Former VP to sign copies of new book
S. Eugene Younts, the former vice president for public service and outreach who initiated the university’s New Faculty Tour, will have a book signing Nov. 11 for his new book, Back on the Bus.

The UGA Libraries are hosting the event at 2 p.m. in the Reading Room of the main library The book gives Younts’ account of some memorable experiences on the annual weeklong adventure. It is named for his trademark announcement that the bus was heading to the next stop.

Younts conceived of the tours “to help new faculty members become knowledgeable of the state as a whole and at the same time initiate dialog with industry and elected officials.” He estimates that in each class, 25 states and four or five different countries were represented. He led the tours for 22 years.

Purdue prof to give Fanning Lecture
Thomas Hertel, a Distinguished Professor from Purdue University, will present the 25th J.W. Fanning Lecture on Nov. 13 at 10:30 a.m. in Rooms K/L of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. Hertel’s lecture is entitled “Global Economic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels.”

Hertel is the founder and executive director of the Global Trade Analysis Project, which maintains a global economic database and an applied general equilibrium modeling framework that are documented in the book, Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and Applications.

He has been a visiting scholar with the Trade Research Group of the World Bank and coordinated a project on the poverty impacts of a prospective WTO agreement under the Doha Development Agenda.

Advance registration is required. Contact Audrey Hudson, ah1@uga.edu or (706) 542-0763, to register.

‘Georgia Review,’ Georgia Poetry Circuit to present reading by Dorianne Laux
Poet Dorianne Laux will give a free, public reading at 7 p.m. Nov. 13 at Athens Ciné,
234 West Hancock St. The reading is sponsored by The Georgia Review, UGA’s literary quarterly, and the Georgia Poetry Circuit, a consortium of colleges and universities across the state that cooperates to bring nationally-recognized poets to Athens and elsewhere three times a year. UGA instructor and poet Heather Cousins will be the opening reader.

Laux was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1952. She worked as a sanatorium cook, a gas station manager, a maid and a donut holer before receiving a B.A. in English from Mills College in 1988. She is the author of Facts about the Moon, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Alumnus to give King/Mandela Lecture
Chérif Keita, professor and chair of the French and Francophone studies department at Carleton College, will present the 2009 King/Mandela Lecture Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. in Room 481 of the Tate Student Center.

A native of Mali and a 1985 UGA graduate, Keita has published books and articles on social and literary problems in contemporary Africa.

His award-winning film, Oberlin-Inanda: The Life and Times of John L. Dube (2005, 54 minutes), will be shown with a question-and-answer discussion following the screening. The film depicts the life of John Dube (1871-1946), the first president of the African National Congress of South Africa and his education in the U.S. at the end of the 19th century.

The King/Mandela Lecture is sponsored by the African Studies Institute and the Franklin College Office of Inclusion and Diversity Leadership and with support of the African American Studies Institute.