This week’s lectures to discuss sex, gender, and war

Two of this week’s lectures focus on sex and sexuality, while three others will discuss international events, particularly in regard to world media.

Title: “Family Pleasures: Incest and Desire Among the Edwardian Middle Class”
The Basics: Lisa Z. Sigel is a member of the history department at DePaul University and author of Governing Pleasures: Sexuality and Social Change in Britain, 1815–1914. Her lecture involves the Punishment of Incest Act for England and Wales that the British Parliament passed in 1908. While the bill seemed obvious, the curious aspect of the act was the failed attempts to pass similiar legistation. Furthermore, continued arguments in Parliament against the bill demonstrated, as Sigel argues, cultural ambivalence toward state regulation of familial sexuality.
When: Today at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Swank Room, Baker Hall 255B

Title: “Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again”
The Basics: Norah Vincent, a former Los Angeles Times op-ed columnist, spent 18 months in male disguise to get a first-hand account of how the other gender lives. She dressed as a man, glued bits of stubble to her jaw, joined an all-male bowling league, went to strip clubs, and even went on dates to understand the difference between the sexes.
When: Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Pake Room, Univer-sity Center

Title: “After Iraq and Leb-anon: Rethinking the Relevance of the United Nations”
The Basics: Jeffrey Laurenti, senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a leading policy expert on the United Nations, will speak on the current and future role of the United Nations in the global order in light of the U.S.’s recent military activity in the Middle East.
When: Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Where: University of Pitts-burgh’s Wesley W. Posvar Hall, room 4130

Subject: A public talk and discussion with Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal
The Basics: India has recently passed the Right to Information Act (RTI), similar to the American Freedom of Information Act. India’s most prominent RTI activist, Arvind Kejriwal, will speak about
the importance of open goverment and the people’s right to know.
Kejriwal was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Emergent Leadership award in 2006 for initiating India’s grassroots RTI movement.
When: Thursday at 6 p.m.
Where: Porter Hall 100

Title: “The War in Lebanon: Win, Lose, or Draw — A Reporter’s Perspective”
The Basics: Elli Wohlgelernter, an Israel Broadcasting Authority television reporter, will speak about the recent Israeli conflict in Lebanon and where the political process goes from here.
Wohlgelernter has been an editor at Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and a reporter for
the New York Post and ABC and FOX TV stations in New York and Seattle. An extended question-and-answer session will follow.

When: Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Adamson Wing, Baker Hall 136A