New date announced for Vivat show highlighting JH collections

The opening program for "Vivat! A Panorama of St. Petersburg from the Johns Hopkins Collections" has been rescheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. The previously scheduled opening was canceled because of snow.

Highlighting Johns Hopkins connections to St. Petersburg--beginning with the diplomatic assignment in 1854 of Daniel Coit Gilman, who became the university's first president--the exhibit is presented as part of Baltimore's VIVAT! St. Petersburg arts festival and will be on display through April 13.

At the opening, Peabody director Robert Sirota will speak on "The Birth of the Modern Conservatory: Peabody and St. Petersburg," and Dan Todes, a professor in History of Medicine, will talk about "Pavlov's St. Petersburg 1870-1936."

Photographs and correspondence featured in the exhibit are from the Sheridan Libraries Special Collections and Archives, the Archives of the Peabody Institute and JHMI's Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives.

To reserve a place and for more information, call 410-396-5430.

Campaign planned to reduce alcohol abuse among students

A news conference was held last week at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to kick off "Docs, Cops and Shops," a regional campaign aimed at reducing drinking and driving among college students. The Central Maryland Regional Safe Communities Center and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, both at the School of Public Health, are among the medical and public health professionals, law enforcement agencies and local alcohol retailers who are participating in the initiative, which will continue through early April.

During the campaign, taking place when many schools are on spring break, there will be increased enforcement in the shops and on the roads, to keep underage individuals from obtaining alcohol and to get those who drink off the roads.

Studies published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol show that nearly 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, which include motor vehicle crashes. Excessive alcohol use also leads to other nonfatal, though sometimes life-changing, events.

Latin American Studies Program to hold conference

The Program in Latin American Studies will hold a daylong conference on March 21 titled New Directions in Latin American Studies. Organized by PLAS and co-sponsored by the departments of Political Science, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Sociology, the event includes four speakers and a reception with Latin American music.

The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in 162 Mattin Center, Homewood campus.

The speakers and talks are as follows: Francisco Dallmeir, of the Smithsonian Institution, "Biodiversity Conservation and Resource Development: Experiences from Biologically Rich Areas in Latin America and Africa"; Mario Valdes, University of Toronto, "The Making of a Latin American Literary Canon"; Lisa DeLeonardis, Johns Hopkins, "In the Wake of Sipan: Advances in Latin American Art and Archaeology"; Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Princeton University, "The Future of Gender in Mexico and the United States: Economic Transformation and Changing Definitions."

For more information, call 410-516-5488.

Talk on Tuesday to highlight Season for Nonviolence events

Nonviolence in a Time of War," a talk by Colman McCarthy, a syndicated columnist and editorial page writer for The Washington Post, will highlight the ongoing participation of Johns Hopkins groups in Season for Nonviolence, a nationwide movement.

Now in its sixth year, the 64-day period--from Jan. 30 to April 4, the death anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King--brings together organizations and communities committed to promoting the voice of peace and nonviolent change. The task force organizing events at Johns Hopkins comprises volunteers from Association for India's Development, Alpha Phi Omega, Baha'i faith, Ole and Mentoring Assistance Program.

McCarthy, who will speak at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, in Homewood's Shriver Hall, is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course called Solutions to Violence.

The Johns Hopkins events are sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center, the Office of Community Relations and Volunteer Services, and the HSA Programming Committee. For more information, go to http://www.jh.edu/snv.

Memorial service to be held for History Dept. administrator

A memorial service will be held on Friday, March 21, for Sharon Sullivan Widomski, administrator of the History Department in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Widomski died on Feb. 13, her 56th birthday, from complications following open-heart surgery. This month would have marked her 25th anniversary at Johns Hopkins, where she began as a part-time typist in the department. The service will start at 4 p.m. in 110 Hodson Hall, Homewood campus.