Happenings

Concerts

Carpathian Music Ensemble, an evening of Eastern European folk, funk, and fusion, 8 p.m. April 4, Bellefield Hall Auditorium, Pitt Department of Music, www.music.pitt.edu                                                      

Pitt Men’s Glee Club Spring Concert, 8 p.m. April 5, First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, Pitt Department of Music, www.music.pitt.edu

Women’s Choral Ensemble, Heinz Chapel women’s choir performs, 3 p.m. April 6, Heinz Memorial Chapel, www.heinzchapel.pitt.edu

Exhibitions

University Art Gallery, Nicholas Lochoff Collection Guided Tours, free tours, through April 11, Pitt Department of History of Art and Architecture, www.haa.pitt.edu; Studio Arts Student Exhibition, work of graduating seniors featured alongside exceptional works from the range of Studio Arts courses, through April 26; opening reception 4 p.m. April 2; and artist talks in the gallery at noon April 16, Frick Fine Arts Building, Pitt Department of Studio Arts, www.studioarts.pitt.edu

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Spring Flower Show, showcasing musical genres through whimsical sculptures made out of up-cycled instruments alongside thousands of seasonal flowers, through April 20, 1 Schenley Park, Oakland, www.phipps.conservatory.org

Filmmakers Galleries, Palimpsests: Ghost Signs of Pittsburgh, photographic exploration of the remains of local 20th century outdoor advertisements, through May 16, 477 Melwood Avenue, Oakland, www.pittsburghpalimpsests.com

Hillman Library, Oakland: A Look Back Over the 20th Century, glimpse into a foreshadowing of the changes that would lead to Oakland’s development as a medical, cultural, and educational hub, through summer 2014, http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/exhibits/oakland-a-look-back/

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, RACE: Are We So Different? integrates personal stories of living with race with expert discussions of the role of science within racial history, through October 27,  4400 Forbes Ave, Oakland, American Anthropological Association, www.carnegiemnh.org 

Lectures/Seminars/Readings

“Mechanism and Regulation of RNA Polymerase II,” Craig Kaplan, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics, Texas A&M University, 4 p.m. March 31, 169 Crawford Hall, Pitt Department of Biological Sciences, www.biology.pitt.edu

“SOS: Mitochondrial Distress Signals in Parkinson’s Disease,” Charleen T. Chu, Pitt School of Medicine professor of pathology, 4 p.m. March 31, Scaife Hall Lecture Room 6, Pitt Provost’s Inaugural Lecture, www.provost.pitt.edu

“Arab Spring: Global Implications for U.S. Relations Abroad,” Michael Slackman, journalist, The New York Times, 8 p.m. March 31, William Pitt Union Assembly Room, Pitt Global Studies Center, www.ucis.pitt.edu

“Can We Improve Population Health by Improving Foundational Determinants? In Silico Experiments and Agent-Based Counterfactuals,” Sandro Galea, the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 3 p.m. April 1, 109 Parran Hall, Pitt Public Health Dynamics Laboratory Seminar Series, www.phdl.pitt.edu

“Sleeping Naked and Showering in the Dark: The Fun Path to Green Living,” Vanessa Farquharson, journalist, National Post, 4:30 pm, April 1, William Pitt Union Ballroom, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, Pitt Swanson School of Engineering’s 2014 Heinz Distinguished Lecturer, www.mascarocenter.pitt.edu

“The Four Waves of Modern Terror: An Essay on Generations,” David C. Rapoport, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, noon April 2, 3911 Posvar Hall, Pitt Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, RSVP to Beverly Brizzi at beb38@pitt.edu, www.gspia.pitt.edu 

“Unconventional Pipetting for Bioanalysis,” Lane Baker, associate professor of chemistry, Indiana University, 2:30 p.m. April 3, 150 Chevron Hall, Pitt Department of Chemistry, www.chem.pitt.edu 

“The History That Doesn’t Go Away: African American Urban Life and Labor Since the Atlantic Slave Trade,” Joe William Trotter, Jr., Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice, Carnegie Mellon University, 7:30 p.m. April 3, 157 Benedum Hall, Pitt Department of History, E.P. Thompson Memorial Lecture, www.history.pitt.edu 

“From Individuals, to Populations, to Communities, to Extinction: When Does Animal Personality Matter?” Jonathan Pruitt, Pitt assistant professor of biological sciences, noon April 4, Scaife Hall Lecture Room 6, Pitt 2014 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar series, www.svc-seminar.pitt.edu

“An Evening with Award-Winning Recording Artist, Kiran Ahluwalia,” Indo-Canadian singer, 5 p.m. April 5, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Pitt’s University Center for International Studies, Global Studies Center, Pitt Asian Studies Center, www.ucis.pitt.edu 

Theater/Opera/Dance

In the Heights, exploring what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home in the Heights, through April 6, Charity Randall Theatre, Pitt Department of Theatre Arts, www.play.pitt.edu

Miscellaneous

Jeff Sharlet, reading by award-winning author most recently known for Sweet Heaven When I Die: Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country in Between, 8:30 p.m. April 3, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, http://pghwriterseries.wordpress.com

Voices of Asian Modernities: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Asian Popular Music Conference, historicizing the artistic sounds, lyrical texts, visual images, and social lives of female performers in Asian popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries, April 4-6, Pitt Center for International Studies, Voices of Asian Modernities Project, Leiden University, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, www.music.pitt.edu/vamp

“Public Praxis: Performing, Race, History,” interdisciplinary symposium to discuss how race issues are portrayed in live performance and what that means in the context of our daily lives, 3:30-6 p.m. April 4 and 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. April 5, 602 Cathedral of Learning, held in conjunction with performances of In the Heights, Pitt’s Charity Randall Theatre, University of Pittsburgh Stages, www.play.pitt.edu

The 14th Annual Pitt Integration Bee, math competition open to all Pitt undergraduates as well as non-competing audience members, 7 p.m. April 4, 343 Alumni Hall, contact Jonathan Rubin, Department of Mathematics, jonrubin@pitt.edu, 412-624-6157, www.math.pitt.edu/~rubin/bee.html

Balancing Act (Gli Equilibristi), film screening, Giulio leads a seemingly idyllic life with family but after making a critical error that unravels everything, he is forced to discover the thin line between well-being and poverty, 7 p.m. April 4, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Pitt Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures, www.italianfilmfests.org/pittsburgh.html

The Best Offer (La Migliore Offerta), film screening, famed antiques auctioneer who leads a solitary life is appointed to oversee the sale of a beautiful heiress’s art collection and is soon engulfed by a passion that rocks his bland existence, 7 p.m. April 5, Carnegie Museum of Art Theatre, Pitt Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures, www.italianfilmfests.org/pittsburgh.html 

PhD Dissertation Defenses

Zhen Yue, School of Information Sciences Program of Library and Information Sciences, “Investigating Search Processes in Collaborative Exploratory Web Search,” 10 a.m. April 1, 828 Information Sciences Building.

Yue Li, Dietrich School’s Department of Economics, “Evaluating Public Policy Using Life-Cycle Models,” 11 a.m. April 2, 4900 Posvar Hall. 

Danushka Seneviratne, School of Medicine’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, “HGF Gene Mutation in Human Colorectal Cancer: Causes and Consequences,” 10 a.m. April 3, 1103 Scaife Hall.

Megan Jodene Olson Hunt, Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, “A Permutation-Based Correction Method for Pearson’s Chi-Square Test on Data with an Imputed Complex Outcome/A Modified EM Algorithm for Contingency Table Analysis with Missing Data,” 10 a.m. April 3, 109 Parran Hall.

Matthew Knachel, Dietrich School Department of Philosophy, “Lying, Misleading, and Language,” 10:30 a.m. April 3, G24 Benedum Hall.

Brian Shaev, Dietrich School’s Department of History, “Estrangement and Reconciliation: French Socialists, German Social Democrats, and the Origins of European Integration, 1948-1957,” 1 p.m. April 3, 3703 Posvar Hall. 

Karl Vanderwood, Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, “Translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program to the Community: Evaluation of Implementation Issues,” 1:30 p.m. April 3, A523 Crabtree Hall.

Ira Kukic, Dietrich School’s Department of Biological Sciences, “Unclogging the Zinc Sink: Examining the Role of Zinc Trafficking in Mucolipidosis Type IV and Lysosomes,” noon April 4, A219B Langley Hall.