DURHAM — The Carrboro-based nonprofit group Hidden Voices presents “Speaking Without Tongues,” a performance by and about the survivors of violence against women, tonight at 7 p.m. at the Reynolds Theater in Duke University’s Bryan Center
The play is based on true stories gathered across the state from women who have been, or still are being, abused. The performance is joined by a monthlong exhibition in Duke Chapel of photographs and multimedia boxes that help tell the personal stories of violence and survival in the lives of women from diverse ethnic backgrounds across North Carolina.
The performance is part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and is sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center.
For more information, e-mail rights@duke.edu or call 668-6511.
Dorfman series at Nasher
DURHAM — Duke University’s Center for International Studies will host a yearlong series of events celebrating playwright and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman’s 25th anniversary at Duke.
“Ariel Dorfman: 25 Years at Duke” will include film screenings, theatrical programs and an academic conference on Dorfman’s work.
From Thursday to Saturday, at the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke theater studies lecturing fellow Jay O’Berski will perform a staged reading of Dorfman’s play “Picasso’s Closet.” A question and answer with Dorfman, the Walter Hines Page professor of literature and Latin American studies, will follow Thursday’s performance.
General admission tickets are $5. For ticket information, call 684-4444 or visit tickets.duke.edu.
A benefit dinner Nov. 15 at the Nasher will precede a special performance of the play at 7 p.m. Contact Jennifer Prather at jennifer.prather@duke.edu to make reservations for the dinner. Ticket sales from all four performances and the dinner will benefit three local organizations supporting literary and human rights.
Duke University Press is publishing a book by Dorfman’s former student, Sophia McClennen, now a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. “Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope” is scheduled to be published in February 2010.
On Jan. 29, McClennen will convene an academic conference at Duke on Dorfman’s work in conjunction with Duke University Press’s reprinting of his book, “The Empire’s Old Clothes.”
Also next spring, the Screen/Society will show a series of Dorfman’s films, including “Death and the Maiden,” “Prisoners in Time,” “Deadline,” “A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman,” and “My House is on Fire.” Check fvd.aas.duke.edu/screensociety/ for schedule information.
Sandel lecture No. 3 at Duke
DURHAM — Harvard University professor and political philosopher Michael Sandel will deliver a lecture at Duke University on the moral and ethical dilemmas embedded in such contemporary issues as income inequality, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, torture and terrorism.
The author of a new book, “Justice — What’s the Right Thing to Do?,” Sandel will speak at 5 p.m. Nov. 3, at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
The lecture and book signing in the Sanford Building’s Fleishman Commons are free and open to the public. Paid parking for the event will be available in the Bryan Center lot and garage.
Sandel’s undergraduate course, “Justice,” has enrolled more than 14,000 students, making it one of the most highly attended courses in Harvard’s history. The course is available in a 12-part series broadcast on public television. Episodes, discussion guides and readings are also available online at www.justiceharvard.org.
Yasuda receives research award
DURHAM — The Society for Neuroscience has awarded a research award for innovation in neuroscience to Ryohei Yasuda, an assistant professor in Duke University Medical Center’s Department of Neurobiology.
The award honors Yasuda for innovative, imaginative research with the potential to generate new ideas and breakthroughs in neuroscience. Supported by the Astellas USA Foundation, the award includes $25,000 for Duke’s neurobiology department.
Yasuda, who started his laboratory at Duke in 2006, has been a pioneer in researching synaptic plasticity, which is the ability of the connection, or synapse, between two brain cells to change in strength.
Collaborations Web site’s focus
DURHAM — Duke University Medical Center, in partnership with The University of Washington’s Institute for Translational Health Sciences, Wayne State University and Group Health Research Institute, has developed a new Web site to help researchers create and sustain successful multisite research collaborations.
The project team created the site, www.researchtoolkit.org, to enhance the efficiency of research from start to finish, including developing research networks, launching and managing projects, and sharing study results or other products such as data sets, tools and training resources.
The site was developed as part of a project known as PRIMER, or Partnership-driven Resources to IMprove and Enhance Research. The “toolkit” on the site spans the entire lifecycle of a research project, allowing visitors to find to everything from a link to regulatory training, to authorship guidelines, to templates for consent forms.
— Compiled by Neil Offen
