"Germany's Place in the European Union" will be the topic of the University Forum lecture set for Nov. 20.

Wolfgang Rudolph, the consul general of Germany who is based in Los Angeles, will discuss the nation's emerging role in the European Council, the European Parliament, and the European Central Bank.

On Nov. 28, the University Forum lecture will feature a slide-illustrated talk titled "Lenin Loses His Head in a Strip Casino: Contextual Irony and Contemporary Las Vegas Culture."

The presentation by two UNLV professors, Tom Wright of the history department, and Dina Titus of the political science department, will explore how finding a statue of Lenin in a Las Vegas casino is, in itself, an unusual site. But when its head is removed because of political pressure, lost, and then rediscovered in a local thrift shop, the contextual irony of the situation is too much to ignore.

Both lectures are set for 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History. All University Forum lectures are free and open to the public.

The University Forum lecture series is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and is underwritten by the UNLV Foundation. The Rudolph lecture is co-sponsored by UNLV's office of international programs. For more information on the series, call 895-3401 or send an E-mail to: forum@nevada.edu.