Short Takes

March 14, 2019 | Jim Townsend

Friday Morning lecture series: Turkey’s populism, DACA

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Friday Morning Continuing Education spring lecture series begins March 29 with two presentations.

At 9 a.m., adjunct professor Ozlem Sisman will discuss the current political situation in Turkey and how rising right- and left-wing populism affects global interests.

At 11 a.m., Roberta Leal, assistant professor of social work, will talk about recent developments involving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and the legal limbo affecting hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

The Friday Morning spring lecture series runs through May 10. No classes are scheduled for April 19, in observance of Easter and Passover. The cost for each class is $18 after a $26 membership fee. Members are entitled to priority registration, library privileges and discounts at the UHCL bookstore and Patio Café. Parking permits are $5 and may be obtained from the Continuing Education/Foreign Language Program Office located at Bayou Building, room 1618. To register or for more information, visit Friday Morning Continuing Education or call 281-283-3033.

UHCL film series: ‘On the Basis of Sex’

UH-Clear Lake will feature a movie that celebrates the life and career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Saturday, March 30. The biopic “On the Basis of Sex” dramatizes Ginsberg’s early career as a champion for gender equality. 

Following the movie, commentary will be monitored by Professor of History Angela Howard from a panel that includes Associate Professor of Anthropology Maria Curtis, Assistant Professor of Writing Patricia Droz, Visiting Lecturer for Criminology Comeka Diaz, First-Year Seminar and Humanities Lecturer Anne Gessler and Frances Kavenik, professor emerita of University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

The film is at 7 p.m. in the Student Services and Classroom Building lecture hall, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston. Admission is free for UHCL students, $4 for others. Parking is free.

Physics Lecture Series: balanced neuron firing

In the physiology of the brain, neurons in cortical networks fire in excitatory and inhibitory synaptic response to a neuronal event, such as the response to sensory stimulation. Biophysicists observe that the balance between neural excitation and neural inhibition is crucial to healthy cognition and behavior. On April 1, Greg Morrison, assistant professor of physics at University of Houston, will explain that relationship and how heterogeneity in cortical networks affects balanced neuron firing as UHCL’s spring Physics Lecture Series continues.

The lecture series is 7 p.m. each Monday through April 29 in room 1203 of the STEM and Classroom Building, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston. The lectures are free. If pursuing continuing-education credits, each lecture is $15; any three lectures is $40; the entire series is $99. To register or for more information, visit Physics Lecture Series.