arts&sciences magazine fall 2019

NEXT GENERATION

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OUR COLLECTIVE SUCCESS

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MATH INSTITUTE

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI | FALL 2019

Education for Life Techno-o--oo-o-o--o-oe. p.16

A Commitment to Research

The new building housing the first Frost Institute will soon become a reality. p. 29

FROM THE DEAN Dear Friends, The College of Arts and Sciences is a vibrant hub of scientific discovery, artistic expression and intellectual inquiry for the University and our community; about two of every five students at the University of Miami make their home in the College of Arts and Sciences. From biology to history, from computer science to theatre arts, students have access to a wide range of knowledge that serves to hone their potential and spur their creativity. The College’s robust intellectual, academic, and extracurricular resources Leonidas G. Bachas help our students chart their unique course, get the Dean, College of Arts & Sciences most out of their University experience, and gain the skills that will empower them to achieve their goals.

The College fosters a collaborative spirit across many disciplines, and our faculty are at the forefront of interdisciplinary research and integrated learning. Advancing knowledge through research and exploration is part of our DNA. In the College, liberal arts education and professional preparation are synergistic.

Our gratitude goes to Dr. Phillip Frost and his wife Patricia for the $100 million gift to the University. The construction of the new Frost Building to house the first Frost Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Science will be launched in Fall 2020. In my capacity as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and also serving as the interim director of the Frost Institutes of Science and Engineering, I am planning a series of workshops and seminars to catalyze the Institute’s activity. I am also launching the Frost Junior Fellows program, an initiative designed to encourage junior faculty to collaborate with senior faculty from other units at UM to explore and undertake a wider variety of interdisciplinary projects related to chemistry and molecular science.

As you will see in this issue, the commitment to expanding our hemispheric outreach into the Americas is underway with the creation of the new Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the Americas. Made possible through a transformative $2 million grant from the Simons Foundation, the Institute will serve as a hub for collaborative research and projects in mathematics between faculty and researchers around the globe. A 2016 report by the world economic forum suggested that “on average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today.” The College has created a range of post-graduate opportunities at the certificate and master’s level to enable individuals to advance their career by acquiring new knowledge and enhancing their professional skill set. You can read more about our exciting programs that enable lifelong learning inside this issue.

In our quest to build and refine dynamic and increasingly diverse educational experiences for tomorrow’s leaders while advancing novel solutions for today’s challenges, we are, as ever, grateful for your engagement with and support of our vibrant A&S community. As the millennium completes its first two decades and 2020 beckons, we wish you a healthy and joyful holiday season and new year.

Leonidas G. Bachas

MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Your gift to the College of Arts & Sciences helps us support student scholarships and retain leading faculty. as.miami.edu/donate

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

FALL 2019 VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 2 COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES Dean Leonidas G. Bachas Senior Associate Deans Jennifer Ferriss-Hill Maria Galli Stampino Kenneth J. Voss Associate Deans Charles Mallery Louis Herns Marcelin Executive Directors Dawn Reynolds Maryann Tatum Tobin Executive Director of Development Patrick E. Stewart Editor/Writer Deseraé E. del Campo Editorial Contributors Maya Bell David Menconi Kelly Montoya Janette Tannen Richard Westlund Ashley Williams Photography Jenny Abreu Design and Layout Cowen Design, Inc.

Arts & Sciences is produced in the fall and spring by the College of Arts & Sciences Office of Communications.

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 permissions to reprint material, requests for extra copies, and change-of-address notification to: College of Arts & Sciences P.O. Box 248004 Coral Gables, FL 33124-4620 Telephone 305-284-2485 casmagazine@miami.edu All contents © 2019, University of Miami.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences online at as.miami.edu Past issues of the magazine are available online at: as.miami.edu

Inside DEPARTMENTS

VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 2 | ARTS & SCIENCES | FALL 2019

FEATURES

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AROUND CAMPUS

STUDENT DIGEST

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A&S NEWS

BOOKMARKS

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FIVE QUESTIONS

ALUMNI NEWS

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FACULTY CORNER

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CLASS SPOTLIGHT

CLASS NOTES

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LIFELONG LEARNING Offering educational opportunities after graduation for adults, retirees, and high school students.

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A&S RESEARCH Unlocking the secrets of microbes to help plant growth.

ARTS | SCIENCES

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Around Campus A HOUSE DIVIDED Known for creating thought-

provoking projects that address today’s most pressing cultural issues, Associate Professor of Sculpture Billie Grace Lynn’s latest work was no exception.

Her interactive, interdisciplinary exhibit, A House Divided, featured a 30-foot sculpture of a black hoodie that visitors entered; a scale model of the Washington Monument made up of mirrors that rotated 360 degrees; a hand-drawn timeline where visitors were allowed to write their personal experiences of racial discrimination; and a video project where students of all races are asked, “Do you feel safe?”

A House Divided pushed visitors to reflect on identity politics, civic engagement, civil discourse, and democracy’s precarious fragility. The exhibit was on display at the Lowe Art Museum this fall.

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ARTS | SCIENCES

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Photos: TJ Lievonen

A&SNEWS

CELEBRATING OUR COLLECTIVE SUCCESS

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niversity of Miami President Julio Frenk He also noted that the University continues to be a delivered his second State of the University leader in studying the impacts of climate change. “We address highlighting some of the top successes are literally ground zero for the most significant threat propelling the University forward, includnot only to our city, but to the entire planet—climate ing advances and breakthroughs in climate research, change,” President Frenk said. “The University of Miami transformative innovations in health care and how the is equipped to confront this complex issue in ways that University is attracting students across the globe who are few other institutions can.” competitive, selective, and diverse.

One way the University will do this is “The University of Miami excels through the Miami Climate Symposium because we embrace change, and that planned for January 2020 that will “The University of change is driven by people who refresh showcase our institutional commitment Miami excels because to reduce risks of weather and climateand renew our purpose and dedication we embrace change, related disasters. with each new generation,” he said.

President Frenk provided examples of Further emphasizing UM’s commitand that change is how the University is implementing driven by people who ment to research are a series of institutes goals in the Roadmap to Our New refresh and renew our in the science, technology, engineering Century, a plan for the institution to and mathematics fields, such as the Frost purpose and advance in a variety of areas as it Institute of Chemistry and Molecular dedication with each approaches its centennial in 2025.

Science housed in a new building that is new generation.”

One of the Roadmap’s initiatives to currently in the design process. President foster interdisciplinary research is being Frenk also mentioned the Institute of the addressed by U-LINK, or UM’s Laboratory for Integrative Mathematical Sciences of the Americas, founded this Knowledge. This effort supports collaborative research summer, which recently had its first conference. teams from multiple disciplines tackling important President Frenk also explained how UM is transforming societal problems. the landscape of the health care industry with The 4

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Lennar Foundation Medical Center, where the University has used research-based methods to design a facility that takes a “comprehensive approach to health in a beautiful setting with soothing music and comfortable spaces that make you think about getting better.”

President Frenk described the University’s effort to extend its hemispheric footprint by forging partnerships with universities and institutions throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America. The first of its five “hubs,” or satellite offices, opened in Mexico last May to nurture these relationships.

In its classrooms, President Frenk explained that UM is taking advantage of new technology and professional development to train students and professors for the future. The newly established Platform for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PETAL), provides innovative resources to support faculty as they design courses and curricula that enhance student learning.

President Frenk also highlighted UM’s relationship with the Florida-based company Magic Leap, and its mixed-reality platform, which allows users to interact with the virtual and physical world simultaneously using special Magic Leap glasses. A collaboration this summer between UM’s Center for Computational Science and Magic Leap produced “The U Experience,” an interactive map of the Coral Gables campus with image resolution of less than one inch, President Frenk said.

The event ended with longtime NBC television anchor and alumnus Tony Segreto moderating a panel with President Frenk; Jeffrey Duerk, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost; Jacqueline A. Travisano, executive vice president for business and finance and chief operating officer; and Dr. Edward Abraham, executive vice president for health affairs and chief executive officer of UHealth. Please support our Roadmap initiatives, visit as.miami.edu/donate or call 305.284.4638. n

President Frenk explained that UM is taking advantage of new technology and professional development to train students and professors for the future.

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A|SNEWS A&SNEWS

Photo: TJ Lievonen

The Hottest Elective on Campus At the glassblowing studio, senior lecturer in the Art and Art History Department Jenna Efrein starts her Wednesday morning class by asking her students if they would like some coffee.

The students collectively nod their heads “yes” and then gather around Efrein as she dips the tip of a long blowpipe into a 2,000-degree furnace. She then proceeds to explain the techniques behind inflating the glob of molten glass with little puffs of air, finally converting it into a hand-sculpted warming plate for a stove top espresso maker.

“In this class, students will step outside the typical classroom parameters,” explained Efrein. “I tell my students, it's kind of like learning how to tango in a 2,000-degree room. It’s a serious commitment that requires practice, effort, and a lot of work. But it’s one of the most rewarding classes you can take.”

Now, for the first time, the department has an independent study student who is focusing on integrating both glassblowing and painting together.

Grace Chepenick, a second-year fine arts student, is in the vanguard of glassblowers by fusing this ancient craft with her love for painting and her affinity for nature, wildlife, and the 6

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landscapes of South Florida. She inherited the love for painting from her grandmother who is a watercolorist and started painting when she was only four years old.

Chepenick said that living in Miami is a source of inspiration for her independent study work at UM. “I am a huge colorist, so being in Miami reinforces my love for color and light. My goal throughout this body of work is to create a series that shows my affection for the wildlife and natural beauty that South Florida encompasses,” she said.

In the end, Chepenick said the program has allowed her to gain skills that will benefit her in her planned career path.

“Glassblowing has taught me perseverance and to continually work hard to make progress. I felt like quitting after the first class because of how challenged I was, but I am so glad I stuck with it because I have found another passion of mine,” she said. “I have known since I was younger, I want to be an artist, but did not know it would entail glass until this course.” n

The Quiet Observer Primatologist studies chimpanzee tool use in the Republic of Congo

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hen it comes to research, seemingly small things can open up wide expanses of knowledge. Consider the use of tools by chimpanzees, the primary area of study for Professor Stephanie Musgrave in the Department of Anthropology.

Musgrave and her colleagues pioneered numerous advances in the study of primate tool use while she worked on her Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis. Her interest in primatology goes back to undergraduate days at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she found undergraduate courses in linguistic and biological anthropology particularly meaningful.

“What does it mean to be human in the big picture?’” Musgrave said. “That was not something I’d thought about beforehand, and I was really taken with it. Then I got to work up close with captive great apes, which gave me a real

Photo: Barry Williams

appreciation for their problem-solving abilities and the complexity of their social lives. I wanted to understand how and why chimpanzees in the wild did things differently depending on the group they belonged to.”

Those questions took Musgrave to the Goualougo Triangle in the Republic of Congo. Scientists of the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project have been working to study and conserve these apes for two decades. Musgrave returns every few years to observe firsthand as chimpanzees make and use tools for various purposes, such as collecting and eating termites.

“Tool use can be a really clean window into how chimpanzees learn,” Musgrave said. “You can watch and quantify their tool behaviors. Chimpanzees are phenomenal tool users, and tool use varies between communities.

It’s an ideal context for an evolutionary perspective on what factors might drive these tool abilities and traditions.”

Data collection on tool use of the Goualougo chimpanzees combines direct in-person observation with the use of camera traps—an indication of just how much the field of anthropology has changed in recent decades.

The fact that camera traps are a major data-gathering resource also represents an opportunity for undergrads who are unable to travel to Central Africa but still get involved in the research.

One major piece of insight to emerge from Musgrave’s research is the role

“What does it mean to be human in the big picture?” that mother chimpanzees play in teaching their offspring how to use tools.

“We’ve found evidence that chimpanzee moms teach by transferring tools to their offspring,” said Musgrave. “That sounds like a small thing you’d take for granted, but it hadn’t been systematically studied before. The privilege of studying chimpanzee cultures depends on conserving these apes and their vulnerable homes.” n ARTS | SCIENCES

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A&SNEWS

Honored by the Spanish Crown

Sparking New Autism Discoveries Over the past three years, in hopes of accelerating research on the genetic causes and treatments for autism, the College’s psychology faculty have recruited nearly 700 children affected by the neurodevelopmental disorder, and both of their parents, to join the world’s largest autism research project.

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emographer, sociologist, and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Alejandro Portes was awarded the 2019 Princess of Asturias Award in the Social Sciences for his significant contributions to the study of international migration.

He received his Princess of Asturias Award, which is symbolized by a Joan Miró sculpture and accompanied by a monetary prize of 50,000 euros, at a ceremony chaired

by Spain’s King Felipe VI and his wife, Queen Letizia.

“It is a twofold honor to receive this award from a country where immigrants and their children have generally been able to become integrated and progress, and whose policies in this regard could serve as an example to other countries that receive migrants,” Portes said.

Over his four decades of exploring how immigrants adapt to new countries, Portes, who joined the University of Miami in 2011 as a professor of law and Distinguished Scholar of Arts and Sciences, became what jurors for the Spanish Crown’s highest recognition called “a source of reference to guide and organize the empirical research of social scientists around the world.”n

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The team of researchers began to see the fruits of their labors when the Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge, or SPARK, which is collecting DNA samples from 50,000 people with autism and their parents, released its first study on 457 families.

Published in the Nature research journal npj Genomic Medicine, the study identified nine new genes that could be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including a new, high-confidence autism risk gene, BRSK2.

While the study emphasized that the findings are preliminary, it noted that many of the newly identified candidate genes “function in biological pathways that have been previously implicated in autism” and are highly expressed during the mid-stage of pregnancy, “a time in brain development that has been linked to the pathogenesis of ASD.” UM’s SPARK investigators don’t know whether any of the 700 families—known as “trios”—from South Florida are among the 457 trios in SPARK’s initial study. But lead investigator Melissa N. Hale, associate director of the University of MiamiNova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (UM-NSU CARD), said the results are heartening for anyone interested in finding the biological causes and treatments for ASD. “It shows that we are on the right path to be able to more clearly identify which genetic markers are associated with autism and use that information to advance our understanding of what treatments will be most effective,” said Hale, assistant professor of clinical psychology.

Other UM collaborators in the SPARK consortium include the Department of Psychology’s Michael Alessandri, professor of clinical psychology and executive director of UM-NSU CARD; and Anibal Gutierrez, Jr., research associate professor.

We need your help to accelerate research, visit as.miami.edu or call 305.284.1266. n

Raising ‘Reasonable’ Suspicions about Stop-and-Frisk Policies

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n just two recent years, police officers in nine cities across the nation—from Boston to San Francisco—stopped and frisked pedestrians about 700,000 times, presumably relying on a 51-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows police to make such stops if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that the person committed a crime.

At least that’s Rachel Lautenschlager’s preliminary estimate from the reams of data the University of Miami graduate student has collected to identify and map inequities associated with the ubiquitous crime-fighting strategy that has been criticized for disproportionately targeting poor blacks and Latinos—and breeding resentment and fear of law enforcement in marginalized neighborhoods.

A Ph.D. candidate in sociology and criminology who is studying racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system, Lautenschlager was recently awarded a dissertation improvement grant from the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Sciences Program to help her identify the neighborhood characteristics and social processes associated with what she calls “surveillance hotspots” in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Supporting Latinas

“Surveillance hotspots are those areas that experience exceptionally high concentrations of stop-and-frisk activity, and they tend to be in poor neighborhoods of color and sometimes involve the detainment of people who are never arrested,” said Lautenschlager, who chose cities that collect and make their stop-and-frisk data available. “We want police agencies to engage in policies that generate trust in police, but I think it’s safe to assume that programs like stop and frisk that tend to be disproportionately employed in neighborhoods of color do not engender trust.”

In addition to identifying the neighborhood characteristics most associated with heightened levels of search-and-frisk activities, Lautenschlager plans to examine if and how the law perpetuates geographic, ethnic, racial, and class inequities in the crime-fighting strategy sanctioned by the Supreme Court’s watershed ruling in Terry v. Ohio. n

Dinora Orozco has always been proud of her Latin origin. She was born in San Cristóbal Cucho, Guatemala, and came to the U.S. when she was two years old.

Now a senior majoring in political science with a minor in business law, Orozco is on a mission to empower Latinas on campus.

When she transferred from Florida International University, she wanted to bring something tangible with her—Lucha Latina, a national nonprofit organization that did not yet have a presence at the U. “I looked for organizations that reflected the values that I hold, and who I am as a person,” said Orozco, who is the founder and president of the Miami chapter.

“Although there are other Latino based organizations, there weren’t any organizations that represented students from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, or Honduras.”

Lucha Latina seeks to empower Latina women from all walks of life, regardless of socio-economic background. n Photo: Ashley Williams

ARTS | SCIENCES

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SEEN&HEARD

A&S Faculty in the News

“We Bahamians listen to

“THE WOUNDS ARE STILL RAW.” Bruce Bagley, Professor, International Studies, September 2019, in Los Angeles Times discussing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) taking up arms in the country.

climate deniers in rich countries who are oblivious or indifferent to those who bear the weight for their wonderful lives. Meanwhile, the water rises from the ground in our yards because the water table is so high during high tide, and plants we once depended upon no

“If fires become the norm in the landscape, forests will never regenerate in their natural condition and we will see a new type of impoverished vegetation dominated by a few species of common trees that can survive in the new fire regime.”

Jose Maria Cardoso da Silva, Professor & Chair, Geography and Regional Studies, August 2019, in BBC Mundo discussing the forest fires in the Amazon.

“We’re talking about unprecedented deforestation —I’ve read up to a soccer field and a half every minute in the past couple weeks. And I think South Floridians have an acute sense of what environmental disaster means—and that precisely what needs to happen is a sense of connectedness.”

Tracy Devine Guzman, Latin American Studies Professor, August 2019, on WLRN Miami Herald Radio discussing the fires in the Amazon and how it can affect South Florida.

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longer grow. We experience too much rain or too little rain, and fresh water supplies are increasingly contaminated by rising sea levels.”

Erica Moiah James, Assistant Professor, Art & Art History, September 2019, from her op-ed in the New York Times on how Bahamians are on the frontline of the climate crisis.

“THE WAY WE’VE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO IT IN RECENT YEARS HAS REALLY COME ABOUT FROM SANDY HOOK.” Joseph Uscinski, Associate Professor, Political Science, August 2019, on PolitiFact discussing why people believe mass shootings are staged and part of a conspiracy theory.

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HUGH THOMAS Professor and Director, Center for the Humanities

Photo: Barry Williams

Now that I theoretically know what I’m doing, I want to build on the solid foundations created by my predecessor, Mihoko Suzuki. One major new initiative is to reach out to undergraduates. Another is to further increase our profile in the community by more fully showcasing our own professors and continuing to bring in distinguished visitors.

2. Are there new initiatives focused on undergraduate and graduate participation?

The Center has long catered to graduate students and we will continue to do so. A new initiative is to spread the word about the humanities and humanities research to undergraduates.

We hope to expand undergraduate participation in the humanities beyond the classroom by encouraging students to attend humanities lectures and other events, by supporting travel to undergraduate conferences, and by encouraging them to do their own research.

3. Why is it so important that the Center be a hub for academics and learning in the humanities?

The Center helps the humanities continue to strengthen at UM by supporting faculty and student research and by sponsoring events that bring scholars together to stimulate each other’s thinking.

The Center counters the attacks on the humanities by showcasing great work in our fields, but also by demonstrating to students how the humanities can enrich their lives, help make them better citizens, and provide excellent training for an ever-changing workplace.

4. Your expertise focuses on the history of Medieval England.

Which book would you recommend on the subject?

There are many wonderful histories being written by modern scholars about the medieval period, including for general audiences, but I always urge people to read a great work of medieval literature, perhaps Beowulf or The Canterbury Tales for medieval England, or Dante’s Inferno, The Poem of the Cid, or the Nibelungenlied for other medieval cultures. That way they are able to explore a medieval culture from the inside, so to speak, and get to read a great work of literature at the same time.

5. Scholars from around the world visit UM to speak at the Center’s free public lectures.

How do these lectures help us understand the world through history, culture, and language?

Because the world is such a complex place and there are so many scholarly approaches in the humanities, I could give a different answer for every talk. Our strategy is to get our colleagues to nominate leading scholars in the confidence that whatever they decide to talk about will improve our understanding of the world around us.

For more information about the Center for the Humanities, visit humanities.as.miami.edu.

ARTS | SCIENCES

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QUESTIONS

1. This is your second year as Director of the Center for the Humanities, what is your vision for the Center going forward?

FACULTYCORNER

Photo: Melissa Taylor

Re-imaging the classic Broadway musical

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ulio Agustin Matos, Jr., an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre Arts who is also a professional theatre director and choreographer, published a peerreviewed article in the highly acclaimed Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) Journal, entitled “Braving the challenges of re-envisioning the classic musical for a new audience.” The article, published in the summer issue, is a reflection of Matos’ time as a choreographer for a revitalized version of Guys and Dolls that played at Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) in Houston, TX, in 2018.

During the weeks and months of casting calls, rehearsals, community engagement workshops, and planning and preparing for opening night, Matos observed the creation process from start to finish while working with the show’s director and theatre crew.

Matos’ article identifies four major goals in the following areas that are challenging when it comes to making classic musicals assessable to modern audiences—casting, choreography, community engagement, and critical response.

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“I would journal about what I was seeing during the production process of Guys and Dolls, and then afterward I sifted through the notes, conducted research, and analyzed what other scholars were saying about re-envisioning classic productions for a new audience, and the final result was this article,” Matos said. “We didn’t want to change Guys and Dolls in a way that would offend people, but we also wanted to respect tradition while opening it up to today’s diverse audience.”

When it came to casting, Matos says the “number of talented triple-threat performers of Latinx ethnicity that attended our Guys and Dolls invited and open auditions was inspiring.” The choreography was also an important aspect of the production, especially for Matos who incorporated social Latin dance styles—like capoeira—into the production, as well as authentic ballroom and traditional theatre dances.

Matos also examined the theatre’s community outreach programs and partnerships between the theatre company and outside organizations, which allowed the production to feature talented Latinx performers from within the Houston community. n

Microaggressions, HIV, and Black Women in Miami

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ssistant Professor of Psychology Sannisha Dale is eager to get to work on her latest endeavor, Project MMAGIC (Monitoring Microaggressions and Adversities to Generate Interventions for Change).

Developed with community engagement components and interdisciplinary collaborations across the University of Miami, Dale said Project MMAGIC is a very special initiative, “it’s quite unique.”

Her research delves into methods of understanding the relationships between resilience, trauma, and health outcomes among individuals with HIV and researching the psychosocial and structural factors that relate to health disparities. Her goal, with the voice of community members and stakeholders, is to create proper prevention and intervention tactics that promote positive health outcomes.

“The concept of Project MMAGIC comes from other preliminary work that I’ve done in my career,” said Dale. “But here I’m thinking about the psychosocial stressors that Black women who are living with HIV face, and gaining a wider understanding of how these daily microaggressions, over time, can affect their health.”

Dale says microaggressions can include daily insults and behaviors that Black women living with HIV experience on the basis of their race, HIV status, gender, and sexual orientation, which can, according to Dale’s cross-sectional research, create barriers to proper health care, an increase in depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The objective

of Project MMAGIC is to gather data to see how these microaggressions, and other related psychosocial experiences over time, relate to HIV viral suppression.

“The uniqueness of Project MMAGIC is that it will allow me to enroll Black women living with HIV in the Miami community, about 150 women in total who we will engage and gather data from over the course of a year or more,” said Dale. She hopes that the research collected through Project MMAGIC will continue to tear down assumptions regarding Black women living with HIV and highlight the role of social and structural issues impacting their lives.

Project MMAGIC is being funded through a $670,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. n

Photo: Barry Williams

P To the Moon and Beyond

hysics Professor Massimiliano Galeazzi is no stranger when it comes to working with scientists and astrophysicists at NASA. Back in 2018, he participated in the Poker Flat Sounding Rocket Campaign with NASA and other academic institutions to launch three rockets into outer space from a site in Alaska.

Now, as NASA sets its sights on returning to the Moon and even farther—to Mars— Galeazzi once again finds himself on the brink of scientific and space exploration.

Galeazzi was selected to work on the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), which is designed to capture images of the interaction of Earth’s magnetosphere with the flow of charged particles from the Sun, called the solar wind.

“LEXI is an amazing opportunity,” said Galeazzi. “From the scientific point of view, the moon offers a unique vantage point to study the Earth and the upper level of its atmosphere.

From a more personal standpoint, being part of the first set of missions to the moon, 50 years after the Apollo landing, is simply a dream come true.” n ARTS | SCIENCES

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CLASSSPOTLIGHT

Molding Sustainability New interdisciplinary master’s degree paves a path to address global sustainability and resilience challenges Advocates

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o coincide with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020, the College of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the School of Architecture, will launch a Master’s of Professional Science (MPS) in Urban Sustainability and Resilience.

The new program leverages Miami as a living laboratory—an urban landscape—to explore, analyze, and propose solutions to the complex interrelationships among globalization, sustainability, and planning, such as health, housing, crime, the environment, disaster mitigation, and sea-level rise.

The program is designed for students from diverse backgrounds in architecture, environmental sciences, management, social sciences, as well as those already working in green careers.

“With growing awareness about the already occurring and impending impacts of climate change, there is an increasing need for hiring personnel knowledgeable about these issues to prepare our cities at the local level,” said Shouraseni Sen Roy, professor and director of graduate studies for the Department of Geography and Regional Studies, who proposed the program with the School of Architecture.

Students can choose between two distinct tracks. The Sustainability track, directed by the Department of Geography and Regional Studies, focuses on elements of sustainable food systems, public health, disaster miti 14

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gation, humanitarian aid, and climate change. The Resilience track, directed by the School of Architecture, leverages expertise in the study and design of the built environment to focus on challenges such as housing, the environment, crime, and sea-level rise.

The interdisciplinary program, which also engages the Departments of Anthropology, International Studies, and the Master of Arts in International

research associate professor in the School of Architecture. “Sustainability is an issue that does not allow for us to be working in separate silos. It requires that we work in collaborative ways and to collectively educate the new leaders of urban resilience and adaptation.”

This is the first professional master’s degree offered by the College in the sciences, reflecting innovative partnerships with not only Architecture, but

Administration, seeks to graduate the first class of students specifically prepared to assume these new positions in corporate, government, and non-profit organizations domestically and globally.

“Those of us who have the opportunity to learn about these topics have the responsibility to lead,” said Sonia Chao,

the School of Education and Human Development, the College of Engineering, the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences, the Miami Herbert Business School, the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, and the Miller School of Medicine. n

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NEXT GENERATION

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Generous gift shines a light on the humanities

aunching in the spring of 2020 within the College of Arts and Sciences’ Classics Department is the Louis A. Mangone Endowed Lecture Series.

The biennial interdisciplinary series is underwritten by a generous endowment of $50,000 from three University of Miami alumni in the Mangone family. The gift is named in honor of the family’s uncle, Louis A. Mangone, a prominent New York attorney who is now retired.

The endowment’s benefactors are Dennis, Greg, and Jill Mangone. The three siblings all earned degrees at UM: Greg in 1986 with a B.A. in marketing, Jill in 1988 with a B.A. in English, and eldest brother Dennis (who went back to school years later to finish his degree) with a B.A. in communications in 2001. Greg works in law, while Jill and Dennis are in the real-estate business in New York.

“He was like a third parent to us,” Jill Mangone said of her uncle. “If not for him, none of us would have gotten into the University of Miami or made it through. This gift is in honor of him and his lifelong love and support of us.”

The lecture series will debut at the Kislak Center on January 23, 2020.

The first presentation by the Mangone Lecturer Charles Donahue, the Paul A. Freund Professor of Law at Harvard

University, will be followed by an oncampus conference, “The Legacy of Roman Law.” It’s a major feather in the cap for the Classics Department, which has been in existence for only 15 years.

“The Mangones are rare in that they all graduated before there was even a Classics Department at the University of Miami,” said John Paul Russo, professor and chair of the department.

“But they took courses in the field. Jill and Dennis took my courses on Greek and Roman literature, and we’ve kept up over the years.”

The Mangone endowment is a potential game-changer for the College’s small but growing Classics Department. It will make possible events and conferences that Russo hopes will build on the momentum generated by this gift. The goal, he said, will be to make events surrounding the Mangone Series as multifaceted and interdisciplinary as possible.

“We’re going around the circle of disciplines to connect with other fields,” Russo said. “You can find the connection between classics and religion, certainly, and law as well. Medicine, too— it’s less obvious, but it’s there once you do the research; Ancient Medicine is the Classic Department’s most popular course. Dean Bachas is very interested in promoting interdisciplinarity; we want to contribute to the mission.”

The gift is named in honor of the family’s uncle, Louis A. Mangone, a prominent New York attorney who is now retired.

Along with the lecture series, the endowment underwrites the Louis A. Mangone-Cicero Prize, awarded annually to a student who “demonstrates conspicuous excellence in Latin.” The endowment will also fund other events and conferences at UM. “The sciences get so much attention at universities these days,” said Jill Mangone, “but our family has always been more on the humanities side.

We wanted to do something in appreciation for all we got out of studying the humanities. All three of us are very different people, but the University of Miami turned out to be the perfect school for each of us in our own way.” n

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P

aul Griebel advanced his professional career by earning a graduate degree from the College of Arts and Sciences in early 2019. With his Master of Arts in International Administration (MAIA), Griebel was able to take a new position with the International Forum of the Americas, which is based in Montreal with an office in Miami.

“Going back to school opened new doors for me,” he said.

Griebel is one of the hundreds of working professionals, high school students, and active retirees who take advantage of the College of Arts and Sciences’ lifelong learning programs every year. Some are seeking to learn new career skills or fulfill a personal dream. Others are getting an early taste of the college experience or returning to academia after serving in the military or spending decades in the workforce.

“Education for Life is one of the key initiatives in the University’s Roadmap to Our New Century,” said Leonidas G. Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Along with providing an outstanding undergraduate experience and high-quality graduate programs, our College covers the life cycle, using innovative approaches that drive student success through engaged learning.”

Lifelong learning is particularly important for working professionals, according to Maryann Tobin, executive director of programs at the College. “You can’t go into the workforce today and expect that initial skill set to serve you during your entire career,” she said. “Professional development is essential in many fields, and we are constantly developing new courses and programs to support our adult learners.”

For example, the UM Faculty Senate recently approved an interdisciplinary proposal from the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Architecture for a new Master’s of Professional Science in Urban Sustainability and Resilience.

The graduate program is pending approval from the

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The College offers educational opportunities for working adults, retirees, and high school students

Lifelong Learning

By Richard Westlund

Board of Trustees.

“We want to provide knowledge and skills for students working on the urban challenges of the 21st century,” said Professor Shouraseni Sen Roy in the Department of Geography and Regional Studies. “It leverages our strategic location, using Miami as an urban laboratory to explore, analyze, and propose solutions.”

The new 36-credit master’s program is expected to launch in Fall 2020 with tracks in sustainability and resiliency. It includes core courses on topics like urban history and sustainable design, as well as classes on geospatial technology, and real estate development.

Photo: Juniette Fiore

Graduate Programs Like many non-traditional students, Griebel worked and traveled the world after earning his undergraduate degree in Spanish and Latin American studies from Wake Forest University in 2009. “I taught English in Chile and Turkey before coming to work in South Florida,” he said. “When I looked at getting a master’s degree, I wanted an interdisciplinary program that would offer a global perspective on economics and politics. The MAIA program was perfect for me.”

While still in the program, Griebel joined the International Forum of the Americas as executive director of its World Strategic Forum. “The leaders at the forum were very inter-

ested in the work I was doing for my classes,” he said. “Along with my learning experiences, I benefited from the networking opportunities in the program. We had a very diverse class, including students from Europe, South America, and Asia with backgrounds in the business, nonprofit and government sectors.”

Developing leadership and management skills is one of the central themes of the MAIA program, according to Bradford McGuinn, senior lecturer with the Department of Political Science and MAIA director.

“We attract a wide range of students, including those who are looking toward another career trajectory or for intellectual enrichment,” he said. Each MAIA cohort comprises 15 to 20 ARTS | SCIENCES

17

students, who typically take about a year and a half to complete the program.

“Our students learn from their professors, their readings and also from one another,” McGuinn said. “The exchanges that take place in the classroom are fascinating. If questions about foreign policy come up, for instance, someone in the class may have worked for the U.S. government or served in the military in the Middle East or elsewhere.”

A shared aspiration is the theme that ties MAIA students together. “Our students want to do something that matters in business, government, nonprofits or the humanitarian sectors,” McGuinn said. “It provides them with insights, concepts, and training that allows them to direct people and organizations toward positive outcomes.”

The MAIA program also supports sharing of knowledge between generations. “It is tremendously rewarding for a younger student to learn from a more experienced professional,” McGuinn said. “At the same time, our experienced professionals benefit from the perspectives of MAIA students who may have graduated recently from college.”

As one of the College’s professional master’s programs, MAIA caters to working adults with evening and online courses. “We have several students who served in the military and come to the University of Miami on the G.I. Bill looking to transition to civilian work,” said Tobin. “MAIA attracts the largest percentage of ex-military students, as we participate in the Yellow Ribbon provision to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. This allows eligible veterans to attend private universities like UM because we match the tuition not covered by the standard G.I. Bill.”

Bachelor of General Studies Scott Tinkler joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 18 and didn’t start his college education until later in life. After enrolling at Broward College in 2009, he transferred to the University of Miami, eventually earning a bachelor’s in general studies (BGS) degree at the age of 44. “I am very

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grateful to UM for helping me to fulfill a dream,” said Tinkler, CEO of Aventura Worldwide Transport. “I was able to be a role model for my sons, who watched me graduate from college.”

Tinkler enjoyed being able to customize his bachelor’s degree program and found the writing and public speaking classes particularly helpful. “I think taking classes as an adult gave me a more seasoned perspective on learning,” he said.

The BGS is offered by the College of Arts and Sciences through the Division of Continuing and International Education (DCIE) for students age 22 and older.

Students are able to work with academic and enrollment advisors in planning a course of study through online and face-to-face courses that are compatible with their schedules.

Monica Bunsen, associate director of credit programs, Division of Continuing and International Education, said Tinkler is typical of the approximately 175 students pursuing a BGS degree each year. “Our students are balancing family and work lives, so we have a lot of flexibility in our schedules,” she said. “After earning a bachelor’s degree, many go to graduate school as well.”

Bunsen said the majority of students choose majors in the arts and sciences, including psychology, sociology, and political science. “Our students exemplify the lifelong learning process,” she added. “They have taken a pause in their education but recognize that returning to school can open new doors in their lives. It’s very rewarding for us to see them walk across the stage at commencement to the cheers of their families and friends.”

Young Scholars Program At the other end of the university experience, the College of Arts and Sciences hosts several summer programs for high school students. For instance, the Young Scholars Program

allows high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to gain valuable hands-on experience by working with faculty in a campus laboratory.

Arts and Sciences faculty participate in the DCIE-led Summer Scholars Program, which also brings young sophomore and juniors from around the world to the UM campus to explore their academic passions, live in the dorms, participate in campus events, and immerse themselves in the college experience.

or learn about computers or social media.

“Our membership, including UM alumni and snowbirds, continues to grow,” Vergara said. “Along with keeping their minds agile and healthy, our members enjoy the social experience of learning from each other. We are a big family here at OLLI.” n

Continued Learning in Retirement Janet Krutchik, a retired English and film teacher at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has always been interested in art and theater. That’s why she jumped at the opportunity to take noncredit classes at the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning (OLLI). She now serves on the institute’s advisory council.

“When I was an undergraduate at the University of Miami, I couldn’t take art history classes because my schedule required a heavy concentration in English and psychology,” Krutchik said. “Now I am thoroughly enjoying the humanities classes.”

One of the things Krutchik likes about the OLLI program, which is offered through the DCIE, is how the program is constructed. “OLLI offers classes without homework or tests.

It’s education for the sheer joy of learning,” she added.

Each year, OLLI offers more than 300 classes at modest fees to more than 1,300 members age 50 and older. “We have popular classes in the humanities,” said Magda Vergara, director. “These include learning a foreign language or studying art and history.” Other students take tai chi or yoga, ARTS | SCIENCES

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STRENGTHENING MATHEMATICAL BONDS Dedicated to fostering new

collaborations in mathematics across the hemisphere,

the University of Miami has launched the Institute of the Mathematical Sciences of the Americas (IMSA), with funding from one of the foremost private supporters of mathematics and basic sciences.

SYNERGIES IN THE MAKING: Dr. James Simons at the inaugural conference event this fall for IMSA.

“M

athematics is a very international activity and we want to advance collaborations in both pure mathematics and in its applications to other fields,” said IMSA director Robert Stephen Cantrell, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics.

“Miami is the de facto intellectual capital of Latin America, so it’s a natural hub. This gives us the opportunity to enhance the stature of the department and the University.”

The Institute, which was established with a $2 million grant from the New York-based Simons Foundation, kicked off its first year with an inaugural conference this fall that showcased 14 of the world’s top mathematicians. Among them: Harvard professor Denis Auroux, University of California professor Alan Hastings, UM professor Maxime Kontsevich, who also teaches at the

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Institute des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in Paris, and Dr. James Simons, a distinguished mathematician who established the Simons Foundation while leading a successful hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies.

At the inaugural conference, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Leonidas G. Bachas thanked the faculty in the Mathematics Department “for their vision to establish the new institute. This grant from the Simons Foundation creates synergies, and that’s very important, synergies that will link the University of Miami to other institutions around the world.”

The math institute’s mission aligns closely with the Roadmap to Our New Century, the University’s strategic plan for tackling world challenges by building new bridges across

geographic, cultural, and intellectual borders, particulary in the STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics —fields of inquiry.

Over the next five years, IMSA will engage in several working group projects where professors and graduate students from UM’s Department of Mathematics will be paired with academics from universities across Latin America to lead teams of researchers on significant projects in mathematics and its applications.

“Mathematics in Latin America has developed extremely well the last 20 years, especially at IMPA [Brazil’s National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics],” said Distinguished Professor Phillip Griffiths. “The time is right to establish stronger connections between U.S. math commu-

nities and others in the hemisphere. The University has the track record to do this. It is really building on something that’s already in place and has been flourishing for years. It’s just something that makes a lot of sense at this point in time.”

Yuri Tschinkel, director of mathematics and physical sciences for the Simons Foundation, agreed. “The University of Miami has had a very strong department with very distinguished faculty for many years. This is potentially a very important center for mathematics, especially as it connects to other communities across the Americas. The goal of this program is to build and strengthen communities. We hope our initial grant to UM will help enable that.” n

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STUDENTDIGEST

TWO UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI STUDENTS received the prestigious research-focused Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation Award for the 2019-2020 academic year. Rising senior Shwetha Mudalegundi and rising junior Danielle Goldwert were nominated by a committee within the Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships to represent UM. Each will receive $7,500 per year to complete their undergraduate education.

SHWETHA MUDALEGUNDI

Growing up, Mudalegundi became captivated with inquiry-based research when she was forced to participate in her seventh-grade science fair.

She quickly realized that she enjoyed proposing her own questions and then devising the methodology to answer those very questions.

By high school, Mudalegundi began canvassing local universities and laboratories in her hometown of Atlanta to gain hands-on experience. By the time she enrolled at UM, she had conducted research at two different institutions.

Last year, she applied for the Goldwater

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Scholarship and received honorable mention. She felt it was necessary to try her hand once more, as this recognition meant a lot to her and her parents.

“This scholarship is well-known among undergrads in the research community,” said Mudalegundi, who has enjoyed designing her own academic curriculum as a member of the Foote Fellow Honors Program. “This was something that I really wanted because I knew that they provided funds to help with college expenses, but I also wanted to be recognized for my research. This recognition will stay with me forever.”

She is a double major in neuroscience and public health and is conducting research on multiple sclerosis under the leadership of Associate Professor Roberta Brambilla at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. In the lab,

Goldw

Mudalegundi studies receptors in mice to identify a therapeutic target that works directly in the MS pathway.

“I cold emailed Dr. Brambilla my freshman year, and since, she has been the most supportive mentor who has put so much trust in me,” said Mudalegundi. “She has allowed me to do my own project. She truly took me into the world of neuroscience and has shown me unwavering support.”

DANIELLE GOLDWERT

When Goldwert, a New Jersey native, applied to the Goldwater Scholarship she was fully prepared to receive an honorable mention and go through the

MAJOR INFATUATION: POLITICAL SCIENCE Tell us why you love your major

“Political Science enriches our understanding of how the world operates and posits recommendations to make it better.”

- Zachary M. Homeijer, ’20

“Throughout history, Florida has been one of the most surprising and interesting places for politics. The Political Science program not only explores the cultural, economic, and geographical influencers of chaotic, foreign lands, but also grants intimate access to one of the most unstable political climates in the United States.”

- Kelsey Shields, ’20

water Scholars application process all over again next year.

“I had no confidence that I would win, based on what I read about, the prestige, and how many people apply versus the number that actually wins,” said Goldwert.

“I did not expect to win at all.” Goldwert considers winning this award one of her biggest accomplishments to date.

Goldwert is also a Foote Fellow who double majors in psychology and studio art and minors in philosophy, ecosystem science and policy, English literature, and management. When Goldwert was young she said she had a disdain for science and considered herself an artist.

“I’ve always loved the humanities but after changing my major, I fell in love with psychology,” said Goldwert, who is currently conducting research in two laboratories at UM. Timpano, an associate professor of

psychology and director of the Program for Anxiety, Stress, and OCD (PASO), and also the lab manager of Associate Professor Debra Lieberman’s evolution and human behavior lab.

Throughout her time at UM, Goldwert learned to follow her instincts, work hard, and take the initiative “especially in the lab environment,” and said she enjoys the problem-solving aspect of conducting research most.

“I was very indecisive before coming to college, and by trying out a few things I know that what I ended up with is what I really care about,” said Goldwert. “Everything has played out better than I ever could have hoped for. I’m now studying something that I love.” Please help us to attract and properly support exceptional scholars, visit as.miami.edu/ donate or call 305.284.4638. n

“A Political Science degree teaches strong analytical skills, research, and prepares you for post-graduate studies in law, public policy, and public administration, among others. Studying political science at a global university like UM provides not only a national perspective but a cross-comparative perspective that can be useful in any context.”

- Jessica Triche, ’19

“The Political Science Department has allowed me to engage with the most important problems facing our society and the world within a friendly environment that respects all perspectives and encourages freedom of thought.”

- Zach Gluckow, ’20

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A&SRESEARCH

SEARCHING FOR THE ‘HIDDEN DRIVERS’ OF

Florida's Rarest Plants

P

ost-doctoral researcher Daniel Revillini has been planting thousands of seeds— some smaller than a speck of dust, others the size of a grain of rice— into hundreds of tiny pots in a makeshift grow house in the basement of the Cox Science Building.

The task is tedious and painstaking but has the tantalizing goal of unlocking the secrets of the hidden microbes that could help some of the rarest plants on Earth, those found only on Central Florida’s imperiled Lake Wales Ridge, continue to thrive in a changing climate.

“It’s a lot of logistics and a lot of finicky work, but once you get it done, all you do is water them, and hopefully watch them grow,” Revillini said, as he spills seeds from tiny envelopes and, with a pair of tweezers, carefully drops them on top of an array of soils in hundreds of yellow “cone-tainers.”

Each of the 1-inch by 1-inch coneshaped pots contains anywhere from three to 30 seeds collected from a dozen of the small, ground-level herbaceous plants that sprout in the sandy, bald spots near Florida rosemary, the dominant species in the ever-shrinking Florida scrub habitat. A fragrant shrub

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unrelated to the popular culinary herb, rosemary scrub has its own natural “Keep Out” sign. Known as an allelopathic plant, it produces chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants.

Yet about 80 different species of the herbaceous plants, many of them endangered or found nowhere else, still manage to grow in the gaps amid the rosemary, prompting University of Miami assistant professors of biology Michelle Afkhami and Christopher Searcy to investigate whether fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms in the soil of those rosemary balds are the “hidden drivers” that explain why.

In research to be published in a forthcoming peer-reviewed journal, Afkhami, Searcy, and another postdoctoral researcher, Aaron David, already showed that one plant, Hypericum cumulicola, an endangered St. John’s wort, is dependent on microbes for its persistence. Now, with an $850,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and Revillini’s help, they are trying to determine if that’s the case for another dozen of the 80 rare plants.

“Usually when we model distributions of any species, whether plants or animals, we just look at abiotic, or

non-living, factors of the environment, like climate,” Searcy said. “But there is more and more evidence that microbes play a bigger role in plant health than we knew previously.”

Adds Afkhami, “There are microbes everywhere. They live everywhere and are on everything, and we know they are important for plant growth and nutrient cycling. So we’re trying to understand how they impact the distribution of the plants they interact with, which can be important to restore a given habitat, but also to understand how plant species will respond to climate change.”

To that end, they have an ideal testing ground, one that has been exposed to another important abiotic factor, fire.

Revillini collected the soil and the seeds he just finished planting from Archbold Biological Station, one of the nation’s most distinct natural preserves located on the south edge of the Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County.

A unique line of ancient sand dunes in the state’s midsection and endangered plants found in the Lake Wales Ridge that stretches about 150 miles north to Lake County, the ridge boasts the

Photo: Alan Cressler

highest rate of endemic species—those that don’t occur anywhere else—in the southeast United States because they evolved on the elevated islands that formed when most of ancient Florida was under water.

But unlike the rest of the Lake Wales Ridge, about 85 percent of which has been lost to development, Archbold Biological Station has been protected since Richard Archbold, a famed aviator, world explorer, and research associate with the American Museum of Natural History, acquired the 5,200-acre property in 1941. And for the past half century or so, station researchers have been mimicking nature by setting a mosaic of largeand small-scale prescribed burns to study the ecological responses to fire, an essential and natural part of the ecosystem.

So, to determine whether soil microbes interact with fire and allelopathy to contribute to individual plant fitness, UM’s researchers collected soil from 36 different rosemary balds spread across the station and, this past May, subjected all of the soil samples to another prescribed burn.

It is in those soil samples, each of which has its unique, well-documented fire history, that Revillini planted the seeds in the Cox basement’s makeshift grow chamber. But complicating his task, seeds from each of the dozen plants were planted in soils that had undergone a number of different treatments. Ultimately, though, his painstaking work should help researchers untangle the differences in the role microbes play from the role that soil properties play in governing the health, and perhaps the future, of the rare and endangered plants found in the Lake Wales Ridge. n

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BOOKMARKS

R E C E N T A & S FA C U LT Y P U B L I C AT I O N S

A Second Glance JENNIFER FERRISS-HILL CLASSICS Horace’s Ars Poetica: Family, Friendship, and the Art of Living (Princeton University Press). Ferriss-Hill argues that the Ars Poetica (Art of Poetry), a poem on poetry that was regarded as a paradigmatic manual for writers for over two millennia, should be read as a coherent, complete, and exceptional literary artifact. Establishing the Ars Poetica as a logical evolution of Horace’s work and as similarly constructed about the themes of friendship, laughter, intergenerational relationships, and human endeavor that pervade his earlier writings, this book promises to inspire a long overdue reconsideration of a hugely influential yet neglected and misunderstood poem.

SUSAN L. LEARY ENGLISH This Girl, Your Disciple (Finishing Line Press).

Leary’s poetry chapbook, This Girl, Your Disciple, explores the history of a family suicide kept secret for almost 50 years—that of Leary’s maternal grandfather, who killed himself in 1961 in the cellar of her mother’s childhood home—only to be discovered in the wake of her grandmother’s passing in 2009. These lyric poems take up the themes of death, grief, and loss; family relationships; religion and spirituality; as well as war, country, and PTSD. HEATHER DIACK ART HISTORY Documents of Doubt: The Photographic Conditions of Conceptual Art (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press). Why do we continue to look to photographs for evidence despite our awareness of photography’s potential duplicity? Documents of Doubt critically reassesses the truth claims surrounding photographs by looking at how conceptual artists creatively undermined them. Studying the unique relationship between photography and conceptual art practices in the United States during the social and political instability of the late 1960s, Diack offers vital new perspectives on our “post-truth” world and the importance of suspending easy conclusions in contemporary art.

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MICHAEL TOUCHTON POLITICAL SCIENCE Salvaging Community: How American Cities Rebuild Closed Military Bases (Cornell University Press). Touchton and Ashley undertake a comprehensive evaluation of how American communities redevelop former bases following the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. In turn, Salvaging Community leverages these experiences to present a constructive approach to both economic and community development at the close of the military-industrial era.

CLAIRE OUESLATI-PORTER ANTHROPOLOGY Gender, Textile Work, and Tunisian Women’s Liberation: Deviating Patterns (Palgrave).

This book is about women factory workers’ lives in Binzart, Tunisia during the final years before the Arab Spring. Based on ethnographic research in a textile factory in an export production zone, the book presents an analysis of acquiescence and resistance to exploitation. Common gender performances among workers include emphasized femininity and pious femininity; however, certain women workers appropriated masculinity during work and in their social lives.

The gendered tensions in the factory and in the family elucidate Tunisia’s competing ideologies: liberated womanhood and masculine supremacy. Tunisia is often described as the most progressive country in the Arab Muslim region, especially when it comes to women’s status.

However, the ideology and discourse of Tunisian women as “already liberated” belies the impacts of globalization on working class Tunisians.

The Unseen Americans JASWINDER BOLINA ENGLISH The 44th of July (Omnidawn Publishing). In The 44th of July, Bolina offers bracing and often humorous reflections on American culture through the lens of an alienated outsider at a deliberately uncomfortable distance that puts the oddities of the culture on full display. Exploring the nuances of life in an America that doesn’t treat you as one of its own, yet whose benefits still touch your life, these exquisitely crafted poems sing in a kaleidoscopic collaging of language the mundane, yet surreal experience of being in between a cultural heritage of migration and poverty and daily life in a discriminatory yet prosperous nation.

LOGAN J. CONNORS MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES The emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660-1740 (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment Series; Voltaire Foundation, Oxford University and Liverpool University Press).

The emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660-1740, highlights a radical departure from discussions of dramatic literature and its undergirding rules to a new, relational discourse on the emotional power of theater. Through a diverse cast of religious theaterphobes, government officials, playwrights, art theorists and proto-philosophes, Connors shows the concerted effort in early Enlightenment France to use texts about theater to establish broader theories on emotion, on the enduring psychological and social ramifications of affective moments, and more generally, on human interaction, motivation, and social behavior.

New Atlantic Connections

ALEXANDRA PERISIC MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic (Ohio State University Press). With global debt, labor, and environmental crises on the rise, the precarious position of people in the Global South has become a significant force moving people across countries, continents, and around the world. Through a comparative study of contemporary trans-Atlantic immigrant narratives in French, Spanish, and English, Perisic offers an account of a multilingual Atlantic under neoliberalism. Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic examines how contemporary authors from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America—including Roberto Bolaño, Giannina Braschi, Maryse Condé, Fatou Diome, Marie Ndiaye, and Caryl Phillips, among others—have reconceptualized the Atlantic from a triangular space into a multipolar one, introducing new destinations for contemporary immigrants and establishing new Atlantic connections.

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ALUMNINEWS

The Power of the Written Word Photo: Eric Sylvester

“I

used to think that being bilingual is what made me a writer, but more and more I see it’s deeper than that. It’s the constant act of interpreting. The journeying back and forth. The discovery that language, and the stories it carries, is not a straight path.”

Natalia Sylvester, B.A.’06, shared these words in her opinion piece “The Beauty of Being Bilingual,” which was published this past September in the New York Times. The piece, a reflection on language and diversity, draws on her experiences as an interpreter and mediator in those spaces where Spanish-speakers and English-speakers sometimes meet—and connections are sometimes lost.

“The idea to write this piece came from a place of personal experience,” said Sylvester. “It’s about translation and realizing the power that language has to separate and create division, but also unite.”

Born in Lima, Peru, Sylvester came to the U.S. at age four.

She grew up in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas; her family finally settled in Miami when she was in seventh grade.

Writing came early to Sylvester. She expressed herself in poetry and fiction and decided to try a career in journalism at the University of Miami. But that all changed when she came across a brochure about the College’s Creative Writing major.

“Suddenly it all made sense,” said Sylvester. “I saw a sliver of a path before me and knew I needed to follow it.” Sylvester graduated with a B.A. in English/Creative Writing and a minor in journalism in 2006. Her work as a freelance writer in Texas has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, and Latina magazine.

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“My experience at UM shaped the way that I write fiction,” Sylvester said. “I am always very curious, about not only the stories that I’m reading or writing, but the stories that haven’t been told yet or are hidden by other voices.”

Sylvester vividly remembers the courses that most influenced her: poetry classes with UM lecturer Mia Leonin and fiction-writing courses with Professor M. Evelina Galang.

“There was a time that I was writing what I thought others expected me to write,” said Sylvester. “Professor Galang helped me question and examine myself and helped me find the stories that I wanted to be writing, to find the truths expressed in my work.”

Sylvester’s novels traverse the places with which she is familiar. Her first novel, Chasing the Sun, published in 2014, is set in Lima, Peru, and was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad. Her second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, takes place in a Texas border town and Mexico. It won an International Latino Book Award, the 2018 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, and a place among the Best Books of 2018 in Real Simple magazine. Her latest novel, Running, is a young adult story set in Miami about a Cuban American teen whose father is running for president. Its release is set for May 2020.

“The beauty of writing is that you are always on this path of learning more and more about yourself and the world around you,” said Sylvester. “When an idea feels rooted in me and true —when there is rich and fertile soil to write—that is when I know I’ve found a story I need to tell.” n

ENDNOTE

Renderings by Harvard Jolly Architecture

A Commitment to Research

N

ow in the design phase, the new Frost Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Science will soon become a reality on the Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami. Considered to be an institute of new paths for scientific research, discovery, innovative teaching, and collaboration among faculty, the new science facility was made possible by a transformational $100 million gift from UM philanthropists Phillip and Patricia Frost. The building will foster interdisciplinary research across multiple fields and be a home for the University’s chemistry and molecular science programs. Located east of the Ashe building, the Frost building is the backbone of the University STEM@ UM initiative, which was created to implement collaborative research and promote UM as the hemispheric hub for science and innovation. For more information, visit ficms.as.miami.edu n

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CLASSNOTES

In Memoriam Charles Carver died on June 22, 2019. He was 71. He received his bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1969 and his doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974.

Carver had a long and illustrious career at the University of Miami (1975 to 2019) where he was a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Adult Division of the Psychology Department. His life-long work focused on personality psychology, social psychology, health psychology, and experimental psychopathology. He is author of 10 books and over 400 articles and chapters. He is survived by his loving wife of nine years, Youngmee Kim, his brother Jeffrey A. Carver, and several nieces.

CHARLES CARVER

Howard Pospesel, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, died unexpectedly on September 21, 2019. He was 82. Pospesel was a wonderful man with a strong moral compass, dedicated to the University of Miami.

During his time at UM, he served on numerous College and University committees, most notably on the Senate Academic Standards Committee and A&S Admissions and Academic Standard Committee. He was a driving force in the College and at the University for improving the academic quality of the student body, and a strong voice for all faculty (including lecturers) and for staff—advocating for fair treatment, pay, and benefits. He served in many capacities at UM, including Associate Master of Pearson, President of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, and Chair of the Philosophy Department.

HOWARD POSPESEL

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David P. Cannon, A.B. ’69, retired advertising writer, creative director, and videographer, started his most distinctive career 50 years ago this summer. Cannon pioneered many of the services and products that became the fabric of our lives today.

In his recent retirement, he is writing a book and maintaining a website based on his father-in-law’s diary detailing his movement of homing pigeons for the signal corps across Europe in World War II.

Raymond A. Belliotti, M.A. ’76, Ph.D.’77, distinguished teaching professor of philosophy at The State University of New York has published his 21st book, Is Human Life Absurd? A Philosophical Inquiry into Finitude, Value and Meaning (Brill, 2019).

Mandi Eizenbaum, A.B. ’87, is a teacher in Miami-Dade County and recently published her first adult fiction novel. Her book, Just Call Me Miri (Newman Springs Publishing, 2019), has been featured in SWFL online magazine, TV-WLRN, Hadassah Magazine, and The Authors Show. Eizenbaum is a member of Florida Authors and Publishers Association and Mystery Writers of America.

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Rafael Ribas, A.B. ’87, B.S. ’88, was promoted to the rank of Major General U.S. Army and assigned as the Director, Mobilization and Reserve Affairs for United States Southern Command.

He was commissioned an Infantry officer through the University of Miami Army ROTC program in 1987.

Ribas has served in various leadership, key command, and operational assignments and is a veteran of two overseas deployments.

During Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, and Michael, Ribas served as the overall military

CLASSNOTES

commander for hurricane response operations within Florida. He and his wife Elaine, B.S.N. ’90, live in Pembroke Pines, FL, and have two children.

Craig R. Bottoni, B.S. ’88, M.D. ’91, is an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in Sports Medicine. He has served as president of both state and national orthopaedic societies and was selected as the medical command surgeon of the year in 2018. In 2017, he was awarded the coveted Hughston Award for a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Twice he received the O’ Donohue Award by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (2007, 2018). He is happily married to his wife, Krista, and they have a 2-year-old son named Noah.

Timothy S. Huebner, A.B. ’88, was named associate provost at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, where he has been a proud faculty member for 25 years.

90s Michael F. Hettich, Ph.D. ’91, has published a new book of poems: To Start an Orchard.

Hettich’s books of poetry include A Small Boat, Swimmer Dreams, Flock and Shadow, and Behind Our Memories. His work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and he is the winner of two fellowships from the Florida Arts Council.

Roy L. Weinfeld, A.B. ’89, J.D. ’95, a creditors’ rights and real estate litigator for nearly 25 years, conducts seminars regularly to the Miami Association of Realtors

in areas of his expertise.

Weinfeld has also presented seminars to the Attorneys Real Estate Council, Colliers International, NAI Miami commercial brokerages, amongst others.

Bryan V. Stevens, M.S.P.T. ’94, lieutenant colonel, United States Army, has graduated from the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle, PA, with a master’s degree in strategic studies. Stevens will serve next in the Army Reserve Medical Readiness and Training Command at Joint Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Michael J. LaRosa, Ph.D. ’95, was presented the Rhodes College’s highest faculty honors for teaching and research at the college’s annual Awards Convocation. The Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and/or Creative Activity is presented to a member of the faculty who has demonstrated that research and/or creative activity is an integral part of his or her vocation, and who has published or performed outstanding works over the previous three years that have gained scholarly recognition or critical acclaim.

Joshua A. Cohen, A.B. ’96, a Canton-based financial advisor, Cohen is being honored by Northwestern Mutual for his commitment and drive to help families and businesses plan for and achieve financial security. As part of this recognition, Cohen will be inducted into the company’s elite membership, the 2019 Forum Group, at a leadership conference in November 2019.

00s Janetlee Garcia, A.B. ’00, J.D. ’03, joined Chartwell Law as an associate. Garcia will handle worker’s compensation defense cases and represent numerous employers, self-insured businesses, and insurance carriers in all stages of litigation.

Daniel “Danny” Paskin, M.A. ’00, Ph.D. ’06, was promoted to full professor at the Department of Journalism and Public Relations at California State University, Long Beach, where he has been teaching since 2008. Paskin serves as the university’s general education coordinator, as well as chair of the campus Curriculum and Educational Policies Council.

Daniel I. Pedreira, B.A.I.S. ’06, published his second book: An Instrument of Peace: The Full-Circled Life of Ambassador Guillermo Belt Ramirez (Lexington Books). The book is a biography on Ambassador Guillermo Belt, Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. and the Soviet Union, who became a signer of the UN and OAS Charters.

Marianne Curtis, A.B. ’07, J.D. ’11, partner and member at Berger Singerman, was recognized as one of the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors (YLD)’s Outstanding Woman Lawyer of Achievement Award in June 2019. This award honors and celebrates a female lawyer or judge who excels in her field, possesses an excellent reputation for integrity, exhibits dedication to her community and her profession, and who

demonstrates a commitment to the success and advancement of young female lawyers.

Annette Roche Ponnock, A.B. ’07, completed her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and is conducting research at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence on teacher motivation and emotions.

10s Jennifer Del Toro, A. B. ’11, moved to Washington, D.C. to attend American University in 2013. Del Toro began interning at the Washington Regional Threat Analysis Center, a federally funded partnership between the District of Columbia Government and the US Department of Homeland Security. She was later hired as an intelligence analyst working closely with local officials, federal intelligence community partners, and National Capital Region public safety and private sector communities to provide analytic support to complex public safety and counterterrorism issues. She is now with the D.C. Mayor's Office working for the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, and has joined the Washington, D.C. Alumni Association 'Canes Community.

Courtney N. Cross-Johnson, A.B. ’11, was the first Ms. National Urban League Young Professionals (NUYLP) winner in 2019.

Cross-Johnson has been an active member for seven years and serves as the Urban League’s Marketing Chair for the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter.

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Marlow Svatek, B.A. ’11, graduated with a double major in International Studies and Philosophy. Her work as a Peace Corps volunteer was recognized by the United Nations, and she was awarded the 2012 Leo Nevas Human Rights Youth Advocate Award.

She also attended law school at the University of Chicago.

Since graduating from law school, she clerked for two federal judges and will start practicing at a large international law firm in Chicago this fall. She uses the skills she gained as an International Studies major every day.

Leah Silvieus, M.F.A. ’12, released a new collection: Arabilis (Sundress Publications) in March 2019. Silvieus is a Kundiman Fellow and currently serves as books editor at Hyphen magazine.

Rachel B. Eddy, B.F.A. ’16, and her brother, Robert “Bobby” H. Eddy, B.F.A. ’18, have co-written and produced a short film, JEW(ish). The assembled cast and crew include, Andrew S. Baldwin, B.F.A. ’13, Alexander “Alex” Michell, B.F.A. ’18, as well as former University of Miami professor, Chris O’Connor (2012-2015).

Sarah Ortiz-Monasterio, A.B. ’19, has been accepted for fall 2019 to the University of Cambridge where she will continue her studies of Latin American Art in the University’s Master of Philosophy in Latin American Studies. Ortiz-Monasterio interned over the summer at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL, where she served as a co-curator of an Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec poster exhibition entitled “Posters by ToulouseLautrec,” which opened in August 2019.

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To learn more about making a planned gift, please visit our website miami.edu/plannedgiving or contact us: Patrick Stewart Executive Director of Development College of Arts & Sciences University of Miami 305.284.2988 pestewart@miami.edu Kyle Paige Executive Director Estate & Gift Planning University of Miami 305.284.2266 kpaige@miami.edu

Touch the Future with a planned gift to the College of Arts & Sciences.

Bequests and other planned gifts help the University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences increase scholarship opportunities for students, expand academic programs, and support innovative research for years to come. The University of Miami’s Office of Estate and Gift Planning can help you explore options that balance your philanthropic and financial goals with tax-planning strategies– helping you plan for your future, the College’s future, and all of our futures.

Leave a lasting legacy at the College If you are 70½ years or older, the Charitable IRA Rollover provision allows you to donate up to $100,000 directly to the College of Arts & Sciences from your IRA without including that amount in your taxable income. Contact your IRA administrator or our office today to find out how!

Planned gifts include: • Appreciated Securities • Will or Trust Bequest • Charitable Gift Annuity • Charitable Remainder Trust

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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, MIAMI STYLE The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre kicked off its 2019-2020 season with the cult classic, Little Shop of Horrors. This rendition of the off-Broadway musical, that morphed into a celebrated comedy sci-fi flick, took place in a typical Miami botanica—the little shops where practitioners of Santeria and voodoo could buy remedies, potions, and spiritual objects. The flesh-eating plant was played by senior Carter Nash, who said the hardest part about playing Audrey II was learning how to walk using stilts.