Liberal Arts Insider: February 2009

Kamran Ali

Hans Boas

Ian Hancock

Peter Trubowitz

Leo Zonn

Kamran Ali (Anthropology) was awarded a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin for 2010-2011.

The Graduate Caucus of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies selected Katherine Arens (Germanic Studies) as the winner of the Excellence in Mentorship Award.

The Institute for the German Language in Mannheim, Germany elected Hans Boas (Germanic Studies) to its international advisory council.

Karl Galinsky (Classics) received the $965,000 Max Planck Award for Humanities Research for 2009. The Max Planck Society awards the prestigious prize to only two scholars every four years.

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra of Slovakia awarded Ian Hancock (Linguistics) an honorary doctorate for his work on behalf of the Roma people and the Romani language.

Elizabeth Keating (Anthropology) received the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment’s teaching excellence award in January.

The Society of Behavioral Medicine awarded Martita Lopez (Psychology) the Distinguished Clinical Mentor Award for 2009.

On Feb. 2, Public Broadcasting Service aired "The Polio Crusade," a one-hour television documentary based in part on David Oshinsky's (History) Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Polio: An American Story.”

The Istanbul-based Turkish Women's Cultural Association honored Denise Spellberg (History) with the 2009 “Dost” (friend) award for her book “Politics, Gender and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr” and its contributions to Islamic studies.

The Mexican Center of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Veracruz and the Intercultural University of Veracruz received a three-year $250,000 grant to provide innovative information technology to rural farmers in Mexico.

Peter Trubowitz (Government) was appointed to the American Political Science Association's Taskforce on America's Standing in World Affairs.

The site of New Philadelphia, Ill., a town founded in 1836 by slave-born African American Frank McWorter, was named a National Historic Landmark based on the research of Juliet Walker (History). Walker documented the town’s historical significance in the book "Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier.”

Leo Zonn (Geography and the Environment) recently served the 2008 Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan, which is a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) program designed to serve post-conflict reconstruction leadership development projects for civil service and NGO professionals.

Katherine Arens

Karl Galinsky

Martita Lopez

David Oshinsky

Juliet Walker

• Bruce Buchanan (Government) shared insight into George W. Bush’s presidential legacy in numerous media outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Fox News, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Magazine, The Washington Post and USA Today.  

• H.W. Brands (History) discussed the parallels between Obama's and FDR’s inaugural speeches with the Associated Press in a Jan. 14 story.  His book “Traitor to His Class” was featured in The New York Review of Books on Jan. 30.  

• Graduate student Kristina Durante’s (Psychology) study on the link between hormones and sexual behavior was featured in numerous national media outlets, including Reuters, Popular Science, The New Scientist and The Globe and Mail.  

• CNN Money, PBS NewsHour and USA Today tapped James Galbraith’s (Government) expertise on Obama’s economic stimulus package.  

• James Henson (Government) was quoted in a Jan. 28 story about Texas’ changing political landscape in The New York Times.

• Numerous international media outlets covered John Kappelman’s (Anthropology) work with the famous fossil Lucy, including Reuters, Discovery Canada, MSNBC, Discover, TIME, Science, National Geographic, Wired, KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman.

• The New York Times Magazine featured Cindy Meston’s (Psychology) research in the Jan. 22 story “What Do Women Want?”  

• The New York Times featured Julia Mickenberg’s (American Studies) book “Tales for Little Rebels” in a Jan. 9 review.

• Tom Palaima’s (Classics) commentary "MLK, Barack Obama and our hope for racial justice " was selected as the top commentary of the week by the History News Network for the week of Jan. 19.  

• Guy Raffa’s (French and Italian) Web site Danteworlds was featured in a Jan. 13 story in The New Yorker and a Jan. 14 story in The Los Angeles Times.  

• Sean Theriault (Government) examined George W. Bush’s presidential legacy in a Jan. 15 story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Geographies of Media and Communication” by Paul Adams (Geography and the Environment). Wiley, March 2009.

“Diplomats in Blue: U.S. Naval Officers in China, 1922-1933” by William Braisted (History). University Press of Florida, Jan. 2009.

“The Americanization of Social Science: Intellectuals and Public Responsibility in Postwar United States” by David Haney (History).  Temple University Press, Oct. 2008.

“Race and Politics of Solidarity” by Juliet Hooker (Government). Oxford University Press, Jan. 2009.

“Conversational Narcissism in Marriage” by Lisa Leit (Rhetoric and Writing), Deborah Jacobvitz, Nancy Hazen-Swann. VDM Verlag, Dec. 2008.

“Philosophy of Language” (Critical Concepts in Philosophy) edited by Al Martinich (Philosophy). Routledge, Jan. 2009.

“Reforming the Moral Subject: Ethics and Sexuality in Central Europe, 1890-1930” by Tracie Matysik (History). Cornell University Press, Oct. 2008.

“En Comunidad” by Lucia Osa-Melero and Jane Johnson (Spanish and Portuguese). McGraw-Hill, Nov. 2008.

“The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism” by Ami Pedahzur (Middle Eastern Studies). Columbia University Press, Jan. 2009.

“Tamil Geographies: Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in South India” edited by Martha Ann Selby (Asian Studies). State University of New York Press, Jan. 2009.

“Missions, Missionaries and Native Americans: Long-Term Processes and Daily Practices” by Mariah Wade (Anthropology). University Press of Florida, Dec. 2008.

“Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics During World War II” by Emilio Zamora (History). Texas A&M University Press, Feb. 2009.