Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

Peter Serkin to Perform
Research Advisory Committee Seeking Applications
Philosophy Lecture Scheduled
Meningitis, Flu Vaccinations Offered to UA Students
Gorgas House Limited Edition Holiday Ornament Now Available
UA Museum to Exhibit International Doll Collections

Peter Serkin

UA's Celebrity Series will present its second event of the season, Peter Serkin, piano virtuoso, on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Moody Music Concert Hall. Serkin is a third-generation musician with a reputation for being a thoughtful and individualistic musician who is not interested in repeating his more famous interpretations.

Individual tickets are $22 and $15. For ticket information or an immediate credit card purchase call the School of Music Box Office at 348-7111. Visit the web site at www.music.ua.edu. Serkin's concert is sponsored by the Gloria Narramore Moody Foundation.

Research Advisory Committee Seeking Applications

UA's Research Advisory Committee is accepting applications for research grant funding for all full-time regular UA faculty and staff. Applicants can request funding up to $5,000 for grant-in-aid (salary for all or part of the summer), assistants, supplies, equipment, books and travel. The deadline for applications is Friday, Jan. 31, 2003. The deadline applies to applications for mini-grants of $500 or less, as well.

Applications and the Research Advisory Committee manual may be obtained on the Web site www.osp.ua.edu or by contacting Rhonda Hester in 152 Rose administration. Contact Hester at 348-4881.

Philosophy Lecture Scheduled

UA's department of philosophy is sponsoring a public lecture by the renowned young philosopher Theodore Sider, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, Friday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. in room 30 ten Hoor building. Sider's lecture, "Philosophy and Hell," will look at what contemporary philosophers do. The lecture is also supported by the Anonymous Humanities Speakers Fund.

Sider earned undergraduate degrees in philosophy, physics and mathematics, and his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Massachusetts. He is on the editorial boards of at least two prestigious professional journals. His most recent book, "Four Dimensionalism -- An Ontology of Persistence and Time," Oxford University Press, deals with the metaphysics of time and identity.

Meningitis, Flu Vaccinations Offered to UA Students

VACCESSHealth will offer meningitis and influenza vaccinations to UA students on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from 1-7 p.m. in Room 138 of the UA Russell Student Health Center. The meningitis vaccine costs $85, and the flu vaccine costs $20. Both fees can be billed to current students' accounts by showing a student identification card.

Meningitis is a rare but serious disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. Recent studies indicate students living in dormitories have a six-fold increased risk of contracting the disease that can be fatal or disabling. The number of college students who have contracted the disease has risen, and the University strongly encourages them to be vaccinated.

Complications from the flu can result in bronchitis, pneumonia and ear infections, conditions sometimes requiring hospitalization for treatment. The flu vaccine is highly effective and safe in preventing the disease and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends college students and those who want to reduce their risk of contracting the flu, to consider being vaccinated each year.

For more information, contact VACCESS at 570/585- 0125 or Connie Diggs at Russell Student Health Center, 348-6262.

Gorgas House Limited Edition Holiday Ornament Now Available

Easter Seals of West Alabama has issued its eighth annual limited edition holiday ornament. Local artist Jack Andrews has created the ornament of the Gorgas House, located on the UA campus, to benefit Easter Seals. The purchase of the ornament, for $12, provides a unique, collectible gift-boxed ornament for a gift or your own tree; it also helps Easter Seals create solutions and change lives for children and adults with disabilities. For more information, call 759-1211, ext. 230.

UA Museum to Exhibit International Doll Collections

Photo of dolls from international dolls exhibit UA's Alabama Museum of Natural History will display international dolls dating back to the 1880s in Smith Hall through Dec. 20. Selected dolls on display will include antique to brand names, such as Madame Alexander, Nancy Ann Storybook dolls, Ideal dolls, and the Alabama Indestructible Baby.

"This is a huge collection representing a lot of different foreign countries and cultures, as well as U.S. and Alabama dolls," said Dr. Virginia S. Wimberly, assistant professor in the department of clothing, textiles, and interior design in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. "The collection runs the gamut of doll types, using materials from wax to wood, wire, straw, and finer materials like bisque and porcelain."

The collection was donated in 1988 by the granddaughter of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Mary Harmon Tyson Moman. "It includes more than 5,000 dolls and accessories, including doll furniture, clothing, and tableware, representing almost every major development in doll history," said Wimberly. Moman gave the dolls to UA's College of Human Environmental Sciences' department of clothing, textiles, and interior design in memory of four generations of her family who collected them.