WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 1, 2010 -- The annual Faculty Lecture Series at Williams College will take place during February and March.  The six lectures will be held on Thursday, Feb. 11, 18, 25, and March 4, 11, and 18. All lectures will be held in Wege Auditorium in The Science Center on the Williams campus at 4 p.m. except for the March 4 music lecture, which is scheduled for Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall.

In a special invitation to the general public, Professor of German Helga Druxes, chair of the Faculty Lecture Committee, said, "The series covers a broad range of academic topics delivered in an accessible and engaging format.  We hope the public will attend."  The lectures are free. A reception will follow each talk.

Christopher Bolton, associate professor of Comparative and Japanese Literature, will give the opening lecture on Thursday, Feb. 11.  It is titled, "Vampire Samurai Schoolgirls and Other Demons: What We Can Learn from Japanese Animation."

Amy Gehring, associate professor of chemistry, will present the second lecture on Thursday, Feb. 18, "From the Soil to your Medicine Cabinet: Understanding Streptomyces Bacteria."

On Thursday, Feb. 25, Kenneth Kuttner, the Robert F. White Class of 1952 Professor of Economics, will give a talk, "What Can Ben Bernanke Learn From Mary Poppins? Victorian Financial Crises and their Lessons for the Future."

On March 4 in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Edward Gollin, associate professor of music, will discuss "The Myopic Watchmaker: An Evolutionary Perspective on Bela Bartok's Twelve-Tone Techniques." Gollin will play some musical pieces as examples for his lecture.

Bojana Mladenovic, associate professor of philosophy, will focus on, "Epistemology 'From Below': American Pragmatism in Kuhn's Philosophy of Science." The talk will take place on Thursday, March 11, in Wege Auditorium.

Allison Pacelli, associate professor of mathematics, will give the final lecture on Thursday, March 18. The talk is titled, "'Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair': A Mathematical Approach to Fairness."

The Faculty Lecture Series was founded in 1911 by a faculty wife, who wished "to relieve the tedium of long New England winters with an opportunity to hear Williams professors talk about issues that really mattered to them."

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Event: Allan Gonzalez