ITHACA, N.Y. -- Dr. Joseph Fins, professor of medicine in psychiatry and chief of the Medical Ethics Division at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, will deliver a talk titled "Back to the Future: Cultures of Death and Dying in America," Thursday, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m. in the Guerlac Room. of the Andrew Dickson White House on the Cornell campus.

The keynote presentation inaugurates the Society for the Humanities at Cornell's inter-disciplinary colloquium, "Humanism at the Cross-Roads," a collaboration among faculty members at Cornell's Ithaca campus and the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Fins, also director of medical ethics at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center, is a distinguished teacher and public speaker on ethical issues involved with care for patients with severe brain injuries. His presentation, which will address issues with broad social and cultural implications, provides a fitting topic to launch the new series, said Brett de Bary, director of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell (SHC).

"One of the initiatives of our new president, Jeffrey Lehman, has been to increase interaction between our faculty and the faculty of the medical school," de Bary said. "[But] what we call interdisciplinary exchange in the humanities often simply involves discussions between humanists in different fields in the humanities. Genuine interdisciplinary exchange should involve humanists in discussions with scholars in the social sciences and medical and biological sciences as well."

A panel of Cornell faculty members will discuss Fins' presentation following his talk in the A.D. White House. Panelists will include: Michele Moody-Adams, director of Cornell's Ethics and Public Life Program; Erin McLeary, visiting assistant professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies; Barry Maxwell, senior lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature and the American Studies Program; Shirley Samuels, professor in the Department of English and the American Studies Program; and Trevor Morrison, assistant professor in the Law School. SHC was established in 1965 and occupies the stately A.D. White House on central campus. Its mission is to support research and encourage imaginative teaching in the humanities. At any given time, the A.D. White House hosts eight or nine SHC fellows from the United States and abroad. Up to eight semester-long faculty fellowships are shared among individual Cornell scholars. Together they offer Cornell students a panoply of innovative seminars each year. The society also oversees six Mellon postdoctoral fellows teaching in humanities departments at Cornell.

The colloquium is co-sponsored by SHC, the Office of the Vice Provost for Medical Affairs and the Program on Ethics and Public Life, with support from the Irving "Chips"Cantor Fund.

For more information about the colloquium, contact Mary Ahl at SHC, (607) 255-4086, or e-mail mea4@cornell.edu .