In brief

Oxford Street benefit concert

Oxford Street Cooperative, the University’s affiliated day care, is sponsoring an afternoon concert for children and adults on May 17 at the House of Blues. Starting at 2 p.m., the show will feature the J.P. Tropicale band – a mix of salsa, bossa nova, and African jazz – and local singer-songwriter and children’s musician Vanessa Trien. The $10 price of admission (free for children) will benefit the cooperative. Call (617) 497-2229 to purchase tickets.

Good governance meeting at KSG

The role of good governance in economic growth and political stability will be the central subject of a two-day meeting to be held May 9-10 at the Kennedy School. Sponsored by the Belfer Center’s Program on Intrastate Conflict, the event will bring together approximately 30 key practitioners and scholars from the World Bank, USAID, the CIA, and several universities, among other organizations, to discuss how to improve and measure governance across the developing world.

For information about this invitation-only event, contact Debbie West, (617) 496-3100.

HUAM offers free guide to German Modern Art

The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) is offering educators a free, in-depth teaching guide to the history and culture of Weimar and Nazi Germany, featuring 20 original works of art from the Busch-Reisinger Museum – the only museum in the United States devoted to the art and design of German-speaking cultures. This past March, the New England Museum Association awarded the guide a special citation in the educational materials category.

The guide, which is targeted to educators in grades seven-12, was published in October 2002 and was created by Sarah M. Miller during her two-year term as the Werner and Maren Otto Curatorial Intern at the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

The museum holds thousands of works seized from German museums and defamed in a traveling exhibition titled “Degenerate Art,” as well as works created by persecuted and exiled artists in the 1930s, ’40s, and postwar period.

Conference to examine issues in global psychiatry

International experts in psychiatry and global mental health will gather today (May 8) and tomorrow (May 9) to discuss global psychiatric research, forensic psychiatry, and innovative services at a conference sponsored by the Medical School’s Department of Social Medicine. Paul Appelbaum, president of the American Psychiatric Association, will deliver the Roger Allan Moore Lecture and keynote address on “International Approaches to Involuntary Civil Commitment.”

Arthur Kleinman, Harvard professor of anthropology, medical anthropology, and psychiatry, and Gerald Keusch, director of the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, among others, will be featured speakers.

Open to the public, the conference will convene in the Benjamin Waterhouse Room of Gordon Hall today from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m., and tomorrow from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Robynn Maines at (617) 432-2558.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks