October 2002
"Are we teaching our kids to kill?" is the central question to be discussed by former U.S. Army Ranger and West Point psychology professor Lt. Col. Dave Grossman on Monday, October 14 at 7 p.m. in the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Ferguson Theater. The program is free to the public. For more information, call University Relations at 724-836-7497.
Col. Grossman will bring his research and experience to bear in a strong and provocative challenge to the spread of violence through the media our children watch and the computer games they play.
Since his retirement from the military, Col. Grossman has researched the relationship between violent media and violent behavior. The co-author of Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call To Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence, he wrote On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and is required reading in classes at West Point, the U.S. Air Force Academy, police academies worldwide, and "peace studies" programs in numerous colleges and universities.
Grossman has served as an expert witness and consultant in state and Federal courts, including UNITED STATES vs. TIMOTHY MCVEIGH. He helped train mental health professionals after the Jonesboro school shootings, and he was involved in counseling or court cases in the aftermath of the Paducah, Springfield, and Littleton school shootings. He has testified before U.S. Senate and Congressional committees and numerous state legislatures, and he and his research have been cited in a national address by the President of the United States. Today Grossman is the director of the Killology Research Group that has made revolutionary new contributions to our understanding of killing in war, the psychological costs of war, the root causes of the current "virus" of violent crime that is raging around the world, and the process of healing the victims of violence, in war and peace. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks he is on the road almost 300 days a year, training elite military and law enforcement organizations worldwide about the reality of combat.
The program is sponsored by the Behavioral Sciences and Humanities Academic
Villages at UPG and is arranged by Dr. Frank Wilson, assistant professor
of sociology and administration of justice.
MOLIÈRE COMEDY FEATURED IN UPG FALL THEATER PRODUCTION
The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Performance Collective will present Molière's Such Foolish Affected Ladies on Wednesday, November 6 through Saturday November 9 in the college's Ferguson Theater. The November 6 and 7 performances begin at 7 p.m. and on November 8 and 9 at 8 p.m. Tickets at $5 are available at the door. For information, call 724-836-7497.
This neoclassical comedy (mid-17th century) pokes fun at the rigid pretensions and coquettish behaviors of the French upper class. In this satire, ladies fresh from the country come to Paris in search of love and adventure. When two gentlemen decide to play a game on their haughty expectations and snobberies, they learn a lesson they won't soon forget!
Lead actors include Mike Crosby (seen in the UPG Regional One-Act Festival last year including Lion in Winter and Suburbia, with Melanie Paglia and Julie Stefanko. Dr. Sayre Greenfield, associate professor of English, will play the father- figure. Tavia LaFollette of Pitt's Theater Department in Oakland has created a period-specific design, using perspective (a miniature Notre Dame will be seen outside the interior's window) and classical motifs (columns).
Molière (1622-1673), whose real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin, is regarded as a master satirist of the period and the leading French comic actor, stage director, and dramatic theoretician.