TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

IGR Brown Bag Lunch. 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in Room 205. Questions? Contact: Brighid Dwyer

“Transgender in the Nineteenth Century” presented by Rachel Mesch (Yeshiva University). 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in Room 205. Dr. Rachel Mesch received her BA from Yale College (1993), her MA from Columbia University (1995), and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (2000). A specialist in nineteenth century French literature, Dr. Mesch’s main areas of research and teaching include naturalism and decadence, women writers, gender studies, the French Enlightenment, and the Belle Epoque. She has published articles on women writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, and is the author of The Hysteric’s Revenge: French Women Writers at the Fin De Siècle. Questions? Contact: Joyce Harden

Tolle Lege Literary Society. 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m in the Learning Commons Lounge. All are welcome. Questions? Contact: Adam Vincent

SAVE THE DATE…

2016 US Presidential Election Panel. Tuesday, March 29 at 10:00 a.m. in Speakers’ Corner. Several elite Villanova scholars will present on various aspects of the 2016 United States Presidential election. Billie Murray, PhD, Department of Communication, will respond to “Does Social Movement Rhetoric Matter in Elections?” Heidi Rose, PhD, Department of Communication, will speak on “Style, Substance and the Performance of Presidential Candidates.” Camille Burge, PhD, Department of Political Science, will answer the question “How Might Emotions Shape the 2016 Election?”

Intrigued by the growing popularity of emerging scholarly communication channels such as Researchgate.com, Academia.edu, Social Science Research Network and Mendeley, Falvey Library is planning a brown bag panel discussion on the Perils and Promise of Scholarly Social Networks. Interested faculty will be invited to attend on Wednesday, March 16th, 12 – 1:30, room 204. We are hoping to exchange ideas about why researchers use these scholarly social networks, which ones are preferable, what features and attributes are beneficial or unfavorable, and perhaps even broach some of their more controversial aspects. A librarian will preface the discussion with a very a brief presentation on the origins of academic social networking sites and the collaborative tools they offer. Brown bag lunch, beverages and cookies provided.

Happening @ ‘Nova

Be sure to check out these noteworthy events that are taking place on Villanova’s campus soon!

Learning to Pray Series: Today!
Please join us for our Learning to Pray Series. March 9 we will concentrate on Visio Divina. March 30 we will pray by walking the Labyrinth. April 6 we will practice Lectio Divina. Each prayer practice will be a mixture of instruction and actual practice. They will be held on Wednesdays, 12:45-1:30 p.m., in St. Rita Hall Community Room. Our next offering, Visio Divina, is a new spiritual discipline (a tool to encourage deeper intimacy and relationship with Christ) that is offered in hopes of helping you to see and perceive, learn and listen to what God would say to you through images, including paintings, icons, sculpture or any other visual expression. We will be using Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal Son as a focus of our meditation.
Questions? Contact: Linda Jaczynski

Innovation and Design “Yard Sale”: Today!
Join Villanova’s Innovation and Design class in the Idea Accelerator on Wednesday, March 9, 6:30-8 p.m., for an art gallery style presentation. We want your input to help us design a new program that will foster more creativity here at Villanova. Bring your own creativity and intuition with you as we brainstorm and discuss this exciting new opportunity. This is open to all faculty, staff, and students. The more input we get, the more capable we will be in building this new ICE experience. There will be food, interesting people, great conversation, and hopefully some inventive ideas. For additional information: http://www.villanovaice.com. Questions? Contact: ice@villanova.edu

Centering Prayer – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays
Our gathering times for the spring semester are Wednesdays 8:30-9AM &Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:45-1:15 p.m. in the St. Rita Hall Community Room. Centering prayer is space for quiet, meditative prayer that cultivates a place of rest and attentive presence in the midst of our busy and distracted lives. We gather in a small group and sit quietly together. No previous experience with centering prayer or meditation is necessary. Questions? Contact: John P. Edwards

WE’RE ALL MAD HERE

On Monday, March 21 at 5:30 in the ICE Center (basement of Falvey), the English Department will present an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party Celebrating 150 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Venture forth for tea, cake, games, and dramatic readings. Costumes optional! Check out the English Department page for more.

DID YOU KNOW—

Looking for something fun, nearby and inexpensive to do this weekend? Free daily recitals on the world’s largest pipe organ are just a train ride away.

Free daily recitals on the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ—lasting 45 minutes—are held throughout the year! Tickets and reservations are NOT required. Visitors are invited to see the console and meet the organist after the recitals!

@@@

Do you know the origins of the “@” symbol? In computing, the symbol was chosen from a host of other symbols already included on a typewriter in 1971 to go between usernames and destination servers. But how about before then? “In 2000, the Italian academic Giorgio Stabile observed that many nations use different words for the @ symbol that describe how it looks. In Turkish it means “rose”, while in Norwegian it means “pig’s tail”. In Greek it is “duckling”, while in Hungarian it is “worm”.” Go figure! Read more from the BBC here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

This Women’s History Month, let’s talk firsts: in 2010 (quite recently!), Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for best director for her film The Hurt Locker. Bigelow is indeed the first female director to win an Oscar, but far from the first female director. Check out Bigelow’s feature in the Conversations with Filmakers series, available online through Falvey.

“If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.”
– Kathryn Bigelow

Photograph by Joe Mabel