabled her to draw unusual insights about her guests and America today.

“Tech Nation’ received the Tom Donohue Award for Best Public Affairs Program of 1995.

Morris Dees, Jan. 26, Martin Luther King Memorial Lecture

When Ku Klux Klan members lynched a black man in Mobile, Ala., in 1981, civil rights lawyer Morris Dees–and the Southern Poverty Law Center he founded–launched a historic lawsuit against the clan for inciting violence. Dees won a $7 million precedent-setting judgment.

Dees, whose talk is titled “Teaching Tolerance,” has won other significant verdicts and more recently has devoted time to educating the public about America’s radical militia movement, writing the 1996 expose “Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat.” Dees penned two other books: his autobiography, “A Season for Justice,” and “Hate on Trial: The Case Against America’s Most Dangerous neo-Nazi.”

A movie about his life, “Line of Fire,” aired on NBC in 1991, and he was portrayed in “Ghosts of Mississippi,” a 1996 feature film about the life of slain civil rights worker Medgar Evers.

Mae Jemison, Feb. 23

In 1992, Mae Jemison made history as the first black woman to go into space when she flew as a mission specialist astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

At her Rice lecture she will talk on “Global Benefits of Science and Technology.”

Jemison started her career in West Africa as an area Peace Corps medical officer after earning undergraduate degrees in chemical engineering and African and Afro-American studies from Stanford and a medical degree from Cornell University. She also practiced medicine in Los Angeles and served as an astronaut for six years before starting the Jemison Group.

Her company, dedicated to research and the development and implementation of new technologies, leads projects that include a satellite-based telecommunications system to improve health care in WestAfrica and an international science camp.

A professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, she also directs the school’s Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and named one of Ebony magazine’s 50 most influential women.

Robert Irwin, March 23, the Dominique de Menil Lecture

Known for his installation work, environmental artist and sculptor Robert Irwin began his career as an abstract painter. He was one of the creators of the “light and space” movement and gained recognition for his site-generated works. He is famed for designing the gardens at the Getty Museum and in the late 1980s he created an installation at Rice, where he served as the 1987-88 Cullinan visiting professor of fine arts, architecture and urban planning.

A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, Irwin is also a well-known lecturer and author on art, focusing on environmental works in public places. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Walker Art Center; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.

All lectures will be held in the Rice Memorial Center Grand Hall at 8 p.m. For more information call (713) 527-6093, e-mail sjd@rice.edu or refer to http://www.rice.edu/pls.