Faculty and Staff Notes

Professor of Computer Science Richard Salter, along with Wayne M. Getz, A. Starker Leopold Professor of Ecology at UC Berkeley, and alumnus Nick Sippl-Swezey ’11, led a five-day workshop in February on the use of modeling in conservation ecology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Twenty ecology professionals—faculty members and graduate students from research institutes across Israel—attended the workshop, the goal of the which was to introduce Salter's Nova modeling platform.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics M. Garrett Roth participated recently as a paper presenter, chair, and discussant at the Public Choice Society's 2014 Conference, held March 7 to 9 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Cynthia Taylor has published a paper, “Developing a pre- and post-course concept inventory to gauge operating systems learning”, in the proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Taylor also presented the paper during the symposium, which was held March 5 to 8 in Atlanta.

Professor of Dance Ann Cooper Albright's latest book, Engaging Bodies: The Politics and Poetics of Corporeality, not only has a photo of Cooper Albright dancing with her students on the front cover, but it also is dedicated to her students. The book was officially launched at the joint conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars and the Congress on Research in Dance, held in November 2013. This summer, she will join the Hollins University MFA faculty teaching studio and theory courses.

Sonia Kruks, Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics, recently presented an invited paper at the University of Manchester, England. The paper was a contribution to a “theory intensive” master class for faculty and graduate students, titled “On Beauvoir.”  It discussed Simone de Beauvoir’s reflections on the desire for revenge after the Nazi occupation of Paris. The event was held on February 20, 2014, and was organized by the university’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Arts and Languages (CIDRAL). Kruks also presented an invited symposium paper, “Simone de Beauvoir, Political Philosopher,” at the 110th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, held in Baltimore from December 27 to 30, 2013.

Last fall, Manager of Social Strategy and Projects Ma’ayan Plaut presented at the national HighEdWeb conference on working with students and at Confab Higher Ed on making content more social. This month, she’s attending the Academic Impressions conference to talk about social media and enrollment and working with students and social media and the CASE Social Media and Community conference to talk about social media, narrative, and social content. Plaut was quoted in an article, “Go Viral”, published in the February 2014 issue of Currents, the magazine of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Associate Professor of Politics Michael Parkin recently coauthored an article, “U.S. Congressional Campaigns in an Internet Age,” which appears in The Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. The paper shows how candidate use of the Internet is driven by such political considerations as the potential loss of message control, the candidate’s status in the race, and the employment of campaign consultants.

Cleveland NPR affiliate WCPN invited Professor of Russian and Eastern European Studies Steve Crowley to participate in a conversation about the political and security issues of the 13th Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. The program aired Monday, February 10, and is available for listening on the WCPN website.

Danforth-Lewis Professor of Economics Ellis Tallman is coauthor of an article, “Business Cycles and Financial Crises: The Roles of Credit Supply and Demand Shocks,” recently published in the journal Macroeconomic Dynamics. The paper explores the hypothesis that the sources of economic and financial crises differ from those of noncrisis business cycle fluctuations.

The Museum for the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, which will officially open to the public in October 2014, has requested permission to use excerpts from Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History Shulamit Magnus’ translation and critical edition of Pauline Wengeroff’s Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews in Russia in the Nineteenth Century. The museum will use the excerpts to illustrate its audio-visual gallery focusing on changes in Jewish life in modernity. The museum also has invited Magnus to its opening and offered her a lecture opportunity.