SAS In Focus is the only newsletter devoted to reporting what’s happening in the School of Arts & Sciences.
In this edition . . .
THE LEWIS HENRY MORGAN LECTURE IS HERE
Don’t miss your opportunity to hear renowned Chinese intellectual and best-selling author Biao Xiang offer his take on how political and economic changes in China have left young people there grappling with powerlessness and uncertainty.
Xiang presents his work, Neijuan: Ambition and Exhaustion Among Chinese Youth, at 7 p.m. today in the Hawkins-Carlson Room of the Rush Rhees Library, as part of the Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture series.
The series, presented by the Department of Anthropology, is the oldest anthropology lecture series in North America and has helped cultivate some of the discipline’s most influential works of the past century.
As part of the series, Xiang, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany, will workshop his project with input from faculty and graduate students.
MATHEMATICIANS RECOGNIZED
Two professors in the Department of Mathematics have been recognized for their research.
Professor Xuwen Chen has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $242,968 to support his research into quantum many-body dynamics. His project focuses on explaining the movement and behavior of fluids with complex equations.
Professor Alex Iosevich has been selected for a “Best Paper Award in Mathematics” from the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians. A presentation of the paper, titled On Falconer’s distance set problem in the plane, is scheduled to take place at a gathering of the organization early next year.
Congratulations to both of them!
NOBEL LAUREATES: WE KNEW THEM WHEN
Long before economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science this week, they were recognized for their research by the Department of Political Science.
The department awarded the pair the William H. Riker Prize in Political Science in 2017. That distinction recognizes scholars who advance the scientific study of politics in the spirit of Riker, the longtime department chair who pioneered the use of game theory and mathematics in political science and established the University of Rochester as a force in the field.
Acemoglu, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Robinson, of the University of Chicago, shared the Nobel with Simon Johnson, also of MIT, for their research on how political and social institutions contribute to the prosperity gaps between nations.
POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
The Polish Film Festival, sponsored by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, kicks off Oct. 23 with a showing of Lotna. The critically-acclaimed film tells the story of the Polish cavalry in the early days of World War II through the eyes of Lotna, a white thoroughbred horse that passes from one cavalryman to another.
The annual, two-part festival has been a fixture in Rochester since 1997 and presents internationally recognized classic and contemporary Polish works that would otherwise go unseen in the United States.
The festival runs through Nov. 17.
BOOK NOOK
Assistant Professor of History Molly Ball guides readers through the economic development and important social and cultural characteristics of Latin America in her new book, Latin American Economic History: An Introduction to Daily Life, Debt, and Development.
Published in September by Routledge and available on Open Access, the book uses approachable language to link the culture, politics, and economics of the region over five distinct time periods.
Do you know how Cinco de Mayo featured in foreign debt payments in the 19th century? Or how a U.S. interest rate hike in 1979 sent Latin American into “the Lost Decade”?
Ball, who is also the director for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies, makes it easy to find out.
New Books Network interviewed William Cook Miller, assistant professor of English, about his latest book, The Enthusiast: Anatomy of the Fanatic in Seventeenth-Century British Culture (Cornell University Press, 2023).
The Enthusiast tells the story of a character type that was developed in early modern Britain to discredit radical prophets during an era that witnessed the dismantling of the Church of England’s traditional means for punishing heresy. Give his interview a listen.
RESEARCH INITIATIVE AWARD NOMINATIONS
Do you know an undergraduate student conducting outstanding research? Nominate them for an Undergraduate Research Initiative Award sponsored by the Friends of the UR Libraries.
The annual award recognizes excellence in the early phases of undergraduate research, demonstrated by the initiation and organization of a project leading to a senior thesis, capstone, or independent research project. First prize is $1,000. The application deadline is Nov. 22.
GET READY FOR BLACKBOARD ULTRA
The School of Arts and Sciences will transition from Blackboard Original Courses to Blackboard Ultra Courses in January 2025. “Ultra” courses live in the same Blackboard space as “Original” courses but have a different look and feel.
Spring courses will be created in November using Ultra. Information and registration about workshops for building your courses in Ultra are available here.
To learn more about Ultra in advance of the transition, register to attend an online symposium. The session is scheduled for Friday, November 1 from 10-11a.m. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
GOT NEWS TO SHARE?
Send your SAS In Focus news tips to SAS Senior Communications Officer David Andreatta at david.andreatta@rochester.edu. Be sure to put “SAS In Focus” in the subject heading, and tell him about research, awards, publications, and symposiums, and whatever other news you think is fit to print.
