CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series archive : fall 1996 Who Were the First Americans? New Perspectives on the Clovis vs. Pre-Clovis Debate September 25, 1996 Wednesday 7:30 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana Ronald I. Dorn Department of Geography, Arizona State University The first people to inhabit the New World are generally agreed to have arrived on foot from Siberia when the low sea levels of the Pleistocene converted the present Bering Strait into a land bridge. Adherents of the Clovis theory suggest that this migration began ~12,000 years ago using a type of arrowhead, the oldest technology securely dated, as a reference point. However, other prehistorians suggest that this migration began ~30,000 to 40,000 years ago or even earlier. Although new radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas has come to light recently, Ron Dorn argues that the Clovis vs. Pre-Clovis debate can only be resolved when it is viewed as a cultural process to be explained by competing migration models, rather than a simple problem in chronology. Sponsors: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund; Department of Anthropology; Department of Geography; Department of Geology; Department of History; Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; World Heritage Museum. My American Herstory: Telling Black Women's Stories on Stage September 26, 1996 Thursday 7:30 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Pearl Cleage Playwright, Author and Columnist, Atlanta, Georgia Pearl Cleage considers herself a "third-generation black nationalist and a radical feminist," whose primary energy toward her work is fueled by a "determination to be a part of the on going worldwide struggle against racism, sexism, classism and homophobia." Others describe her as a "charismatic storyteller in the best tradition." Playwright of Flyin' West (produced at UIUC's Krannert Center in 1995) and author of Mad At Miles: A Blackwoman's Guide to the Truth, Ms. Cleage skillfully weaves excerpts from her work together with the research and creative process behind the words. For further information, please consult http://www.cas.uiuc.edu/ or the Miller Events Line, 333-1118. Sponsors: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund; University Library; Afro-American Studies and Research Program; Department of Theater; Institute of Communications Research; Women's Studies Program; African American Cultural Program; Office of Minority Student Affairs; Office of Women's Programs; University YWCA. Storyweaving: Storytelling, Oral Tradition, and Collective Creation October 2, 1996 Wednesday 4:00 p.m. Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Spiderwoman Theater of New York City Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel Spiderwoman Theater, composed of three Kuna/Rappahannock sisters, Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, and Muriel Miguel, is the oldest continually running women's theater company in North America. They take their name from the Hopi goddess of creation, Spiderwoman, who taught the people to weave and said, "You must make a mistake in every tapestry so that my spirit may come and go at will." Spiderwoman has prophetic insight into the future, speaks all languages, and by nature of being a spider is ever present to give and to guide. The women call their technique of working "storyweaving," in which they create designs and weave stories with words and movement, creating an overlay of interlocking stories where fantasy and power are comically intertwined. In this presentation the sisters will discuss the process of "storyweaving" and the philosophies incorporated within it. For information on other public events during Spiderwoman's week-long residency at Unit One, please call 333-8351. For further information, please consult http://www.cas.uiuc.edu/ or the Miller Events Line, 333-1118. Sponsors: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund; Department of English; Department of Theater; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Lorado Taft Lecture Committee; Program for the Study of Religion; Program in Comparative Literature; Unit One; Women's Studies Program; La Casa Cultural Latina; Office of Women's Programs; Alphabet Soup Arts Collective; Friday Forum; Native American Student Organization; Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative; Student Organization Resource Fee (SORF); Urbana School District #116; Wesley United Methodist Foundation. What is Life? December 2, 1996 Monday 4:00 p.m. Auditorium, Beckman Institute 405 North Mathews, Urbana Lynn Margulis Distinguished University Professor, Biology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst What is Life? From bacteria to biosphere, the evolution of life took a convoluted course. Science illuminates this path. We live. We - people, birds, flowering plants, even algae glowing in the ocean at night - differ from rocks, steel, inanimate matter. We are alive. But what does it mean to live, to be alive, to be a discrete being at once a part of the universe and separated from it by our skin? What is life? One of the world's foremost scientists, author of Symbiosis and Cell Evolution and an early proponent of the Gaia theory, Lynn Margulis shares her thoughts on this age-old question. Sponsors: Office of the Chancellor; Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Graduate College; Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; The Council of Deans; The Center for Advanced Study; George A. Miller Endowment; George A. Miller Committee; Peggy Harris Memorial Fund.