Letter from the Dean

Letter from the Dean March 2006

Dear Colleagues -

With the announcement of sweeping administrative restructuring by the Board of Trustees earlier this semester, the campus is getting back on track focusing on planning for the future. The transition team of David Zaret and Bob Becker is hard at work to ensure continuity across changes in the College administration. The dean search is underway, and I hope you will suggest names of potential candidates to the search committee. Next week’s spring break represents a welcome respite from all the hustle and bustle of the semester so far. Enjoy!

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS

Mark Estelle (Biology) has been selected to receive the 2006 Kumho Science International Award given by the Kumho Asiana Group/Kumho Cultural Foundation and the American Society of Plant Biologists which recognizes an outstanding scientist who has made notable contributions to the field of plant molecular biology and biotechnology. This is one of the most prestigious awards available in the field of plant biology.

Also, his lab’s work on auxin receptors was highlighted as part of runner-up #3 in the Science Breakthrough of the year issue of Science.

Herb Fertig (Physics) has been selected for the Lady Davis Fellowship which will take him to Israel in the next academic year. The Lady Davis Trust offers fellowships to research/study at the Hebrew University for up to one academic year.

Jeff Wasserstrom (History) published three short pieces: "City with a Film Past -- and Future" (Newsweek International, January 9 issue) which can be read at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10682399/site/newsweek/; "Asia's Textbook Case" (Foreign Policy, January-February issue); and "Expanding on the I-Word," an essay on interdisciplinarity (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 20 issue) which can be read in the Chronicle at: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i20/20b00501.htm

Barry Gealt (School of Fine Arts, Painting) has been nominated for membership to the National Academy of Design.

Tony Ardizzone (English) has been named a Chancellor’s professor. In addition, he has just edited a volume entitled The Habit of Art. The collection of stories, published by Indiana University Press, showcases the writing talents of 21 of the nation's most talented, prize-winning authors.

Tom Gieryn (Sociology) will spend spring break next week doing six public appearances at the University of Alberta as the Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, their equivalent of our Patten Lecture.

Quincy Stewart (Sociology) was awarded a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Post-doctoral Fellowship to spend two years at the University of Michigan.

Colin Johnson (Gender Studies) had a piece entitled “Rural Space: Queer America's Final Frontier” about the film Brokeback Mountain in the January 13th issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education which can be read at: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i19/19b01501.htm

Christiane Gruber (School of Fine Arts, Art History) has been selected to receive the Sevcenko Prize for best article in Islamic art for 2006 which will be published in "Muqarnas," Harvard University’s journal of Islamic art.

Jeff Veidlinger’s (History; Jewish Studies) was mentioned in the HNN report on the special session for Steven Spielberg at the American Historical Association, in which they say he gave a “riveting” presentation. The article may be found at: http://hnn.us/articles/20191.html

Ivan Kreilkamp (English), Sarah Knott (History), Jutta Schikore (History & Philosophy of Science), Phaedra Pezzullo (Communication & Culture), Mu-Hyun Baik (Chemistry, Informatics) were selected a recipients of the 2005-06 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

Zaineb Istrabadi (Near Eastern Languages & Cultures) received an outreach award from the students of the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Siobhan Carter (PhD candidate, History) was featured on the WFHB show “Bring It On” on Monday evening and again on Tuesday on the program “Firehouse Forum.” She talked about some of the contradictions and promise of being an African American doctoral student.

Nicholas Rowland (PhD candidate, Sociology) received a dissertation improvement grant from the National Science Foundation, Program on Science and Society.

Francisco Barbosa (PhD candidate, History) has accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of History at the University of Colorado-Boulder as an Assistant Professor of Modern Latin American History.

Jamie Mayer (PhD candidate, Speech and Hearing Sciences) has been awarded the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation's New Century Scholars Program Research Grant. This scholarship supports strong doctoral candidates who aspire to work in a US academic community in the field of communication sciences and disorders.

Matt Stanard (PhD candidate, History) has accepted an offer to be a tenure-track assistant professor position at Berry College in Georgia. There, he will be the fourth member of the History Department faculty, and he will be teaching World History I and II, 19th Century Europe, 20th Century Europe, modern African history, and a course on Imperialism, Colonialism, and Nationalism.

Dana Alina Weber (PhD candidate, Germanic Studies) has been awarded the following two awards in the area of folklore: the David Buchan Award for the Best Student Paper at the 2005 Conference of the International Society of Contemporary Legend Research; and the Richard Reuss award of the Folklore Historian (folklore journal).

Jeff Dixon (PhD candidate, Sociology) received the Candace Rogers Award of the Eastern Sociological Society for his paper, “A Clash of Civilizations? Examining Liberal-Democratic Values in Turkey and the European Union.” This award is given to the outstanding sociology paper written by a graduate student.

Kara Dixon Vuic (PhD candidate, History) has accepted a tenure-track assistant professorship in the Department of History and Political Science at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia. She has also published an article entitled "'Officer. Nurse. Woman.:' Army Nurse Corps Recruitment for the Vietnam War" in Nursing History Review 14 (2006).

Leslie Sharpe (School of Fine Arts, Digital Media) was awarded an SBC Fellows Award to develop teaching and learning technologies in the Implementing Innovation category, for her work on “Podcasting in Education.”

Jane Wickersham (PhD, Italian Renaissance History) has accepted a tenure-track job at the University of Oklahoma. Matthew Kubal's (BA candidate, Sociology) honors thesis won first prize in the Midwest Sociological Society’s Undergraduate Student Paper Competition. Elizabeth Armstrong and Donna Eder were his advisors on the thesis.

Thor Mednick (PhD candidate, School of Fine Arts, Art History) has been selected to win the Aurora Borealis Prize by the SASS, and will be honored at the upcoming SASS meeting in Oxford, Mississippi.

Robin Henry (PhD candidate, History) has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor in the history department at Wichita State University.

STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS

Cindy Moore (Psychological and Brain Sciences) is this year’s winner of the first Bloomington Advisors’ Council Terri Nation Outstanding Academic Advisor Award. The Bloomington Advisors’ Council established the Terri Nation Outstanding Academic Advisor Award in honor and in memory of Terri who was a long-time advisor in Department of Mathematics in the College and in the KSOB.

MaryLou Hosek (Sociology) was recognized at the Bloomington Advisors’ Council meeting for her good work.

Cheers,

Swamy

Kumble R. Subbaswamy, Dean
College of Arts & Sciences
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47401
(812) 855-2392