FYI—Faculty and Staff News

Douglas Crimp, Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History, was invited to the University of Manchester, England, for two weeks last month as a Simon Visiting Professor. He worked with the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture there and to broader research groups among Manchester’s faculty on issues of gender, sexual identities, and social policy.

Margaret-Ann Carno, assistant clinical professor of nursing and pediatrics at the School of Nursing, has passed the American Board of Sleep Medicine examination. Only a handful of nurses nationally have earned certification as a diplomate of the board. Carno teaches courses in the pediatric nurse practitioner program. She also is a staff nurse in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit of Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong.

Ashok Kumar Das, professor of physics and astronomy, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to perform research and lecture on finite temperature field theories at the University of São Paulo in Brazil from February to June. Das’s area of research involves theoretical high-energy physics. He focuses on questions of symmetry in the fundamental laws of nature. In São Paulo, Das will be working on and teaching finite temperature field theories and problems in quantum field theory and string theory.

President Seligman has named Lamar Murphy, who has held senior staff positions at major U.S. universities, as his deputy to coordinate presidential activities in support of institutional priorities. Murphy, who earned her doctoral degree in American history at the University of Chicago, will oversee a variety of key duties in the president’s office and will be a member of the President’s Cabinet and the Senior Leadership Group. Murphy’s husband, Bill, is vice president for communications.

Professor of History Joan Shelley Rubin was a panelist for the 100th anniversary celebration of the History and Literature Program at Harvard University in October. About a dozen graduates, including New York Times columnist Frank Rich and television writer and producer Peter Blake, were invited to share with other program alumni how their undergraduate experience in the rigorous “hist and lit” curriculum influenced their work. Rubin’s forthcoming book, Songs of Ourselves: The Uses of Poetry in America, will be published by Harvard University Press in the spring.

Ted Supalla, director of the American Sign Language Program and the Sign Language Research Center, will deliver the opening keynote address at the Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research conference being held December 6 through 9 in Brazil. About 700 researchers, teachers, interpreters, and other interested participants are expected to attend the event, which is one of the most important international conference for sign language studies. This year’s conference theme is the development of sign language studies since the 1960s. Supalla will discuss “Sign Language Archaeology: Integrating Historical Linguistics with Fieldwork on Young Sign Languages.” Supalla also is the lead administrator of the conference’s seven-person ASL interpreting team, which includes staff interpreter Patty Clark of the University’s ASL program. In addition, Daphne Bavelier, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, is a coexhibitor on the conference poster “Classical Testing Theory vs. Item Response Theory: Implications for the Development of the American Sign Language Achievement Battery.