H&SS eNews, September 2007

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

--Elizabeth Currid (B.A. Creative Writing and Professional Writing, 2000; M.S., Public Policy and Management, 2002) has written "The Warhol Economy", which extols the influence of the arts and culture on the economy of New York City. Currid, who earned a Ph.D. in urban planning from Columbia University, is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California.

--Christina Downs (M.A. Professional Writing, 2000) is the author of "Simply Balanced: Bible 'Contradictions' Teach Balanced Living." The book explores six sets of biblical lessons that seem contradictory but which Downs believes when taken together provide the key to living a balanced life. You can learn more about the book and Downs at http://chrisdowns.wordpress.com/.

--Colt Foutz (B.A. creative writing, 2000) has signed a contract to write his first book. "Building the Green Machine" chronicles the rise of the Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps from a Chicago Boy Scout troop into a marching juggernaut that has won 20 world and national championships through 2007. The book is also the biography of Don Warren, who transformed this activity with the creation of Drum Corps International in 1972 and who founded the Cavaliers in 1948. The book will be released by Savas Beatie, of El Dorado Hills, Calif., this fall, and is available for ordering now at http://www.cavaliers.org. Foutz, a former newspaper reporter and columnist, is a second-year graduate student in the MFA writing program at Columbia College Chicago.

--Greg Marcks (B.A. Creative Writing, 1998) is currently directing his second feature film, "The Gift", starring Shane West, Edward Burns, Ving Rhames and Martin Sheen. The film, an international thriller with filming locations in Bangkok, Prague, Moscow, and Sofia, Bulgaria, shoots until late October. Marcks' first feature film, "11:14", starred Hilary Swank, Patrick Swayze and Henry Thomas.

--Children's book author Sue Stauffacher (B.A. Creative Writing and Professional Writing, 1983) has launched a blog about children's books at http://readia.wordpress.com/. Her latest book is "Nothing But Trouble: the True Story of Althea Gibson." Stauffacher also is the author of the critically acclaimed "Donuthead" and "Harry Sue."

--Three H&SS alumni have been named to receive Alumni Awards this year at Homecoming. Alexander K. Bacas (B. History, 1989) will receive an Alumni Service Award; Rich Lackner (B. History, 1979)-head coach of the Tartan football team-will receive an Alumni Achievement Award; and Terry L. Babcock-Lumish (B.S. Policy and Management, 1997) will receive a Recent Alumni Award. All three will be honored along with the university's other Alumni Award winners at a ceremony Friday, Oct. 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the McKenna and Wright rooms in the University Center. At the same time, two current H&SS students will honored with Student Service Awards: Brittany McCandless, a senior majoring in professional writing and creative writing, and Bradford L. Yankiver, a senior majoring in public policy and management.

Student News

--Andrew Clearfield, a senior majoring in professional writing, was one of only 48 college students and recent graduates-out of more than 1,000 applicants-to intern over the summer at National Public Radio. Clearfield worked on NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday", which airs on over 500 radio stations nationwide. He also provided commentary on the 2008 presidential campaign for the web-based newsmagazine "Intern Edition."

--The English Department has established the Erwin R. Steinberg MAPW Scholarship to honor Steinberg--who recently retired after 60 years in the department--and to recognize a student in the Masters of Arts in Professional Writing student who embodies the characteristics that exemplified Steinberg's career, particularly integrity and intellectual curiosity. The first recipient of the $1,500 award is Frank Gambino, a third semester MAPW student with background and interests in political science, music promotion and performance, and healthcare research. Gambino is currently an intern with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon and will complete his MAPW in December 2007. Contributions to the Steinberg Scholarship fund are welcomed and should be addressed to Margaret Kinsky, English Department Business Manager, and designated for the Erwin R. Steinberg MAPW Scholarship Fund.

--Josh Kresge, a sophomore economics major, has launched HammockHutch.com, an online retailer which offers hammocks and a variety of accessories.

--Kristen Lukiewski, a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts student majoring in communication design and media writing, has been awarded the 2007 Charles C. Dawe Memorial Award to Encourage Creativity and Innovation in Publishing. The award provides $2,000 to support the development and publication of the winning project. Kristen's project, titled "An Alternative Voice" will provide an interactive print outlet to promote awareness of the writing of underserved groups such as war veterans or prisoners. The Dawe award was established in 2003 by the family of Vanessa Altman Siegel (B.A. Professional Writing, 1998) in recognition of the writing and publication opportunities she experienced through the English Department.

College/Faculty News

-- English Professor Jane Bernstein has written "Rachel in the World: A Memoir", a follow-up to her acclaimed 1988 book "Loving Rachel: A Family's Journey from Grief." Bernstein's latest book recounts the joys and struggles of raising her developmentally disabled daughter, Rachel, and her attempt to find Rachel housing at a time when more than 200,000 Americans with mental retardation are on waiting lists for residential services. The University of Illinois Press, which published "Rachel in the World", also has a published a new edition of "Loving Rachel." For more information go to http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f07/bernstein2.html.

--German Professor Stephen Brockmann is the co-editor of volume 32 of The Brecht Yearbook, titled "Brecht and Death". This volume is a collection of essays that examines the relationship that German dramatist and intellectual Bertold Brecht had with death, from his own personal approach to death to the complex ways that death is addressed in his major literary, theatrical and theoretical writings. Brockmann is the managing editor of The Brecht Yearbook. For more information go to http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/4481.htm.

--Cleotilde Gonzalez, director of the Dynamic Decision Making Laboratory in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, will host the annual meeting for the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program of the Army Research Institute. The event, titled "Training Knowledge and Skills for the Networked Battlefield", will feature collaborative research by University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Purdue University and Carnegie Mellon. The meeting will take place on Friday, September 7th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Posner Hall. The entire Carnegie Mellon community is welcome to attend.

--English Professor David Shumway was featured on the Modern Language Association radio program "What's the Word" to talk about screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. Shumway discussed "It Happened One Night" of 1934 and "The Philadelphia Story" of 1940, which he said explored issues such as social class, divorce and gender relations in ways previously unheard of in Hollywood films. Those movies also were notable at the time for featuring strong female characters and putting forth the idea that strong women are attractive, Shumway said. Shumway is the director of the Humanities Center. You can listen to "What's the Word" at http://www.mla.org/radio_results&year=2006 and clicking on "Screwball Comedies."

--Kiron Skinner, director of the International Relations Program, has co-authored "Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons From Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin" with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Serhiy Kudelia of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of New York University and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In the book, the authors write that Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin were fringe politicians who came to power by redefining the political center in their respective nations. The authors show how domestic political campaigns can dramatically influence foreign policy. For more information go to http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2007/August/aug9_skinner.shtml.

--Skinner is the editor of "Turning Points in Ending the Cold War", a collection of essays by scholars and foreign policy officials about the people and events that precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Contributors to the book include, in addition to Skinner, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State George P. Schultz, as well as Anatoli Cherniaev, chief foreign policy advisor to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. For more information go to http://www.hooverpress.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1285.

Events

--The 2007-08 Adamson Visiting Writers Series at Carnegie Mellon University gets underway Thursday, Sept. 13 with a reading by poet Eugene Gloria, author of "Hoodlum Birds" and "Drivers at the Short-Term Motel." All talks in the Adamson Visiting Writers Series are free and open to the public, and take place at 8 p.m. in the Adamson Wing of Baker Hall (Baker Hall 136A).

--The Humanities Center kicks off its lecture series "Mechanization: Aspects of Its Historical Development" on Thursday, Sept. 27 with a talk by Jonathan Sawday, chair of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Sawday's talk is titled "Calculating Engines: Minds, Bodies, Sex and Machines in the Enlightenment." The lecture is set for 4:30 p.m. in the Adamson Wing of Baker Hall (Baker Hall 136A.)

--H&SS will once again be hosting a homecoming reception, which is set for 3:30 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in the H&SS Coffee Lounge on the ground floor of Baker Hall. This year, in recognition of the H&SS Honors Program 25th Anniversary, a library of honors theses will be available for viewing, as well as posters reflecting a sampling of current honors students' projects. The reception is open to all alumni and their guests. The reception will follow the H&SS Senior Honors Program 25th Anniversary Symposium, which will take place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Alumni who have completed honors theses will talk about how the experience has impacted their education and personal and professional development. Check http://alumni.cmu.edu/homecoming/index.html for details and updates.

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