Darwin Year continues: Fellow of the Royal Society Simon Conway Morris (right), professor of evolutionary paleobiology at the University of Cambridge, will present “Darwin’s Compass: Why the Evolution of Humans is Inevitable” at 3 p.m. Jan. 29 in McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall. The lecture is part of SMU’s Darwin’s Evolving Legacy series and is sponsored by the University’s Scott-Hawkins Lecture Series; Morris appears at the co-invitation of SMU’s Departments of Mathematics and Biological Sciences. For more information, visit the Darwin’s Evolving Legacy homepage.
Student symphony stars: SMU’s Meadows Symphony Orchestra presents a concert led by students in the Meadows School of the Arts‘ master’s degree program in orchestral conducting, and featuring winners of the Meadows Concerto Competition. The show begins at 8 p.m. Jan. 29 and 3 p.m. Jan. 31 in Caruth Auditorium, Owen Arts Center. Tickets are $7 for SMU faculty, staff and students. For tickets and information, contact the Meadows Box Office, 214-768-2787 (214-SMU-ARTS).
Ministers Week 2010: The annual gathering at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology complements the University’s 200th-anniversary celebration of Charles Darwin’s birth with “The Pew and the Petri Dish: Contemporary Issues in Religion and Science” Feb. 1-3 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Featured speakers include John Haught, senior fellow in science and religion at Georgetown University, author of God and the New Atheism, and winner of the 2002 Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion and the 2004 Sophia Award for Theological Excellence. Other lecturers include Gregory Cuellar, three-time fellow of the Hispanic Theological Initiative and adjunct professor of bible at Richland College, as well as SMU faculty members John Holbert, Rebekah Miles and William Abraham of the Perkins School and Mark Chancey of Dedman College. SMU community members can attend several Ministers Week events at discounted rates by visiting the Faculty/Staff/Student Registration page of the Ministers Week website.
Drawing inspiration: Artist and lifelong Rock Island Railroad employee Eugene Andolsek (1921-2008) produced thousands of drawings on graph paper over a period of 50 years, working alone at his kitchen table to ease the anxieties that plagued him his entire life. His work, exploring an array of colors and geometrical combinations, came to the attention of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and Andolsek was one of five artists included in the 2006 Obsessive Drawing exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan. Now, selected works have been collected in a new exhibition at SMU – Kaleidoscope: Eugene Andolsek’s Geometric Ink Drawings runs Feb. 1-Mar. 20 in the Pollock Gallery, Hughes-Trigg Student Center. (Right, an untitled work featured in a 2008 Andolsek exhibition at the American Primitive Gallery in New York City.)
Beauty marked: SMU hosts a panel discussion examining the emphasis women place on striving for beauty and the damage they do to themselves in the process. “The Power and Burden of Beauty” features international artist Rachel Hovnanian, former national Fox News anchor Laurie Dhue; Bonnie Wheeler, director of medieval studies in SMU’s Dedman College; Carolyn Hodges, senior sales director with Mary Kay Cosmetics; and Rachel Dodds, UT student and sorority member. The discussion takes place 5-6:30 p.m. Feb. 2 in Bob Smith Auditorium, Meadows Museum. For more information, call Lisa Bytner at 917-951-8940.
Faculty Club Distinguished Luncheon Series: The SMU Faculty Club presents Jim Hollifield, professor of international political economy and director of SMU’s Tower Center for Political Studies, in the first of two lectures on “Immigration and Migration” at noon Feb. 3 in the Faculty Club. Cost is $12 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP by Jan. 29 to Dee Powell, 214-768-3012.
