Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

UA Libraries Announce Spring Break Hours
Art of Biography Series Continues
Important University Dates and Events Coming Up
Al Qaeda Expert, Journalist Peter Bergen to Speak
Interdisciplinary Writing Colloquium Scheduled
FRC Callls for Workshop Proposals
Nominations for Award Being Sought
Orion String Quartet Final Celebrity Series Concert

UA Libraries Announce Spring Break Hours

As a result of scheduled power outages during spring break at UA, Bruno Business Library and Gorgas Library have adjusted hours of operation for the week of spring break on campus. Bruno Library will be closed on Monday-Wednesday, March 25-27, and its Web pages will be unavailable during the outage those days as well. Gorgas Library will be closed on Thursday, March 28. During the outage that day, the University Libraries Web site will be unavailable. Both libraries will be open as scheduled during the rest of the spring break week. Hoole Special Collections Library will be closed during spring break. Regular library hours during spring break are:

Friday, March 22 -- Libraries close at 4:45 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday, March 23-24 -- Libraries closed
Monday-Friday, March 25-29 -- 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.
Saturday, March 30 -- Libraries closed

The Libraries will resume regular spring semester hours on Sunday, March 31, opening from 1 p.m.-midnight.

Electronic resources are available at www.lib.ua.edu. For more information, contact Kate Ragsdale at 348-1484.

Art of Biography Series Continues

A University of Cambridge history professor who has explored the "religious psychology" of Oliver Cromwell will give a talk on the 17th-century English ruler. Dr. John Morrill, professor of British and Irish history at the English university, will present "Rewriting Cromwell: A Case of Deafening Silences" on Wednesday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Ferguson Theater. As part of UA's Bankhead Lecture Series, The Art of Biography, admission is free, and the public is invited.

Morrill's current research centers on the political, religious, social, and cultural histories of England, Ireland and Scotland from the late 15th to the mid-18th centuries. He is also undertaking a series of detailed case studies of the "religious psychology" of several people who lived through the civil wars -- most notably Oliver Cromwell, who governed England as Lord Protector from 1653-1658.

Morrill has written and edited 19 books, was the general editor of the "Royal Historical Society Bibliography on CD-ROM: the History of Britain, Ireland and the British Overseas," (a contents-indexed listing of 249,000 books, articles and essays in collective volumes), and is consultant editor for the 6,300 17th-century lives in the "New Dictionary of National Biography."

Important University Dates and Events Coming Up

UA's spring break will run Monday, March 25-Friday, March 29. The University re-opens Monday, April 1 (no fooling!). Daylight Savings Times goes into effect Sunday, April 7, at 2 a.m., at which time, clocks "spring forward" one hour.

The University's annual Honors Week is scheduled for Monday, April 8-Friday, April 12. Classes will be dismissed at 10 a.m. on April 12 for the traditional Tapping on the Mound and other Honors Day events. See page 2 for details.

The annual spring faculty and staff meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 29, at 11 a.m. in the Bryant Conference Center. UA President Andrew Sorensen will introduce the 2001 McKinley winners and discuss other topics of interest. All faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

Spring Commencement will be held on Friday, May 17, with ceremonies at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Watch future isssues of Dialog for details.

Al Qaeda Expert, Journalist Peter Bergen to Speak

CNN analyst Peter Bergen, one of the few Western journalists to have extensively interviewed Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, the man believed to be behind the World Trade Center attack of Sept. 11, will speak at UA about his years of investigating bin Laden and his Jihadist terrorist network. Bergen's talk will be held on Tuesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. in Morgan Hall auditorium, just a few weeks before he returns to Afghanistan to continue his investigation of the war and the Al Qaeda organization. Bergen has spent 10 years reporting on the Islamic world as a journalist and producer for CNN. His lecture is part of the special September 11th Lecture Series in UA's College of Arts and Sciences. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Interdisciplinary Writing Colloquium Scheduled

UA faculty and staff are invited to the first Interdisciplinary Writing Group Spring Colloquium scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, from 2-5:15 p.m., in the Mortar Board Room of Ferguson Center. This writing group of junior UA faculty has been meeting for almost two years to share and critique each other's scholarship to help prepare research to be published. There will be three panels (with breaks in between presentations), each with the presentation of a paper, reactions from respondents, and a discussion. Respondents scheduled to participate include UA President Andrew Sorensen and Dr. Cully Clark, dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences. A reception will follow. For more information, contact Dr. Jerry Rosiek, assistant professor in the College of Education, at 348-7598 or Dr. Ted Trost, assistant professor of religious studies, at 348-7534.

FRC Callls for Workshop Proposals

The Faculty Resource Center has announced a call for proposals for its summer workshop for Web-based instruction. The workshop will be an intensive, two-week course for faculty who wish to use various technologies to build a complete WebCT course. Proposals should be submitted on line and there will be compensation. To find out more and to submit proposals, go to the Web site at http://frc.ua.edu/summer/index.html or call Susan Lucas at 348-0216. Dates will be determined. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 22.

Nominations for Award Being Sought

Nominations for the prestigious E Roger Sayers Distinguished Service Award are being sought by the Office of Human Resources. The deadline is March 22. Created in 1996 by members of the President's Cabinet and the National Alumni Association, the award recognizes faculty and exempt administrative personnel whose outstanding performance has contributed to the advancement of the University's mission. Past recipients include former President Sayers, who recieved the first award, David Womack, Dr. Drury Caine, Dr. Scott Bridges, John Moore, Dorothy "Dot" Martin, and Dr. Culpepper Clark.

The award will be presented at the annual spring faculty and staff meeting on April 29. For further information contact human resources at 348-6690.

Orion String Quartet Final Celebrity Series Concert

The Orion String Quartet will perform at UA as part of the School of Music Celebrity Series on Tuesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Moody Music Concert Hall. Hailed for its exquisite artistry, technical mastery and astute approach to concert programming, the Orion String Quartet is one of the most admired chamber ensembles on the international music scene. Single event tickets are available to the general public for $22 and $15, and $7 for students with valid IDs. For more information about tickets, contact the School of Music box office at 348-7111.

The members of the Quartet -- violinists Daniel Phillips and Todd Phillips, violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy -- have worked with such legendary figures as Pablo Casals, Rudolph Serkin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, András Schiff, Wynton Marsalis, members of TASHI and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as the Budapest, Vegh, Galimir and Guarneri String Quartets.

The group offers diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers; the Quartet's three recordings on Sony Classical and Arabesque Recordings reflect this diversity. For Sony Classical, the Orion recorded Wynton Marsalis's first classical composition for strings, "At the Octoroon Balls" (String Quartet No. 1). Other critically acclaimed recordings include Arabesque's Dvorak's "American" String Quartet and Piano Quintet with Peter Serkin and Mendelssohn's Octet with the Guarneri String Quartet.