Here’s to shorter days and busier calendars! Highlighted below are general interest campus events across a range of topics of possible interest to alumni, donors, and prospects.

This listing is highly selective by design — regrettably, much more is omitted than featured. For ticket availability and other details, follow the links.

October 7
6 p.m.
Comics at Columbia: Past, Present, Future Exhibition Opening
Art, manuscripts, and ephemera from Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, including items from the University’s history as well as art from Mad artist Al Jaffee, Elfquest artist Wendy Pini, and New Yorker cartoonist Charles Saxon; drafts and notes from X-Men writer Chris Claremont and Legion of Super Heroes writer Paul Levitz; and correspondence from comics luminaries Stan Lee, Harvey Kurtzman, and Howard Cruse. Opening night on October 7 will include presentations by influential comics figureheads, celebratory reception, and viewing of the exhibition. Kempner Gallery, Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Butler Library, 6th Floor.

6:30 p.m.
Zuckerman Institute Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Brain Insight Lecture, “We Are What We Remember: The Biology of Memory & Age-Related Memory Disorders” featuring Dr. Eric R. Kandel. Join the Nobelist and Zuckerman Institute co-director for this public lecture at Miller Theatre. (reminder)

October 9
5:30 p.m.
World Leaders Forum, School of the Arts, Social Initiative at Columbia Law School
Screening and Discussion: Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa
This program will feature the screening of a documentary following lawyer, writer, art lover, and freedom fighter Albie Sachs, one of the principal architects of South Africa’s non-racial and non-sexist Constitution. A conversation with Sachs, director Abby Ginzberg, and Professor Kendall Thomas follows the screening. Miller Theatre.

October 11
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Open House
Whether you’re an aspiring young scientist or a long-time science enthusiast, you’re sure to enjoy LDEO’s Open House. Tour a lab, participate in hands-on earth science demonstrations, and learn from world-renowned researchers about their latest discoveries. Free and open to the public, with a $5 suggested contribution. Palisades, New York.

October 17
10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
SIPA Global Muckraking Conference
To celebrate the publication of Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Journalism from Around the World (New Press, 2014), journalists, scholars, and activists will gather to consider subjects that have galvanized the media and NGOs over the last hundred years. Discuss the current state of cross border investigations, the impact of technology, and the connections between the human rights and activist community and the media. Speakers include Prue Clarke, Avi Chomsky, Michael Massing, Michael Schudson, Sheila Coronel, Ken Silverstein, and many others. School of International and Public Affairs, Room 1510.

October 18
6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
CAA Arts Access Lionel Loueke Trio
At the CAA Arts Access reception, Columbia music professor and cultural theorist Kevin Fellesz will host and introduce the dynamic music of Loueke, who grew up in Benin playing traditional West African music and studied jazz in Paris and the U.S. His music blends traditional jazz styles with electric synthesizers, African kora and kalimba sounds, and percussion. 6 p.m. reception at Columbia Alumni Center and 8 p.m. performance at Miller Theatre.

Please tell me about great general interest events on any of our campuses at [email protected]. Wishing you stimulating weeks ahead! Jerry

Dear Colleagues,

Happy almost October! Highlighted below are general interest campus events across a range of topics of possible interest to alumni, donors, and prospects. This is a headline listing only and highly selective — regrettably, much more is omitted than featured. For ticket availability and other details, follow the links.

October 15
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Narrative Medicine Rounds with D.T. Max
New Yorker writer D.T. Max’s most recent book, Every Love Story Is A Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (2012, Viking Penguin), was a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery. Faculty Club of Columbia University Medical Center.

October 2 – Double-header
6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Composer Portraits: Chou Wen-chung at Miller Theatre
CAA Arts Access reception with the composer, a GSAS alumnus, longtime Columbia music professor and mentor to generations of students, as well as Fred Lerdahl, the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition. 6 p.m. reception at Columbia Alumni Center and 8 p.m. performance at Miller Theatre.

6:15 p.m.
Liberalism and its Critics with Fred Siegel, Eric Foner, Ira Katznelson, Anne Kornhauser, and Judith Stein
In his recent book The Revolt Against the Masses, Fred Siegel indicts modern American liberalism for elitism toward ordinary Americans, their values and culture, and blames liberals for many of the problems plaguing American society today. The panelists will respond to his critique, discuss liberalism’s history, and evaluate its future prospects. The Heyman Center.

October 7
6:30 p.m.
Zuckerman Institute Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture, “We Are What We Remember: The Biology of Memory & Age-Related Memory Disorders” featuring Dr. Eric R. Kandel. Join the Nobelist and Zuckerman Institute co-director for this public lecture at Miller Theatre.

October 8 – Another two-fer
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Committee on Global Thought Global Think-In, “Rethinking Knowledge: Global Governance” with historian Mark Mazower, political theorist and historian Partha Chatterjee, and law professor Katharina Pistor. Heyman Center.

7 p.m.
School of the Arts
Creative Writing Lecture Series with fiction writer Karen Russell (’06SOA). Dodge Hall.

October 13
6:30 p.m. 
Café Columbia “Cameras, Lights, … Income!” with Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economic Development
In the Welcome Center’s own Café Columbia, hear a dynamic economics professor discuss research on non-R&D innovation and measuring the income of poor families in emerging economies. Columbia Alumni Center

If you know of great general interest events on any of our campuses, please pass along to me at [email protected]. Wishing you all the best for stimulating weeks ahead! Jerry

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Friday. This is the first of many messages highlighting events coming to our campuses. The format is rough and will surely evolve, but next week’s events are simply too compelling to wait.

Please note: this is a headline listing only and highly selective. For ticket availability and other details follow the links. And remember there are many more than these!

MORNINGSIDE FIVE FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22

September 22
5:30 p.m.
Brown Institute “Gaia Intrudes” – This public lecture by French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist Bruno Latour on Furnald Lawn in front of Pulitzer Hall will be held in conjunction with performances of Latour’s play “Gaia Global Circus” at The Kitchen in Chelsea. Sponsored by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, with assistance from Alliance (Columbia, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and Panthéon-Sorbonne University), The Center for Science and Society, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Maison Française. More information.

September 23 – What a Night!
5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Women Creating Change
Women and Politics: A Turning Point? with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Mara Liasson, Katha Pollitt, moderated by Alondra Nelson co-sponsored by Women Creating Change and CAA. Lerner Hall.

7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Heyman Center
The Writing Lives Series An Evening with Novelist Ta Obreht and Mark Mazower East Campus East Gallery, Buell Hall.

6 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Earth Institute
Book Launch: The Big Ratchet by MacArthur Award-Winning Ruth DeFries Italian Academy.

September 26
9 a.m.
World Leaders Forum
Children in the Age of Sustainable Development, featuring Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, The Honorable Bill de Blasio, Mayor, New York City, and Helena Thybell, Global Manager, H&M Conscious Foundation. World Leaders Forum events this week also include appearances by the Tunisian president, the Japanese prime minister, the president of the Philippines, the president of Poland, and the Norwegian prime minister. See all World Leaders Forum events.

That’s a good start, anyway. Future listings will come more in advance. If you know of great general interest events on any of our campuses, please pass along to me at [email protected].

Wishing you all the best for a restful weekend and a stimulating week ahead! Jerry