UConn Advance - February 26, 2007

Alumnus to speak at law school about tax and debt

Noel Cunningham, ’74, faculty director of the Graduate Tax Program at the NYU School of Law, will explore the effect of borrowing on tax characteristics during a talk on March 7.

The lecture will take place at 6:30 p.m. in Room 215, Knight Hall at the UConn School of Law.

Cunningham, a professor of law, and his wife, Laura Cunningham of the Cardozo School of Law, are co-authors of The Story of Tufts: The ‘Logic’ of Taxing Non-Recourse Loan Transactions in Business Tax Stories (Steven A. Bank & Kirk J. Stark eds., Foundation 2005).

Cunningham’s scholarship has been focused in the areas of tax policy and the taxation of partnerships.

Much of his writing in tax policy has been with Deborah Schenk, also a professor at the NYU law school.

They have written on a variety of controversial topics, including imputed income, the concept of ownership in taxation, and the capital gains preference.

For the last several years, Cunningham’s other area of interest has been partnership taxation, an area that has the reputation of being one of the most demanding in tax law.

Because students find the study of partnership taxation difficult, both on a technical and conceptual level, Noel and Laura Cunningham have recently revised their book, The Logic of Subchapter K: A Conceptual Guide to the Taxation of Partnerships, an introduction to this area of law.

Cunningham has taught at the Harvard Law School, the Hasting College of Law, and the University of Virginia.

He served on the staff of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Legislative Counsel from 1980 to 1982.

Polish poet to read at UConn as Wallace Stevens guest

Adam Zagajewski will read as the 44th Annual Wallace Stevens Poetry Program guest. Zagajewski, an international figure in letters, will read at 8 p.m. on March 13 at Konover Auditorium, and at noon on March 14 at the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School, 85 Woodland Street, Hartford.

Both readings are free and open to the public.

Award-winning student poets from UConn and Hartford area high schools will open the events with readings from their work.

Zagajewski is one of Poland’s best known poets and an internationally recognized literary master.

His poetry collections in English include Without End; Mysticism for Beginners; Canvas; and Tremor.

He is author of a memoir, Another Beauty, as well as three prose collections: In Defense of Ardor; Solitude and Solidarity; and Two Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination.

His writings have been translated into many languages.

His honors include a fellowship from the Berliner Kunstlerprogramm and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the Prix de la Liberté.

Booklist praises Zagajewski’s writing, observing that the author “considers fascism’s impact on literature, rails against ‘small poetry,’ and defends humor as an essential poetic element.”

Edward Hirsch remarks that “[Zagajewski’s poems] transport us into a realm that is majestic, boundless, and unknown.”

The Wallace Stevens Poetry Program is sponsored by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., to honor the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Wallace Stevens, who was a vice president of the company from 1934 to 1955.

The program, now in its 44th year. has hosted leading figures in contemporary poetry, including Marianne Moore, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Adrienne Rich.

The events are sponsored by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., The Hartford Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens, and the UConn English Department. For more information, visit www.longriver.uconn.edu.

Coming to Campus

- February 26, 2007

Alumnus to speak at law school about tax and debt

Polish poet to read at UConn as Wallace Stevens guest