ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University's Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large program will host two distinguished visitors this month: Lynn Hershman Leeson, professor of art in the Technocultural Studies Program at the University of California-Davis, and Jules Pretty, head of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex, England.

Pretty will lecture on "Clarifying the Ends and Means of Sustainability: Some European Perspectives," Wednesday, April 20, at 4:30 p.m. in 401 Warren Hall.

On Tuesday, April 19, Leeson will be on hand to answer questions following a screening of her film "Teknolust" at 7 p.m. in the Cornell Cinema in Willard Straight Hall. She also will deliver a keynote address, "The Raw Data Diet -- The Shape of Things to Come," for the Cornell Symposium on Affect, Interaction and Technology, Friday, April 22, at 5 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall.

"Professor Hershman Leeson is an extremely effective writer and public speaker who has mastered the art of tailoring her presentations to various public audiences," said Timothy Murray, Cornell professor of English and comparative literature and director of graduate studies in film and video.

Leeson has presented more than 200 exhibitions, completed 53 videotapes and eight interactive installations. Her films "Conceiving Ada" and "Teknolust" received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award. Her work is included in the Hess Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, and the ZKM Mediammuseum.

While on campus, Pretty will participate in classes in natural resources, science and technology studies, biology and society, development sociology and design and environmental analysis. He will meet informally with the Cornell Participatory Action Research Network and the developmental sociology food systems group.

Pretty has been a leader in European efforts to address competing claims of economic growth and modernization, on one hand, and environmental integrity and sustainability on the other. His books include:Guide to a Green Planet (edited, 2002);Agri-Culture: Reconnecting Land, People and Nature (2002);The Living Land: Agriculture, Food and Community Regeneration in Rural Europe (1998); andRegenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practice for Sustainability and Self-Reliance (1995). He is deputy chair of the United Kingdom Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, assessing the risks and opportunities of genetic modification. He received a 1997 award from the Indian Ecological Society for international contributions to sustainable and ecological agriculture and is chief editor of theInternational Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.