Strait Talk, a non-partisan, youth-focused peace building organization on the Taiwan Strait issue, invites the community to join scholars and students from Mainland China, Taiwan, and the U.S. for the fifth Strait Talk Symposium hosted by Brown. The program seeks to transform international conflict by connecting young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the United States and empowering them to strive for peace. This year's symposium features a series of workshops, lectures, and panel discussions about the history of the conflict, the international relations influenced by the conflict and the identity of the people of Mainland China and Taiwan involved in the conflict. See link for full schedule of public events.

http://straittalk.org/

Marking 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Brown University is one of more than 25 United States campuses that will host a series of events, titled "Freedom Without Walls", supported in part by the German Embassy. On Monday at 11 a.m., the public is invited to take part in a wall art competition on the 16-foot long, eight-foot high sheetrock replica of the Berlin Wall being built on The College Green. A spoken word competition will begin at noon, and at 1 p.m., participants will tear down the wall with hammers. Please see link for complete schedule and further information.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/German_Studies/events

The second Levinger Lecture on Health Care Reform asks the question “how will we pay for it?” Join this timely and important round-table discussion that will include the Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing, MD; G. Nicholas Beckwith III, Chair of the Board of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; James Morone, Brown professor of political science; and Andrew Brunner MD’10. The discussion will begin at 4 p.m. in MacMillan Hall, Room 117, followed by a reception.

Join the Department of Africana Studies in celebrating and welcoming Chinua Achebe as the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies. The program features a writers' welcome and a conversation with President Ruth Simmons about Achebe's new book, The Education of a British-Protected Child, a collection of old and recent essays that piece together the arc of his literary life. This event begins at 4 p.m. in Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium.

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/11/achebe

Jonathan Cohn will deliver the annual John Hazen White Sr. Lecture, sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy. Cohn is a veteran journalist who specializes in domestic politics and policy. His primary focus, health care, is the subject of Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price, a book that serves as the definitive guide to the forthcoming debate over whether, and how, to reform the U.S. health insurance system. His talk begins at 4 p.m. in Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001.
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/minisite/events/index.html

Anne Fausto-Sterling, the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor and Professor of  Biology and Gender Studies, presents her recent, exploratory inquiries into attempts to explain the varieties of gender expression and human sexual desire. She looks at social scientific use of personal memory as a form of statistically analyzable data, contrasting this use with new neurobiological understandings of how memory works. Her talk begins at 5 p.m. in Pembroke Hall, Room 305, followed by a reception.
http://www.pembrokecenter.org/events/gslectures.html

David Shenk ’88, author of five books including Data Smog, The Immortal Game, and The Forgetting, will speak from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106. Shenk's talk, entitled "Making the Truth Truthful: Turning Science into Storytelling," is presented by the Great Brown Nonfiction Writers Lecture Series. A contributor to National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, Gourmet, Harper's, The New Yorker, The American Scholar, and National Public Radio, Shenk is currently a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com. His work inspired the Emmy-award winning PBS documentary The Forgetting and was featured in the Oscar-nominated film Away From Her.

http://brown.edu/english/nonfiction/events.php

Brownbrokers presents Leavittsburg, Ohio, an original musical by Nate Sloan ’09 - the latest completely student-written musical from the nearly century-old Brownbrokers group. Jane, one of Leavittsburg's favored daughters, escaped Ohio for her New York City Ivy League school. But when she brings her new boyfriend Jake home to visit for the first time, she starts to wonder if she might want to escape back home again. Shows run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Stuart Theatre. See link for ticket information.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Theatre_Speech_Dance/performances/leavittsburg.html

Rajmohan Gandhi is a leading public intellectual and humanitarian, prolific author, professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He will discuss "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi,” at 5 p.m. in the De Ciccio Family Auditorium, Salomon Center for Teaching. In 2007, his biography of his grandfather, Gandhi: The Man, his People, and the Empire, was chosen for the prestigious National Biennial Barpujari Prize of the Indian History Congress, given once in two years for an outstanding work of history. Gandhi has worked consistently for India-Pakistan and Hindu-Muslim reconciliation, and was recently elected President for two years of Initiatives of Change International, an NGO working for trust and reconciliation.

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/11/gandhi

The 2009 Lipsitt-Duchin Lectures in Child and Youth Behavior and Development, entitled, “Prevention Youth Violence New Strategies for Policy, Practice and Research,” will feature a panel of nationally recognized experts, including pioneers working directly with street gangs, who will discuss the origins and consequences of criminal behavior, including violence. They will address the harm that youthful delinquency can do to the public as well as the youth themselves, and will present evidence-based interventions known to help make children, youth and their communities safer. This event begins at 3:30 p.m. in MacMillan Hall, Starr Auditorium.

http://www.rikidscount.org/matriarch/default.asp

Rachel Dwyer, a leading scholar of Bollywood cinema, will present "Happy Ever After: Hindi Films and the Happy Ending." Dwyer is professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and author of the soon-to-be-released Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Modern India, as well as Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema and One Hundred Bollywood Films. Dwyer will discuss why people claim that Hindi films have formulaic 'happy endings' despite evidence to the contrary, and provide alternative ways for understanding Bollywood cinema. Her talk is part of South Asian Identity Week and the Year of India.

http://www.brown.edu/india

What does "justice" mean for a university? Having ethical policies and procedures, striving to solve specific social problems, or broadly advancing some ideal of social justice? Do "moral values" have a place in "objective scholarship"? Join Professor Katz for a conversation about the core purposes of liberal arts institutions like Brown. Katz is a scholar of American legal and constitutional history, civil society, international human rights, and philanthropy and non-profit institutions. His talk, co-sponsored by the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service and the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, begins at 4:30 p.m. in Sidney Frank Hall, Marcuvitz Auditorium, 185 Meeting St.

http://swearercenter.brown.edu/events/events.html

HIV/AIDS is a catastrophic health crisis with complex cultural dimensions. Explanations of where it comes from, who gets it, and who dies are tied to political agendas, religious beliefs, and the psychology of devastating grief. The medical anthropologist Alexander Rödlach shows how beliefs about witchcraft surrounding HIV/AIDS are an important element in Zimbabweans' efforts to understand why someone has fallen ill with AIDS-related conditions, to offer hope for healing, and to appeal for help. He also demonstrates the impact of these beliefs on public health and advocacy programs, arguing that cultural misunderstandings contribute to the failure of many well-intentioned efforts. His talk begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Haffenreffer Museum at Manning Hall.

http://brown.edu/Facilities/Haffenreffer/

In collaboration with the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC), based in New York City, South Asian Identity Week at Brown presents a performance and panel discussion on queer South Asian performance poetry. The event brings together performance poets from India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan whose work inform and intersect each other in a myriad of way. The artists tell stories through music, dance, and speech, exploring issues of sexuality, transgenderedness, family, politics, and history through the lens of the queer South Asian experience. This event begins at 7 p.m. See link for additional events during South Asian Identity Week.

http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/TWC/southasian-identity-week.html

The Pembroke Center will honor two outstanding leaders who have succeeded in changing lives by helping others to see the world differently and offering new ways of thinking about seemingly unsolvable problems. Award recipient Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach for America will deliver the keynote address, “Realizing Educational Opportunity for All.” Also honored will be Hillary Salmons, Executive Director of the Providence After School Alliance. This event begins at 8 p.m. in Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call (401) 863-3650 or see link.

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/11/kopp

Novelist Samantha Hunt will present a reading of her work at 2:30 p.m. in the McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown St., as part of the Writers on Writing Reading series, presented by Brown's Program in Literary Arts. Hunt's most recent book, The Invention of Everything Else, a novel about the life of Nikola Tesla, best known for his revolutionary work on electricity, was a finalist for the Orange Prize. Hunt's short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and many other publications, and on the radio program This American Life.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/events.htm

The Political Theory Project presents a Janus Lecture featuring Lani Guinier and Jim Sleeper discussing identity politics. The lecture is a discussion on the issue of minority representation in American politics. It will address the question of whether members of a minority group better represent that group’s interests than non-members. This event begins at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium.
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Political_Theory_Project/janus/lecture.html

Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan presents its fall show, The Gondoliers. This two-act operetta will be fully staged and orchestrated by Brown students. Performances run Friday at 8 p.m Saturday at 2 p.m and 8 p.m, and Sunday at 3 p.m. in Alumnae Hall. Admission is free.
http://www.brown.edu/Students/BUGS/

The Brown University Wind Symphony and Jazz Band will perform in the 23rd Annual Eric Adam Brudner ’84 Memorial Concert, under the direction of Matthew McGarrell. The concert features Icelandic saxophone virtuoso, Sigur∂ur Flosason. The music begins at 8 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Music/events/