Lecture dates set for Distinguished University Professors

ANN ARBOR—Leaders in the fields of Latin American studies, psychology and law, music composition, and genetics will deliver the DistinguishedUniversity Professorship Lectures this spring.

Speeches will be given at 4 p.m. at the Rackham Amphitheatre, followed by a reception at 5 p.m. in Assembly Hall.

• Rebecca Scott, Charles Gibson Distinguished University Professor of History and professor of law, will deliver a lecture titled “Degrees of Freedom: Building Citizenship in the Shadow of Slavery,” Feb. 10. Scott is best known for her groundbreaking publications on slavery, race and the law in post-emancipation Cuba, Brazil and the United States.

• Phoebe Ellsworth, Frank Murphy Distinguished University Professor of Law and Psychology, will deliver a lecture on “American Attitudes Towards the Death Penalty, 1950-2004,” Feb. 17. Her research has examined areas including jury behavior, eyewitness reliability, the application of social science data to judicial decision-making, and issues related to the death penalty.

• Bright Sheng, Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Music Composition, will deliver a lecture entitled “The Silver River” April 6. Sheng is a prolific and highly regarded composer whose style merges Western influences with customs drawn from his Chinese heritage, his citation says. One of Sheng’s operas was performed at the Lincoln Center Festival in summer 2002, and a second opera, “Madame Mao,” was performed in Santa Fe last year. Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma has performed some of Sheng’s works

• Dr. David Ginsburg, James V. Neel Distinguished University Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, Warner-Lambert / Parke-Davis Professor of Medicine, professor of human genetics and internal medicine, Howard Hughes Investigator, and Life Sciences Institute charter faculty member, will deliver the lecture “To Bleed or Not to Bleed, That is the Question” April 13. Ginsburg is recognized widely as the world leader in the area of genetic disorders of blood coagulation. He recently discovered the genetic basis for a life-threatening clotting disorder.

The Board of Regents has approved the naming of two new Distinguished University Professors, effective Jan. 1, 2004: Don Chaffin , the Richard G. Snyder Distinguished University Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, College of Engineering; and Melvin Hochster , the Jack E. McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics, LSA. Their lectures will take place in the next academic year.