INSIDE Benter gift creates visiting professorship............. 2 Kathleen Blee appointed Distinguished Professor... 2 PittNewspaper of the University of PittsburghChronicle Volume VIII • Number 1 • January 8, 2007 Digitizing Pitt’s Darlington Library... 3 Pitt student wins international screenwriting fellowship... 3 Korean movie poster exhibition at the Frick... 4 Pitt Rep’s Vinegar Tom... 4 Spring Arts and Culture Calendar... 5-8 Kuntu Rep’s Sarafina!... 10 Pitt’s Asian Studies Center presents Aoi no Ve (The Lady Aoi), Feb. 23. See page 9. Arts&CultureIssue 2 • Pitt Chronicle • January 8, 2007 Pittsburgh Business Executive BrieflyNoted William F. Benter’s $1M Gift Canadian Parliament Member executive vice president of the Pittsburgh World To Speak at Law School About Federalist Association chapter, now Global Solu- Creates Visiting Professorship Hate, Genocide, Human Rights tions Education Fund, Pittsburgh. UCIS professorship will bring to Pitt renowned scholars on international issues This lecture has been approved by the The Pitt School of Law’s Center for Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board By Amanda Leff International Legal Education and the Global for one hour of substantive Continuing Legal Solutions Education Fund will present the 15th Education (CLE) credits. There is a $25 fee for Pitt has received a $1 million gift from Pittsburgh Business Ethics Awards, as a Annual McLean Lecture on World Law featuring credit. For CLE details, call 412-648-7023 or Pittsburgh business executive William F. Medical Transcription Industry Associa- Irwin Cotler, a member of Canadian House of e-mail [email protected]. Benter to establish The University Center tion Beacon Award finalist for excellence Commons, at noon Jan. 11 in the Barco Law for International Studies (UCIS) Endowed in billing practices, and in the Pittsburgh Building’s Teplitz Memorial Courtroom. Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Business Times 2006 Pittsburgh 100, which SAO Produces Documentary International Issues. honors the fastest-growing, privately held Cotler’s free public lecture is titled “Hate, About Travel Opportunities The visiting professorship will bring companies in the region. Genocide, and Human Rights.” For Students With Disabilities to Pitt renowned scholars with expertise “In an increasingly globalized society, Cotler has been a member of Canada’s in international issues affecting influential it is essential to explore varied perspectives Parliament since 1999 and was appointed the Pitt’s Study Abroad Office (SAO) has created regions of the world. The University initially on critical international issues,” said Albert country’s Minister of Justice a documentary that depicts students will seek academics with a special interest J. Novak Jr., vice chancellor for Pitt’s Office and Attorney General in 2003. with disabilities who took advantage in the Middle East to fill the professorship, of Institutional Advancement. “Having this A fervent advocate for human of study-abroad opportunities in which will be directed by Pitt’s Global Stud- new resource at Pitt will allow us to expose rights, gender equality, and such countries as Spain, Ireland, and ies Program. the academic and broader communities to minority representation, Cotler England. “The University of Pittsburgh has long a fuller range of questions and potential is the founder of the Save been committed to scholarship in interna- answers to pressing worldwide concerns.” The documentary reinforces the tional studies and to an even more funda- This gift contributes to Pitt’s continued Darfur Parliamentary Coalition, office’s motto, “Study abroad is for mental mission—preparing today’s students commitment to increase the number of cochair of the Parliamentary everyone,” showing how students with to become tomorrow’s world leaders,” said endowed funds to support students and fac- Human Rights Group, executive disabilities can enhance their academic Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. “This ulty in their academic and research pursuits. member of the Inter-Parliamen- careers by studying abroad. generous gift from Bill Benter, who has a Since 1997, the University has increased its tary Union, and an honor- The SAO team interviewed special appreciation for this mission because endowed funds by 95 percent. ary member of the Liberal Irwin Cotler students with apparent and nonappar- of his own international involvements, will The federal government has designated Women’s Caucus. ent disabilities in Pittsburgh who have provide a big boost to those efforts, and we five UCIS centers as National Resource He also is a preeminent international studied abroad. The team then traveled overseas are deeply grateful for his support.” Centers, recognizing them among the few human rights lawyer, having served as counsel to show facilities and accommodations available A Pittsburgh native, Benter is chair centers of this kind in the nation. to Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union, Nelson and international CEO of Acusis, a Pitts- In addition, UCIS is home to one of through a variety of study-abroad providers and burgh-headquartered medical transcription only 10 European Union Centers of Excel- Mandela in South Africa, Jacobo Timmerman in universities. company with hospital clients throughout lence in the United States, funded by the Latin America, and Muchtar Pakpahan in Asia. By including Pitt and foreign students with the United States. During the past year, European Union. UCIS offers a variety of Cotler also was international legal counsel disabilities, study-abroad providers, and staff within Acusis has been honored as a finalist in the international programs through its centers to imprisoned Russian environmentalist Alek- foreign institutions, the documentary presents a Pittsburgh chapter of the Society of Finan- and affiliates. sandr Nikitin, Nigerian playwright and Nobel broad look at the international educational opportu- cial Service Professionals’ Annual Greater Laureate Wole Soyinka, the Chilean-Canadian nities for students with disabilities. group Vérité et Justice in the Pinochet case, and Following SAO’s Feb. 7 by-invitation premiere Chinese Canadian political prisoner Professor of Making It Happen: Study Abroad for Students KunLun Zhang. With Disabilities, the film will be made available for Blee Named Distinguished Professor of Sociology More recently, Cotler served as counsel screening at international education and disability By Sharon S. Blake to Professor Saad Edin Ibrahim, the leading service conferences and for use by educational democracy advocate in the Arab world. institutions. Pitt Professor of Sociology CIDDE Pittsburgh Racial Justice Cotler is the director of the Human Rights The project, which includes a Web site and Kathleen Blee, one of the coun- Award. She has been elected Programme, chair of InterAmicus, and a law handbook, has already gained national attention try’s leading experts on gender, to the governing council of professor at McGill University in Montreal. He from institutions and program providers in the field race, and hate groups, has been the American Sociological has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law of international education, including an award from named Distinguished Profes- Association for four consecu- sor of Sociology in the School School and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Mobility International USA. tive years. She directed Pitt’s of Arts and Sciences, effective Women’s Studies Program Law School; he has received eight honorary For more information, contact Carol Larson Jan. 1. The new title recognizes doctorates. from 1996 to 2001. at 412-648-7413 and [email protected], or Jeff Blee’s extraordinary scholarly Blee earned the B.A. The McLean Lecture on World Law honors Whitehead at 412-648-2299 and whitehead@ attainment in her field. degree in sociology at Indiana the memory and contributions of Maclean W. ucis.pitt.edu. Blee, who joined the Pitt Kathleen Blee University and M.S. and Ph.D. McLean, a founder, executive director, and —Amanda Leff faculty in September 1996, has spent much degrees in sociology at the University of of her career researching racist movements Wisconsin, Madison. and hate groups. Her latest book, Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement (University of California Press, 2002), was based on lengthy interviews Schlör Named Interim Director of UCIS with 34 unidentified women from racist and By Amanda Leff anti-Semitic groups in the United States. The book revealed that, contrary to popu- PittNewspaper ofChronicle the University of Pittsburgh Wolfgang Schlör was named interim from such agencies as the Ford Foundation, lar assumptions, many women who joined director of Pitt’s University Center of Inter- U.S. Department of Education, and Pew such groups were educated, did not grow PUBLISHER Robert Hill national Studies (UCIS), effective Dec. 31. Charitable Trusts. He was an adjunct faculty up poor, had not suffered childhood abuse, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER John Harvith He had been serving as the associate director member in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and were not initially deeply racist. The New EXECUTIVE EDITOR Linda K. Schmitmeyer of UCIS, providing strategic and International Affairs and York Times Book Review called the work “a EDITOR Bruce Steele and policy advice and manag- the director and principal meticulous job of historical sleuthing.” CIDDE ART DIRECTOR Gary Cravener ing a range of research and investigator of the Interna- Blee is also the author of Women of the STAFF WRITERS Sharon S. Blake Klan: