Provided

A mid-century history of Cornell's extension service in New York state is the topic of a book talk Sept. 26 at Mann Library.

Cixous à deux

A.D. White Professor-at-Large Hélène Cixous returns to campus this week for a lecture and roundtable discussion.

Her lecture, “Ay Yay: The Shout of Literature,” is Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art’s Lynch Conference Room.

The discussion, “Cinematic Cixous,” includes a screening of excerpts from a documentary on her life, Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. in 2B48 Kroch Library. The roundtable features Laurent Dubreuil, Cornell professor of Romance studies, comparative literature and cognitive science; Olivier Morel of the University of Notre Dame; and Eric Prenowitz of the University of Leeds.

Cixous, one of the leading intellectuals and writers in France, is an influential postmodern literary theorist and the author of more than 40 novels, 10 plays and 15 volumes of theory and essays, including “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975).

Information: http://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu

Diversity, scholarship and engagement

About 50 student researchers, from freshmen to fourth-year graduate students in a variety of disciplines across campus, will share their research at a symposium Sept. 24 in G10 Biotechnology. The Cornell community is invited.

The Fall Diversity in Scholarship and Engagement Symposium includes a poster session 3-4:30 p.m. and oral presentations 4:30-6 p.m. A reception from 6 to 7:30 p.m. will be held in the Biotech Atrium. The event is sponsored by the Graduate School’s Office of Inclusion and Professional Development and the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives (OADI).

OADI’s first cohorts of research scholars and community advocates will present their research and learning experiences in the humanities, social sciences, youth development and civic engagement. The presenters also include members of the Graduate Diversity Council, Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, McNair Scholars and Diversity Fellows.

Information: http://www.oadi.cornell.edu

Saving species

Botanist and environmental advocate Peter H. Raven will speak about “Conserving Species in a Changing World,” Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Alice Statler Auditorium. Free and open to the public; presented by the Cornell Plantations Fall Lecture Series.

Raven’s lecture will explore how the world is at serious risk from human population growth, overconsumption and the use of often-inappropriate technology. He suggests strategies to save the maximum number of species from extinction and create conditions allowing for their survival and the perpetuation of Earth’s living systems.

Described by Time magazine as a “hero for the planet,” Raven champions global research to preserve endangered plants. He co-authored the textbooks “Biology of Plants,” now in its sixth edition, and “Environment.” A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he is president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, served on President Bill Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, and received the U.S. National Medal of Science in 2000.

Information: 607-255-2400, cornellplantations.org

Witchcraft in 2-D

Cornell Cinema begins its “World Witches on Screen” series Sept. 26, with two films and a display of movie posters from Cornell Library’s Witchcraft Collection.

“War Witch,” at 7 p.m., is a 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee about a child soldier in sub-Saharan Africa suspected of witchcraft. The 1942 screwball comedy “I Married a Witch,” with Veronica Lake and Frederic March, follows at 9 p.m.

The poster display in Willard Straight Theatre features rare original posters and recent additions to the Witchcraft Collection, curated by Laurent Ferri in the library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu

Organ competition

Young musicians from all over the world will perform in the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies’ first International Organ Competition and Academy, Sept. 22-29, at Cornell and in Rochester, N.Y., in collaboration with the Eastman School of Music. A recital by competition jurors Kimberly Marshall and David Yearsley will kick off the event Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Chapel.

Competitors will perform for an international jury and vie for prize money totaling $17,500 – plus, for the first-place winner, a solo concert tour of the United States and Europe and a CD recording for the Loft label. The competition theme, “Cosmopolitan Encounters,”invites participants to reimagine historic encounters between great keyboard players of the past.

They will play organ repertoire on the Craighead-Saunders organ at Christ Church, Rochester, modeled on a 1776 Casparini organ in Vilnius, Lithuania; the original 18th-century Italian organ in Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery; and Cornell’s organ in Anabel Taylor, based on the 1706 Arp Schnitger organ at Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin.

Twelve competitors play in the first round Sept. 23-24 in Rochester. Six will go on to the second round, Sept. 26 in Ithaca. Three finalists will perform in the final round Sept. 28 at Christ Church in Rochester, followed by a reception and award ceremony. The winners will play at a Cornell recital Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. All rounds are free and open to the public. The academy, with recitals and master classes by organist Christa Rakich and others, begins Sept. 23 in Ithaca and runs concurrently with the competition.

Information: http://westfield.org/competition or 607-255-3065.

‘The People’s Colleges’

Cornell University, designated New York state’s land grant college in 1865, continues its land-grant mission today, meeting the changing needs of communities with its Extension Service.

Written more than 60 years ago, Ruby Green Smith’s book “The People’s Colleges: A History of the New York State Extension Service in Cornell University and the State, 1876-1948,” is essential reading for anyone working in higher education who share a commitment to strengthening public engagement.

A Chats in the Stacks book talk, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. in 160 Mann Library, will consider the important lessons Smith teaches us. The talk features Helene Dillard, associate dean and director of Cornell Cooperative Extension; Jane Mt. Pleasant, associate professor of horticulture and past director of the American Indian Program, and Scott Peters, co-director of the national consortium Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and a member of the education faculty at Cornell and Syracuse University.

Smith’s book was re-released in January to celebrate Cornell’s sesquicentennial, with a new foreword by Dillard and a new preface by Peters explaining the cultural significance of the extension’s mission.

Free and open to the public. Information: http://mannlib.cornell.edu/events-exhibits, 607-255-5406.