Students who shopped "History 10b: Western Societies, Politics, and Cultures: From 1650 to the Present" may have expected something like what the course book promised:

"Second half of a survey of European history from the first cities and empires to modern times. Also treats some major aspects of the history of the Americas insofar as they from part of overarching Western developments. Topics treated, comparatively, include monarchs and estates in the era of estate formations; the Enlightenment and age of revolutions; liberalism and nation building; imperialism and the world wars; cultural and social change; individualism, gender, and race."

Instead, Goelet Professor of French History Patrice L. Higonnet '58 lectured on gender roles and sexuality and showed explicit slides of historical drawings of genitalia in class.

"It wasn't what I expected at all," said Polly C. Langendorf '97.

Higonnet said he wants to move away from traditional methods of teaching history.

"I meant for the lecture to be surprising," Higgonet said. "My idea was not to shock, my ideas was to make people understand that their lives, and historical lives, are constantly being reinterpreted.

Peres Speaks About Peace Process, Security

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke to a crowd about 1,000 at Alumni Hall on Thursday.

Peres, who answered questions instead of delivering a prepared speech, mixed one-liners with serious answers about the possibilities for a Palestinian state.

Throughout, Peres emphasized that his priorities were peace and security. He also said Palestinians should not be dominated by Israel.

"The Jewish history is 4,000 years old," Peres said. "Never our history did we dominate another country."

"We prefer to be free from domination, both as dominating and dominated," he added. "We do not want to elect [the Palestinians'] leaders. We do not want to enforce our will upon them."

Provost Forms Panel On Tests With Humans

In the wake of news reports about Harvard involvement in experiments using radiation on human subjects, Provost Jerry R. Green this week named a panel of Harvard officials and experts to look into the testing done between the 1940s and the 1970s.

The panel will pay close attention to the work of late Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Clemens E. Bend, who conducted experiments with radiation on retarded children at the Fernald State School in Waltham, Mass.