News

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Black Student Union (BSU) at the College of the Holy Cross will kick off a year-long commemoration of its rich 40-year history with an anniversary celebration titled “Honoring Our Past, Cherishing Our Present, Preparing for the Future,” from Friday, April 11 – Sunday, April 13 on the College campus.

The anniversary celebration will provide a forum for reflection on the heritage of the BSU and the number of people who have played a role in shaping it.  Special honorees include Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., president emeritus, who was instrumental in helping encourage African American students to consider Holy Cross in the turbulent late 1960s; Ogretta McNeil, former professor of psychology and class dean at Holy Cross and former member of the Worcester School Committee; and Joseph J. Reilly Jr. ’55, former chair of the College’s Bishop Healy Committee, a group dedicated to achieving and maintaining a diverse and multicultural campus.

They will be honored at a dinner in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom from 7:15 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. on Sat., April 12 at which Theodore V. Wells ’72, a partner in the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and one of the leading white-collar criminal defense attorneys in the nation, will give the keynote address.  A member of the College’s board of trustees, Wells was one of the founding members of the BSU.
BSU co-chair Donmonique Binion ’09 says, “The 40th anniversary is just what our members have been looking for — a chance to connect with alumni who have gone through the same struggles and have since found success. The Black Student Union is proud of its predecessors and welcomes the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of the organization and its alumni during the past 40 years.”

Other events planned for the weekend include alumni and student panel discussions, a reenactment of the “Great Debate,” campus tours, networking opportunities and a gospel brunch.

Since its first graduating class, the College of the Holy Cross has welcomed students of diverse racial backgrounds. Today, racial and ethnic diversity is reflected in the College’s academic programs and student organizations, as well as in the faces of the community.  Currently, ALANA (African-American, Latin American, Asian-American, and Native American heritage) students make up 17% of the student body at Holy Cross.

Among the College’s many distinguished African American graduates are Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ’71; Stanley Grayson ’72, president and chief operating officer at M.R. Beal and Company (New York); Eddie J. Jenkins ’72, chairman of the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission and former Miami Dolphins running back; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edward P. Jones ’72; Gale Scott ’80, managing director of real estate finance at Standard & Poor’s; Cmdr. Bernadette M. Semple, USN, ’82, deputy director of C4 Systems with the Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa; Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr. ’71, director general of the Foreign Service; and white collar criminal defense attorney Theodore V. Wells Jr. ’72.

About the BSU

Founded in 1968, following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the BSU is committed to educating the Holy Cross community about the importance of heritage, the affirmation of identity and the legacy of achievement.  Emphasizing the academic, cultural, social, and political development of its members, BSU aims to provide a support system for African American students and all members of the Holy Cross community by creating an environment that promotes leadership, embraces identity and encourages diversity.  This year’s co-chairs are Donmonique Binion ’09 and Monica Kennedy ’09.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Student Government Association (SGA) and dining services at the College of the Holy Cross will host the College’s first annual Kimball Kreations event, a cooking competition modeled after Food Network’s hit Iron Chef, on Wednesday, April 9 at 5:30 p.m. in Kimball Dining Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Join the Holy Cross community for its own Iron Chef-style cooking competition, where the care-free atmosphere of the main dining hall will be filled with the intensity of “Kitchen Stadium.” Six students will have 30 minutes to use ingredients found in Kimball Dining Hall to create the best dish possible. The dishes will then be put in front of the judges to determine a winner. The catch — they will be competing during the campus dinner rush.

Judges include Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College; Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president of the College; Barbara Houle, food editor at the Telegram & Gazette; and Jim Nicas ’72, owner of the Castle Restaurant in Leicester, Mass. and well known food and wine expert. The commentator for the event will be Art Korandanis, director of auxiliary services.

“We have put together a great competition to feature some of the best chefs on campus — the students,” says Emily Thigpen ’10, SGA student services director and the organizer of the event.

The judges will be scoring in five categories: presentation, creativity, ingredient compatibility, timing, and flavor, taste, & texture. Each category is worth 10 points for a total of 50.  The winner will receive $250 Crusader dollars, money that can only be used on campus.

“Students are often looking for something to eat in Kimball that is not on the menu. So, we put together a select group of students to help illustrate how accessible Kimball really is,” explains Thigpen. “The chefs’ recipes are examples of how many different things students can actually create in the dining hall.”

Kevin Leggio ’11, an SGA freshman intern of student services, thought of making a student recipe book using ingredients always available in Kimball says Linda Nardella, director of Holy Cross dining services. “The competition will eventually culminate into the development of this recipe book.”

Meet the competitors

The competition began last month when students submitted entry forms, describing what dish they would cook. Only six of the students were chosen.

Brian M. Miller ’09, will be serving up a “sloppy” roast beef sandwich with sauce.  “Cooking for me is about creativity and the constant urge to try to improve on old recipes and to create something that everyone can enjoy.”

Julianne Lisa Kulevich ’08 is sure her BBQ pulled chicken sandwich with sides of potato salad and a tri-colored vegetable medley will please the judges. “My maternal grandmother was a home economics teacher, and my paternal grandmother was an expert when it came to preparing Polish cuisine.  Both, unfortunately, died before I was born, but cooking allows me to feel a connection to them.  For my grandmothers, cooking good food was a way to bring friends and family together, and for me it’s a way to embody and share that same love and spirit.”

Francis Chester Walek ’09 will be making his chickyin and yang hamburger. “My latest cooking challenge was with my Polish relatives at the annual Christmas pierogi day. Cooking 144 pierogis in just a few hours taught me a lot about the importance of cooking enough food without sacrificing any of the home-cooked quality.”

Quick-and-easy healthy pita pizza, sounds like 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray, but it is what Rachael Dorothy Stephens ’10, thinks will win her the competition. “Since I was little, my family and I have lived in the kitchen. We bring together my father’s traditional Italian recipes with my mother’s personal favorites. We try to make each recipe as healthy as possible.”

Erin Kathleen Clougherty ’10 says her tex-mex style pasta is sure to be a crowd favorite. “As a long time viewer of the Food Network, and as a Nutrition, Exercise and Eating Disorder (NEED) peer educator, not only have I been exposed to many styles of cooking, but I am conscious of healthy choices.” She intends on demonstrating to the Kimball Dining Hall-criticizers of Holy Cross that all the ingredients for a great meal are available. You just need to be creative.

Jessica Suzanne Jackson ’09 is sure to satisfy any rumbling stomach with her stir-fry nachos. “With almost three years of experience under my belt, I have come to love to experiment and try to make creative spins on whatever Kimball has to offer. I hope that my recipe will appeal to other students looking for something ‘new’ to eat.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post syndicated columnist, bestselling author, and NPR commentator, will deliver the annual Condé Nast Lecture on Media, Ethics and Values on Monday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library (located in Smith Hall) at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Can the Old Media and the New Media Make Peace and Strengthen Democracy?”

New media forms, including opinionated blogs, talk radio and cable news shows, are answering a great need that traditional journalism was not answering. While they do not exist to inform, they play the vital roles of engaging citizens in the obligations of politics and providing a forum for voters’ voices to be heard. Yet it is essential to preserve the financial base that supports independent journalism and the work of journalists who, often at great risk, keep free citizens informed. In his talk, Dionne will address the changing nature of the media and how both traditional and new media forms play a critical role in our democracy.

Dionne earned his B.A. from Harvard University and received his Ph.D. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, CNN and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” His Washington Post column is published in more than 100 newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.

Prior to the Washington Post, the Fall River, Mass. native spent 14 years with The New York Times, reporting on state and local government, national politics, and from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut. The Los Angeles Times praised his coverage of the Vatican as the best in two decades.

His best-selling book, Why Americans Hate Politics (Simon & Schuster, 1991) earned him the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee. Dionne has recently completed a book titled Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2008). He is also the author of They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate The Next Political Era (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge (Simon & Schuster, 2004), editor of Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America (Brookings Institution Press, 1998) and was co-editor with John J. DiIulio Jr. of What’s God Got To Do With the American Experiment? (Brookings Institution Press, 2000).

Dionne was the recipient the American Political Science Association’s annual Carey McWilliams Award, which honors a major journalistic contribution to the understanding of politics. He was named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal and among the capital city’s top 50 journalists by the Washingtonian magazine.

Dionne’s lecture is made possible by a gift from Condé Nast Publications, coordinated by the company’s former president and CEO Steve Florio, parent of graduates from the classes of 2000 and 2003.  Previous speakers in the series include David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times; David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker; Matthew Rose, reporter for the Wall Street Journal; Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation; and Peter Steinfels, columnist for The New York Times.

Condé Nast publishes numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Condé Nast Publications mission stresses its commitment “to journalistic integrity, influential reporting and superior design.”

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.

Check out Dionne’s most recent articles

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rev. Mario Farrugia, S.J., a visiting international Jesuit from the Gregorian University in Rome and the Malta Province, will give a lecture titled “Faith Across Generations” on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross.

Fr. Farrugia will examine how we transmit faith from one generation to the next by exploring three particular images or moments in history: St. Paul’s encounter with Timothy’s family in the first century, AD; Caravaggio’s 16th-century masterpiece The Calling of Saint Matthew, in which the painter imagines Jesus calling Saint Matthew as if in a Roman tavern; and Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion, wherein the crucified Jesus, nailed to the cross and dressed in a Jewish prayer shawl, is surrounded by images of the atrocities of the 20th century.

Fr. Farrugia, a Maltese Jesuit, is currently on the faculty of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he teaches classes at the University of Malta and at the Theological Faculty in Naples. He specializes in theological anthropology, which is the study of human existence in the light of Christian faith. He is currently offering a course at Holy Cross tilted “Catholicism in Word and Image.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – William Ness, an organist and minister of music and arts at the First Baptist Church of Worcester, will perform on Sunday, April 6 at 3 p.m. in Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross.  The event is free, handicap accessible, and open to the public.

As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, the program will feature organ works by J. S. Bach, Georg Böhm, Nicolas de Grigny, and Gilles Maurice Leclerc. This concert, as well as the entire 2007-2008 Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, is dedicated to the memory of renowned composer Daniel Pinkham, who died in December of 2006.

Ness received two degrees from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and continued to pursue his studies at the University of Iowa. He taught at Andrews University from 1971 to 1982 and he and his wife served as co-directors of music at the First Presbyterian Church of Ottumwa, Iowa, where they hosted the National Undergraduate Organ Competition.

Ness moved to Massachusetts in 1987 and was appointed the minister of music at the church at Atlantic Union College.  He developed five vocal choirs and two bell choirs.  During this time, Ness also serviced other churches including the Village Congregational of Whitinsville and the First Baptist of Lexington.

Ness has performed on Iowa Public Television, 3ABN, National Public Radio, and has also been recognized abroad in Australia, Europe and the Caribbean. From 2003-04, Ness performed in three recital series of 20th-century organ music at the First Baptist of Worcester and, under the direction of Stephen Tucker, he completed Howard Hanson’s Concerto for Organ and Harp with the Atlantic Union College Orchestra.  Ness appears on the new 2CD set, Great Organs of Worcester.  Recently, he has played in Wyoming and California, and this November he will perform at Illinois College, in Jacksonville and Springfield, Ill.

Pinkham, one of America’s most active and most-performed composers, taught at New England Conservatory from 1958 until 2000.  In addition to composing, he was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, pioneer in the early music movement, and longtime music director at Boston’s historic King’s Chapel. With an A.B. and an M.A from Harvard University, his scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received six honorary degrees: New England Conservatory, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The department of theatre at the College of the Holy Cross presents the 1932 Broadway hit, Dinner at Eight, by George S. Kaufam and Edna Ferber. Directed by Steve Vineberg, professor of theatre, this hilarious and touching comedy will be performed on April 3-5 and 10-12 at 8 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre (located on the second floor of O’Kane Hall). Tickets are $7 for members of the Holy Cross community and $10 for the general public. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets at a special rate of $5 each.

This finely honed play displays the craft of the classic Broadway playwright.  While a self-involved socialite anxiously assembles a dinner party that threatens at any moment to turn into shambles, the play tracks the personal crises and triumphs of her guests.  The characters include a charismatic stage star, a squabbling husband and wife duo, social climbing Texans, a down-on-his-luck alcoholic actor — and the host, a shipping magnate in danger of losing his company in the dire early years of the Depression.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture and the Biology Department at the College of the Holy Cross will host a program of events titled “Stem Cells: Science and Ethics” on Thursday, March 27 at the College.  All of the day’s events are free and open to the public.

12:30-1:30 p.m., O’Neil Hall 112
Lecture: “Fibroblast – the ultimate stem cell?”
Tanja Dominko, founder and president of CellThera, Inc. and research assistant professor
of biology and biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will give a presentation about her research on converting adult human cells into induced pluripotent cells (iPCs). These cells are similar to adult stem cells and have regained the ability to form various tissues. She will discuss the potential use of these iPC cells for patient-specific regeneration of tissues. If successful, this approach could skew healing outcome from scar formation to restoration of tissue function.

Dominko earned her Ph.D. in endocrinology and reproductive physiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She worked at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Portland, Ore., as a staff scientist, and as a senior research scientist with Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester. In 2002 she founded CellThera, Inc., which develops new strategies for treatment of degenerative diseases that do not rely on embryonic stem cells.

3-4 p.m., Hogan Crossroads
Coffee and Conversation
Have questions about stem cell research? Everyone is invited for an informal chat with Tanja Dominko and Audrey Chapman, Healey Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

6-7 p.m., Rehm Library
Poster Session
Posters will be presented by students in the Molecular Biology and Contemporary Society class, taught by Cara Constance, assistant professor of biology and organizer of the event.  Individual student work is based on scientific topics, information and research explored in class.

7-8 p.m., Rehm Library
Lecture: “The Ethical Complexities of Stem Cell Research”
Audrey Chapman, Healey Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Connecticut Health Center, will give a presentation about the ethical complexities of stem cell research, variously characterized as one of the most promising but also one of the most morally and politically contentious contemporary scientific developments.  Her talk will evaluate the rationale for engaging in human embryonic stem cell research, whether current breakthroughs in reprogramming adult cells eliminate the need for doing so, and will identify ethical dilemmas related to research with any of the embryonic stem cell lines. She will also address questions regarding what kinds of ethical and scientific oversight the research requires, and how we can develop the field to promote maximum human benefit.

Chapman earned her Ph.D. in public law and government from Columbia University and graduate degrees in theology and ethics from New York Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. She has published 16 books and numerous articles on topics related to bioethics, human rights, religious ethics, and intellectual property. She has had faculty appointments at Barnard College, Columbia University, the University of Ghana, and the University of Nairobi. She has also taught courses at New York Theological Seminary, Wesley Theological Seminary, Andover Newton Seminary, and Georgetown University.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Terri Priest, Worcester-based artist and retired Holy Cross professor, will unveil her latest work commissioned exclusively for the College of the Holy Cross titled “Paths to Divine Light Through Vermeer’s Lens” on Tuesday, April 1 at 5 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College. The artwork will be installed in the cupola, a domed area near the entrance, in Smith Hall. Priest will give a talk about her work with a reception to follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Priest was approached by the College four years ago to create a painting depicting the five major religions of the world for the campus building which houses the College’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

“We commissioned Terri for this piece because of the great respect we have for her work and commitment to the love of her family, her faith, the Worcester community and the College of the Holy Cross,” says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president of the College.

Priest spent a year researching, visiting museums and sketching before she decided on a final painting, which is made up nine panels representing the world’s five most prominent religions — Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. The four other panels represent “Vermeer’s Lens” arranged in the shape of the cross. The artwork is 9 feet 8 inches by 9 feet 8 inches.

“The overall format of the nine panels emphasizes the circle and the square,” says Priest. “In various cultures these forms have symbolic meaning, the circle representing heaven and the square representing the earth.”

Considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age, Johannes Vermeer’s art has been influential in Priest’s work since the late 1990s, when she saw a catalog of his work from an exhibition in Washington, D.C.

“As I studied the wonderful images, I saw a sense of isolation and anonymity of the Vermeer women,” explains Priest. “In the following months, I began to visualize new settings and narratives. Finally, in 1998, I started a series of paintings in which I combined Vermeer’s women with quoted images from recognized paintings of the 20th century, and I’ve been doing that ever since.”

Active in the Worcester art community for decades, Priest’s interest in art started at a very young age, and becoming an artist remained her goal through high school and young adulthood as she took several painting and art history courses at the Worcester Art Museum School of Art and at Assumption College.

In 1960, Priest had become actively engaged in the Civil Rights movement, and was motivated to begin what would become a seven-year series of paintings titled “Organic Interaction.” The paintings were made up of bold black and white stripes — her way of showing that black and white are stronger together.

In 1967, Preist began a second large body of work, titled “Static Variations” that followed closely the “Organic Interaction” series in form and theme. In these multi-paneled and sometimes unconventionally shaped canvases, the “Static Variations” paintings are as large as six feet high and 15 feet long.

Priest earned her B.F.A. and M.F.A. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her works are included in several museum collections in Massachusetts, including the Worcester Art Museum, the DeCordova Museum, and the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, as well as exhibited extensively in national shows.

Priest became a member of the visual arts faculty at Holy Cross in 1978.  During her time at the College, she taught perspective, introductory and intermediate courses in painting and design, served on various faculty committees and chaired the department for several years.

In 1993, Priest retired from her associate professorship in order to devote more concentrated time to her own painting, as well as to managing and directing the Fletcher/Priest Gallery, a Worcester-based contemporary art gallery.

In addition to her Vermeer-inspired paintings, some of her other works in the 1990s include the “Angel Series,” which was a series of paintings done as a direct response and homage to the death of her sister; and vernacular images such as still lifes of rows of lipsticks by Wayne Thiebaud, or the pop imagery of Roy Lichtenstein.

Priest’s recent solo exhibitions include: Further Conversations with Vermeer, George Marshall Store Gallery, York, Maine, 2005; Interactions: Paintings and Works on Paper, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, Worcester, Mass., 2005; Terri Priest: Reprise, 1963-1976, Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2002; and Vermeer Women Making Choices, Clark University Art Gallery, Worcester, Mass., 2001.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Chamber Players present a concert by Winsor Music, Inc., featuring the works of Franz Josef Haydn, Bruce Adolphe, and Robert Schumann, on Thursday, April 3 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Hall at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

The program will include Peggy Pearson, oboe; Gabriela Díaz, violin; Carol Rodland, viola; Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello; and Katherine Chi, piano.

Winsor Music, Inc. was founded in 1996 by Pearson; their mission is to foster the appreciation and enjoyment of chamber music. The Lexington, Mass. organization consists of three branches: a chamber music concert series given at the Follen Community Church in Lexington and St. Paul’s Church in Brookline; the direction of a national consortium of chamber music groups that commissions new works; and a highly successful outreach program, in which students from the Boston area perform chamber music in retirement communities, homeless shelters and recovery homes.

About the artists:

Peggy Pearson, director of Winsor Music, Inc., is a member of the Bach Aria Group, solo oboist with the Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra and is the principal oboist in the Boston Philharmonic. She has toured internationally and recorded extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music from Marlboro. Pearson is the recipient of the Pope Foundation Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Music.

Gabriela Díaz began her musical training at the age of five. As a teenager she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. As a cancer survivor, she is committed to cancer research and treatment, and lends her talents to a wide range of organizations. Last year she was the recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation which enabled her to organize a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston called the Boston Hope Ensemble. In 2003, she won the BMOP/NEC concerto competition, and is the youngest person to ever record the Ligeti Violin Concerto, recorded for Mode Records with New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Ensemble (not yet released). She received her B.A. from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where she received the Chadwick Medal, the highest award bestowed on undergraduates at NEC. She recently completed her second year of master’s study at NEC.

Carol Rodland made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 17. In turn she was awarded first place at the Washington International Competition, the Artists’ International Auditions, the Juilliard Concerto Competition, and the Universal Editions Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. She currently enjoys a multi-faceted international career as a concert and recording artist and teacher. Recent engagements have included recitals, chamber music concerts, and master classes in the U.S. and abroad. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and from the Musikhochschule Freiburg, where as a Fulbright Scholar she studied with noted violist Kim Kashkashian. In 2002 she joined the viola faculty of the New England Conservatory, where she was recently recognized with the Krasner Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Rafael Popper-Keizer, a prominent fixture on the Boston contemporary music scene, has toured throughout the U.S., including recitals in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, and as a guest artist on the faculty concert series at Grinnell College. He was invited to the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1998 and 1999, where he had the opportunity to understudy Don Quixote for Yo-Yo Ma with Seiji Ozawa. Popper-Keizer has played with many of Boston’s most esteemed chamber musicians, including members of the Borromeo String Quartet, the Museum of Fine Arts Trio, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a recent appearance with Lucia Lin and Heng Jin Park Ellsworth of the Boston Trio. He has toured extensively with the CORE Ensemble, a nationally acclaimed percussion trio, and is the principal cellist of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

Katherine Chi, has performed throughout Europe and the U.S., giving her debut recital at the age of nine. A year later she was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music. She continued her studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received her Master’s degree and Graduate and Artist Diplomas. She later studied for two years at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. She is the recipient of the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian and first woman to win Canada’s Honens International Piano Competition. Her debut recording, of works by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, was released in 2003 on Canada’s Arktos label. She is currently a resident of Boston where she teaches and is pursuing her doctorate at the New England Conservatory of Music. Her upcoming performances include a debut recital at Lincoln Center in N.Y.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Chamber Players present a concert featuring well-known harpsichordist Mark Kroll on Tuesday, March 18 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

Kroll will present a program of solo works by Francois Couperin, 1668-1733, one of the greatest composers in all of France. There will be three “Ordres,” or suites, featured in the program, along with spoken remarks by the performer.

Kroll has been performing with the Holy Cross Chamber Players since its inception in 1985, and is noted for his expressive performances all over the world, including appearances in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. He has produced solo and chamber music recordings of such composers as J.S. Bach, Biber, Schubert, and Piston among others. He is a professor emeritus at Boston University, where he taught for 25 years and served as professor and chair of their music department. He is currently a visiting professor at Northeastern University.

Kroll’s recent books include Johann Nepomuk Hummel, A Musician’s Life and World (Scarecrow Press, 2007), The Beethoven Violin Sonatas (University of Illinois Press, 2004), and Playing the Harpsichord Expressively (Scarecrow Press, 2004). He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including a Martha Baird Rockefeller award and Fulbright Fellowship, where he served as professor and artist-in-residence in Yugoslavia. He has given master classes and appeared on radio and television shows throughout U.S. and Europe.

The Holy Cross Chamber Players, founded in 1985 is a mixed ensemble consisting of members of the Holy Cross music department faculty and distinguished guest artists from the Boston area.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Daniel Callahan, co-founder of the Hastings Center and a pioneer in bioethics, will give a presentation titled “Medical Progress and the Relief of Suffering: How Much Can We Afford?” on Tuesday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. His wife, Sidney Callahan, author, lecturer, college professor, and licensed psychologist, will give a lecture on her latest book titled Created for Joy: A Christian View of Suffering (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2007) the same day at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Both events, sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, are free and open to the public.

Both talks will deal with suffering; and its meaning for Christians and science’s efforts to relieve it.

Often called the founder of the field of bioethics, Daniel Callahan co-founded the Hastings Center in 1969, an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute, which explores fundamental and emerging questions in medicine, health care, and biotechnology. He served as director and president of the center, for its first 27 years and is currently the director of international programs.

Daniel Callahan is the author or editor of 39 books, including co-author with Angela Wasunna of Medicine and the Market: Equity vs. Choice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) and What Price Better Health? Hazards of the Research Imperative (University of California Press, 2003).

A Senior Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Yale University, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University, his M.A. from Georgetown University and his B.A. from Yale. He holds honorary degrees from Oregon State University, the University of Colorado, Williams College, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Sidney Callahan is an author, lecturer, college professor, and licensed psychologist. From 2002-03, she held the Paul J. McKeever Chair of Moral Theology at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y. and from 1980-97 she was a professor of psychology at Mercy College. She received Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from the City University of New York, her M.A. in psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College.

Sydney Callahan has written numerous articles, books, and columns devoted to religious, psychological, and ethical questions. She is author of In Good Conscience: Reason and Emotion in Moral Decision Making (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991); With All Our Heart and Mind: The Spiritual Works of Mercy in a Psychological Age (New York: Crossroads/Continuum, 1988), winner of the Christopher Award, 1988; and Abortion: Understanding Differences, Co-edited with Daniel Callahan (New York: Plenum Press, 1984).

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Naresh Dadhich, Gandhian and peace studies scholar, will give a lecture titled “Gandhi is the Future, not the Past,” on Tuesday, March 11 at 4 p.m. in the Levis Browsing Room in Dinand Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture, sponsored by peace and conflict studies, is free and open to the public.

In his presentation, Dadhich will talk about Gandhi’s relevance in today’s society.

Dadhich, the vice chancellor at Vardhman Mahaveer Open University in Kota, India and professor of political science at the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, India, served as convener of the Peace Education Commission, International Peace Research Association. He is the author of six books including Gandhi and Existentialism (South Asia Books 1993); and his articles have appeared in professional journals in the UK, Australia, and the U.S. He received a Pell Fellowship at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I. and directed the Center for Gandhian Studies at the University of Rajasthan in India.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Celestin Monga, a leading African intellectual, will give a presentation about his recent book Un Bantou à Washington, (From Cameroonian Jails to the World Bank) (Presses Universitaires de France, 2007) on Thursday, March 13 at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, about Monga’s exile experience and his new book, is free and open to the public.

In the early 90’s, Monga was a banker in Douala, Cameroon, who routinely criticized Cameroonian politics. Through his writing he became one of Africa’s leading intellectuals and a hero after being thrown in jail for criticizing the President in an opinion piece he wrote for a local newspaper. This caused a huge movement of revolt in the country. Several people died during these riots across the country.

Monga is currently the lead economist/advisor to the senior vice president and chief economist of World Bank in Washington D.C. In this role he designs, leads, implements and monitors major macroeconomic programs in both middle-income and low-income countries and helps shape the strategic direction of the bank.

Monga is the author of several books on economics and political science, including The Anthropology of Anger: Civil Society and Democracy in Africa (1996), which has become a required text at many colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is currently working on a book titled Macroeconomic Issues in Low-Income Countries with François Bourguignon.

A graduate of Harvard University, MIT, and universities of Paris 1 Sorbonne, Bordeaux and Pau (France), Monga holds a Ph.D. in political economy and master’s degrees in political science, management and finance, and public administration.

Prior to his current position at the World Bank, Monga taught at Boston University and the University of Bordeaux and worked as a commercial banker in Cameroon. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Sloan Fellows Program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He received the 2007 Leadership Award of the Cameroon Students’ Association-USA.