Friday lectures: Geography, Cinema, Anthropology and Women's Studies

Friday Lectures Abound: Geography, Cinema, Anthropology and Women’s Studies

By Jessica Luton

Fall is in full swing here in Athens. And alongside the crisp cool air and colorful changing leaves all over campus is a busy schedule of lectures, from both UGA faculty and visiting scholars.  Here’s a look at what’s on today’s schedule for lectures.

Women’s Studies: Female Judges

First up, is the Women’s Studies Friday Speaker Series held each week in room 148 at the MLC from 12:20 to 1:10 p.m. We’ve written about this series before.

This week’s lecture, given by Susan Haire, an associate professor in the school of political science and international affairs, will address the need for more female judges on the Federal Appeals Court bench. 

Geography: Climate Connections and Marine Science

This afternoon, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., the Geography Departmental Colloquium is sure to be informative and inspiring as UGA department of marine sciences professor and researcher Patricia Yager discusses her research about climate change and the marine biosphere.  The lecture, entitled “Climate Connections to the Marine Biosphere—from the Amazon to Antarctica,” will be given in room 200C of the Geography and Geology building.  Below is the description:

“The ocean has absorbed about one-third of the anthropogenic carbon produced, but scientists know this sink is climate sensitive. With high latitude changes in sea ice cover, and extreme hydrologic variability in the tropics, the carbon sink offered by marine ecosystems is likely to change, potentially feeding back to climate. Using observations from marine ecosystems in both the Amazon River plume and the Amundsen Sea polyna in Antarctica, this seminar will discuss what role the ocean plays in global climate, particularly when it comes to understanding how the ocean biosphere is helping to keep our planet cooler than it might otherwise be. The question is whether the ocean can continue to play this role under changing climate conditions.”

Ecology:  Enamel and Jomon Period Foragers

Over in Baldwin Hall at the same time, 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., the Anthropology Fall Speaker Series will feature a lecture by University of North Carolina, Wilmington, professor and researcher Dan Temple.  His lecture, in room 264, is entitled “Tracking Variation in Ecology and Life History Using Linear Enamel Hypoplasia and Incremental Microstructures of Enamel Among Late/Final Jomon Period Foragers.”  Temple’s lab website offers the following description of his work:

“We study systemic stress using enamel microstructures, appositional and longitudinal growth, ecogeographic and functional adaptation, and phenotypic evolution in postcranial morphology. Our approach is integrative, and our research questions address two of the larger questions in biological anthropology: 1. How does variation in ecology drive human life history? 2. What forces of evolution have operated to produce diversity in postcranial morphology?

We focus on Early to Late Holocene foragers from Jomon period Japan, Siberia, Florida, and Alaska.”

Cinema Roundtable: A Discussion of 1973

At 4 p.m. in room 150 of the MLC is “The Way We Were in 1973: From Mainstream Nostalgia to New Hollywood, Blaxploitation and Foreign Art Cinema.”  Here’s a recent blog post on the event.  And the description of today’s discussion provides some context about just why this particular year was chosen as a topic of discussion. 

“The Way We Were in 1973: From Mainstream Nostalgia to New Hollywood, Blaxploitation and Foreign Art Cinema." This fall’s Cinema Roundtable investigates 1973 in American cinema, expanding on the special “Now and Then: 1973″ exhibit at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. This roundtable is moderated by Richard Neupert, film studies coordinator in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, and features theatre and film studies faculty Freda Scott Giles (African American Studies), Christopher Sieving and Rielle Navitsky.

For politics and culture, 1973 included such milestones as Roe v. Wade, the return of POWs from the Vietnam War and President Richard Nixon proclaiming he was not a crook on national television.

In the world of cinema, things were just as tumultuous. Hollywood offered up movies set in the past, such as "The Way We Were" and "The Sting," while Scorsese’s "Mean Streets," "Malick’s Badlands" and Friedkin’s "The Exorcist" shook up the usual formulas. Within "Blaxploitation," women characters burst on the screen in Coffyand Cleopatra Jones, while Jimmy Cliff brought reggae into the mainstream with "The Harder They Come." But foreign cinema was also huge in art cinemas that year, with Brando shocking America in "Last Tango in Paris," though Truffaut’s "Day for Night" won the Academy Award, and Bruce Lee helped launch a martial arts craze.

Today is a great day to check out a free lecture and explore a topic of intrigue or one of sincere passion.  Don’t pass up the opportunity is see one of these great lectures this afternoon.