A Guide to Arts and Sciences' News, Events and People

November 2010

Kudos
History Professor Edward Berkowitz wrote Mass Appeal, a history of movies, television, and radio from the 1920s through the 1970s.

Chinese Professor Jonathan Chaves delivered the annual Mildred Schnitzer Lecture in Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon.

"Enumerations in Computable Structure Theory," co-written by Mathematics Professor Valentina Harizanov, was listed in the Annals of Pure and Applied Logic top 10 cited articles published in the last five years.

Chemistry alumnae are leading the way at the American Chemical Society (ACS). Nancy B. Jackson, BS '79, will be the next ACS president, joining fellow alumna Madeleine Jacobs, BS '68, the ACS executive director and CEO.

Political science graduate student Michelle Jurkovich received a State Department and Institute of International Education grant to participate in the 2010 Young Leaders Dialogue Conference in Prague. 

Biology Professor David Morris received a grant from the DC government for his work on bacterial contaminates in DC waterways.

Handbook of Practical Program Evaluations, co-edited by Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration Kathryn Newcomer, was recently published.

Political Science Professor Bernard Reichand and graduate student Shannon Powers published the chapter "The United States and Israel" in The Contemporary Middle East.

Alumnus Glauco R. Souza, PhD '94, founded Nano3D Biosciences, Inc. Carly Filgueira, BS '03, is the senior research scientist at the company.

PhD candidate in Molecular Medicine in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences Jessica Van Schaick won the Verne Chapmas Young Scientist Award and the NIH-sponsored Fellows Award for Research Excellence for her work in epigenetics.

Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s, co-edited by Assistant Professor of Museum Studies Laura Burd Schiavo, was published.

Kathy Ann Wittes, BA '94, played a potential love interest to John C. Reilly in Cyrus starring Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill.

College Launches Arts and Sciences Magazine
Hitting mailboxes this week is a new print magazine from Columbian College, GW Arts & Sciences. Offering a sampling of the broad array of scholarship and teaching in the College, it delivers compelling stories about faculty and student research, alumni accomplishments, and philanthropic impact.

Enjoy reading our inaugural issue, which is also available online. We welcome your feedback at ccasnews@gwu.edu.


Science and Engineering Complex to Break Ground in 2011
A long-planned hub of learning and discovery cleared its final hurdle to construction with overwhelming approval last month by the GW Board of Trustees. The new Science and Engineering Complex will house Columbian College's biological sciences, physics, chemistry, and hominid paleobiology programs, as well as departments from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and researchers from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

"The complex will have a transformational effect on Columbian College and the entire University," said the College's Associate Dean of Special Projects and Professor of Biology Randall Packer. "This investment in new classrooms, lab space, and equipment will enable our programs in the natural sciences to continue to develop and grow, and it will help fulfill GW's goal of becoming a preeminent urban research university."  Read more.


52 Books in 52 Weeks!
Columbian College faculty are at the forefront of scholarship. This year, 52 new books spanning the breadth and depth of the arts and sciences were written and published by Columbian College faculty; and 28 faculty members received external fellowships and scholarships, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and five Fulbright Scholarships. In addition, 68 faculty members received new externally funded research grants from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Archives, the Ford and Carnegie foundations, and the American Cancer Society. 

"Research is a key component of our scholarly mission," said Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt in recognizing the research achievements. "I celebrate what our faculty members have accomplished and congratulate each of them on their endeavors!" Read more.


Who is Chair Weiss?
Chair of the Department of Philosophy Gail Weiss has her hands full. The mother of five is working on two book projects, co-editing a special issue of the philosophy journal Hypatia, teaching, meeting with department faculty, and keeping pace with administrative duties. This month, we caught up with the self-proclaimed "multi-tasker" and learned about the relevance of philosophy to our everyday lives and careers.  Read more.


New Partnership Established with Phillips Collection
The arts at Columbian College will be significantly enriched through a new partnership established between the Phillips Collection and GW. The collaboration will generate art history courses, artist visits, post-doctoral fellowships, and fine arts and art history internship programs at the Phillips Center for the Study of Modern Art and the Phillips Curatorial Department. In addition, GW is co-sponsoring the Phillips Collection's Conversations with Artists series, which kicked off October 20.

"It's a level of collaboration that will add a whole new dimension of scholarship to our liberal arts programs, further enriching the learning environment of our students," said Columbian College Dean Peg Barratt. Read more.


Planet Forward Comes to TV
Planet Forward, a multimedia project based at the School of Media and Public Affairs, has teamed up with PBS' "Nightly Business Report" to produce a series of monthly video productions focusing on innovations that can help tackle energy and climate challenges. The series, which premiered on October 21 with a test drive of the Nissan Leaf electric car, will air on NBR and feature ideas submitted to Planet Forward's collaborative, public affairs website, PlanetForward.org. As a "virtual public square," Planet Forward invites website visitors and students at GW as well as other partner universities to share their solutions for global energy and climate challenges. Read more.


Shaking Up Shakespeare
Last month, the Department of Theatre and Dance turned William Shakespeare's The Tempest on its head. This classic tale of love and revenge depicts the story of how the magician Prospero and his daughter Miranda scheme to punish Antonio, Prospero's brother who usurped his position as duke of Milan. But in GW's reimagined production, Prospero became Prospera, played by senior theatre major Lorna Mulvaney. Read more.


12 Departments and Programs Gain New Leadership
Twelve of Columbian College's departments and programs had a change in leadership this year: New chairs were named to the departments of American Studies, Anthropology, Fine Arts and Art History, Music, Organizational Sciences and Communication, Philosophy, and Physics; programs with new directors are Africana Studies, Film Studies, Judaic Studies, and the University Writing Program and University Writing Center. Chairs and directors usually serve three-year terms. Read more.


Alumnus Elected Mayor of D.C.
Columbian College alumnus Vincent Gray, BS '64, will be the District of Columbia's next mayor. Gray studied psychology while at GW and was the first black member of a university fraternity.  In 2009, he was awarded GW's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. Read more.


$50K for the Next Great Idea
Do you have the next great idea? The Office of Entrepreneurship, with sponsorship from Columbian College, School of Business, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and School of Medicine and Health Sciences, is hosting the $50K GW Business Plan Competition. Open to students, faculty, and alumni from all GW schools, the competition is a series of team-building events and workshops on how to develop and write your business plan. Participants will compete for $50,000 in cash prizes.  The deadline for executive summary submissions is January 31, 2011.  The competition culminates in the 2-day Entrepreneurship Summit on April 14-15, 2011. Don't miss your chance to get your great idea off the ground. Read more.


NYC Mayor Bloomberg to Speak at GW Commencement
Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, will address the estimated 25,000 GW graduates during Commencement 2011 next spring on the National Mall. The mayor will also be awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service Degree in recognition of his philanthropy and record of achievement in the area of education. Read more.


Did You Know?
If you're taking a language on campus, the Language Center may be the best resource you didn't know you had. Located in Phillips Hall, Room 216, the Language Center is open Monday through Friday and provides an array of free, helpful services to students and faculty. Foreign language tutors are available daily for all languages taught at GW. The Language Exchange database offers students an opportunity to connect with others in the GW community for language practice and cultural discovery. And, the Language Center Resource Lab is equipped with computers so that students can work on assignments, use language-specific software, and work on media projects related to language courses. Read more.


College Blogs
Stay up on the latest and greatest from the Arts and Sciences!

Dean's Blog

Anthropology Department

Chinese Program

English Department

Geography Department

Japanese Program

Judaic Studies

Korean Program

Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Philosophy Department

School of Media and Public Affairs

Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Solar Institute

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Theatre and Dance Department

University Writing Program

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