As part of Carleton College’s innovative conference “Visual Learning: Transforming the Liberal Arts,” the public is invited to attend a performance of “Play in Progress: The Making of ‘Split Seconds,’” a commissioned play by Michael Elyanow. On Saturday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. in Carleton’s Weitz Center for Creativity Theater, join director Ruth Weiner, playwright Michael Elyanow, and members of the cast for a discussion of the play they are creating together this fall at Carleton, entitled “Split Seconds.” This event is free and open to the public.

American comics artist and theorist Scott McCloud will kick-off Carleton College’s innovative visuality conference, “Visual Learning: Transforming the Liberal Arts,” with a special keynote address on Friday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel.  McCloud is considered to be an “evangelist for comics as a valid literary form (more than pulp and kids’ stuff)” and his admiring fans include many of today’s superstar cartoonists. McCloud’s presentation, which is free and open to the public, is a must for anyone who reads, writes, teaches or draws comics.

Violinist and former Carleton College faculty member Brenda Brenner will return to campus Saturday, Sept. 29 for a special performance at 8 p.m. in the College’s Concert Hall. Joining Brenner will be Carleton pianist and long-time collaborator Ken Huber for a program of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Igor Stravinsky and César Franck. This event is free and open to the public.

Michael Duffy, a veteran journalist who is the executive editor and Washington bureau chief for TIME Magazine, will present Carleton College’s weekly convocation on Friday, Sept. 28 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Duffy  will speak about his decades of experience covering national politics and his current position overseeing TIME’s coverage of national affairs. Convocation is free and open to the public; the addresses are also streamed live online and available for on-demand viewing after the event.

Julie Neiworth, Carleton College professor of psychology and director of neuroscience, has been awarded an Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) grant of $344,204 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research “Revisiting Challenged Findings to Determine Social and Cognitive Abilities in Tamarins.” Neiworth will test tamarins, a new world monkey species, on several aspects of cognition contested in psychology due to the retraction or correction of work from former Harvard psychologist Marc Hauser. The topics include recognition of human speech, theory of mind, and social learning.

Shawn Otto, an acclaimed author, filmmaker and noted science advocate, whose book “Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America” (Rodale Books, 2011) is the winner of the 2012 Minnesota Book Award for general nonfiction, will appear at the Carleton College Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. The event is part of a state-wide tour featuring Minnesota Book Award winners and is co-sponsored by Carleton’s Gould Library, St. Olaf College’s Rolvaag Library, and the Northfield Public Library. Otto will presentation will discuss his award-winning book, which argues that American society is rejecting science at the very time we most need it. Copies of “Fool Me Twice” will be available for purchase at the event. Otto’s presentation is free and open to the public.

Over the course of two days at the end of September, Carleton College will host an innovative conference entitled “Visual Learning: Transforming the Liberal Arts.” The event brings together leaders from 42 esteemed institutions around the nation—academics representing a variety of disciplines, as well as graduate students, museum curators, photographers, photojournalists, graphic artists, film-makers, technologists, and musicians. What this diverse group of people has in common is the ever-growing realization of the significance of visual learning in the liberal arts.

Memorial Hall, one of two full-scale student residential facilities that opened at Carleton College in 2009, is being renamed Ardis and Robert James Hall in recognition of the financial commitment made to Carleton by the James family, including Board of Trustees member Cathy James Paglia ’74. The new name honors Cathy Paglia’s parents, Ardis and Robert James, who have a long history of generously supporting a number of nonprofits and educational institutions through their family foundation, the Robert and Ardis James Foundation.

Carleton College will present Patty Webster, a longtime volunteer in rural Peru and the founder and president of Amazon Promise, as its weekly convocation speaker on Friday, September 21. Webster, who has devoted her life to bringing medical aid and educational opportunities to the people of the Peruvian Amazon, wiil speak about her path into volunteer work and the benefits of a life of service, as well as her expertise in cultural preservation and charitable program development. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and is free and open to the public. Webster's presentation will also be streamed online and can be found at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/carletonadmin.portal#.

Carleton College’s Perlman Teaching Museum opens the 2012-13 academic year with an exhibit highlighting new works by six studio art faculty members. Ibid. (Referencing Carleton Collections) will be on display in the Braucher Gallery in the Weitz Center for Creativity from September 14 through November 14, 2012. Entry to the exhibit is free and open to the public.

Carleton College is very pleased to present Havana, Cuba’s acclaimed choral music ensemble El Coro Shalom on Thursday, Sept. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall. This not-to-be-missed performance is free and open to the public.

Carleton College is pleased to announce that Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton will be the featured speaker at its annual all-college assembly celebrating the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year. Opening Convocation will be held on Monday, September 10 at 3 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel; this event is free and open to the public. It will also be streamed online, viewable at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/carletonadmin.portal#.