• Thursday, September 11th at 4:00 P.M. (Talk)

Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, 2008-2009: “Measuring the Value of Human Life”

Kenneth R. Feinberg will give the Keynote Address for this years’ lecture series.   Location TBA.   Kenneth Feinberg is a renowned attorney & one of the nation’s leading experts in resolving legal disputes out of court.   He served as special–settlement master in a number of major class–action suits involving victims of asbestos, Agent Orange, securities fraud, & the Dalkon shield.   Feinberg also served as director of the Congressional fund to assist the families of those killed or injured in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.   His book, What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11, grew out of that experience.

The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lectures Series is hosted by the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.   For more information go here.

• Thursday, September 11th at 8:00 P.M. (Poetry reading)

John Ashbery will read in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts as part of the M.F.A. Program's Visiting Writers Series.   Ashbery has won nearly every major American award for poetry & is recognized as one of America's most important, though still controversial, poets.   His most recent volumes of poetry include, A Worldly Country & Notes from the Air.   He has recently been included in the prestigious Library of America with Ashbery: Collected Poems 1956-1987.

• Saturday, September 13th at 3:30 P.M. (Book launch party)

Join Mario De Pillis in celebrating the publication of his new book, Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection. De Pillis, a long-time Amherst resident, taught at the University of Massachusetts & was a member of the Founding Board of Trustees, Hancock Shaker Village.   Together with his co-author, Christian Goodwillie (Curator of Collections, Hancock Shaker Village), De Pillis brings to light the extraordinary story of the Andrewses’ collecting & scholarship, their relationships with members of the United Society of Believers (commonly called Shakers), & with important New York City art-world figures of the 1930s, as well as their contributions toward the birth of the field of Shaker Studies.   The book contains some 600 beautiful photograms, most never published before.

• Tuesday, September 16th at 7:00 P.M. (Book launch party)

Join us in celebrating a new book by Amherst resident Todd Felton, Walking Boston: 36 Tours Through Beantown's Cobblestone Streets, Historic Districts, Ivory Towers & New Waterfront.   Felton, who is also author of A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England & A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival, gives urban trekkers an insider's guide to all that Boston has to offer—from revolutionary war battlefields to a revolutionary art museum, & from the 200-year-old Haymarket to the chic boutiques of Newbury Street.   This two-color, portable guide features 36 walks, detailed maps for each trip, original photos, & critical public transportation information for every trip.   Route summaries make each walk easy to follow, & a ’Points of Interest‘ section summarizes each walk's highlights.   Walk descriptions include trivia about architecture, local culture, & the city's rich history, plus tips on where to dine, have a drink, & shop.

• Wednesday, September 17th at 8:00 P.M. (Talk)

On the occasion of the publication of the new edition of his pamphlet, One Minute Asthma: What You Need to Know, Dr. Tom Plaut will talk about asthma control.   Dr. Plaut believes that most people with asthma have the ability to manage it at home.   After they learn the basics, they can work out an effective asthma care plan with their doctor, nurse or respiratory therapist.     Using his plan as a guide they will be able to lead fully active lives & avoid asthma emergencies.   Dr. Plaut, who lives & practices in Amherst, practiced pediatrics for twenty-four years in Appalachia, the South Bronx, & in Massachusetts before founding Asthma Consultants in 1988.   There are more than 2,000,000 copies of One Minute Asthma in print, in Spanish & English.

• Thursday, September 18th at 4:00 P.M. (Talk)

Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, 2008-2009: “Measuring the Value of Human Life”

Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. & Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies & Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley, & Carlin Barton, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, will speak to ”Martyrdom and Sacrifice in Ancient Worlds“ in Lincoln Campus Center, Room 917, University of Massachusetts.   Boyarin is author of many books, including Dying for God: Martyrdom & the Making of Christianity & Judaism; & Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity.   Barton is author of Roman Honor: The Fire in the Bones; & Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster.

The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lectures Series is hosted by the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.   For more information go here.

• Thursday, September 18th at 8:00 P.M. (Reading and book launch party)

Amherst resident & Amherst College political science professor Thomas Dumm will read from his new book, Loneliness as a Way of Life.   Through reflections on philosophy, political theory, literature, & tragic drama, Dumm finds that the modern individual is fundamentally a lonely self.   His book shows how loneliness shapes the contemporary division between public & private, our inability to live with each other honestly & in comity, the estranged forms that our intimate relationships assume, & the weakness of our common bonds.   Dumm is author of several books, including A Politics of the Ordinary; united states; Michel Foucault & the Politics of Freedom; & Democracy & Punishment: Disciplinary Origins of the United States.   Dumm has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

• Wednesday, September 24th at 4:00 P.M. (Talk)

Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, 2008-2009: “Measuring the Value of Human Life”

Cynthia E. Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist, Columbia University & NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; James K. Boyce, Professor of Economics; Director, Program on Development, Peace-building & the Environment, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts; & David Glassberg, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts will speak to “Sustainability: Measuring the Impact of Climate Change on Future Generations” (Co-sponsored by The Environmental Institute, University of Massachusetts) in The Commons, 2nd floor, Studio Arts Building, University of Massachusetts.   Rosenzweig is, with Daniel Hillel, author of Climate Variability & the Global Harvest: Impacts of El Nino & Other Oscillations on Agro-Ecosystems; & Climate Change & the Global Harvest: Potential Impacts of the Greenhouse Effect on Agriculture.   Boyce is author of, among other books, Political Economy of the Environment; Reclaiming Nature: Environmental Justice and Ecological Restoration;   Glassberg is author of American Historical Pageantry: The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century; & Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life.

The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lectures Series is hosted by the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.   For more information go here.

• Thursday, September 25th at 8:00 P.M. (Reading)

Porochista Khakpour will read from her recent work as part of the Amherst College Writing Center's Visiting Writers Series.   Her first novel, Sons & Other Flammable Objects was published in September 2007 to great critical acclaim.   The lyrical dark comedy, centered on the aftermath of 9/11 & Iranian fathers & sons in Los Angeles and New York, was a New York Times Editor's Choice & was included on the Chicago Tribune's 2007 Fall's Best list.   It won the 77th annual California Book Award prize in First Fiction.