A&S Magazine Fall 2013

FALL

UN I V E R S I T Y O F MIAMI

CLOSE UP

8

A&S RESEARCHERS’ ECOLOGY EFFORTS STUDY THE RIDDLE OF NATURAL SELECTION

2013

DEAN’SMESSAGE The College of Arts and Sciences aims to prepare students with a broad range of skills, a thirst for knowledge, and a creative approach to problemsolving for a rapidly changing world. To help our students develop those qualities, we are committed to extending their learning around the globe and far beyond the classroom walls.

LEONIDAS G. BACHAS Dean of the UM College of Arts and Sciences

Make a difference Your gifts to the Momentum2 campaign help the college support student scholarships and retain leading faculty.

Visit miami.edu/momentum2 or scan this QR code with your smartphone to find out how your contributions elevate research and faculty development.

This summer, I experienced an important approach to discoverybased learning when I participated in a summer field course in geology taught in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This course and many like it allow students to collect data, hypothesize, and discover our world under the guidance of expert scholars.

On my visit, I saw our students draw an impressive amount of data from their observations and put their significant classroom knowledge into practice.

Under the guidance of Professors Harold Wanless and James Klaus, students observed rock formations and gave clear, interesting hypotheses about their makeup as well as about the geologic history of the coastal Canadian terrain. Professor Wanless and his Geological Sciences colleagues have led geology field training trips throughout North America for students since 1973 and have been taking students to learn in Newfoundland since 1981. Both he and I believe that these trips are invaluable to our students’ educations.

As our geology students demonstrated, working in the field requires substantial knowledge of principles and theories, which in turn must be applied and refined in specific environmental situations. Field courses such as these provide students with practical experience in observation, interpretation, measuring, sampling,

mapping, and synthesizing knowledge.

These diverse skills are enormous assets when our students apply for graduate work or employment in highly competitive careers.

Currently, students in the sciences must perform fieldwork as part of their degree requirements, and students in the arts, social sciences, and humanities are encouraged to do so as well. Study abroad courses, services-learning classes, internships, and scholarships, like Beyond the Book, are critical learning opportunities that encourage new discoveries and real-world applications of skills and knowledge.

Such courses also strengthen our students’ abilities to work in a team environment. In the field, students work toward common goals that they themselves must often set, modify and refine—often in difficult circumstances and on tight deadlines. No matter what career paths they choose, those teamwork skills will prove beneficial in an increasingly global and networked future.

As we look toward the future, the college will continue to enhance creative discovery through hands-on learning both in the classroom and out in the community. These experiences deepen and extend theory into practice, giving our students a competitive edge and instilling intellectual boldness, critical thinking and creativity for a lifetime of learning.

FALL 2013 VOLUMEFOURTEEN | ISSUEONE

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Dean Leonidas G. Bachas Senior Associate Deans Dougless Fuller Angel Kaifer Maria Stampino Associate Deans Charles Mallery Assistant Deans Jennifer Lewis Athena Sanders ADVANCEMENT

Assistant Dean of Advancement Jeanne Luis

EDITORIAL

Editor Rebekah Monson Communications Specialist Raymond Mathews Contributing Editor Carlos Harrison Design and Illustration Christina Ullman & Alix Northrup, Ullman Design Photographers Rebekah Monson Byron Maldonado Contributors Kefryn Reese

Assistant Director of Development Cristina Mas

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/UMCAS for photos, news, and events from the College

CONTENTS FEATURES 8 | Trailblazing in Tropical Science: The tropics have proven to be fertile ground for research and learning in the College of Arts and Sciences.

DEPARTMENTS 2 | News Briefs 6 | Class Spotlight

14 | Training Ground for Future Professionals:

16

| Comings & Goings

New works for UM Theatre Arts, push the boundaries of students learning experiences.

18

| Alumni & Philanthropy

20 | Tracking Hurricanes

Arts & Sciences is produced in the fall and spring by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami.

Through the magazine, we seek to increase awareness of the College’s activities by telling the stories of faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Send comments, requests for permission to reprint material, requests for extra copies, and change of address notification to: Arts & Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, P.O. Box 248004, Coral Gables, FL 33124-4620. Telephone: (305) 284-3874. All contents Š 2013, University of Miami. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Visit the College of Art and Sciences on the web: http://www.as.miami.edu/.

Past issues of the magazine are available at http://www.as.miami.edu/news/magazine/

24 | CAS Event Calendar

ARTS | SCIENCES

1

NEWSBRIEFS

UM’S 2013-2014 FULBRIGHT STUDENT AWARDEES ANNOUNCED UM students and alumni have been selected to receive Fulbright awards to study, teach and conduct research in 8 different countries in the 2013-2014 academic year, continuing the University’s upward trend in student Fulbright grant recipients. Of the 9 UM awardees, 5 are students at the College of Arts and Sciences: Gary Bonnewell, Natalie Cain, Shersil Prentice, and Juan Pablo Ruiz will travel overseas as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and Marie Hanewinckel will spend Summer 2013 in Wales as a Fulbright summer institute participant. 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. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

GARY ‘DAVID’ BONNEWELL (BS ’13, Applied Physics & German) has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) grant to instruct students in Germany in English language and U.S. culture. David has several years of experience as a tutor, mentor, and camp counselor and has developed a strong love of the German language and culture as a German Studies major at UM. He is considering a career as an educator after his Fulbright teaching experience.

NATALIE CAIN (BA ’13, International Studies) has been awarded a Fulbright Study Grant to research the occurrence of the Triatomine insect, which causes Chagas disease, as it correlates to seasonal changes in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Founder and President of the UM Chapter of United Against Infectious Diseases, Natalie has participated in health-related volunteering and study programs throughout Latin America and is fluent in Spanish. She plans to enroll in a dual degree MD/MPH program upon returning to the U.S. MARIE HANEWINCKEL (BA Candidate 2015, International Studies & Political Science) will travel to the United Kingdom to take part in the 2013 Fulbright Summer Institute in Wales. Foote Fellow and Head Delegate of the UM Model United Nations Team, Marie is the first UM recipient of this unique undergraduate US-UK Fulbright award, which provides a six-week cultural and academic program held at three internationally renowned Welsh universities; Cardiff University,

Bangor University and Aberystwyth University, focusing on the theme of “Contemporary Wales: Industry, Politics, Culture and Change.”

SHERSIL PRENTICE (BA ’13, Political Science) will teach English language and lead other school-related activities on a Fulbright ETA grant in Malaysia. A 2011 Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar, she has served as a tutor for all types of students—from kindergartners to undergraduates—and holds minors in education and business administration. Upon returning to the U.S., Shersil plans to teach at the elementary or secondary level for a few years before pursuing a Ph.D. in Education Policy with a Master of Public Policy.

JUAN PABLO RUIZ (BS ’13, English and Biomedical Engineering) has been awarded a Fulbright Study Grant to conduct research at the Tsetse and Trypanosome Research Institute in Tanzania on species diversity of trypanosomes in wildlife populations in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and their role in African Trypanosomiasis (“Sleeping Sickness”). A 2012 Goldwater Scholar, Juan has published articles in several journals related to his research on stem cells and he spent a summer in Tanzania repairing medical equipment at a government hospital as part of the Engineering World Health program. Upon returning from Tanzania, he will study biomedical sciences at Oxford University with the support of a Gilliam Fellowship and NIH/Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship.

Above (left to right) Natalie Cain, Shersil Prentice, and Juan Pablo Ruiz

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. The Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide. Many Fulbright alumni go on to earn the top honors in their fields, including the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize. For more information about applying for the Fulbright opportunities, please visit http://www.miami.edu/index.php/prestigious_awards_home/

2 FALL 2013

DINA DAJANI Neuroscience junior

WELCOMING THE FIRST DA VINCI SCHOLARS COHORT THE CLASS OF 2017 WILL BE THE FIRST COHORT OF DA VINCI SCHOLARS AT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES. The da Vinci Scholars Program (DVP) in the College of Arts and Sciences is a new curriculum which aims to enhance the opportunities for incoming freshman and sophomore students to explore the interdisciplinary connections among the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

The da Vinci Scholars are encouraged to rethink the map of human knowledge through the emphasis of connections between humanistic and scientific inquiry and their modes of understanding: objectivity, critical analysis, self-reflexivity, the nature of proof, authority, and the logic and rhetoric of written expression.

“I chose the da Vinci program because I don’t believe in education being the black and white categories of science, literature, math, and history,” said Beja Turner, da Vinci Scholar. “All of these subjects blend together in some way and I hope to pursue that idea in the da Vinci program.”

The program will strengthen both humanities and sciences majors through innovative approaches. It also helps define the distinctive elements that humanities classes can offer to STEM-minded students: a chance to reflect on questions of human values, ethics, and aesthetics. At the same time, it introduces humanities students to conceptually new means of investigating the traditional fields.

“The da Vinci scholars program offers me an exciting chance to take advantage of the variety of areas of study offered by the University of Miami,” said David Silverman, da Vinci Scholar. “I have a personal interest in learning about the way the United States interacts with other nations around the globe, and the ability to evaluate this relationship through multiple viewpoints will be crucial to furthering my understanding.“

NEUROSCIENCE STUDENT NAMED BARRY M. GOLDWATER SCHOLAR Dina Dajani, a junior majoring in Neuroscience, has been selected as a 2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. The prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program awards outstanding sophomores and juniors pursuing science or math degrees scholarships of up to $7,500.

Since her freshman year, Dajani has been conducting research at the Child Division of the Social Psychology Lab, coding the content of conversations between children with high-functioning autism and typically developing peers to determine differences in content and how this may affect social skills in autism.

“She has absolutely found her calling,” said Heather A. Henderson, Associate Professor of Psychology, who oversees Dajani’s research at the Child Psychology Lab. “Dina’s work towards developing a novel coding system for adolescents with autism shows a level of insight, intelligence, and an innate sense of curiosity.”

Dajani has accumulated a list of accomplishments inside and out of the lab. She has interned as a research assistant at the Cell Biology Lab at Johns Hopkins, University School of Medicine last summer and has plans to return this summer. On campus, she is Team Captain of SART, the Sexual Assault Response Team; a Member of the Steering Committee for UM Unites, a campus-wide suicide prevention initiative; a Foote Fellow; and has received the University Scholarship, Gables Scholarship, Florida Byrd Scholarship, Florida Academic Scholarship, Arts for the Future Scholarship, and the Community Blood Centers of South Florida Scholarship.

The Goldwater scholarship is and exciting step toward achieving her ultimate academic and career goals, she said. “I want to attend graduate school and receive my Ph.D. in Neuroscience and eventually be an investigator in autism research,” said Dajani. “I plan to enter graduate school in the fall of 2014.”

The Goldwater Scholarship This scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type, and was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering.

To learn more visit, http://www.act.org/goldwater/index.html To learn more about the program, visit: www.miami.edu/davinci

ARTS | SCIENCES

3

NEWSBRIEFS

PHYSICS | ART & ART HISTORY | ENGLISH | GEOGRAPHY & REGIONAL STUDIES | PSYCHOLOGY

STUDENT CURATORS FOCUS ON PANAMA THE COLORFUL TEXTILES KNOWN AS MOLAS ARE FAMOUS FOR THE RICH STORIES THEY TELL ABOUT THE TRADITIONAL LIFE OF THE GUNA PEOPLE, NATIVE TO THE SAN BLAS ISLANDS. Made for over 100 years by Guna women, molas are hand-stitched cotton panels and blouses made of multi-colored and multilayered cotton cloth. The student curators in the annual museum studies class, ArtLab @ The Lowe, supervised by Dr. Traci Ardren, Associate Professor of Anthropology, chose to explore the connections within the Lowe’s collection of molas and pre-Columbian ceramic and stone objects from the Gran Coclé and Gran Chiriquí cultures in From Ancient Art to Modern Molas: Recurring Themes in Indigenous Panamá, on view May 3, 2013 through April 27, 2014 in the Richard and Shelley Bermont Focus Gallery at the Lowe Art Museum.

The ArtLab class traveled to Panama during Spring Break for a firsthand look at Guna culture. After arriving in Panama City, the team flew on a small plane to the town of Corazón de Jesus. From there, the class traveled by boat to the island of Niadub, in the province of Guna Yala. Niadub is not a tourist island; everyone must get permission to visit the island from the local Congress, a group of male community leaders.

Most students lived with host families and interviewed people on the island about their culture and discussed the artwork included in this exhibition. By immersing themselves in Guna culture, they were able to discuss molas from the Lowe’s collection with Guna artists and learn more about the meanings of the designs.

“The young curators heard firsthand from Guna leaders how central art is to their identity as indigenous people and how important it is to the preservation of their culture,” said Ardren. “The warm welcome the UM contingent received in this small community, based on our shared interest in art and Guna culture, showed the students how art brings people together and how their studies here in Miami can positively affect lives all around the world.”

The students also held discussions with the Museum Committee, a group of men and women from Niadub who created a museum on the island to teach children about Guna culture. The Guna have a number of spiritual leaders called sahilas, and an interview was recorded with the First Sahila of Niadub, Gonzalo Gonzalez. The songs of the sahila contain lessons and stories that also are represented in the mola designs on display.

continue to wear the full traditional dress on a daily basis, whereas others choose to do so only for ceremonial purposes. Molas also have a significant economic impact on Guna society. In the 1960s, a coconut scarcity severely impacted the traditional Guna economy, causing increased reliance on mola sales for economic stability. The Guna continue to sell molas to tourists and merchants to supplement their income during times of hardship.

La Cooperativa Productores De Molas, also known as the Mola Co-op, is a main locus of solidarity for women artisans. It began in 1966 through the efforts of Peace Corps volunteers and functions today with nearly 1,200 members who collaborate through During the Guna resistance to Panamanian the entire process of mola production, from control from 1915-1925, Guna women were cutting and sewing to assembly into an array prohibited from wearing their traditional dress. of items for sale. Together, they make an This prohibition caused molas to become a effort to understand the aesthetic qualities symbol of resistance for the Guna and the consumers seek while striving not to sacrifice heart of the revolution. Today many women craftsmanship, as machine stitching remains unacceptable. Guna women have formed a significant economic institution through their Co-op efforts, stressing companionship and unity between members and an open forum for teaching and helping fellow artists.

From these direct interactions with the artists and cultural leaders the ArtLab team was able to develop a better understanding of underlying themes and messages conveyed through molas.

From left: ArtLab Donor Stella Holmes, Leah Andritsch, Aimee Allen, Kathryn Metzker, Ava Wilson, Juan Pablo Sanchez Williams, Navina DeLight, Katherine Mato, Joseph Stevenson, Jessica Figueroa, Traci Ardren, and C.D. MacKenzie Levine.

4 FALL 2013

Unknown Artist, Guna (Guna Yala, Panamá), Mola, after 1950.

Guna women make molas as an expression of their identity and say they protect their traditional cultural stories and lessons by constantly revealing them through their art. Designs are derived from aspects of traditional life along the island chain; stingrays, crabs, and other marine life are popular imagery, as are the daily activities of the Guna. Throughout the exhibition, continuities and change can be seen; cultural values continue to be expressed even though the artistic materials or medium have changed.

To learn more about Dr. Jha’s research visit www.amishi.com, or follow her on Twitter @amishijha.

EXPLORING HOW MINDFULNESS HELPS TODAY, THIS QUESTION IS BEING ANSWERED BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AMISHI JHA. HER LAB AT THE COLLEGE’S NEW NEUROSCIENCE ANNEX IS STUDYING THE EFFECTS OF MINDFULNESS TRAINING ON HEALTH, FOCUS, MOOD, AND ENERGY.

Research on mindfulness, or the mental mode of being engaged in the present moment without evaluating or emotionally reacting to it, has shown that people can defend themselves from the effects of stress.

“Pulling into a parking spot at work, you realize you have no recollection of the drive that got you there. On reaching the bottom of a page in a book, you are frustrated that you have failed to understand what you just read. In conversation, you suddenly become aware that you have no idea what the person speaking to you has said. These episodes are symptoms of a distracted mind,” says Amishi Jha, who researches cognitive neuroscience.

“We are now investigating how the brain pays attention and how mental training involving mindfulness-based techniques may strengthen the brain’s attentional capacity.”

Over the past year, Jha has presented her research on improving attention with mindfulness training across the globe.

In October 2012, Jha participated in a roundtable discussion with many leaders in the field of mindfulness research during the 25th Anniversary meeting of the Mind and Life Institute held in New York City. The discussion was attended by honored guest and MLI board member His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In January 2013, she led two discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In June 2013, she was part of a roundtable at the Huffington Post’s first ever women’s conference, “The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power.” This broad recognition of her research shows that there is a deep need for addressing the effects of stress on our society.

The Jha lab is currently conducting several mindfulness training projects which are supported by $3.5 million in funding from the Department of Defense, private foundations, and individual gifts. The broad aim of these projects is to determine if the mind can be trained to be more resilient, more attentive, and happier using mindfulness and compassion practices.

The projects have involved soldiers, military spouses, ROTC cadets, and undergraduates. The data from these studies are suggesting that mindfulness training does indeed strengthen the brain’s ability to pay attention, regulate mood, and stay on task. The next phase of this research will involve investigating the structural and functional brain changes that come with mindfulness training in high stress populations.

Amishi Jha is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami, where she serves as Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative. Her research investigates the neural bases of attention, working memory, and mindfulness using brain-wave recordings and functional MRI.

“We are now investigating how the brain pays attention and how mental training involving mindfulness- based techniques may strengthen the brain’s attentional capacity.”

AMISHI JHA Associate Professor of Psychology

ARTS | SCIENCES

5

CLASSSPOTLIGHT

T H I S F E AT U R E H I G H L I G H T S C O U R S E S T H AT A R E C R E AT I N G S O M E C A M P U S B U Z Z .

IMMIGRATION REFORM COURSE PUTS STUDENTS IN THE CENTER OF HOT-BUTTON ISSUES Budget battles and a debate over a possible military strike on Syria have made it unlikely that Congress will pass an immigration reform bill during its fall session.

But in this semester-long University of Miami course, students are given the opportunity to interact with top government, private sector, and media figures to address the issue from all angles.

Above: Students from diverse majors, from Biology to Religious Studies, enrolled in this landmark class.

Immigration Reform: The Current Debate helps students understand the complexities of the national discussion on the thorny topic, examining the impact of recent waves of immigration on U.S. society, the workforce, education, media, culture, health care, and law enforcement.

“This is a course that presents students with a variety of viewpoints on this fundamental issue. We don’t tell students what to think. We give them the opportunity to listen from key people espousing very different political positions. Students listen to them, engage in a dialogue with them, and then form their own ideas on this issue,” said Ariel C. Armony, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, one of the key academic units involved in teaching the course.

“I remember that the book from my first International Studies class included a quote from Einstein that read: ‘Politics is more difficult than physics.’ This class is a living example of Einstein’s idea,” said Rocio Budetta, ’14, International Relations. “Before taking the Immigration Reform course I knew immigration policy only from what I read in the news or heard at home. With, not only, good readings and knowledgeable professors, but also with the highest-quality guest speakers, this class has given me access to learning about the topic from the people who every day experience, formulate, report, and manage immigration policy.”

BOOKMARKS ANGEL DE LA LUNA AND THE 5TH GLORIOUS MYSTERY

Set against the backdrop of the 1986 Philippine People Power Revolution, the struggles of surviving Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII in the early 1990s, and a cold winter’s season in the city of Chicago, Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Evelina Galang’s new novel Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery (Coffee House Press 2013) is the story of a daughter coming of age, coming to forgiveness, and learning to move past the chaos of grief to survive.

6 FALL 2013

PUTTING PHILOSOPHY TO WORK: INQUIRY AND ITS PLACE IN CULTURE, ESSAYS ON SCIENCE, RELIGION, LAW, LITERATURE, AND LIFE

Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law Susan Haack’s updated edition of engaging essays is informed and unified by the conviction that philosophy can, and should, engage with real-world issues. In Putting Philosophy to Work (Prometheus Books 2013), Haack’s keen analytical skills and well-chosen illustrations illuminate a diverse range of cultural questions; and her direct style and wry sense of humor make complex ideas and subtle distinctions accessible to serious readers whatever their discipline or particular interests.

Left: Joseph Usinski lectures as one of four professors who work as a team to represent the different views of immigration reform.

Right: Enrique Gonzalez, Special Counsel to Florida Senator Marco Rubio guest lectures.

“This is an important debate, we have gone out of our way to recruit speakers with different points of view.

We want you to see all the arguments. We’re going to try to broaden your view of a very complex issue.”

— DONNA E. SHALALA, UM PRESIDENT

“If nothing else, by the end of this course we will have solved the immigration debate,” Fernand Amandi, Managing Partner at Miami-based Bendixen & Amandi International and a course instructor, said to about 150 students on August 26, the first day of the course.

“Over the summer, I worked as a research scholar in El Paso, Texas.

National immigration reform is an issue of primary importance in that city because most families are composed of first or second generation citizens (or are undocumented). After hearing many personal stories in El Paso and coming to grips with a local immigration hotspot, I enrolled in this course to get an idea of the big picture. In a country with 50 states and a multi-tiered federal government, we need to examine where our national policies and local communities meet,” said Joseph Kolodrubetz, ’14, Latin American Studies, Religious Studies, and Economics.

Using multimedia news clips to present various sides of the issue, Amandi told the class that the immigration debate is the intersection of sex, politics, money, and race.

“At the heart of this immigration debate is an impact of billions and trillions of dollars in the American economy,” said Amandi. He noted that the left-leaning think tank, the Center for American Progress, estimates that immigration reform could boost the U.S. gross domestic product THE CRISIS OF ISLAMIC MASCULINITIES

In The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities (Bloomsbury Publishing 2014), Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Amanullah De Sondy argues that rigid notions of masculinity are causing crisis in the global Islamic community. In order to evaluate whether there really is only one valid, ideal Islamic masculinity, De Sondy’s book explores key figures of the Qur’an and Indian-Pakistani Islamic history, and exposes the precariousness of tight constraints on Islamic manhood.

anywhere from $832 billion to $1.4 trillion, while the conservative Heritage Foundation thinks legalizing the status of the undocumented would result in a $9.4 trillion loss in benefits and a net cost of $6.3 trillion.

Amandi is one of four instructors teaching the course—a team approach Armony is pleased with because it exposes students to people with “very different but complementary backgrounds.”

Besides Amandi and Armony, who is an expert in Latin American politics, other course instructors include Joseph Uscinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, who is an authority on American politics and media; and Rudy Fernandez, UM Vice President for Government and Community Relations and Chief of Staff to President Donna E. Shalala, who served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.

Politicians, lawyers, activists, media personalities, and leading scholars will be guest lecturers in the class throughout the semester, giving the students the opportunity to hear from and question the “key players involved in shaping the immigration debate,” said Uscinski.

Students have heard from guest lecturers including immigration lawyer Enrique Gonzalez, the Special Counsel to Senator Marco Rubio who helped draft a new immigration bill; UM’s own President Shalala; and Alan Gomez, Immigration Reporter, USA Today.

“Twenty of us worked on the bill. Three days a week the senators and staff would meet to hash out issues,” Gonzalez told the students. “Any one of you could have been in that room with us. The youngest of us was 23; the oldest is me, at 46. That is the difference you all can make.”

President Shalala told the class that all four of her grandparents were from Lebanon and that she once helped coach one of her grandmothers for her citizenship exam. “This is an important debate,” she said. “We have gone out of our way to recruit speakers with different points of view. We want you to see all the arguments. We’re going to try to broaden your view of a very complex issue.”

The students are also very engaged in the debate. “I was very impressed by the student questions. They had been studying the issue for weeks and had better questions than a lot of D.C. reporters ask,” said Gomez.

Immigration Reform: The Current Debate is spearheaded by the Center for Latin American Studies and its Latin American Studies Program. The Department of Political Science is the primary departmental unit. The College of Arts and Sciences is providing lead support, with the Office of the President and the American Studies Program also backing the course.

ARTS | SCIENCES

7

FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS, U M S C I E N T I S T S H AV E B E E N AT T H E F O R E F R O N T O F S C I E N C E I N N AT U R E ’ S M O S T FERTILE REGION

8 FALL 2013

trailblazing in

T R O P I C A L

SCIENCE While Charles Darwin may be one of history’s most

revered scientists, popular lore often neglects that he

observed far more than the famed Galapagos tortoises while traveling aboard the HMS Beagle. On his near

five-year voyage, Darwin saw deep oceans, volcanic cliffs, lush jungles, reefs teeming with life, and an incredible

panoply of plants and animals in South America, Australia, and Africa. All told, Darwin observed a host of diverse tropical ecosystems that served as the engines

for life on earth for thousands of years before he arrived, and which still flourish today.

ARTS | SCIENCES

9

How do we pinpoint the precise moment when one SPECIES becomes two? Uy believes that a species of BIRD called the FLYCATCHER on the Solomon Islands may hold THE KEY.

M

albert uy

Professor Uy, Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology at the Department of Biology, during his most recent research trip to the Solomon Islands.

odern scientists estimate that the tropics produce as many as one-half to three-quarters of the world’s organisms. This incredible biodiversity inspired one of the greatest scientific ideas in history, and the verdant region has proven fertile ground for research and learning in the College of Arts and Sciences.

When the Organization for Tropical Studies, a global leader in research, education, and conservation, was formed 50 years ago, UM was one of seven founding member institutions. Today, the tropics remain a key laboratory for new knowledge on a range of critical topics including evolution, genetics, health, and climate change.

“Tropical science is one of those areas in which Miami has been a real leader historically, and it’s one of our most exciting areas of research and education today,” said Angel Kaifer, Senior Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. “People imagine that this is about observing species in the jungle, but the field has truly progressed so much further than that.”

EXPLORING THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

A

ssociate Professor of Biology and Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology Albert Uy says that we still have a lot to learn about how Darwin’s natural selection process actually works more than 175 years after he began forming his theory.

Where do new species come from? How does evolution work on the molecular level? And how do we pinpoint the precise moment when one species becomes two? Uy believes that a species of bird called the flycatcher on the Solomon Islands may hold the key.

10 FALL 2013

heliconia tortuosa

“This is a remarkable example of a bird that is on the verge of becoming another species,” explains Uy, who has received grants from both the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society to conduct his research. “Flycatchers are spread all across the Solomon Islands, and as they jump from island to island, the populations start changing. We are using a combination of field observation and molecular tools to understand the bird’s evolutionary history and to test whether they are indeed new species.”

This is where Uy and his team take Darwin’s theory into the 21st century.

By collecting blood samples from living flycatchers, Uy’s lab can sequence the DNA of birds that exhibit different physical traits, like beak shape and plumage.

“What we are finding are the unique mutations,” Uy says, “the specific genetic changes that underline the physical changes that are resulting in the creation of a new species.”

Here’s how it works. There are two varieties of flycatcher in the Solomon Islands that are identical in every way except for their color. One is black from head to toe, while the other is called “chestnut-bellied” for its orange-brown vest. Each lives on a separate island. The question is whether the color difference is the expression of a genetic mutation that is driving the two populations apart.

Uy and his team found existing research that identified an all-black gene mutation in mice and dogs. Using DNA sequencing technology, Uy analyzed the same sequence of base pairs of the flycatcher genome across several different wild varieties. Only the all-back birds had the mutation, while the chestnut varieties and others carried the ancestral DNA sequence.

“Not only do we see how natural selection is operating over time, but we’re tracking the genetic changes that are responsible for those population changes,” Uy explains. “Next, we can test whether two populations of flycatchers recognize each other as the same species.”

calathea crotalifera juvenile calathea crotalifera flowers MAKING MODERN MODELS

W

hile Uy unravels Darwin’s theory using the smallest molecular data, Biology Professor Carol Horvitz, a tropical plant ecologist, takes a bigger view—much bigger.

Horvitz studies population dynamics, mostly of tropical plants. Since populations undergo changes across a broader span of time and with more variables than she could ever possibly observe in the field, she relies on advanced mathematics to make sense of it all.

“To understand ecology fully, you need to understand mathematics,” she said. “Essentially when we talk about dynamics, we’re talking about changes over time in numbers—rates of birth, rates of death, rates of growth—that determine how and why populations exist as they do.”

While these numbers can be isolated and observed very closely in the lab, lab data ignore the context of nature. Butterflies, birds, ants, trees, storms, wind, and climate are but a few factors that can influence a population’s development.

To factor in so much data, Horvitz works with mathematicians to create the models through the Institute for Theoretical and Mathematical Ecology, an effort from science, mathematics, and computer science faculty from the College and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

“We have some amazing mathematicians who are not only interested in revealing abstract concepts of mathematics and physics,” she said, “they’re also interested in connecting how dynamics in nature can be discovered through mathematics and the interactions between data and theory.”

While Horvitz and Uy’s approaches seem very different on the surface, their work is representative of the College’s overall approach in the field of tropical science. From the smallest molecule to the biggest mathematical model, UM scientists are leading discoveries that can fundamentally change the ways we understand our environment and life within it.

ARTS | SCIENCES

11

“What we’re really excited about,” Uy says of his research, “is the ability to go from the molecules all the way to the population; to understand what Darwin really struggled with, what he called ‘the mystery of mysteries;’ to understand the true ‘origin of species.’”

”What we’re really excited about, is the ability to go from the MOLECULES all the way to the population; to understand what DARWIN really struggled with, what he called “the MYSTERY of mysteries;” to understand the true ‘ORIGIN OF SPECIES.” ALBERT UY Biology professor and Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology

FORGING KNOWLEDGE IN THE FIELD

W

hile researchers tackle new science, UM students gain insight into the mysteries of the natural world from an array of coursework in the tropics. Undergraduate and graduate students alike take to the region to learn more about larger concepts like biodiversity and population studies, and even to focus in on the traits of specific species.

On a summer research trip to the Solomon Islands with Uy, Joseph Cimaglia, a senior in Biology and Microbiology, developed an experiment to test how hermit crabs’ aggressiveness affected their ability to find a new shell. Counter to his initial hypothesis, Cimaglia’s trials showed that “shy” crabs actually had a statistical advantage in getting a shell. Instead of trying to fight the other crab, shyer crabs were more likely to go for the shell, he said.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” he said. “But in our general biology classes, most of our work happens in a lab. We don’t get to observe organisms in their natural habitats. That opportunity was a huge part of what made this trip so amazing.”

Teaching students in the tropics instills a whole host of skills necessary for careers across the sciences, Uy said. Field courses give students hands-on experience formulating experiments, testing a hypothesis, gathering data, and presenting results.

Students’ grades aren’t dependent on the outcome of the experiment, but rather the quality of their scientific reasoning.

“Working in the field empowers them to think more creatively as scientists,” Uy said. “They have to think conceptually and quantitatively, suffer through failures, and celebrate successes.”

12 FALL 2013

One of UM’s premiere semester-on-location programs, UGalapagos offers undergraduates an entire semester of field-oriented study in the same special islands that captured Darwin’s imagination. Tailored to students majoring in marine science, biology, and geology, UGalapagos promises intensive research on conservation biology and scientific study in an unusual archipelago ecosystem.

In addition to the science, students gain access to experiences tourists never see — snorkeling with sea lions, manta rays, and marine iguanas; visiting bird rookeries; mingling with Darwin’s storied giant tortoises; and hiking into volcanic craters. They also live with a host family for intensive cultural exchange and language immersion.

But, UM scientists and students don’t have to venture so far to find fertile ground for tropical field research. On the north edge of campus, the Gifford Arboretum provides an important local collection of tropical trees and plants for study and teaching. The College also partners with nearby Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden to research its unique flora and fauna, and faculty and students frequently explore and experiment in South Florida’s distinctive ecosystems, including the Everglades and coral reefs.

No matter where it’s studied, tropical science is essential to broadening our understanding of life on earth, Horvitz said. “Every species that exists is a representation of some solution to the problem of being alive, and many, many species live in the tropics,” she said.

“Each species is its own book of information about how to live on planet earth. We never know when we’re going to need that reference.”

Kevin G. McCracken named inaugural Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation

Through lectures, field observations, and experiments, students learn the basic principles of island ecology, evolution, and conservation. In addition, students will participate in community outreach programs, and on-site field research.

Below: Students travel in open boats to move between the Nafinua Research Station and adjacent islands.

Evolutionary geneticist Kevin G. McCracken has been named the inaugural Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation at the University of Miami.

McCracken, currently a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will serve a dual appointment as associate professor in the Department of Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. He was selected via a months-long international search, and will be joining the UM faculty in January 2014.

McCracken has published more than 75 journal articles and has received grants from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright scholarships to study molecular mechanisms of hypoxia resistance in high-altitude waterbirds in the South American Andes. Hypoxia occurs when the body or a part of the body is deprived of oxygen supply, and it is the cause of “altitude sickness” in humans.

“I was drawn to the University of Miami by its reputation, proximity to my study sites in Latin America and history of tropical biology research in places like the Everglades, which abound with all kinds of different waterbird species,” McCracken said. “After fourteen years in the subarctic, my family and I are really looking forward to the adventure and geographical, cultural, and biological contrast of living in the subtropics in one of the worlds’ most dynamic and greatest cities.”

The Kushlan Chair in Waterbird Biology and Conservation was established in 2012 through a generous endowment from three-time University of Miami alumnus Dr. James A. Kushlan. Dr. Kushlan is a writer, scientist, educator, and conservationist. He is recognized for his expertise in the biology and conservation of waterbirds and wetlands and in the strategic management of not-for-profit conservation and educational organizations. Dr. Kushlan serves as co-chair for the College of Arts and Sciences Momentum2 campaign and as member of the college’s visiting committee. He also serves on the boards of the Everglades Foundation, Zoo Miami Zoological Society of Florida, HistoryMiami, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

ARTS | SCIENCES

13

training ground for

FUTURE

for department of theatre arts

PROFESSIONALS AS THE JERRY HERMAN RING THEATRE CELEBRATES ITS 75TH SEASON, NEW WORKS THAT PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF STUDENT LEARNING EXPERIENCES HAVE BECOME THE STAPLE REPERTOIRE. THE RING THEATRE SERVES NOT ONLY THE ACADEMIC PURPOSE OF A LEARNING LAB FOR STUDENTS, BUT ALSO SERVES AS A VALUED CULTURAL VENUE BECAUSE OF THE STRONG ACADEMIC TRAINING BEHIND IT.

The mission of the University of Miami’s Department of Theatre Arts is to produce graduates who are capable of applying learned theatrical techniques and of making independent creative judgments. Learn more about the Department of Theatre Arts at http://miami.edu/tha 14 FALL 2013

“That’s what I love most, doing works for which there is no template and you have to figure things out.”

HENRY FONTE, CHAIR UM DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE ARTS

roducing new material is the passion of Henry Fonte, Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts. “That’s what I love most, doing works for which there is no template and you have to figure things out,” he said. “At a research university like UM, new work is our research.

That’s how we contribute. There are great plays, but we need new plays for a new audience.”

Under the direction of Fonte, the Department of Theatre has focused not just on encouraging the development of original work, but also on new adaptations of classic works.

To that end, a new playwriting competition sponsored in part by the Friends of Theatre launched in 2013. The competition was judged by a panel of professionals including Miami Herald theater critic Christine Dolen; Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz; award-winning director Victor Maog; noted playwright Lucas Hnath; and Edith Freni, lecturer in playwriting and play analysis at the University of Miami. The winning play, Lessons from an Abandoned Work, by Mona Pirnot, a junior BFA Acting major from Sarasota, tells the story of what happens when a college student, in the middle of an existential crisis, writes a documentary drama that forces her to decide whether honesty really is the best policy. Lessons from an Abandoned Work will be performed in the Department of Theatre’s Studio Theatre this season.

One of the highlights of the upcoming season will be an ongoing partnership between the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and the Department of Theatre Arts for

UM THEATRE ARTS PROFESSOR

Edith Freni debuts new play at prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre

the play Metaphormeses by Mary Zimmerman. These annual collaborative productions serve as professional learning experiences that offer theatre majors at the university an opportunity to work with seasoned professionals. This year, Miami’s hottest regional theatre actors join UM’s talented student actors to create more than 50 characters and bring the Greek myths to life.

Students majoring in technical theatre and design will work side-by-side with the Arsht Center/UM production and creative team to create a professional set, costumes, and lighting design.

They also will assist the production manager, stage manager, and other key production staff members. Allowing students to work directly with professionals prepares them for their careers.

“Students need to learn to work with living playwrights,” said Fonte. “They need to have the experience, where a scene may change through a conversation or when there may be seven different versions of a script.”

As a board member of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre, a group of 140 that stage productions of musicals, Fonte fosters the participation of writers with the department and is continually exposed to new works. He regularly travels to see who is doing a reading or a skeletal production to see how the University’s program can join the chain of development.

As the Department of Theatre continues to expand its scope, so do opportunities. The development of new works has created a need for more advanced facilities that can match the creative demands of the students and faculty. A new facility would enable the department to book large-scale theatre productions and to allow audiences of 500 to 600 guests at one time.

Professor of playwriting and play analysis Edith Freni, of the Department of Theatre Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, debuted her new play, Buena Vista, at the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre’s First Look Repertory of New Work in Chicago this summer.

Steppenwolf’s First Look is a showcase of “developmental productions” featuring high-powered casts performing the work of exciting emerging playwrights. Now in its eighth season, the First Look has established quite a track record — 12 of the 21 plays presented have gone on to official premieres around the country.

Freni’s Buena Vista is the story of Noah, whose weekend getaway at his family’s isolated Colorado cabin turns into “a bizarre, revelatory, snowed-in family nightmare.” A

series of revelations ignite Buena Vista’s surreal conclusion, unfolding in a frozen wooden box at 12,000 feet above sea level.

Several of Freni’s plays have been produced, developed and read at theatres in New York and nationally, and the playwright calls working at Steppenwolf an honor.

“What has impressed me about working at Steppenwolf, which most people think of as an actors’ theatre, is how much focus is put on the play, with the luxury of having a director, a dramaturg and two stage managers sitting next to me. It really does ‘take a village’ to do this,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. Founded in 1974, the Steppenwolf Theatre has become one of the most respected theatre companies in the United States.

ARTS | SCIENCES

15

COMINGS GOINGS

N E W FA C U LT Y I N T H E C O L L E G E O F A R T S & S C I E N C E S

JUS TIN R. RITZINGER

CHAOMING SONG

DAVID IKARD

Assistant Professor of Religion

Assistant Professor of Physics

Associate Professor of English

Hometown: River Falls, Wisconsin

Hometown: Zhoushan, China

Hometown: Troutman, North Carolina

Education: Ph.D. Study of Religion, Harvard University 2010, B.A. Religious Studies, Lawrence University 1999

Education: B.S. in physics, Fudan University, China, 1997-2001.

Education: BB.A./M.A. North Carolina State Ph.D U of Wisc-Madison

M.S./Ph.D. in physics, City College of New York, 2001-2008.

Research and teaching interests: Black Popular Culture; African American Literature; Masculinity Studies; Black Feminism

Research and teaching interests: Buddhism and Chinese religion; Ethics; Modernity; Narrative; Social Thought Hobbies: spending time with my family. My daughter just started Kindergarten, so that means helping her with homework, taking her to dance lessons, etc.

“The days when we could assume that there is only one way to be modern and the West is it are over, so it’s important to critically reflect on the formation of modernities in other contexts and particularly the role that religion has played in that process.

I hope that my work will enrich Buddhists’ understanding of some pivotal figures and developments within their tradition. ”

Research Associate, Northeastern University, 2008-2012.

Research Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, 2012-2013 Research Associate, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 2009-2013 M.S./Ph.D. in physics, City College of New York, 2001-2008.

Research Associate, Northeastern University, 2008-2012.

Research and teaching interests: The application of statistical physics to other branches of physics as well as biology, computer science and social science.

I’m working on uncovering laws and principles governing large-scale social dynamics, such as human mobility patterns and online interactions.

Hobbies: When indoors, I like to read; when outdoors, I like to hike.

“I think there will always an opportunity for me to introduce to students many cool ideas that were originally developed by physicist and later successively applied to many other fields, in particular to understanding our society. ” – CHAOMING SONG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS 16 FALL 2013

Hobbies: I love the water—be it the pool, lake, or beach. If I’m not working I’m usually spending time with my children.

“I really look forward to getting in the classroom, meeting my students, and engaging with them about African American literature, culture, and politics. Even though I’ve been a professor for over a decade, teaching never gets old.

In fact, I still experience a pang of nervous excitement on the first day of classes. Suffice it to say, I picked the right career. ”

CRYSTAL ADAMS Assistant Professor of Sociology

Hometown: Bryan/College Station Texas Education: Harvard School of Public Health, M.P.H., 2013 Brown University, Ph.D. (Sociology), 2012 Texas Tech University, M.A. (Sociology), 2006 Texas A&M University, B.S. (Sociology), 2003 Research and teaching interests: The areas of medical sociology, health policy, and communitybased participatory research. I am interested in how various actors in the health care sector—from laypersons to health professionals to the pharmaceutical industry—relate to health policy.

Hobbies: I like to spend time reading about the beliefs of other cultures and societies. I also am an avid foodie and I love to try out new, exotic cuisines.

“I would like students to understand that laypeople can become experts in their own right regarding their own personal health and the local environment in which they live, work and play. My research shows that individuals have the power to improve public health by joining community efforts that aim to address the structural flaws in the U.S. health system.”

BOLINA JASWINDER

LUCINA UDDIN

Assistant Professor of English

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Hometown: Chicago

Hometown: Chittagong, Bangladesh

Education: Ph.D., English, Ohio University, 2010

Education:

M.F.A., Creative Writing, University of Michigan, 2003

Ph.D., Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience, University of California, 2001-2006

B.A., Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, 2000

B.S., Neuroscience, Philosophy minor, University of California, 1997-2001

Research and teaching interests: My current teaching focus is on American poetry since 1950 and also on 20th century and contemporary multilingual poetry. I am also writing a book of poems and a book of essays with a loosely political theme.

Research and teaching interests: I focus on attention and social cognition in neurotypical adults, typically developing children, and atypical development.

Hobbies: I’m working on a screenplay with a friend. I also paint and golf (badly).

“My work has the potential to aid in diagnosis and monitoring of treatment outcomes for individuals with this increasingly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. ”

Hobbies: I enjoy running, yoga, sushi, and international travel.

“A creative writing workshop—and literature classrooms in general— are incredibly dynamic places. While I think there can be a “right” way to read literature, really good writing is always open to new perspectives and new interpretations.”

– BOLINA JASWINDER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH ARTS | SCIENCES

17

SPEAKER SERIES TO COMMEMORATE ALUMNA’S LOVE OF LEARNING

T

hroughout her life, Edith Bleich, A.B. ’39 Arts & Sciences, jokingly referred to her alma mater as the “cardboard college,” since UM used temporary walls to separate classes in its early days. Yet until she passed away six weeks shy of her 103rd birthday in 2011, Bleich remained a devoted Miami Hurricane because of what she gained in those makeshift classrooms.

“She was a teacher for more than half a century, and she had students calling her and sending letters up until the day she died.”

STUART BLUMIN

MAKE YOUR GIFT TO THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES > contact Assistant Dean for Advancement Jeanne Luis

at 305-284-2988 or jluis1@miami.edu.

18 FALL 2013

Now, Bleich’s nephew, Stuart Blumin, has commemorated his aunt’s legacy with annual lectures in the College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities. The Edith Bleich Speaker Series will bring a notable expert to the Center annually for public talks related to history and the humanities.

Blumin said the series honors his aunt’s enduring love of Miami and the University, as well as her deep commitment to education. Bleich taught for 52 years in Miami-Dade schools, mostly at South Beach Elementary. “She was a teacher for more than half a century, and she had students calling her and sending letters up until the day she died,” he said. “As a professor, I know that it takes a special teacher to evoke that kind of loyalty and memory.”

Bleich viewed herself and her family as pioneers, settling in Miami in 1925 and later founding Silver Paint Co. She felt deeply connected to the city throughout its growth and development, and she was a lifelong student of history and the humanities, Blumin said. “I sent her every book I published, and she was usually the only member of the family calling me to discuss it,” said Blumin, a retired Cornell history professor.

Bleich also delighted in the community spirit sparked by her alma mater, becoming a huge fan of the women’s basketball team in her later years, and regularly attending ‘Canes football games with her husband, Albert, her siblings, and a flock of nieces and nephews throughout her life. “Some of my dearest memories were of going to games at the Orange Bowl with the whole family,” Blumin said. “She never missed a game.”

“The Edith Bleich Series will be an important part of the Center’s programming that brings together the UM community — faculty, students, staff, and alumni — and the greater Miami community — including teachers in Miami-Dade schools,” said Professor Mihoko Suzuki, director of the Center. “Through these annual lectures, the Center will honor her memory and distinguished career as a teacher as well as the work of donor Stuart Blumin as a Professor of History at Cornell. ”

OBSERVATORY WILL OPEN NEW WORLDS TO STUDENTS AND THE COMMUNITY A new observatory will give A&S students and amateur astronomers a better glimpse into our galaxy and beyond in the spring. Perched atop the Knight Physics Building, the new facility replaces the former Ungar observatory, and features a stateof-the art telescope to help students observe the cosmos firsthand.

The telescope will give students a much better view of bodies in space and it features a large-format camera to take high-resolution images, said Professor Joshua Gundersen, chair of

the Department of Physics. Its lightgathering power will help observers spot objects more than 1,000 times fainter than what we can see with the naked eye, and various filters can help reveal additional details.

The observatory and telescope will primarily be used for teaching undergraduates basic principles about astronomy, astrophysics, and math Gundersen said. Students will use the telescope to gather original data that can be used throughout the curriculum, and data collection and analysis can help undergraduates across many majors improve science and technological literacy and bolster their critical thinking skills. While most research is conducted using much larger terrestrial telescopes or telescopes in space, Gundersen said the observatory could be used for preliminary research.

The observatory also will enable more of the community to explore science and space. “This is primarily a teaching telescope, but I think people in the community will enjoy it,” he said. “It could help introduce children to space and science, and amateur astronomers in South Florida will be interested in using it.”

Bringing more future scientists to UM is a key motivator for Mark Shyman, M.A. ’08, whose gift helped to purchase

The Observatory Opening The College will celebrate the observatory’s opening in the spring.

For more information, visit http://web.physics.miami.edu

“I think this telescope could attract students from all over the world to come to UM to study physics and astronomy.”

MARK SHYMAN M.A. ’08

the new equipment. Shyman, a businessman with a long-held curiosity about Isaac Newton and physics, grew interested in astronomy and the observatory in 2007 during a Survey of Physics course in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program.

“I really loved the class, but I realized that the equipment was outof-date, so I made a commitment to myself about improving astronomy assets,” Shyman said. “Now, I think this telescope could attract students from all over the world to come to UM to study physics and astronomy.”

Shyman worked closely with Gundersen and physics faculty to make his commitment a reality. “I am very pleased with the effort, and I know this is going to be a beautiful resource,” Shyman said. “I hope it will motivate others to take a look around and see where they can contribute to the academic needs on campus.”

ARTS | SCIENCES

19

TRACKINGHURRICANES YOURNEWS

50s

_______________________________ SHERWOOD ROSS, AB ’55, gave a luncheon

speech at the Miami Rotarians on his experiences in the civil rights movement. A former member of the UM varsity debate team, Ross became new director of the National Urban League after graduation and Press Coordinator for the James Meredith March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966. He currently runs a public relations firm and is a regular reader at the U-Speak poetry open mic nights at UM’s Oasis Café.

CLASS NOTES | ALUMNI PROFILES

Let your classmates know what is going on in your life. Share news about yourself in a future issue of Arts & Sciences magazine. Send your information—including the year you graduated, degree, and major—to Cristina Mas, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248004, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-4620 or via email to c.mas1@miami.edu.

and on the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity Sarasota as well as established and co-directed the Family Counseling Network of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in Tampa, Florida. He just finished serving on the Romney National Campaign Finance Committee and was recently appointed by Governor Rick Scott as a Commissioner of the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority.

ANDRIS A. ZOLTNERS, BS ’67, Mathematics, was

awarded the 2012 Marvin Jolson Award for Best Contribution to Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management for his article titled, “Breaking the Sales Force Incentive addiction: A Balanced Approach to Sales Force Effectiveness.”

70s

_______________________________ DAVID B. MITCHELL, AB ’73, Politics & Public

Affairs, History, received an advanced diploma in English local history with distinction from the University of Oxford (UK) and co-authored Family Law Strategies in Florida (2012) for Aspatore/ Thomson Reuters. Mitchell practices marital and family law in Coral Gables.

SAMUEL R. WASSERSON, AB ’56, Politics and

Public Affairs, a certified specialist in family law, has become “Of Counsel” for the Law Offices of Marc E. Grossman, Inc.

EUGENE A. SHINN, BS ’57, recently published

his memoir/autobiography, Bootstrap Geologist (University Press of Florida). UM Emeritus Professor Dr. Robert N. Ginsburg writes, “Shinn’s eclectic autobiography is an arresting page turner. It combines such disparate threads as natural history, overzealous bureaucrats, and the impacts of dust on the health of both humans and corals. The resulting tapestry will inform and inspire readers like no other.”

60s

_______________________________ JOHN E. PENICK, BS ’66, Biology, MA ’69,

Biology, recently received the Robert H. Carleton Award, the National Science Teachers Association’s highest award, for his contributions to science education.

PETER A. WISH, AB ’67, Psychology, is author

of Don’t Stop at Green Lights: Every Woman’s Guide to Taking Charge of Her Life (Adams).

Wish was also recently awarded 3rd place from the Florida Press Association for his column “Homeless Children and Families in Sarasota.” Wish serves as Chair of the National Advisory Board of MSworld.org,

20 FALL 2013

ENID SHOMER, MA ‘74, English, won the 2013 Florida Lifetime Achievement Award for

Writing. The award was presented on March 20th at a special luncheon held at the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee, Florida. Shomer’s wide-ranging work includes poetry, short stories, and most recently, a novel. Acclaimed by National Public Radio as one of the six best historical novels of the year, Twelve Rooms of the Nile, tells a tender, fictional story about what happened when social reformer, Florence Nightingale, and French author, Gustave Flaubert, meet during their travels in Egypt. Shomer’s poems and essays haven been published in more than 30 prestigious magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Boulevard, Best American Poetry, and Journal of the American Medical Association.

Follow us on Twitter FOLLOW @UNIVMIAMICAS ON TWITTER Scan this QR code with your smartphone to visit our Twitter page online.

for the latest updates and news from the college.

Timeless Gift Endows Professorship in Political Science THE ELIZABETH B. WHITE TRUST ESTABLISHS A NEW ENDOWED POSITION

The late Elizabeth B. White, A.B. ‘73, was a real people person. She enjoyed her friends and, in particular, meeting new people. She was active in cultural and artistic endeavors, enjoyed discussing politics—and was especially devoted to the University of Miami.

Now Elizabeth’s memory will live on through the Elizabeth B. White Endowed Professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Political Science. It’s a fitting tribute for one of UM’s committed graduates.

Born in 1951, Elizabeth grew up in Miami Beach and Long Island, New York. After enrolling at the University, Elizabeth found herself drawn to the Department of Political Science, the focus of her studies. She used the knowledge she gained at UM in her career, working for 30 years at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, where she became office administrator and the face of the downtown Miami law firm.

After learning she had cancer, Elizabeth created a trust in her estate plan to take care of her mother and leave a legacy to her beloved alma mater. She passed away in 2006, and her mother died in 2012.

Department Chair Jonathan P. West expressed his gratitude, noting, “The generosity of the Elizabeth B. White trust is greatly appreciated. It will enable us to expose students to the latest research, increase the department’s visibility, extend our subfield strength, improve undergraduate and graduate programs, retain quality faculty, and fund significant research.”

MAKE YOUR MOMENTUM2 GIFT TODAY

at ww.as.miami.edu/donate

“The Elizabeth B. White trust will enable us to expose students to the latest research, increase the department’s visibility, extend our subfield strength, improve undergraduate and graduate programs, retain quality faculty, and fund significant research.”

JONATHAN P. WEST Chair, Department of Political Science

For more information on giving, visit www.as.miami.edu/alumni/giving or contact Assistant Dean for Advancement Jeanne Luis at 305-2843874 or at jluis@miami.edu

ARTS | SCIENCES

21

TRACKINGHURRICANES

KATHLEEN B. CALLAHAN, AB ’74, German, led

the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), National Student Advertising Competition team as co-adviser to a first-place win in the Southern California and Southern Nevada district level competition. UNLV represented the American Advertising Federation District 15 in the national finals this past June, competing against 14 other district winners including the University of Miami.

CHRISTOPHER P. MIGLIACCIO, BS ’75, Biology,

received the 2013 John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award from the League for Innovation at Miami Dade Community College in recognition of academic contributions and leadership.

DAVID HINKES, AB ’79, Political Sciences

and Public Affairs, published the 3rd edition of his book, Selling by Objectives (SBO): The Handbook for More Profitability in the 21st Century (CreateSpace Publishing). Since 1991, he has been the CEO of Hink, Inc., www. hinkinc.net, a consultancy in management, marketing, sales, and keynote speeches.

Additionally, Hinkes has been Associate Professor of Management & Marketing at Lincoln Memorial University in Knoxville, Tennessee since 2008. He has been married to his wife Deb for 31 years and together they have 3 grown ‘kids’ (Jen-29, Missy-26, and Steve-23).

CLASS NOTES | ALUMNI PROFILES

80s

_______________________________ BERYL SOLLA, MFA ’80, Art, received the 2013

Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) Distinguished Service Award. Solla, Professor of Art, received the award for her many contributions to PVCC including public events, student activates and academic classes. Solla has taught hundreds of students since starting out as an adjunct professor at PVCC in 1999.

In addition to teaching, she is chair of the art department and director of the PVCC gallery.

ALAN B. COBO-LEWIS, AB ’88, Psychology, and BUCKLEY J. HUGO, BM ’89, are both working

as advocates for children with special needs in Maine. Cobo-Lewis is a professor at the University of Maine and a noted expert on Maine’s legislative process. Hugo works a private special education advocate.

90s

_______________________________ LEYZA F. BLANCO, AB ’93, Psychology, JD ’96,

has been appointed Chair of the Inclusion/ Mentoring/Fellowships Committee of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar.

MARIAN ANCHETA LLERA,

AB ’99, Criminology, JD ’02, a partner at Concepción Martinez & Bellido, was recognized as a Rising Star in the 2013 edition of Florida Super Lawyers and Rising Stars.

22 FALL 2013

CHRISTOPHER PARKS, BS ’91, Biology, MD

’94 has been hired as a physician at the Cancer Treatment Centers of American at Southeastern Regional Medical Center.

JOHN B. PASCARELLA, PHD ’95, Biology, is the

Dean of the College of Sciences and Professor of Biology at Sam Houston State University. He lives with his wife, Mary, and daughter, Grace, in The Woodlands, Texas.

JARET L. DAVIS, AB ’96, Economics, JD ’99; SHANE M. GRABER, BBA ’95, MBA ’97; and JOSE A. HERNANDEZ-SOLAUN, MBA, were

honored at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund 3rd Annual Distinguished Young Leaders Awards.

TERRENCE CHENG, MFA ’97, Creative Writing,

was named Associated Provost and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Brooklyn College-CUNY. Previously, Cheng served as Associate Dean in the School of Arts and Humanities at Lehman College-CUNY. He lives in Westchester, New York with his wife and two daughters.

LAURA LABELLA FREY, BA ’97, Psychology,

ran in the 2013 Boston Marathon. She finished in 2:58:34. This finishing time has qualified her for elite seeding in the Chicago Marathon in October 2013, where she hopes to run sub 2:55.

Like us on Facebook

BECOME OUR FAN BY VISITING THIS LINK: www.facebook.com/UniversityofMiamiCollegeofArtsandSciences/

Keep track of Hurricane Classmates by visiting our new Facebook page.

00s

Scan this QR code with your smartphone to visit our Facebook page online.

ANDREW R. GARCIA, BS ’11, Chemistry,

is currently enrolled in a Master degree program in Chemical Engineering and is pursuing an internship with an oil and gas company next year.

_______________________________ MARYANN T. TOBIN, AB ’01, English, MFA

’04, PHD ’09, and NATHANIEL D. TOBIN, JD ’06, welcomed the birth of their first child, Genevieve Mary Tobin, in March. Maryann was also named to the 2012-2013 Class of Emerging Leaders with Phi Delta Kappa, which recognizes exceptional educators under the age of 40 nationwide.

BENJAMIN M. KOSINSKI, AB ’11, Economics,

founded a tech startup company called Sumpto, which measures the social influence of college students. The company was recently profiled by the technology news site TechCrunch: http://techcrunch. com/2013/02/20/sumpto-wants-to-be-theklout-for-college-students/ CHRISTINE MARRERO, AB ’11, International

RACHEL A. CANFIELD, AB ’05,

NATHALIE DAY-TOLENTINO,

BHS ’01, Pre-Physical Therapy, published a children’s book entitled Little Black Girl Dream a Big Dream for Me!

TIM LESLIE, AB ’02, Economics, Geography

and Regional Studies, has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in Geography at George Mason University. Leslie also holds a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University.

CHRISTOPHER J. DY, BS ’04, Biology, MD’08,

MPH ’08, was awarded the Presidential Scholarship for the Academy Health Institute on Advocacy and Public Policy. Dy is a Health Services Research Fellow at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, where he will complete a residency in orthopedic surgery in June 2014.

Anthropology, an attorney with the Miami office of international law firm Greenberg Traurig, Canfield was selected to join Friends of the New World Symphony’s Executive Committee. In this role, she will support the organization in its mission to promote classical music to young cultural leaders through a series of performances, parties, and other events.

KEVIN T. O’BRIEN, BS ’06, Neurobiology, has

recently completed a Pediatric Residency with Orlando Health. O’Brien is pleased to accept a position as a physician at West Orlando Pediatrics.

Studies, is a second year law student at Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. She dedicated her spring semester to assisting Professor Mark L. Rienzi in challenging a host of first amendment and constitutional issues.

Marrero and a couple of other law students formed a litigation team and filed an amicus brief that is currently under review in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. She was also drawn to clerk at Rivero Mestre, LLP, a diverse firm that handles legal issues ranging from intellectual property to international litigation and arbitration.

MEREDITH C. SPARKS, AB ’12, International

Studies, Political Science, and Religious Studies, began service as a community health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Rwanda in June 2013.

SHAUN J. BROWN, BFA ’09, Theatre, plays

a recurrent role on two HBO shows: “True Blood” and “The Newsroom.”

10s

_______________________________ LAURA VALLVERDU ZAFRA, AB ’10, Psychology,

MSED ’12, accepted the position as assistant women’s tennis coach at the University of Miami

HARLAND J. GUNN, AB ’12, Criminology,

plays center for the NFL Atlanta Falcons.

ARTS | SCIENCES

23

CALENDAR

2013 -14

CASEVENTS

NOW THROUGH JAN

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

lowe art museum

ring theatre

Pueblo to Pueblo: The Legacy of Southwest Indian Pottery

lowe art museum

Exhibition Dates: Jan. 24, 2014 - Mar. 23, 2014

?#@*$%! the Mainstream: The Art of DIY Self Expression, Zines from Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries Exhibition Dates: Nov. 2, 2013 - Jan. 5, 2014 Fanzines—self-published journals created by “fans” of anything from science fiction authors to bands to literary genres—were first created in the early 20th century but truly took off with the punk rock movement of the 1970s and embodied the “do it yourself” (DIY) spirit of that cultural revolution.

Pottery making in the American Southwest is a tradition that first emerged about two thousand years ago. It is a functional art form that was passed from generation to generation over the span of centuries by people living in permanent villages, called pueblos. The pottery of each pueblo was unique and distinguished by a variety of characteristics such as the individual clay source and shape of the vessels as well as the designs, or lack thereof, painted onto the surface.

Pueblo to Pueblo: The Legacy of Southwest Indian Pottery from the Collections of The Kansas City Museum & Union Station Kansas City, Inc. Tour Development by Smith Kramer Traveling Exhibitions, Kansas City, Missouri.

Organized by the Lowe Art Museum and Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries.

NOW THROUGH JAN NOVEMBER

Paul Stankard Glass Art

lowe art museum

Beauty Beyond Nature: The Glass Art of Paul Stankard Exhibition Dates: Nov. 2, 2013 - Jan. 5, 2014

Feb. 12-22, 2014 New York Magazine proclaimed that Floyd Collins is “the original and daring musical of our day.” It tells the story of Floyd Collins, a man who gets trapped 200 feet underground while chasing a dream of turning a Kentucky cave into a tourist attraction. This haunting musical—one of the most acclaimed in recent years —voices the transcendent tale of a true American dreamer. storer auditorium

Stanford Distinguished Professor Lecture Victor Mair: The Tarim Basin Mummies Event: Thurs., February 20, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Victor Mair specializes in Buddhist popular literature as well as the vernacular tradition of Chinese fiction and the performing arts.

Among other results of his efforts during this period were three documentaries for television (Scientific American, NOVA and Discovery Channel), a major international conference, numerous articles, and a book,The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Thames and Hudson, 2000).

MARCH

Beauty Beyond Nature presents more than 70 of Paul Stankard’s intricately flame-worked still life sculptures encased in clear crystal from the Robert M. Minkoff Collection. The collection spans more than 40 years of Stankard’s career, from his earliest attempts at paperweights in 1969 to a monumental eight-inch Honeybee Swarm Orb commissioned for this exhibition in 2010.

The Glass Art of Paul Stankard has been organized

by Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA and The Robert M. Minkoff Foundation, Ltd.

5 Paul Stankard, Honeybee Swarm Orb, 2011, Blown glass with flame worked elements, Collection of The Robert M. Minkoff Foundation, Ltd.

24 FALL 2013

Floyd Collins

By Adam Guettel and Tina Landau

miami marriott dadeland

National Council for Black Studies 38th Annual Conference Event: March 5-8, 2014 Join academic colleagues in discussing past and present issues relating to African and African American Diaspora. The National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) is the leading organization of Black Studies professionals in the world.

The 2014 Conference is sponsored by: University of Miami

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

- um business administration Stanford Distinguished Professor Lecture Alma Guillermoprieto: The Drug Wars the “War on Drugs” Create

ring theatre

the intercontinental miami hotel

Event: Thursday, March 20, 2014 – 7:00pm

With the success of David Cromer’s 2009 Off-Broadway production of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Our Town has been even further cemented in history as an American classic. This work is as revolutionary for its time as it is relevant for today. “Wilder sought to make sacraments of simple things. In Our Town he cautioned us to recognize that life is both precious and ordinary, and that these two fundamental truths are intimately connected.” — NY Times

storer auditorium

Born in Mexico, and raised between Mexico and the U.S., Alma Guillermoprieto is a MacArthur Fellow, and a winner of the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. In the 1990s, for The New Yorker and other magazines, she wrote a remarkable series of stories on Latin America, covering everything from the Colombian Civil War to the “Dirty War” in Argentina. Later collected into two books, Looking for History and The Heart That Bleeds, these stories form a definitive portrait of Latin America during the “Lost Decade.”

Our Town

By Thornton Wilder April 16-26, 2014

Tropical Nights: Benefiting the University of Miami - Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities Event: Sat. May 10, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

“Tropical Nights” is your way to help those affected by autism living in South Florida. Our event is a festive celebration designed to raise autism awareness while entertaining our guests with fine food, drinks, music, dancing, and acknowledging the tireless efforts of important members of our community.

The overwhelming success of Tropical Nights over the past nine years has allowed UM-NSU CARD to maintain its services during times of tremendous constituency growth and budget cuts. For this, we are extremely grateful to our community and supporters.

1252 Memorial Drive | Ashe Building 227 Coral Gables, FL 33121-9965

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID

TH E N & N O W

PHOTO:UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Permit No. 438 Miami, FL

1968

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

TODAY

Cox Science Center was home to state-of-the art science labs in 1968. Technology may have changed drastically in 45 years, but the college’s commitment to scientific research has remained strong. The Cox Science Center Neuroscience Annex opened this fall, complete with the latest tools for biologists, psychologists and other neuroscientists to study brain function. From cutting-edge computing power to an fMRI machine that allows researchers to see brains in action, the neuroscience annex will be a hub for discovery for the next generation of UM scientists.