Provided

Robert Parkins plays a recital on the Anabel Taylor Chapel organ Sept. 12.

WWI classics

Cornell Cinema will present two classic World War I films to commemorate the centennial of the Great War, in conjunction with the Cornell Institute for European Studies’ new Ottoman & Turkish Studies Initiative (OTSI).

David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” starring Peter O’Toole, will screen Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 7:15 p.m., and Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli,” starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, will be shown Sept. 25 and 28 at 7 p.m.

 “The experience of the people of the Middle East and the Balkans is rarely examined in studies of World War I,” says assistant professor of history Mostafa Minawi, OTSI project director, who will introduce both films. “But it’s very important to understand the lasting impact of the war on this area of the world.”

Also, Cornell Cinema’s “Looking for Adventure” series begins with Erich Rohmer’s “A Summer’s Tale,” Sept. 5-6 at 7 p.m., and a double bill, “Looking for Adventure” and “Gringo Trails,” Sept. 11 at 6:45 p.m. for one ticket price.

The latter film, about tourism as a globalizing force, is directed by New York University anthropologist and Fulbright scholar Pegi Vail. The series also includes “The Epic of Everest” (1924) Sept. 13, recently restored by the British Film Institute National Archive; and “Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago” (2013), Sept. 18-19.

Animated statistics

Trend spotting TED lecturer, statistician, medical doctor and academic Hans Rosling will deliver the Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels 2014 World Affairs Fellowship Lecture, Sept. 9 at 4:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

His talk, “Upgrade to a Fact-Based Worldview,” is presented by The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, which named Rosling the 2014 Bartels World Affairs Fellow in May. The fellowship brings prominent international leaders to Cornell to broaden students’ worldview.

Rosling’s talks address the global economy and dispel common myths about the developing world. His presentations, grounded in statistics drawn from United Nations data, are illustrated by Trendalyzer information visualization software he developed. Animations transform statistical data into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive, even playful.

Rosling is a professor of international health at the Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, established to make statistical data freely available online and easily understandable. His 20 years of research on global health concerned the links between economy and health in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Interfaith leadership

Eboo Patel will deliver the Frederic C. Wood Lecture on “Why Interfaith Leadership Matters: Religion and the Common Good in the 21st Century,” Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in Sage Chapel. Free and open to the public.

Named as one of America’s best leaders by U.S. News and World Report in 2009, Patel is president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based organization he founded that is building the interfaith movement on college campuses.

He is the author of “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim,” “Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America” and other books. A regular contributor to The Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR and CNN, he has served on President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Cornell United Religious Work’s annual Wood Lecture brings speakers to campus who are dedicated to innovative religious thought.

Labor politics and green resilience

Eli Friedman and Keith Tidball will discuss their latest books and research at library book talks this week.

Friedman, assistant professor of international and comparative labor at the ILR School, discusses “Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China” (Cornell University Press) Sept. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the Kheel Center of ILR’s Catherwood Library.

Friedman’s book is an in-depth analysis of labor unrest in contemporary China. His current research involves state responses to worker unrest in China and the development of labor relations institutions, and a study of Chinese urbanization and access to education for rural to urban migrants.

Tidball will talk about the role of nature in crisis management in his book “Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening” (Springer), Sept. 11 at 
4 p.m. in Mann Library’s Stern Seminar Room.

Tidball is senior extension associate in the Department of Natural Resources, associate director of Cornell’s Civic Ecology Lab (CEL) and Nature and Human Security Program leader. The book, co-edited with professor of natural resources and CEL director Marianne Krasny, features research and policy frameworks exploring how green spaces help create more resilient communities.

Chats in the Stacks events are free and open to the public; light refreshments are served. Buffalo Street Books will offer books for purchase and signing at both events.

Early Spanish organ

Duke University organist and professor Robert Parkins will perform a guest recital Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Chapel. Free and open to the public. Presented by the Department of Music.

The program highlights Parkins’ specialty interests in early Spanish keyboard music and the German Romantic organ and its literature. In addition to a group of works by J.S. Bach and Josef Rheinberger’s Sonata No. 4, an opening sequence of four selections will showcase early Iberian composers Antonio de Cabezon, Francisco de Peraza, Francisco Correa de Arauxo and Juan Cabanilles with tientos, organ pieces that resembled transcriptions of polyphonic vocal music of the period.