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A Guide to Arts and Sciences' News, Events and People | January 2011 |
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Contents New Program for Iraqi Museum Professionals Dean Packer-An Advocate for the Sciences The Healing Power of Art Exhibit Design Graduate Certificate Launched A Complete Education Revealing a �More Complex' Neanderthal Parents Endow Student Aid Scholarship Alumni Meet $100,000 Donor Challenge Kudos
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Museum Studies, State Department Partner to Launch Iraqi Museum Residency Program
Iraqi museum professionals will gain behind-the-scenes access to some of America's top museums through a new summer residency program slated to begin June 2011. Columbian College's Museum Studies Program, in partnership with the State Department's International Relief and Development organization, has created the Iraqi Museum Residency program to help Iraq restore and rebuild its cultural heritage in the wake of the war. "Because of the war and its effects on the countryside, Iraqi museum professionals have been unable to get access to professional development or travel freely to museum conferences," said Kym Rice, director of GW's Museum Studies Program. "Many museums had to close due to looting and fighting and are only recently reopening. Ultimately, what we are providing through this residency program is a form of cultural diplomacy." Read more. Dean Packer-An Advocate for the Sciences 
Associate Dean for Special Projects and Professor of Biology Randall Packer has been with Columbian College since the early 1970s. During his tenure, faculty and student research in the sciences has blossomed but upgrades to lab and teaching space has been slow to follow. But, that's all changing with the development of the new science and engineering complex scheduled to break ground this year and open in 2015. Packer serves on the committee planning its design and development and is eagerly anticipating the facility's impact on learning and discovery... and on GW's place as a premier research institution. Read more.
The Healing Power of Art 
If you're on campus February 4th, you don't want to miss the South Africa Project, a performance by 12 young artists from the township of Winterveldt, South Africa, who portray their daily struggles through song, dance, theatre, and poetry. They are here thanks to the efforts of Theatre Professor Leslie Jacobson, her students, and the Bokamosa Youth Foundation. "In Winterveldt, South Africa, the people have a concept called umbuntu which loosely translates to �I cannot be fully myself unless I help you to become fully yourself,'" said Jacobson, who has traveled to the rural township every summer since 2003. "This performance transforms that healing notion into a powerful example of how people can move beyond poverty and despair and into a new and better future. We all can benefit from this awareness." Read more. New Exhibit Design Graduate Certificate Cuts Across Disciplines 
What do Columbian College's Museum Studies, Interior Design, and Theatre & Dance programs have in common? They are part of an exciting collaborative learning initiative to provide working professionals the tools needed to meet the increasing demand for top tier exhibits. From corporate and convention center spaces on showroom floors to sophisticated displays in museums and high-end department stores, the new Graduate Certificate in Exhibit Design is cutting across disciplines to teach traditional techniques using modern tools and digital technology. Read more.
A Complete Education: A Story of Love, Ambition, and Experience 
Want to fall in love? Build a resume? Come to GW. For alumni Jerry and Judy Nadler, there's no better place to learn . . . and find love . . . in any given field. Since graduating from Columbian College in 1974, the Nadlers have carved out successful careers, raised a family, and become active donors to and volunteers for their alma mater. Last month, the California residents returned to campus to revisit the site of their first date, have lunch with Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt, and talk about what makes them such strong advocates for the GW experience. Read more.
Revealing a �More Complex' Neanderthal 
It's a dentist's nightmare, but a lifetime of plaque build-up on the teeth of Neanderthals proved to be a goldmine for a team of researchers whose findings suggest a need to rethink one theory for how these ancient human cousins went extinct. A recent study by Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs Allison Brooks, doctoral candidate Amanda Henry, and the Smithsonian's Dr. Dolores Pipernom reveals that Neanderthals consumed a variety of plants, such as palm dates, grains and legumes-and even cooked some of them, demonstrating a previously unknown level of plant-food prep for their species. Read more.
Parents Endow Student Aid Scholarship 
Kalpesh and Shefali Patel became new members of the University community this fall when their son enrolled as a GW freshman. And it didn't take long for them to reach out to help support their new academic family through a $100,000 gift to endow The Shantilal P. Patel Scholarship to provide financial assistance to qualified Columbian College undergraduates. Wanting other students to have the same opportunities as their son, the Patels made the gift in support of the
GW Power & Promise Fund, a University-wide fundraising effort to boost financial aid. Read more.
Alumni Meet $100,000 Donor Challenge Thanks to gifts from 9,083 alumni (and counting!), GW surpassed its end-of-the-year alumni donor challenge and will receive a $100,000 gift from an anonymous alumnus to support the Power & Promise Fund. The successful challenge illustrates the collective power of alumni gifts in making a difference in the lives of GW students. Congratulations! Kudos Political Science Professor Sarah Binder provided comment for the Omaha World Herald article "Rep. Smith Lands on Key Committee" and the National Journal article "The Inch by Inch Congress", and was featured on NPR. Charlie Chan and the Mystery of Love, choreographed by Dana Tai Soon Burgess, MFA '94, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, was chosen as one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Dances of 2010. Professor of Mathematics Valerie Harizanov co-authored "Spectra of High-n and Nonlow-n Degrees," in the Journal of Logic and Computation, "Computability of Fraïssé Limits" in the Journal of Symbolic Logic, and "Sigma-0-1 and Pi-0-1 Equivalence Structures" in the Annals of Pure and Applied Logic. Graduate Program Director of Speech and Hearing Sciences Shelley Brundage was on the Diane Rehm Show discussing stuttering in conjunction with the release of the movie The King's Speech. Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute Eric Cline and alumnus Anthony Sutter, BS and BA '09, authored "Battlefield Archaeology at Armageddon Cartridge Cases and the 1948 Battle for Megiddo, Israel" in The Journal of Military History. Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students and Professor of Religion Paul Duff was quoted in the Baltimore Sun article "The Sky Isn't Falling, but the Animals Are". Dan Green, PhD candidate in political science, received a Soref Fellowship from the Washington Institute of Near East Policy for 2011. English Professor Gil Harris will be working with graduate student Matthew Rea, who received the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Fellowship to study Medieval/Early Modern English. Interior Design graduate student Jenilee Henninger is a national finalist/runner-up in the prestigious Brinkmann Scholarship Competition sponsored by Gensler. The American Association of Colleges and Universities selected Director of Writing in the Disciplines Derek Malone-France and Assistant Professors of Writing Carol Hayes and Steve Salchak to participate in a nation-wide, two-year, multi-institutional assessment study of learning transition points in students' careers as academic writers. Bonnie Morris, adjunct professor of women's studies, wrote the blog post, "Year in Review: A Time of Grief � And Grace" for The Washington Post's "All Opinions Are Local" blog. Professor of Mathematics Jozef Przytycki authored "From Goeritz Matrices to Quasi-alternating Links" in The Mathematics of Knots: Theory and Applications. Anthropology Department Chair Brian Richmond provided comment for the National Geographic News article, "New Type of Ancient Human Found-Descendants Live Today?" Rabbi James Rudin, BA '55, authored the book Christians & Jews, Faith to Faith: Tragic History, Promising Present, Fragile Future. Professors of Mathematics E. Arthur Robinson and Daniel Ullman co-authored the book A Mathematical Look at Politics. Associate Professor of English Evelyn Jaffe Schreibner authored Race, Trauma, and Home in the Novels of Toni Morrison. Alumna Irina Carlotto Sibler, BA '86, authored Everyday Revolutionaries: Gender, Violence, and Disillusionment in Postwar El Salvador. Associate Professor of History David Silverman authored the book Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America and co-edited Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development. Director of the Geological Sciences Program Richard Tollo co-edited and wrote a chapter in From Rodinia to Pangea: The Lithotectonic Record of the Appalachian. Assistant Research Professor of Physics Guanyu Wang authored "Singularity Analysis of the AKT Pathway Reveals Connections between Cancer and Metabolic Diseases," published in the December 2010 issue of Physical Biology. Professor of Dance Maida Withers' film Thresholds Crossed / Art Angar was selected for screening at the Istanbul Dance on Camera Festival.
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