Why was Impressionist painting controversial, new, and radical when it was first exhibited? When viewers in 1875 looked at a Parisian boulevard painted by Monet or a café painted by Degas, what were they seeing? This talk will examine the style and subject matter of Impressionist painting to uncover why it was so difficult in its time. From Manet’s scandalous prostitutes to the hot new nightspots painted by Renoir and Degas, this lecture will examine the social context of urban gentrification, civil war, and the birth of the consumer society in this up-close look at Impressionist masterpieces.

Nancy Locke teaches courses on 19th-century European art and is the author of Manet and the Family Romance. She has published extensively on Manet, early 20th-century avant-garde art, and Cézanne. She is currently researching Cézanne’s interest in the art of the past, and the ethics of Manet’s realism.

Today, girls in elementary school are likely to be campaigning for a cell phone, professional manicures, hair highlights, all-night slumber parties, and tickets to expensive concerts with their favorite music star. As the pressure to grow up too quickly escalates, the time of being a little girl quickly comes to a premature end, and something precious is being lost.

Cheryl Dellasega, an international expert on family relationships and relational aggression, will provide insights into this adolescent phenomenon. She is the author of four books on issues affecting women: Mean Girls Grown Up, The Starving Family, Girl Wars, and Surviving Ophelia. Dellasega’s writing and teaching offer essential perspectives into the different conflicts that arise in female-to-female relationships and psychosocial issues.

In many ways, the segregation of women in Africa has changed them and their role in society. At the same time, widespread education of women has liberated them. In southern Sudan, the role of women differed dramatically from that in the north. Although women were subordinate to men, they enjoyed much greater freedom within southern Sudan's societies—greater freedom of movement, participation in the councils of lineage, and playing important roles in the mediation of disputes. Learn how "The Changing Roles of Women in Africa” impact not only the Sudanese women but the entire African continent.

Lindah Mhando’s research interests are culture and collective action/social movements for progressive change, feminism, and local and global interventions to diminish inequalities and subordination. She has also worked on historical-comparative analysis of the divergent trajectories of U.S. law and Sudanese Sharia law, which is law based on the Quran.

How has the Russian legal system and the Russian approach to law impacted investment relations, trade and arms control negotiations, and the way business is conducted in Russia? How does the Russian legal system affect individuals and companies abroad? This lecture will explore myriad ways, including investment transactions, criminal behavior (such as bribery, piracy, and inadvertent western commercial behavior), and civil liability.

William E. Butler is the preeminent authority on the law of Russia and other former Soviet republics and is the first Western lawyer to be elected to the Executive Committee of the Russian Association of Maritime Law. Butler’s research interests extend to all aspects of Russian law: historical and modern, domestic and international. In addition to his scholarship, Butler also acts as an international arbitrator.

The commonly held belief that poverty is simply correctable through economic growth, more jobs, and increased income is precisely why poverty has persisted in the United States and elsewhere. Traditional thinking suggests two ways out of poverty—good corporate jobs or a safety net of state-provided welfare. In contrast, a Penn State field project emphasizes what is called “the household economy,” focusing primarily on improving the quality of life, reducing the cost of living, and creating jobs that cater to the everyday needs of community households.

Originally from Sri Lanka, Lakshman Yapa designed and directs the 10-year-old poverty initiative titled, “Rethinking Urban Poverty: Philadelphia Field Project,” a service-learning course based in West Philadelphia. For this work, he won the national Magrath Award in 2008 for University Engaged Scholarship. He has served as a consultant to numerous development agencies such as the United Nations Development Program, US AID, and the World Bank.

In this presentation, St. Pierre will address how understanding your own behaviors, learning style, and practice style can lead to improved performance in any sport, indeed in many activities. Learn how to develop skills to improve your fitness and health. St. Pierre will help you understand the implications of your learning style, how to practice for success, and how to avoid negative thinking and failure. She will talk about the repetition needed to break a bad habit or to create a new behavior.

Denise St. Pierre is entering her 17th season as the Penn State head women’s golf coach. She was a collegiate golfer as well as a PGA teaching professional and has also coached U.S. teams in international competitions, including at the 2004 World University Games in Thailand where the U.S. won the gold medal and Penn State’s Katie Futcher captured the individual title. St. Pierre was chosen as one of the top 50 professional female instructors in the country by Golf for Women magazine.

Living longer and being healthy in old age have become important goals of aging research worldwide. Aging is the single most important risk factor for many diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, creating economic and practical imperatives for promoting health as we age. Decades of research suggests ways to promote healthier old age, but how does one know what is an unscrupulous “miracle cure” versus science-based principles? This talk will focus on advances in knowledge about how to increase life span while also increasing health span, including an evaluation of nutritional manipulations—which may help achieve both of these goals.

Roger McCarter is currently the vice president of the American Federation for Aging Research and is the past president of the Gerontological Society of America, the Gordon Conference on the Biology of Aging, and the International Biogerontology Institute. He is executive editor of the journal Aging Clinical and Experimental Research and serves on the grants review committee of several organizations. McCarter’s research is focused on skeletal muscle function, metabolism, and theories of aging.      

 

As the most important group in China between the 16th and 18th centuries, Jesuit missionaries introduced Western culture and knowledge to China and conversely “opened” that mysterious country to the West. These missionaries translated Western scholarship—such as mathematics, science, and mapmaking—for the Chinese but also shared Chinese philosophy and values with the Western World. This lecture will trace the highlights of that cultural transmission and how the fortunes of the Jesuits were intimately entwined with the perceptions of China in the West.