Calendar of Events

Please join us on Mondays in the Terrace Room A of Valentine Hall. Relax and enjoy lunch with your Math & Stats friends.

Erin Connolly, Ph.D., professor and department head of plant sciences at Penn State University, will discuss “Molecular Mechanisms of Iron Uptake and Compartmentalization in Plants.”

Current estimates indicate that ~3 billion people suffer from iron deficiency and plant foods serve as the principal source of iron for most people. In addition, ~30 percent of the world's soils are considered iron-limiting for plant growth. Improving iron uptake and partitioning in plants could therefore have dramatic effects on plant and human health. Research in the Connolly Lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of micronutrient uptake and trafficking in plants. We are particularly interested in the mechanisms that underlie the delivery of iron to mitochondria and chloroplasts. In addition, we have a long-term goal of elucidating the mechanisms that function to maintain iron homeostasis in plants.

Join us for a public lecture by Stephen C. Finley, associate professor at Louisiana State University. Finley is a member of the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Louisiana State and is the director of the African & African American Studies Program.

This presentation will argue that making theoretical sense of UFO (what the Nation of Islam calls the "Mother Wheel") discourses in the Nation of Islam and-- indeed --Louis Farrakhan's own UFO narrative are necessary to make sense of the ultimate significance of race, "gender" and sexuality in the religion. More specifically, the religious meaning of women's embodiment in the Nation of Islam is refracted though the meaning of Farrakhan's own body, which is not intelligible outside of his UFO narrative. In short, wheels, wombs and women are inextricably bound in the Nation of Islam.

This event is generously supported by the Amherst College Department of Religion and the Willis D. Wood Fund.