A chance to relax over afternoon tea and listen to University of Rochester faculty and staff discuss subjects of deep personal interest begins Sunday, Oct. 26, with the first of five Tea Talks this fall and winter.

Sponsored by the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries, the programs will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 26, Nov. 23, Jan. 18, Feb. 8, and March 21 in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester's River Campus. The Sunday programs are free and open to the public.

Dr. Seymour I. Schwartz, Distinguished Alumni Professor of Surgery and an expert on American maps, will provide insight into the development--normal and abnormal--of his map collection in a talk titled "The Anatomy of Psychopathy." He is the author of The Mismapping of America (2003), The Mapping of America (2001), The French and Indian War 1754-1763: The Imperial Struggle for North America (1995), This Land is Your Land: The Geographic Evolution of the United States (2000), and editor of An Englishman's Journey Along Eastern Waterways (2000).

On Nov. 23, Edwin Kinnen, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, will show slides and offer details of a 2000 trip to Uzbekistan on the northern border of Afghanistan. He will weave history and his own observations about society, economy, and politics of the country.

The Jan. 18 conversation with tea will be set in Italy with Renato Perucchio, associate professor of mechanical engineering, talking and showing slides of engineering marvels in the Roman world. The structural forms developed by the Romans centuries ago were unparalleled until the introduction of steel and reinforced concrete. Last summer, Perucchio taught a course on Roman structures in Arezzo.

Christopher Hoolihan, head of the History of Medicine Library at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Edward G. Miner Library, will turn his attention to wine and its role in maintaining good health on Feb. 8. Hoolihan will share information about the history of physicians' attitudes about wine and the latest health findings.

For the March 21 program, Abram Loft, professor emeritus and former chair of the Eastman School of Music's string department, will give a personal account of a musician's life from his new book, How to Succeed in an Ensemble (2003). With an inside's view of life on the road and on the stage, Loft will tell entertaining stories from his years as a performer.

For more information about Tea Talks, contact Rush Rhees Library at (585) 275-4461.