arts&sciences spring 2017

A CARIBBEAN CONNECTION | STEM @ UM | THE OBSERVER, THE STORYTELLER

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI | SPRING 2017

SCIENCE IN THE TROPICS P.10

M ESSAGE FR OM T HE DE A N UM COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES | SPRING 2017

It is an exciting time to be at the U—a period of tremendous growth and innovation. President Julio Frenk has launched a series of Roadmap Initiatives created to reshape and reinvent UM. The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to be at the center of all these initiatives and will continue to play an essential role in the path toward excellence and creativity. This is what we strive for as a strong institution. The College’s mission is to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs and scientists; teachers and doctors; artists and scholars. In today’s information-saturated world, the role of the University is to educate students how to evaluate all accessible information critically and acquire the advanced knowledge they need to be well-prepared leaders in the global society. At the College, we propel our students toward academic achievement and experiential learning through research and discovery, both in and out of the classroom. From field study in the Caribbean region to uncovering the effects of climate change on tropical rainforests, our students learn, grow, and seek mentoring and authentic research opportunities alongside outstanding faculty who are committed to transforming lives through teaching, research, and service. In an effort to boost University-wide technology and scientific innovation, through a generous gift from UM philanthropists Dr. Phillip and Patricia Frost, the University will break new ground and welcome the Frost Institutes for Science and Engineering— research hubs fostering innovation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These new Institutes will add value and prestige to the collaborative and interdisciplinary research currently being done by the College’s tireless and talented faculty and students, establishing UM as a global leader in groundbreaking science and technology. This Spring, we welcomed our first Distinguished Presidential Fellow, Susan Meiselas, a world-renowned photographer, who shared her knowledge and expertise with students and collaborated with faculty across multiple disciplines. All were eager to learn about her work as a documentary photographer. As this semester comes to a close, I look forward to the start of the next academic year. I am confident that we will continue to work together to achieve our goals and perform at the highest caliber in the realms of the natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. I encourage you to visit our website at as.miami.edu to learn more about the College. Go ’Canes!

Make a difference.

Leonidas G. Bachas Dean of the UM College of Arts & Sciences

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

SPRING 2017 VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 1 COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES Dean Leonidas G. Bachas Senior Associate Deans Douglas Fuller Angel Kaifer Maria Galli Stampino Associate Deans Charles Mallery José Maria Cardoso da Silva Assistant Deans Leonard Clemons Jeanne Luis Executive Directors Dawn Reynolds Maryann Tatum Tobin Editor/Writer Deseraé E. del Campo Editorial Contributors Alexandra Bassil Jessica Castillo Robert S. Benchley Carlos Harrison Andrew Boryga Andres Tamayo

CONTENTS 2

Renowned photographer shares talents

Distinguished Presidential Fellow Susan Meiselas interacted with students and collaborated with faculty across multiple disciplines.

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 permission 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 © 2017, University of Miami. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences on the web as.miami.edu Past issues of the magazine are available at: as.miami.edu/news/magazine Cover photo: Dr. J. Albert C. Uy and a Myzomela bird. © Day’s Edge Productions

Science in the Tropics

Professors and students are combining efforts to piece together a complete picture of the interaction of humans and the tropical environment.

09 Bookmarks

Student Achievements

Major gift elevates STEM research with the creation of the Frost Institutes for Science and Engineering.

A&S News

STEM@UM

Photography Juniette Fiore Design and Layout Cowen Design, Inc.

22 A&S Research

26 Class Spotlight

28 Class Notes

A Caribbean Connection

The social, cultural, and political roots that have historically framed the Caribbean region flow through the College of Arts and Sciences.

as.miami.edu

UMIAMICAS

UMCAS

@UMCAS

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The Observer, the Storyteller, the Photographer Renowned photojournalist and documentarian Susan Meiselas named a Distinguished Presidential Fellow and one of UMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 100 Talents

Muchachos await the counterattack by the National Guard, Matagalpa, 1978.

ARTS

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Lena on the Bally Box, Essex Junction, 1973.

Susan Meiselas has traveled the world as a documentary photographer for over 40 years. Her photography has transported people to the rubble and destruction of lower Manhattan on 9/11, to Nicaragua’s popular insurrection during the late 1970s, to a village in El Salvador destroyed by the country’s armed forces in the early 1980s, and to witness the photographic history of Kurdistan, which was presented in book and exhibition form in 1997. Meiselas said she believes documentary photography is “an engagement with the world.” She was able to share that engagement, her experience, and her talent with the University of Miami community as one of its 100 Talents, one of the University’s Roadmap to Our New Century initiatives, introduced by President Julio Frenk. As a Distinguished Presidential Fellow with the College of Arts and Sciences, Meiselas actively engaged and interacted with students and collaborated with faculty across multiple disciplines. Her visit culminated in a public lecture at the Newman Alumni Center on March 21 entitled, Frame to Form. While on campus, Meiselas spent time in photography and sculpture classrooms in the College’s art department, where she shared her expertise on topics such as the history of war photography and how to make a living as an artist. To welcome Meiselas to campus, the College and the School of Communication hosted a special screening of her 1991 documentary Pictures from a Revolution, which features the photographs Meiselas took during the Nicaraguan popular insurrection and follows her search a decade later to find and hear from the people in the photos. “It all begins with the photo and the relationships with the collaborators with whom the film is created. Filmmaking includes more collaborators, where photography is more of

Liberty Plaza, New York City, September 11, 2001.

an isolated experience,” Meiselas told the nearly 100 students, faculty, staff, and community members who attended the screening. Her photos captured the fall of the Somoza regime and the revolution subsequently won by the Sandinistas in 1979. Since the images represent the various factions and lives of people who participated in the revolution in and out of battle, Meiselas wondered how they fared post-revolution. The film tells the story of those she could find, with Meiselas showing them their photo and asking about their lives since. Meiselas got her own start while teaching photography in an elementary school in the South Bronx during the 1970s. Her work has been published in The New York Times and Time Magazine, and she has had solo exhibitions in Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. She is a winner of the Robert Capa Gold Medal and in 1992 was named a MacArthur Fellow. Her work is included in American and international collections.

Renowned photojournalist Susan Meiselas.

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Before an audience of the world’s leading s cientists, researchers, and physicians attending the 50th annual Miami Winter Symposium, University of Miami President Julio Frenk announced the creation of the Frost Institutes for Science and Engineering, an umbrella structure that will house individual institutes for the purposes of elevating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) across the University. “The University of Miami is already known for excellence in biomedicine, marine sciences, and other fields,” said Frenk, “but continued excellence cannot be sustained without critical investments in basic and applied science, engineering, and mathematics. These disciplines, which form the building blocks for innovation, must be strengthened to maintain our leading edge as a research university.” The Institutes are being created from a transformational $100 million gift from Dr. Phillip and Patricia Frost to support basic and applied sciences and engineering in a University-wide initiative being called STEM@UM. “Patricia and I are committed to making Miami a hub for technological and scientific innovation, which is the main reason for our support of basic and applied sciences and engineering at the University of Miami,” said Frost. “If we build the framework from which to provide the education and resources, we will be successful in attracting top scientists across various science disciplines, including chemistry and molecular biology.”

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Major gift elevates STEM research at the U

Photo credit: Andrew Innerarity

STEM @UM

UM President Julio Frenk (L) with philanthropists Dr. Phillip and Patricia Frost.

The first individual institute to launch will be the Frost Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Science. Anchored in the fundamental discipline of chemistry, it will bring together other fields that work at the molecular level, including promising developments in the life sciences, nanotechnology, and new materials. Through approaches relying on molecular design, discovery, and development, research outcomes will be translated into solutions to significant real-life problems. “This gift provides our faculty with a great opportunity to participate in collaborative and interdisciplinary research within the fields of applied science, engineering, and mathematics,” said Leonidas Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The new institute will function as a facility where UM scientists and researchers from multiple disciplines can gather together to help solve some of today’s most challenging and global issues.” The creation of the Frost Institutes solidifies the University’s initiatives and endeavor to propel UM toward its greatest aspirations by its centennial in 2025, allowing for STEM growth, interdisciplinary research collaboration, and engagement with greater Miami as a hemispheric innovation hub. The University will launch a national search for an individual to lead the Frost Institutes, with additional institutes to be created over the next several years.

History Professors Awarded NEH Fellowships Students benefit by learning and understanding the human experience Two faculty members and colleagues in the Department of History, humanities awards in the country. Michael Bernath and Mary Lindemann, have been awarded National Bernath’s project, In a Land of Strangers: Northern Teachers in Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowships for 2017. the Old South, 1790-1865, looks at the experiences, reception, and Bernath is the Charlton W. Tebeau Associate Professor of 19th perception of thousands of Northerners, both men and women, who Century American history, and Lindemann is the chair and professor came south to teach throughout the southern states. Bernath argues of early modern German, that the presence of Dutch, and Flemish these northern teachers history and medical represented the most history in the early intimate, sustained, modern world. They will and widespread contact use their awards for book point between Northprojects on the northern erners and Southerners teachers in the Old South during the Antebellum and on the aftermath of period. He begins here the German Thirty Years’ to examine when, how, War, respectively. and where ideas of “We are proud and northern and southern excited that two of our identity emerged. distinguished History “Given how difficult it professors in the College is to win an NEH award, of Arts and Sciences were I’m honored to be one awarded NEH fellowof two faculty members ships, a tremendously in the same department respected award in the and university, a highly humanities,” said Leonidas Department of History Professors Michael Bernath and Mary Lindemann. unusual occurrence. The Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Awards such as NEH plays an essential role in facilitating ground-breaking research these not only promote scholarship in the humanities, but also lead and the exploration of vital issues that benefit us, not only as scholars to knowledge shared with our students seeking a deeper understand- and universities but also as a society,” said Bernath. ing of the human experience. The UM Center for the Humanities Lindemann’s project, Fractured Lands: Northern Germany in an provides funding to enable these research ideas to reach the stage of Age of Unending War, 1627-1721, analyzes the effects of the Thirty NEH support.” Years’ War on Germany and the century after peace. The project is The UM fellowships were among $16.3 million in grants awarded innovative in the sense that it looks not only at political and social nationwide by the NEH for 290 projects. The Fellowship for Unidevelopment, but also considers the impact of the war on the versity Teachers’ program supports college and university teachers environment. pursuing advanced research. This year, the NEH received 1,298 The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent applications and funded 86 of the total, approximately 6.6 percent of federal agency and one of the largest funders of humanities programs the proposals, making the fellowships among the most competitive in the United States. ARTS | SCIENCES

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Dr. Felicia Knaul welcomed guests at the UMIA open house event held this spring.

Photo credit: Andrew Innerarity

New Name, New Mission

The University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas (UMIA), previously known as the Institute for the Americas, officially opened its doors this spring to become part of the University’s hemispheric strategy and make full use of the hemispheric endowment that it represents. Led by Dr. Felicia Marie Knaul, professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine, UMIA promotes enhanced human, economic, and social development within and across the hemisphere through research, teaching, convening, communicating, and incubating innovative projects. “Very few think tanks attached to universities have a global health agenda,” said Knaul. “This is one of the themes that the institute will be addressing, including the work on Women’s Cancers in the Americas in a joint effort with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UHealth System, investing in health systems through diagonal approaches, and advocating for the role of women through gender transformative policies.”

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I N ST I T UT E TO C R E AT E A N D S HA R E K N OW L E D G E BR I D G I N G T HE A M E R I CAS

To support the institute’s research endeavors, Knaul has invited Sallie Hughes, associate professor at the School of Communication and an expert in Latin America, to join UMIA as faculty research lead for Latin American studies and policy. Hughes has been working closely with UMIA since August. In addition, Merike Blofied and Kate Ramsey, College of Arts and Sciences faculty leads for Women’s and Gender Studies and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies, respectively, will be joining UMIA next spring. “We have probably one of the top

Caribbean programs in the United States and one of best programs for the study of Brazil,” said Leonidas Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Things are happening and will continue to happen at the institute.” Likewise, three graduate students are the recipients of the UMIA/Latin American Studies Program Distinguished Fellows grants awarded by the College to fund student work in all areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. The goals of these grants are to offer students an opportunity to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of language, terrain, and culture; become familiar with information and sources relevant to their studies; conduct pilot work and preliminary investigations; and develop contacts with scholars and institutions in their fields of study.

Democracy to Combat Vector-Borne Diseases

Long before the Zika virus made headlines in South Florida, it had morphed into a public health emergency in Brazil and was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. According to Michael Touchton, assistant professor in the Political Science Department, Brazil reported 200,000 cases of Zika in the first half of 2016, which equates to 36 cases per municipality in the country. Touchton is not an epidemiologist, but a political scientist whose research on Zika and other vector-borne diseases focuses on citizen engagement in local health care policymaking to improve services and medical outcomes in Brazil and other Latin American countries. “Brazil designed policy reforms to bring local citizens into the democratic process who monitor and evaluate health care services and delivery in their municipalities, and this happened across the country,” said Touchton. “In my research, I show that there are big improvements in health care performance and service delivery when you bring regular people into oversite roles where they conduct neighborhood meetings to discuss how health care services are working—or not working—in their neighborhoods.” Health care funding comes directly from Brazil’s federal government and is implemented at the local level, which according to Touchton, causes a wide gap in the quality of health care across many municipalities.

Touchton says this is evident in wealthier areas of Brazil where health care policy is implemented effectively, yet there is a gap in health care services within the poorer areas, rural and urban alike. “I’ve looked at data regarding local Zika contraction in Brazil, and local citizens are more engaged where environmental policy management councils exist,” he says. “These councils help direct mosquito abatement efforts, which include giving out education pamphlets, dumping out standing water, informing neighbors about installing screens, and even providing funds from the government for neighbors to put up the screens. Touchton says the next step in his research is to return to Brazil in the summer of 2017 and gather a comprehensive dataset on dengue and Zika in the country and eventually other countries—Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the

Dominican Republic—and incorporate the data into existing research on the effectiveness of the local government councils and how they help prevent vector-borne disease transmission. “The preliminary results of my research surrounding these councils give me a reason to be optimistic that citizen engagement can work, and that this idea can be extended to other cities in the Americas that are at risk of major Zika outbreaks, like Miami,” Touchton said. Touchton’s previous research shows how citizen engagement in local health care policymaking improves service delivery and medical outcomes such as infant mortality. His latest research will be published this winter in the one of the top journals in political science, the American Political Science Review.

Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department Michael Touchton.

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Where Research and Culture Collide

The Lowe Art Museum

The Otto G. Richter Library

In a shared effort to support collaboration and promote faculty engagement through historical and artistic collections, the Lowe Art Museum and University of Miami Libraries received a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “The Lowe and UM Libraries are fundamental in telling stories through its permanent collections, special exhibits, and abundant resources,” said Leonidas Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The Mellon grant enables the Lowe and the Libraries to preserve and present our most important works of art and archival materials to the UM community.” The grant enables the Lowe and UM Libraries to establish two new faculty fellowships—one devoted to campus engagement and the other to the conservation of art and archival works on paper. It also establishes a new programming fund to incentivize faculty to engage with University collections and enable the development of joint public programs that highlight these collections.

Mellon grant promotes a strong library-museum collection at UM Charles Eckman, dean of the University of Miami Libraries, said the partnership was envisioned through the inaugural Academic Art Museum and Library Summit, held in January 2016, which brought together fourteen pairs of library and museum directors from North American academic institutions to address opportunities for deep intra-institutional collaboration. “This transformative grant speaks to the value of higher education, the arts, and the humanities, generally,” said Jill Deupi, chief curator of the Lowe. “It equally affirms the power of collaboration and impact of leveraging resources for the benefit of a broad range of audiences.” The Lowe Art Museum, located on the Coral Gables campus, features a permanent collection of 19,000 objects and is committed to serving as a vital resource for education and enrichment through art. The Otto G. Richter Library lies in the center of the Coral Gables campus and serves as an interdisciplinary library for the University. Other University of Miami libraries includes the Paul Buisson Architecture Library, the Judi Prokop Newman Business Information Resource Center, the Marta & Austin Weeks Music Library, and Rosenstiel Marine and Atmospheric Science Library. The University also has independent medical and law libraries.

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BO O K MA RKS

RECENT FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

ROBIN BACHIN HISTORY

TRACI ARDREN ANTHROPOLOGY

Big Bosses: A Working Girl’s Memoir of Jazz Age America (2016)

Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies (2016)

The memoir by Althea McDowell Altemus embodies the spirit of an independent woman of the Jazz Age and roaring ’20s; edited and annotated by Bachin.

B. CHRISTINE ARCE MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES México’s Nobodies: The Cultural Legacy of the Soldadera and Afro-Mexican Women (2017) Arce unravels the paradox evident in the simultaneous erasure and ongoing fascination with the nameless people who both define and fall outside of traditional norms of national identity.

GEORGE GONZALEZ POLITICAL SCIENCE The Absolute and Star Trek (2016)

Combining the study of gender in the archaeological record with the examination of craft production to reassess the connection between craft specialization and the types and amount of work that men and women performed in ancient communities.

CALEB EVERETT ANTHROPOLOGY Numbers and the Making of Us (2017) A sweeping account of how numbers radically enhanced our species’ cognitive capabilities and sparked a revolution in human culture.

REBECCA DORAN MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

This volume explains how Star Trek allows viewers to comprehend significant aspects of Georg Hegel’s concept “the absolute,” the driving force behind history.

Transgressive Typologies (2016)

GREGORY KOGER POLITICAL SCIENCE

KATHRYN FREEMAN ENGLISH

Strategic Party Government: Why Winning Trumps Ideology (2017)

A Guide to the Cosmology of William Blake (2016)

Uncovers a compelling reason that today’s political leaders devote so much time to conveying their party’s positions, even at the expense of basic government functions: Both parties want to win elections.

The entries in this volume benefit from the wide range of historical information made available in recent decades regarding the relationship between Blake’s text and design, and his biographical, political, social, and religious contexts.

Utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to understand how Chinese women figures’ historical identities are constructed in the mainstream secular literary-historical tradition and to analyze the points of view that inform these constructions.

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Unearthing the secrets of tropical biology across the planet As near as the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, as far as the Brazilian rainforest, in the mountains of Peru, the coast of Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands and beyond, professors and students from SCIENCE IN THE TROPICS

the College of Arts and Sciences are unearthing the secrets of tropical biology, digging into the impacts of development and climate change, and discovering means for humans and their world to coexist in profitable and mutually beneficial ways. Their efforts reach across departments and across the planet—an interdisciplinary approach with profound implications, and an opportunity for an education beyond compare. “Synergy is a real thing,” said Kenneth J. Feeley, the College’s newly named Smathers Chair in Tropical Tree Biology. “There are people that are doing wonderful work in their individual labs and as those labs come together things only get better. We increase our knowledge and we build off the synergies.”

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During the Solomon Islands field course, undergraduate students survey aquatic insects to infer water quality of the Nasuragina River with Aresty Professor Al Uy. Photo Credit: Floria Uy ARTS | SCIENCES

The combined efforts are helping to put together a more complete picture of the interaction of humans and the tropical environment, which, he says, “goes beyond science because you can also integrate the political aspects, economics, or the humanities, because all of these effects that we’re talking about have connections and implications that go way beyond the typical realm of science.”

A high Andean village along the mountain road leading from Cusco, Peru to Manu National Park where Feeley and his collaborators are working to understand the impacts of climate change on tropical forests.

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Feeley, who joined the Department of Biology in January, has concentrated his work on examining the effects of climate change on tropical forests. While much of the discussion of global warming focuses on sea-level rise and melting polar icecaps, he says, the ramifications in the tropics tend to be overlooked. “We’re focusing a lot on Peru and Colombia which are two of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. In these and other tropical countries there are huge numbers of species and pressing threats of climate change, as well as other threats such as habitat loss, gold mining, logging, hunting—all sorts of problems,” he says. “Within the tropics, we concentrate our work on the slopes of Andes Mountains because they serve as natural laboratories with unparalleled access to diverse ecosystems and climates. In a single day, we can come up out of the lowland Amazon into the high Andes Mountains, traversing a wonderful gradient where many of the Earth’s climate zones are compressed into a very small geographic area. In other words, in just a few hours of hard hiking one can go from the alpine grasslands where climate is similar to that of northern U.S. down into the hot, steamy lowland tropical rainforests.” Feeley and Associate Dean José Maria Cardoso da Silva are two of the newest members of the College’s faculty. Before joining the Department of Geography and Regional Studies, Silva was a researcher at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, a professor at four Brazilian universities, and worked for 14 years for Conservation International. He served as its executive vice president from 2011 to 2014, overseeing conservation programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. He also may be the only faculty member with a bird species named after him—the Campylorhamphus cardosoi, a previously unknown type of scythebill discovered in the Amazon in 2013—in honor of his work on endemic species in the region. His work in the College expands on his conservation efforts promoting sustainable development across tropical countries. “Traditional development is basically based on the intensive use of the natural resources in order to generate economic growth,” he says. “Sustainable development is a new concept that tries to say, ‘Look, development is not only economic growth. Development means economic prosperity, together with environmental conservation, together with social inclusion, and together with good governance.’”

UM students try their hand at paddling a traditional dugout canoe during their study abroad experience in the remote Solomon Islands.

Local Peruvian students examine the impacts of climate change in tropical Andean ecosystems by taking measurements of the grass growing at high elevations.

Silva (far right) speaks to media alongside government officials in a protected area of the Brazilian Amazonia.

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The range of cross-disciplinary research at UM offers a broad, rich, and dynamic source of knowledge to help decision-makers, he says. And the diversity of its faculty and students adds a valuable element of cultural and geographic familiarity and thinking. “That’s what I think an academic setting should be in order to get perceptions from different parts of the world, and they work together and understand global problems,” says Silva. “I think that’s an essential component.” It works both ways, says J. Albert C. Uy, the Aresty Chair in Tropical Ecology. The variety of locations and types of tropical research offered provide students with “direct hands-on experience over what science in the tropics is all about as well as the challenges faced in terms of conservation in the tropics. And being able to immerse yourself in tropical biology is something you can’t teach in a classroom. Students are immersed both in the science and the culture and I think that’s a huge thing.” Study abroad opportunities have taken students to the jungles of Panama and Costa Rica, to the Galapagos Islands and the Ecuadorian Amazon, and to the Solomon Islands on the other side of the globe. “What we really strive for in these courses is for students to do actual science,” he says. In fact, field experiments by students in a recent course in the Solomon Islands led to them co-authoring a paper on crabs that got accepted as unique and news-worthy research in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal. “That’s a clear example of how science happens in the field—the conception, the design, the execution, the analysis and the writing—and students are all part of that process.” Tropical biology research is contributing to advances in other vital areas, as well. “The revolution in the field of molecular biology has allowed tropical biologists to go and use these molecular techniques to really understand evolutionary processes at the molecular level,” says Biology Photo Credit: Gary Braasch Department Chair Athula Wikramanayake. “They frequently reveal processes that have biomedical implications and may have relevance to human health. You can elucidate these processes using evolution’s experiments, basically. This has been an incredibly fruitful field in the last five years or so.” No matter where the research happens, says Feeley, it’s particularly relevant right here at home. “I think that it is extremely important for everyone to realize how vital the tropics are in our everyday lives,” he says. “The tropics provide many different services and provide lots of different goods for people all around the world including, very directly, people in Miami. Many of the foods we like to eat, many of the products we buy, all come from the tropics or depend on the tropics. We can’t allow ourselves to become complacent or to overlook that the tropics are in danger—we need to be very active in trying to preserve the tropics.” n Feeley examines a large canopy tree in the Andean cloud forest of Peru’s Manu National Park.

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A Caribbean Connection

The pulse of the Caribbean flows through the College of Arts and Sciences. They share a culture, a community, a connectionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a history.

Photo credit: Catherine Gould

Top: Department of Anthropology students examine finds from archaeological excavations in Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge, Puerto Rico. Left: William Pestle (Department of Anthropology) and students consult aerial photos of archaeological prospection in the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, Puerto Rico.

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Professor of Anthropology Louis Herns Marcelin helped establish INURED—the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development in Haiti.

The social, cultural, and political roots and routes that have historically framed the Caribbean region flow through the College of Arts and Sciences. The College has led a concerted effort to include, as part of its research and pedagogy, the cultural, historical, and literary traditions of the Caribbean for more than a quarter century. “There is a long history of Caribbeanist collaboration at UM, including the Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies program, founded by Sandra Pouchet Paquet some twenty-five years ago, Caribbean-focused working groups of the former Center for Latin American Studies, and faculty partnerships with colleagues in UM Libraries’ Special Collections and the Cuban Heritage Collection,” says Department of History Associate Professor Kate Ramsey. College faculty who work on the Caribbean seek to build on that strong history and legacy through a new initiative supporting interdisciplinary research and scholarship as well as partnerships with regional institutions. Beginning this spring, Hemispheric Caribbean Studies has become a research area of the UM Institute for the Advanced Study

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of the Americas (UMIA). It may be new, but it comes from a lengthy and venerated institutional heritage. This initiative is the culmination of discussions among College faculty aimed at creating a hub for Caribbean-focused research, scholarship, teaching, working groups, and programming at UM. “A group of CAS faculty—including Jafari Allen, Donette Francis, Lillian Manzor, Louis Herns Marcelin, Patricia Saunders, and myself—began meeting last year to see if we could further integrate our efforts and create more opportunities and support for Caribbeanist cross-disciplinary collaboration,” explained Ramsey. The group’s initial members bring a broad diversity of research and scholarship to bear—from social anthropology and history to literary and cultural studies; from transnational feminist studies to the politics of religion; and the roles of power, violence, and marginalization in the Caribbean region. Ramsey’s work focuses on the politics of religion, law, and performance, as well as on histories of medicine and healing in the Atlantic world. She is the author of The Spirits and the Law: Vodou

and Power in Haiti, and with Department of Anthropology Professor Louis Herns Marcelin, co-curated the 2014 Lowe Art Museum exhibition Transformative Visions: Works by Haitian Artists from the Permanent Collection and co-edited the catalog that accompanied the show. Haiti and the Haitian diaspora in South Florida have become one of the focuses of Marcelin’s research, along with his work in Brazil and other countries in the Caribbean. Marcelin’s desire to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world world impact led to his founding of the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with the goal of improving the educational, socio-economic, and political conditions there and in the Caribbean through landmark studies, such as Public Policies, Migration, and Development in Haiti and most recently, Mapping Assets-Access for an Equitable Recovery and Reconstruction after the Hurricane Matthew disaster in the south of Haiti. According to Marcelin, “The premise of my work is that academia and production of knowledge have no use if it is self-serving. Unless we put what we know to the service of communities and people who are the most vulnerable, and who are not vulnerable, we are doomed to fail.” Others in the College have had a similar impact in other ways and in other countries. Associate Professor of Anthropology Jafari S. Allen has done extensive research on race, sexuality, and gender in Cuba and the Caribbean. His groundbreaking ethnography, ¡Venceremos? The Erotics of Black Self-making in Cuba, sheds light on the marginalization of blacks and prejudice against sexual minorities on the island. He’s completing another book that traces black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture and politics on both sides of the Atlantic, from Brazil and Barbados to Vienna and London. All of this with an eye towards a third project examining Miami as a “hemispheric city,” a crossroads of the Global South as well as of the U.S. South. “We often forget about Miami being a part of the State of Florida and of the southern U.S. that has very different demographics from the rest of the country. It has a very different history and very particular needs that have to be recognized and met,” Allen says. “Whether people have connections, family connections, to the Caribbean or not, they are participating in Caribbean flows every day.” New to the College is Erica James, assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History. James will teach courses concerned with modern and contemporary art of the Americas and

the African diaspora with a special focus on the Caribbean. As an art historian, curator, and former museum director, her lectures and seminars engage modern and contemporary arts of the Dutch, French, English, Spanish and Creole-speaking Caribbean, as well as African-American art and African art. “My approach to teaching, as well as my scholarship, moves across fields, is interdisciplinary, non-linear, transcultural and global,” said James. “As a faculty member, but also for students, the primary advantage of coming to and studying at UM is that you become part of an intellectual and cultural community deeply concerned with similar critical questions of Caribbean history, art, and culture.” Puerto Rico has been the focus of Department of Anthropology Assistant Professor Will Pestle’s work for more than a decade. Currently, the bioarchaeologist and his students are focusing on a spot on the southwestern tip of the island, looking back over roughly 6,000 years of human occupation there to discover how the people and changing environment interacted and impacted each other. “We are trying to look at climate change over basically the whole time-span during which the island has been inhabited,” says Pestle. “The hope, obviously, is that we might be able to distill, not necessarily a policy from this, but some lessons. The reality is that the same sort

Associate Professor of History Kate Ramsey of broad, climactic shifts that have happened over the last 6,000 years in terms of increasing sea levels and fluctuations in rainfall are the sorts of things that are going to affect Caribbean communities and small island communities going forward.” Several of the faculty who make up the HCS group study the Caribbean and its influences in the Americas. Department of English Associate Professor Donette Francis, Director of American Studies, specializes in Caribbean literary and intellectual histories, American immigrant literatures, and African diaspora literary studies, as well as transnational feminist studies and concepts about sexuality and citizenship. Her book, Fictions of Feminine Citizenship: Sexuality and the Nation in Contemporary (Cont. on Page 19) ARTS | SCIENCES

ARCHIVES OF CUBAN THEATER FIND A HOME AT UM Lillian Manzor, associate professor

Lillian Manzor, associate professor and chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

and chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, finds theater of the Caribbean and Latin America fascinating. She has made a career studying theater items like playbills, posters, advertisements, and scripts on costume or stage designs.

In the 1990s, when Manzor

began exploring her interest in using theater to inform scholarly work, she found it difficult to find materials related to live theater performances in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latino diaspora. She dreamed about an archive that could house these materials in one, easy-to-access place. That dream became a reality in 2003 when the University of Miami created a small grant for faculty interested in giving materials in special collections

these groups in Cuba have access to the technology to

a digital life.

digitize their own materials and share those digital

versions with the University of Miami. She also worked

By that point, Manzor

discovered the University’s Cuban

with a community videographer who visits Cuba once

Heritage Collection had a few

a year to record productions during major theater

collections related to theater in

festivals. This partnership continues today.

Miami, and she began to work

with Richter Library to digitize

mighty companion to the growing collection of

some of these materials.

physical theater materials the Cuban Heritage

Collection has continued to preserve over the years.

In 2005, the first version of her

The Cuban Theater Digital Archive serves as a

archive launched with only a few

collections available. From there, it

archive includes years of theater programs that

slowly developed until a few years

stretch back to the 1950s, photos of original

later, when a series of grants from

costume designs, materials from the personal collection

the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

of Cuban theater directors, and the collected records of

allowed Manzor to narrow her

INTAR Theater, one of the oldest Latino theater companies

focus on theater in Cuba and the

in the United States.

larger Cuban movement.

teach you about the history of Cuban theater on and off

With newfound resources,

The massive collection of digital materials in the

“Spending time with these collections will not only

Manzor was able to build relation-

the island but also how digital scholarship creates

ships with repositories of Cuban

bridges between communities that are politically

theater materials throughout Cuba.

separated,” said Manzor. n

By working collaboratively,

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Program for the production, El filántropo. Rogelio Díaz Cuesta Digital Collection. Digitized in Havana by the Centro de Estudios del Diseño Escénico.

Associate Professor of English Pat Saunders

In Miami, UM students can experience the Caribbean through literature and the arts Caribbean Literature, explored the comparative histories of racial and sexual formation throughout the various linguistic territories and diaspora from emancipation to the present in the novels of Caribbean women writers. Her current book project is an intellectual history of Caribbean transnational literary culture in the 1960s, which moved between the regional Caribbean to England, Canada, and the US. Since arriving at UM, she has started a third interdisciplinary project that aims to understand Miami’s Black artistic practices in the visual arts, dance, literature and music from the 1980s to present. These various research interests are core to her classroom instruction, where students regularly utilize the University’s extensive archives and collections, in addition to “using the city of Miami as a lab.” Associate Professor of English Patricia

Saunders says program founder Sandra Pouchet Paquet Professor Emerita did a remarkable job building the Caribbean Studies program at UM by establishing relationships and collaborating with other universities in the Caribbean like the campuses of University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad. “When their graduate students get funding, they send students to UM to do research, and we send our students there to do research in their archives as well. We always make sure our students are wellconnected to faculty and other graduate students at the University of West Indies, the College of the Bahamas and other regional institutions,” said Saunders. Saunders, whose research and scholarship focus largely on the relationship between sexual and national identity in Caribbean literature and popular culture, is the author

of Alien/Nation and Repatri(n)ation: Caribbean Literature and the Task of Translating Identity, which traces the emergence of literary nationalisms in the Anglophone Caribbean. Her current book manuscript is entitled Buyers Beware: Epistemologies of Consumption in Caribbean Popular Culture. Saunders also views Miami as a vast learning environment where students can experience the Caribbean through literature and the arts, in relation to what they learn in the classroom. “In Miami, you not only have access to Caribbean artists who visit the city regularly for residencies, but to the art spaces in which they work. Students get to see what materials the artists are working with and learn why,” she said. “These experiences expose students to the synergies at work among and between Caribbean artists.” n

ARTS | SCIENCES

ST UDE N T AC HIE VE M E NTS

JACOB RUDOLPH

Prestigious Paths Followed

SENIOR, POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR, LGBTQ STUDIES MINOR

Rudolph is a standout student who constantly pursues the extraordinary. He is UM’s first ever Point Scholar, a national scholarship awarded to an undergraduate student who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the LGBTQ community. Rudolph worked with the Office of Prestigious Awards to apply for the John Lewis Fellowship. The fellowship took Rudolph to Atlanta for a four-week intensive program that looked at the social movements in the U.S. with a focus on civil rights. “This fellowship has really broadened my perspective and my academic interest and has given me much more context as I move forward in my professional life,” Rudolph said. “It was an incredible experience.”

ASIA CADET JUNIOR, TRIPLE MAJORING IN SOCIOLOGY, CRIMINOLOGY, AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Over 7,500 miles away from the University of Miami, Cadet was awarded the opportunity to study Mandarin in China as part of her Critical Language Scholarship, a program of the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Cadet says her pre- and post-program evaluations were like “night-and-day” and hopes that her improvement in the study of the language will help her earn the scholarship again next year. She was thrilled with her experience that she said, “I am going to keep applying to as many programs as I can until I get to go back.”

Students at the University of Miami can apply for fellowships and awards for programs that offer specialized study, study abroad, and other opportunities that provide a unique experience during their time in school. Students seeking the awards work closely with the University’s Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships (PAF) to prepare applications. April Dobbins, director of PAF, said her office not only assists in applications for these awards, but looks to help students realize their potential and more. For more information about the Office of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships, call 305.284.5384.

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To learn more about PageSlayers, visit pageslayers.com

Photo credit: Patrick Farell

Dana De Greff’s idea was one of over a thousand to be picked as a finalist for the 2016 Knight Arts Challenge, and her idea is an inspiring one: exposing kids to the art of creative writing in the city of Opa-Locka by starting a free, six-week summer camp program in its recreation center, known as The ARC. “My idea was one of 44 that won, and I’m so excited to bring a creative writing camp to Opa-locka,” said De Greff. “I’m honored to receive this recognition. There were over 1,000 submissions overall, so to be chosen for the grant and have the opportunity to expose kids to something that is so important is a great accomplishment.” The Knight Arts Challenge funded $8 million to a selection of grassroots ideas in four cities: Akron, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Miami, Florida and St. Paul, Minnesota. PageSlayers, expected to begin summer of 2017, is exclusively for 4th and 5th-grade students in the Opa-Locka community and is designed to provide quality writing instruction outside the current Florida school curriculum through lessons taught by award-winning writers of color. The students will explore and flourish in the art of short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and more. According to the official PageSlayers website, the program has three main goals: “to expose students to exceptional authors of color in South Florida; introduce students to writing styles outside of the standard elementary school curriculum; and provide a nurturing, supportive environment that encourages creative self-expression and positive experiences with reading and writing.” Students who are accepted into the program will participate in one of three two-week sessions at The ARC, from 9 am to 1 pm. De Greff, the founder and director of PageSlayers, says each session will be taught by a full-time writing instructor specializing in various writing genres, along with an assistant instructor and various visiting writers and artists. Born in Miami, De Greff teaches poetry to 4th graders in Liberty City through the Sunroom. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia Stories, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Gulf Stream Magazine, The Boston Review, The Miami Herald, and The New Tropic. She is also a recipient of the 2016 Fred Shaw Prize in Fiction and has been accepted or awarded scholarships from Tent: Creative Writing, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, and The Key West Literary Seminar.

Her idea paid off. De Greff, a Masters in Fine Arts candidate in fiction, walked away a winner at a celebration ceremony hosted by the Knight Foundation. The foundation awarded her with a two-year, $45,000 matching grant to kick start her PageSlayers Summer Camp, and she is ecstatic to see her idea become a reality.

Exposing young minds to poetry & prose. De Greff accepts her grant with Matt Haggman, Miami Program Director for Community and National Initiatives with the Knight Foundation, and Victoria Rogers, Vice President/Arts for the Knight Foundation.

ARTS | SCIENCES

A|S R E S E A RC H

Birds of a Feather

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Karla Rivera-Cáceres, a biology graduate student, plays a harmonious duet of singing wrens from a recording she captured out in the field during a recent trip to Costa Rica. “The song sounds like one bird but if you listen closely, it’s a male and female wren singing a duet in perfect unison,” said Rivera-Cáceres. Along with songbirds, many animal species perform duets, an uncommon vocal interaction that can occur between mated or unmated species, such as frogs and crickets. But the coupled wrens Rivera-Cáceres recorded in Costa Rica sing alternating phrases, or parts, of the song so smoothly and with such complexity and fast tempo that the untrained ear may hear just a single bird. For years, Rivera-Cáceres studied the “duet codes” (non-random association of song types) of paired wrens and wondered if the ability to perform their complex and seamless music was a skill the birds were born with or learned during juvenile or adult stages of life. Now, after two months of intense listening in Costa Rica, she knows that they can learn new songs with new partners, even as adults. She says the newly learned songs are akin to prenuptial agreements. “It’s like the birds think: If you’re willing to invest the time and energy to learn a new duet code, then I am sure you are not going to leave me because if you do, you would lose a big investment and would need to learn a whole new duet code with another partner,” she said. According to Rivera-Cáceres, a male wren has his set of songs and a female wren her own set. When paired, the birds link their song types in a non-random way; for example, if the male sings his type “A” song the female may respond with her type “C” song and if the duet fits, the wrens will perfect their duet code until it becomes seamlessly unified. Past studies on duetting wrens focused on the function and evolution of the songs, not necessarily the birds’ development to perform them. “Understanding the development process of duetting and whether the wrens invest the time and energy to duet with their partners is key to determine if these duet rules are difficult to acquire and thus demonstrate the birds’ ability and skill to learn a new song when paired with a new mate,” said Rivera-Cáceres. Her research, “Neotropical wrens learn new duet rules as adults,” illustrates the complex behavior of duetting wrens by explaining the process of how the birds acquire the ability to duet throughout their lives. It was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Her collaborators include William A. Searcy of the Department of Biology at the UM College of Arts and Sciences, Esmeralda QuirósGuerrero of the School of Biology at the University of St. Andrews, UK, Marcelo Araya-Salas of the School of Biology at the University of Costa Rica and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University. n

BRAIN PATTERN FLEXIBILITY AND BEHAVIOR

Your brain is never really at rest. Neither is it in chaos. Even when not engaged in some task, the brain naturally cycles through identifiable patterns of neural connections—sort of like always practicing your favorite songs when learning to play the guitar. Constantly cycling through brain region connections may make it easier to call to those networks when you need them for high-level cognitive processing, such as memory and attention. The network connections are not all equal, either. Some are more flexible and adaptable than others. This is what Lucina Uddin and Jason Nomi, cognitive neuroscientists in the Department of Psychology found when collaborating with researchers at the University of New Mexico on a study that researchers hope will lay the groundwork for helping children with autism adapt to change more easily. The scientists analyzed an extensive data set of brain region connectivity from the NIH-funded Human Connectome Project (HCP), which is mapping neural connections in the brain and makes its data publically available. To better understand the human brain connectome, the HCP collected data from hundreds of people who underwent 56 minutes of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A revolutionary tool in brain-mapping research, fMRIs measure brain activity by detecting changes in cerebral blood flow that are associated with brain activity and neural activation. The HCP also collected a number of other measurements, including the subjects’ ages, IQs, and results on various mental tasks.

Nomi, Uddin, and their fellow researchers analyzed the HCP’s resting-state fMRI data and, from potentially hundreds of configurations, teased apart five general brain patterns. They discovered that, most of the time, neural connections in the typical adult population are agile—alert yet fluid and flexible enough to take on whatever challenges or mental tasks are presented. Less frequently, the brain cycles through more rigid connections where the regions are linked in a very specific, less flexible way, says Uddin, assistant professor and principal investigator in the Brain Connectivity and Cognition Laboratory (BCCL) in the College. The researchers then correlated the frequency of these five brain patterns with performance on executive-function tasks—completed outside of the fMRI brain scanner—that tap high-level cognition, such as sorting a deck of cards by the printed image’s color and then by its shape. What they found was higher performers tend to have a natural propensity to be in the more flexible and fluid brain states. With this better understanding of brain activity in a typical population, the researchers are now moving to the next step of their research: testing children with autism to see whether their brains have a natural propensity to spend more time in the more rigid network configurations, making it harder for them to adapt to change as they experience life. Their research study, “Chronnectomic Patterns and Neural Flexibility Underlie Executive Function,” is published online in NeuroImage. n ARTS | SCIENCES

A|S R E S E A RC H

CAN CER N OT ON LY A FFEC TS I N D I V I D UA L S S UFFE R I N G F RO M T H E D I S E AS E BUT A L S O T HE I R FA MI LY ME MBE R S

Managing stress together in cancer patients and family caregivers

Youngmee Kim, associate professor, Department of Psychology.

An understanding of the connection between cancer patients and their caregiver’s health in relation to mutual stress regulatory patterns is what University of Miami researchers hope to gain with the assistance of a 5-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The research will study and find answers to why cancer patients and their family members’ health deteriorates both psychologically and biologically,” said Youngmee Kim, associate professor in the Psychology Department and lead researcher of the study. “Currently, research is fragmented focusing on how the patient handles stress and how it affects their recovery. Yet, cancer caregivers also report high levels of anxiety and depression sometimes at higher levels than the cancer patient, and their health is compromised by their elevated stress.”

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UM researchers will study the stress regulation patterns between cancer patients and their caregivers, including coregulation (regulating the stress to mutually calm each other’s stress reactions and reduce negative affect and physiological arousal) and coagitation (mutual regulation increasing such reactions). The coregulation and coagitation will be quantified by evaluating cardiovascular (heart rate variability), neuroendocrine (saliva), and self-reported affective reactivity and regulation in response to a stress situation that is relevant both to health and to close relationships; testing also includes how daily health, such as sleep and mood, as well as longer-term health, such as depression and cardiovascular health of both the cancer patient and caregiver, are affected. “Findings of this project will help develop novel interventions pertaining to effective and mutual management of stress in daily life and dyadic influences on health promotion,” adds Kim. Over a three-year period, UM researchers plan to gather data from 172 colorectal cancer patients (86 female, 86 male) and their caregivers. Kim hopes to recruit patients living in South Florida. With the results, researchers hope to develop interventions to help cancer patients and caregivers find ways to curb adverse effects of stress and promote better health by using positive coregulation mechanisms. The interdisciplinary study will bring together Charles Carver and Barry Hurwitz, professors from the Psychology Department, Armando Mendez and Laurence Sands from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, and David Spiegel and Jamie Zeitzer from Stanford University School of Medicine. n To read more about A&S research, visit as.miami.edu

Natural disasters may increase substance abuse risk Imelda Moise, assistant professor, Department of Geography and Regional Studies.

After the winds die, the flood waters recede, and the debris is removed, coping with the loss of a home, loved ones, friends, or employment can be wearisome for survivors of a natural disaster. Researchers have shown that psychological disorders and substance abuse increases in the aftermath of an earthquake, flood, or major storm. This presents challenges to health officials and government response teams who need to identify at-risk groups in affected communities to provide tailored interventions and services in a timely manner. A recent study, led by health geographer Imelda K. Moise, examines substance abuse and hospitalization data from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to see if there was a change in the rate of hospitalizations for substance abuse disorders in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and to identify areas at greatest risk for hospitalizations. According to the findings published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, the researchers found that the rate of hospitalizations for substance abuse increased from 7 people for every 1,000 people to 9 people for every 1,000 people in an area of New Orleans. “This result is not surprising given that a large segment of the local population experienced trauma, which had the potential to increase hospitalization rates at the same time that the city’s population was reduced,” said Moise, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Regional Studies. “These two factors accounted for the high hospitalization rates in areas that lost population. At the same time, this displacement resulted in local population shifts and was a major contributing factor to this finding and underscores the effect of population shifts on statistical calculations after disasters.”

Disasters can have silent negative effects on individuals and communities The study also indicated that those most affected included men (78 percent in 2004 to 63 percent in 2008), those between 20 and 49 years of age, non-whites, and residents living in neighborhoods where cleanup was delayed. The researchers used spatial cluster analysis methods and geographical information system (GIS) techniques to detect areas where there were elevated cases of substance abuse disorder hospitalizations and associated neighborhood connections. “This made it possible to identify at-risk areas and populations in need, and generated information that can be used by public health officials to deploy targeted interventions and treatment for substance use disorders to those affected individuals and neighborhoods in a timely manner,” added Moise. Moise says disasters can have silent negative effects on individuals and communities, as such it’s important to reach out to those affected in the aftermath of disasters. The techniques used in her study can be applied anywhere, for any public health outcomes, and particularly in post-disaster settings. Moise collaborated on this study with Marilyn O. Ruiz from the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. n ARTS | SCIENCES

C LASS S POT L IGHT

A Study in Emergency and Relief Operations Students enrolled in the College’s MAIA graduate program learn what it takes to prepare and handle worst-case scenarios and humanitarian operations From examining complex emergencies and international relief operations to understanding the best practices in security management, two elective courses in the Masters of Arts in International Administration Program (MAIA) are preparing graduate students for a career in dealing with disaster and critical incidents at local, state, federal and international levels. The two elective courses—Civil Security Management and Disaster Response and Humanitarian Intervention—are offered by the MAIA program during the summer sessions and co-taught by Program Director and Senior Lecturer in the Political Science Department Bradford R. McGuinn, and Ambassador-in-Residence Paul A. Trivelli. “Among the benefits of the courses are the extraordinary guest speakers we’ve invited to the classes,” said McGuinn. “They have included a representative from the American Red Cross and speakers associated with the U.S. military, such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Southern Command. These speakers address different aspects of relief operations in areas such as Haiti and elsewhere.” Guest speakers have also included a former director of Unicef and the Peace Corps, representatives from UM’s Office of Emergency Management, as well as members of South Florida’s law enforcement community and academic experts.

Bradford R. McGuinn, MAIA program director and senior lecturer in the Political Science Department, and Ambassador-in-Residence Paul A. Trivelli.

SPRING 2017

“What I try to do is take some examples from my own experience,” said Ambassador Trivelli, who formerly held positions at U.S. Southern Command. “I talk to the students about the relief efforts to Haiti after the earthquake and Hurricane Mitch in the 1990s. We also discuss U.S. embassy security plans or how they would manage security operations for important visitors like the President of the United States or the Secretary of State.” In these courses, students draft an analysis dealing with the management of a domestic or international disaster. Their work might deal with the ways in which a city responds to a terrorist attack or the manner in which local administrators remove residents from a city or town during heavy flood conditions. These courses also touch upon the information (and misinformation) sent via social media platforms in an effort to control rumors while disseminating critical messages to the public. The College’s interdisciplinary MAIA program prepares students for careers in the administration of organizations at domestic and international levels. Designed for the working adult, the program offers a range of unique courses as part of its mission to help students connect their intellectual passion to fulfilling careers. n

D NUTS WITH THE DEAN

To kick off the spring semester, Dean Leonidas Bachas welcomed students back to campus with a lovely selection of donuts from Honeybee Doughnuts. A&S students stopped by the Ashe Building on the Coral Gables campus to grab a Nutella, glazed or cinnamon-sugar treat and chat with Dean Bachas before heading to their morning classes.

ARTS | SCIENCES

C LASS N OT E S

50s SHERWOOD ROSS, A.B ’55, who reads his poetry regularly at USpeak, has won first prize awards from the Florida State Poets Association Competition for 2013, 2014, and 2015. Ross majored in race relations at UM, and after graduation, served as News Director at the National Urban League.

MARTIN D. “DOUG” KELLY, A.B. ’77, recently released his second book Alaska’s Greatest Outdoor Legends, published by the University of Alaska Press. It brings to life many of the outstanding fishing and

KRISTINE (ROSS) DE HASETH, A.B. ’84,

hunting guides, wilderness lodge pioneers,

M.B.A. ’85, remains active in her

bush pilots, outdoor journalists, and

community and currently serves as the

trailblazing biologists who helped popularize

Executive Director of the Florida

fishing and hunting in Alaska. Many of the

Coalition for Preservation, a community

images in the book were obtained from

advocacy group promoting responsible

family archives of descendants and have

development on the barrier island and

never been published.

60s

80s

coastal communities. Smart growth management ensures the preservation of the unique quality of life enjoyed in

ROBERT “BOB” J. MUNCH, A.B. ’73, has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for NuStar Energy, L.P. Munch

LEON HOFFMAN, A.B. ’61, continues to

spent 40 years in senior executive

enjoy his fulfilling practice of psychology

positions in the financial services industry

in Chicago, specializing in individual and

before he retired in 2013 after serving as

group psychotherapy and supervision,

General Manager and Head of Corporate

consultation, and coaching with individuals

& Investment Banking for a subsidiary of

and organizations. He maintains his life-

Mizuho Financial Group, a global banking

long connection as a chamber music cellist

company with $1.86 trillion in assets and

having been a member of the Miami

locations throughout Asia, North America,

Symphony. He is a frequent writer of

Europe, and South America.

South Florida. After her time at UM, de Haseth joined Paramount Pictures and then Sony Music as a merchandising and licensing executive that took her to California for seven years. She now enjoys her time back in South Florida volunteering on local municipal campaigns, paddle boarding, gardening, and enjoying political debates with her teenage son. De Haseth would like to hear from her former classmates and can be reached at Kristine@PreservationFLA.org.

letters and articles on diverse topics in lay and professional publications. He is eager for continuing contact with UM colleagues.

70s JONATHAN KAHN, B.S. ’70, has published his first book The Brooklyn Heights Sublet. It’s a true story of a sublet disaster and a seven-year trek through the streets, bars, and courtrooms of New York City and his only asset an expensive, high-powered motorcycle.

SPRING 2017

KIM H. STRIKER, A.B. ’74, writing as

DR. TIMOTHY HUEBNER, B.A. ’88, the

Kait Carson, released her fourth novel,

Sternberg Professor of History at Rhodes

Death by Sunken Treasure, in March from

College, recently published his fourth book,

Henery Press.

Liberty and Union: The Civil War Era and American Constitutionalism (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas). A narrative

LEONARD RAY TEEL, A.B. ’64, M.A. ’74,

history, the book shows how Americans’

gave an author talk on his new book

ideas about the Declaration of Independence

Reporting the Cuban Revolution at Books

and the Constitution shaped political debates

& Books in Coral Gables, FL. The event was

during the era of the

hosted by the Cuban Research Institute.

American Civil War and Reconstruction.

DR. DAVID C. JONES, A.B. ’83, B.S. ’83, was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Vermont Air National Guard where he is the commander of the 158th Medical Group. He maintains his civilian job of Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Vermont where he is Director of the Fetal Diagnostic Center at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

90s ADAM JAMES BALL, B.S. ’94, M.D. ’99, is

DR. CHRISTIAN DAVIS FURMAN, B.A. ’92, is a University of Louisville Professor for Geriatric and Palliative Medicine and was recently selected to be the Medical

the owner of Gulfstream Urology Associates,

Director for U of L’s Institute for

P.A., performing da Vinci robotic surgery

Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging.

for prostate and kidney cancers. He is

She was also appointed the Smock

married to CRISTINA RAMIREZ-BALL,

Endowed Chair in Geriatric Medicine and

B.A. ’95, M.Ed. ’97. They have two children,

chosen as the 2016 recipient for ElderServe’s

Caroline, 13, and Ethan, 10, and enjoy their

Champion for the Aging Award.

time living on the Treasure Coast. MARIA-TERESA LEPELEY, M.S. ’82, M.A. ’87, is the editor of Human Centered Management in Executive Education Global Imperatives, Innovation, and New Directions, published by Palgrave. Additionally, she is now Principal Editor of the Human Centered Management book series, published by Greenleaf Publishing.

C. DEAN FURMAN, B.A. ’90, was elected ANGELA ROSEMAN BURGESS, B.S. ’91, was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary at Assurant, Inc., a Fortune 500 global provider of specialty insurance and risk management solutions in the housing and lifestyle markets. She oversees a team of

Vice-President of the Louisville Bar Association, a voluntary 3,000-member attorney organization in Louisville, Kentucky. He also began a two-year term on the Board for Louisville Literary Arts, a non-profit dedicated to enriching the city’s literary arts.

100 actuaries worldwide. ROY L. WEINFELD, A.B. ’89, J.D. ’95, was hired as a Senior Associate by Coldwell Banker Commercial (CBC) Alliance Miami, an independently owned and operated commercial real estate services company within the CBC Global network. As a Miami

RUSSELL J. MARYLAND, A.B. ’90, JARET L. DAVIS, A.B. ’96, J.D. ’99, is a co-managing shareholder for Greenberg Traurig and proud UM alumnus, who was recently interviewed by Invest Insights.

legendary Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman, was featured on the NCAA After the Game™ which celebrates the success of former student-athletes who, like Maryland, have achieved success after

native and a former real estate attorney,

college. He has also been recognized by

Weinfeld has a significant network of

the NCAA as a former student-athlete with

business leaders throughout Miami-Dade

the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for his

County. In his new role, he will focus on

collegiate and professional achievements.

tenant representation for small-to-mid-size

The award annually recognizes

businesses, including law firms in down-

distinguished individuals on the 25th

town Miami, Brickell, and Coral Gables.

anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers.

And what about you? Submit your own class note, book, or news

as.miami.edu/alumni/class-note ARTS | SCIENCES

C LASS N OT E S

BRIAN O’MALLEY, M.F.A. ’99, is the

DOMENICK G. LAZZARA, ESQ., B.A., ’07,

RYAN J. PLOTKIN, B.S. ’07, has been

recent recipient of the Rhode Island State

recently partnered with Stephen Lee, Esq.

appointed Chief Operating Officer for M-D

Council of the Arts’ (RISCA) 2016 Artist

and Thomas Baker, Esq. to open Lee &

Building Products, Inc., a privately held

Fellowship Award in Film and Video. The

Lazzara, PLLC, a South Tampa litigation

company involved in developing, manufac-

RISCA Fellowship Exhibition is an annual

law firm. Lazzara’s practice focuses on

turing and marketing a range of residential

event that showcases works by Rhode

general civil litigation, including personal

and commercial weatherproofing, flooring

Island artists who have been awarded by

injury, business litigation, and professional

and installation products. Plotkin joined

the state for artistic excellence. Fellowship

malpractice. Lazzara recently accepted a

M-D Building Products in 2008 as Global

winners receive a $5,000 award and Merit

position with the University of Tampa as an

Business Manager. He was subsequently

Award winners receive a $1,000 award.

Adjunct Professor teaching business law,

promoted to Vice President of Corporate

Artists’ work will be included in the annual

and is the Co-Chair and Senior Content

Development and later Senior Vice

fellowship exhibition.

Editor for YLD TIPS, a committee within

President of Operations. He rejoined the

the American Bar Association. Lazzara

company after obtaining his M.B.A. from

stays active in his community as a Shriner,

the Olin School of Business at Washington

Freemason, Volunteer Guardian ad Litem,

University in St. Louis. As COO, Plotkin will

and sits on various boards, including the

be responsible for the consumer products

National Italian American Bar Association

division of the company in North America.

00s

and Shriners Hospitals for Children.

JOSE FELIX “PEPE” DIAZ, A.B. ’02, was honored with the 2016 Volunteer Award

JOSEPH D. WALL, B.S. ’00, took

for Public Service Leadership at Parrot

command of a KC-10 flying squadron at

Jungle Island this past summer.

Travis Air Force Base in California on January 7, 2017. Lt. Col. Wall is the first active duty commander of an Air Force

DR. DEBORAH E. LUIS, B.S. ’06, started her own company, Fresh-Tips, which provides a great way to have a fresh mouth on the go. Dr. Luis has donated

reserve squadron responsible for refueling other aircraft worldwide. Walls is also a graduate of the Air Force ROTC Program at UM.

a number of products to causes around the globe.

BENJAMIN S. EVERARD, A.B. ’06, cofounder of Grey Matter Productions,

10s

is one of the executive directors behind

ERIN BENSON, B.A. ’14, graduated magna

the horror film Lights Out (Warner Bros.

cum laude from Wake Forest School of

Pictures, 2016).

Law in August 2016 with a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.) degree. She was a Merit Scholarship Recipient. Benson is now the President of Gameday Bae, Inc., which is a company she created specializing in custom game day apparel and accessories.

SPRING 2017

MARIA PAULINA CAMEJO, B.A. ’14,

ALEXA LEONE, B.S. ’10, earned a Doctor

THOMAS VAZQUEZ, B.S. ’16, at 22, has

recently signed a two-book deal with

of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree

already reached peak professional status

HarperCollins Español. The 24-year-old

from Ohio University Heritage College of

at H&R Block as an Enrolled Agent. He

writer from Venezuela graduated with

Osteopathic Medicine. The daughter of

started at the age of 17 and worked at

honors in Spanish literature from the

Debbie and Dr. Louis Leone of Chagrin

H&R Block throughout his college career

University of Miami in 2014.

Falls, she earned a B.S. in biology from the

as a pre-med student. He already has

University of Miami in 2010. The Ohio

been accepted to Florida International

University Heritage College of Osteopathic

University and is awaiting interviews and

Medicine is a leader in training dedicated

going through the process at his other

primary care physicians who are prepared

top picks.

to address the most pervasive medical needs in the state and the nation.

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