The new Russian democracy, black holes and the Gulf War are topics of the spring 2004 University Lecture Series at California State University, Fresno.

The programs will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union, 2485 E. San Ramon.

Russian professor Ludmilla Selezneva will start the series on Jan. 27, speaking on “Russian Democracy at the beginning of the 21st Century.” She graduated with honors from Rostov State University in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 1978 where she received her graduate degree in 1979 and her first doctorate in history in 1982. She earned a second doctorate in 1996 from the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.

Since 2001, Selezneva has been a professor of history and politics at the University for the Humanitarian Education in Moscow. She has published more than 50 articles and authored or co-authored 10 books, the most recent of which are entitled “Dialogue, Compromise, Consensus (Russian-English),” “Western Democracy in the Eyes of Russian Liberals (Russian)” and “Letters from Ludmilla: Growing Up Russian (English).”

Selezneva has participated in more than 70 national and international conferences on politics, history and government.

Selezneva’s appearance for the lecture series and meetings with faculty and students in the Kremen School of Education at Fresno State were arranged by Bud and Jan Richter of Fresno.

On Feb. 3, Kip S. Thorne will speak on “Probing Black Holes and the Big Bang with Gravitational Waves.”

Thorne received his bachelor’s degree from Caltech in 1962 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1965. He returned to Caltech to teach in 1967. Thorne’s research has focused on Einstein’s general theory of relativity and on astrophysics, with emphasis on relativistic stars, black holes and especially gravitational waves. He was co-founder of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project and is a member of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) International Science Team.

Thorne was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972, the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and the Russian Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1999. His 1994 book for non-scientists, “Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy” was awarded the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award, the Phi Beta Kappa Science Writing Award and the (Russian) Priroda Readers’ Choice Award.

In 1973, Thorne co-authored the textbook “Gravitation,” from which most of the present generation of scientists have learned general relativity theory.

Gulf War veteran and author Anthony Swofford will speak on March 30.

Swofford served in the front line of the U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War.

After the war, he received his degree from the University of California, Davis, then completed graduate work at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he edited fiction at the Iowa Review and was awarded a Michener Copernicus Fellowship.

His short story “The Snipers” appeared in Men’s Journal and his essay “Fighting the First Gulf War” was published in The New York Times.

The University Lecture Series is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, the University Student Union, Associated Students, Inc., Coke and James Hallowell, KJWL, Borders and Piccadilly Inn Hotels.

Advance tickets are available at the University Student Union Information Desk and at

Borders. Tickets are $10 general admission; $6 Fresno State faculty, staff, Alumni Association members and seniors; $5 elementary and secondary students; and $2 Fresno State students. Prices on the day of the event increase by $2 for general admission, faculty, staff and Alumni Association members.

For further information contact the University Lecture Series office at 278-4680 or see www.csufresno.edu/universitylecture.

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