Book Talk: Clio in the Classroom, Wednesday, 2/25, 4-5pm

The Gottesman Libraries sponsors booktalks by faculty, students, staff, and others interested in sharing their work with the Teachers College community. Join us as we celebrate your achievements and promote social and intellectual discourse on key topics of relevance to the educating, psychological and health professions.

• Art and Justice, Wednesday, 2/4, 5:30-7:30pm


On Wednesday, February 4, Justice Albie Sachs will discuss Art and Justice: The Art of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, designed by Ellen Papciak-Rose, with photographs by Ben Law-Viljoen. (Parkwood, S.A.: D. Krut, 2008). The publication “pays tribute to the extraordinary vision of the architects and judges of the Court who sought to bring together, in the most inspiring, innovative and dignified way possible, art and the workings of justice, and to give a public soul to the new Court building.” Working closely with the Constitutional Court Artworks Committee headed by Justices Yvonne Mokgoro and Albie Sachs, David Krut Publishing prepared the book as a companion volume to Light on a Hill: Building the Constitutional Court of South Africa. A driving force behind the publication of Art and Justice, Sachs contributed an introduction and some of the shorter texts to the book.

Albie Sachs began his career in human rights at the age of seventeen years. A lawyer who staunchly defended victims of apartheid, Sachs was harassed and driven into exile in 1966, teaching law in England and later in Mozambique. During the 1980s he worked closely with Oliver Tambo, leader of the ANC in exile. In 1988 he lost an arm and half of his eyesight, having suffered a bomb that was placed in his car in Maputo by South African security agents. Instrumental in forming the new South African constitution, Albie Sachs drafted the Code of Conduct for the African National Congress (ANC). After the first democratic election in 1994 he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court, the highest Court in the land.

A ten year project, Justice Sachs, together with Justice Mokgoro, were charged with gathering artwork-- not through purchase, but through donation for the new building on Constitution Hill. In so doing, he contributed pieces from his own collection that he acquired within South Africa, as well as abroad. Sachs will share his extraordinary experience and vision on the union of art and justice, symbolized in the renowned building that welcomes all citizens of South Africa, not to mention visitors from around the world. He will be joined by Carol Becker, Dean of The School of Arts and Professor of the Arts at Columbia University, as well as representatives from David Krut Publishing.

The Constitutional Court doubles as gallery, having more than 200 works of art on display in a range of media from numerous South African artists -- among them Marlene Dumas, Gerard Sekoto, Dumile Feni, Judith Mason, William Kentridge, Sipho Ndlovu, John Baloyi, Cecil Skotnes and Hamilton Budaza. Just as important, the Constitutional Court is comprised of integrated architectural artwork that forms part of building’s structure and internal make-up.

This book talk is co-sponsored by the Teachers College Center for African Education; Columbia University School of the Arts; and the Gottesman Libraries. A reception will precede the book talk.

Where: 305 Russell


• Both Sides Now, Wednesday, 2/11, 4-6pm


As we appreciate Black History Month and the start of an historic Administration, so we celebrate the recent publication of Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation’s Graduates (University of California Press, 2009). Ten years in the making, this book is co-authored by Amy Stuart Wells, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Anita Tijerina Revilla, and Awo Korantemaa Attanda. With detailed social and historical perspective, it tells the stories of desegregated blacks, whites, and Latinos who graduated in 1980 from racially diverse high schools and the paths they took over following years. The authors argue that the lessons learned from school desegregation are not so simple; while the graduates all said they were more prepared for a racially diverse and more integrated society, the society itself changed very little, remaining mostly separate and unequal, as these graduates left high school and entered adulthood.

Amy Stuart Wells is Professor of Sociology and Education and Director of the Center for Understanding Race and Education at Teachers College. Her scholarly interests include educational policy, race and education, school desegregation and school choice policy, including charter schools. She earned her Ph.D. (The Sociology of School Choice: A Study of Black Students' Participation in a Voluntary Transfer Plan) from Teachers College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1991. Dr. Wells has published numerous other works, including Bringing Equity Back: Research for a New Era in American Educational Policy (Teachers College Press, 2005); Where Charter School Policy Fails: The Problems of Accountability and Equity (Teachers College Press, 2002); Stepping Over the Color Line: African-American Students in White Suburban Schools (Yale, 1997); and Time to Choose: America at the Crossroads of School Choice Policy (Hill and Wang, 1993).

For a related article please see:

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=6813

Where: 305 Russell


• Autism’s False Prophets, Thursday, 2/12, 3:30-5pm


Dr. Paul A. Offit, internationally known expert on children’s vaccines, will speak on his highly controversial book, Autism’s False Promise: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure (Columbia University Press, 2008). Offit’s latest monograph traces the history of immunizations, infectious diseases, and autism, as it reveals the dangers of the anti-vaccine movement and the dire necessity of inoculation in protecting the health of our nation’s children. At the center of a raging medical controversy on the dangers of vaccines feared to cause autism, Dr. Offit has been featured on major news channels and newspapers.

Dr. Offit is the Maurice R, Hillman Professor of Vaccinology, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit has been a member for the Centers for Disease Control and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In addition to publishing over 130 papers in medical and scientific journals, Offit is the co-author of several books, notably Breaking the Antibiotic Habit (1999); Vaccines: What You Should Know (2003); The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to Today’s Growing Vaccine Crisis (2005); and Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases (2007).

Be sure to stay tuned for the third annual conference Mind and Body in Autism, presented by the Center for Opportunities and Outcomes for People with Disabilities at Teachers College, on Friday and Saturday April 17 and 18, 2009.

Dr. Offit will sign copies of his book in the Library Atrium, at the entrance to Gottesman, from 3:30pm; the booktalk will begin promptly at 4pm.

Where: 305 Russell


• Clio in the Classroom, Wednesday, 2/25, 4-5pm


In preparation for Women’s History Month, The Gottesman Libraries is hosting a booktalk on Clio in the Classroom: A Guide for Teaching Women’s History (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Editors Margaret Crocco, Carol Berkin, and Barbara Winslow will discuss the stories and significance of U.S. women's history. If you are looking for a new perspective on the past, the essays in this book offer invaluable historical content, conceptual and thematic orientations, and teaching tips for U.S. women’s history. Or if you simply love studying the past, this booktalk will bring you up-to-date on the central role women have played in this nation’s history and the exciting new research in this field.

Margaret S. Crocco is Chair, Department of Arts and Humanities; Professor and Program Coordinator, Social Studies Education; and Project Leader, Teaching the Levees. The author of numerous books, journal articles, and book chapters, she also recently contributed a chapter, “A Personal and Epistemological Journey toward Women’s Studies” in The Evolution of Women’s Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies, and Change, edited by Alice E. Ginsberg (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008). Carol Berkin is Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Barbara Winslow is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Director of the Women’s Studies Program at Brooklyn College.

Where: 305