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A Guide to Arts and Sciences' News, Events and People | June 2012 |
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Contents Celebration 2012 Dean Barratt to Return to Teaching Madeline Jacobs on Service, Philanthropy Washington Sex Scandals Students Collaborate with EPA Forensic DNA Pioneer to Chair Dept. Ancient Ballgame Reveals Cultural Clues GW Boasts 250,000 Living Alumni Ethics Study of Performance Enhancing Drug Use New Arabic Major/Minor New Books Awards and Recognition Selected Published Works
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Columbian College Celebration 2012
"Global challenges and opportunities lie ahead, and I charge each of you to think big, act boldly, change lives . . . make a difference."-Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt Exams are over, dissertations are complete, living spaces are dismantled-it's now time to celebrate! Family and friends joined students and faculty on May 19 for a special pre-Commencement event to celebrate and recognize achievement in the arts and sciences. Greeted by a din of cheers, graduates processed into the Charles E. Smith Center for an afternoon filled with wise words, warm handshakes, and well-wishes on future endeavors. Featured speakers included Dean Peg Barratt; Geography's David Rain, Art Therapy's Heidi Bardot, and addresses by distinguished undergraduate students Megan Buonaiuto and Heather Dingwall, and graduate students Maria Crossman and Sarah Stierch. Visit the Celebration website to reads the full speeches, view the videos, and visit the photo gallery. Dean Barratt to Return to Teaching in 2014 Last month, Peg Barratt announced her intention to step down as dean of the Columbian College on June 30, 2013, and assume a faculty position in the Department of Psychology. A nationwide search for her successor will begin in fall 2012. "It has been my great honor to serve as dean and to work with the outstanding students and faculty of the George Washington University. I look forward to working this next year to ensure an orderly transition as the needs for the next dean are identified and a national search process is launched." Read more. Chemistry Alumna and New GW Trustee Madeleine Jacobs on Service, Philanthropy, and Career 
Madeleine Jacobs, BS '68, HON '03, executive director and CEO of the American Chemical Society, was on campus recently as a member of Columbian College's National Council of Arts and Sciences and as a panelist in the Women in Philanthropy Forum. We caught up with her to learn about what drives her philanthropic work, why she's excited by her recent appointment to GW's Board of Trustees, and how her degree in chemistry launched her remarkable career-a career that includes positions with the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Smithsonian Institution, and as the first female editor-in-chief of the Chemical & Engineering News
magazine. (In photo, Jacobs standing with Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt, left.) Read more.
Washington Sex Scandals: Examining Culture, Controversy, and Citizenship 
From Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's alleged extramarital affairs to Congressman Anthony Weiner's suggestive tweets, sex scandals are a hot commodity in the 24/7 news cycle, often trumping weightier issues of national and international importance. How these lurid new items dominate the public conversation reveals a lot about the impact of mass media and the nation's collective attitude toward sex and sexuality. This spring, first-year students enrolled in Professor Chad Heap's
Dean's Seminar "Washington Sex Scandals" were immersed in their own heated debate on how sex scandals reflect and shape changing social, political, and cultural norms, and the way media coverage and agenda setting can control the level of story interest. Read more.
Students Collaborate with the EPA on Urban Sustainability Solutions 
As part of their capstone project, graduate students in Professor Henry Teng's Environmental Resource Policy Program took on a new role: consultants to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop strategies for addressing the health risks associated with contamination of the soil, water, and air in urban areas. Students analyzed and made recommendations on ways to identify, track, and treat potentially hazardous chemical substances and other pollutants that are the byproducts of the world's industrial facilities.
(In photo, ENRP student Rodrigue Kreilmann talks with Steve Devito, head of EPA's Toxics Release Inventory Program.) Read more.
Pioneer of DNA Testing to Chair Forensic Sciences 
Victor Weedn, who oversaw the development of the first portable DNA testing device, which became the basis for the U.S. Postal Service's anthrax detection equipment, will join Columbian College July 1 as the new chair of the Department of Forensic Sciences. An accomplished forensic pathologist, Weedn helped identify the remains of Czar Nicolas II and service members who died in the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII wars. In addition, as the founder and former chief of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, he helped break new ground with the use of laser-induced fluorescence and other cutting-edge forensic technologies.
Read more.
Research on Ancient Ballgame Reveals Clues to Mesoamerican Society 
Baseball may be America's pastime, but Associate Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey P. Blomster's latest research explored how an ancient version of the ballgame was of great importance to early Mesoamerican societies. While the early games used a hard rubber ball, the "costumes" or uniforms of the participants related to themes of life and death, mortals and underworld deities or symbolized the sun and the moon. In some instances, the ballcourt itself represented a portal to the underworld. "Because the ballgame is associated with the rise of complex societies, understanding its origins also illuminates the evolution of socio-politically complex societies," said Blomster. Read more.
Milestone Reached: GW Boasts 250,000 Living Alumni 
The graduation Class of 2012-consisting of 7,000+ students-brought the total number of living GW alumni to more than a quarter-of-a-million for the first time in the university's history. These alumni live in 150 countries and stay connected to GW via 20,000 GWAA Linked-In groups and an online community
of 38,000. And, their ties to the university stretch over multiple degrees and generations. For example, Columbian College graduates Glenn Geelhoed, MA '91, MPH '93, MA '95, MPhil '02, EdD'09 and George McCullars, MS '71, MPhil. '74, MD '75, PhD '76, are among a select group of approximately 100 alumni who have earned four or more degrees from the university. View the video and read more.
Dodge Studies Ethics behind Performance Drug Use 
To young college men, it's more unethical to use performance-enhancing drugs like steroids for athletic gain than to use a prescription drug like Adderall or Ritalin to boost academic achievement, according to research by Assistant Professor of Psychology Tonya Dodge and her colleagues. In an online questionnaire, a significant majority of the 1,200 male college freshmen who participated rated the steroid user as more of a cheater than the prescription drug user. "What is most interesting and curious to me is that using Adderall to succeed in school and using steroids to succeed in sports are really quite similar yet they are viewed differently," said Dodge. Read more.Due to Popular Demand, New Arabic Major, Minor Created 
Arabic has become the fourth most popular language offered at GW and, beginning this fall, students will have the opportunity to major or minor in the subject. Housed in Columbian College's Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages, registration in the language course has quadrupled since the creation of the Arabic Language, Literature and Culture Program in 2000, with more than 700 students enrolled last year. "Our students are extremely happy that GW has responded to their academic needs," said
Mohssen Esseesy, associate professor of Arabic and international affairs. "Arabic at GW is unique, as we offer multiple literacies in Arabic language and a variety of courses that meet the broad academic interests of our students." Read more.
New Books Husani Bastien, BA '96, MS '98, co-authored Yes We Can: Obama and Clinton Walk the Talk: How Communication and Performance Win Elections. Gelaye Debebe, assistant professor of organizational sciences, authored Navigating Power: Cross-cultural Competence in Navajoland. David DeGrazia, professor of philosophy, authored Creation Ethics: Reproduction, Genetics, and Quality of Life. Marc Lynch, professor of political science and international affairs, authored The Arab Uprising. Christina Shelton, BA '71, MA '72, authored Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason. Thad Ziolkowski, BA '83, wrote the novel Wichita. Awards and Recognition Dana Tai Soon Burgess, MFA '94, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, received a special commendation from DC Mayor Vincent Gray for his work with the city's Asian American community. Christine Coleman, BA '91, and Jeremy Gosbee, BA '98, both members of the Alumni Association's Board of Directors, recently received Outstanding Alumni Service Awards for their volunteer commitment to GW. Thomas Curtis, BA '81, MS '95, received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Financial Planning Association. Kavita Daiya, associate professor of English, has been named the Penn Humanities Mellon Regional Faculty Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania for the academic year 2012-2013. She also published "Visual Culture and Violence: Inventing Intimacy and Citizenship in Recent South Asian Cinema" in the journal South Asian History and Culture, and in the book South Asian Transnationalisms: Cultural Exchange in the Twentieth Century. David DeGrazia, professor of philosophy, presented "Ethical Considerations in Research Involving Children," to the Presidential Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues and served in a roundtable discussion with the commission. Stephanie Kingsbury, MFS '12, received this year's Lindsey Marie Ferris Crime Scene Investigation Prize from the Department of Forensic Sciences for outstanding academic achievement and exceptionally high-quality research. John Sides, associate professor of political science, was awarded a $76,160 grant by the National Science Foundation for his project "Group-Centrism in American Public Opinion." Ann E (Wesche) Stone, BA '74, has been named one of 21 leaders of the 21st Century for 2012 by Women's eNews. She is the founder and chair of Republicans for Choice and one of the three original incorporators of the National Women's History Museum. Kathryn Vesey, MPP '12 , received the 5th Annual American Association of Budget and Program Analysis award for graduate research for her paper on federal capital budgeting. Selected Published Works Jozef Przytycki, professor of mathematics, co-authored "Distributive Products and Their Homology in Communications in Algebra, and "Homology of Distributive Lattices" in the Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures. Gregory Squires, professor of sociology and of public policy and public administration, co-authored an op-ed "Outside Investors Fuel Black Foreclosures" in the Courier-Journal. Akos Vertes, professor of chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology, co-authored "Laser-Nanostructure Interactions for Ion Production," the cover article in the June 28 edition of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
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