01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Tocqueville's disappearance topic: Matthew Mancini, professor and chairman of the Department of American Studies at Saint Louis University, will discuss the "disappearance" of social and political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) during the 43rd annual history symposium at Rhode Island College on Thursday.

Mancini's lecture, "Too Good to Check: American Intellectuals and Tocqueville's 'Disappearance,' " will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.

The symposium will also include a discussion of "American Mythos and the Rhode Island Social Studies Classroom" from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the history lounge on the second floor of Gaige Hall.

Lecture kicks off URI series: John Todd, a research professor and distinguished lecturer at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Natural Resources, will speak at the University of Rhode Island Thursday, at 7 p.m., in Weaver Auditorium at the Coastal Institute on URI's Kingston campus.

The lecture, "Ecology and the Transformation of Society," is part of the spring Community Planning and Landscape Architecture Lecture Series. It is free and open to the public.

Todd, a pioneer in the field of ecological design and engineering, is the founder and president of Ocean Arks International, a nonprofit research and education organization, and the principal of John Todd Ecological Design Inc., a design and engineering consulting firm. Much of his work has been devoted to food production and wastewater processing.

For more information about the series, call the URI Department of Community Planning and Landscape Architecture at (401) 874-2983 or e-mail Prof. Will Green at wagre@uri.edu

Writing conference: Author, educator and essayist Susan Ohanian will be keynote speaker at the Rhode Island Writing Project's Annual Spring Conference on Saturday, April 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Rhode Island College Student Union Ballroom.

Ohanian has written more than 300 essays on education issues and is the author of 25 books, including Why Is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? and The Whole Word Catalogue: FUNdamental Activities for Building Vocabulary. Her Web site, which promotes resistance to high-stakes testing and the No Child Left Behind act, received the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language from the National Council of Teachers of English in 2003.

The conference will offer more than 20 workshops. It will also provide classroom strategies for teachers at all levels.

Advance registration is $50 for the general public, $40 for Writing Project fellows and $20 for student teachers. Registration on the day of the event is $60. Fees include breakfast, lunch, the keynote address and two workshop sessions. For more information, call the Writing Project office at (401) 456-8668, e-mail RIWP@ric.edu or visit www.ric.edu/riwp

Early childhood workshop: The Rhode Island chapter of the North American Reggio Alliance will offer a fundamental principles workshop on the innovative quality of early childhood education in Reggio Emilia, Italy, on Friday, April 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Paff Auditorium on the URI Feinstein campus, 80 Washington St., Providence.

The workshop will be limited to 60 participants. To register, call Rose Merenda at (401) 781-7065 or e-mail Rosemerenda@earthlink.net