News Brief: March 25-29

International:

Christopher Nolan, and his wife and producer Emma Thomas, will receive a knighthood and damehood for their services to film. 

The honor comes after Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” took home seven Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards. One award was for best film and another was for best director. 

Nolan has previously been nominated for “Memento,” “Inception” and “Dunkirk.”

The timing of this announcement is unique, as most knighting ceremonies take place only twice a year in the United Kingdom: once on King Charles’ III birthday and again for the celebration of New Years. However, on occasion, the awards are given after significant sport or art achievements. 

Because the King is undergoing cancer treatments, the awards will not be given in person. 

Nolan attended University College London and met his wife there. The couple has “four children and run a production company, Syncopy, which has been behind many of their blockbusters,” ABC reported. 

Earlier this year, Noland received the British Film Institute Fellowship. When receiving the fellowship, he said he never felt alone while making the films because his wife shared his views on the importance of the medium. 

National:

Harvard University discovered one of its books, “Des Destinées de L’âme” in Houghton Library, was bound with human skin. Upon this discovery, the university sought to have the binding removed for ethical reasons.

“The volume’s first owner, French physician and bibliophile Dr. Ludovic Bouland (1839–1933), bound the book with skin he took without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked,” the Harvard Library wrote in a statement. 

A Q&A with Tom Hyry, a Harvard librarian, provided more information about how and why the book was bound. 

“A handwritten note by Bouland inserted into the volume states that ‘a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.’ Evidence indicates that Bouland bound the book with skin, taken from a woman, which he had acquired as a medical student,” Hyry said, “A memo accompanying the book written by John Stetson, which has since been lost, told us that Bouland took this skin from the body of an unknown deceased woman patient from a French psychiatric hospital.”  

The skin is now in secure storage at the library as they seek a “final respectful disposition” with the help of French authorities. 

Local:

Construction has begun for a new mental health facility on the Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City campus near Interstate 44 and West Reno Avenue. The hospital will replace the mental health facility that has served Oklahoma for a century. 

With a budget of $150 million, The Donahue Behavioral Health Hospital is set to have 330 beds and the facility can serve both adults and children. 

“This hospital is an investment, dedicated to the people of Oklahoma,” Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges said. “With the support from Gov. Kevin Stitt, the Oklahoma state Legislature and OSU, ODMHSAS will deliver quality, efficient and effective behavioral health treatment services. Our staff is dedicated to serving the people of Oklahoma for another 100 years.”

The central location will allow for easier access to care and the creation of new jobs along with opportunities for partnerships and supportive resources. The hospital will “include an Urgent Recovery Center (URC). URCs increase immediate accessibility to services for Oklahomans experiencing a mental health crisis.” 

Congresswoman Stephanie Bice attended the ceremony to celebrate the new hospital.

“Nearly half of all adults with mental health needs are living without any treatment, and the percentage of youth that have received treatment for major depression has remained at roughly 40% over the last six years,” Bice said.