Conference Examines State's "Past, Present and Future"

Life in Connecticut in the 1880s compared with life in the state today will be the focus of a conference at Yale this weekend, April 17 and 18.

Members of the media are invited to attend this event, titled “Connecticut: Past, Present and Future,” which is sponsored by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences as part of its 200th anniversary celebration.

In a series of short seminars, scientists and scholars – including Yale professors Howard Lamar, Robert Gordon and Wendell Bell – will paint a portrait of Connecticut citizens and their communities from economic, environmental, cultural and social perspectives.

Saturday’s sessions will be held 8:30 a.m.P4 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery lecture hall; Sunday’s sessions will be held 9 a.m.Pnoon in Kline Geology Laboratory, 210 Whitney Ave.

Also highlighting the conference will be several special lectures. David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News &World Report, will discuss societal challenges on Saturday, 2:50 p.m.; Joseph L. Dionne, chair of the board of McGraw-Hill Companies, will speak on education in the next millennium on Sunday, 10:20 a.m.; and William Ferris, director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will talk about the 21st-century role of technology in the humanities at a reception/dinner at Yale, on Saturday, 6 p.m.

In conjunction with the conference, the academy is also exhibiting documents and items from its archives at Sterling Memorial Library; the Medical Library, Sterling Hall of Medicine; and the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Conference seminars and talks are open to the public free of charge. There is a fee for the dinners and other social events. For further information or to purchase tickets, call 432-3113, ext. 2.