H&SS eNews, October 2006

Greetings from H&SS.

The H&SS eNews is a monthly electronic publication of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. The eNews is compiled and edited by Kelli McElhinny, director of media relations for H&SS. She can be reached at 412-268-6094 or kellim@andrew.cmu.edu. Contact Kelli to submit news about yourself and your fellow alumni, and to sign up for our newsletters.

For past eNews publications, please visit the H&SS eNews archive.

For news about the entire university, be sure to check out the university’s home page or the Carnegie Mellon Today website.

Alumni News

--Ben Kedem (M.S., Ph.D. Statistics, 1970 and 1973), a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, has received an IBM Faculty Award, which carries a $20,000 prize. The highly competitive award is given by IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center.

--Susan Steele (B.A. Professional Writing, French and Administration and Management Science, 1980) has recently been named Human Resources Director at Deloitte, where she is responsible for the firm's consulting business unit. She is based in London where she also does pro bono work as a business mentor for Crisis, one of the UK's largest charities for the homeless. Susan serves on the UK selection panels for the Fulbright Commission and the Edge Employer Awards. You may contact Susan at SusanASteele@aol.com.

Student News

--Eight H&SS students have been named Andrew Carnegie Mellon Society Scholars, an honor bestowed each year on undergraduate seniors who exemplify academic achievement, leadership and community service. The students and the departments that nominated them are: Gerrit Betz, Philosophy; Marciela DeGrace, Modern Languages; Andrea Hamilton, Philosophy; Clara Reyes, History; Laura Stephan, English; Michael Szczerban, Information Systems; Brandi Tish, Economics; Kaori Yazawa, Social and Decision Sciences.

College/Faculty News

--Laura A. Hastings has been named the associate director of the International Relations Program. Her duties include being the principal advisor to International Relations students, a position formerly held by Stephanie Wallach. Wallach is now director of the university’s Undergraduate Research Office and the Fellowship Resources Advising Center. Hastings is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and in The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. She previously was associate dean of the College of General Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. A graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College, Hastings holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Latin American Studies from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

--Psychology Professor David Klahr served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Science Learning, which last week issued a report calling for major changes in how children in kindergarten through eighth grade learn science. The committee found that current standards for what students should know are too broad, and that science instruction is based on outdated theories of children’s cognitive development. For more information, go to http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11625

--Hilary Masters, a professor of English and creative writing, has written his ninth novel, Elegy for Sam Emerson, which was published by Southern Methodist University Press. The book was reviewed Sept. 3 in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

--The Information Systems (IS) Program has received a $225,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund its Information Systems in the Community summer program for another three years. The program brings students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Carnegie Mellon for several weeks to develop technology services for a local nonprofit organization. The program mirrors the IS senior project course, in which students work in teams to solve an information technology program for local nonprofits.

Events

--The Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) in the Department of History will launch its 2006-07 Speaker Series at 5 p.m., Oct. 6 with a talk by Matthew C. Whitaker, associate professor of history at Arizona State University. His talk is titled "Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West" and will take place in the H&SS Auditorium, Baker Hall A53. All events in the CAUSE Speaker Series are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule go to http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases06/060919_cause.html.

--Less than two weeks to go until Homecoming 2006! A complete schedule of Homecoming events is available at http://alumni.cmu.edu/homecoming/schedule.html. Some highlights: H&SS Homecoming Reception, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, October 13, in the H&SS Coffee Lounge in Baker Hall. The Center for the Arts in Society's Campus Art Crawl, a tour of the university's public art, from to 1 to 3 p.m. Faculty lectures from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday. The Maggie Murph Café Dedication and Margaret Morrison Tea from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday in Hunt Library, and the Margaret Morrison Centennial Celebration Dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Homecoming weekend also will include memorial services for two faculty members: Otto "Toby" Davis, the William W. Cooper University Professor of Economics and Public Policy, who died May 9; and Earle Swank, former English professor and dean of students, who died July 15, 2005. The service for Swank will take place starting at 9:30 a.m. October 14 (Saturday) in the Swank Room of Baker Hall (room 255b). Alumni who wish to speak or share their remembrances of Swank should contact David Kaufer at kaufer@andrew.cmu.edu. The service for Davis will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. October 14 in Hamburg Hall 1000.

--The Master of Arts in Professional Writing program (MAPW) will celebrate its 25th anniversary Oct. 27-29 with a series of events. The weekend kicks off with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the newly renovated Schenley Park Visitors' Center next to campus. 1991 MAPW graduate Bill Pollak, better known in music circles as Billy Price, will provide entertainment. Other highlights include a keynote address at 10:30 a.m. Saturday by Joseph Williams, author of Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, and the dedication of The Erwin R. Steinberg Auditorium. For more information, go to http://english.cmu.edu/degrees/ma_pw/anniversary.html.

--For a complete list of upcoming alumni events, go to http://alumni2.tepper.cmu.edu/cmuEvents/.

In Memory

--We are saddened to report the death of Preston Covey, an associate professor of philosophy and husband of library faculty member Denise Troll Covey, who died Sept. 18. He was 64.

Covey, who joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1973, was a highly successful scholar and educator who had a distinguished record of service to the university. He was the director of the Philosophy Program from 1982 to 1985--when it was part of the History and Philosophy Department--and he oversaw its inauguration as a full department in 1986. He also served as the vice provost for university studies from 1987 to 1989.

From 1988 to 2005, Covey was the director of the university's Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics, a research center in the Department of Philosophy that examines bioethics, business ethics, conflict resolution and improving the responsiveness of democratic institutions.

Covey also was at the forefront of computing in philosophy, and he chaired the American Philosophical Association Committee on Computing in Philosophy from 1986 to 1991. Covey directed Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Design of Education Computing from 1986 to 1992, and was the center's executive director from 1985 to 1986. He developed several interactive tools for teaching ethics, conflict resolution and aesthetics.

For more information, go to http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/060920_covey.html.

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