Faculty and staff news
Paul Achter, assistant professor of rhetoric, published “Comedy in Unfunnny Times: News Parody and Carnival after 9/11” in Critical Studies in Media Communications. It appeared in the August issue.
Archana Bhatt, assistant professor of communication studies, has published “The Sita Syndrome: Examining the Com- municative Aspects of Domestic Violence from a South Asian Perspective” in The Journal of International Women’s Studies.
David Burhans, chaplain emeritus, received the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities Humanitarian Award at the organization’s 46th annual Richmond Chapter Humanitarian Awards dinner Oct 23. Recipients are chosen for a creative achievement or significant contribution toward the improvement of social welfare and justice and a demonstrated commitment to respect individuals of diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The center is a human relations organization that promotes inclusion and advances understanding through dialogue, experiential learning and education.
Robins School economics professor Dean Croushore has been named interim director of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s new Real-Time Data Research Center. The center facilitates collaborative research using the bank’s real-time data set and its surveys of forecasters. The Real-Time Data Research Center will be a source of knowledge and expertise about real-time macroeconomic data, surveys of macroeconomic forecasts and macroeconomic modeling.
The Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators has created an award for campus safety excellence in honor of UR Police Chief Robert C. Dillard.
The award honors Dillard’s long service to the association and his work to promote professionalism in campus safety throughout Virginia.
Dillard has been chief of Richmond’s campus police since 1970. Under his direction, the University police department earned accreditation from both the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, one of only a handful of Virginia campuses to hold either qualification. The commission subsequently honored the campus force as a flagship police department.
Joel B. Eisen, professor of law, will teach next spring at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing through the Fulbright Scholar Program. One of China’s most prestigious law schools, CUPL is an important center for exchange programs in law between China and the rest of the world, with ties to more than 70 universities from 20 countries and regions.
As a Fulbright lecturer, Eisen will teach Chinese students courses in energy and global warming law. As an example of international collaboration, Eisen will join other Fulbright professors based in China to write and edit a book on American law for Chinese law students and scholars.
E. Bruce Heilman, chancellor, has been re-appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to serve his fourth four-year term, continuing until November 2012, on the Board of Visitors of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va. Heilman’s 16 years of service to MCU includes the position of chair of the board from 1995-99.
The National Science Foundation has awarded biologists April and Malcolm Hill a three-part, five-year $289,729 grant to lead collaborative research with colleagues at three other universities into evolutionary relationships among sponges found around the world.
“Assembling the Tree of Life: The Porifera Tree of Life Project” will provide summer support for the husband-wife team and several undergraduate student researchers each year, plus materials and supplies. The Hills also will host a conference and workshop at Richmond during the third year of the grant.
Kevin Kuswa, director of debate, and student Brianne Walsh, ’05, have published “Arguing War in an Era of Terrorism: ‘Democracy to Come’ and Critical Pedagogy” in Controversia. Along with Paul Achter, assistant professor of rhetoric, and student Liz Lauzon, ’09, he presented a competitively selected paper at the Rhetoric Society of America conference in Seattle. The paper was titled “The Slave, the Fetus, the Body: Articulating Biopower and the Pregnant Woman.”
Mary Lee Mifsud, associate professor of rhetoric, had her article, “Rhetoric as Gift/ Giving,” reprinted in Philosophy and Rhetoric in Dialogue: Redrawing their Intellectual Landscape, edited by Gerard Hauser.
Richard L. Morrill, chancellor, has been elected chair of the board of directors of The Teagle Foundation. With assets of $180 million, the New York-based foundation is dedicated to providing intellectual leadership and financial support to strengthen educational opportunity and undergraduate learning in the liberal arts and sciences.
Carol Parish, associate professor of chemistry, has been awarded a three-year, $267,000 National Science Foundation grant for her work on anti-cancer drugs. Parish’s project, funded through NSF’s Research at Undergraduate Institutions program, is titled “A Theoretical Investigation of Multireference Diradical Systems,” and will explore the electronic structure associated with anti-cancer enediyne warhead drugs.
Enediynes are a class of molecules referred to as prodrugs, which are activated only in the presence of a cancer cell and thus avoid the harmful side effects of many chemotherapeutic treatments.
The electronic nature of the drugs will be investigated using computational chemistry methods run on supercomputer clusters at the University. The grant will be used to support a post-baccalaureate fellowship, summer research fellowships for Richmond undergraduates, equipment, and travel for Parish and her students to attend scientific and collaborative meetings.
Jenny Pedraza, manager of communications for the CDC, has earned the APR (Accredited in Public Relations) designation. It is a mark of distinction for public relations professionals who demonstrate their commitment to the profession and to its ethical practice, and who are selected based on broad knowledge, strategic perspective and sound professional judgment.
N. Elizabeth Schlatter, deputy director and curator of exhibitions, University Museums, wrote the essay for the book Carl Chiarenza: Pictures Come from Pictures, Selected Photographs 1955-2007, published by David R. Godine Publishers. The book is a companion to the exhibition “Peace Warriors and Solitudes: Recent Photographs by Carl Chiarenza,” which was on view at the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature from July 15 to Oct. 5, before traveling nationally.
Leslie Stevenson, director of the Career Development Center, was selected to participate in the Fulbright Scholar Program—German International Education Administrators Program. The 2008 Seminar (Oct. 25-Nov. 8) was organized by the German Fulbright Commission to introduce administrators in higher education to German society, culture and education. The program features presentations and discussions with German university administrators, government officials and representatives from international exchange organizations. Participants started in Berlin and are visiting other German cities.
Thad Williamson, assistant professor of leadership studies, participated on a panel discussion about Style Weekly’s annual power list. He also wrote an opinion piece that said some people on the list, on some levels, are actually powerless, if power is defined as the capacity to achieve worthwhile goals via cooperation with others.