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A Guide to Arts and Sciences' News, Events and People | September 2011 |
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Contents What Is Happiness? Rags to Riches A Fresh Perspective SMPA Fellows Offer Media/Political Expertise Endowed Scholarship Honors Professor Triple Helix Showcases Student Research Significance of New MLK Memorial Art History Announces New BA/MA Alumni Recognized for Achievement Become a Career Advisor New Books New Grants Publications Awards and Recognition
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What Is Happiness?
Webster's dictionary defines happiness as a "state of well-being and contentment." But what exactly is that state of well-being? Columbian College faculty members representing a cross section of disciplines were asked to define what happiness means to them. Click here, to read how they responded.
NEH Funds Rags to Riches Project 
The American dream is built on the idea that anyone can attain success no matter how humble his or her beginnings. Professor of History Tyler Anbinder is recruiting undergraduates to assist in a collaborative study of the rise of the American dream during the 19th century. Thanks to a $290,000, three-year grant from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), the project will follow the wealth accumulation of New York's Irish immigrants who opened savings accounts during the 1850s. The analysis-one of the first to study the American dream from the perspective of this particular group-will put Columbian College undergraduates on the frontlines of a unique research effort. Read more.Image: Handwritten bank ledger from the Emigrants Bank in the 1850s. Renowned Scholar of Judaic Studies Brings Fresh Perspective to New MA 
Columbian College is taking the study of Jewish expression to an exciting new level with the Master's Program in Jewish Cultural Arts, the first of its kind in the country. This month, we sat down with Jenna Weissman Joselit-the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and director of Columbian College's Judaic Studies Program-to learn more about the new MA and the motivation behind its creation.
Read more.Illustration: From Masa ha-dag, a Jewish children's book published in Berlin in 1924. The book is part of the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection housed in Gelman Library. SMPA Fellows Offer Media/Political Expertise Students in the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) will have behind-the-scenes insight into the run-up to next year's presidential election with the addition of former Senator Bob Bennett, former White House videographer Arun Chaudhary, and former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley as SMPA fellows for 2011-12. "For our future communicators to gain such high-level inside knowledge of political communication techniques is an extremely beneficial educational opportunity," said SMPA Director Frank Sesno. Read more. Endowed Scholarship Honors Beloved Chemistry Professor 
An endowed scholarship named in memory of the late David Glover White-a beloved professor and graduate student advisor in the Department of Chemistry from 1953 to 1994-has been established by the estate of his wife, Majorie W. White, who died in 2010. The bequest, which exceeds $725,000, will support graduate chemistry students in recognition of David White's dedication to his students. "Our department is quite honored by this gift in memory of our esteemed colleague," said Michael King, chair of the Department of Chemistry. "Given the care and diligence that he expended advising and administering to the needs of our graduate students, it is most appropriate that he be remembered with this legacy." Undergraduate Research Journal Showcases Scientific Analysis 
Last year, political science major Hamza Rahimi and his brother, biology major Faisal Rahimi, founded the GW chapter of The Triple Helix, an international organization that publishes print and online journals showcasing undergraduate analysis of scientific issues. In a recent interview for "Untrodden Ground," a GW research blog, Hamza discussed the chapter's successful first year and how others can get involved and contribute research articles for the chapter's e-journal. Read more.
Viewpoint: Professor Discusses Significance of New MLK Memorial 
Last month, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial opened on the National Mall nearly a half century after King gave his storied "I Have a Dream Speech" from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Adele Alexander, research professor of History, American Studies, and Africana Studies, was one of the 250,000 thousand who gathered on the Mall in 1963. "Not many people know the full title of that day's entirely peaceful event, "The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," said Alexander during a recent interview. "The fact that it also included jobs explains, in part, how Dr. King was much more than a leader of African Americans alone." Read more. Art History Announces New BA/MA A new Bachelor of Arts/Master of Arts in Art History will provide undergraduate art history majors an opportunity to receive an MA degree in an accelerated time frame. Students can apply during their junior year and, if accepted into the program, will be allowed to take three graduate level courses during their senior year that would count toward their MA degree. Interested students should contact Professor of Art History Bibiana Obler. For information about other combined degree programs within Columbian College, click here. Alumni Recognized for Outstanding Achievement 
The Alumni Achievement Award is the highest form of recognition given by the GW Alumni Association. Recipients are recognized for their lasting impact on society though outstanding professional, voluntary, or philanthropic accomplishments. Among the five recipients chosen this year from a field of more than 50 nominees, three received degrees from Columbian College. They are Leonard Wartofsky (left), BS '59, MS '61, MD '64, MPH '95, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Washington Hospital Center and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism; Mary Margaret Whipple (center), MA '69, Virginia state senator, 31st District; and Sherri Rose
(right), BS '05, NSF mathematical sciences postdoctoral research fellow and author of the statistical text Targeted Learning: Causal Inference for Observational and Experimental Data. Read more.
Become a Career Advisor 
Want to help the career needs of fellow Colonials throughout the world? Become a career advisor and join the more than 1,000 alumni advisors offering insight about their careers and professional experiences with GW students and alumni. The Career Advisor Network
is a university-only online network designed as a resource for anyone in the GW community seeking professional development and career advice. To join the network, registration in the alumni online community is required. Create Your Advisor Profile today! If you have any questions, please contact Michael Steelman at 202-994-3281 or steelman@gwu.edu.New Books Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs Catherine Allen authored Foxboy: Intimacy and Aesthetics in Andean Stories. Richard Longstreth, director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and professor of American studies, wrote Sustainability and History Preservation. New Grants Assistant Professor of Organizational Sciences Tara Behrend received a $2,802,666 grant from the National Science Foundation for her study "Multiple Instrumental Case Studies of Inclusive STEM-focused High Schools: Opportunity Structures for Preparation and Inspiration". Charlene Bickford, research scientist for the First Federal Congress Project, received a 2� year, $223,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce the final two volumes of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791. Christopher Cahill, professor of chemistry, Bill Briscoe, professor of physics, and Gerald Feldman, associate professor of physics, received $300,000 from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for their proposal "The Science of Nuclear Materials: Development of a Modular, Laboratory-based Curriculum to Explore the Properties of Nuclear Materials". Jody Ganiban, associate professor of clinical and developmental psychology, received a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for her study "Gene-Environment Interplay and Childhood Obesity: An Adoption Study". Felisa Gonzales, doctoral student in applied social psychology, received a two-year, $41,593 grant from the National Institutes of Health for her study "Adolescent Sexual Health Behavior: More Reactive or Reasoned?" The GW Institute for Nuclear Studies Data Analysis Center has been awarded a three-year renewal grant of $1.92 million from the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics to support its work in nucleon resonance phenomena. Professor of Chemistry Miller Houston received a $99,050 grant from the National Science Foundation for his study "EAGER: Raman Analysis of Thermophoretically Sampled Soot Particulate". Professor of Chemistry Stuart Licht's STEP Solar Thermal Electrochemical Production energetic molecules research received $156,000 in funding support from Siemens Corporate Research, a global leader in energy industry and infrastructure. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Carson Murray received a $745,944 grant from the National Institutes of Health for her study "How Maternal Stress Influences Offspring Health & Development in Wild Chimpanzees." Professor of Physics Mark Reeves received a $20,000 grant from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology for his research in "Magnetoelectronic Devices for High Performance Computing and Reconfigurable Logic". Sarah Shomstein, assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience, received a $243,342 grant from the National Institutes of Health for her study, "Cortical Responses, and Their Modification, with Limited Attentional Contribution". The Graduate Program in Historic Preservation has reached a five-year, $125,000 agreement with Goucher College and the National Center for Preservation Training and Technology, a division of the National Park Service, to create at the Institute for the Study of Preservation and Sustainability Policy. The Institute will develop an on-line database of refereed white and policy papers focused on historic preservation and sustainability. Selected papers will be posted on a web site to be hosted by the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. Publications Katharine Alexander, BA '05, published "Bullseye on the Nation's Back: Combating the Heightened Threat of Pedestrian Economic Criminals" in CommLaw Conspectus: Journal of Communications Law and Policy. Director of the Master of Public Administration Program Lori Brainard and doctoral candidate in public policy and public administration Teresa Derek-Mills authored "Electronic Commons, Community, Policing, and Communication" in Administrative Theory and Praxis. Bruce J. Dickson, professor of political science and international affairs, published "Updating the China Model" in the Autumn issue of the Washington Quarterly. Discovery News broadcast a story on the GW urban apiary, featuring Professor of Biology Hartmut Doebel and undergraduate biology student Heidi Wolff. Amanda Leonard, MA '11, authored the article "The Plight of �Big Black Dogs' in American Animal Shelters: Color-Based Canine Discrimination" in the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers. Shannon Powers, a graduate student in political science, published a review of Charles Kupchan's How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace in the most recent issue of Peace Review. Sophomore writing student Amelia Prior authored "Carbon Calculators: Do They Really Work" for the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media. Professor of Poetry Jane Shore, whose New and Selected Poems comes out next year, was featured in the current issue of Ploughshares magazine for her poem "Fortune Cookie". Charles Sullivan, a graduate student in political science, published "The Kremlin and Kabul: The 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in Retrospect" in the September issue of The Washington Review of Turkish & Eurasian Affairs. Awards and Recognition Donald B. Ardell, BA '63, received the 2011 Halbert L. Dunn Wellness Award at the 36th Annual National Wellness Conference. Eric Cline, chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, won the 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award for Best Popular Book on Archaeology from the Biblical Archaeology Review for his book Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Incoming freshman Raynell Cooper won the recent Teen Jeopardy Tournament, receiving $75,000 in prize money. Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs Daina Eglitis will be an International Scholar in the International Scholars Fellowship Program, part of the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute. Shapiro Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs Robert Entman was awarded the 2011 Doris Graber Book Award at the American Political Science Association convention for his book Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Dorothy Holmes, emeritus professor of psychology, was elected to the board of directors for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. Assistant Professor of Sociology Antwan Jones and Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology Steven Tuch have been named GW Institute of Public Policy Research Scholars for the 2011-12 academic year. Jones will be examining childhood residential stability and health; and Tuch will be studying racial and ethnic differences in residential preferences in 'post-racial' America. Tim Miller, BA '04, has been named National Press Secretary for presidential candidate Governor Jon Huntsman. Susan Sell, professor of political science and international affairs, named to the editorial board of the Review of International Political Economy.
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