The third of six Persian-language films being screened this term, “Gabbeh” is a romantic fantasy about an elderly couple who go to the river to wash their gabbeh, a traditional Persian rug with a colorful illustration of a young woman woven into it. Miraculously, the figure in the design springs to life, declares herself to be called Gabbeh, and proceeds to spin a story about her life, her family, and the man she loved but was forbidden to marry. Room 202, Center for Language Studies, 195 Angell Street.

The 21st century’s mounting environmental crises make it crucial to free environmental writing from the gaze of the “Lone Enraptured Male,” in Kathleen Jamie’s phrase. This panel of scholars and writers will consider the themes, topics and formal elements that environmental writers can bring to their storytelling, how to handle or tell stories that support political action, and how to link issues of justice and equality with the histories, presents and futures of our shared, changing environment.

With the growing threat of climate change and plastic waste pollution, new technologies are emerging to recycle discarded organic packaging and the CO2 from the air for novel applications in energy and sustainable materials. In this year’s Dana M. Dourdeville Lecture on Engineering in Service to Society, MacArthur Fellow Paul Dauenhauer will describe an approach to handling and storing carbon via closed-loop chemical processes that result in net-zero emissions to the atmosphere and the potential for complete recycling of plastics necessary for food, clothing and medical applications. Room 001, Salomon Center for Teaching, 75 Waterman Street.

The Program in Early Cultures will host an exploration of music, affect, emotion and religious encounter with Anna Song, a scholar at Linfield University. The event features audio clips from performances by In Mulieribus and the Pstaltikon ensemble.