Meeting 1147 Minutes

Minutes from the 1147th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Patrick Gorring called the 1147th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 in Haller Hall, 24 Oxford St. Approximately 22 members and guests were in attendance.

Old business: Monica Mowery was confirmed for membership.

Our speaker was Dr. Richard Pollack of the Harvard School of Public Health
His talk was entitled Other people’s bugs: The politics and perceptions of public health pests on global and personal scales

Diverse insects find people attractive – and cause other people to shun those endowed with genuine and presumed infestations. Fears of certain insects have long been used as excuses to repress the liberty and opportunities of others, or as political fodder to advance political agendas. Dr. Pollack highlighted several examples pertaining to lice, mosquitoes, bed bugs and flies, merely scratching the surface of this complex topic.

Representative specimens from the MCZ collection supplemented the talk.

Following dr. Pollack’s presentation, Dr. Maria Aliberti Lubertazzi shared work created by students in her insect morphology class at RISD. The works included graphic design, illustrations, and film.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,
Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary