Caveman: CAS professor David Culver pursues evolution, conservation in the dark below

North American model parliament coming to AU

Center for Asian Studies celebrates 100th forum

2006 Abensohn Lecture also honors Wachtel, Schwartz

Kogod investment club pays real-world dividends

Exhibit highlights role of AU’s artists in mid-twentieth century D.C.

Neighborhood families flock to children’s programs at Katzen

Photo courtesy of Katherine Stahl Merit Awards staffer introduces Peace Corps chief RELATED LINK > School of International Service Office of Merit Awards staff assistant and SIS graduate student Anne Hamilton recently helped launch the Brookings Institution’s national campaign to double the number of U.S. volunteers abroad by 2010. During the institution’s International Volunteer Day event, Hamilton introduced Ronald Tschetter, seated to her right, director of the U.S. Peace Corps, and shared some of her experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. “It was an honor to introduce the head of an organization that provided a life-changing experience for me,” said Hamilton. Before joining AU last summer, Hamilton helped organic farmers in Thailand establish a facility where they could share information and house important records. As the chair of the Peace Corps’ Gender and Development Global Initiative Group, she also organized the first USAID-sponsored conference for Peace Corps Thailand. “I wanted to do grass-roots diplomacy for the U.S.,” she said on her motivation for volunteering overseas. Under the guidance of Robert Pastor, vice president of international affairs, AU formed a “campus engagement” group this fall to help more students do the same. The group, which includes representatives from other U.S. universities, has begun discussing the role AU and other schools can play in the Brookings Institution’s “Building Bridges through International Service” campaign. —MG

Media Productions/Exhibitions
Larry Engel, SOC: a filmmaker for the documentary short film Manhattanville: A Neighborhood Under Siege that premiered at Our Children’s Foundation, New York City, November.

Honors/Awards/Appointments
Helen Langa, art history, CAS: received an award for excellence in scholarly research and publication for her book Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York (2004) from the Southeastern College Art Conference, October.

Lectures/Presentations
Fanta Aw, director, ISSS; Angela Dadak, literature, CAS; and Michael Roehm, ISSS: “Cross-Campus Collaboration for International Students,” NAFSA Region VIII Conference, Washington, D.C., November.

Richard Benedetto, SOC: lectured on the midterm elections, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, October.

Ethan Burger, TraCCC and SIS: panelist on the topic of the consequences of the U.S. nonrecognition of the results of the 1996 Belarusian presidential election, meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, November.

Lori Cardosa, ISSS; Christy Nichols, ISSS; Kristina Thompson, ISSS: “Making Ripples Beyond the Iceberg: Engaging Students in the Culture of Your School, Community, and Beyond,” NAFSA Region VIII Conference, Washington, D.C., November.

Todd Eisenstadt, SPA: “Indians By Choice: Ethnic Versus Class-Corporatist Identities in Southern Mexico,” Latin American Studies Association 2006 meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March.

Robert Marshak, SPA:  seminar, “Understanding the Hidden Dimensions of Organizational Behavior,” Benedictine University, Illinois, September.

Julie Mertus, SIS: “Civil Society Under Assault in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, October.

Matthew Nisbet, SOC: “Engaging New Audiences in Media Coverage of Global Warming,” Annual Meetings of the National Association of Science Writers, Baltimore, Md., October.

David Rosenbloom, SPA: “Major Current Issues of Accountability in American Public Life,” Law and Parliament Conference, sponsored by the Offices of the Law Clerks and Parliamentary Counsels of the Senate and House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada and the Canadian Bar Association, Ottawa, November.

Brian Yates, psychology, CAS: “Doing and Using Cost-effectiveness and Cost-benefit Analysis,” Intensive Workshop Number Six, 19th Annual Research Conference, “A System of Care for Children’s Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base,” Tampa, February 2006.

Papers Presented
Susan Shepler, SIS: “Continuity and Change in Intergenerational Relations and Conflict in Sierra Leone, from the Pre-colonial Era to the Present,” at the conference “The Powerful Presence of the Past: Historical Dimensions of Integration and Conflict in the Upper Guinea Coast,” sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, October.

John White, professor emeritus, physics (CAP), CAS: “Multiple Critical Points for Square-wells with Repulsive Shoulders: Renormalization Calculations Compared with Simulations,” 16th Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, Boulder, Colo., August.

Published Works
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, SIS: “We Make Friends with Our Enemies,” Yale Israel Journal, Special Issue on Israel Palestine Elections, 2006.

H. Kent Baker, Kogod: coauthored “Are Retail S&P Index Funds a Financial Commodity? Insights for Investors,” Financial Services Review, 15 (2), 2006.

Abdul Karim Bangura, SIS and the Center for Global Peace: “Differing Standards of Education and Their Impact on International Exchanges: A Comparison of the United States and South Africa,” Resources in Higher Education, Eric, Ed490342, 2006.

Tim Bergin, CSIS, CAS: “The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976–1985,” “The Proliferation and Consolidation of Word Processing Software: 1985–1995,” and “Word Processing Timeline,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol 28, no 4, October-December 2006.

William DeLone, Kogod; Alberto Espinosa, Kogod; and Gwanhoo Lee, Kogod: “Ambidextrous Coping Strategies in Globally Distributed Software Development Projects,” in Communications of the ACM.

Media
Jane Hall, SOC: was interviewed on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, regarding Katie Couric’s shift to news anchor, April.

David Sadker, SETH, CAS: was interviewed concerning his opposition to the administration’s new regulations permitting single sex schools and warned of the danger of increased sexism and gender stereotypes resulting from weakening Title IX, Wall Street Journal, October.

Jeffrey Schaler, SPA: was interviewed for CBS’s 48 Hours Mystery show entitled “Scientology: A Question of Faith?” October.

Shalini Venturelli, SIS: participated in the State Department’s International Web Chat “Internet Social Networks,” July.

Emilio Viano, SPA: interviewed on CNN, NBC, and Voice of America TV on the possible fallout of allegations against Rep. Foley; on CNN on the approval of funds to construct a wall on the Mexican border; on NBC, Radio Mitre and Radio Sur (Argentina), radio Union of Venezuela and radio Global (Miami-Venezuela), and AOL Radio on the North Korean testing of atomic weapons; on Radio Universidad Nacional de Colombia on the midterm elections, October.