These are just a few of the upcoming events on Rutgers' campuses. For more events, view the universitywide calendar. To add an event, click here. You will need a Rutgers NetID and password to add an event.

Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series commemorates the 40th anniversary of MLK’s death

Sunday, February 16, 2008
9:30 a.m.

Paul Robeson Campus Center
350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Newark

One of New Jersey’s oldest and most highly esteemed Black History Month events, the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series will mark its 28th anniversary by examining Private Grief and Public Mourning in African-American Life and History.

The keynote Marion Thompson Wright Lecture will be given by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, professor emerita of history at American University and a scholar and artist in African-American cultural history and music. Afternoon speakers include Professor John Vlach, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; Professor Kim Lacy Rogers, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and Dr. Juanita Moore, president and CEO, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan. The afternoon presentations will be followed by a reception in the Paul Robeson Gallery, featuring entertainment by the Bradford Hayes jazz trio.

Since 1981, the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series has drawn thousands of people to the Rutgers–Newark Campus in observance of Black History Month. The annual conference was named for East Orange, New Jersey, native Dr. Marion Thompson Wright, a pioneer in African-American historiography and race relations in New Jersey, and the first professionally trained woman historian in the United States.

For additional information about the program, visit the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience website or contact Marisa Pierson at 973-353-1871, ext. 11, or mpierson@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

Supreme Court justice talks at Rutgers about his Italian roots

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
1:30 p.m.

Rutgers Student Center
Multipurpose Room
126 College Avenue
New Brunswick

Italian Studies at Rutgers marks its fifth anniversary with a free lecture by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, “Reflections on Growing Up as an Italian American in New Jersey.” The event is open to the general public.

On January 31, 2006, Alito, a New Jersey native, was confirmed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was born April 1, 1950, in Trenton, New Jersey, and from 1987 to 1989 served as U. S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush nominated Alito to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and he was unanimously confirmed by voice vote by the U.S. Senate.

The Rutgers Film Co-op/N.J. Media Arts Center presents the New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2008

Friday, January 25 through Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, is proud to present the New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2008. Grouping together new international films, American independent features, short subjects, classic revivals, and cutting-edge documentaries and experimental films, the New Jersey Film Festival will feature over 65 film screenings on 37 evenings.

Over 30 films will have their New Jersey premier or area premier (Middlesex County) screenings as part of the New Jersey Film Festival. Some of these include: a special dual-screen presentation of Julie Taymor’s recent Beatles musical Across The Universe; Anton Corbin’s Control – the riveting biopic on Ian Curtis, lead singer of the great U.K. new wave band Joy Division; Wes Anderson’s vibrant portrait of India in The Darjeeling Limited; Bill Plympton’s hilarious, new animated short Shuteye Hotel; Roland Becerra’s sinister, animated A New Haven; Takashi Ito’s brilliant experimental film Spacey; Susan Dymer’s documentary Punk’s Not Dead;” as well as all the films that will be part of our 2008 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival and the Street Art Festival.

In addition, the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center will offer five film/video workshops taught by professionals during the spring. They include “Screenwriting I,” “Filmmaking I,” “The Film Business: Legal Aspects of the Motion Picture Business,” “Achieving Quality Audio Results,” and “How to Raise Money for Film and Video Projects.”

For more information, go to www.njfilmfest.com.

Former White House adviser presents lecture as part of Rutgers Presidential Forum

Thursday, February 7, 2008
5:45 p.m. reception (advance purchase required)
7 p.m. public lecture

Douglass Campus Center
100 George Street
New Brunswick

David Gergen, White House adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report, will deliver the lecture “Eyewitness to Power: Presidential Leadership in America.” Gergen is a regular television commentator on CNN and a frequent guest on MSNBC. He has moderated “World @ Large,” a 13-part PBS discussion series, for two seasons. Gergen also is professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is author of the best-selling book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.

Tickets to the reception with Gergen and preferred lecture seating are $50; preferred seating only tickets are $20. The lecture, with nonreserved seating, is free and open to the public.

To purchase reception and/or preferred seating tickets, visit the Eagleton Institute of Politics website, or call 732-932-9384, ext. 268