Monthly Archives: September 2012

Creativity Conversation with Natasha Trethewey and Rosemary Magee

Natasha Trethewey, U.S. Poet Laureate, and Rosemary Magee, newly appointed director of Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL), will talk about the creative process and poetry’s special role in public and private spaces in this Emory Creativity Conversation. Trethewey is also Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing, and Magee serves as vice president and secretary of Emory University.

The conversation will be held Monday, October 8, from 7-8pm in Cannon Chapel on the Emory campus.

A booksigning and reception, also free and open to the public, will follow the event.

Since 2008, Creativity Conversations have embodied the liberal arts at Emory by exploring ideas with great writers, musicians, artists, scientists, and individuals from all walks of life.

Related Videos

 

 

Then and Now: Looking at Current Fiscal Challenges in the U.S.

In his talk entitled “Constitutional Moments,” Prof. Michael Greve of George Mason University School of Law considers the current fiscal challenges facing the United States and reflects on the similarities and differences between our current situation and the crisis of the 1780’s that led to the major institutional changes embodied in the U.S. Constitution (September 19, 2012).

His talk was sponsored by the Emory Williams Lecture Series in the Liberal Arts, which is offered in conjunction with the Voluntary Core Curriculum Program in Emory College, and the Jack Miller Center as a Constitution Day event.

The Emory Williams Lecture Series in the Liberal Arts has been made possible by a generous gift from Mr. Emory Williams (Emory College ’32 and Trustee Emeritus, Emory University).

Listen to audio version on iTunesU

Tibetan Chalk Drawing on Campus

Tsering Phuntsok of Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta created Tibetan chalk drawings to highlight the Tibetan Studies program at Emory (Sept. 5, 2012). In this YouTube video, Juana Clem McGhee, Academic Department Administrator in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies (MESAS), talks about the significance of the drawings and some of the offerings of the Tibetan Studies program. For more information, see http://mesas.emory.edu/home/languages/tibetan/index.html

Also check out resources offered by the Emory-Tibet Partnership.

Emory to Offer Online Courses

Emory faculty are gearing up to offer the University’s first MOOCs – massive open online courses produced by Coursera – in areas of the liberal arts, health sciences and policy studies.

Emory’s initial course offerings, beginning spring 2013, includes “Introduction to Digital Sound Design,” taught by Steve Everett (see YouTube video above), professor of music, who directs the Music-Audio Research Center and has been a guest composer at several well-known conservatories in the U.S. and Europe.

Other courses will feature “Immigration and U.S. Citizenship,” by Polly Price, professor of law, and “AIDS,” by Kimberly Hagen, assistant director of the Center for AIDS Research, Rollins School of Public Health.

With today’s announcement, Coursera now hosts more than 200 courses from 32 domestic and international universities and reaches over 1.3 million students across the globe.

Full story at news.emory.edu

College Launches Major Strategic Plan

Beginning this academic year, Emory College of Arts and Sciences will begin implementation of a multi-year plan designed to enhance areas of distinction, transform areas of excellence into areas of eminence, and allocate resources to invest in important new and emerging growth areas.

The plan calls for investment in traditional strengths of the arts and sciences, including departments across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, and in new, interdisciplinary areas of instruction and inquiry, including contemporary China studies, digital and new media studies, and neurosciences.  The plan also calls for revising current structures for supporting research and teaching that cross disciplines, as well as reexamination of how science is taught in the undergraduate classroom.

See news release

See Sept. 28th follow-up news release

 

Kevin Young (Creative Writing) Wins American Book Award in Poetry

Kevin Young has won the 2012 American Book Award in Poetry from The Before Columbus Foundation for his collection, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (Knopf).

The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restriction or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre.

See press release

 

 

Sheila Tefft (Journalism) Receives Fulbright Award

 

Sheila Tefft, senior lecturer in the Emory University Journalism Program, has been named a Fulbright Senior Scholar and will teach courses in journalism at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta (State Islamic University UIN Jakarta) in Indonesia from January through June, 2013.

A former foreign correspondent in Indonesia and other countries in Asia for 12 years, Tefft has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, and The Atlanta Constitution and is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Wisconsin. She has taught at Emory since 1999 and for nine years was director of the Emory Journalism Program. She has received numerous Emory teaching awards from Phi Beta Kappa and the Center for International Programs Abroad, and was awarded the university-wide Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching. She will participate in the new Islamic Civilizations Studies Program that will be launched next year.

She is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2012-2013. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide.

Quadrangle Spring 2012 Highlights

See the following articles in the Spring 2012 Quadrangle magazine (full version PDF) for highlights on teaching and research, and people and places at Emory College.

Faculty Profile: Jaap De Roode, assistant professor of biology (by David Raney)

Student Profile: Willie Reaves (by David Raney)

Flow: Water at Emory Turns Hot and Cool (by Hal Jacobs)

“Welcome to Emory’s water theme, which brings together new and established academic currents flowing through the world’s most precious—and generally taken for granted—resource of all.”

Also check out…

Dean’s Letter & Editor’s Letter

Bookmarks
Robert McCauley takes on religion and science; more new faculty books

Kudos
Robert Agnew investigates crime without a badge; more faculty accomplishments