On Tuesday, February 28, Professor Jeffrey Kahn of Johns Hopkins University gave a talk in Gladfelter Hall entitled “Chimpanzees in Research: Ethics, Necessity & Why It Matters”. The context for his talk was a recently released report by an ad hoc committee which he chaired, entitled Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity, available for free on the National Academies Press web site. The committee was formed by the Institute of Medicine at the request of the National Institutes of Health and a congressional inquiry, with the charge of determining the necessity of using chimpanzees in NIH-funded research and making recommendations for future use. The report’s recommendations were immediately accepted by the NIH (see press release).

Before his talk, he graciously agreed to stop by Paley Library for an interview.

[ensemblevideo contentid=vD6OprYL-kSFo414t36PgA audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

—Fred Rowland

[ensemblevideo contentid=l97R1rQTwUiME7caE8pW4Q audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

On November 14, 2011, The Center for Afro-Jewish Studies held its 6th Annual Symposium on “Passing”: Religion, Politics & Peoplehood, a topic inspired by the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.

“Both Griffin and Fanon, though primarily concerned with racism and colonialism, were in dialogue with Jewish history and experience. “Passing”: Religion, Politics & Peoplehood will explore both the impact of their works at their time of publication and the after-effects of the texts’ publication in Jewish and African-American communities in America and Israel.” —from Pre-symposium press release

Press Release      Symposium Program

Before the symposium began, I spoke with two of the day’s participants, Robin Washington, editor of the Duluth News Tribune, and Lewis Gordon, Temple professor of religion and philosophy and director of the Center for Afro-Judaic Studies.

—Fred Rowland

[ensemblevideo contentid=lRwRqYz4zEC0xIHQRqT0wg audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

On September 30, Professor Frederick Ahl of the Cornell University Classics Department spoke at Temple University about “Wordplay in the Aeneid”. The Zeta Beta Chapter of Eta Sigma Phi invited him to campus for its second annual lecture. Zeta Beta is a group on campus that promotes the teaching, study, and appreciation of Latin, Greek, and the ancient world.

On Saturday morning, Oct. 1, I interviewed Professor Ahl. We discussed wordplay in the Aeneid, the unease with which modern scholars encounter and interpret wordplay, and his love of the plays of Gilbert & Sullivan, on whom he is currently writing a book. Anyone who is interested in wordplay, or in the cultural and intellectual life of the ancient world, will find this interview very interesting.

The three winners of the 2010-2011 Temple University Library Prize for Undergraduate Research were interviewed along with their faculty sponsors at the time of the awards ceremony. The interviews are now available, below.

On the Library Prize Web site, you can find links to their research essays and research papers.

[ensemblevideo contentid=3sEgvnYGIkWG7yztGZxJpg audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

Melissa Garretson, “The Dancing Intelligence of the Age: Women of the Institute of Colored Youth, 1852-1903,” for History 4296 with professor Bettye Collier-Thomas

[ensemblevideo contentid=lbvf3WWcb0iYOjtD-Z_hDQ audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

Karl McCool, “A Pornographic Avant-Garde: Boys in the Sand, LA Plays Itself, and the Construction of a Gay Masculinity,” for LGBT Studies 3400 with professor Whitney Strub

[ensemblevideo contentid=z9M8jeBG1EWipbHYM4I9FQ audio=true showcaptions=true]

Audio Download Link (for later)

Cara Rankin, “Cracking Consensus: The Dominican Intervention, Public Opinion and Advocacy Organizations in the 1960s,” for History 4997 with professor Petra Goedde

Allen Hornblum has written The Invisible Harry Gold: The man who gave the Soviets the atom bomb, published by Yale University Press in 2010. Surprisingly, this is the first biography of Harry Gold. In this interview, Mr. Hornblum talks about Harry Gold’s South Philly roots, his entry into spying, and his eventual arrest and conviction. He also talks about his sources for this work, including the papers of Joseph Gold, Harry’s brother, which are housed in the Temple University Libraries’ Special Collections.

The interview is in two parts.

Harry Gold: the early years
[ensemblevideo contentid=FCBuZmBxtUqgw5gKObdsdw audio=true showcaptions=true]
Audio Download Link (for later)

Harry Gold becomes a spy
[ensemblevideo contentid=tOT8f8nkdEmO0u7r2Jp_sg audio=true showcaptions=true]
Audio Download Link (for later)

—Fred Rowland