Literacy award for education prof
Dr. Marc Glassman, Education, was awarded the Canada Post Literacy Educator Award for 2003 at a ceremony held Sept. 9. Dr. Glassman, a specialist in literacy education, has volunteered thousands of hours to developing and teaching courses for learners ranging from at-risk children to graduate students. Since arriving at Memorial in the fall of 1977, he has taught over 270 courses to over 6,500 undergrad and graduate students, and delivered over 100 workshops in the area of literacy around the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The award also recognized Dr. Glassman’s community service in the diagnostic assessments of the literacy needs of hundreds of school-age children, his involvement in the creation of intergenerational literacy programs and the development of a professional development Web site in literacy for the teachers of the province.

The Canada Post Literacy Award are the country's only national awards dedicated to recognizing grass roots literacy initiatives and to celebrating the achievements of learners and the people who help them along the way. Short profiles on all winners, as well as additional information on the awards and other Canada Post literacy initiatives, can be found in the Newsroom section of Canada Post's Web site www.canadapost.ca.

Documentary on genetic research
Bloodlines: The DNA Dilemma, a one-hour documentary that will air Saturday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m. on ASN in Newfoundland, explores the complex legal and ethical issues associated with genetic research and commercial science. The documentary compares Newfoundland with Iceland, a country that put its genes on the commercial market in 1998 when the Icelandic government leased the population’s medical records to the multinational corporation deCode Genetics. The documentary also includes a look at some of the genetics research and clinical services offered at Memorial University.

Newfoundland has long been recognized as a geneticist’s paradise with its homogenous population and large families. Companies from around the world are investing research in the island’s genes and Bloodlines tells the human story of the benefits of gene hunting while examining the enormous potential for abuse. The film is produced by Annette Clarke, Ruby Line Productions, in association with CTV. It is directed by Wendy Rowland and narrated by Canadian social activist Shirley Douglas.

Archive hours
From Sept. 18 to Dec. 11, the Maritime History Archive will be open one evening a week (Thursdays) from 7-9:30 p.m. This is in addition to our regular hours of 9 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-4 p.m., Monday-Friday

For more on the archive, see www.mun.ca/mha.

Lecture on contentious behaviour
Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University, will speak on Rooted Cosmopolitans: Transnational Activists in a World of States. The lecture will take place Monday, Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Donald Cook Auditorium, Music Bldg.

Dr. Tarrow will also be presenting a seminar on transnational immigrant activists, Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 3:30 p.m. in SN-2033. Both the lecture and the seminar are open to the public. Dr. Tarrow is a leading expert on new social movements and more broadly, the phenomena of contentious behaviour. Rooted Cosmopolitans examines transnational in comparative and historical context. Dr. Tarrow argues that the figure cosmopolitan, active in one entity, trying to bring about change in another, has existed for hundreds of years

A specialist in European politics and society, Sidney Tarrow has written widely on Italian and French politics, centre-periphery relations, new social movements, and contentious politics. Recent publications include Power in Movement (1994), Contentious Europeans (with Doug Imig) and The Dynamics of Contention (with Doug McAdam and Charles Tilley).

Sidney Tarrow is Maxwell Upson Professor of Government and Sociology at Cornell University.

Nobel nominee to deliver Pratt lecture
Cees Nooteboom will deliver the Pratt Lecture on Friday, Sept. 19. The lecture, titled In the Eye of the Storm: Musings on a Nomadic Life, is an excerpt from a forthcoming book of travel writing by Nooteboom called The Nomad Hotel.

The lecture takes place at the Reid Theatre at 8 p.m.

Mr. Nooteboom is an internationally-known novelist, poet and travel writer. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature.

Born in The Hague in 1933, he has built up an imposing collection of novels, poetry, short stories and travel stories. With his novel Rituals he won both the Dutch Bordewijk Prize and the Pegasus Prize for Literature, and The Following Story was awarded the European Literature Prize in 1993. Other notable works include Roads to Santiago (travel) and All Soul's Day (novel).

Ed Park, writing last year in the Village Voice, said Mr. Nooteboom is “a writer's writer, whose books seem metaphors for art itself.”