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October
22, 2002 issue
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Photo by Jeff
Watts
Spiritual
engineer
It’s
the middle of the holiday season, and Vishnu Ramphal is a busy
man. He may be known around AU as an engineer with Physical Plant
Operations, but he’s also a pandit, a Hindu priest.
His last two weeks have been filled by ceremonies for Navaratri,
a nine-night festival to celebrate the triumph of good over evil
and the power of the goddess Durga. On Nov. 4, Ramphal will officiate
at Diwali, the festival of lights, with a public ceremony at Kay
Spiritual Life Center to welcome another manifestation of female
power: Laxmi, goddess of plenty.
In South Asia, the fall festival season is the high point of the
Hindu year, full of glitter and gifts, family feasts and sacred
ceremonies. In Washington, D.C., where pandits are scarce but
Hindus are present in the tens of thousands, that means a packed
calendar for Ramphal.
He found his calling the traditional way, by following his grandfather
on religious rounds in a plantation town in Guyana, where large
numbers of Indians worked in the sugarcane and paddy fields. Starting
at age five, “They’d get me in front, making offers
into the [sacred fire]. I think that’s where I received most
of my blessings, and my destiny started there,” he says.
Gurus from India would often stay with Ramphal’s family,
and he eagerly learned the teachings of the ancient religion,
which views God as a divine power with multiple manifestations.
But he also knew he needed a trade. Even in traditional societies,
most pandits aren’t employed full-time by temples. Hinduism
is a strongly home-based religion, and although worshipers visit
temples, ceremonies are held just as often in homes, with a priest
invited to officiate.
These days, when he isn’t conducting ceremonies—often
with the help of his son—Ramphal is volunteering his labor
at an old home that is being transformed into a temple. As for
his priestly services, he follows tradition, accepting in payment
whatever the worshiper is able to give, even if it’s little
more than gas money.
“I do it as sewa,” he says. “My service to God.”
—SA
Honors/Awards/Appointments
Esther Ngan-ling Chow, sociology, CAS: elected council
member-at-large of the American Sociological Association (ASA)
for three-year term; appointed to serve as liaision to the ASA
Committee on Awards; and will serve as a member of the Fund
for Advancement of the Discipline Advisory Panel supported by
the National Science Foundation.
Joseph Trotter Jr., Justice Programs Office, SPA, and
Caroline Cooper, Justice Programs Office, SPA: invited by the
government of Bermuda to attend the opening of the Bermuda Drug
Court, October.
Lectures/Presentations
Jennifer Jack and Helen Ives, American University
Library: “Using U.S. Libraries for Research,” International
Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) fellows from Eastern Europe,
Russia, Central Asia, and the Western New Independent States,
Washington, D.C., August.
Julie Mertus, SIS: “The Impact of 9/11 on Eastern
and Central Europe,” Annual Meeting of Fulbright Scholars
to Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, Washington, D.C.,
July.
Bernard Ross, SPA/WSWCP: taught a seminar for graduate
students and young professionals on “The American System
of Federalism,” Forum of Federations, Washington, D.C.,
August.
 David
Sadker, left, education, CAS: “Sex Bias in Schools,”
Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pa., July.
Brian Yates, psychology, CAS: “Translating Findings
from Research into Working Programme Models,” and “Integrating
Cost-effectiveness Analysis and Cost-benefit Analysis into Services
Research,” Second World Conference on the Promotion of
Mental Health and Prevention of Mental and Behavioural Disorders,
London, September.
Media
Robert Beisner, emeritus, history, CAS: quoted in the
Guardian Unlimited (UK) on the differences between how
the Bush I and Bush II administrations approached the Iraq question,
August.
Jack Child, language and foreign studies, CAS: appeared
on Conversemos, a Spanish-language Voice of America TV
program, to discuss civil-military relations in Latin America,
August.
Daniel Dreisbach, SPA: his book Thomas Jefferson and
the Wall of Separation Between Church and State was mentioned
and he was quoted in the article “Church, state ‘wall;’
not idea of Jefferson,” Washington Times, August.
Karen O’Connor, SPA, and director, Women and Politics
Institute: quoted in the Christian Science Monitor article
“Year of the Woman Governor?” and in the New York
Times article “A Nominee with Vigor Gives Michigan Democrats
Hope,” August.
Paul Rice, WCL: interviewed by the Associated Press regarding
judicial ethics and the tendency for judges to be lenient on
other judges during disciplinary hearings, August.
Ira Robbins, WCL: interviewed by the Washington Times
regarding a superceding indictment in the Zacarias Moussaoui
case; interviewed by Gannett News Service regarding Moussaoui’s
self-representation; interviewed by USA Today, AP, CBS
Radio, Gannett News Service, the Independent, WMAL News,
and NBC Nightly News regarding Moussaoui’s guilty
plea and the judge’s ruling to wait a week before accepting
the plea, July.
Jeffrey Schaler, SPA: was a guest on The Ricki Lake Show,
refuting shopping addiction, August.
Ed Smith, American studies, CAS: interviewed in a Washington
Post story about the Washington, D.C., monument honoring
black Civil War troops, August.
Robert Tobias, SPA: quoted in an article on management
policies by the Dallas Morning News, August.
Emilio Viano, SPA: quoted in an AP story about profiling
al Qaeda detainees, August.
Julie Weber, director, housing and dining: interviewed by NBC4
regarding college housing and the benefits of Park Bethesda,
August.
Published Works
Abdul Karim Bangura, SIS: Sojourner-Douglass College’s
Philosophy in Action: An African-centered Creed, Writers Club
Press.
Rick Rockwell, SOC: coauthored “Nicaragua 2001:
Media Struggles in Partisanship, Polarization and Politics,”
85th Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Miami, August.
James Thurber, SPA, and director, Center for Congressional
and Presidential Studies: coauthored Congress and the Internet,
Prentice-Hall, 2002.
Papers
Presented
Alina Israeli, language and foreign studies, CAS: “The
Expression of Temporal still in Russian,” joint FICLA and
SCLA “Cognitive Linguistics East of Eden” conference,
Turku, Finland, September.
 Dolores
Koenig, left, anthropology, CAS: “Economically
Sustainable and Environmentally Sound Development-induced Displacement
and Resettlement,” at the conference “Environment,
Resources, and Sustainability: Policy Issues for the Twenty-first
Century,” Athens, Ga., September.
Nanette Levinson, SIS: “Internet: E-merging Issues
and Institutional Change,” American Political Science Association
Annual Meeting, Boston, August.
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