Member
of Emory Psychiatry Department Killed in Car Crash in China
Xiaohong
Wang, MD, PhD, a promising researcher at the interface between
immunology and psychiatry with particular regard to anxiety, depression
and mood disorders in patients with cancer and other medical illnesses,
was killed Saturday, July 24, in a car accident along with his
sixth-grade son Jim while vacationing in Wuhan, China. He had
returned to China for the first time in a number of years to visit
his parents. Dr. Wang’s wife, Dr. Xiao Lan Ou, and their
older son, John, escaped injury in the accident.
Dr. Wang, 47, was an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences in the Emory University School of Medicine. He practiced
throughout the Emory system at Emory University Hospital, Emory
Crawford Long Hospital, Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital, and Grady
Memorial Hospital, where his main clinical responsibilities were
in the psychiatric emergency room.
“Xiaohong Wang was a model faculty member who was universally
liked and respected,” said psychiatry department chairman
Dr. Charles Nemeroff. “This is a tragedy and a shock whose
pain will be felt not only by his family but by all his friends
and colleagues here at Emory.”
Dr. Wang was a graduate of the Tongji Medical University in Wuhan,
China, who had served an internship at Wayne State University
in Detroit and a residency at the State University of New York
– Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. He had also pursued
his education at Texas A&M where he earned a PhD. A member
of the American Psychiatric Association, he had been recognized
with a Janssen Psychiatry Resident Award of Excellence, a Janssen
Faculty Career Development Award, a Young Investigator Award from
the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression,
a
psychiatric research fellowship sponsored by the APA and Wyeth-Ayerst,
and a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute
of Mental Health.
Dr. Wang was also an outstanding teacher, receiving the psychiatry
residents’ teaching award in 2003. He came to Emory in 2001
and his research program was regarded as extremely promising.
His studies provided novel insights into the role of inflammation
in the development of mood disorders as well as the regulation
of the neuroendocrine system. He had taken on three postdoctoral
research fellows just in the past several months.
“Xiaohong was a treasured friend, whom we will all miss
terribly,” said Dr. Andrew H. Miller, professor of psychiatry
and behavioral sciences and director of psychiatric oncology at
Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. “He was on a major
upswing in his career, and his premature death is all the more
tragic when considering his immense potential to make significant
contributions to the lives of so many.”
The funeral was held in China. The department plans to hold a
memorial service in Atlanta. Dr. Wang resided in Tucker.
Faculty
and racism
In
a recent essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education (“White
Professors Can Help Uproot Racism,” May 7, 2004, B16), Julie
W. de Sherbinin, associate professor of Russian at Colby College,
discusses her efforts to form a collective of mostly white faculty
members to become better allies to students of color on her campus.
Earlier in her career, de Sherbinin writes, she was primarily
concerned with tenure, but she became increasingly interested
over the last decade in race-related issues. She began attending
lectures, films, and forums on race; she read extensively about
white privilege; and she eventually became involved with the campus
chapter of the Society Organized Against Racism in New England
Higher Education (SOAR). Finally, after talking with many colleagues
who had served as mentors to students of color and hearing stories
of students’ encounters with racism on campus, she invited
faculty members to get together to discuss these issues, resulting
in the formation of a group called Faculty Allies. This group’s
goal, writes de Sherbinin, is “to contribute to the academic
and social success of students of color through informal faculty-student
interactions.” Faculty Allies has been involved with planning
faculty-student events; it provides faculty mentors for students
at the students’ request; and it recently sponsored the
publication of a poetry volume by African American and Latino
students. Although de Sherbinin recognizes that this group “does
not represent an unmitigated success story” and acknowledges
that “uprooting racism happens excrutiatingly slowly,”
she does assert that white faculty members can do their part by
working as academic mentors and through social interactions. To
read the full article, visit http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i35/35b01601.htm.
To
read the April/May Academic Exchange examination of race and the
faculty, visit http://www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/2004/aprmay/lead.html
Highlights
from “Coping with Copyright”
A panel discussion sponsored by the Manuscript Development
Program and the Academic Exchange on April 15, 2004
Topics included: basic definitions in copyright law; trends
toward broader copyright restrictions; the process, time, and
cost of securing permissions for scholarly books; and issues covered
by the TEACH (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization
Act). Below are highlights from the four speakers’ remarks.
Contact Amy Benson Brown at abrow01@emory.edu if you are interested
in obtaining a transcript.
“There is a broad march of expanding copyright to cover
anything that anyone considers creative and pretty soon we will
have nailed everything down, and we won’t be able to use
anything without a license. . . . We have a trend that’s
not favorable for academics."
—Sara Stadler Nelson, Assistant Professor in the School
of Law.
“What was particularly surprising was the amount of time
this process of securing permissions took—and how much it
cost, even after my negotiations. And it is possible to negotiate
with the publishers. As Routledge says in their packet: 'Don’t
be afraid to try to negotiate the fees or have them waived entirely.'
But simply collecting these permissions took me approximately
six months.”
—Kim Loudermilk, Director of Special Academic Projects in
Emory College
“My press said, 'We can’t go forward with your book
until you clear this permissions issue up.' I asked my editor,
'Will you consult your legal department?' The legal department
came back and said, 'You’ve got to clear this up.' I called
Emory University’s General Counsel Office, and the response
was that I needed to find a lawyer. What I was faced with was
educating myself on the state of the fair use laws in copyright
at my own expense, to try and figure this thing out.”
—Matthew Bernstein, Associate Professor in the Film
Studies Department
“We all need to do something about it because right now
the content provider industry has the ear of Congress, and they
have it very effectively. If we don’t stand up and let our
voices be heard, the long-term repercussions . . . [will] impact
creativity in this country. The way derivative works are being
interpreted today, they seem to cover any and all uses of the
original copyrighted work, and that’s a real problem. It’s
not only creativity at stake but also innovation, even technical
innovation in the long, run if we don’t address this.”
—Doris Kirby, Director of Policy and Compliance for
IT at Emory
April
15, 2004
More
on Scholarship in an Age of Terror
Emory Professor of Religion Paul Courtright was featured in a
Washington Post article about recent attacks on scholars
of Hinduism. The wave of attacks has been orchestrated by the
Hidutva movement, which claims, “scholars are imposing a
Eurocentric world view” on their culture, writes Post
reporter Shankar Vedantam in the April 10, 2004, issue. A brief
section of Courtight’s 1985 study of the Hindu god Ganesha
(published by Oxford UP) incensed some readers by offering a psychoanalytic
reading of one part of the mythology.
The article connects the email threats and online petition against
Courtright to recent attacks on other Hinduists. In November,
University of Chicago scholar Wendy Doniger was “egged"
in London but escaped injury. And in January a work by Macalester
College Professor James Laine on an ancient Hindu King sparked
an assault on one of his collaborators and on materials in an
institute housing rare manuscripts in India.
Registered users may view the Post
article by clicking
here.
Click
here to read Coutright's reflections on the charges against
his work, threats against his person, and the challenges that
this kind of attack poses for scholars, students, and scholarly
associations, in the April edition of the Academic Exchange.
February
3, 2004
Campus
visits for provost finalists scheduled
The remaining open forums for the Emory community to meet the
candidates for provost are as follows. All forums will be held
in the Harland Cinema, Dobbs University Center.
Thursday, February 5, 2004, 3:00 - 4:00
pm
Robert Thompson Jr., Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences,
Duke University
Tuesday, February 10, 2004, 10:45 – 11:45 am
Elizabeth Langland, Dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts,
and Cultural Studies, the University of California at Davis
Monday, February 16, 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Earl Lewis, Dean of the Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies,
the University of Michigan
All faculty members, students, and staff members are invited to
attend these forums and to send comments directly to President
Wagner by email at wagner@emory.edu.
January
22, 2004
Finalists
for provost named; campus visits to be scheduled
Deans at UC–Davis, Duke, and Johns Hopkins are among four
finalists recommended by the Provost Search Advisory Committee
to President Jim Wagner to become Emory’s next executive
vice president for academic affairs and provost. Three of the
four candidates are confirmed and will make two-day visits to
campus later this month and in February. Each of those two-day
visits will include meetings with faculty, administrators, students,
trustees, and staff, as well as an open community forum.
The fourth candidate is considering making a campus visit, according
to Kent Alexander, senior vice president and general counsel and
chair of the advisory committee, and will not be named if he/she
decides not to visit Emory.
It is expected that President Wagner will select a new provost
from among these finalists.
The three confirmed candidates are: Elizabeth Langland, PhD, dean
of the Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies at the
University of California at Davis; Robert J. Thompson Jr., PhD,
dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University;
and Daniel H. Weiss, PhD, the James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University.
“The Committee interviewed a very impressive group of candidates
and narrowed that group to four distinguished finalists,”
said Alexander. “Emory will be very well served by whomever
President Wagner ultimately selects.”
Langland, who has led the arts and sciences at UC–Davis since
1999, earned a bachelor’s degree in English (summa cum laude)
from Barnard College and master’s and doctoral degrees in
English literature from the University of Chicago. A wide-ranging
scholar, she has published eight books focused on the intersections
of gender, class, race, ethnicities, and nationalities in Victorian
literature. Before moving to Davis, she taught English literature
at Vanderbilt University, Converse College, and the University
of Florida, where she was associate dean for faculty affairs in
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Thompson holds joint appointments in the departments of psychology,
psychiatry, and pediatrics at Duke University, where he has been
dean of Trinity College since 1999. Author of more than a hundred
peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, he taught at Georgetown
University before going to Duke as associate professor in 1975.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from LaSalle College, he
earned master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology
from the University of North Dakota and completed an internship
in clinical psychology at Indiana University Medical Center.
Weiss joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins as an assistant professor
of art history in 1993, became dean of the faculty in 2001, and
dean of arts and sciences in 2002. After completing a bachelor’s
degree at George Washington University, he worked at the John
F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while completing a master’s
degree at Johns Hopkins. He then earned an MBA degree at Yale
before starting a fourteen-year career in strategic and organizational
consulting with Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He earned a doctoral
degree in art history at Johns Hopkins.
The times and places for the open forums for the candidates will
be announced soon, and President Wagner welcomes e-mail feedback
directly to his e-mail address from the community (wagner@emory.edu).
President Wagner extends his sincere thanks to the provost search
advisory committee for their first-rate work.
January
21, 2004
University endowments examined in NY Times
According to a recent article in the New York Times,
the latest annual survey of the National
Association of College and University Business Officers indicates
that university endowments rebounded in the 2003 fiscal year,
although not enough to make up for earlier losses. The average
endowment fell more than 5 percent from the 2002 fiscal year and
more than 23 percent since 2000.
Endowments increased at the wealthiest private institutions, however,
including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and at large public universities,
including the Universities of California and Virginia, while endowments
at Emory, M.I.T., and Dartmouth declined. Quoted in the article,
Emory president James W. Wagner stated,"When nearly 20 percent
of our revenue comes from endowment and trusts, it certainly makes
a difference and has a belt-tightening effect" The survey
reported that Emory's endowment shrank by more than $500 million,
or 11.7 percent, in a single year. An increase in income from
research grants, however, means that Wagner expects no layoffs,
salary freezes or large tuition increases. "It's affecting
us but not distracting us,"he stated.
The article is available online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/20/education/20ENDO.html
December
15, 2003
Kudos for Konner
Jonathan Rosen calls Unsettled, An Anthropology of the Jews
(Viking Compass, 2003) by Emory anthropology professor Mel Konner
“nothing less than inspiring” in the December 14, 2003,
New York Times Review of Books. In this 500-page work,
Konner traces the history of the Jewish people from the prebiblical
era to the modern day, and from Israel to Eastern Europe, America,
and Asia. Each of the eighteen chapters chronicles one epoch in
the development of Jewish life and culture in a certain region.
Rosen praises Konner’s “ability to accommodate ancient
memory and modern consciousness, religious identity and secular
peoplehood.” While the subject of this book departs from
Konner’s earlier work in biology and anthropology, Rosen
writes that Konner’s new work shares the same drive to integrate
diverse “bodies of information” and temper a thorough-going
skepticism with optimism.
The review is available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/books/review/14ROSENT.html
November
19, 2003
Feds urged to grow numbers of American students studying abroad
A panel convened by NAFSA: Association of International Educators
has urged the federal governmen to establish a fellowship program
that would triple the number of American students who study abroad.
The Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad supports a proposal
by co-chairman, former U.S. senator Paul Simon to establish a
"Lincoln Fellowship" program that would raise the number
of American college students studying abroad to 500,000. The program
would have an annual budget of $3.5-billion, and its fellowships
would provide stipends of up to $7,000 a year for students, giving
top priority to those visiting developing countries. This push
comes as a result of a report by the Institute of International
Education that showed a smaller increase than in previous years
in the number of students receiving credit for study abroad. NAFSA's
report, titled "Securing America's Future: Global Education
for a Global Age,"urges colleges to "remedy barriers
to study abroad," to make those programs more accessible
to nontraditional students, and to promote those programs to all
students (rather than to only those majoring in a language or
in foreign affairs).
To read NAFSA‚s report, visit:
http://www.nafsa.org/content/publicpolicy/stf/securingamericasfuture.htm
A Chronicle of Higher Education article
about the report is available at
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i13/13a03301.htm
To read the Academic Exchange report on
"The Trouble with Travel," go to http://www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/2003/octnov/lead.html
November
7, 2003
Whither international students?
The Institute of International Education released a study this
week showing that the growth rate of foreign students enrolled
in U.S. colleges in 2002-03 remained nearly stagnant. Along with
the less than 1 percent growth in the number of foreign students
studying in the U.S. is a dramatic decline in the number of students
from Muslim countries. The delcine is attributed to the special
registration procedures that male students from twenty-five countries
selected by the U.S. government for special scrutiny must go through
upon their arrival in the U.S. Further, an economic slump has
brought about increased tuitions, thereby preventing some students
from being able to afford to attend colleges in the United States.
According to survey, however, "nearly 60 percent of the respondents
blame the visa delays and the decline in enrollments on the post-September
11 changes in the visa-application process."
To access reports, graphs, and other information
on the results of the Institute of International Education's recent
study, visit
http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=36523.
To read the Chronicle of Higher Education's
coverage of the study, go to http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i11/11a00101.htm
To read the Chronicle's report on the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security's draft regulations that would
require international students to pay a one-time $100 fee to cover
the costs of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System,
go to
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i11/11a02801.htm
To read the Academic Exchange report on
"The Trouble with Travel," go to http://www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/2003/octnov/lead.html
October
30, 2003
Ethics and Genetics
A staff editorial in the October 27th issue of the Atlanta
Journal Constitution argues that cutting-edge research by
Emory medical researchers, Georgia Tech engineers, and University
of Georgia animal experts raises important ethical issues for
the public to consider. Gene injections to improve children's
physical abilities and new medications and procedures that can
delay the effects of aging are two potential innovations offered
as examples of "biological and technical developments that
reorder the human life cycle, forever changing relationships and
society."The AJC staff asks if such
innovations are what we really want and directs readers to the
Council on Bioethics report, available at http://bioethics.gov/,
which raises similar questions.
For the full editorial, visit
http://www.ajc.com/monday/content/epaper/editions/monday/opinion_f3c9aa6ee22261bc006f.html
October
27, 2003
A Sea Change for Academic Superstars?
In a New York Times op-ed piece," How Much for That
Professor" David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at the
University of California, Berkeley, discusses New York University's
attempt to turn its superstar professors into more active participants
in its academic community. In what Kirp calls a "sea change,"NYU
president John Sexton recently issued a report in which he calls
for research faculty to spend more time with students, colleagues,
and alumni, thereby shifting the faculty's focus away from "'me,
myself, and I' entrepreneurship to participation in a genuine
community of scholars." Kirp discusses the process by which
universities enhance their reputations through the luring away
of luminaries from other institutions. By promising more money
and other incentives, as well as lighter teaching responsibilities,
these universities bring in scholars whose "main loyalty,"
according to Kirp, "isn't to their students or to their institution."The
lightened teaching responsibilities, coupled with these scholars'"intellectual
insularity,"work to prevent these scholars from participating
as fully in the
scholarly community as President Sexton would hope.
For David L. Kirp's essay, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/opinion/27KIRP.html.
September
29, 2003
Great Expectations for the School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine and Physiology Samuel C. Dudley
Jr. adds his own welcome and advice for Emory's new president.
He addresses the medical school's relationship to Grady Hospital,
the dilemma of the clinician/scientist, Emory's building boom,
and the opportunity for stronger ties between Emory College and
the School of Medicine, among other issues: "Do we really
need to compete directly with private hospitals and doctors, or
can we have a unique market position that marries clinical skill
with academic achievement? . . . Do we need to be full service,
despite some programs never turning a profit?"
His essay is available on the web at
http://www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/2003/sept/dudley.html
September
24, 2003
New York Times interview with Sheldon Krimsky,
author of Science in the Public Interest
The September 23 edition of the New York Times includes
an interview with the Tufts University chemist who outlines in
his new book the growing relationships between commerce and academic
medicine. He argues that the trend renders universities "no
longer the independent, disinterested centers of learning that
the public has long depended on." He further suggests that
the ties between research and industry have brought "dangerous
drugs to the marketplace," and that biologists who involved
in both basic research and commercial enterprise have the most
prestige in their fields.
The entire interview is available on the
web at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/science/23CONV.html
September
5, 2003
Health Sciences Receives News of Federal Funding This Week
This week, Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center both received
a $1.9 million National Cancer Institute Planning Grant for the
Winship Cancer Center, and was named part of a six-university
consortium in the Southeast to develop a biodefense initiative
against infectious diseases and bioterrorist attacks. The Southeast
Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense
will be centered at Duke University and will receive more than
$45 million from the Department of Health and Human Services over
the next five years. Emory will receive approximately $12 million
of those funds.
Duke was one of seven universities nationwide
named to lead the regional centers. The awards, totaling $350
million, also will go to Harvard Medical School, the University
of Chicago, the University of Maryland at Baltimore, the University
of Texas Medical Branch, the University of Washington at Seattle,
and Washington University in St. Louis.
For further reading, visit
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/HSNEWS/releases/sep03/wci_grant.html
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/HSNEWS/releases/sep03/biodefense.html
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2003/09/2003090501n.htm
http://www.ajc.com/friday/content/epaper/editions/friday/metro_f3859270513cd01300eb.html
http://www.ajc.com/wednesday/content/epaper/editions/wednesday/news_f35538bab39f115b00b1.html
June
30, 2003
More on commerce and the culture of the academy
National Public Radio host Terry Gross interviews Derek Bok today
on Fresh Air. Bok, emeritus President of Harvard University,
spoke at Emory during the Sam Nunn forum on the Commercialization
of the Academy in 2002. His new book, just published by Princeton
University Press, is Universities in the Marketplace: the Commercialization
of Higher Education. For a transcript or audio archieve of
the broadcast, visit Fresh
Air's website. For more background on this subject, read
the Academic Exchange story Money
Changes Everything
(December 02/January 03).
May
20, 2003
Bobby Paul named Emory College dean
Emory has selected Robert A. Paul as dean of Emory College and
of the faculty of arts and sciences following a national search.
Paul has been serving as interim dean since fall of 2001. Prior
to that, he had been dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
since fall of 2000.
Paul is no stranger to Emory; he has been on the faculty since
1977, and serves on the faculty of four departments or institutes
at the university. Since 1986 he has been the Charles Howard Candler
Professor of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies. Paul
also is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Science and holds a joint faculty appointment in
anthropology and the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. He
is a past chairman of the latter two. He is an associate teaching
analyst at the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute, where
he also holds the position of training and supervising analyst.
Paul's professional interests within anthropology include psychological
anthropology, comparative religion, myth and ritual, and the ethnography
of Nepal, Tibet, the Himalayas, and South and Central Asia. His
extensive scholarly publications in these areas include "The
Tibetan Symbolic World" (University of Chicago Press, 1982)
and a special issue of Cultural Anthropology, "Biological
and Cultural Anthropology at Emory University," which he
edited. He served for many years as editor of ETHOS: Journal
of the Society for Psychological Anthropology and was president
of the Society for Cultural Anthropology from 1992-1994.
May
16 , 2003
Political Science Professor Named Carnegie Scholar
Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, associate professor of political science
at Emory University, has been named one of thirteen new Carnegie
Scholars by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the first Emory
scholar ever selected for the prestigious honor. Each scholar,
chosen in a highly competitive process, will receive up to $100,000
over the next two years to pursue pathbreaking research in his
or her respective field, which in turn will be communicated to
the broader public.
Wickham will use her grant to research and write "The Path
to Moderation: Lessons from the Evolution of Islamism in the Middle
East." Her project seeks to identify the environmental conditions
and policy choices that have fostered or inhibited the moderation
of Islamist rhetoric and practice in the Middle East among current
groups as well as historically.
"I want to look at why some Islamist leaders have been more
inclined than others to break from the dominant revivalist or
'fundamentalist' positions on such issues as democracy, pluralism
and human rights," says Wickham. Drawing on theoretical and
policy perspectives, she will conduct a comparative study of Islamist
opposition groups in five Arab nations plus Turkey to analyze
how different types of political and civic participation have
affected Islamist goals and behavior. "I hope to figure out
whether moderation is a strategic adaptation or an outcome of
'political learning' involving change in leaders' core values
and beliefs."
Another goal of Wickham's is to clarify how religion-based activism
affects the prospects for democratization in Muslim societies
and states. "New research suggests that the rise of strong
civic associations can either bolster or undermine democratization,
depending on the political environment in which they are embedded
and the orientations of their actors," says Wickham. "My
goal is to identify the conditions under which political Islam
can support rather than threaten democratic reform."
The Carnegie Corporation selects scholars
doing work that expands the intellectual margins of the corporation's
program areas: education reform, widening global income gaps,
violence in societies, the politics of federal judicial selection,
economic growth and development, legal reform in Russia, the political
and economic questions facing Africa, the making of U.S. foreign
policy over the years, and the implications of Islamic politics
and identity.
This year, 144 nominations were received
and 48 were invited to provide complete project descriptions.
The finalists were then evaluated by committees including both
Carnegie Corporation program leaders and external advisors. Up
to 20 scholars are selected annually, and this year 13 finalists
were then presented to Carnegie Corporation's board of trustees.
March
20, 2003
Classroom on the Quad set for Wednesday, March 26
U.S. & Iraq: Many Voices
A forum embracing Emory's multiple perspectives and communities
in a dialogue that promotes reflective thought & informed
arguments
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
1:00pm - 3:30pm
On the Quadrangle
(In case of rain, at Glenn Memorial Church Auditorium)
Speakers include:
President William Chace
Faculty from Political Science, Public Health, Philosophy, Sociology,
History, Religion, Journalism, Middle Eastern Studies
Staff & Students from various departments and organizations
Moderators:
Chris Richardson (SGA) & Purvi Patel (College Council)
Jim Grimsley, Bruce Knauft & Donna Wong (Co-Chairs, Planning
Committee)
President Chace encourages all classes, students, faculty &
staff to attend.
NO signs or banners are permitted.
For additional information, contact:
The Office of Multicultural Programs & Services
404-727-6754
www.emory.edu/MULTICULTURAL/
March
10, 2003
Chace Responds to Faculty in AJC
President William Chace's response to a letter from Professor
of English John Bugge, Samuel C Dobbs Professor of Anthropology
Melvin Konner, and Samuel C Dobbs Professor of History James Roark,
in which they criticize the Emory administration's cuts to the
university employee benefits program last year, appears in today's
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Emory University is not immune to
the economic downturn that the entire nation is experiencing,"
he writes. "Among our peer institutions, Stanford has announced
that it is freezing faculty and staff salaries and making layoffs
to offset a $25 million deficit; Duke has said it will eliminate
about 50 faculty positions over three years."
Click
here to read the full text of the letter to the AJC.
Click
here to read "Staying Power," the Academic Exchange's
September 2002 coverage of debates around issues of faculty recruitment
and retention.
March
6, 2003
Bugge, Konner, and Roark Speak Out on Benefits Cuts
In a letter to today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Professor
of English John Bugge, Samuel C Dobbs Professor of Anthropology
Melvin Konner, and Samuel C Dobbs Professor of History James Roark
criticize the Emory administration's cuts to the university employee
benefits program last year.
"This broken promise has undermined
trust and demoralized our faculty; it bodes ill for Emory's future,"
they write. "As a result, we have lost excellent colleagues,
and retention and recruitment of quality faculty is now more difficult.
The positions of president, provost, dean of arts and sciences,
and vice president for finance are vacant, creating an additional
leadership vacuum."
A similar statement also appeared in the
February 28, 2003, Chronicle
of Higher Education. Chronicle subscribers may
find the item in the site's searchable archive
Click
here to read the full text of the letter to the AJC.
Click
here to read "Staying Power," the Academic Exchange's
September 2002 coverage of debates around issues of faculty recruitment
and retention.
March
3, 2003
This Can’t Be Mud Wrestling
An Interview with William Germano, Vice President and Publishing
Director of Routledge, on Scholarly Publishing
AE: What prompted you to write Getting It Published: A
Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books
(Chicago UP, 2001)?
WG: At both Routledge and the house where I worked previously,
Columbia University Press, authors seemed largely clueless about
how to make contacts. They showed no evidence that they had been
given direction about how to approach a publisher. People tell
me there are two things you are expected to know how to do when
you finish a Ph.D.: how to teach and how to publish. And you’re
usually trained in neither one. I think there’s been a certain
turn, though, at least in awareness of these gaps. This is particularly
a problem for the humanities. I think in order to find a way forward,
scholars need to better informed and, frankly, they need to write
better than they do.
AE: Was there a time when people knew how to get published
and how to write, or have the tastes of acquisition editors changed?
WG: One of the things that happened is that the market
has become so poor, it’s eliminated the luxury of writing
at great length, and writing not terribly well. Library budgets
have been radically cut, thereby limiting the ability to move
books. That means we have to think harder about what we produce.
And that was part of the impulse behind this book. I spoke with
so many people who said, “My book was turned down. I don’t
know why.”
AE: After the proposal stage, manuscripts often face external
reviews. What do you think about the charge that the review process
is sometimes tainted with vitriol, cruelty, or personal bias?
WG: A successful editor will understand who is likely to
use it as an opportunity to skewer somebody. An editor needs to
be adroit at selecting a reviewer who can contribute in a useful
way. But there are different kinds of reviews. For example, if
someone has published a couple of books with a major university
press and wants to do his or her next book with us, we are likely
to be interested on the basis of the person’s publishing
history. Perhaps we will offer the author an advance contract
on the basis of the proposal. When the project comes in and I
read it, I may say to the author, “I love it. But I don’t
want you to misconstrue my enthusiasm as a guarantee that everything
in it is correct. Let’s find someone who can provide another
reading for you.” As projects get complicated, there is a
need to have scholars in more than one discipline examine them.
But I don’t see it as a contentious experience. Often a scholar
will say, “I’d love to have X read my work, but I don’t
know her and feel awkward asking her to do it. If you could get
her to read it for the press, that would be perfect.” So,
in a way, we become an intermediary with the goal of strengthening
the manuscript. And useful things come from those reports.
AE: That’s an interesting reflection on the relationship
between scholarly publishing and the academic community itself.
WG: You know, this can’t be mud wrestling. It’s
got to be a partnership. The stakes are high. The goals are the
same. Scholars and academic publishers want to produce the best
books they possibly can. But we can’t have the quality if
the market isn’t there. Those two things become joined at
the hip. And, yes, occasionally we’ll do a book because it
will bring glory and we don’t expect to sell many copies.
But there are very few of those being published.
AE: Jerome McGann recently argued in the Chronicle of Higher
Education that publishers must bring out scholarly editions in
a digital format. And Jason Epstein, in Book Business: Publishing
Past, Present, and Future, predicts that in the not-too-distant
future, individuals will download books from a publishing consortium
and print and bind them individually for about what they cost
now. What do you think about the future of digital technology
and publishing?
WG: I’m never certain whether these are utopian or
dystopian visions of publishing’s future. Every publisher
I know is thinking hard and discussing how the digital environment
will impact the future of publishing. We’re taking pains
to exploit the digital possibilities wherever we can within a
sensible economic framework. These are not cost-free initiatives.
Websites don’t just happen. There are lousy and good ones,
and they need maintaining and updating.
What we’re doing is creating digital files and we will be
able to produce digital versions of texts. No one is getting rich
doing this yet. I think that ancillary technologies will develop.
But they’re going to be additive rather than substitutive.
Want to learn more about scholarly publishing?
On Wednesday, March 19, 2003 the Provost's Program in Manuscript
Development will host a panel discussion featuring Nancy Grayson,
associate director and editor-in-chief of the University of Georgia
Press; Todd Hallman, M.E. Sharpe executive editor; Lara Heimert,
Yale University Press executive editor; Michelle Tessler, literary
agent with Carlisle &
Company; and Laura van Dam, Houghton Mifflin acquisition editor.
The event will take place from 3:00-5:00 p.m. in the Carlos Museum
reception hall. For more information, see the Emory Report article
"Panel
to discuss scholarly publishing."
February
25, 2003
Comments
on “Academic Freedom in Times of War”
Are current critiques of university
faculty in Middle Eastern studies analogous to mid-twentieth-century
McCarthyism? Paul H. Rubin of the Department of Economics and
Harvey Klehr of the Department of Political Science respond to
essays in the February/March 2003 issue of AE on perceptions of
threat to the university's mission and how the academy might respond.
Click
here to read the responses.
Click
here to read the original essays.
Click
here to read Emory Report coverage of the recent visit
of Daniel Pipes, founder of www.campus-watch.org,
an online forum that monitors and critiques Middle Eastern studies
programs in the United States and Canada.
February
24, 2003
Making a Place for Wisdom and Experience
Emory’s Emeritus College, the brainchild
of Professor Emeritus of Religion Eugene Bianchi, was founded
in 2000 to provide retired Emory professors with opportunities
for intellectual exchange and support for continued research and
teaching. In February/March 2000, Bianchi and John Bugge, professor
of English and president of the local chapter of the American
Association of University Professors, co-authored the essay “The
Merit in Emeritus: Aging gracefully in the academy” for the
Academic Exchange. In this essay they outlined their vision of
the types of services and activities a center for retired faculty
members could provide, including interdisciplinary seminars, “think
tank” research, teaching, and mentoring.
Three years later, Emory’s thriving Emeritus College is garnering
national press. An article titled “Gray Expectations: Emeritus
centers bring retired professors back to campus” in the February
7, 2003, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education profiles the
Emeritus College as one among a growing number of university-sponsored
programs across the country for retired faculty members. The article
features interviews with Bianchi; Bugge; Harriet King, senior
vice provost for academic affairs; Elizabeth Sharp, associate
professor emeritus of nursing; and Jay Knopf, distinguished professor
emeritus of psychology.
Chronicle subscribers can find “Gray Expectations” in
the archives at http://www.chronicle.com.
“The
Merit in Emeritus” is available in the Academic Exchange
archives.
February
10 , 2003
A Cautionary Tale of Academic Integrity
Several major news outlets have reported
that a recent British government report on Iraq, cited by U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell as "a fine paper" in
his speech to the U.N. last week, quoted without attribution from
several academic articles. According to the New York Times,
critics of government policy noted that "parts of the articles--or
of summaries posted on the Internet--were paraphrased in the report.
In other cases, they were plagiarized--to the extent that even
spelling and punctuation errors in the original were reproduced."
A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that the
material should have been more accurately attributed.
Click on www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/international/europe/08BRIT.html
for New York Times coverage of the issue.
Go to www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/articles/A42276-2003Feb7.html
for the Washington Post story.
For the Academic Exchange February/March
2003 cover story on academic integrity, go to http://www.emory.edu/ACAD_EXCHANGE/2003/febmar/lead.html