Film by Peter Riegert Of The Sopranos to Be Screened Here Nov. 1

Acclaimed actor, director, writer, and producer Peter Riegert will screen his new film, King of the Corner, and answer audience questions at 7 p.m. tonight in Alumni Hall’s seventh-floor auditorium. The free event is a collaboration of Pitt’s Film Studies Program, Pitt in Hollywood, Jewish Studies Program, and School of Arts and Sciences dean’s office.

A powerful presence on stage and screen for more than 30 years, veteran actor Riegert will showcase his talents as a writer and director with King of the Corner, his debut feature-length film, cowritten with Gerald Shapiro. The film is based on Shapiro’s collection of short stories, Bad Jews and Other Stories (University of Nebraska Press, 2004).

Riegert embarked on his directing career in 2000 with his adaptation of the O. Henry short story “By Courier”; his adaptation was nominated for an Academy Award for best live action short King of the Corner, a sly, deadpan social comedy about the dangers of navigating life without a compass, promises no less of an impact.

Riegert began his acting career in 1971, appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1972, he cocreated the improvisational company War Babies and by 1976 had added David Mamet’s first success in New York, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and the Broadway musical Dance With Me to his acting resume. Riegert’s first national exposure came in 1978 as Boon in the comedy classic Animal House. His other films include Local Hero, Crossing Delancey, Chilly Scenes of Winter, A Man in Love, A Shock to the System, The Mask, Utz, Coldblooded, and Traffic.

Riegert has appeared on television in such productions as Concealed Enemies, Photography Made Difficult, Barbarians at the Gate, and Gypsy. Most recently, Riegert has been seen as Assemblyman Zelman on The Sopranos.

For more information, contact Vladimir Padunov, associate director of Pitt’s Film Studies Program, at 412-624-5713 or padunov@pitt.edu.

—Patricia Lomando White

Trafficking in Persons To Be Focus of Nov. 3 Lecture in Posvar Hall

Pitt will host a free lecture titled “Liberals and Criminals: Trafficking in Persons in the New Millennium” by H. Richard Friman, noon-1:30 p.m. Nov. 3 in Room 3430 Wesley W. Posvar Hall. Friman is Eliot Fitch Chair for International Studies, professor of political science, and director of the Institute for Transnational Justice at Marquette University.

Presented by Pitt’s Ford Institute for Human Security and The Global Studies Program of the University Center for International Studies, Friman’s lecture will focus on the growing gap between criminalization and enforcement against trafficking in persons in the context of a globalizing economy.

Friman has written several books and articles in the area of globalization and transnational crime, including The Illicit Global Economy and State Power (Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, 1999) and NarcoDiplomacy: Exporting the U.S. War on Drugs (Cornell University Press, 1996).

For further details about the lecture, contact Sandra Monteverde at smonteverde@gspia.pitt.edu or 412-648-7434.

—John Fedele

Pitt’s Model United Nations Will Be in Session Here Nov. 8

Nearly 450 students from 36 high schools throughout Western Pennsylvania will experience the excitement and complexity of international relations as they convene Nov. 8 at Pitt to take part in the University’s eighth annual Model United Nations (Model U.N.) Simulation.

Model U.N. will be in session from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the William Pitt Union. The event is sponsored by Pitt’s University Center for International Studies, Citizens for Global Solutions Pittsburgh, and the United Nations Association of Pittsburgh.

Model U.N. gives students the opportunity to assume the role of diplomats as they participate in mock sessions of the United Nations, Caribbean Community, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Acting as representatives for those organizations, students debate such issues as nuclear proliferation and landmines, children with disabilities in developing nations, the sale of diamonds by insurgents to finance weapons, the effects of atomic radiation, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, crime and security in the Caribbean, new challenges for NATO, the common European defense policy, the Chechnya conflict, and the transition in Iraq from a U.S.-sponsored to an Iraqi-lead government.
Members of Pitt’s Model U.N. club will participate in the simulation, acting as Secretary-General, committee chairs, and U.N. staff.

For more information, access the event Web site at www.pitt.edu/~modelun.

—Leigh Ann Wojciechowski

Lecture to Focus on Role of Dendritic Cells In Immune System

Immunology pioneer Ralph M. Steinman, whose early research with a colleague led to the discovery of dendritic cells, will be the fourth and final speaker in the 2004 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Laureate Lecture Series at Pitt.

Steinman is the Henry G. Kunkel Professor and senior physician in the Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology at Rockefeller University, where he also serves as director of the Christopher H. Browne Center for Immunology and Immune Diseases. His lecture, titled “Dendritic Cells: Sentinels for the Control of Immunity and Tolerance,” is scheduled for noon Nov. 4 in Scaife Hall Auditorium 6.

“Throughout the year, the Laureate Lecture Series has highlighted the research of some of our nation’s most gifted, creative, and innovative scientists. It’s wonderful to end on such a high note by hosting Dr. Ralph Steinman, because his work holds such great promise for the development of immune-based therapies against infections and various communicable diseases,” said Arthur S. Levine, Pitt senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.

In 1973, in the course of their research at Rockefeller, Steinman and the late Zanvil A. Cohn discovered dendritic cells, a previously unknown class of immune cells, which act as sentinels for the immune system, detecting antigens and coordinating the body’s response to them. Antigens associated with infectious agents, tumors, or other perceived threats to the body are targeted and captured by dendritic cells and then, in a complex series of interactions, are presented to other immune system cells, which destroy the antigen-bearing “threats.” Other antigens, which are determined to pose no threat, are tolerated by dendritic cells.

—Jocelyn Uhl

Drue Heinz Prize Winner to Give Evening Reading

Darrell Spencer, recipient of the 2004 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, will give a free public reading along with prize judge Jane McCafferty, the 1992 Drue Heinz winner, at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 3 in the William Pitt Union Ballroom. The event is part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series
Author of the Drue Heinz Prize-winning Bring Your Legs with You (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), Spencer also won the 1998 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for his short story collection CAUTION: Men in Trees (University of Georgia Press, 2000). Spencer’s other books include A Woman Packing a Pistol (Dragon Gate Press, 1987) and Our Secret’s Out (University of Missouri Press, 1993). His short stories have appeared in myriad publications, including the American Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse, Quarterly West, and The Gettysburg Review. He is a professor of creative writing at Ohio University.

McCafferty, the 1992 Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner for Director of the World and Other Stories (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), is an associate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University. She also was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the 1998 Pushcart Prize. Established in 1980 and endowed by the Drue Heinz Trust in 1995, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize is administered by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The prize recognizes and supports writers of short fiction, making their work available to readers throughout the world. It is awarded to an author who has published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas. Manuscripts are judged anonymously by nationally known writers. The prize carries a cash award of $15,000.

—Audra Sorman