Things to Do, Sept. 22-29, 2017

World Development

Economist Luís-Felipe López-Calva, M.A. ’99, leads a discussion on the World Bank’s 2017 World Development Report: Governance and the Law, Sept. 25 at 4:30 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall. Organized by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the roundtable is open to the public.

López-Calva is co-director of the 2017 report, which explores what makes some policies work and why others fail to achieve desired outcomes. He is practice manager for the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia poverty and equity global practice, and previously served as lead economist and regional poverty adviser for that region and for Latin and Central America.

A Cornell faculty panel, providing critical comments on the report’s main findings, will include Robert Hockett, professor of public affairs and the Edward Cornell Professor of Law; Ravi Kanbur, the T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs and International Professor of Applied Economics and Management; and Nicolas van de Walle, the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government.

Leaving the sect

Shulem Deen will discuss his experiences in one of the most insular Hasidic sects in the U.S. when he gives a public lecture Sept. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The talk is sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and Cornell Hillel.

Deen’s award-winning “All Who Go Do Not Return” is a harrowing and illuminating memoir of growing up in and then leaving the Skverers. He is a board member of Footsteps, a New York City-based organization offering assistance and support to those who have left the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. A former columnist for The Forward, Deen’s articles also have appeared in The New Republic, Salon, Tablet and other publications.

Riffing on Shakespeare

Cornell Cinema brings Argentinian filmmaker Matías Piñeiro to campus with his latest Shakespeare-infused romantic drama, “Hermia & Helena,” screening Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

Influential author and activist Jane Jacobs battles urban renewal in New York City in the documentary “Citizen Jane,” introduced by professor of architecture Mary Woods at a screening Sept. 27.

The Bard’s title characters find analogues in Camila, a young woman from Argentina adapting to life in New York City as she works on a Spanish translation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and Carmen, who held the same cultural fellowship as Camila before returning to Buenos Aires. The story also draws inspiration from the director’s own move to New York.

Inspired by Shakespearian heroines, Piñeiro presented “Viola” here in 2014, his riff on “Twelfth Night.” His visit is supported with an Electronic Media and Film Presentation grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Also showing: “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” Sept. 27 at 7 p.m., introduced by professor of architecture Mary Woods. The documentary traces 1960s New York City urban renewal, led by planner Robert Moses and opposed by activist Jane Jacobs (author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”). City and regional planning associate professor Thomas Campanella is among those interviewed. The film also screens Oct. 1.

Fight for workers’ rights

Filmmaker Matthew Barr brings his 2016 documentary “Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights” to campus for a screening and discussion Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall. Sponsored by the ILR School, the event is open to all.

Barr has earned acclaim for films on issues of social justice, including labor and civil rights. “Union Time” chronicles a 21st-century union victory at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where some 5,000 workers, while fighting to organize from 1993 to 2008, struggled with dangerous working conditions, intimidation and low pay. 

They formed UFCW Local 1208 following a campaign by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, with help from the North Carolina NAACP and the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro.

Providing legal analysis, ILR senior lecturer Lance Compa is among those featured in the film. A discussion with Barr follows the screening.

On giving, and (not) getting paid

Faculty authors will discuss contemporary giving and its social forms, and the gap between pursuing passion projects and finding a successful career, in a pair of Chats in the Stacks book talks this week.

Timothy Campbell, professor of Romance studies, addresses alternative ways to conceive of generosity, Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. in 107 Olin Library. His book “The Techne of Giving: Cinema and the Generous Form of Life,” investigates how we hold the objects of daily life and neoliberal forms of gift-giving, through an analysis of political philosophy and classic Italian films by Visconti, Rossellini and Antonioni.

Brooke Erin Duffy, assistant professor of communication, gives insights into the work and lives of fashion bloggers, beauty vloggers and designers, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. in 160 Mann Library.

In her book “(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work,” she looks at the search by creative and enterprising women for more meaningful professions in the digital economy, only to find unpaid work, or what amounts to free work for corporate brands. Duffy is the author of “Remake, Remodel: Women’s Magazines in the Digital Age.”

Book talks are free and open to the public, with refreshments.

Finding fieldwork

Find out about the many opportunities for learning beyond the classroom at a Fieldwork Fair, Sept. 28 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Mann Library lobby. It is free and open to the Cornell community.

More than 20 Cornell programs will be represented, with information about available internships, research, training, travel, volunteering and engagement. Also featured are exhibits showcasing fieldwork by students and faculty, in collaboration with Macauley Library at the Lab of Ornithology, Shoals Marine Lab and the Tata Institute.

Among other participating programs are the Community and Regional Development Institute, Cornell Farmworker Program, Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, the Community Food Systems minor, Alternative Breaks, Community Learning and Service Partnership, Office of Engagement Initiatives, Organization of Tropical Studies, School of Integrative Plant Science, Department of Anthropology, Cornell Biological Field Station, CU Women’s and Men’s Basketball Operations and Cornell-Nepal Earthquake Recovery Partnership.

For more information, call 607-255-5406.

Poetry by Marilyn Hacker

Marilyn Hacker will give the fall 2017 Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Reading, Sept. 28 at 4:30 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall. Part of the Department of English Creative Writing Program’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series, the reading is free and open to the public.

Hacker is an award-winning writer with 13 books of poems, including “Names,” “Winter Numbers” and “A Stranger’s Mirror: New and Selected Poems 1995-2014;” in addition to “DiaspoRenga,” with co-author Deema Shehabi, and the essay collection “Unauthorized Voices.”

She has published 16 translations from the French, including Marie Etienne’s “King of a Hundred Horsemen,” awarded the 2009 American PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; and Emmanuel Moses’ “Preludes and Fugues.”

Songs of tragedy

“Bitter Banquet,” a multimedia song cycle by Annie Lewandowski, will be staged Sept. 29-30 at the Cherry Artspace, 102 Cherry St., Ithaca. Tickets are $18 general, $10 for students and seniors.

An image from “Bitter Banquet,” composer-performer Annie Lewandowski’s multimedia song cycle being staged Sept. 29-30.

With songs inspired by the intense emotional lives of Hecuba, Iphigenia, Phaedra and seven other female characters from Greek dramatist Euripides’ tragedies, the performance combines visuals and music to striking synesthetic effect. The show premiered at Cornell in October 2016 during the classics festival “Sustaining the Antique.”

Directed by Samuel Buggeln with projections designed by Benjy Brooke, the performance features Lewandowski, a lecturer in the Department of Music; professor of music David Yearsley on baroque keyboards; and percussionist Sarah Hennies. An academic panel after the Sept. 29 performance, on the reception of Euripidean drama in contemporary theater, features Verity Platt, associate professor of classics; Sara Warner, associate professor of performing and media arts; and Columbia University classicist Nancy Worman.

Lewandowski is a composer and multi-instrumentalist drawn to improvisation and indie rock. Her band, Powerdove, performs internationally and has released eight recordings.

Media Contact

Lindsey Knewstub