Civil War Expert To Speak Today
 

A leading expert on the Civil War will give the next installment of the President's Lecture Series this evening at UM.

Yale University history Professor David Blight will present "Slaves No More: Two Recently Discovered Slave Narratives and the Story of Emancipation" at 8 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

From 3:10 to 4:30 p.m. today, Blight also will give a seminar -- "The Civil War and Emancipation in American Memory" -- in Gallagher Business Building Room 123. Both events are free and open to the public.

Blight's lecture will explore the realities of black emancipation in the United States in light of his research for his latest book, "A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation."

Published last year, the book combines two newly discovered slave narratives in a volume that recovers the lives of their authors, John Washington and Wallace Turnage, as well as provides an incisive history of the story of emancipation.

President's Lecture Series 

 Events Focus On Global Warming
 

Two events at UM this month are designed to move people across the nation beyond fatalism to a determination to face up to the challenges of global warming.

A live, interactive webcast -- "The 2% Solution" -- will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the University Center Theater. The event will be followed by short video messages from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and UM Regents Professor of Ecology and Nobel laureate Steve Running.

The webcast features Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider, sustainability expert Hunter Lovins and green jobs pioneer Van Jones.

UM is among thousands of universities and communities across the nation that will participate in the live webcast to be broadcast via Earth Day TV from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. The national dialogue was created by Focus the Nation, an educational initiative that promotes civic engagement, and is co-sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation.

On Thursday, Jan. 31, a panel discussion, "Climate Change Policy and Solutions: US, MT, MSLA, and UM," will begin at 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Panelists are Anna Klene, UM climate scientist and assistant professor of geography; Phil Condon, UM environmental studies associate professor and member of the University's Sustainable Campus Committee; Richard Opper, director of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and member of Montana's Climate Change Advisory Committee; Missoula Mayor John Engen; and, by video appearance, Paul Wilkins, environmental legislative assistant to Sen. Max Baucus.

Both events are free and open to the public. They are sponsored by UM's Environmental Studies Program, President's Office and the Associated Students of UM Sustainability Center.

Focus the Nation 

 Campus Drive Closed To Through Traffic
 

A portion of Campus Drive at UM will be closed to through traffic this semester because of construction resulting from an expansion to Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The only Campus Drive access to UM will be from Beckwith Avenue.

Parking on campus also will be in short supply this semester, said Nancy Wilson, director of the Associated Students of UM Office of Transportation. She recommends getting to and from campus by riding Missoula's Mountain Line buses, which are free with a Griz Card, or by using convenient Park-N-Ride services, which are free and open to the public.

ASUM Office of Transportation 

 UM Retains Top 25 Peace Corps Ranking
 

New figures show UM retained its top 25 ranking for producing Peace Corps volunteers.

UM is No. 17 on the 2008 list that ranks medium-size colleges and universities with enrollments between 5,001 and 15,000. The University now has 23 alumni serving in the Peace Corps.

This year's ranking places UM ahead of Brown and Yale universities. The University of Virginia topped the list with 72 volunteers.

Peace Corps rankings 

 Lecture Explores Influence Of Hamilton
 

Alexander Hamilton, one of the country's more dynamic Founding Fathers, had a profound impact on early policies that shaped the American West.

On Thursday, Jan. 31, Michael Allen, UM alumnus and history professor at the University of Washington Tacoma, will present a lecture titled "Alexander Hamilton and the West."

The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in UM's North Underground Lecture Hall. It is the University's Sixth Annual Hammond Lecture in Western/Environmental History.

The event is sponsored by the history department's Hammond Endowment in conjunction with a traveling exhibit at the Missoula Public Library titled "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America."

Allen's books include "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861," "A Patriot's History of the United States," "Frontiers of Western History" and "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination."

 

 Journalism Building Nets Craftsmanship Prize
 

UM's recently completed Don Anderson Hall received first prize in the 2007 Excellence in Craftsmanship Awards presented by the Montana Contractors' Association. The awards go to projects exhibiting exemplary design and craftsmanship, as well as innovative construction techniques.

Groundbreaking for Don Anderson Hall -- the new home of UM's School of Journalism -- was held in the spring of 2004. The building was dedicated at a May 11, 2007, ceremony.

Equipment, furnishings and construction of the 57,238-square-foot building cost nearly $14 million. Funds for the building came from generous private donors, state contributions and UM's $100 million Invest in Discovery Capital Campaign.

The building takes the name of newspaper legend Don Anderson, a Montanan and Wisconsin publisher. Anderson negotiated Lee Enterprises' purchase of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. daily newspapers in Montana in 1959, releasing them from their infamous "copper collar."

School of Journalism 

 Economic Outlook Seminar: First Stop Missoula
 

"The New ICE Age: Investing in a Competitive, Educated Workforce" is the theme of the 33rd Annual Montana Economic Outlook Seminar.

The seminar will visit nine cities across Montana throughout January, February and March. It begins today in Missoula and will travel to Helena, Great Falls, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Kalispell, Lewistown and Havre.

Sponsored by UM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, this year's seminar will feature Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns discussing the integral role education plays in workforce development in the state. Stearns will explain how investment in education will continue to keep Big Sky Country competitive.

As in past years, BBER Director Paul Polzin will highlight the latest economic trends and explain what they mean for Montana. He also will present an economic forecast for each seminar city.

All seminars begin at 8 a.m. and end after the luncheon at about 1 p.m. The $80 registration fee includes the seminar, a proceedings booklet, lunch and a one-year subscription to the Montana Business Quarterly, the state's award-winning business journal.

Continuing education credits are available for a $20 processing fee. A complete series schedule and registration forms are on the BBER Web site. For more information, call 406-243-5113.

Bureau of Business and Economic Research 

 Series Features Climate Change Solutions
 

The 2008 Wilderness Issues Lecture Series -- "Climate Change: Moving from Science to Solutions" -- will take place at UM during February, March and April.

Lectures feature speakers from varied disciplines and fields, each with practical experience working in innovative ways to understand and effectively respond to climate change. They are free and open to the public and will be held on campus from 7 to 8:30 p.m. the first three Tuesdays of each month.

The first series event -- "The Great Warming, Drought and the Flail of God: An Archaeologist Looks at Climate Change" -- by Brian Fagan, author of "The Little Ice Age" and "The Great Warming," will take place on Feb. 5 in Urey Lecture Hall.

A complete series schedule and information about presenters is on the Web site.

Wilderness Issues Lecture Series 

 Art Appreciation Short Course Offered
 

A lively journey into the world of visual arts will be offered through a three-session course at UM in February. The course -- "Very Visual: Art Appreciation and Visual Literacy" -- is open to the public and designed for adults. No prior background in the arts is required.

Local art historian Ted Hughes will teach the course, which is intended both for personal enrichment and to build on the talents and knowledge of current and potential docents at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture and the Missoula Art Museum.

Classes will meet from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, Feb. 5, 12 and 19, in University Center Room 326. The course costs $26, which includes registration and art supplies, for those who register by Thursday, Jan. 31, and $35 after that date.

To register or for more information, call MMAC at 406-243-2019 or e-mail museum@u montana.edu.

 

 Community Lecture Series Begins Feb. 12
 

The 10th Annual Community Lecture Series brings back three outstanding UM professors who presented the first series lectures in 1998.

The topics of this year's series -- "Behind the Headlines Revisited" -- are even more pertinent now than they were before Sept. 11, 2001, and the Iraq war. Each professor will give two lectures followed by a question-and-answer session.

Cost of the lecture series is $20 for the general public, $15 for UM Alumni Association members and $10 for students. Only 200 tickets will be sold. For tickets, call 406-243-4019.

Following are the lecture dates, titles and presenters. Lectures will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the University Center Theater.

-- Feb. 12 and 19: "Human Rights and the World Today" by UM Regents Professor of History Paul Lauren.

-- Feb. 26 and March 4: "The Global War on Terrorism: Its Origins and Likely Outcomes" by UM history Professor Richard Drake.

-- March 11 and 18: "Islam and the West" by Mehrdad Kia, associate provost for UM International Programs.

Community Lecture Series 

 Teachers Invited To Apply For Seminar
 

Montana high school and middle school teachers of history, social studies, geography and literature are invited to apply for participation in a 30-hour seminar on East Asian history and culture to be held on three weekends during February, March and April at UM.

The seminar is administered by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia and funded by the Freeman Foundation of New York. Twenty teachers will be selected for the seminar, which will be held Feb. 1-2, March 7-8 and April 18-19. Sessions run from 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays and from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Friday dinners and Saturday lunches will be provided.

Teachers who apply and are chosen for the seminar will receive the course materials valued at $200, a $200 stipend for attending the seminar, an additional $300 stipend for completing the wrap-up seminar to take place in September, and $200 to purchase curriculum materials for their school libraries.

Two UM graduate-level credits are offered to seminar participants for a fee of $135. Office of Public Instruction credits are available at no charge.

For application forms and more information, call Youngee Cho at 406-243-6311 or e-mail ycho@ntsg.umt.edu .

 

 Exhibition Showcases Modern Indian Art
 

"Impacted Nations," a traveling exhibition of contemporary American Indian art, will be at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture's Meloy and Paxson galleries through Feb. 26.

Organized by the Native American advocacy foundation Honor the Earth, the exhibition features 52 compelling works by 44 contemporary American Indian artists that address the conflict between Native people's relationship to the earth and the political and economic forces that undermine it.

Two free public events will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.

At 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25, in the Montana Theatre, American Indian activist, writer and environmentalist Winona LaDuke will present "Creating Just Societies: The Environment, the Economy and Human Relationships in the Next Millennium." LaDuke is executive director of Honor the Earth and was instrumental in bringing the exhibition to the UM museum. The presentation is an event of UM's President's Lecture Series.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, the museum will hold a closing reception that includes a screening of the documentary video "Homeland" at 7 p.m. LaDuke will give a gallery talk and lead a discussion following the screening.

Montana Museum of Art & Culture 

 UM Scientists Land NSF Awards
 

Prestigious five-year Early Career Development Program grants have been awarded by the National Science Foundation to UM faculty members Creagh Breuner and Vanessa Ezenwa. Both women are assistant professors in UM's Wildlife Biology Program and Division of Biological Sciences.

Each year between 350 and 400 assistant professors nationally earn the awards, which honor promising teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education for their institution. The grants generally range from $500,000 to $1 million. Breuner will receive $800,000, and Ezenwa will get $715,000.

Breuner, who has worked at UM for a year and a half, studies interactions among unexpected environmental changes, behavior responses to those stressors and the hormonal mechanisms underlying those responses. She has studied sparrows breeding just outside Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada since 1997.

Ezenwa has been employed at UM for two and a half years and studies the causes and consequences of variation in parasite infection in wild animal populations. Her study area is in Kenya, where she did her doctoral research.

Both researches will involve undergraduate researchers in their work. Breuner intends to recruit four students to assist her for six weeks each spring in California. Ezenwa will take one UM student to Africa with her each year, where that recruit will take a field course and do research projects with undergraduates from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

 Modernist Masterpiece At UM Library
 

A modernist sculptural masterpiece by Jean Arp will be on view through April 9 at UM's Mansfield Library. The sculpture, "Colonne de Rêve" or "Dream Column," is on loan to the Montana Museum of Art & Culture from an anonymous private collector and will be located in the entrance area of the Mansfield Library.

Jean Arp (1886-1966) was a German-born artist admired for his leading role in developing and establishing what is most commonly referred to as biomorphic or organic abstraction.

Library hours are on the Web site. For more information, call MMAC at 406-243-2019.

Mansfield Library 

 Nominees Sought For Pantzer Award
 

UM presents the Robert T. Pantzer Award each year to a person from the University or the state who has substantially contributed to making the University a more open and humane learning environment.

The award honors Pantzer, UM president during 1966-74, whose open-door policy was a hallmark of his administration. He also provided outstanding leadership in the preservation of unfettered academic inquiry and expression.

UM seeks nominations of individuals who exemplify Pantzer's ideals. Nominations should include the individual's resume and a statement of how the nominee fits the award criteria.

The nomination deadline is Friday, Feb. 1. The award will be presented at the University's Charter Day ceremonies on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Send nominations to UM Provost Royce Engstrom, Pantzer Award Committee chair, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812 or fax them to 406-243-5937. For more information, call the Provost's Office at 406-243-4689.

Provost's Office 

 One-Act Operas Coming To Missoula