 |
 Pathways to Knowledge: A Lecture Series for Undergraduates and Graduate Students
Spring 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
7:00-8:00 P.M.
Grant Auditorium, College of Law
In Hollywood's Shadow:
Spanish-speaking Film Markets, 1929-1936
Lisa Jarvinen
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History
Syracuse University
|
In the few years following the introduction of sound cinema in 1927, Hollywood studios produced numerous films directly in foreign languages to sell in their international markets. In my dissertation, I analyze the disorganization caused by the introduction of sound into the commercial cinema in the specific case of Hollywood's relationship to its Spanish-language markets during the period 1929-1936. Although a Spanish-language film market has never been fully unified, the attempts to define this market by film professionals, critics, and moviegoers led to new ways of relating cultural identity to a popular entertainment form and international industry. This experience, I argue, contributed to the creation of market-based, consumerist forms of behavior and self-identification that grew concurrently with the processes of modernization in the early twentieth-century.
In my talk, I will also discuss the process of archival research upon which my dissertation is based.
|
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
7:00-8:00 P.M.
Grant Auditorium, College of Law
To Mars and Beyond:
The Role of Human Muscle in this Endeavor
Brian C. Clark
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Exercise Science
Syracuse University
& Office of Biological and Physical Research, NASA
|
In January 2004 NASA began charting a bold new course into the cosmos. This journey is one that aims to take humans back to the moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond. There are numerous challenges remaining to be solved to allow for long duration manned spaceflights, ranging from the development of crew expedition vehicles to minimizing the physiological challenges weightlessness imposes. One of the most drastically affected tissues to prolonged spaceflight is skeletal muscle, with large reductions in muscle size and strength being observed.
Our research has focused on developing a further understanding of adaptations in the human neuromuscular system following periods of prolonged unweighting. Specifically, we are attempting to identify spatially what structures are most altered, and develop ways to mitigate the adaptations. This lecture will summarize NASA future goals, and present data from a series of our laboratories studies investigating changes in neurological and contractile function to simulated-microgravity.
|
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
7:00-8:00 P.M.
Grant Auditorium, College of Law
Sperm Competition and the
Evolution of Sex Differences
Adam Bjork
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Biology
Syracuse University
|
When it comes to sex, males compete and females choose. This pattern is widespread in nature, and it led to Darwin's theory of sexual selection. But the competition for mates is only half of the story.
When a female mates with more than one male sexual selection continues until fertilization in the form of sperm competition. Sperm competition is a powerful evolutionary force that has led to amazing diversity in reproductive strategies and morphology. The fruit fly Drosophila bifurca, for instance, produces the longest sperm in the world. A single D. bifurca sperm is 6 cm long and 20 times the length of the fly itself. This tiny fly challenges our understanding of sex differences and, along with other Drosophila species, provides insight into the mechanisms of postcopulatory sexual selection.
|
|
|
|
Back to Top
Printable Version
Email to Friend