GSU speaker series to focus on Georgia’s water wars

Diverse voices will address the many issues surrounding Georgia’s disputes about water resources during an upcoming lecture series at Georgia State University.

The university’s Department of Geosciences will present speakers who have different perspectives on the legal, social and physical aspects of the ongoing water dispute between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over water resources in the Chattahoochee River basin, especially Lake Lanier. The series is free and open to the public.

The lectures, to be held at 4 p.m. on the following dates, include sessions with:

· James Bross, professor of law at Georgia State University, who is an expert on water law and the history of the dispute; Jan.28 in Room 718 of the General Classroom Building.
· Neill Herring, a lobbyist with the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club, who will speak about water conservation in Atlanta; Feb. 11 in Room 316 of Kell Hall.
· Frank Stephens, program analyst for Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources, who represents the county’s interests in the ongoing dispute; March 18, Room 316 of Kell Hall.
· David Feldman, professor in the Department of Planning, Policy and Design at the University of California Irvine, who will address similarities between Georgia’s water war with its neighboring states and the famous Los Angeles water grabs of the early 20th century; April 29, Room 718 of the General Classroom Building.

In July 2009, a federal judge ruled that by 2012, Georgia would have to drastically reduce water withdrawals from Lake Lanier to support Atlanta’s water needs to 1970s levels. Georgia recently won the right to appeal the case — part of the decades-long battle between Georgia, Florida and Alabama to settle the dispute.

“The series is timely, particularly given the ruling last summer in the dispute over water resources,” said Jordan Clayton, assistant professor of geosciences, a co-organizer of the speaker series with Katherine Hankins, assistant professor of geosciences. “It’s important to understand what the judge’s ruling is, its impact for Georgia, and the roles of Alabama and Florida in the dispute.”

“We are intentionally presenting speakers with opposing points of view who will provoke discussion in the audience, and who have different perspectives on the way water is being managed,” he added.

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John Stossel to Speak at Emory Law Nov. 18

Former ABC News anchor John Stossel will speak at Emory University School of Law at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, in the school’s Tull Auditorium. The lecture is sponsored by the Emory Federalist Society in conjunction with the Emory College Republicans and the Young America's Foundation.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The law school is located at 1301 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, 30322, and parking is available at the adjacent Lowergate South Parking Deck on Gambrell Drive.

Stossel’s lecture, “Bashing Business,” will focus on the role of the free market and self-interest in a prosperous society. A short question-and-answer session and book signing will follow. Copies of Stossel’s books, "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong" and "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media," will be available for sale.

Stossel, a former co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20, is the winner of 19 Emmy Awards, the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the Peabody Award. He also has been honored five times by the National Press Club for excellence in consumer reporting. Stossel recently announced plans to headline a show on Fox News.

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IMF advisor to speak at GSU about global financial crisis today

Teresa Ter-Minassian, a special advisor to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, will speak at Georgia State University at 2:30 p.m. Monday (April 6) in the 7th-floor seminar room of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The former director of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department will discuss the “Fiscal Implication of the Current Global Financial Crisis for Major Industrial and Emerging Market Countries” as the keynote speaker of the International Studies Program Lecture Series.

“Ter-Minassian’s presentation will focus in particular on the implications of the crisis for the public finances of the G-20 countries,” said Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, director of the International Studies Program.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Thursday (April 2) that the leaders of the G-20 nations agreed to supply an additional trillion dollars into the troubled economy by funding groups like IMF. The leaders plan to provide an additional $500 billion for the IMF, $250 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights and $250 billion to boost trade.

“Ter-Minassian will highlight the challenge of reversing the crisis-related deterioration in the public finances over the medium-term, a task made more compelling by the prospective rising fiscal costs of population aging,” Martinez-Vazquez said.

The IMF is an organization of 185 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. Among the organizations tasks are to provide policy advice to governments and central banks on analysis of economic trends and providing loans to help countries overcome economic difficulties.

Ter-Minassian has served in various positions at the IMF, including chief of the Southern European Division in the European Department, where she negotiated the 1983 IMF Stand-By Agreement with Portugal. She also served as deputy director of the Western Hemisphere Department, in which she headed the negotiations of the IMF programs with Brazil and Argentina.

Ter-Minassian’s areas of expertise include macroeconomic analysis, fiscal policy, budget management and intergovernmental fiscal relations. She has published several papers in these areas, including the book Fiscal Federalism in Theory and Practice.

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Former U.S. career diplomats offer perspectives on Obama's foreign policy

Recently retired U.S. Foreign Service officers Earle St. A. Scarlett and Barbara A.H. Scarlett, who have a combined 50-plus years of global diplomatic experience, will share their personal views on President Obama’s foreign policy plans at an event sponsored by the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk Center in cooperation with the Department of International Affairs and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The March 19 joint lecture featuring the Scarletts will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall located on North Campus. A question and answer session on careers in foreign affairs will follow.

The Scarletts had joint overseas diplomatic assignments in Cameroon, Brazil (twice, during the transition from military to civilian rule and subsequently), the Philippines (during the overthrow of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos), the former Yugoslavia (during its dissolution) and Ireland (implementing the Good Friday Agreement). Earle also served in Bosnia on the international diplomatic teamimplementing the Dayton Peace Accords.

Earle’s domestic assignments have included serving on the China Desk and Task Force during the Tiananmen Square incident and on the Somalia Desk. He was a U.S. State Department Dean Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University, director of political training at the Foreign Service Institute anda Foreign Service examiner.Healso served asa State Department senior adviser to the Commandant ofthe Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala.

Barbara is a graduate in strategic studies of the National Defense University and was aForeign Service examiner.A specialist in public diplomacy, Barbara also worked on diplomatic strategy for the Kyoto Protocol and on television and teleconference programmingon diplomatic issues in Latin America.She was policy adviser on the Middle East and desk officer for East Africa andAnglophone West Africa. In addition, in Washington, D.C., she had responsibilities for counterterrorism, infectious diseases and climate change.

Earle and Barbara both have been honored for their public service.Barbara received a Superior Honor Award for her work on the Kyoto Protocol and the Order of Chivalry from the Brazilian government for her work on U.S.-Brazil labor relations. Earle is a recipient of the Secretary's Career Achievement Award and the Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Awardfor Excellence in Political-Military Strategy.

The Scarletts have proficiency in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. They teach Balkans Affairs and international relations periodically at a university in Italy.

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Exploring the Economic Payoff of Investing in Educational Justice

A lack of proper education affects not only the students who miss out on learning, but also society because of lost productivity, lower tax revenues and higher costs of public services, according to Henry Levin who will speak at the Child Policy Speaker Series at Georgia State University Thursday, Feb. 19.

Levin, the William H. Kilpatrick professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, will present “The Economic Payoff to Investing in Educational Justice” at 3 p.m. in Room 750 of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The Speakers Series, presented by the Georgia Health Policy Center, is free and open to the public.

“A discussion of public educational investment is very timely considering President Obama's call for the continued funding of public programs that work and his promise to eliminate programs shown to be ineffective,” said Angela Snyder, child policy director at the Georgia Health Policy Center.

Levin, who has published 16 books and almost 400 articles, is also director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. He is the David Jacks Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Economics at Stanford University, where he served from 1968-1999 after working as an economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. From 1986-2000 Levin served as the director of the Accelerated Schools Project, a national school reform initiative for accelerating the education of at-risk youngsters.

“Dr. Levin has been involved in research about education finance and economics and the privatization of education for over 40 years,” said Christine Roch, associate professor of public management and policy. “He is interested in vouchers, the use of private education-management organizations and the use of charter schools. He is also interested in both public and private influences on education.”

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Renowned Wheelchair Racer Kenny Herriot to Speak at Cage Center

Berry College will welcome Kenny Herriot, one of the world’s leading wheelchair athletes, to campus Wednesday, Jan. 28, for a 7:30 p.m. presentation in the Steven J. Cage Athletic and Recreation Center. The event is free and open to the public. Herriot will be speaking about his personal triumphs and also about his latest endeavor, “The Great Lemon Ride.”

“Kenny is a great inspirational speaker and motivator,” said Dr. Robert Pearson, professor and department chair of kinesiology. “He is determined to have a giving heart and serving hands – two of the values Berry teaches.”

After a motorcycle accident in 2000 left him paralyzed from the waist down, the former fitness teacher, boxer and manager was determined to rise above his condition.

“I have always been motivated, and that didn’t change after the accident,” Herriot said. “The only way forward was in a wheelchair. It was quite an accident getting into a racing chair.”

Herriot began wheelchair racing in 2001 as a way to continue his active lifestyle. In the eight years he’s been racing, he has become a top competitor in his sport. He trains six days a week – lately in Rome and Northwest Georgia.

His own story has inspired Herriot to participate in “The Great Lemon Ride,” a cycling challenge across America that benefits Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Founded in 2000 by a 4-year-old cancer patient, Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a non-profit dedicated to funding research to find a cure for childhood cancer.

“Of several charities, Alex’s stood out more than the others,” said Herriot. “I have two boys, and I can’t imagine going through what Alex and her family went through. The more I train and think about this ride, I realize, ‘wow, this thing is big.’”

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UGA Alumni Association to Host Founders' Day January 27

In observance of the University of Georgia's 224th anniversary, Thomas G. Dyer, a former UGA faculty member and administrator, will present the Founders' Day Lecture at 3 p.m. on Jan. 27 in the UGA Chapel. Dyer will discuss "Finding the Founders and What They Founded: Reflections on the Origins of the University of Georgia." The lecture is open to the public.

The annual lecture recognizes the date UGA was established in 1785 when the Georgia General Assembly adopted a charter creating the university as the country's first state-chartered institution of higher education.

Undergraduate Noah Koon will deliver the student response to Dyer's presentation.

"Having Tom Dyer speak at the Founders' Day Lecture is a wonderful opportunity for the university," said Deborah Dietzler, executive director of the UGA Alumni Association. "With his broad knowledge of the university and the history of Georgia, the lecture will be a great way to celebrate UGA's anniversary."

The Founders' Day Lecture is sponsored by the Alumni Association and the Emeriti Scholars, a group of retired faculty members especially known for their teaching abilities and who continue to be involved in the university's academic life.

Dyer joined UGA in 1975 as a temporary instructor in the history department. During his 31 years at UGA he held a number of administrative positions including vice president for instruction, associate vice president for services, associate vice president for academic affairs, senior associate vice president for academic affairs and interim senior vice present for academic affairs and provost.

During Dyer's tenure as director of the Institute of Higher Education, the discipline's doctoral programs rose in national rankings from 20th to seventh in the country and garnered nearly $3 million in externally funded contracts and grants.

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Career Astronaut and Commander of Apollo 13 to Speak at Georgia Southern January 28

Captain Jim Lovell, whose famous space mission was depicted in the film Apollo 13, will speak at Georgia Southern University’s Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, January 28th at 6:30 p.m.

Lovell will present his lecture, "A Successful Failure", and will share tales from his 11-year-career with NASA, tracing the history of America's sometimes turbulent and always amazing space program, and drawing on his experience as a successful telecommunications executive.

Lovell takes his audiences to the moon, brings them into the tension-filled cockpit of the Apollo 13 mission, and gives them an exciting look at the possibilities of the twenty-first century. His story embodies the spirits of teamwork, leadership, crisis management, goal-setting and excellence.

He educates and fascinates as he relates the skills required to turn a failed system into a successful mission and the tools needed to succeed in the business world of today and tomorrow.

The lecture is sponsored by Georgia Southern’s Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement as part of their Spring Leadership and Civic Engagement Week. This event is free and open to the public. For more information on Lovell, view his biography at: http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/speakers.asp?Capt.+Jim+Lovell

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Oxbridge Lecture Series Welcomes Former Georgia Chief Justice November 13

Norman Fletcher, former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and an attorney with Brinson, Askew, Berry, Siegler, Richardson and Davis in Rome, will discuss "The First Under Fire: Contemporary Challenges to the First Amendment," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Berry College Science Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.

Fletcher is the third and final speaker in the 2008 Oxbridge Lecture Series. These lectures have been held in conjunction with the Berry Honors Program course "Freedom of Expression," taught by Dr. Brian Carroll, which examines the origins and historical uniqueness of the First Amendment, the evolution in the interpretations of its freedoms over time and the contemporary challenges to one of the Unites States’ most basic laws.

Fletcher ascended to the position of chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in June 2001, becoming the 26th person to hold that title since the role was established in 1845. A primary focus during his term was reform of the state's indigent defense system. The Georgia Indigent Defense Act passed in 2003 as part of an initiative by the Chief Justice's Commission on Indigent Defense, which Fletcher founded. He has been a tireless champion of openness in government, acting to make Georgia Supreme Court documents available online. In recognition, Fletcher was awarded the Georgia First Amendment Foundation's Charles L. Weltner Freedom of Information Award in March 2005 for "preserving the public's right to know."

A native of Fitzgerald, Ga., Fletcher began practicing law in 1958 as an associate in the law firm of Mathews, Maddox, Walton and Smith in Rome. From 1965-1989, he served as LaFayette's city attorney, a period during which he also served as a county attorney and as a special assistant attorney general for the state.

Fletcher earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956 and his LL.B. in 1958, both from the University of Georgia. He also earned an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.

Since his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2005, Fletcher has been active in the Rome community, serving in leadership positions in church and civic groups. In addition to practicing law, he also serves on the University of Georgia's College of Public and International Affairs Board of Visitors.

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Retired CNN Executive to Address 'Why Network News is Down the Tube' November 12

In the aftermath of an historic presidential election, a 40-year veteran of broadcast news will speak at Emory University about the current state of television news. Former CNN Headline News President V.R. "Bob" Furnad will address “Why Network News is Down the Tube” in a Nov. 12 lecture hosted by the Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life (MARIAL). The talk is free and open to the public. It is at 4 p.m. at the MARIAL Center, 1256 Briarcliff Road, Suite 413E.

Furnad has covered seven presidents and 13 political conventions since 1972. He spent 18 years at ABC, and 17 years at CNN. His last position at ABC was senior producer for Good Morning America news. Furnad joined CNN in 1983 as its first political director and rose to the position of executive vice president and senior executive producer. He produced all live special event coverage including the first Gulf War, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Moscow revolt, the Moscow coup, Tiananmen Square and the Oklahoma City bombing. In his last three years at CNN, Furnad was president of CNN Headline News, CNN Radio, CNN Airport Network and CNN Newsource. Furnad reorganized CNN Headline News to utilize the latest technologies, reduce costs, and make more resources available to gather news and create production elements.

Furnad retired in January 2001, and joined the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia as a visiting associate professor. He retired from UGA in May 2006. In 2001, Furnad worked on a television news project for the Kuwaiti government and, as part of Intelligent Media Consultants, worked with executives at the NDTV networks in India. Furnad also delivers a video exercise on ethics for broadcast news majors at journalism colleges across the country.

He has received two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Emmys and the DuPont-Columbia Award, and is chairman of FaithWorks, a ministry in Covington that provides emergency financial aid to help people pay electric bills and rent.

The Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life (MARIAL) is one of five Sloan Centers on Working Families, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Emory Center focuses its research on the functions and significance of ritual and myth in dual wage-earner middle-class families in the American South.

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CNN Executive Producer Peter Dykstra to Speak at Georgia Southern University

Peter Dykstra, environmental journalist and executive producer for CNN, will speak at Georgia Southern University on Oct. 21. Dykstra will discuss current trends in media concerning environmental journalism. He will present his lecture, Britney vs. The Biosphere: How Reporting on the Fate of the World Gets Obscured by the More Important Stories, at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Hall of the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Building.

Dykstra oversees coverage of traditional sciences, technology, the environment, space and the weather for many of CNN’s broadcasts. His awards include a 1993 Emmy for his coverage of the Mississippi River floods, a shared 2004 DuPont-Columbia Award for CNN’s reporting on the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and a 2005 George Foster Peabody Award for CNN’s coverage of both Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. He has been the executive producer of investigative documentaries for CNN, including “Broken Government: Scorched Earth.”

Dykstra received his Bachelor of Science degree in Communication from Boston University. He currently serves on the panel for the John Oaks Awards for Environmental Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Dykstra is also a former board member of the Society of Environmental Journalism.

This event is free and open to the public. Dykstra’s appearance is sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts at Georgia Southern University. For more information on Dykstra or this event, contact Pam Bourland-Davis at:pamelagb@georgiasouthern.edu .

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Historian and Author to Speak at China Research Center Event in Atlanta

The China Research Center at Mercer’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics will inaugurate a new event series with a lecture by noted historian and author Kenneth Pomeranz, Ph.D., at 7 p.m., Oct. 15, in the Rich Auditorium at the High Museum in downtown Atlanta. He will discuss his recent work on China’s state, society and economy in a presentation titled “Chinese Development and World History: Putting the East Asian Model in Perspective.”

The High Museum of Art is hosting the event in conjunction with its fall exhibition, The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army. No registration is required for this event. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In his lecture, Dr. Pomeranz will examine how the levels of economic performance in core regions of Europe and East Asia were surprisingly similar until almost 1800. Despite the enormous setbacks and turmoil of the 19th and 20th centuries, certain basic elements of the high Qing (i.e., China’s last dynasty) political economy remained intact and ultimately proved quite compatible with new waves of growth, at least for coastal China; those patterns resemble some aspects of a distinctive pattern of industrialization previously seen in Japan and Taiwan. In the Chinese case, however, the “East Asian” features of development along the coast must be seen in the context of relations between the coast and the Chinese interior. Today, the government’s “develop the West” program — set against a backdrop both of looming resource shortages in East China industries, unusually large regional differences in living standards, unprecedented rates of migration directed towards the coast and urbanization — may represent both the outcome and the end of social, economic and environmental patterns that have characterized China’s political economy for centuries.

Dr. Pomeranz has been recognized as a leading historian of China who moves beyond the study of a self-contained "China" or “East Asia” by attempting to understand the origins of a world economy as the outcome of mutual influences among various regions, rather than the simple imposition by a more "advanced" Europe on the rest of the world.

His book, “The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy” (Princeton University Press, 2000), makes groundbreaking arguments on issues concerning global history and challenges the conventional notion of China’s backwardness in the modern era. It won the 2000 John K. Fairbank prize, making Dr. Pomeranz the only historian who has won this prestigious prize twice. “Great Divergence” also won the 2001 World History Association Book Prize and was chosen as one of Choice’s Outstanding Academic Books of 2000.

He is also the author of “The World that Trade Created” (with Steven Topik). He is currently working on a variety of projects, including a general history of Chinese political economy, from the 17th century to the present for Cambridge University Press, two edited volumes that will come out in 2009. Dr. Pomeranz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.

Dr. Pomeranz is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, and founding director of the University of California’s Multi-Campus Research Program in World History.

The event is co-sponsored by the School of History, Technology and Science and The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology; The Program in World History and Cultures, Department of History, Georgia State University; The Stetson School of Business and Economics, Mercer University; and The Confucius Institute of Atlanta.

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Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea

For the Civil War in particular and American history in general, there are few more powerfully evocative events than Sherman's March to the Sea. To this day Sherman is still remembered as both a savior of the Union and as an unprosecuted war criminal. Why?

The Georgia Historical Society invites you to attend a free lecture by award-winning Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeau.

The lecture will be held on Thursday, August 14, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at Congregation Mickve Israel, 20 E. Gordon Street, on Monterey Square in downtown Savannah.

Copies of Trudeau's book Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea will be available for sale and a book-signing will follow the lecture.

Drawing on Research conducted at the Georgia Historical Society, Trudeau has written a fascinating new account of United States Army General William Tecumseh Sherman's epic march-a targeted strategy aimed to break not only the Confederate Army but an entire society as well. In vivid detail, Trudeau explains why General Sherman's name is still anathema below the Mason-Dixon Line, especially in Georgia...

The Georgia Historical Society, headquartered in Savannah, is the oldest cultural institution in the state and one of the oldest historical organizations in the nation. It is the first and only statewide historical society in Georgia. For nearly 175 years, GHS has collected, preserved, and shared Georgia history through a variety of educational outreach programs, publications, and research services. For more information visit: www.georgiahistory.com.

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