V.I.P.S.
Vital, Informative Pitt Speakers

April 3, 2006 Issue

Using human tissues and animal modeling, Eliezer Masliah (right) and his lab colleagues are studying experimental therapies to reduce neuronal damage and promote regeneration in people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and neuroAIDS. Masliah—professor of neurosciences and pathology at the University of California, La Jolla—talked about his research in delivering the Pitt School of Medicine’s second annual A. Julio Martinez Memorial Lecture March 14 at UPMC Presbyterian.

Molefi Kete Asante, pictured with Pitt Department of Africana Studies student Tamara Thompson, gave a keynote address titled “Black Egyptian Civilization and Culture: An Inspiration for New Generations to Reach New Heights” during an Africana Studies-sponsored celebration of Black History Month. Asante is a professor of African American Studies at Temple University and the author of 61 books and more than 300 scholarly articles. His 1980 book, Afrocentricity, is attributed with generating the term Afrocentrism, a reexamination of traditional scholarship from the perspective of African and African diasporal peoples.

The book—particularly the kind of book produced by small presses—is not only an artifact of its time but also a place of communion between a writer and her reader, argued Tiffany Merriman (above), a poet and M.F.A. candidate in Pitt’s English department. In a Pitt Women’s Studies Program-sponsored brown bag lecture March 15 in Posvar Hall, Merriman described what she called “the politics of inclusion and exclusion” in small press literature, women’s contributions to the aesthetics of small-press books, and the current and historical positions of women publishing in small presses.

Successful entrepreneurs shared secrets of their success during a recent event titled “Earning and Learning—Are You a Money Maker?” presented by Pitt’s Entrepreneurs’ Society. Joey Rahimi, (above), CEO and cofounder of College Prowler—publisher of student-written guides to U.S. colleges and universities—participated in a discussion titled “The Real World: How to Avoid Costly Mistakes in a Startup Company.” The Katz Graduate School of Business’ Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence sponsors the Entrepreneurs’ Society, which helps Pitt students build entrepreneurial skills and expand their networks of professional contacts.

Pitt’s Film Studies Program presented a March 14 dialogue with actress Tilda Swinton (center), who gave a critically acclaimed performance as the Witch in 2005’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia. Also participating in the dialogue, held in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Screening Room, were Pitt’s Colin MacCabe (left), Distinguished University Professor of Film Studies and English, and Isaac Julien (right), Mellon Professor in the English department. In conjunction with Swinton’s visit, Film Studies also hosted screenings of two other films in which she played major roles: Derek Jarman’s Edward II (1991) and Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992).

During the University Senate’s Spring Plenary Session March 29, academician-turned-entrepreneur D. Lansing Taylor described the pluses and pitfalls of academic entrepreneurship to a crowd of about 100 faculty and staff members in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room. In his plenary lecture, titled “An Entrepreneurial Vision of Academia,” Taylor said entrepreneurship is not for every academician, but for those who pursue it, it provides a way to pay back society for supporting their research while generating income to support future research at their universities. Individually, academic entrepreneurship gives researchers personal satisfaction as well as financial reward—which is “just fine!” said Taylor, who is president and CEO of Cellumen, Inc., and a former researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University.

Jerome Taylor (below), an associate professor in Pitt’s Africana Studies department, moderated a spirited panel discussion during the Africana Studies-sponsored Winter Community Symposium Feb. 24. Panelists discussed the roles desegregation, professional development, literacy, and cultural inclusion play in narrowing the racial achievement gap in schools. Panelists included Pittsburgh Public School Superintendent Mark Roosevelt; Helen Faison (CAS ’46, EDUC ’55, EDUC ’75), a Pitt trustee and director of the Pittsburgh Teachers Institute; Shirley Biggs, Pitt associate professor of education; Kwame Botwe-Asamoah, Pitt assistant professor of Africana Studies; Stanley Denton (CAS ’78, CAS ’85), a Point Park University education professor; and Chalin Askew, a junior at Taylor Allderdice High School.