September 2009 @Pomona Newsletter
Dear Faculty and Staff,
Welcome to the start of a new school year. This semester, the web team in the Office of Communications is busy readying a redesigned website with a new back-end system. Because of this large project, we’ve decided to put a hold on our normal @Pomona Staff & Faculty newsletter to allow for more time to develop new content for and move old content to the redesigned site.
Instead, I’ll be sending out a list of both faculty and staff accomplishments via e-mail each month for the rest of 2009.
Please look for a new and improved @Pomona newsletter in early February 2010, which will include a Q&A with a Pomona staff or faculty member, important dates and news from HR, updates from offices around campus, and more!
Thank you for your patience during this busy time,
Laura Tiffany
Web Editor
Faculty and Staff Accomplishments
David Arase (Politics) co-edited and contributed to The US-Japan Alliance: Balancing Soft and Hard Power in East Asia (Routledge, 2009).
Allan Barr (Asian Languages & Literatures) gave an invited talk, “New Research on the Zhuang Tinglong History Inquisition,” at the History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on August 11.
Graydon Beeks (Music) gave a paper, “William Sexton’s Arrangements of Handel’s Cannons Anthems for Use in the Anglican Cathedral Tradition,” and chaired a session at the conference “Händel -- der Europäer,” held at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in June. Beeks also wrote an article, “The Cannons Anthem and the Concerts of Ancient Music,” in the Händel-Jahrbuch 2009 (Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 2009), pp. 209-14.
Betty Bernhard (Theatre & Dance) screened “In Search of Dignity,” her documentary on sex workers in India, at the Association for Asian Performance annual conference, held at the City University of New York in August. She also attended the annual Cheeseburger Festival in Caseville Michigan , much to her surprise.
Joseph Brennan (ITS) presented a poster at the Campus Technology conference in Boston in July. The poster, "If You Build it, They Will Come," outlines Pomona's efforts and methodologies on managing classroom media technologies in more than 100 learning spaces.
André Cavalcanti (Biology) received a National Science Foundation RUI (Research at Undergraduate Institutions) grant of $211,397 for the project “Detection and Analysis of Fused Genes in Eukaryotic Genomes.”
The opening chapter of Susana Chávez-Silverman’s (Romance Languages & Literatures) forthcoming book has been published as “Diary Inside/Color Local Crónica” in Portal: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 6:1 (January 2009), at http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/portal/index.
Ludwig Chincarini (Economics) presented a paper,“No Chills or Burns from Temperature Surprises: An Empirical Analysis of the Weather Derivatives Market,” at the European Financial Management Association Conference held in Milan in June. At the conference, he also served as discussant on a paper entitled “Unexpected Media Coverage and Stock Market Returns: Evidence from Chemical Disasters.”
Kevin Dettmar (English) has an essay, “The Discreet Charm of the Bad Voice,” in the August 31 Chronicle Review.
Pierre Englebert (Politics) is the author of “Clinton’s Challenge in Congo,” an opinion piece in the August 10 Christian Science Monitor.
Stephen Erickson (Philosophy) was discussion leader at a Liberty Fund colloquium, “Theology and Liberty in Bach’s B Minor Mass,” held in Leipzig in June. He was an invited participant in another colloquium, “Choice and Liberty in the Writings of Dr. Arthur Seldon,” held in Indianapolis in August.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Media Studies) gave a paper, “The Hybrid Future of the University Press,” at Digital Humanities 2009, held at the University of Maryland, College Park, in June.
The National Science Foundation awarded a three-year, $182,226 research grant to Erica Flapan (Mathematics) for her project “Topological Symmetries and Intrinsic Properties of Graphs Embedded in 3-Space.”
Robert Gaines (Geology) helped organize the International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion in Banff, Canada, in August. With co-authors, he also presented several papers there, including “A New Fossil Lagerstätte from the Stephen Formation, Kootenay National Park, British Columbia”; “Evidence for the Mechanism of Burgess Shale-Type Preservation from the Chengjiang Scientific Drilling Project”; and “Water Column Chemistry at Chengjiang.” His student Andrea Lichtman, Scripps ‘09, also presented research there.
Stephan Ramon Garcia and Gizem Karaali (Mathematics) participated in a workshop, “Research Experiences for Undergraduate Faculty,” at the American Institute of Mathematics in Palo Alto, July 20-24.
Roberto Garza-López (Chemistry) published a paper, “Reaction Efficiency of Diffusion-Controlled Processes on Finite Aperiodic Planar Arrays. II. Potential Effects,” in Chemical Physics Letters 478 (2009), pp. 51-55. His co-authors included Daniel Low ‘11, Ulysses Gomez ‘11, Swaroop Raju ‘10, and Craig Ramirez ‘11.
Dru Gladney (Pacific Basin Institute and Anthropology) has a chapter, “Ethnic Relations,” in the Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, ed. Linsun Cheng (Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009), pp. 771-77. He also gave a talk, “Ethnoreligious Identity and Relational Alterity – Some Muslim Cases,” at the Institute of Anthropology at Nanjing University on May 25, and a keynote address, “Chinese Islam? Reflections on Accommodations and Adaptations of Islam to China and China to Islam over the Longue Durée,” at the conference “Islam in China: Historical Bases and Modern Constellations,” organized by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, on June 12.
Jill Grigsby (Sociology) chaired a session, “Family and Kinship in an International Perspective,” at the American Sociological Association annual meeting held in San Francisco, August 8-11.
Eric Grosfils (Geology), Brad Thomson HMC ’98, and others coauthored “A New Technique for Estimating the Thickness of Mare Basalts in Imbrium Basin,” in Geophysical Research Letters 36, L12201, doi:10.1029/2009GL037600.
Laura L. Mays Hoopes (Biology) has two articles, “Ron Hoy” and “Carol Hurney,” in Cell Biology Education-Life Sciences Education 8:1-2 (spring and summer 2009), pp. 7-8 and 114-15. Her story “Glorietta and Red Bob Come to Terms” appeared in the online anthology Rose City Sisters on July 31.
An article by Arthur Horowitz (Theatre & Dance), written with research assistance from Christina Hurtado ’06, appears in Shakespearean Criticism, vol. 123 (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage, 2009). Originally published in 2007, the article is titled “Shylock after Auschwitz: The Merchant of Venice on the Post-Holocaust Stage—Subversion, Confrontation and Provocation.”
Malkiat Johal (Chemistry) published a chapter, “Electrostatic Self-Assembly Methods of Fabricating Enzymatic Surfaces,” in Soft Nanomaterials, ed. Hari Singh Nalwa (Stevenson Ranch, CA: American Scientific Publishers, 2009), pp. 209-31. He also published two coauthored articles: “Molecular Order in Lanmuir-Blodgett Assembled Films of an Azobenzene Amphiphile,” in Thin Solid Films 517:16 (2009), pp. 4639-43; and “Controlling Tyrosinase Activity on Charged Polyelectrolyte Surfaces: A QCM-D Analysis,” in Langmuir 25:17 (2009), pp. 10014-19. His coauthors on the latter article were Cynthia Selassie (Chemistry), Michael Gormally ’11 and Rebecca McKibben ’09.
Karl Johnson (Biology and Neuroscience) received a National Science Foundation RUI grant of $519,925 for his project “Investigating the Mechanisms of Syndecan Function during Nervous System Development.”
Meg Jolley (Theatre & Dance) taught several workshops on “Mind in Motion: The Pull of the Senses” at the Annual Conference for the Alexander Technique, held in San Francisco in June.
Gizem Karaali (Mathematics) is serving as a research member at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute for the fall 2009 Program on Tropical Geometry.
Nina Karnovsky (Biology) is a co-author of “Flexibility in the Bimodal Foraging Strategy of a High Arctic Alcid, the Little Auk, Alle alle,” in Journal of Avian Biology 40:4 (July 2009), pp. 388-99.
Kyoko Kurita (Asian Languages & Literatures) was a discussant for a panel, “Soseki’s City: Texts and Contexts,” at the Asian Studies Conference Japan annual meeting, held at Sophia University, Tokyo, in June.
Jade Star Lackey (Geology), Robert Gaines (Geology), and Charles Taylor (Chemistry) received $200,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Program to develop an X-ray fluorescence laboratory. Professor Lackey also received $50,000 from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund for his study “Sandstone Silicification in a Caldera Lake: Implications for Cementation at High Geothermal Gradient.”
Thomas Leabhart (Theatre & Dance) taught for Arts en Scène in Lyon, France, June 10-21; for Association Hippocampe in Paris, June 29-July 10; and for Le Cercle de la Montade in Aurillac, July 13-24.
In June, Genevieve Lee (Music) performed in a joint recital with pianist Esther Wang during the Summer Institute Piano Camp at Bowling Green State University, and with Thomas Flaherty (Music), Lucy Shelton ’65, and Elisha Nuchi ’09 at a Pomona College Torchbearers event in New York. In August, she performed with Roger Lebow (Music) and others in the Sixth Beverly Hills International Music Festival concert series.
Fernando Lozano (Economics) was named a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. He is also the author, with Mary J. Lopez, of “The Labor Supply of Immigrants in the United States: The Role of Changing Source Country Characteristics,” in American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 99:2, pp. 35-40. DOI:10.1257/aer.99.2.35.
Pardis Mahdavi (Anthropology) has an op-ed piece, “Sexual Revolution, Social Change, Political Reform in Iran--Complicated Intersections,” in Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology--A Group Blog. She also gave a talk, “Sexuality, Sociality and Recreation in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in June. Her talk was part of a conference celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.
Alma Martinez (Theatre & Dance) presented a paper, “Virgin Revolution: Luis Valdez, Augusto Boal and the Political Theater Impasse, Mexico City, 1974,” at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference in New York City on August 11. She also performed in a staged reading of Raul Castillo’s play The Mission at the Public Theatre in New York City on June 22 and participated in the Cornerstone Theater Summer Institute in Eureka, California, July 9-August 9. The company wrote and staged Jason in Eureka: An Epic Adventure in Search of Golden Fleece and Other Local Treasures.
Robert Mezey (English, Emeritus) read his poetry at the Claremont Public Library on June 28.
Catalin Mitescu (Physics & Astronomy) and Alex Zylstra ’09 published a paper, “Regime Transitions in the Viscous Catenary,” in EPL 87:2 (July 2009), 26003. Mitescu notes that Zylstra, winner of National Science Foundation and Department of Energy fellowships, will be entering a graduate Ph. D. program at MIT this fall.
Nivia Montenegro (Romance Languages & Literatures) chaired a session on nation and race in Caribbean discourse at the 34th Caribbean Studies Association Conference, held in Kingston, Jamaica, in June. Montenegro's work on Guillermo Cabrera Infante was also recognized in a book review published by El Nuevo Herald on May 24 about a collection of essays on the Cuban author.
Sandeep Mukherjee (Art & Art History) participated in the first Malibu Contemporary Art Fair, which opened in August. In addition, the Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently acquired some of his 2009 work for its permanent collection. Mukherjee also received a California Community Foundation award for 2009. The $20,000 award recognizes the contributions of outstanding midcareer artists in Los Angeles.
On July 16, Tania Pantoja (Dean of the College) presented recommendations established by the District Advisory Committee on Cultural Events, which she co-chaired, to the Claremont School Board. The report was approved and will be distributed to the Claremont schools during academic year 2009-10.
Mary Paster (Linguistics & Cognitive Science) published a paper, “Explaining Phonological Conditions on Affixation: Evidence from Suppletive Allomorphy and Affix Ordering,” in Word Structure 2:1, pp. 18-47. With Laura McPherson, Scripps ’08, she published another paper, “Evidence for the Mirror Principle and Morphological Templates in Luganda Affix Ordering,” in Selected Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Linguistic Research and Languages in Africa, ed. Akinloye Ojo and Lioba Moshi (Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 2009).
Frances Pohl (Art & Art History) reviewed Laura Hapke’s Labor’s Canvas: American Working-Class History and the WPA Art of the 1930s in Working-Class Notes 3:2, p. 10. She gave a talk, “The Art of Dissent: Modernism and Antimodernism in Early Twentieth-Century American Art,” on June 5 as part of the conference “Coming of Age: 25 Years of American Art at the Huntington,” held to mark the opening of the Huntington’s renovated American wing. Pohl also organized and chaired a session, “Art and Class,” at the College Art Association annual meeting in Los Angeles on February 27.
Virginie Pouzet-Duzer (Romance Languages & Literatures) published an article, “Not a Book of One’s Own: The Contes Indiens and Mallarmé’s Silken Self,” in Image & Narrative 10:2 (2009).
Clifford Ramirez (Registrar’s Office) is the author of FERPA Clear and Simple: The College Professional’s Guide to Compliance (Jossey-Bass, 2009). It is his sixth book.
Erin Runions (Religious Studies) has an essay, “Ms. Job and the Problem of God: A Feminist, Existentialist, Materialist Reading,” in From the Margins 1: Women of the Hebrew Bible and Their Afterlives, ed. Peter S. Hawkins and Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009), pp. 159-74.
In August, Matthew Sazinsky (Chemistry) gave a talk titled “Iron Wars: A Ferrous Hope” at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and one titled “Practical Protein Crystallography: A Tutorial” at Promega Corporation.
Slavi Slavov (Economics) accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy.
Patricia Smiley (Psychology) is the author, with Sheri Coulson, Joelle Greene, and Katherine Bono, of “Performance Concern, Contingent Self-Worth, and Responses to Repeated Achievement Failure in Second Graders,” in Social Development 18 (2009). DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00553.x
Kenneth Wolf (History) is translator of the Latin “Life of St. Raymond the Palmer of Piacenza,” in Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation, ed. Katherine Jansen, Frances Andrews, and Joanna Drell (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009). He also delivered a paper, “Counterhistory in the Earliest Latin Lives of Muhammad,” at the conference “Crossing Boundaries, Creating Images: In Search of the Prophet Muhammad in Literary and Visual Traditions,” held in Florence, July 16-18.
Samuel Yamashita (History) delivered “Coercion, Compliance and Resistance in Wartime Japan, 1942-45” as the Grant Goodman Distinguished Lecture in Japanese Studies at the University of Kansas on April 27. He also gave two lectures at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana in conjunction with the museum’s “Samurai” exhibition: “An Introduction to Warriors” on April 25 and “Vendettas and the Tokugawa Order” on May 3.