Columbia University in the City of New York

The Institute of African Studies (IAS) presents Evelyne Achan, one of nine human rights leaders currently in residence at Columbia University with the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP), talking about her role within these organizations.

Evelyne Achan, Field Coordinator, CARE International (Gulu, Uganda), Co-Founder... for Charity for Rural Development and Vice Chairperson of the Great Lakes Center for Conflict Resolution, is one of nine human rights leaders currently in residence at Columbia University with the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at the Center for the Study of Human Rights.

Evalyne is a field coordinator with the A Stake in Our Future project at CARE International in Uganda. The project was designed to build the capacity of the government to implement peacebuilding projects modeled on the framework of the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) designed for Northern Uganda. By monitoring implementation of the PRDP, the project also aims to empower communities in the Amuru and Pader districts of Northern Uganda to hold their government accountable for the transparent and efficient provision of goods and services. Prior to her appointment as a field coordinator, Evalyne worked for five years as a team leader/program officer for the Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development on issues of conflict, good governance, civic education, sexual and gender-based violence, and human rights programming and protection. Evalyne holds a Bachelor of Law (2001) from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and a diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peace Building from the School for International Training in Vermont (2006).

For further information regarding this event, please contact Institute of African Studies by sending email to ias@columbia.edu or by calling 212-854-4633.Read More

The Columbia Climate Center, in collaboration with the Columbia Water Center and the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, presents "The National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges: An Overview and Focus on Water," with speakers

Charles Vest, President, National Academy of Engineering; President Emeritus, Massachu...setts Institute of Technology

Farouk El-Baz, Director, Center for Remote Sensing; Research Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University

Sustainable development on a planet with finite resources and a growing population is not only a desirable, but a priority. In February 2008, a National Academy of Engineering committee unveiled their perception of the grand challenges of engineering that face humanity in the 21st century. Meeting the demands of growing energy needs while curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, disease, security, sustainable urban infrastructure, and furthering discovery and learning are just a few of the areas that require concerted research from engineers, natural scientists, doctors, and social scientists alike.

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Dr. Charles Vest, President of the National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will discuss the process that led to the list and present an overview of fourteen challenges and the role that we can play in meeting them. He will be joined by Professor Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, who will focus primarily on the challenge inherent to meeting the need for water in the face of a growing population, increased urbanization, and a changing climate.

For more information about the NAE’s Grand Challenges of Engineering, to express your opinion about the fourteen challenges, or to choose the highest priority challenge, go to http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/.

This event is free and open to the registered public. Reception to follow.

For more information on the Earth Institute, visit www.earth.columbia.eduRead More

The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS), Columbia University, presents Colin Kahl, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and a professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University speaking on, "The Obama Administration and the Future of the U.S....-Iraq Relationship."

Iraq has made significant security progress in recent years, but serious challenges to enduring stability remain. As American forces draw down and fundamentally change their mission in Iraq, what is the U.S. strategy for ensuring that hard fought gains are maintained? And, as Iraq continues to assert its sovereignty, what does this mean for the future of the U.S.-Iraq strategic relationship?

Dr. Kahl is on a two-year public service leave from Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service focusing on international security, American foreign policy in the Middle East, and terrorism. Prior to joining the Department, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He has published widely on U.S. military operations and strategy in Iraq, including articles in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, the Los Angeles Times, Middle East Policy, the National Interest, and The New York Times.

In 2007-2008, Dr. Kahl served as coordinator for the Obama Campaign's Iraq Policy Expert Group. In 2005-2006, he was a Council on Foreign Relations Fellow working at the Department of Defense on counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and stability operations. He received his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 2000, and his BA in political science from the University of Michigan in 1993.Read More

Trauma as a Political Resource

A talk by Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Monday, November 23, 2009

6 pm, Buell Hall, East Gallery

Didier Fassin is James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Study of Princeton and ...Director of Studies in anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He directs the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Social Sciences (CNRS- Inserm- EHESS- University Paris North). Trained as a medical doctor, he has been vice-president of Médecins sans Frontières and is currently president of the Comité Médical pour les Exilés. His field of interest in political and moral anthropology, more specifically focused on inequalities and discrimination, immigration and racialization, health and humanitarianism, memory and trauma. His recent publications include: Les constructions de l'intolérable (with Patrice Bourdelais, La Découverte, 2005), De la question sociale à la question raciale? (with Eric Fassin, La Découverte, 2006), Les politiques de l'enquête. Épreuves ethnographiques (with Alban Bensa, La Découverte, 2008), as editor; When Bodies Remember: Experience and Politics of AIDS in South Africa (University of California Press, 2007) and The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood (with Richard Rechtman, Princeton University Press, 2009), as author.Read More

The Middle East Institute and The School of International and Public Affairs presents the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati, at the first lecture of a series entitled, "Iraq's Transition to Democracy."

Ambassador al-Bayati will be speaking about the current political situ...ation in Iraq.

Dr. T. Hamid Al-Bayati was appointed Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations in April 2006. He worked as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Political Affairs and Bilateral Relations from 2004 to 2006. During the same period, he headed the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies in Iraq.

Upon his arrival in New York in 2006, Dr. Al-Bayati made significant progress as Iraq’s Permanent Representative when he was elected the Chair of the UN Third Committee related to Social, Economic, and Human Rights during Sep 2006- Sep 2007; the Vice President of the General Assembly during Sep 2007- Sep 2008; and the Chair of the Sixth Committee dealing with legal issues during Sep 2008- Sep 2009.

Iraq was also elected as member of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for the period 2007-2010, a member in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the period of 2009-2012, and a member of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT) for the period 2009-2011.

Dr. Al-Bayati has spent a great deal of time giving political lectures about Iraq and the U.S. at political meetings, Summits, Study Centers, Universities, and Institutes in New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Michigan, Oregon, Florida, California, South Dakota, and Texas, among other places. He has also visited many countries and convened with Presidents, Kings, and leaders such as President George W. Bush; Prime Minister Tony Blair; President Chirac of France; Vladimir Putin of Russia; King Juan Carlos of Spain; former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany; the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah; King Abdullah II of Jordan; late President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan; President Bashar Al Asad of Syria; President Bouteflika of Algeria; President Abdullah Saleh of Yemen; President Omar Al- Bashir of Sudan; President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran; President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; President Susilo Bambang of Indonesia; President Colom Caballeros of Guatemala, and others.

Dr. Hamid Al-Bayati obtained a Bachelors degree at Baghdad University, a Masters degree at Cairo University, and a Ph.D. from Manchester University. He has written and published many books in Arabic and English including: The Secret of February 8, 1963 Coup, The Shiite of Iraq, The Bloody History of Saddam Hussein, The Secret of the July 17, 1968 Coup, The Terrorism Game, Fall of the Evil, Terrorism in Iraq, The Iraqi Constitution, and The Federalism.Read More

Gallery at the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies Presents:
Hunger

New painting from art schools in Germany

November 12th - December 8th, 2009

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 22nd, 6-8pm*

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm

*Gallery will be open 1pm-8pm, November 22nd
(during 2nd year M.F.A. students' open studi...os)

Lecture by:
Norbert Schwontkowski
Wednesday, November 18th at 8pm*

"On Some Worn Out Notions"
A lecture by:
Gia Edzgveradze
Friday, November 20th at 12 noon*

*Lectures will take place in the gallery

"There you could always go into the Luxembourg museum and all the paintings were sharpened and clearer and more beautiful if you were belly-empty, hollow-hungry. I learned to understand Cezanne much better and to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry. I used to wonder if he were too when he painted; but I thought possibly it was only that he had forgotten to eat. It was one of those unsaid but illuminating thoughts you have when you have been sleepless or hungry. Later, I thought Cezanne was probably hungry in a different way."

- Ernest Hemingway



Artists:

* Enrico Bach
* Viola Bittl
* Peter Böhnisch
* Florian Meisenberg Dalia Hunter
* Sarah Schoderer
* Johanna Tiedtke
* Cathrin Ulikowski

Lectures by:

* Gia Edzgveradze
* Norbert Schwontkowski

Curated by Jomar StatkunRead More

The Harriman Institute presents Dissident Acts: three works by Samuel Beckett, a member of the WWII resistance, as well as by his political counterparts and dramatic inheritors, the Polish and Czech playwrights Slawomir Mrozek and Václav Havel. Beckett's miniature 1982 Catastrophe interrogates the public role of art in... a taut homage to Havel, at the time imprisoned for subversion of the state. Mrozek's 1958 The Police, unveils the deep absurdity of totalitarianism, and Havel's 1975 Unveiling, transforms this absurdity into the hypocrisy of its elite. Taken together, these plays, performed by Barnard and Columbia students, refuse to be museified as documents of the (in)human past; they extend the dissident inquiry of the liberal arts, animating an ongoing interrogation of the politics of our present.

Post-show discussion with Prof. Dennis C. Beck and James Madison

Directed by Gary Cherniakhovsky
Dramaturgy by Hana Worthen
Set Design: Simon Pastukh
Costume Design: Galina Solovyeva

Minor Latham Playhouse, 118 Milbank Hall

For information, visit www.barnard.edu.
For reservations, visit http://tic.columbia.edu.


Minor Latham Playhouse, 118 Milbank Hall

For information, visit www.barnard.edu.
For reservations, visit http://tic.columbia.edu. Read More

The African Diplomatic Forum (ADF) is an annual conference that gathers African diplomats, academics, students and activists to discuss the continent's interests and role in international affairs.

The ADF this year includes two topic-specific panels featuring African diplomats and experts on African affairs:

"Political a...nd Economic Development and the Question of Transfers of Power: The Cases of Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda"

This panel seeks to discuss the impact of political and economic development on transfers of power in Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda. These three countries have been selected in order to generate insights on different circumstances and to ask what lessons can be shared more broadly on the African continent. This panel will combine expertise on African political institutions and political economy to tie together the cases of Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda and broadly on the topic of transfers of power.

"Military Rule, Human Rights Abuses and Elections: Guinea's Quest for a Peaceful Transition"
With the recent political unrest and human rights abuses in Guinea, there has been much debate about whether this situation warrants international or regional intervention. This panel will seek to combine panelists’ regional expertise and understanding of issues of political transitions to provide a unique and comprehensive point of view from which to discuss the regional implications of Guinea’s political transition, and the ways in which to ensure that this process culminates in the most beneficial and peaceful outcomes to all.

The African Diplomatic Forum is sponsored by the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University, the SIPA Pan-African Network at the School of International and Public Affairs and the African Law Students Association at Columbia Law School.

For further information regarding this event, please contact Institute of African Studies by sending email to ias@columbia.edu or by calling 212-854-4633.Read More

Symposium Program

Introduction

8:45 – 9:15 am

8:45 – 8:50 Steven A. Siegelbaum, Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology

Chair, Department of Neuroscience

Columbia University

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



8:50 – 8:55 Lee Goldman, M.D.

Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedi...cal Sciences

and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine



8:55 – 9:05 Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D.

John E. Borne Professor of Medical and Surgical Research (in Neuroscience and Pharmacology)

and Dean Emeritus of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine

Columbia University



9:05 – 9:15 John Koester, Ph.D.

Professor of Clinical Neurosciences (in Psychiatry)

Columbia University



Session 1: Eric's former students and post-docs

9:15 – 11:40 am



Jack Byrne, Ph.D., Session Chair

June and Virgil Waggoner Chair and Chairman

Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy

University of Texas Medical School at Houston



9:15 – 9:40 “Memory Formation in Aplysia: The Central Role of ERK”



Thomas J. Carew, Ph.D.

Donald Bren Professor and Chair

Neurobiology and Behavior

School of Biological Sciences

University of California, Irvine



9:40 – 10:05 “Communication Between Synapse and Nucleus During Long-term Neuronal Plasticity”



Kelsey Martin, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Biological Chemistry

University of California, Los Angeles



10:05 – 10:30 “The Molecular Mechanism of Persistence of Memory”



Kausik Si, Ph.D.

Assistant Investigator

Stowers Institute for Medical Research



Break

10:30 – 10:50 am



10:50 – 11:15 “Genetic Control of Memory Circuits”



Mark Mayford, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

The Scripps Research Institute



11:15 – 11:40 “The Fragility of Long-Term Memory”



Cristina Alberini, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Structural and Chemical Biology, and Psychiatry
Mount Sinai School of Medicine



Lunch

11:40am – 12:40pm



Session 2: Eric's friends in Neuroscience outside Columbia

1:15 – 3:00 pm



Roger Nicoll, M.D., Session Chair

Professor, University of California, San Francisco



12:45 – 1:10 “Sluggish Recollections”



Larry R. Squire, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology

University of California, San Diego



1:10 – 1:35 “Neural Circuit Analysis of Emotional Behavior in Flies and Mice”



David Anderson, Ph.D.

Roger W. Sperry Professor of Biology

California Institute of Technology

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



1:35 – 2:00 “Fifty Years of Solitude: Deconstructing a Neural Circuit for Social Behavior”



Cori Bargmann, Ph.D.

Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Head of Lab
The Rockefeller University
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



2:00 – 2:25 “Molecular Memories and Protein Conformation Cascades”



Susan Lindquist, Ph.D.

Member

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Professor of Biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



2:25 – 2:50 “Intracellular Recording in the CNS: Kandel and Spencer and Beyond”



Bert Sakmann, M.D.

Professor and Director Emeritus

Max-Planck Institute for Neurobiology



Break

2:50 – 3:05 pm



Session 3: Eric's friends in Neuroscience at Columbia

3:15 – 4:30 pm



Michael E. Goldberg, M.D. Session Chair

David Mahoney Professor of Brain and Behavior in Neuroscience

And Neurology (in Psychiatry & Ophthalmology)



3:05 - 3:30 "Full Character'd with Lasting Memory: A Spinal Perspective on Kandelian Science”


Thomas Jessell, Ph.D.

Claire Tow Professor, Neuroscience, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics

Columbia University

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



3:30 - 3:55 “The Neural Dynamics of Learning about Good and Bad”



C. Daniel Salzman, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry

Columbia University



3:55 - 4:20 “A Quarter Century Channeling Memory”



Steven A. Siegelbaum, Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology

Chair, Department of Neuroscience

Columbia University

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



4:20 - 4:45 "Dining at the Kandelicatessen: from Schnitzel to Schnitzler"



Richard Axel, M.D.

University Professor

Columbia University

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute



Final Remarks

4:45 – 5:00 pm Eric Kandel, M.D

University Professor

Columbia University



Reception

5:00 - 5:30 pm P&S Alumni AuditoriumRead More

This day long conference will include, among others, Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Professor of Law, Florida International University; Catharine Stimpson, University Professor, Professor of English, and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York Universi...ty; and Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University.

Co-sponsored by the English Department.

This event is free and open to the public.
No Tickets, no reservations required.
Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

For directions to the Heyman Center: http://heymancenter.org/visit.phpRead More