Women's Rights, Industrial Symbiosis, Books by Scott Turow, Monitoring the Nation's Health Among Topics This Week at Yale

The following talks at Yale University from Feb. 15-21 are free and open to the public, unless noted otherwise.

Talk to examine women’s rights in the U.S.

“Women’s Human Rights in the United States” will be the focus of a talk by Dorothy Q. Thomas, who was the founding director of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch in New York 1990-98. The lecture, which is sponsored by the department of women and gender studies, will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in Rm. 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.

Thomas is the author of several reports and articles on the human rights of women, including “All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of Women in U.S. Prisons” and “Advancing Rights Protection in the United States: An International Advocacy Strategy.” She is currently a consultant with the Shaler Adams Foundation, where she focuses on the use of human rights strategies by women’s rights and other groups working in the United States. Her honors include the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, given by the U.S. president; a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship; and the 1994 Peace Fellowship of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.

Danish business leader to discuss ‘Industrial Symbiosis’

In Kalundborg, Denmark, an elaborate web of physical interconnections has been created among an oil refinery, an electric power plant, a pharmaceutical factory, a wallboard manufacturer and several other industries and institutions. Dubbed “industrial symbiosis,” this network allows the waste from one facility to be used as the raw material for another.

Danish business leader Jorgen Christensen, director of JC Consult, will discuss this pathbreaking enterprise in “Industrial Symbiosis at Kalundborg, Denmark: Profitable Environmental Advantages Across the Fence.” The talk will be held at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. Audience members will have an opportunity to meet with the speaker at a reception in the Sage Hall lounge following the talk.

Christensen’s talk is the second lecture in the spring series “Corporate Redesign: Approaches to Sustainability,” sponsored by the Yale Industrial Environmental Management Program at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Feature speakers this semester will look at the efforts of companies to redesign themselves to make the pursuit of environmental sustainability possible. The spring series is supported by the Joel Omura Kurihara Fund, named after a member of the Yale College Class of 1992 who was committed to improving business and environmental relations. For further information about the series, call 432-6197 or e-mail jtesta@yale.edu.

Microbiologist to detail lethal impact of nutrient pollution

“Algae, Pig Farms and Massive Fish Kills” is the title of the next talk in the semester-long Distinguished Lecturer lunchtime series “The Restoration Agenda: Focus on Plants” at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The featured speaker will be JoAnn Burkholder, professor of aquatic botany and marine sciences at North Carolina State University at Raleigh, who has studied the effects of sewage and other nutrient pollution on algae, dinoflagellates and seagrasses, and its chronic – sometimes lethal – impacts on commercially important finfish and shellfish in estuaries and aquaculture facilities. She will speak on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

All the talks in the “Restoration Agenda” series are held 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium at Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. Participants may bring a brown bag lunch for the discussion following the talk. For registration information, contact Aimlee D. Laderman, lecturer in wetland ecology and research affiliate at the F&ES, telephone 432-3335, or e-mail aimlee.laderman@yale.edu. The series is cosponsored by the Society for Ecological Restoration and the New Haven Land Trust.

In addition to research and teaching, Burkholder spends much of her time in environmental education outreach activities spanning age groups from first-graders to the elderly. She has been a policy adviser to the State of North Carolina, and received an Admiral of the Chesapeake award from the governor of Maryland for her assistance. Her other awards include the Conservationist of the Year Award in Science from the National Wildlife Federation, and the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Israeli pianist to perform at Branford College

The Branford College dining hall, at 74 High St., will be transformed into a concert hall on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 16, when Israeli pianist Tal Weissman presents a program of works by Gideon Klein, Schumann, Liszt and Schubert. The performance begins at 8:30 p.m.

Born in Haifa, Israel, Weissman began his musical training at age 5, and later took his degree at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. After winning several national and international prizes, he performed in concert with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. In 1995 Weissman moved to London to study with internationally renowned pianist and pedagogue Maria Curcio Diamond (who will accompany the pianist to New Haven). He also studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Since coming to London, he has appeared in concert with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. Following his performance at the Chamber Music Festival in Salon De Provence, Weissman was described as “a pianist who has the qualities which are the apanage of the great soloists.”

British Art Center hosting talk by London Times critic

Richard Cork, chief art critic for The Times of London, will present a lecture titled “The Figure as Survivor: Bacon, Epstein, Freud and Moore in the Aftermath of War” at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, in the lecture hall of the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St.

In addition to serving as an art critic for several periodicals, Cork was editor of Studio International, and is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. He has organized major exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Hayward Gallery. In fact, he won a National Art Collections Fund Award in 1995 for his exhibition on art and World War I, which was shown in Berlin and London. Cork is the author of several publications, including “Vorticism,” which received the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize in 1976 and “Art Beyond the Gallery,” which won the Banister Fletcher Award as the best art book of 1985. He is currently working on a history of British sculpture in the 20th century.

The critic’s lecture is the last in a series of talks being presented in conjunction with the special exhibitions of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Henry Moore, which are on view at the British Art Center through March 21.

Yale Review presents poetry reading

Poet Charles Wright will read from his recent work at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, in Rm. 102 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 Wall St. The reading is sponsored by The Yale Review.

Wright is a professor of English at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. His most recent book of poetry is “Black Zodiac.” His earlier works are “The Grave of the Right Hand,” “Hard Freight,” Bloodlines,” “China Trace,” “The Southern Cross,” “Country Music: Selected Early Poems,” “The Other Side of the River,” “Zone Journals,” “The World of the Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980-1990” and “Chickamauga.”

The poet’s many honors include the Academy of American Poets’ Edgar Allan Poe Award, the National Book Award in Poetry and the Brandeis Creative Arts Citation for Poetry. He has also been awarded the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of Italian poet Eugenio Montale’s “The Storm and Other Things.” Most recently, Wright won the Academy of American Poets’ Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for “Chickamauga.”

‘Presumed Innocent’ author to speak at Law School

“Where Have You Gone, Perry Mason: The Lawyer’s Image” will be the topic of a talk by author and attorney Scott Turow, whose books include the national bestseller “Presumed Innocent.” The talk will take place at 4:10 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Law School’s Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. Sponsored by the Knight Journalism Fellows, the lecture is free and open to the public.

Turow’s first book, “One L,” described his experiences as a first-year student at Harvard Law School. His first novel, “Presumed Innocent,” appeared 10 years later, and rose to number-one on national bestseller lists, where it remained for two months. That book was later turned into a successful motion picture. Turow’s second novel, “The Burden of Proof,” was also a bestseller and was filmed for ABC-TV as a mini-series. His third and fourth novels, “Pleading Guilty” and “The Laws of Our Fathers,” also became number-one national bestsellers. More than 20 million copies of Turow’s books have been sold worldwide. His works have been translated into 20 languages and garnered numerous literary awards.

Turow continues to work as an attorney, and is a partner in the Chicago office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, an international law firm with over 300 lawyers. His practice centers on white-collar litigation, and involves representation of individuals and companies in all phases of criminal matters. In 1995, acting pro bono, he successfully urged the Illinois Appellate Court to reverse the murder conviction of Alejandro Hernandez and to grant him a fourth trial. Following the acquittal of his codefendant, Rolando Cruz, Hernandez was freed, after nearly 12 years in prison.

Monitoring nation’s social health is topic of talk

Marc Miringoff, director of the Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy and creator of the Index of Social Health, will give a talk titled “The Social Health of the Nation” on Friday, Feb. 19, at noon in Rm. 211 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St. The event is sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy.

Miringoff, who is also professor of social policy at Fordham University Graduate Center in Tarrytown, New York, developed the Index of Social Health in 1985 with a team of colleagues. The index has since become a nationally recognized social barometer that, every year, gauges the nation’s progress in addressing major social problems ranging from child abuse to infant mortality, high school drop-out rates, crime, affordable housing and the gap between rich and poor. Miringoff will discuss trends in the social health of the United States from 1970 to 1996, the years for which the index has been calculated.

For the past five years, Miringoff has produced an annual social health report for Connecticut, the first state in the nation to mandate by law an annual portrait of the social state of its citizens. He has prepared a national social report in book form, titled “The Social Health of the Nation: How America is Really Doing,” which will be published this spring. He is also the author of “American Social Policy: Reassessment and Reform” and “Management in Human Service Organizations.” For further information, call 432-9935.

Former trustee will speak and preach on campus

The Right Reverend Paul Moore, an alumnus who served as a Yale trustee 1964-90, will give a lecture and preach at a campus service on Sunday, Feb. 21.

Moore is retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and an internationally known advocate of social assistance and reform. He will speak about “Faith and Social Justice” at 3 p.m. in the Dwight Hall library, 67 High St. (entrance on Old Campus). At 5 p.m., he will preach at a service of the Episcopal Church at Yale in the Dwight Hall chapel. The events are sponsored by the Magee Fellowship at Dwight Hall and the Episcopal Church at Yale.

Moore is a member of the Yale College Class of 1941. His family extends back to colonial Connecticut and includes several generations of Yale graduates who have been deeply involved in the University. He is a direct descendant of George Beckwith, who was a successor trustee of the Yale Corporation 1763-77.