Presentations on the development of social reality and on the history of the Balkans will highlight UNLV's University Forum lecture series in September.

John Searle, a philosophy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will discus. "The Construction of Social Reality" in his lecture on Sept. 24.

Since the 1960s, Searle's work has been at the center of many debates regarding the nature of the mind and the nature of language. In his lecture, Searle will discuss the differences between things that are facts because people believe they are facts -- money and marriage, for instance -and facts that have nothing to do with people's knowledge.

On Sept. 30, Gary Bell, dean of the honors college at Texas Tech University, will present a slide-illustrated lecture on the "Crisis in the Balkans."

He will discuss how the 20th century opened with a Balkan crisis that eventually led to WWI, and how it is now closing with another crisis there that has led to military intervention. A European historian, Bell will provide an overview of the region that many Americans still know very little about. He will give a brief history of the area and then offer an analysis of contemporary developments there.

Both lectures begin at 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. For additional information on the series, call 895-3401.