The UM President's Office has announced the schedule for the 2011-12 President's Lecture Series. This year's dates and speakers are listed below. All lectures will take place at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre unless otherwise noted. Each speaker also will present an afternoon seminar the day of the lecture in Gallagher Business Building Room 123.

• Friday, Sept. 23: John Dower, "The Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9/11, Iraq."
• Monday, Oct. 10: Cora Diamond, "The Problem of Impiety: Is Anything Off Limits for Us?"
• Thursday, Oct. 27: Elizabeth Kolbert, "On 'Field Notes from a Catastrophe': An Evening with Journalist Elizebeth Kolbert." Held in conjunction with UM's First-Year Reading Experience.
• Friday, Nov. 18 (University Center Ballroom): Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, "Romance and Reality in Humanitarian Action."
• Thursday, Dec. 1 (UC Ballroom): William Robinson, "Global Crisis: Immigration, Drug Trafficking, and Financial Meltdown."
• Monday, Feb. 6: Ussama S. Makdisi, "America and the Arab Struggle for Self-Determination."
• Monday, March 5: Stephen J. O'Brien, "Three Decades of Genomics and AIDS: Tiptoe Towards a Solution."
• Thursday, March 22 (Montana Theatre): Forest Reinhardt, "Global Natural Resource Markets: Perspectives from Business Strategy."
• Monday, April 9: Martin Bresnick, "Listening to Images, Hearing the Text: New Music that Engages the Visual and the Literary."
• Thursday, April 26 (UC Ballroom): James K. Galbraith, "The Great Financial Crisis and the Dismal Science." 

Pack your lawn chairs, blankets and a picnic to enjoy Shakespearean comedy and tragedy on the UM Oval on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 29-30.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks will perform its summer tour headliners "The Merchant of Venice" at 6 p.m. Monday and "Much Ado About Nothing" at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The free events will be held on the Oval rain or shine.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is touring for its 39th season in towns throughout Montana, northern Wyoming and eastern Idaho. The UM performances are sponsored by the University Center.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will join members of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to hear oral arguments in three cases during a special sitting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, in the University Theatre at UM.

The UM School of Law will host the hearing, which is free and open to the public.

O'Connor will hear the cases with 9th Circuit Judges Stephen R. Reinhardt, based in Los Angeles, and Sidney R. Thomas. Thomas, based in Billings, was named a finalist by President Barack Obama in 2010 to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The judges will hear three cases: United States v. Bear, Blair v. Schwan Food Company, and Gallatin County v. United States District Court.

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The public is invited to view works created by UM School of Art faculty when the annual Art Faculty Exhibition opens Tuesday, Sept. 6, in UM's Gallery of Visual Arts. There is no charge for the exhibition, which runs through Sept. 27.

Several lectures will be held in conjunction with the exhibition, starting with a presentation by H. Rafael Chacón, professor of art history and criticism, titled "Napoleon in the Rice Paddies: It May Go Viral, but is it Art?" from 5:10-6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, in Social Science Building Room 356.

Valerie Hedquist, associate professor of art history and criticism, will present "That's Edutainment: Art History at Sea" from 5:10 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, in Social Science Building Room 356.

The Gallery of Visual Arts is located on the first floor of UM's Social Science Building. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays. Monday viewing hours are available by appointment only. 

Biologists at UM and Utah State University recently discovered the first known bacteria-within-a-bacterium symbiosis while examining the complex relationships between bacteria and citrus mealybugs.           

The researchers had previously learned that one of the beneficial bacterial partners, Moranella, lives inside another bacterial symbiont called Tremblaya, which in turn lives inside the cytoplasm of the host insect cell.

"It's a level of intimacy and partnership never seen before between two bacterial species," said said John McCutcheon, an assistant professor in UM's Division of Biological Sciences.

McCutcheon's work and that of his research partner, Utah State's Carol von Dohlen, was published in the Aug. 23 issue of Current Biology. The article is titled "An interdependent metabolic patchwork in the nested symbiosis of mealybugs."

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Faculty and staff are encouraged to join new students as they read Elizabeth Kolbert's "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change," the book selected for the 2011 First-Year Reading Experience.

"Field Notes from a Catastrophe" chronicles Kolbert's efforts to seek out and report on the effect of global warming in communities around the world, tying into the University's commitment to studying climate change and its potential repercussions.
 

Kolbert is a staff reporter for The New Yorker and will be on campus Oct. 27 as part of the President's Lecture Series and Day of Dialogue activities.

More information about the First-Year Reading Program is available online.

UM's Faculty Development Office coordinates and develops opportunities for faculty to grow professionally and personally. The office's Professional Development Series offers the following opportunities this fall:

•  12:10-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7: "Strategies for Retaining Minority Students in the Major." University Center Rooms 330-331.
• 12:10-1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9: College of Arts and Sciences Proposal Development Series: "The Changing Landscape of Funding from the U.S. Department of Education." Phyllis J. Washington Education Center Room 241.
• 3:10-4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14: "Tenure and Promotion at UM." UC Room 330. 
• 12:10-1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16: A Pedagogy Project conversation: "Where's Waldo? Personalizing Large Lecture Classes." Skaggs Building Room 117.
• 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21: "Showcase of Innovative Moodle Course Supplements." UC Atrium.
• 12:10-1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23: CAS Proposal Development Series: "Strategies for Writing the Components of a Successful Grant Proposal." Davidson Honors College Room 119.
• Friday, Sept. 23 (appointments required): CAS Proposal Development Series: "Finding Funding for Your Latest, Greatest Idea." Mansfield Library Room 283 (Buckhous Room).
• 3:10-4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30: "Prevention is the Best Cure...Even in the University Classroom." The Payne Family Native American Center Room 103.   
• 12:10-1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20: "Reaching Every Student: How Universal Design for Learning Increases Student Motivation and Engagement." College of Technology East Campus, Room AD11.
• 12:10-1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28: A Pedagogy Project discussion titled "Navigating the Classroom Generation Gap." Phyllis J. Washington Education Center Room 241.
• 12:10-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2: A Pedagogy Project discussion titled "Tell Me What You Want (What You Really, Really Want): Communicating Assignment Expectations Before It's Too Late." UC 330. RSVP to Amy Kinch by Friday, Oct. 28.

The UM Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research, which collects and reports nonresident visitor data, has made the information available to the public in a new online format.

As part of a public service to the state, anyone interested can log on to the ITRR website to find answers to nonresident travel questions, including who is coming to Montana, why they come here, and what they do while here.

Users also can generate trend graphs using various data compiled from two to three decades of information, such as airport deboardings, attitudes toward tourism and expenditures by nonresidents.

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Registration for fall Information Technology short course training is now available on the IT website.

Each semester IT offers a variety of Banner, Business Services, MS Office, Web and miscellaneous training classes that are free and open to UM faculty, staff and students.

This semester includes a new offering, Adobe Acrobat X: Hands-on Training. Participants will learn how to use Acrobat to create PDF documents from a variety of sources (including Word documents and Web pages). Four sections will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

IT also has unveiled a new short course management system this semester. Employees now can register for courses by logging onto the system with a NetID. After creating a profile, users can then register for, view or cancel courses. 

UM requires that projects involving human subjects research be approved by the Institutional Review Board when UM faculty, staff or students are engaged in the research. Grant applications for these projects also must show evidence of IRB approval before they are processed by the Office of Research.

The deadline for getting completed proposals to the Office of Research in University Hall Room 116 is 4:30 p.m. on the first day of the month.  If the first falls on a weekend, applications may be submitted the following Monday.

More information is available on the IRB website.

Laure Pengelly Drake, director of external scholarships and advising at the Davidson Honors College, reminds faculty and staff that many external scholarships, such as the Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, Marshall and Mitchell, have September and early October deadlines and require a great deal of institutional support.

Nominations for any part the scholarship program should be sent as soon as possible to Pengelly Drake at Davidson Honors College Room 102. More information is on the Davidson Honors College website.

Pengelly Drake also encourages department chairs and staff to consider adding the link for DHC coordinated scholarships to any information that goes out to students to be sure they are updated about opportunities available to them.

If you have questions, call 243-6140 or email laure.pengellydrake@umontana.edu.

TIAA-CREF will offer individual counseling sessions to assist faculty and staff with retirement planning from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 27 and 28, and from 8 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at UM.

Appointments are required for the sessions, which will be held in the University Center. To make an appointment, call the TIAA-CREF Phone Center at 800-842-2009.   

President Engstrom welcomes members of the campus community to meet with him to discuss issues and topics of their choice. Please call 243-2311 or email prestalk@umontana.edu to make an appointment to meet with President Engstrom during these times.

President Engstrom's scheduled office hours for autumn semester are:

• Wednesday, Sept. 28: 2-3:30 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 27: 1-3 p.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 8: 9-10:30 a.m.

Socials will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. most Fridays during autumn semester in the Davidson Honors College Lounge. Autumn semester dates and event sponsors are:

• Sept. 2: Davidson Honors College
• Sept. 9: School of Extended & Lifelong Learning
• Sept. 16: College of Forestry and Conservation
• Sept. 23: College of Arts and Sciences
• Oct. 7: Academic Affairs
• Oct. 21: Mansfield Center
• Oct. 28: President Engstrom
• Nov. 4: International Programs
• Nov. 18: Sponsor TBA
• Dec. 2: President Engstrom
• Dec. 9: Sponsor TBA

Communication studies Professor Sara Hayden's

Horejsi, Charles, co-author. 2012. Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, ninth edition. 482 pp.

Prentiss, Anna Marie. 2011. "Introduction to this Special Issue on Evolution of Material Culture." In Evolution: Education and Outreach 4, electronic edition.

Prentiss, Anna Marie. 2011. "Social Histories of Complex Hunter-Gatherers: Pacific Northwest Prehistory in a Macroevolutionary Framework." In Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process. (Eds.) Kenneth Sassaman and Donald Holly. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp. 17-33.

Samson, Sue. 2011. "Best practices for serving students with disabilities." Reference Services Review. 39(2): 260-277.

Vanita, Ruth. 2011. "Different Speakers, Different Loves: Urban Women in Rekhti Poetry" In Subalternity and Difference: Investigations from the North and the South. (Ed.) Gyanendra Pandey. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 57-76.

Vanita, Ruth. 2011. "Democratizing Marriage: Custom, Consent and the Law." In Law like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law. (Ed.) Arvind Narrain. New Delhi: Yoda Press.

Vanita, Ruth. 2011. "The Homoerotics of Travel: People, Ideas, Genres." In The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing (Ed.) Hugh Stevens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99-115.