50th Anniversary of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' to be Celebrated with Panel Discussion, Art Exhibit

A special event Friday, April 9, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Beginning at 4:30 p.m. at Birmingham's historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, an expert panel will discuss the book's role in awakening America's conscience to racial injustice. Activities will continue at Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (across the street from the church) with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and an exhibit featuring works of art inspired by the novel.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is cosponsored by the Mann Center, Cumberland School of Law and Alabama Humanities Foundation, with support from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Panelists include John Carroll (moderator), dean of the Cumberland School of Law; Delores Boyd, former federal magistrate and coauthor of the book Jim Crow and Me: Stories from My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer; Jonathan Bass, chair of Samford's History Department and expert of the civil rights movement; and Susan Swagler, literary critic for Birmingham Magazine and other publications. Click here for an event flier in PDF format.

Disability Awareness Activities at Samford Feature Presentation, Student Discussions

"Focus on Ability" is the topic of a 10 a.m. presentation Tuesday, March 30, by Carolyn Cartwright, a corporate executive recognized as an innovator in developing career opportunities for people with disabilities. Her leadership at SunTrust Banks, an Atlanta-based institution with $172 billion in assets, has attracted new talent for the bank's 1,700 locations. The presentation in Reid Chapel will discuss what a university may learn from corporate efforts to ensure the full participation of people with disabilities. Later in the day she will meet with university leaders and students to explore these issues in more depth.

Her visit is cosponsored by the Mann Center and Samford Counseling Services & Disability Support Services as part of Disability Awareness Week and the Brock School of Business Executives-in-Resience Week. The lecture, which is open to the public, is one of the Mann Center's A. Gerow Hodges Lectures in Ethics and Leadership. Convo credit is available to students. Click here for an event flier in PDF format.

Teaching and Research at Samford

2010 HEAL Conference: Are Codes of Ethics Enough? The annual conference of Samford's Health Ethics and Law (HEAL) Institute will be held Friday, April 9, with principal speakers including DeWitt C. Baldwin, Jr., M.D.; Joseph Fink III, B.S.Pharm., J.D.; and Joy Penticuff, RN, Ph.D. Dr. Baldwin is scholar-in-residence at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education [ACGME] and professor emeritus of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences at University of Nevada School of Medicine. Dr. Fink holds professorships in pharmacy, public health, and clinical leadership and management at University of Kentucky. Dr. Penticuff is professor and director of nursing program development at Concordia University and professor emerita at the University of Texas at Austin. Click here to download a brochure with details and registration information in PDF format.

The Missing Girls of China and India: What Can Be Done? Mann Center Director John Knapp interviews Cumberland School of Law Professor David Smolin, organizer of a recent conference examining the large-scale elimination of females from the populations of China and India. In one of the largest but least noticed violations of human rights today, China in just one generation has eliminated approximately ten percent of its females at birth, India perhaps as many as five percent, leading to a loss of tens of millions of women and girls. Click here for a conference brochure in PDF format.