3 Millionth Volume Lecture A Conversation with Marjorie Garber, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and of Visual and Environmental Studies, Chair of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University November 13, 3:30 p.m., Paley Library, Lecture Hall 1210 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA With interests ranging from sexuality to literary theory, visual studies to popular culture, academics, real estate, politics, Shakespeare and dogs—Marjorie Garber is one of the nation’s foremost, and versatile scholars. Garber has published thirteen books and edited twelve collections of essays covering these topics and more. She is deeply engaged with visual studies, and her dialogue with the topic–characteristically eclectic–includes Patronizing the Arts (2008), Media Spectacles (2003) and a number of interdisciplinary studies, including the groundbreaking Vested Interests: Cross Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (2002). She has also written extensively on Shakespeare (Profiling Shakespeare [2008], Shakespeare After All [2004]) and literary theory (A Manifesto for Literary Studies [2004], Fieldwork: Sites in Literary and Cultural Studies [1996]). Please join the Libraries, Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT) and the General Education Program in welcoming Garber for the 3 Millionth Volume Lecture.

Chat in the Stacks November 6, 2:30 p.m. Paley Library Lecture Hall Chat in the Stacks is an on-going series highlighting and promoting excellence in faculty research, creativity and scholarship. Please join us for this cross-disciplinary conversation with professors from across Temple. The Libraries and the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color began Chat in the Stacks in the spring of 2008 as a way to engage the Temple community with the latest research taking place across our campuses. The Libraries and the committee are again delighted to bring you a panel discussion with Temple faculty on the latest academic work taking place at our vibrant university. On November 6, this series highlighting and promoting excellence in faculty research will feature Doug Wager, head of the department of directing in the School of Communications and Theater and SFC Michael Woody of the ROTC program at Temple.

Monday, November 3, 2008, 5:30 p.m. Paley Library Lecture Hall Join the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection of Temple University Libraries in welcoming authors and artists Deb Willis and Hank Willis Thomas. Both authors will sign copies of their latest books–Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs (Dr. Deb Willis) and Pitch Blackness (Hank Willis Thomas).

Deb Willis is the Chair of the Photography Department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Dr. Willis also holds an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences in Africana Studies at NYU. She has pursued a dual professional career as an art photographer and as one of the nation’s leading historians of African American photography and curator of African American culture. Her awards, exhibitions and publications are many, but highlights include: a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship and Fletcher Fellowship, a 2000 MacArthur Fellowship, she was also the 1996 recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation award. Other notable projects include: The Black Female Body A Photographic History with Carla Williams (Temple University Press, Philadephia, 2002); A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. DuBois and the Photographs from the Paris Exposition (Amistad Press, 2003); Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers – 1840 to the Present (New York: W.W. Norton); Visual Journal: Photography in Harlem and DC in the Thirties and Forties (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1996); Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography (The New Press, New York, NY, 1994); and VANDERZEE: The Portraits of James VanDerZee (Harry Abrams Publishing, New York, NY, 1993). Dr. Willis will be signing copies of her latest book, Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs. Through 150 striking color photographs, Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs charts the road to Barack Obama’s nomination as the first African American to lead the presidential ticket of a major party.

Hank Willis Thomas received his BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and his MFA in photography, along with an MA in visual criticism‚ from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. He has exhibited in galleries and museums, including the Studio Museum in Harlem; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Leica Gallery, New York; and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Willis Thomas is the first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize, a new annual prize for artists living west of the Mississippi. He lives in Oakland, California. He will be signing copies of his latest book, Pitch Blackness.

The Unique Craft of Artist Books October 7, 6:00 p.m., Temple Gallery in Olde City 259 N. Third Street, Philadelphia, PA Join the Libraries and the Tyler School of Art Department of Exhibitions and Public Programs for a conversation on the unique craft of artist books. The Libraries’ Special Collections Curator, Tom Whitehead, and Tyler’s Andrea Goldstein present Temple’s most curious examples of artist books and lead a discussion on the craftsmanship of book making. This special program is presented in conjunction with concurrent exhibits on the art and craft of the book at Temple Gallery in Old City, Paley Library and Tyler Library on the Elkins Park campus, all on view through October 25.

A Conversation with Nobel Prize Winner Roald Hoffmann October 6, 2:30 p.m., Sullivan Hall, Feinstone Lounge, Second Floor 1330 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA Roald Hoffmann won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981. Educated at Columbia and Harvard, and a long-time faculty member at Cornell, Hoffmann is a distinguished public intellectual who has carved out a land between science, poetry and philosophy. A professor of what he terms “applied theoretical chemistry,” he is also an accomplished writer, poet and playwright. His poetry collections include Gaps and Verges (1990), Memory Effects (1999), and Catalista (in Spanish, 2002). The 1993 he wrote Chemistry Imagined (1993) with artist Vivian Torrance, combining her collages with his essays, poetry and personal commentary. With fellow chemist Carl Djerassi, Hoffmann wrote the play Oxygen (2001), which has been performed worldwide, and translated into ten languages. Hoffmann runs a monthly cabaret, Entertaining Science, at the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village.

Chat in the Stacks October 2, 2:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Interested in the newest research going on at Temple? Want to hear about the mysteries of academic publishing? Want to hear a lively conversation between professors from a variety of disciplines and the director of Temple’s academic press? Then join us for CHAT IN THE STACKS The Libraries and the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color began Chat in the Stacks in the spring of 2008 as a way to engage the Temple community with the latest research taking place across our campuses. On October 2, the series highlighting and promoting excellence in faculty research, will feature Dr. Bryant Simon, professor of history discussing Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America; best-selling author Solomon Jones on his latest book; and Alex Holzman of Temple Press explaining how academic work like this gets published! The conversation will be moderated by Professor Kimmika L.H. Williams-Witherspoon of the Theater Department. Please join us October 2, at 2:30 p.m., for this wonderful conversation in Paley Library Lecture Hall.

September 18, 2:30 p.m., Paley Library, Lecture Hall 1210 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics at Temple, has gained world-wide acclaim as a public speaker, author and columnist. His latest book, Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008), has once again caused a sensation. Previous books include Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (1989), which spent five months on The New York Times best-sellers list, and was translated into 14 languages; and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995), which was a number one seller on amazon.com, adapted into a television mini-series for BBC and selected as one of the top 100 nonfiction books published in the English language since 1900 by Random House readers. Please join the Libraries in welcoming Paulos to Paley on September 18.