by :
Hannah Mitchell
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
A new course this semester, ANTHR 3200 Heritage Forensics, explores how the latest technologies are reshaping cultural preservation. The work the 20 students in the class are doing is so relevant, the U.S. State Department has expressed interest in their work. The course was co-developed by this year’s Milstein Faculty Fellow in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity in…
by :
Hannah Mitchell
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
“Consider supporting those institutions that have made a positive difference in your lives,” Robert Harrison ‘76 said during a visit to campus last month, where he had the chance to speak to members of the Robert S. Harrison College Scholar Program. “In my case, that has been, at the top of the list, Cornell and the Rhodes Scholarship.” Harrison’s Cornell visit offered a chance for him…
Credit: Noël Heaney (UREL)
Students in the Warrior-Scholars speak with Professor Abigail Crites about the instrument she is building to measure cosmic microwave background radiation to advance the study of early galaxies.
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Accelerator physics has revealed hidden universes, from the Higgs boson to the blood vessels and tissues seen on a CT scan – and much of that progress is thanks to work done in an unassuming building tucked away on Cornell’s North Campus: Newman Lab.
For 75 years, physicists in Newman Lab have pushed the limits of accelerator physics, inventing new techniques and building ever more advanced…
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
In this image of Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope, sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth are revealed. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
As praise pours in for the images released July 12 from NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – the next-generation telescope able to peer deeper into the cosmos – Cornell astronomy faculty who have worked on the decades-long effort are marking the milestone.
“For the entirety of my scientific career, I have thought about and planned for the giant leap forward in our understanding of…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
For 30 years, the Latina/o Studies Program (LSP) has been a hub for research and community. To celebrate the anniversary, the program has launched the “Let’s Dream Together” crowdfunding campaign to raise $20,000 in support of LSP students.Donations will be used to support student research and conference participation; provide book awards for LSP courses; provide commencement stoles; support the…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Scientists announced this week that a consortium of U.S., German and Canadian academic institutions led by Cornell University will begin construction of Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope-prime (CCAT-p), a unique and powerful telescope capable of mapping the sky at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths.The 6 meter aperture telescope, slated for completion in 2021, will be located near the…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
For more than 25 years, the Department of Mathematics has been engaged in outreach and building solid partnerships with local teachers and schools, such as the annual T-shirt design contest held at Ithaca High School in honor of April's Math Awareness Month. The students submit designs related to math; the winning design is printed on a T-shirt that the mathematics department distributes to…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
A new environment and sustainability major in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was approved March 8 by the faculty senate and, pending approval by the New York State Education Department, will launch in fall 2018. The cross-college major is a modified and broader version of the existing Environmental and Sustainability Sciences (ESS) major in CALS…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Victor Nee, the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society, has been elected president of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS). The last Cornell professor to be honored with this title was Robin M. Williams, Jr., more than half a century ago.
ESS was founded in 1930, at about the same time as the field of…
by :
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
“The history of American poetry, like the history of America itself, is a story of ingenuity, sacrifice, hard work, and sticking it to people when they least expect it,” writes David Orr in his new book, “You, Too, Could Write a Poem.”Orr, professor of the practice in the English Department, gives a literary critic’s perspective on the craft that is behind penning some of the best works in poetry…
by :
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Aoise Stratford, a visiting assistant professor in Performing and Media Arts, was named the 2017 Blaine Quarnstrom Guest Playwright at the University of Southern Mississippi in January. Stratford spent five days on the Southern Mississippi campus at the beginning of the year giving public talks, having her work read and teaching a series of intense hands-on playwriting workshops for students…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Brad Ramshaw, assistant professor of physics, has been awarded the Lee Osheroff Richardson (LOR) Science Prize for 2017. The prize recognizes the novel work of young scientists working in the fields of low temperatures and/or high magnetic fields in the Americas and is administered by Oxford Instruments. The trophy and $8,000 prize will be awarded at the Association for Physical Society’s meeting…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
The College of Arts and Sciences has announced a $2.7 million expansion of its Active Learning Initiative (ALI), which began five years ago with the conversion of four large course sequences in physics and biology. Thanks to the generosity of Alex and Laura Hanson, both Class of 1987, six new projects will be launched in the Departments of Music, Classics, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, and…
In reaction to the current immigration ban, Hirokazu Miyazaki, professor of anthropology, writes this opinion piece in the Japan Times, telling the story of Sidney Gulick, who, frustrated with the immigration ban of 1924, decided to turn his attention to the next generation."Gulick, who had spent 25 years in Japan as a Christian missionary, arranged to have 12,000 dolls sent as gifts from…
Two Arts & Sciences alumni were honored with reviews of their debut novels in the Jan. 29 New York Times Book Review.The novels of Sana Krasikov ’01, winner of the 2009 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and Lydia Peelle ’00, author of the short story collection “Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing,” were both reviewed in the recent issue.Krasikov’s book, “The Patriots,” chronicles …
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
“The curriculum belongs to the faculty, 100 percent,” declared Interim President Hunter Rawlings at a faculty forum Jan. 23 in the Rhodes Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall. “This is a principle that is essential at every university.”The forum was held to discuss curriculum reforms being explored by the College of Arts & Sciences, including discussions about the mission of a liberal arts and…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Carole Boyce Davies, professor of Africana studies and English, will receive The Caribbean Philosophical Association’s 2017 Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award at the association’s international conference, June 22-24 in New York City.“Carole Boyce Davies is a giant in the fields of Caribbean thought and African Diasporic studies,” said Caribbean Philosophical Association President Neil…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Islam has been much in the American news lately, but Chiara Formichi says the stereotypes media reinforce do us a disservice. “It’s important that we as faculty help students to break up assumptions and see that Islam is not just what is portrayed in the media,” she says. Her students, like those in her Controversy and Debate in Islam course, learn to see the complexities in Islam and look beyond…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Nearly half a century ago, student protests led to the creation of Cornell’s Africana Studies and Research Center. Since then, the Africana Center has trained generations of leaders in academia, the professions, business and public service.This fall during Homecoming Weekend, Cornell will sponsor a series of commemorative events culminating in the dedication of the site of the original Africana…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
In an op-ed in The Washington Post, anthropologist Adam Smith offers lessons from history on Donald Trump's proposed wall as a solution to border problems."Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico to block the flow of migrants has been justly criticized on moral, economic and political grounds," writes Smith, Goldwin Smith Professor and chair…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
“In the last decade, political economy has moved from the margins to the mainstream of the historical conversation in the United States,” writes history postdoc Noam Maggor in his introduction to the special History of Capitalism issue of the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, which he edited. “Galvanized under the banner of the ‘history of capitalism,’ a new generation of historians…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
When Tracy McNulty read “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” at age ten, about a psychotic, the book had a profound impact: after college, McNulty went to France to study psychoanalysis and later trained with experts in psychosis treatment. With academic degrees in French and comparative literature and training in clinical psychoanalysis, McNulty has become known for combining these interests in…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Adam Seth Levine, assistant professor of government, has won two awards from the American Political Science Association (APSA), the leading professional organization for the study of political science. The awards will be presented in Philadelphia at the beginning of September.The first award was the 2016 Experimental Research Section Award for Best Book for Levine’s “American Insecurity: Why Our…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
On July 12, a United Nations tribunal ruled on an arbitration case involving contested territory in the South China Sea. Government professors Allen Carlson and Jessica Chen Weiss, both on the faculty of the China-Asia Pacific Studies (CAPS) Program, reflected on the verdict.In the China File, Carlson wrote that this is a "pivotal moment" in the conflict over the contested island territory. "It…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Thanks to the added space provided by Klarman Hall, many departments and programs in the College have shifted locations over the summer.“As planned, the opening of Klarman Hall is having a wonderful ripple effect through the College,” said Gretchen Ritter, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts & Sciences. “We’re delighted that so many of our departments and programs that were spread out can now be…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
The key to curing multiple sclerosis may well lie in the mysterious signaling of lipids, a major component of cells. Lipids, which are essentially fat molecules, make up the membranes that form barriers between the inside and outside of a cell and around the organelles inside a cell. Lipids are also critical to signaling within and between cells, messaging that play important roles in body…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Forty-one years after graduating, on May 22 Charles ("Chip") Aquadro was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science degree from St. Lawrence University, his alma mater, in recognition of his achievements in science. In his acceptance speech, Aquadro recounted the twists and turns in his path that led him to genetics. As a freshman in 1971, he was eager to pursue a degree in chemistry. “That was…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Reflecting its commitment to research in the humanities, the College of Arts & Sciences has announced that it has tripled the guaranteed Humanities Faculty Research and Travel (HFRT) grants it currently provides to tenured faculty members in humanities and related departments. (In other departments and programs, individual faculty research and travel is funded through other mechanisms…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Tapan Mitra, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, has always wanted to give back to the educational institutions with which he has been associated. To help fulfill that dream, Mitra has established two sets of annual prizes in the Department of Economics with an $100,000 endowment, a “concrete expression of my continuing attachment to this great institution of learning,” he said.He chose to…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Wondering if galaxies can travel away from us faster than the speed of light, or why there are high tides at the full moon? Or maybe what created the Universe? The answers to these and hundreds of other questions are only a mouse click away, at the Ask an Astronomer website.Ask an Astronomer is the Cornell astronomy department's most visible and far-reaching public outreach activity. Since the…
Stephanie Czech Rader '37, a chemistry graduate who became a U.S. spy in Europe at the end of World War II and died Jan. 21, was posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit before her burial June 1 at Arlington National Cemetery.Barbara Baird, senior associate dean for math and science in the College of Arts & Sciences, spoke during Rader’s service about Rader’s “pioneering spirit, her sense of…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
June 2016 update:
Chuck F. Feeney ‘56 (left) with Christopher G. Oechsli, President and CEO, Atlantic Philanthropies.
The Atlantic Philanthropies, created by Charles F. Feeney ’56, made its very first grant in 1982 to Cornell University. By the end of this year, the foundation will conclude its grant-making, realizing the full impact of the foundation’s largesse within its…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Math matters in important ways, and each year Cornell’s Department of Mathematics sponsors a public lecture to illustrate just how much. This lecture takes place during the national Mathematics Awareness Month, with the goal of increasing public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. This year’s lecture, held April 29 in Malott Hall, featured assistant math professor Lionel Levine on …
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
On May 22, Ithaca High School (IHS) seniors presented the mathematics research projects they did as part of the Senior Seminar, a course for Ithaca High School (IHS) students who have completed most or all of the IHS math classes. The seminar meets at the high school and is taught by three graduate mathematics or applied mathematics students each year, to introduce high-school students to three…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
A new cross-college environment and sustainability major is under discussion by faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). While the details of the major have yet to be decided, its goal would be to build on current environmental programs to offer students additional ways to combine the study of physical and biological sciences…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
A conference on the writing of Bolivian author Edmundo Paz-Soldán, professor of Spanish literature in the Department of Romance Studies, was held at the University of Seville, Spain, on May 25. The conference explored Paz-Soldán’s “narrative path,” and featured speakers from Spain, France, Bolivia and Belgium.This is not the first time the influence of Paz-Soldán and his work have been recognized…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
… that produces cognition. Gadagkar is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, … working with Jesse Goldberg, assistant professor and Robert R. CapranicaFellow. He is interested in how networks of neurons …
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Cornell's Topology Festival may be the longest running annual conference on a specific topic in math in the United States. The 52nd Topology Festival was held May 13-15 in Mallott Hall, with speakers from Israel, Germany, Sweden, and across the United States addressing topics in topological combinatorics.Conference speaker Greg Kuperberg, University of California at Davis. Photos by Melissa…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
The remarkable accomplishments of students in the College of Arts & Sciences are recognized through awards conferred by our departments and programs. We congratulate our students for the well-deserved honors listed below.
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
The Freedman Award for Undergraduate Research in Anthropology was awarded to Rabin Willford and Emily McNeill.
DEPARTMENT OF…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
In government professor Jonathan Kirshner’s new novel Urban Flight, the Big Apple is in Big Trouble: New York City is on the edge of bankruptcy, crime is out of control, the streets are gridlocked, and the corruption is so thick protagonist Jason Sims, a traffic helicopter pilot, can see it from the sky.Set in 1975, a year after Nixon’s resignation, “Urban Flight” follows Sims, a one-time Sixties…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Alex Hayes, assistant professor of astronomy, will receive the 2016 Zeldovich Medal, in Commission B (planets) from COSPAR (Committee on Space Research for the International Council of Science) and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The award is given to young scientists who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in their field of research.Hayes will be presented with the award at the…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Perhaps the most fundamental question we humans ask ourselves is, “who am I?” This quest for self-identification has spawned countless books, movies, and artworks; at Cornell, explorations of identity occur in classrooms, through scholarship and at myriad events.
In the last 25 years there’s been a real shift in student focus toward the issue, says Debra Castillo, professor of comparative…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Jonathan Boyarin, the Hendrix Director of Jewish Studies, the Diann G. and Thomas A. Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies and professor of anthropology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research (AAJR). The AAJR was founded in 1919 and includes about one hundred of the most eminent scholars of Jewish Studies in North America.In a letter to Boyarin, AAJR president…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Migration is one of the major forces shaping the world today, with more than 60 million displaced people.“Never in history have we seen this many simultaneous displacements across the globe and these people are not going home any time soon,” says Mostafa Minawi, assistant professor of history and Himan Brown Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. “This is a global population redistribution and it will…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Artists today engage with a world very different from that of their predecessors: globally connected, technologically advanced and highly diverse. In the last fifty years the Western canon has been displaced as the benchmark for “good” and worthwhile art, opening the door to works intended to challenge viewers, rather than simply to aesthetically please.“It’s an exciting time to be an artist,”…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Fifty years since its founding, the Medieval Studies Program is thriving, says Alice Colby-Hall, a founding member of the program. “Cornell’s medievalists and their students are as enthusiastic as ever and still discover ground-breaking connections between the different disciplines within the field.”On Monday, May 9, at 3:30 p.m., the Medieval Studies Program celebrated its 50th anniversary in…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
N’Dri Assié-Lumumba, professor of Africana, recently co-edited a special issue of the International Review of Education-Journal of Lifelong Learning (IRE) titled, “Rediscovering the Ubuntu Paradigm in Education," Birgit Brock-Utne (University of Oslo) and Dr. joan.Osa Oviawe (visiting scholar at Cornell) were co–editors. This is one of several publications, including books and special of other…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
Isabel Hull has received a Certificate of Merit from the American Society of International Law for her book, “A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law During the Great War” (Cornell, 2014). The award, for “a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship,” was presented at the ASIL’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. in March. The award committee cited Hull’s original…
by :
Linda B. Glaser
,
Arts & Sciences Communications
The admissions and advising staff in the College of Arts & Sciences help students navigate the academic terrain of the university, aiding with academic planning, managing college admissions and orientation, and handling registrar duties. All of these responsibilities have changed dramatically in the last ten years, as a recently completed review and analysis of the Admission and Advising…
